Mystics And Mysticism. No. Iii.

MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM . No . III .

ZONDON , SATURDAY , MARCH C , 1 S 69 .

We come now to consider briefly , so far as our ordinary understanding is capable of judging' , the views of Boehmen . He ieads off with the statement that the Divinity is the unity , eternal , the pure substance , undefined by any qualifications ,

the unfathomable ( Ungrund ) , as incomprehensible to human under-standing-, as the " absolute nothing , " because it is specific qualities only hy which the human mind is able to perceive phenomena , and in the Divinity there are none . But

this pui'e substance , reflecting itself , becomes its own object ( ursttindet sich ) a self conscious reality . From this eternal affirmation , the negation detaches itself ; by disuniting- only , the unit

becomes conscious of itself , aud to the world is revealed the " eternal blissful stillness /'' This self-condensation , or self-qualification ofthe original substance ( divinity ) is nature ( das ere atiirliehe ) . The creaturely is the self-revelation of God . But

the negation , by which the Divinity is enabled to reveal itself , is , at the same time , the evil principle . Meaning that the motionless , eternal , and infinite substance contains reality only by the

principle of limitation or definition , Boehmen says , God has existence only through the Devil !!! Yet in nature this principle is the evil one , because there the negation has a principle of its the own , while in the fulness ofthe Divine Being , it is

only attribute of perfection , the moving element , the evepyma of the inert unqualified substance . In God the principle of limitation is a holy glow of love ( heilige Liebesgluth ) , but in nature it is the destructive wrath of fire ( verzehrenc . es Zornfener ) .

The principle of negation is not an absolute , inactive principle , it tends to destroy itself . The negative negation only is self-conscious affirmation , eternal bliss . Thus man , led to evil by the negative principle of liberty , should , as a selfconscious being , return to the absolute o-ood .

Here are specimens of Boehmen ' s less profound , and easier understood style . "The divine substance is the abyss of the creaturely . The entirety of substance is God . How could Man be God ' s son , if his substance were different from God ' s . God has created all

that is from nothing , and himself is this nothing , as a self-immanent love , in which there is no affection . Angel and devil are all the same in Eevelation . We do not know anything of God , for he himself is our intuition aud our knowledge . Oar

souls are woven into the eternal band , and if it attains the love of God in the light , it may then intuitively view nature and God , the Kingdoms of Heaven and Hell . "

Sentiments like these perhaps may be considered intelligible , but the wisest mind could not undertake to unravelled the awful coil of Boehmen's crude , undigested , farcical and chaotic ideas Yet he had many followers on Germany and

England , perhaps in the principle of the Sexton's admiration for the Parson . "Deed , Sir , Mr . G . is a puir body , ony man can understand him . Gie me you in' the pu ' pit , for jumblin' the judgment and confoondin '

sense . " Among some old papers , we found the following notes regarding the bastard Rosicrucianism . of Andrea , to which Boehmen's doctrines have a

strong affinity , and in which Fludd believed most firmly . The Bosicrucians ( i . e ., Andrea's ) , first appeai'ed in Germany at the beginning of the 17 th century . They bound themselves by a solemn secret , which

they all swore to preserve , and at their admission they bound themselves to obey certain established laws . Their reputed objects were to search into the secrets of nature- —chiefly of medicine . They pretended to possess the philosopher ' s stone , and

to be masters of many important secrets all of which they affirmed had been derived from the ancient Egyptians , Chaldeans , Magi , and Gymnosophists . They have been distinguished by several names from their several branches of

doctrine—Immortals because they pretended to protract human life , by means of nostrums , and oven to restore youth . IUuminat-i because they pretended to know all things . Invisible Brethren because for many years they made no appearance . The

society is often signed by letters I . B . C . which some among them interpret Fratres roris cocti , it being pretended that the matter of the philosophers stone is dew concocted , exhaled , & c . Some make the Freemasons to be a branch of the

Bosicrucians or rather the Bosicrucians themselves under a new name , frame or relation , viz ., as retainers to building . The principles , which serve as a kind of centre of union to the Bosicrucian