THE SCALE (OR LADDER) OF PERFECTION is a guide to the contemplative life in which the soul is reformed to the image and likeness of God. Book One provides an overview of contemplation and its prerequisites, a discussion of prayer and meditation, and a path for dealing with sins, both obvious and hidden, through self-awareness, humility, and the love of God. By these means one passes through the darkness known to another English mystic as "the cloud of unknowing." Book Two distinguishes between the reform of the soul that is in faith only and the reform that is in both faith and feeling. Loving Jesus is the way through the initial darkness that one sees after withdrawal from the world of the senses, and God gives light to those who persevere in this work. The spiritual eye is opened in a way that cannot be arrived at by mere intellectual study, nor by individual effort. Contemplation is given by God. After further progress, the soul knows itself as it is, and Jesus speaks directly to her.

OF all the old English ascetical works which were extant before the Reformation none have maintained their reputation longer than Walter Hilton’s “Scale of Perfection.” Hilton was a canon of Thurgarton in Nottinghamshire, and died in 1395. His “Scale of Perfection” is found in no less than five MSS. in the British Museum alone. Wynkyn de Worde printed it at least three times—in the years 1494, 1519 and 1525. Many other editions were printed at the same period. Aeterna Press

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