,,mystics ,,of ,,the ,,renaissance ,,and ,,their ,,relation ,,to ,,modern ,,thought ,,including ,,meister ,,eckhart1 ,,tauler1 ,,paracelsus1 ,,jacob ,,boehme1 ,,giordano ,,bruno1 ,,and ,,others ,,by ,,rudolf ,,steiner ,ph4,d4 7,vienna7 ,,authorised ,,translation ,,from ,,the ,,german ,,by ,,bertram ,,keightley1 ,m4,a4 7,cantab47 ,illustration3 ,printer's ,logo ,g4 ,p4 ,,putnam',s ,,sons ,,new ,,york ,,and ,,london ,the ,knickerbocker ,press #aiaa ,,copyright1 #aiaa ,,by ,,max ,,gysi ,,max ,,gysi1 ,editor1 8,adyar10 ,park ,drive1 ,london1 ,n4 ,w4 ,the ,knickerbocker ,press1 ,new ,york ,,contents ,,page ,,foreword v ,,introduction #a ,,meister ,,eckhart #eb ,,the ,,friendship ,,of ,,god #ha ,,cardinal ,,nicholas ,,of ,,cusa #acc ,,agrippa ,,von ,,nettesheim ,,and ,,theophrastus ,,paracelsus #ahb ,,valentine ,,weigel ,,and ,,jacob ,,boehme #bbc ,,giordano ,,bruno ,,and ,,angelus ,,silesius #bdf ,,afterword #bfi ,,foreword ,the matter which ,i am laying before the public in this book formed the content of lectures which ,i delivered during last winter at the ,theosophical ,library in ,berlin4 ,i had been requested by ,grfin and ,graf ,brockdorff to speak upon ,mysticism before an audience for whom the matters thus dealt with constitute a vital question of the utmost importance4 ,ten years earlier ,i could not have ventured to fulfil such a request4 ,not that the realm of ideas1 to which ,i now give expression1 did not even then live actively within me4 ,for these ideas are already fully contained in my ,philosophy of ,freedom 7,berlin1 #ahid4 ,emil ,felber74 ,but to give expression to this world of ideas in such wise as ,i do to-day1 and to make it the basis of an exposition as is done on the following pages--to do this requires something quite other than merely to be immovably convinced of the intellectual truth of these ideas4 ,it demands an intimate acquaintance with this realm of ideas1 such as only many years of life can give4 ,only now1 after having enjoyed that intimacy1 do ,i venture to speak in such wise as will be found in this book4 ,any one who does not approach my world of ideas without preconceptions is sure to discover therein contradiction after contradiction4 ,i have quite recently 7,berlin1 #aijj4 ,s4 ,cronbach7 dedicated a book upon the world conceptions of the nineteenth century to that great naturalist1 ,ernst ,haeckel1 and closed it with a defence of his thought-world4 ,in the following expositions1 ,i speak about the ,mystics1 from ,master ,eckhart to ,angelus ,silesius1 with a full measure of devotion and acquiescence4 ,other 8contradictions10 which one critic or another may further count up against me1 ,i shall not mention at all4 ,it does not surprise me to be condemned from one side as a 8,mystic0 and from the other as a 8,materialist40 ,when ,i find that the ,jesuit ,father ,mller has solved a difficult chemical problem1 and ,i therefore in this particular matter agree with him unreservedly1 one can hardly condemn me as an adherent of ,jesuitism without being reckoned a fool by those who have insight4 ,whoever goes his own road1 as ,i do1 must needs allow many a misunderstanding about himself to pass4 ,that1 however1 he can put up with easily enough4 ,for such misunderstandings are1 in the main1 inevitable in his eyes1 when he recalls the mental type of those who misjudge him4 ,i look back1 not without humorous feelings1 upon many a 8critical0 judgment that ,i have suffered in the course of my literary career4 ,at the outset1 matters went fairly well4 ,i wrote about ,goethe and his philosophy4 ,what ,i said there appeared to many to be of such a nature that they could file it in their mental pigeon-holes4 ,this they did by saying3 8,a work such as ,rudolf ,steiner's ,introduction to ,goethe's ,writings upon ,natural ,science may1 without hesitation1 be described as the best that has been written upon this question40 ,when1 later1 ,i published an independent work1 ,i had already grown a good bit more stupid4 ,for now a well meaning critic offered the advice3 8,before he goes on reforming further and gives his ,philosophy of ,freedom to the world1 he should be pressingly advised first to work himself through to an understanding of these two philosophers ,hume and ,kant40 ,the critic unfortunately knows only so much as he is himself able to read in ,kant and ,hume2 practically1 therefore1 he simply advises me to learn to see no more in these thinkers than he himself sees4 ,when ,i have attained that1 he will be satisfied with me4 ,then when my ,philosophy and ,freedom appeared1 ,i was found to be as much in need of correction as the most ignorant beginner4 ,this ,i received from a gentleman who probably