Part 6

‘Behold, I saw upon earth men carrying milk in earthen vessels and making cheeses therefrom. Some was of the thick kind from which firm cheese is made, some of the thinner sort from which more porous [_tenuis_] cheese is made, and some was mixed with corruption [_tabes_] and of the sort from which bitter cheese is made. And I saw the likeness of a woman having a complete human form within her womb. And then, by a secret disposition of the Most High Craftsman, a fiery sphere having none of the lineaments of a human body possessed the heart of the form, and reached the brain and transfused itself through all the members.... And I saw that many circling eddies possessed the sphere and brought it earthward, but with ever renewed force it returned upward and with wailing asked, “I, wanderer that I am, where am I?” “In death’s shadow.” “And where go I?” “In the way of sinners.” “And what is my hope?” “That of all wanderers.”’[108] The vision is explained as follows: ‘Those whom thou seest carrying milk in earthen vessels are in the world, men and women alike, having in their bodies the seed of mankind from which are procreated the various kinds of human beings. Part is thickened because the seed in its strength is well and truly concocted, and this produces forceful men to whom are allotted gifts both spiritual and carnal.... And some had cheeses less firmly curdled, for they in their feebleness have seed imperfectly tempered, and they raise offspring mostly stupid, feeble, and useless.... And some was mixed with corruption ... for the seed in that brew cannot be rightly raised, it is invalid and makes misshapen men who are bitter, distressed, and oppressed of heart, so that they may not lift their gaze to higher things....[109] And often in forgetfulness of God and by the mocking devil, a _mistio_ is made of the man and of the woman and the thing born therefrom is deformed, for parents who have sinned against me return to me crucified in their children.’[110] (Compare Constantine _De humana natura_, sections ‘De perfectione’ and ‘De impeditione’.)

Hildegard thus supposes that the qualities and form of a child are inherited from its parents, but that two factors, the formless soul from the Almighty and the corrupt fluid instilled by the devil, also contribute to the character of offspring. This is the usual mediaeval view and is broadly portrayed in the figure.

The strange conception of the body being formed from the seed, as cheese is precipitated and curdled from milk, is doubtless derived from a passage in the Book of Job:

‘Hast thou not poured me out as milk, And curdled me like cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews’ (Job x. 10, 11).[111]

When the body has thus taken shape there enters into it the soul which, though at first shapeless, gradually assumes the form of its host, the earthly tabernacle; and at death the soul departs through the mouth with the last breath, as a fully developed naked human shape, to be received by devils or angels as the case may be (Plate XX).

During its residence in the body the soul plays the part usually assigned to it in the earlier mediaeval psychology, before the ideas of Nemesius and Ibn Ghazali had been elaborated and systematized by Albert and Aquinas. Hildegard regards the brain as having three chambers or divisions, corresponding to the three parts of man’s nature, an idea encountered in the writings of St. Augustine. Parallel to these there are, she tells us,

‘three elements in man by which he shows life; to wit, soul (_anima_), body (_corpus_), and sense (_sensus_). The soul vivifies the body and inspires the senses; the body attracts the soul and reveals the senses; the senses affect the soul and allure the body. For the soul rules the body as a flame throws light into darkness, and it has two principal powers or limbs, the intellect (_intellectus_) and the will (_voluntas_); not indeed that the soul has limbs to move itself, but that it manifests itself thereby as the sun declares himself by his brightness.... For the intellect is attached to the soul as the arms to the body: for as the body is prolonged into arms with fingers and hands attached, so the intellect is produced from the soul by the operation of its various powers.’[112]

We need follow Hildegard no further into her maze of micro-cosmology, in which an essential similarity and relationship is discovered between the qualities of the soul, the constitution of the external cosmos, and the structure of the body, a thought which appears as the culmination of her entire system and provides the clue to the otherwise incomprehensible whole.[113]

X. THE VISIONS AND THEIR PATHOLOGICAL BASIS

For the physical accompaniments and phenomena of Hildegard’s visions we have three separate lines of evidence: her own account; the statements of her contemporary biographers, Theodoric and Godefrid; and the miniatures of the Wiesbaden Codex B, probably prepared under her supervision.

