Behmen's Preface to the _Mysterium Magnum_ at the very least. And if he
does that, and is not drawn on from that to be a student of Behmen for
the rest of his days, then, whatever else his proper field in life may
be, it is not mystical or philosophical theology. It is a long step both
in time and in thought from Behmen to SCHOPENHAUER; but, speaking of one
of Schelling's books, Schopenhauer says that it is all taken from Jacob
Behmen's _Mysterium Magnum_; every thought and almost every word of
Schelling's work leads Schopenhauer to think of Behmen. 'When I read
Behmen's book,' says Schopenhauer, 'I cannot withhold either admiration
or emotion.' At his far too early death Behmen left four treatises
behind him in an unfinished condition. The _Theoscopia_, or _Divine
Vision_, is but a fragment; but, even so, the study of that fragment
leads us to believe that, had Behmen lived to the ordinary limit of human
life, and had his mind continued to grow as it was now fast growing in
clearness, in concentration, and in simplicity, Behmen would have left to
us not a few books as classical in their form as all his books are
classical in their substance; in their originality, in their truth, in
their depth, and in their strength. As it is, the unfinished, the
scarcely-begun, _Theoscopia_ only serves to show the student of what a
treasure he has been bereft by Behmen's too early death. As I read and
re-read the _Theoscopia_ I felt the full truth and force of Hegel's
generous words, that German philosophy began with Behmen. This is both
German and Christian philosophy, I said to myself as I revelled in the
_Theoscopia_. Let the serious student listen to the titles of some of
the chapters of the _Theoscopia_, and then let him say what he would not
have given to have got such a book from such a pen in its completed
shape: 'What GOD is, and how we men shall know the Divine Substance by
the Divine Revelation. Why it sometimes seems as if there were no GOD,
and as if all things went in the world by chance. Why GOD, who is Love
itself, permits an evil will contrary to His own. The reason and the