The Cloud of Unknowing. Anonymous

a ghostly beginner in the work of this book.

       Chapter 33. That in this work a soul is cleansed both of his special sins and of the pain of them, and yet how there is no perfect rest in this life.

       Chapter 34. That God giveth this grace freely without any means, and that it may not be come to with means.

       Chapter 35. Of three means in the which a contemplative Prentice should be occupied, in reading, thinking, and praying.

       Chapter 36. Of the meditations of them that continually travail in the work of this book.

       Chapter 37. Of the special prayers of them that be continual workers in the word of this book

       Chapter 38. How and why that short prayer pierceth heaven

       Chapter 39. How a perfect worker shall pray, and what prayer is in itself; and if a man shall pray in words, which words accord them most to the property of prayer.

       Chapter 40. That in the time of this work a soul hath no special beholding to any vice in itself nor to any virtue in itself.

       Chapter 41. That in all other works beneath this, men should keep discretion; but in this none.

       Chapter 42. That by indiscretion in this, men shall keep discretion in all other things; and surely else never

       Chapter 43. That all witting and feeling of a man’s own being must needs be lost if the perfection of this word shall verily be felt in any soul in this life.

       Chapter 44. How a soul shall dispose it on its own part, for to destroy all witting and feeling of its own being.

       Chapter 45. A good declaring of some certain deceits that may befall in this work.

       Chapter 46. A good teaching how a man shall flee these deceits, and work more with a listiness of spirit, than with any boisterousness of body

       Chapter 47. A slight teaching of this work in purity of spirit; declaring how that on one manner a soul should shew his desire unto God, and on ye contrary unto man.

       Chapter 48. How God will be served both with body and with soul, and reward men in both; and how men shall know when all those sounds and sweetness that fall into the body in time of prayer be both good and evil.

       Chapter 49. The substance of all perfection is nought else but a good will; and how that all sounds and comfort and sweetness that may befall in this life be to it but as it were accidents.

       Chapter 50. Which is chaste love; and how in some creatures such sensible comforts be but seldom, and in some right oft.

       Chapter 51. That men should have great wariness so that they understand not bodily a thing that is meant ghostly; and specially it is good to be wary in understanding of this word “in,” and of this word “up.”

       Chapter 52. How these young presumptuous disciples misunderstand this word “in,” and of the deceits that follow thereon.

       Chapter 53. Of divers unseemly practices that follow them that lack the work of this book.

       Chapter 54. How that by Virtue of this word a man is governed full wisely, and made full seemly as well in body as in soul.

       Chapter 55. How they be deceived that follow the fervour of spirit in condemning of some without discretion.

       Chapter 56. How they be deceived that follow the fervour of spirit in condemning of some without discretion

       Chapter 57. How these young presumptuous disciples misunderstand this other word “up”; and of the deceits that follow thereon.

       Chapter 58. That a man shall not take ensample of Saint Martin and of Saint Stephen, for to strain his imagination bodily upwards in the time of his prayer.

       Chapter 59. That a man shall not take ensample at the bodily ascension of Christ, for to strain his imagination upwards bodily in the time of prayer: and that time, place, and body, these three should be forgotten in all ghostly working.

       Chapter 60. That the high and the next way to heaven is run by desires, and not by paces of feet.

       Chapter 61. That all bodily thing is subject unto ghostly thing, and is ruled thereafter by the course of nature and not contrariwise.

       Chapter 62. How a man may wit when his ghostly work is beneath him or without him, and when it is even with him or within him, and when it is above him and under his God.

       Chapter 63. Of the powers of a soul in general, and how Memory in special is a principal power, comprehending in it all the other powers and all those things in the which they work.

       Chapter 64. Of the other two principal powers Reason and Will; and of the work of them before sin and after.

       Chapter 65. Of the first secondary power, Imagination by name; and of the works and the obedience of it unto Reason, before Sin and after.

       Chapter 66. Of the other secondary power, Sensuality by name; and of the works and of the obedience of it unto Will, before sin and after

       Chapter 67. That whoso knoweth not the powers of a soul and the manner of her working, may lightly be deceived in understanding of ghostly words and of ghostly working; and how a soul is made a God in grace.

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