STION CLXXIX
OF THE DIVISION OF LIFE INTO THE ACTIVE AND THE CONTEMPLATIVE

QUESTION CLXXX
OF THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE

QUESTION CLXXXI
OF THE ACTIVE LIFE

QUESTION CLXXXII
OF THE COMPARISON BETWEEN THE ACTIVE AND THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE

QUESTION CLXXXVI
ON THE RELIGIOUS STATE

INDEX

INDEX OF TEXTS QUOTED OR EXPLAINED

INTRODUCTION

The pages which follow call for little introduction. S. Thomas has left
us no formal treatise on Mystical Theology, though his teachings on this
subject have been collected from his various works and combined to form
such a treatise. Especially noteworthy is the work of the Spanish
Dominican Valgornera.[2] No such synthesis has been attempted here. We
have simply taken from the _Summa Theologica_ the treatises on
_Religion_, on _Devotion_, _Prayer_, and the _Contemplative Life_, and
presented them in an English dress. When occasion offered we have added
to each portion appropriate passages from S. Augustine, S. Thomas's
master, and more rarely from the _Commentary_ on the _Summa_ by the
illustrious Cardinal Cajetan.

And we have been led to do this for several reasons. The Mystical life
is the life of union with God, and it is based essentially on Prayer and
Contemplation. But prayer and contemplation, though simple in
themselves, are yet fraught with difficulties and dangers unless we be
wisely guided. And as Father Faber shrewdly says: when we ask for
instruction in these things, let us by all means make appeal to those
whose names begin with S--let us, in other words, go to God's Saints.
And the reason is simple: these Saints are no mere idle sign-posts who
point the way but stand still themselves; they themselves have been
where they would have us go; they speak from no mere theoretical
knowledge; they themselves have tasted and seen that the Lord is sweet!

Further, it would have been easy to cull from S. Thomas's writings the
salient points of his teaching on these points, and to have presented
them in an attractive form. But had we done so the teachings of the
Saint would have lost much of their force, and readers might well have
doubted at times whether they really had before them the mind of S.
Thomas or that of the translator. It is preferable to read the Bible
than what men have said about the Bible. Unfortunately, it is the
fashion nowadays to consider S. Thomas's writings "out of date"! If the
perusal of these pages shall have induced some few at least to