ABSTRACT
The terms mysticism, lyricism, thought, objectivity, technique, are define well enough. To these states would correspond respectively the activities which these words denote: religion, art, philosophy, science, industry. One may readily recognize the principle of this arrangement: it moves from the interior to the exterior, from the spiritual to the material, from the intensive to the extensive. If we think of the magical activity of the primitives, and reflect that this activity has been described as a technique which is also a mysticism, we shall see that in magic the two extremities of the series are present and in contact. The peculiar misuse of the term 'a mysticism' of late years is a linguistic phenomenon worthy of remark, which doubtless conceals a psychological phenomenon. It is, of course, the destiny of words to wear out and be withdrawn from circulation; but here the degradation of the term has been altogether too quick and brutal.
