Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/893

Rh Margareta Maria Alacoque was possessed by a desire to emulate the sufferings of Jesus, and inflicted upon herself such horrible tortures that her Mother Superior felt called upon to interfere, although some were inflicted by the express command of God. Is it surprising that she passed much of her time in a state of delirious love for her "heavenly bridegroom," constantly seeing visions and receiving revelations?

Anna Katharina Emmerich has described for us most vividly a condition of ecstatic trance in which the consciousness of the real world was not wholly lost. It is analogous to the above quoted experience of Dr. Cocke. "I see this not with my eyes, but rather, as it seems to me, with my heart here in the midst of my breast. This causes perspiration to break out on that spot. At the same moment I see the persons and objects about me, but do not trouble myself about them; I do not even know who they are—and even at this moment, as I speak, I see. . . . For some days I have been continuously in a supernatural vision. I have to use compulsion upon myself, for in the midst of my conversation with others I see entirely different pictures before me and hear my own voice and the voices of others sounding dull and muffled as from an empty vessel. . . . My reply to what is said to me falls from my lips easily, and often with more vivacity than usual, although afterward I do not know what I said, yet I speak coherently and intelligibly. It is very hard for me to keep myself in this double state. With my eyes I see my surroundings dimly, enshrouded in a veil, as one does when trying to fall asleep and just beginning to dream. The inner vision desires to sweep me away with violence, and is far more clear and brilliant than the natural, but it makes no use of my eyes."

But St. Theresa has left us, perhaps, the best account of ecstasy that we possess. One should note the complex hallucinations of all the senses which served to bring about the true ecstasies.

"One day, after I had prayed and besought the good God that he would help me to do his will in all things, I began the song of praise, and as I invoked him there came to me an ecstasy that almost put me beside myself. . . . I heard these words: 'Henceforward it is my will that thou shalt speak no more with men but with angels only.'" "These inner addresses of God to the soul consist of quite clear and plain words, but are not heard with the bodily ear. . . . One day, as I was praying, God vouchsafed to show me his hands only; their beauty was so great that I have no words with which to describe them. A few days later I saw his divine countenance also, and was, I think, entirely absorbed in it. . . . While he spoke to me, I beheld that majestic beauty, and the words which that beautiful, divine mouth spoke to me breathed an infinite sweetness. In those happy moments I felt an intense