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mysticism:. 209 MYTHOLOGY. Bernard of C'lairvaux, Francis of Assisi, and Ig- natius of Loyola. The Monastery of Saint Victor, near I'aris, was a very inlluential centre of mys- ticism in llie twelftli century. About the same time an Italian abbot, Joachim of Floris, prophe- sied that the dispensation of the Spirit would soon begin. Several famous mystics appear among the Schoolmen, some of whom were also members of monastic orders, e.g. Bonaventura, a disciple of the ictorines. Amalrie of B6ne. a Paris doctor (died 1207), pushed his mysticism to a pantheistic extreme. .mong the Dutch mystics are Ruysbroeck, au- thor of several spiritual tracts (died 1381). Ger- hardt Groot, founder of the Brethren of the Common Life (died 1384), and Thomas a Kenipis. author of the Imiliition of Chrixt (died 1471). Eekhardt (died c.1327) stands in the front rank of (ierman mystics, and among his disciples were Tauler (died 13G1) and Suso of Constance (died 13G0). The German Theology, a popular book of devotion, was published by Luther in 1517. Ja- kob Biihrne (died lfi24) belongs to the Protestant schooL Among more recent (Jerman mystics none perhaps is better known than Novalis. the disciple of Romanticism (died 1801). In Eng- land we find George Fox (died 1600). Among his contemporaries, the Cambridge Platonists (q.v. ), especially Cudworth, Jlore. and Smith, ■were both rationalistic and mystical; George Herbert (died 1(533), Francis Quarles (died 1(544), Henry Vaughan (died 1695), and later William Law (died 1761) were purely mystical. What is known as Quietism (q.v.) was a move- ment of the same nature with whose earlier stages Saint Francis of Sales, Bishop of Geneva (died 1622). had some sympathy, and which the Spaniard Molinos (died 1696). Fenelon (died 1715). and especially Madame Guyon (diedl717) made more definite. Not a few of the most gifted and honored among mystics have been women, e.g. Saint Hildegarde (died 1178). Elizabeth of Schiinau (died 1164), Saint Catharine of Siena (died 1380), and Saint Theresa (died 1.582). Certain philosophical and scientific thinkers, including, for instance, Paracelsus, Giordano Bruno, Spinoza, llegel, and Schelling, are less properly included among the mystics. Bit Im- manuel Swedenborg (died 1772), eminent in ap- plied science, but still more eminent for his reli- gious allegorizing, deserves prominent mention. Consult Preger, Geschichfe der dciituchen }[t/s- fil- (Leipzig, 1874-18S1): Vaughan, nours ir'lth 1he Mtistics (7th ed.. London, 1895) ; Inge, C/inV lUin Mi/sticism (ib.. 1809) ; .Tames, Tarieiirs of lirlipioiis RrperiV'iirc (London, 1902) ; Giirres, Die eliristliche Mi/kIH- (Regensburg, 1836) ; Bigg, The Chr!f:t!aii Philonintfi of Alexninlria (London, 1S86) : id., yeophtlonifmi (ib.. 1895). See the no- tices of the individuals mentioned in this article. MYSTIC SHRINE, Ancient Arabic Order OF XoBLES OF THE. An Order asserted to have been founded at Jlecca. Arabia, in the year of the Hegira 25. The modern order is of comparatively recent origin. The governing body in . ierica is the Imperial Council, with eighty-five subor- dinate branches, called Temples. The order is not a Masonic body, but only Jfasons of the thir- ty-second degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, or Knights Templars in good stand- ing, are eligible for admission. The membership in America amounts to about 68,000. MYTH (Lat. mythos, from Gk. /iCfloi, speech, legend). -V form of folk-lore (q.v.) which sets forth as an historic tale the processes of nature, or beliefs concerning cosmogony (q.v.), religion (q.v.), custom (q.v.), tradition, and the like. The sum total of myths is the nuttcrial for the science of mythology (q.v.), frequent) ' termed comparative mythology, ^"ithin this many sub- divisions may be set oflf, as the Greek myths concerning Diana (q.v.), the Teutonic Walhalla myths (see Walh.lla), the Polynesian water- myths, or the Hindu myths regarding caste (q.v.). Myth must be distinguished carefully from fable ( q.v. ) and from legend ( q.v. ) . Thus we may have the fable of Zeus and the frogs, which points a moral teaching, or the legend of Saint Christopher (q.v.), which narrates a mi- raculous event, which may or may not have a moral bearing, but the Zeus-myth (see Jupiter) is based on belief in a sky-god, and is thus a part of nature-worship (cpv. i. MYTHICAL ISLANDS. Fabulous lands, with which popular lore or the imagination of poets and travelers have, since the earliest times, peopled various parts of the ocean. Among the Greeks, the Islands of the Blessed (q.v.), lying far in the western ocean, were the homes of those whom the divine favor saved from the pains of death to live in eternal bliss. Later, Plato placed in the same part of the world his lost Atlantis (q.v.). Celtic mythology presents a counterpart to the Islands of the Blessed in the fairy land of Avalon (q.v.), where Arthur was carried after his last battle. Of Celtic ori- gin, too, is the mythical land of Saint Brendan (see BrE-NOAX. or "Bre.xxa.n'x I . lying off the west- ern coast of Africa, in search of which expedi- tions set out as late as the beginning of the eighteenth century. To Christian refugees from the Iberian Peninsula, at the time of the Mo- hammedan invasion, legend ascribed the settle- ment of the long sought for Island of Seven Cities (q.v.). More within the realm of fact is Marco Polo's Cipango, identified by some with .Japan. The Age of Discovery was fruitful of legendary lands, cities and islands. Best known among these last were the island of Bimini, in the region of the Bahamas, containing the foun- tain of youth, and the island of Brazil, which owed its name t<' its precious dyestuft's. MYTHOL'OGY (Lat. mythologia, from Gk. lj.v6oKoyla, from /iOSos, mythos, myth + -o7ia, -htyia. account, from X^7«j', legem, to say). The science of myths, either a body of more or less doubtful stories, as when we speak of Greek or German mythology, or a rational account of how all such stories originate. Every race has its own myths, and in the first sense of the word a mythology has only to enumerate and classify the special stories of each race. The second application of the term, however, comprises vari- ous theories put forward to explain myths. Thus we come to what is now called the science of mythology, which deals with the origins of such myths or popular stories. Jlyths may be divided into two sets of catego- ries, arranged cither according to the intellectual status of the original myth-makers or according to the subject-matter of the myth itself. Thus we may have myths of savages, as opposed to m.vths of cultivated races, and we may have myths of cosmogony, as opposed to myths of heroes. In many discussions of mythology it seems to be as-