Attempts to capture the qualities of the fourteenth-century translation of Richard of St. Victor's treatise on contemplation. This author of "The Cloud of Unknowing" produced a Middle English translation that, while condensed in length, contains thoughts and advice of his own that are not found in the original. It is one of the classics of English devotional literature: plain, homely, and powerful in style, deeply pious but with a joyous freshness and sincerity that shine across the centuries.