It is clear that despite the length and activity of her life, Hildegard did not enjoy normal health. From a very early age she was the subject of trances and visions, and from time to time she was prostrated with protracted illness.

‘God punished me for a time by laying me on a bed of sickness so that the blood was dried in my veins, the moisture in my flesh and the marrow in my bones, as though the spirit were about to depart from my body. In this affliction I lay thirty days while my body burned as with fever, and it was thought that this sickness was laid upon me for a punishment. And my spirit also was ailing, and yet was pinned to my flesh, so that while I did not die, yet did I not altogether live. And throughout those days I watched a procession of angels innumerable who fought with Michael and against the dragon and won the victory.... And one of them called out to me, “Eagle! Eagle![114] why sleepest thou?... All the eagles are watching thee.... Arise! for it is dawn, and eat and drink.” And then the whole troop cried out with a mighty voice,... “Is not the time for passing come? Arise, maiden, arise!” Instantly my body and my senses came back into the world; and seeing this, my daughters who were weeping around me lifted me from the ground and placed me on my bed, and thus I began to get back my strength.

‘But the affliction laid upon me did not fully cease; yet was my spirit daily strengthened.... I was yet weak of flesh, timid of mind, and fearful of pain ... but in my soul I said, “Lord! Lord! all that Thou puttest upon me I know to be good ... for have I not earned these things from my youth up?” Yet was I assured He would not permit my soul to be thus tortured in the future life....[115] Thus was my body seethed as in a pot ... yet gave I thanks to God, for if this affliction had not been from Him I had surely not lived so long. But although I was thus tortured, yet did I, in supernal vision, often repeat, cry aloud, and write those things which the Holy Spirit willed to put before me.

‘Three years were thus passed during which the Cherubim pursued me with a flaming sword ... and at length my spirit revived within me and my body was restored again as to its veins and marrows, and thus I was healed.’[116]

This illness of Hildegard was the longest and the most typical, but by no means the only one through which she passed. She describes her affliction as continuing for long periods, but there can be little doubt, from her history, that during much of the time she was able to carry on some at least of her functions as head of a religious house.

The condition from which she was suffering was clearly a functional nervous disorder; this is sufficiently demonstrated by her repeated complete recoveries, her activity between the attacks, and the great age to which she lived. At first sight, the long procession of figures and visions suggests that she might have been the victim of a condition similar to that of which Jerome Cardan has left us so complete a personal record. But on reading the books of visions, the reader will easily convince himself that we are not here dealing with a dream-state. The visions are indeed essentially vivid. ‘These visions which I saw’, she repeatedly assures us, ‘I beheld neither in sleep, nor in dream, nor in madness, nor with my carnal eyes, nor with the ears of the flesh, nor in hidden places; but wakeful, alert, with the eyes of the spirit and with the inward ears I perceived them in open view and according to the will of God. And how this was compassed is hard indeed for human flesh to search out.’[117]

Nevertheless, though the visions exhibit great originality and creative power--the reader will often be reminded of William Blake--all or nearly all present certain characters in common. In all a prominent feature is a point or a group of points of light, which shimmer and move, usually in a wavelike manner, and are most often interpreted as stars or flaming eyes. In quite a number of cases one light, larger than the rest, exhibits a series of concentric circular figures of wavering form; and often definite fortification figures are described, radiating in some cases from a coloured area. Often the lights gave that impression of _working_, boiling or fermenting, described by so many visionaries, from Ezekiel onwards.

This outline of the visions the saint herself variously interpreted. We give examples from the more typical of these visions, in which the medical reader or the sufferer from migraine will, we think, easily recognize the symptoms of scintillating scotoma. Some of the illuminations, here reproduced in their original colours, will confirm this interpretation.

