Edward Maitland 
The New Illumination [EPUB ebook] 

THE present revival of Mysticism – a fact patent to all, whether able or not to discern its significance has already found recognition from a competent observer, as “one of the most remarkable notes of our era”. For me this estimate errs only by its inadequacy; my study of the event – a study both particular and comparative – having led me to regard it as alike the most remarkable and most important of all the notes of our era – many and striking as these are – whether for its power to interpret the past or to influence the future. I propose in this paper to summarise the principal grounds of this conclusion, and to show that – viewed in the light of a comprehensive survey of the world’s religious history – the revival in process, so far from being accidental, pathological, retrogressive, or in any sense disorderly, is entitled to be regarded as an event at once logical, normal, and indispensable; appertaining to a series so long established and regular in its periodicity as to be susceptible of prediction; and accomplishing a step of supreme value in the evolution of the race. This is the step which consists in the attainment, on a scale far surpassing any hitherto reached, of that which to mystical apprehension constitutes the crowning qualification of humanity, namely, the perfectionment of its spiritual consciousness.