d; a soul which is without desire is rich.

But there was a still greater contrast between the naive religion
represented by St. Francis of Assisi and the religion of Eckhart. The
former lived entirely in the obvious and visible; the love of all
creatures filled his heart and shaped his life. The heart of the mystic
too, was filled with love, but it was love transcending the love of the
individual, love of the primary cause. In the last sense Eckhart taught,
contrary to traditional Christianity, and in conformity with Indian
wisdom, that the soul must be absorbed into the absolute and that
everything transient and individual must cease to exist. "The highest
freedom is that the soul should rise above itself and flow into the
fathomless abyss of its archetype, of God Himself."

Even St. Bernard was not quite free from this mystical heresy (_cf._ the
previously quoted passages). "When he has reached the highest degree of
perfection, man is in a state of complete forgetfulness of self, and
having entirely ceased to belong to himself, becomes one with God,
released from everything not divine." Even compassion must cease in this
state, for there is nothing left but justice and perfection.

We recognise here a characteristic of all those who are greatest among
men: of Goethe, for instance, of Bach, or Kant: namely, the
correspondence of intense personality and the most highly developed
objectivity; for the greatest personality ceases in the end to
distinguish between itself and the world, has eradicated everything
paltry, selfish and subjective and has become entirely objective,
impersonal, divine. St. Francis knew nothing of this consciousness. "God
has chosen me because among all men He could find no one more lowly, and
because through my instrumentality He purposed to confound nobility,
greatness, strength, beauty and the wisdom of the world." He was the
disciple of the earthly Jesus, Who went through life the compassionate
consoler of all those who were sorrowful. But Eckhart aspired "to the
shapeless nature of God." "We will follow Him, but not in all things,"
he said of the historical Jesus. "He did many things which He meant us
to understand spiritually, not literally ... we must always follow Him
in the profounder sense." Compared to the religion of Eckhart, the
religion of St. Francis is the faith of a little child, picturing God as
a benevolent old man. Such a religion is equally true and sincere, but
it represent