‘I saw a great star most splendid and beautiful, and with it an exceeding multitude of falling sparks which with the star followed southward. And they examined Him upon His throne almost as something hostile, and turning from Him, they sought rather the north. And suddenly they were all annihilated, being turned into black coals ... and cast into the abyss that I could see them no more’[118] (Plate XXI).

This vision, illustrated by the beautiful figure of stars falling into the waves, is interpreted by her as signifying the _Fall of the Angels_.

The concentric circles appear in numerous visions, and notably in that of the _Days of the Creation of the World and the Fall of Man_, illustrated by what is perhaps the most beautiful of all the miniatures of the Wiesbaden Codex B (lib. ii, vis. 1, Plate XXII). It is in this concentric form that Hildegard most frequently pictures the Almighty, and the idea again appears in the eleventh miniature, here reproduced in its original colours, which she describes as ‘a most shining light and within it the appearance of a human form of a sapphire colour which glittered with a gentle but sparkling glow’ (lib. ii, vis. 2, Plate XXIII). Appearances of this type are recorded again and again.

The type with fortification figures is encountered in a whole series of visions, of which we reproduce the account and illumination of the _Zelus Dei_ (lib. iii, vis. 5, Plate XXIV, lower section).

‘I looked and behold a head of marvellous form ... of the colour of flame and red as fire, and it had a terrible human face gazing northward in great wrath. From the neck downward I could see no further form, for the body was altogether concealed ... but the head itself I saw, like the bare form of a human head. Nor was it hairy like a man, nor indeed after the manner of a woman, but it was more like to a man than a woman, and very awful to look upon.

‘It had three wings of marvellous length and breadth, white as a dazzling cloud. They were not raised erect but spread apart one from the other and the head rose slightly above them ... and at times they would beat terribly and again would be still. No word uttered the head, but remained altogether still, yet now and again beating with its extended wings.’

From the head extended a series of fortification lines, and this peculiar form of vision is reproduced on several occasions and variously interpreted (Plate XXIV, upper section). It is united with similar visions in what we regard as a reconstructed conception of exceedingly complex structure. This she claims to see separately, and she interprets it as the _aedificium_ of the city of God (Plate XXV). Such reconstructed visions are clearly of a different type and origin to the simple group in which a shining light or group of lights is encountered and interpreted as a speaking figure.

Hildegard’s visions, perhaps without exception, contain this element of a blinding or glittering light, which she interprets in a more or less spiritual manner. We terminate our account with the passage in which she sums up her experiences of it.

‘From my infancy’, she says, ‘up to the present time, I being now more than seventy years of age, I have always seen this light in my spirit and not with external eyes, nor with any thoughts of my heart nor with help from the senses. But my outward eyes remain open and the other corporeal senses retain their activity. The light which I see is not located but yet is more brilliant than the sun, nor can I examine its height, length, or breadth, and I name it the “cloud of the living light”. And as sun, moon, and stars are reflected in water, so the writings, sayings, virtues, and works of men shine in it before me. And whatever I thus see in vision the memory thereof remains long with me. Likewise I see, hear, and understand almost in a moment and I set down what I thus learn....

‘But sometimes I behold within this light another light which I name “the Living Light itself”.... And when I look upon it every sadness and pain vanishes from my memory, so that I am again as a simple maid and not as an old woman....[119]

‘And now that I am over seventy years old my spirit according to the will of God soars upward in vision to the highest heaven and to the farthest stretch of the air and spreads itself among different peoples to regions exceeding far from me here, and thence I can behold the changing clouds and the mutations of all created things; for all these I see not with the outward eye or ear, nor do I create them from the cogitations of my heart ... but within my spirit, my eyes being open, so that I have never suffered any terror when they left me.’[120]

NOTE.--The author’s thanks are due to the Rev. H. A. Wilson, Mr. C. C. J. Webb, and Mr. R. R. Steele, who have read the proofs of this article and have made valuable suggestions; to Mr. J. A. Herbert of the MS. Department of the British Museum, who drew his attention to the work of Herrade de Landsberg; and to Mr. M. H. Spielmann, who brought to his notice the crucifix figured in Plate X. He owes a special debt of gratitude to the late Dom Louis Baillet of Oosterhoot for his courtesy and generosity in lending him reproductions of the illuminations of the Wiesbaden Codex. Baillet was a young scholar of great promise, whose early death is a severe loss to the knowledge of mediaeval science.

