on the ape's manner." Like St. Catherine of Siena, though in a less
degree, he has the gift of vision and the faculty of intuition
combined with a homely common sense, and can illustrate his "simple
meaning" with a smile.

I have borrowed a phrase from St. Catherine, "The Cell of
Self-Knowledge," la cella del cognoscimento di noi, as the title of
this little volume. Knowledge of self and purity of heart, the
mystics teach, are the indispensable conditions for the highest
mystical elevation. Knowledge of self, for Richard of St. Victor, is
the high mountain apart upon which Christ is transfigured; for
Catherine of Siena, it is the stable in which the pilgrim through
time to eternity must be born again. "Wouldest thou behold Christ
transfigured?" asks Richard; "ascend this mountain; learn to know
thyself."[22] "Thou dost see," writes Catherine, speaking in the
person of the eternal Father, "this sweet and loving Word born in a
stable, while Mary was journeying; to show to you, who are
travellers, that you must ever be born again in the stable of
knowledge of yourselves, where you will find Him born by grace
within your souls."[23] The soul is a mirror that reflects the
invisible things of God, and it is by purity of heart alone that
this mirror is made clear. "Therefore," writes Richard of St.
Victor, "let whoso thirsts to see his God, wipe his mirror, purify
his spirit. After he hath thus cleared his mirror and long
diligently gazed into it, a certain clarity of divine light begins
to shine through upon him, and a certain immense ray of unwonted
vision to appear before his eyes. This light irradiated the eyes of
him who said: Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon
us; Thou hast put gladness in my heart. From the vision of this
light which it sees with wonder in itself, the mind is wondrously