HERE BEGINNETH THE TWO AND THIRTIETH CHAPTER
Of two ghostly devices that be helpful to a ghostly beginner
in the work of this
book.
NEVERTHELESS, somewhat of this subtlety shall I tell thee as me think. Prove
thou and do better, if thou better mayest. Do that in thee is, to let be as
thou wist not that they press so fast upon thee betwixt thee and thy God. And
try to look as it were over their shoulders, seeking another thing: the which
thing is God, enclosed in a cloud of unknowing. And if thou do thus, I trow
that within short time thou shalt be eased of thy travail. I trow that an this
device be well and truly conceived, it is nought else but a longing desire unto
God, to feel Him and see Him as it may be here: and such a desire is
charity, and it obtaineth always to be eased.
Another device there is: prove thou if thou
wilt. When thou feelest that thou mayest on nowise put them down, cower thou
down under them as a caitiff and a coward overcome in battle, and think that it
is but a folly to thee to strive any longer with them, and therefore thou
yieldest thee to God in the hands of thine enemies. And feel then thyself as
thou wert foredone for ever. Take good heed of this device I pray thee, for me
think in the proof of this device thou shouldest melt all to water. And surely
me think an this device be truly conceived it is nought else but a true knowing
and a feeling of thyself as thou art, a wretch and a filthy, far worse than
nought: the which knowing and feeling is meekness. And this meekness obtaineth
to have God Himself mightily descending, to venge thee of thine enemies, for to
take thee up, and cherishingly dry thine ghostly eyen; as the father
doth the child that is in point to perish under the mouths of wild swine or
wode biting bears.