The author has also to thank Professor Henrici of the Nassauische Landesbibliothek at Wiesbaden, Professor Wille and Professor Sillib of the Universitätsbibliothek at Heidelberg, and Signor Boselli of the R. Bibliotica Governativa at Lucca, who have all given him exceptional facilities for the study of the treasures under their charge.

JOHN WILFRED JENKINSON

John Wilfred Jenkinson was born in 1871, and came from Bradfield to Exeter College, Oxford, with a classical scholarship in 1890. After taking his degree in _Literae Humaniores_ he came, in 1894, to University College, London, where he devoted himself with extraordinary and never-flagging energy to biological studies.

Without having had the usual preliminary scientific teaching, he brought, on the other hand, a well-trained mind to bear on his new work, and the rapidity and completeness with which he acquired his scientific equipment was one of the most striking and interesting points in his career. Jenkinson very soon turned to original investigation, and from the first he showed a predilection for Embryology.

For a short time he held a post at one of the great London hospitals, but he soon returned to Oxford to join the teaching staff of the Department of Comparative Anatomy. He used the opportunity of University vacations to work in the laboratory of the late Professor A. A. W. Hubrecht at Utrecht, where part of his first published research was written. During the fifteen years of life that remained to him, he established himself as the foremost English writer on Embryology, devoting himself especially to its experimental aspect, a line of work in which he will rank as one of the pioneers.

Jenkinson became Doctor of Science in 1905, and in the same year he married Constance Stephenson. In 1906 he was appointed University Lecturer in Embryology, and in 1909 he was elected to a Research Fellowship at Exeter College.

Jenkinson’s mind was not of the type that matures early, but one felt in him a power of solid intellect that gained in force from year to year. The gap in the ranks of British Science caused by his death has been generally recognized, but his loss seems greatest to those personally acquainted with him, who know that he had by no means reached the zenith of his powers.

Jenkinson led a single-minded and unselfish life, wholly free from worldly and ignoble ambitions. Of simple and winning humour, happy in his domestic life and absorbed in his studies, he represented the very best type of scientific worker.

He was gifted with a powerful physique, and on the outbreak of war he became an ardent member of the Oxford Volunteer Training Corps. His qualities of calm courage and high sense of duty marked him out as a valuable officer. Although forty-three years of age, he took a commission in the 12th Worcester Regiment in January, 1915, and was promoted Captain in the following April. On May 10 he left for the Dardanelles, having been selected for service with the 2nd Royal Fusiliers. He was killed in action on June 4, only ten days after his arrival at the Gallipoli peninsula.

BOOKS AND PAPERS BY J. W. JENKINSON

1. ‘A Re-investigation of the Early Stages of the Development of the Mouse.’ _Quart. Jour. Micr. Science_, xliii. 1900.

2. ‘Observations on the Histology and Physiology of the Placenta of the Mouse.’ _Tijdschr. Nederland. Dierkund. Vereen._, vii (2). 1902.

3. ‘Observations on the Maturation and Fertilization of the Egg of the Axolotl.’ _Quart. Jour. Micr. Science_, xlviii. 1905.

4. ‘Remarks on the Germinal Layers of Vertebrates and on the Significance of Germinal Layers in general.’ _Mem. and Proc. Manchester Lit. and Phil. Soc._, 1906.

5. ‘Notes on the Histology and Physiology of the Placenta in Ungulata.’ _Proc. Zool. Soc._ 1906.

6. ‘On the Effects of certain Solutions upon the Development of the Frog’s Egg.’ _Arch. Ent.-Mech._, xxi. 1906.