nothing else impelled to the writing of books except that he had not understood innumerable foreign ones4 ,he gravely informs me that ,i should have noticed my mistakes if ,i had 8made more thorough studies in psychology1 logic1 and the theory of knowledge02 and he enumerates forthwith the books ,i ought to read to become as wise as himself3 8,mill1 ,sigwart1 ,wundt1 ,riehl1 ,paulsen1 ,b4 ,erdmann40 ,what amused me especially was this advice from a man who was so 8impressed0 with the way he 8understood0 ,kant that he could not even imagine how any man could have read ,kant and yet judge otherwise than himself4 ,he therefore indicates to me the exact chapters in question in ,kant's writings from which ,i may be able to obtain an understanding of ,kant as deep and as thorough as his own4 ,i have cited here a couple of typical criticisms of my world of ideas4 ,though in themselves unimportant1 yet they seem to me to point1 as symptoms1 to facts which present themselves to-day as serious obstacles in the path of any one aiming at literary activity in regard to the higher problems of knowledge4 ,thus ,i must go on my way1 indifferent1 whether one man gives me the good advice to read ,kant1 or another hunts me as a heretic because ,i agree with ,haeckel4 ,and so ,i have also written upon ,mysticism1 wholly indifferent as to how a faithful and believing materialist may judge of me4 ,i would only like--so that printers' ink may not be wasted wholly without need--to inform any one who may perchance advise me to read ,haeckel's ,riddle of the ,universe1 that during the last few months ,i have delivered about thirty lectures upon the said work4 ,i hope to have shown in this book that one may be a faithful adherent of the scientific conception of the world and yet be able to seek out those paths to the ,soul along which ,mysticism1 rightly understood1 leads4 ,i even go further and say3 ,only he who knows the ,spirit1 in the sense of true ,mysticism1 can attain a full understanding of the facts of ,nature4 ,but one must not confuse true ,mysticism with the 8pseudo-mysticism0 of ill-ordered minds4 ,how ,mysticism can err1 ,i have shown in my ,philosophy of ,freedom 7page #aca et seq474 ,,rudolf ,,steiner4 ,,berlin1 ,september1 #aija4 ,,introduction ,there are certain magical formul which operate throughout the centuries of ,man's mental history in ever new ways4 ,in ,greece one such formula was regarded as an oracle of ,apollo4 ,it runs3 8,know ,thyself40 ,such sentences seem to conceal within them an unending life4 ,one comes upon them when following the most diverse roads in mental life4 ,the further one advances1 the more one penetrates into the knowledge of things1 the deeper appears the significance of these formul4 ,in many a moment of our brooding and thinking1 they flash out like lightning1 illuminating our whole inner being4 ,in such moments there quickens within us a feeling as if we heard the heart-beat of the evolution of mankind4 ,how close do we not feel ourselves to personalities of the past1 when the feeling comes over us1 through one of their winged words1 that they are revealing to us that they1 too1 had had such moments6 ,we feel ourselves then brought into intimate touch with these personalities4 ,for instance1 we learn to know ,hegel intimately when1 in the third volume of his ,lectures on the ,philosophy of ,history we come across the words3 8,such stuff1 one may say1 the abstractions that we contemplate when we allow the philosophers to quarrel and battle in our study1 and make it out to be thus or so--mere verbal abstractions6 ,no6 ,no6 ,these are deeds of the world-spirit and therefore of destiny4 ,therein the ,philosophers are nearer to the ,master than are those who feed themselves with the crumbs of the spirit2 they read or write the ,cabinet ,orders in the original at once2 they are constrained to write them out along with ,him4 ,the ,philosophers are the ,myst who1 at the crisis in the inmost shrine1 were there and took part40 ,when ,hegel said this1 he had experienced one of those moments just spoken of4 ,he uttered the phrases when1 in the course of his remarks1 he had reached the close of ,greek philosophy2 and through them he showed that once1 like a gleam of lightning1 the meaning of the ,neoplatonic philosophy1 of which he was just treating1 had flashed upon him4 ,in the instant of this flash1 he had become intimate with minds like ,plotinus and ,proklus2 and we become intimate with him when we read his words4 ,we become intimate1 too1 with that solitary thinker1 the ,pastor of ,zschopau1 ,m4 ,valentin ,weigel1 when we read the opening words of his little book ,know ,thyself1 written in #aegh3 8,we