Mystically Minded Friends

John Byrom kept a diary, which has been published by the Chetham Society, and is one of the most delightful productions of the eighteenth century. In its self-restrained candour we can trace his spiritual development, and cannot fail to admire a self-portrait, quite unconsciously drawn, of a pure-hearted, reverent-minded Christian, fond of social intercourse and with a keen sense of humour (but shrinking instinctively from all that was coarse), humble, unselfish, and warm-hearted, conscientious but strikingly free from censoriousness, admirable in all domestic relations, capable of wholehearted hero-worship, above all, ardently devout. Many an entry records his intercourse with mystically minded friends and the study of mystical writings, such as Loyola's Exercises, Albert the Great's Paradise of the Soul, Thomas a Kempis, Fenelon, Norris of Bemerton, and Thomas Vaughan, whose book he cannot understand.

Link (here) to read the mentioned text of Percy Herbert Osmond in the book entitled The Mystical Poets of the English Church