tises with a
bewildering mixture of theosophy and chemistry. The result is
certainly that much of his work is almost unreadable; the nuggets of
gold have to be dug out from a bed of rugged stone; and we cannot be
surprised that the unmystical eighteenth century declared that
"Behmen's works would disgrace Bedlam at full moon.[349]" But German
philosophers have spoken with reverence of "the father of Protestant
Mysticism," who "perhaps only wanted learning and the gift of clear
expression to become a German Plato"; and Sir Isaac Newton shut
himself up for three months to study Boehme, whose teaching on
attraction and the laws of motion seemed to him to have great
value.[350]

For us, he is most interesting as marking the transition from the
purely subjective type of Mysticism to Symbolism, or rather as the
author of a brilliant attempt to fuse the two into one system. In my
brief sketch of Boehme's doctrines I shall illustrate his teaching from
the later works of William Law, who is by far its best exponent. Law
was an enthusiastic admirer of Boehme, and being, unlike his master, a
man of learning and a practised writer, was able to bring order out
of the chaos in which Boehme left his speculations. In strength of
intellect Law was Boehme's equal, and as a writer of clear and forcible
English he has few superiors.

Boehme's doctrine of God and the world resembles that of other
speculative mystics, but he contributes a new element in the great
stress which he lays on _antithesis_ as a law of being. "In Yes and No
all things consist," he says. No philosopher since Heraclitus and
Empedocles had asserted so strongly that "Strife is the father of all
things." Even in the hidden life of the unmanifested Godhead he finds
the play of Attraction and Diffusion, the resultant of which is a
Desire for manifestation felt in the Godhead. As feeling this desire,
the Godhead becomes "Darkness"; the light which illumines the darkness
is the Son. The resultant is the Holy Spirit, in whom arise the
archetypes of creation. So he explains Body, Soul, and Spirit as
thesis, antithesis, and synthesis; and the same formula serves to
explain Good, Evil, and Free Will; Angels, Devils, and the World. His
view of Evil is not very consistent; but his final doctrine is that
the object of the cosmic process is to exhibit the victory of Good
over Evil, of Love over Hatred.[351] He at least has the merit of
showing that strife is so inwoven with our l