Eli야 was definitely intrigued by mysticism. He dreamt of becoming a saint when he was young. His mother, who wrote poems depicting mysticism, influenced him greatly. He greedily read many books on mysticism such as Christian Mysticism (1 899) by W. R. Inge, The Varieties 01 Rel.땅ious Experience (1902) by William James, and Mysticism (1911) by Evelyn UnderhiII among others while at Harvard. He apparently had his mystical expe꺼ence during his stay at Harvard. For these reasons, he tried to seek a philosophical explanation of his mystical experiences and mysticism in general. He’d like to obtain an intellectual explanation of his mystical moments. I explore Eliot’s transcendental taste for mysticism by studying Eliofs philosophical joumey into mysticism. This paper is focused mainly on Henri Bergson’s and F. H. Bradley’s ideas, which are essential to a philosophical survey of mysticism. First, Eliot was interested in Bergson’s concept that boiled down to ’duration’(durée), in which Iife takes on an amorphous state or duration. His idea of duration suggests that movement and change are inherent to reality. It tends to largely emphasize the imminence of reality; therefore, it is not useful in explaining the unity of what is perennially absolute. Eliot looked for a more comprehensive philosophy. Thus, his concem moved to Bradley’s ’immediate experience' in which subject and object are unified and people could have a mystical moment. Consequently, Bradley's philosophy allows EIi이 to intellectually figure out his mystical experience and the concept of mysticism as a whole. Besides Bradleyan philosophy, St. John’s idea, the conception of Madψamika of Buddhism, the thoughts of Yoga among others in his poetη also tend to stress the transcendental side of mystical experience. The renunciation of self is very important to those kinds of ideas. I admit that though a poet Eliot has been inf1uenced by imminent side of mysticism, a mystic Eliot has a taste for transcendental mystlclsm.

• 전종봉(서일대) | Jong-Bong Jeon