In a simile familiar to spiritual writers of all ages, Ruysbroeck
compares life to a ladder, or stairway of seven steps, leading up to
perfection and union with God. These stages are respectively: (1)
Conformity with the holy will of God; (2) Voluntary poverty; (3) Purity
of soul and chastity of body; (4) Humility, with her four daughters,
obedience, gentleness, patience, and the forsaking of self-will; (5) The
desire of the divine glory, involving three spiritual exercises, namely,
acts of love and adoration, acts of supplication, and acts of
thanksgiving; (6) The contemplative and perfect life, by which man
finally attains the last stage of, (7) sublime ignorance. (Compare Walter
Hilton's "darksome lightness" in his _Scale of Perfection_.)