UPON THE MEANING OF REVELATION AND INSPIRATION.

Some of the novices who feel themselves in this state, comprehend at once something which they did not understand before; they suppose they are as if hearing something from within, and this they call “a voice from an invisible speaker.” It has been said that, in miracles and supernatural events, there is no doubt of our spirit being the phenomenonwhich manifests itself in the human body from men, tal excitement and exultation; then it may happen that the spirit receives such a force and perfection, that its relation to the world of corruption be like our relation to the body whence its desire may be the mover in this exterior world.

There is another wonderful science and property of things. The lord Shaikh Abu Alí* says in his book, “the Ascent to Heaven:” All the spirits are subject to more perfect intelligences, except “the Holy Ghost,” who is the mediator between the self-existing Being and the first intelligences, and this is “the command;” and the word of God means “the revelation,” which the Holy Ghost makes by the intervention of perfect intelligences, and which is manifested by the prophetic spirit; whence, what­ever is the speech of the prophet, all is the expres­sion of the word of God, and his word is futile by itself, and the name of holiness comes from God alone.