In the middle ages 295

complete without my soul.^^ As I am immanent in

the being of God, He accomphshes all His works

b}^ me. God is made man in order that man may

become God. This is the mystic deification; it is

the return of man into the infinite, and with man

the return into God of all creation, the iTnaTpo^tr) of

Proclus.'^

It is indeed difficult to clear such a doctrine of

the charge of pantheism, — however Eckhart may

protest against such interpretation of his doctrine.

But here again, as in another connection,^" we must

bear in mind that the intention of a man rests with

his conscience ; it has nothing to do with his doctrine

as expressed, — which is what it is.

Thierry of Freiburg writes against the panthe-

ism of the Liber de Causis and the Elementa The-

ologica of Proclus. But he shares that deductive

method a outrance, which was borrowed from Neo-

Platonism, in common with Eckliart and Ulric of

Strasburg and Witelo and the whole German

group. This leads us to a further characteristic

of the trend of thought which we are studying: the

28 76id„ pp. 382, 458, passim.

29 In contrast with the above, the truth of Henry Adams' state-

ment appears, when he says of the mystics of St, Victor in the

twelfth century: "The French mystics showed in their mysticism

the same French reasonableness; the sense of measure, of logic, of

science; the allegiance to form; the transparency of thought, which

the French mind has always shown on its surface like a shell of

nacre." Op. cit., p. 304.

30 See above, p. 167.

296 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

philosophy of the Germans in the thirteenth cen-

tury lacks the moderation and equilibrium which is

so beautiful a triumph of scholastic philosophy. In

proof of this one example will suffice. Thus, schol-

astic method starts with facts, with observation of

the senses and the testimony of consciousness,

in order to discover the role of general notions

and the operation of principles or laws. It is only

after this work of analysis that it authorizes its de-

duction of all reality as dependent on God.^^ The

German Neo-Platonism of the thirteenth century

takes the opposite course. It does not begin with

facts. It begins with the notion of God, or even

with that of being in general, and traces out the

emanation of all, step by step. Here again Eck-

hart represents best the spirit of the group. No

person takes more delight than he in the majestic

tranquillity and impenetrable mystery of the Di-

vinity; in the obscure and fathomless abyss of its

reality; in the effusion of the soul, passive and

stripped of self, in that ocean of reality. Eckhart

does not pause, as does Bonaventure, to mark the

lower stages of the journey of the soul to God; his

thought leaps to God Himself, towards the Being

which alone is of interest to him. Thus, in the

speculation of Eckhart we have the prototype of

that strain of metaphysics which hurls speculation

with dizzy speed into the abyss, without imposing

on itself the restraint of actual experience.

31 C/. Ch. IX, vii.