And Philostratus, in his life of Apollonius of Tyana, says, or makes his hero say, that while all wish to live in the presence of God, “the Indians alone succeed in doing so.”  And certainly there are parts of Plotinus, and still more of his successors, which strongly suggest Asiatic influences.[152] When we turn from Alexandria to Syria, we find Orientalism more rampant.  Speculation among the Syrian monks of the third, fourth, and fifth centuries was perhaps more unfettered and more audacious than in any other branch of Christendom at any period.  Our knowledge of their theories is very limited, but one strange specimen has survived in the book of Hierotheus,[153] which the canonised Dionysius praises in glowing terms as an inspired oracle—­indeed, he professes that his own object in writing was merely to popularise the teaching of his master.  The book purports to be the work of Hierotheus, a holy man converted by St. Paul, and an instructor of the real Dionysius the Areopagite.  A strong case has been made out for believing the real author to be a Syrian mystic, named Stephen bar Sudaili, who lived late in the fifth century.  If this theory is correct, the date of Dionysius will have to be moved somewhat later than it has been the custom to fix it.  The book of the holy Hierotheus on “the hidden mysteries of the Divinity” has been but recently discovered, and only a summary of it has as yet been made public.  But it is of great interest and importance for our subject, because the author has no fear of being accused of Pantheism or any other heresy, but develops his particular form of Mysticism to its logical conclusions with unexampled boldness.  He will show us better even than his pupil Dionysius whither the method of “analysis” really leads us.

The system of Hierotheus is not exactly Pantheism, but Pan-Nihilism.  Everything is an emanation from the Chaos of bare indetermination which he calls God, and everything will return thither.  There are three periods of existence—­(1) the present world, which is evil, and is characterised by motion; (2) the progressive union with Christ, who is all and in all—­this is the period of rest; (3) the period of fusion of all things in the Absolute.  The three Persons of the Trinity, he dares to say, will then be swallowed up, and even the devils are thrown into the same melting-pot.  Consistently with mystical principles, these three world-periods are also phases in the development of individual souls.  In the first stage the mind aspires towards its first principles; in the second it becomes Christ, the universal Mind; in the third its personality is wholly merged.  The greater part of the book is taken up with the adventures of the Mind in climbing the ladder of perfection; it is a kind of theosophical romance, much more elaborate and fantastic than the “revelations” of mediaeval mystics.  The author professes to have himself enjoyed the ecstatic union more than once, and his method of preparing for it is that of the Quietists:  “To me it seems right to speak without words, and understand without knowledge, that which is above words and knowledge; this I apprehend to be nothing but the mysterious silence and mystical quiet which destroys consciousness and dissolves forms.  Seek, therefore, silently and mystically, that perfect and primitive union with the Arch-Good.”