John Dunn

First posted on Monday, 21 January 2013 at 21:49

I came across this whilst reading Ezra Pound's wonderful Guide to Kulchur from 1937. I thought his analysis was spot on.

John Dunn.















Two mystic states can be dissociated: the ecstatic-beneficent-and-benevolent, contemplation of the divine love, the divine splendour with goodwill towards others.

And the bestial, namely the fanatical, the man on fire with God and anxious to stick his nose into other men's business or reprove his neighbour for having a set of tropisms different from that of the fanatic's, or for having the courage to live more greatly and openly.

The second set of mystic states is manifest in scarcity economists, in repressors etc.

The first state is a dynamism. It has, time and again, driven men to great living, it has given them courage to go on for decades in the face of public stupidity. It is paradisical and a reward in itself seeking naught further... perhaps because a feeling of certitude inheres in the state of feeling itself. The glory of life exists without further proof for this mystic.