7. ‘On the Relation between the Symmetry of the Egg and the Symmetry of the Embryo in the Frog (_Rana temporaria_).’ _Biometrika_, v. 1906.

8. _Experimental Embryology_. Oxford, 1909.

9. ‘On the Relation between the Symmetry of the Egg, the Symmetry of Segmentation, and the Symmetry of the Embryo in the Frog.’ _Biometrika_, vii. 1909.

10. ‘The Effects of Sodium Chloride on the Growth and Variability of the Tadpole of the Frog.’ _Arch. Ent.-Mech._, xxx (2). 1910.

11. ‘Vitalism.’ _Hibbert Journal_. 1911.

12. ‘On the Development of Isolated Pieces of the Gastrulae of the Sea-Urchin _Strongylocentrotus lividus_.’ _Arch. Ent.-Mech._, xxxii. 1911.

13. ‘On the Effect of certain Isotonic Solutions on the Development of the Frog.’ _Arch. Ent.-Mech._, xxxii. 1911.

14. ‘On the Origin of the Polar and Bilateral Structure of the Egg of the Sea-Urchin.’ _Arch. Ent.-Mech._, xxxii. 1911.

15. ‘The Development of the Ear-Bones in the Mouse.’ _Jour. Anat. and Phys._, vi (3). 1911.

16. ‘Growth, Variability, and Correlation in Young Trout.’ _Biometrika_, viii. 1912.

17. _Vertebrate Embryology_. Oxford, 1913.

18. ‘The Effect of Centrifugal Force on the Structure and Development of the Egg of the Frog.’ _Quart. Jour. Micr. Science._ 1914.

19. ‘The Placenta of a Lemur.’ _Quart. Jour. Micr. Science._ July 1915.

20. _Three Lectures on Experimental Embryology_. Oxford, 1917.

VITALISM

By J. W. Jenkinson

In one of the oldest biological treatises in the world, the soul or life of an organism is defined in the most general way as an activity of a natural organic living body--ἐντελέχεια σώματος φυσικου̑ ὀργανικου̑ δυνάμει ζωὴν ἔχοντος--life being autonomous nutrition and growth and decay. The activity may, however, be latent or patent, passive or active, sleeping or waking, without losing its peculiar characters. It is substance (οὐσία), but substance as ‘form’ as opposed to the material substance of the body, and the living body is therefore also a substance in a double sense.

It is not identical with the body; but as form, proportion (λόγος), activity (ἐνέργεια), essence (τὸ τί ἠν εἰναι), it is related to the body, mere matter (ὕλη), and potentiality (δύναμις) in just the same way as the seal is related to the wax; and the body is the instrument whereby it effects its purposes; though subsequent in time, it is prior in thought to the body, as all activities are to the materials with which they operate.

At the same time neither it nor its parts are separable from the body, with the exception, possibly, of mind (νου̑ς); it is indeed the actual or possible functioning of the body, like the seeing of the eye or the cutting of the axe, and with the disappearance of the capacity of this functioning the soul itself also perishes. Lastly, it is a cause (ἀρχὴ καὶ αἰτία) in a triple sense: first, as the source of motion; secondly, as that for the sake of which the body exists; and thirdly, as its essence (οὐσία) or formal cause. The soul or life is of several kinds, which form together an ascending series each member of which is necessarily involved in those above it.

The lowest is the nutritive soul (θρεπτική), found in all living things, and the only soul possessed by plants. It is defined as motion in respect of nutrition, decay, and growth, processes which involve alteration (ἀλλοίωσις) in the body; and its functions (ἔργα) are to utilize food for the maintenance and reproduction of the form of the body, and to control and limit growth.

The second is the perceptive soul (αἰσθητική), the possession of which distinguishes animals from plants. This also is a kind of alteration (ἀλλοίωσις τίς) and consists in being moved and affected. The fundamental and indispensable perception is touch (ἁφή), for it is concerned in the acquisition of the food. It is invariably present: the others may or may not, some or all, coexist with it.