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But the peculiarly remarkable physical bias of Ignatius’s mind is still more strikingly developed in his writings. Other men have been equally active and persevering—other men have equalled him in mere bodily activity and suffering; but to Ignatius alone belongs the discovery of exercising the mind by converting his thoughts into actual realities, and rendering the creations of the imagination true existences.

Herein appears the peculiarly physical tone of his mind, which could not rest content with mere spiritual contemplation, but must actually, as it were, see, feel, smell, taste, and hear the objects contemplated. The Spiritual Exercises enjoin that the exercitant must, in his gloomiest hours, not only think upon, but actually behold, the vast conflagration of Hell; he must hear its wailings, shrieks, and blasphemies; he must smell its smoky brimstone, and the horrid stench of its filth and rottenness; he must taste the saltness of the tears of penitence, and the bitterness of the rancour of the heart, and the loathsomeness of the worm of conscience; and he must touch the very fire by which the souls of the reprobate are scorched. Thus each meditation must be, not mere thinking-on, or contemplation, but must be instinct with life—must be continued until the senses seem actually to see, taste, and feel the objects contemplated.