e; it is I; show me thy hands.' And it seemed to me that he took
my hands in his, and laid them in his side. 'Behold my wound,' he said,
'thou art not separated from me; bear this brief exile on earth....'"
etc.

On one occasion she had a vision of an angel whom she describes as
follows: "He was not tall but small, very beautiful, his face so radiant
that he seemed to be one of the highest angels, who are, I believe, all
fire ... in his hand he held a golden spear, at the point of which was a
little flame; he appeared to thrust this spear into my heart again and
again; it penetrated my entrails, and as he drew it out he seemed to
draw them out also, and leave me on fire with a great love of God. The
pain was so intense that I could not but sigh deeply; yet so surpassing
was the sweetness of this pain that it made me wish never to be without
it. It is not physical, but spiritual pain, although the body often
suffers greatly from it. The caressing love between God and the soul is
so sweet that I implore Him of His mercy to let all those experience it
who believe that I am lying."

The treatise _Thoughts of the Love of God on some Words of the Song of
Songs_ is crowded with purely sensuous passages. In accordance with the
general custom, she interprets this naively sensual Semitic poem
allegorically, becomes tremendously excited in meditating on the kiss of
the beloved and discusses the question of what the soul should do to
"satisfy so sweet a bridegroom."

In the pamphlet _The Fortress of the Soul and its Seven Dwellings_, St.
Teresa describes similar states of mind: "The bridegroom commands the
doors of the dwellings to be closed and also the gates of the fortress
and its surrounding walls. In freeing the soul from the body, he stops
the body's breathing so that, even if the other senses are not quite
deadened, speech is impossible. At other times all sensuous perceptions
disappear simultaneously; body and hands grow rigid and it seems as if
the soul had left the body, which is scarcely breathing. This condition
is of short duration. The rigidity passes away to some extent, the body
slowly regains life, the breath comes and goes, only to die away again
and thus endow the soul with greater freedom. But this deep trance does
not endure long." She continues to describe her ecstasies and is careful
to point out the complete fusion of supreme delight and bodily pain.
Perhaps no hysterical subject has ever described her sta