read in the wise men of old the useful saying1 #8,know ,thyself1' which1 though it be right well used about worldly manners1 as thus3 #8regard well thyself1 what thou art1 seek in thine own bosom1 judge thyself and lay no blame on others1' a saying1 ,i repeat1 which1 though thus used of human life and manners1 may well and appropriately be applied by us to the natural and supernatural knowing of the whole man2 so indeed1 that man shall not only consider himself and thereby remember how he should bear himself before people1 but that he shall also know his own nature1 inner and outer1 in spirit and in ,nature2 whence he cometh and whereof he is made1 to what end he is ordained40 ,so1 from points of view peculiar to himself1 ,valentin ,weigel attained to insight which in his mind summed itself up in this oracle of ,apollo4 ,a similar path to insight and a like relation to the saying 8,know ,thyself0 may be ascribed to a series of deep-natured thinkers1 beginning with ,master ,eckhart 7#abej-acbg71 and ending with ,angelus ,silesius 7#afbd-afgg71 among whom may be found also ,valentin ,weigel himself4 ,all these thinkers have in common a strong sense of the fact that in man's knowing of himself there rises a sun which illuminates something very different from the mere accidental1 separated personality of the beholder4 ,what ,spinoza became conscious of in the ethereal heights of pure thought1--viz41 that 8the human soul possesses an adequate knowledge of the ,eternal and ,infinite ,being of ,god10--that same consciousness lived in them as immediate feeling2 and self-knowledge was to them the path leading to this ,eternal and ,infinite ,being4 ,it was clear to them that self-knowledge in its true form enriched man with a new sense1 which unlocked for him a world standing in relation to the world accessible to him without this new sense as does the world of one possessing physical sight to that of a blind man4 ,it would be difficult to find a better description of the import of this new sense than the one given by ,j4 ,g4 ,fichte in his ,berlin ,lectures 7#ahac73 8,imagine a world of men born blind1 to whom all objects and their relations are known only through the sense of touch4 ,go amongst them and speak to them of colours and other relations1 which are rendered visible only through light4 ,either you are talking to them of nothing1--and if they say this1 it is the luckier1 for thus you will soon see your mistake1 and1 if you cannot open their eyes1 cease your useless talking1--or1 for some reason or other1 they will insist upon giving some meaning or other to what you say2 then they can only interpret it in relation to what they know by touch4 ,they will seek to feel1 they will imagine they do feel light and colour1 and the other incidents of visibility1 they will invent something for themselves1 deceive themselves with something within the world of touch1 which they will call colour4 ,then they will misunderstand1 distort1 and misinterpret it40 ,the same thing applies to what the thinkers we are speaking of sought after4 ,they beheld a new sense opening in self-knowledge1 and this sense yielded1 according to their experiences1 views of things which are simply non-existent for one who does not see in self-knowledge what distinguishes it from all other kinds of knowing4 ,one in whom this new sense has not been opened1 believes that self-knowing1 or self-perception1 is the same thing as perception through the outer senses1 or through any other means acting from without4 ,he thinks3 8,knowing is knowing1 perceiving is perceiving40 ,only in the one case the object is something lying in the world outside1 in the other this object is his own soul4 ,he finds words merely1 or at best1 abstract thoughts1 in that which for those who see more deeply is the very foundation of their inner life2 namely1 in the proposition3 that in every other kind of knowing or perception we have the object perceived outside of ourselves1 while in self-knowledge or self-perception we stand within that object2 that we see every other object coming to us already complete and finished off1 while in ourselves we1 as actors and creators1 are weaving that which we observe within us4 ,this may appear to be nothing but a merely verbal explanation1 perhaps even a triviality2 it may appear1 on the other hand1 as a higher light which illuminates every other cognition4 ,one to whom it appears in the first way1 is in the position of a blind man1 to whom one says3 there is a glittering object4 ,he hears the words1 but for him the glitter is not there4 ,he might unite in himself the whole sum of knowledge of his time2 but if he does not feel and realise the significance