A... mystic or a ... who has withdrawn himself from the world and practised starvation, celibacy and general mortification of the body, aspires to reach a spiritual plane from which the world, either... [the] mechanical or... vital aspect, can be left behind and forgotten as a distraction and a curse. ...My criticism ...is concerned with the value to humanity of the results... [W]hatever pinnacle of pure contemplative philosophy... ultimately... reached, little... communicable or of general value to the life or thought of the world seems... [to] result.
— FREDERICK SODDY