William Fairweather (1856–1942)

AMONG THE MYSTICS

PREFACE

MORE must not be expected from this book than
is suggested by the title. It does not claim to
be a complete treatment of Mysticism, either historical,
philosophical, expository, or critical. While none of these
aspects of it has been ignored, the main object has been
to set down the results of some studies relating to a subject
which, in spite of the increasing attention being devoted
to it in the present century,1 particularly since the Great
War, cannot yet be said to have come to its own in our
theological literature

I have had chiefly in view that section of the public
which may presumably desire something more detailed
than, for example, E. C. Gregory's Introdaction, and less
scientifically thorough than W. R. Inge's excellent Bampton
Lectures. That older work which for half a century had
the field practically to itself-R. A. Vaughan's Hours
with the Mystics-though racily written, and containing
much that is serviceable, is marred by the almost flippant
form of its conception, and by its too contemptuous
attitude towards the Roman Church. The works of Barorn
von Hügel, and also with certain qualifications those of
Miss E. Underhill, merit cordial recognition, and more
attention than I have been able to give to them. As it is,
with an acknowledgement of indebtedness to the article
"Mysticism" by Professor A. Seth (Pringle Pattison) irn
the Encyclopædia Britannica, to the Gifford Lectures by
Professor William James on The Varieties of Religious
Experience, to Dr. Alexander Whyte's appréciations of
by Professo

See the interesting, bibliography appended to Mrs. E. Herman's
distinctive in respect of the emphasis which it lays upon Mysticism
ne book, The Meaning and Value of Mysticism. This work
as an active factor in the life and thought of to-day… (meer)