of self-knowledge1 then it is all1 in the higher sense1 a blind knowledge4 ,the world1 outside of and independent of us1 exists for us by communicating itself to our consciousness4 ,what is thus made known must needs be expressed in the language peculiar to ourselves4 ,a book1 the contents of which were offered in a language unknown to us1 would for us be without meaning4 ,similarly1 the world would be meaningless for us did it not speak to us in our own tongue2 and the same language which reaches us from things1 we also hear from within ourselves4 ,but in that case1 it is we ourselves who speak4 ,the really important point is that we should correctly apprehend the transposition which occurs when we close our perception against external things and listen only to that which then speaks from within4 ,but to do this needs this new sense4 ,if it has not been awakened1 we believe that in what is thus told us about ourselves we are hearing only about something external to us2 we fancy that somewhere there is hidden something which is speaking to us in the same way as external things speak4 ,but if we possess this new sense1 then we know that these perceptions differ essentially from those relating to external things4 ,then we realise that this new sense does not leave what it perceives outside of itself1 as the eye leaves the object it sees2 but that it can take up its object wholly into itself1 leaving no remainder4 ,if ,i see a thing1 that thing remains outside of me2 if ,i perceive myself1 then ,i myself enter into my perception4 ,whoever seeks for something more of himself than what is perceived1 shows thereby that for him the real content in the perception has not come to light4 ,johannes ,tauler 7#acjj-acfa71 has expressed this truth in the apt words3 8,if ,i were a king and knew it not1 then should ,i be no king4 ,if ,i do not shine forth for myself in my own self-perception1 then for myself ,i do not exist4 ,but if for myself ,i do shine out1 then ,i possess myself also in my perception1 in my own most deeply original being4 ,there remains no residue of myself left outside of my perception40 ,j4 ,g4 ,fichte1 in the following words1 vigorously points to the difference between self-perception and every other kind of perception3 8,the majority of men could be more easily brought to believe themselves a lump of lava in the moon than an #8ego4' ,whoever is not at one with himself as to this1 understands no thorough-going philosophy and has need of none4 ,nature1 whose machine he is1 will guide him in all the things he has to do without any sort of added help from him4 ,for philosophising1 self-reliance is needed1 and this one can only give to oneself4 ,we ought not to want to see without the eye2 but also we ought not to maintain that it is the eye which sees40 ,thus the perception of oneself is also the awakening of oneself4 ,in our cognition we combine the being of things with our own being4 ,the communications1 which things make to us in our own language1 become members of our own selves4 ,an object in front of me is not separated from me1 once ,i have known it4 ,what ,i am able to receive from it becomes part and parcel of my own being4 ,if1 now1 ,i awaken my own self1 if ,i become aware of the content of my own inner being1 then ,i also awaken to a higher mode of being1 that which from without ,i have made part of my own being4 ,the light that falls upon me at my awakening falls also upon whatever ,i have made my own from the things of the outside world4 ,a light springs up within me and illumines me1 and with me all that ,i have cognised of the world4 ,whatever ,i might know would remain blind knowledge1 did not this light fall upon it4 ,i might search the world through and through with my perception2 still the world would not be that which in me it must become1 unless that perception were awakened in me to a higher mode of being4 ,that which ,i add to things through this awakening is not a new idea1 is not an enrichment of the content of my knowing2 it is an uplifting of the knowledge1 of the cognition1 to a higher level1 where everything is suffused with a new glory4 ,so long as ,i do not raise my consciousness to this level1 all knowledge continues to be for me1 in the higher sense1 valueless4 ,the things are there without my presence4 ,they have their being in themselves4 ,what possible meaning could there be in my linking with their being1 which they have outside and apart from me1 another spiritual existence in addition1 which repeats the things over again within me8 ,if only a mere repetition of things were involved1 it would be senseless to carry it out4 ,but1 really1 a mere repetition is only involved so