there could be no reason why it should not be valued for its own sake,
independent of the somewhat singular source whence it emanated.

Still, the translator has by no means disguised to himself that this
work is written, in the first place, for Christians; that is to say,
for men who have the right to be very diffident in giving credence to
particulars concerning facts which are articles of faith; and although
he is aware that St. Bonaventure and many others, in their paraphrases
of the Gospel history, have mixed up traditional details with those
given in the sacred text, even these examples have not wholly reassured
him. St. Bonaventure professed only to give a paraphrase, whereas these
revelations appear to be something more. It is certain that the holy
maiden herself gave them no higher title than that of dreams, and that
the transcriber of her narratives treats as blasphemous the idea of
regarding them in any degree as equivalent to a fifth Gospel; still it
is evident that the confessors who exhorted Sister Emmerich to relate
what she saw, the celebrated poet who passed four years near her couch,
eagerly transcribing all he heard her say, and the German Bishops, who
encouraged the publication of his book, considered it as something more
than a paraphrase. Some explanations are needful on this head.

The writings of many Saints introduce us into a new, and, if I may
be allowed the expression, a miraculous world. In all ages there have
been revelations about the past, the present, the future, and even
concerning things absolutely inaccessible to the human intellect. In
the present day men are inclined to regard these revelations as simple
hallucinations, or as caused by a sickly condition of body.

The Church, according to the testimony of her most approved writers,
recognises three descriptions of ecstasy; of which the first is simply