long as ,i have not awakened1 along with my own self1 the mental content of these things upon a higher level4 ,when this occurs1 then ,i have not merely repeated within myself the being of things1 but ,i have brought it to a new birth on a higher level4 ,with the awakening of my self1 there is accomplished a spiritual re-birth of the things of the world4 ,what the things reveal in this re-birth did not previously belong to them4 ,there1 without1 stands the tree4 ,i take it up into my consciousness4 ,i throw my inner light upon that which ,i have thus conceived4 ,the tree becomes in me more than it is outside4 ,that in it which finds entrance through the gate of the senses is taken up into a conscious content4 ,an ideal replica of the tree is within me1 and that has infinitely more to say about the tree than what the tree itself1 outside1 can tell me4 ,then1 for the first time there shines out from within me1 towards the tree1 what the tree is4 ,the tree is now no longer the isolated being that it is out there in space4 ,it becomes a link in the entire conscious world that lives in me4 ,it links its content with other ideas that are in me4 ,it becomes a member of the whole world of ideas that embraces the vegetable kingdom2 it takes its place1 further1 in the series of all that lives4 ,another example3 ,i throw a stone in a horizontal direction away from me4 ,it moves in a curved line and after some time falls to the ground4 ,i see it in successive moments of time in different places4 ,through observation and reflection ,i acquire the following3 ,during its motion the stone is subject to different influences4 ,if it were subject only to the influence of the impulse which ,i imparted to it1 it would go on flying for ever in a straight line1 without altering its velocity4 ,but now the earth exerts an influence upon it4 ,it attracts the stone towards itself4 ,if1 instead of throwing the stone1 ,i had simply let it go1 it would have fallen vertically to earth2 and its velocity in doing so would have constantly increased4 ,from the mutual interaction of these two influences arises that which ,i actually see4 ,let us assume that ,i could not in thought separate the two influences1 and from this orderly combination put together again in thought what ,i see3 in that case1 the matter would end with the actual happening4 ,it would be mentally a blind staring at what happened2 a perception of the successive positions which the stone occupies4 ,but in actual fact1 matters do not stop there4 ,the whole occurrence takes place twice4 ,once outside1 and then my eye sees it2 then my mind causes the whole happening to repeat itself again1 in a mental or conscious manner4 ,my inner sense must be directed upon the mental occurrence1 which my eye does not see1 and then it becomes clear to that sense that ,i1 by my own inner power1 awaken that occurrence as a mental one4 ,again1 another sentence of ,j4 ,g4 ,fichte's may be quoted which brings this fact clearly before the mind4 8,thus the new sense is the sense for the spirit2 that for which there exists only spirit and absolutely nothing else1 and for which also the #8other1' the given being1 assumes the form of spirit and transforms itself into spirit1 for which therefore being in its own proper form has actually disappeared4444 ,there has been the faculty of seeing with this sense ever since men have existed1 and all that is great and excellent in the world1 which alone upholds humanity1 originates in what has been seen by means of this sense4 ,it is1 however1 not the case that this sense has been perceived or known in its difference and its contrast with that other1 ordinary sense4 ,the impressions of the two senses melted into one another1 life fell apart into these two halves without a bond of union40 ,the bond of union is created by the fact that the inner sense grasps in its spirituality the spiritual element which it awakens in its intercourse with the outer world4 ,that which we take up into our consciousness from outside things thereby ceases to appear as a mere meaningless repetition4 ,it appears as something new over against that which only external perception can give4 ,the simple occurrence of throwing the stone1 and my perception thereof1 appear in a higher light when ,i make clear to myself the kind of task which my inner sense has to perform in regard to the whole thing4 ,in order to fit together in thought the two influences and their modes of action1 an amount of mental content is needed which ,i must already have acquired when ,i cognise the flying stone4 ,i therefore apply a spiritual content already stored up within me to something that confronts me in the external world4 ,and this occurrence in the external world fits itself into the spiritual content already present4 ,it reveals itself in its own special individuality as an expression of this content4 ,through the understanding of my inner sense1 there is thus disclosed to me the nature of the relation that obtains between the content of this sense and the things of the external world4 ,fichte would say that without the understanding of this sense1 the world falls apart for me into two halves3 into things outside of me1 and into pictures of these things within me4 ,the two halves become united when the inner self understands itself and consequently recognises clearly what sort of illumination it throws upon things in the cognitive process4 ,and ,fichte could also venture to say that this inner sense sees only ,spirit4 ,for it perceives how the ,spirit enlightens the sense-world by making it part and parcel of the spiritual world4 ,the inner sense causes the outer sense-world to arise within itself as a spiritual being on a higher level4 ,an external object is completely known when there is no part of it which has not thus undergone a spiritual re-birth4 ,thus every external object fits itself into a spiritual content1 which1 when it has been grasped by the inner sense1 shares the destiny of self-knowledge4 ,the spiritual content1 which belongs to an object through its illumination from within1 merges itself wholly1 like the very self1 into the world of ideas1 leaving no remainder behind4 ,these developments contain nothing which is susceptible or even in need of logical proof4 ,they are nothing but the results of inner experience4 ,whoever calls into question this content1 shows only that he is lacking in this inner experience4 ,it is impossible to dispute with him2 as little could one discuss colour with a blind man4 ,it must not1 however1 be contended that this inner experience is made possible only through the special endowment of a few chosen people4 ,it is a common property4 ,every one can enter upon the path to this experience who does not of his own will shut himself against it4 ,this closing up of oneself against it1 is1 however1 common enough4 ,and in dealing with objections raised in this direction1 one always has the feeling that it is not so much a matter of people being unable to attain this inner experience1 as of their having hopelessly blocked the entrance to it with all kinds of logical spiders' webs4 ,it is almost as if some one looking through a telescope and discovering a new planet should yet deny its existence because his calculations have shown that there can be no planet in that position4 ,but with all this there is still in most people the clearly marked feeling that all that really lies in the being of things cannot be completely given in what the outer senses and the analysing understanding can cognise4 ,they then believe that the remainder so left over must be just as much in the external world as are the things of our perceptions themselves4 ,they think that there must be something which remains unknown to cognition4 ,what they ought to attain by again perceiving with the inner sense1 on a higher plane1 the very object which they have already cognised and grasped with the understanding1--this they transfer as something inaccessible and unknown into the external world4 ,then they talk of the limits of knowledge which prevent our reaching the 8thing-in-itself40 ,they talk of the unknown 8being0 of things4 ,that this very 8being0 of things shines out when the inner sense lets its light fall upon the things1 is what they will not recognise4 ,the famous 8,ignorabimus0 speech of the scientist1 ,du ,bois-,reymond1 in the year #ahgf1 furnished a particularly blatant example of this error4 ,we are supposed to be able to get in every direction only so far as to be able to see in all natural processes the manifestations of 8matter40 ,what 8matter0 itself is1 we are supposed to be unable to know4 ,du ,bois-,reymond contends that we shall never succeed in penetrating to wherever it is that 8matter0 leads its ghostly life in space4 ,the reason why we cannot get there lies1 however1 in the fact that there is nothing whatsoever to be looked for there4 ,whoever speaks like ,du ,bois-,reymond must have a feeling that the knowledge of ,nature yields results which point to a something further and other which ,nature-knowledge itself cannot give4 ,but he refuses to follow the road1--the road of inner experience1 which leads to this other4 ,therefore he stands at a complete loss before the question of 8matter0 as before a dark riddle4 ,in him who treads the path of inner experience1 objects attain to a new birth2 and that in them which remains unknown to outer experience then shines forth4 ,in such wise the inner being of man obtains light not only as regards itself but also as regards external things4 ,from this point of view an endless perspective opens out before man's knowledge4 ,within him shines a light whose illumination is not restricted to that which is within him4 ,it is a sun which lights up all reality at once4 ,something makes its appearance in us which links us with the whole world4 ,no longer are we simply isolated1 chance human beings1 no longer this or that individual4 ,the entire world reveals itself in us4 ,it unveils to us its own coherence2 and it unveils to us how we ourselves as individuals are bound up with it4 ,from out of self-knowledge is born knowledge of the world4 ,and our own limited individuality merges itself spiritually into the great interconnected world-whole1 because in us something has come to life that reaches out beyond this individuality1 that embraces along with it everything of which this individuality forms a part4 ,thinking which does not block up its own road to inner experience with logical preconceptions always comes1 in the long run1 to a recognition of the entity that rules in us and connects us with the entire world1 because through this entity we overcome the opposition of 8inner0 and 8outer0 in regard to man4 ,paul ,asmus1 the keen-sighted philosopher1 who died young1 expressed himself as follows about this position 7cp4 his book ,das ,ich und das ,ding an ,sich1 p4 #ad et seq473--8,let us make it clear by an example3 imagine a piece of sugar2 it is square1 sweet1 impenetrable1 etc41 etc41 these are one and all qualities which we understand2 one thing1 however1 hovers before us as something totally different1 that we do not understand1 that is so different from ourselves that we cannot penetrate into it without losing ourselves2 from the mere surface of which thought starts back afraid4 ,this one thing is the unknown bearer of all these qualities2 the thing-in-itself1 which constitutes the inmost self of the object4 ,thus ,hegel rightly says that the entire content of our perception is related as mere accident to this obscure subject1 while we1 without penetrating into its depths1 merely attach determinations to what it is in itself1--which ultimately1 since we do not know the thing itself1 remain merely subjective and have no objective value4 ,conceptual thought1 on the other hand1 has no such unknowable subject1 whose determinations might be mere accidents1 but the objective subject falls within the concept4 ,if ,i cognise anything1 then it is present in its entire fulness in my conception2 ,i am at home in the inmost shrine of its being1 not because it has no proper being-in-itself of its own1 but because it compels me to re-think its concept1 in virtue of that necessity of the concept which hovers over us both and appears subjectively in me and objectively in the concept itself4 ,through this re-thinking there reveals itself to us at the same time1 as ,hegel says1--just as this is our own subjective activity--the true nature of the object40 ,so can speak only a man who is able to illuminate the life of thought with the light of inner experience4 ,in my ,philosophy of ,freedom 7,berlin1 #ahid1 ,verlag ,emil ,felber71 starting from other points of view1 ,i have also pointed out the root-fact of the inner life 7p4 #df73 8,it is therefore unquestionable3 in our thinking we hold the world-process by one corner1 where we must be present1 if it is to come about at all4 ,and that is just the very thing we are here concerned with4 ,that is just the reason why things seem to confront me so mysteriously3 that ,i am so without any share in their coming into existence4 ,i simply find them there2 in thinking1 however1 ,i know how it is done4 ,hence one can find no more original starting point for a consideration of the world-process than that of thought40 ,for one who looks thus upon the inner life of man1 it is also obvious what is the meaning of human cognition within the whole world-process4 ,it is not a mere empty accompaniment to the rest of the world happenings4 ,it would be such if it represented merely an ideal repetition of what is outwardly present4 ,but in cognition something is accomplished which accomplishes itself nowhere in the outer world3 the world-process sets before itself its own spiritual being4 ,the world-process would be to all eternity a mere half-thing1 if it did not attain to this confrontation4 ,therewithal man's inner experience finds its place in the objective world-process2 and without it that process would be incomplete4 ,it is apparent that only the life which is ruled by the inner sense1 man's highest spiritual life in its most proper sense1--it is this life only which can thus raise man above himself4 ,for only in this life does the being of things unveil itself before itself4 ,the matter lies quite differently in regard to the lower perceptive power4 ,for instance1 the eye which meditates the seeing of an object is the theatre of a process which1 in contrast to the inner life1 is exactly like any other external process4 ,my organs are members of the spacial world like other things1 and their perceptions are processes in time like any others4 ,further1 their being only appears when they are sunk into the inner life4 ,i thus live a double life2 the life of an object among other objects1 which lives within its own embodiment and perceives through its organs what lies outside this embodiment2 and above this life a higher life1 that knows no such inside and outside1 that extends1 stretching and bridging over both the outside world and itself4 ,i shall therefore be forced to say3 at one time ,i am an individual1 a limited 8self02 at another time ,i am a general1 universal 8,self40 ,this1 too1 ,paul ,asmus has expressed in excellent words 7cp4 his book3 ,die indogermanischen ,religionen in den ,hauptpunkten ihrer ,entwickelung1 p4 #bi of ,vol4 ,i473 8,the activity of merging ourselves in something else1 is what we call #8thinking'2 in thinking1 the ego has fulfilled its concept1 it has given itself up as a single thing2 therefore1 in thinking do we find ourselves in a sphere which is alike for all1 for the principle of separateness which is involved in the relation of our #8self' to that which is other than itself has vanished in the activity of the self-cancelling of the single #8self1' and there remains then only the #8,self-hood' common to all40 ,spinoza has exactly the same thing in view when he describes1 as the highest activity of knowing1 that which 8advances from an adequate conception of the real nature of some of the attributes of ,god to an adequate knowledge of the nature of things40 ,this advancing is no other than the illumination of things with the light of inner experience4 ,spinoza describes in glowing colours the life in this inner experience3 8,the highest virtue of the soul is to know ,god1 or to obtain insight into things in the third--the highest--mode of knowing4 ,this virtue is the greater1 the more the soul knows things by this method of knowing2 thus he who can grasp things in this mode of knowing attains the highest human perfection and consequently becomes filled with the highest joy1 accompanied1 moreover1 by the conceptions of himself and of virtue4 ,thus there arises from this mode of knowing the highest peace of soul that is possible40 ,he who knows things in this way1 transforms himself within himself2 for his single separated 8self0 becomes at such moments absorbed by the universal 8,self02 all beings appear not to a single limited individual in subordinated importance1 they appear to 8themselves40 ,on this level there remains no difference between ,plato and me2 what separated us belongs to a lower level of cognition4 ,we are separated only as individuals2 the individual which works within us is one and the same4 ,but about this fact it is impossible to argue with one who has no experience of it4 ,he will everlastingly emphasise3 ,plato and you are two4 ,that this duality1 that all multiplicity1 is reborn as unity in the outbursting life of the highest level of knowledge3 that cannot be proved1 that must be experienced4 ,paradoxical as it may sound1 it is the truth3 the idea which ,plato conceived and the like idea which ,i conceive are not two ideas4 ,it is one and the same idea4 ,and there are not two ideas3 one in ,plato's head and one in mine2 but in the higher sense ,plato's head and mine interpenetrate each other2 all heads interpenetrate which grasp one and the same idea2 and this idea is only once there as a single idea4 ,it is there2 and the heads all go to one and the same place in order to have this idea in them4 ,the transformation that is brought about in the whole being of man when he learns to see things thus1 is indicated in beautiful words by the ,hindu poem1 the ,bhagavad-,gt1 about which ,wilhelm von ,humboldt said that he was thankful to the fate which had allowed him to live long enough to become acquainted with this work4 ,in this poem1 the inner light declares3 8,an eternal ray from myself1 having attained a distinct existence in the world of personal life1 draws around itself the five senses and the individual soul1 which belong to nature4 ,when the spirit1 shining from above1 embodies itself in space and time1 or when it quits embodiment1 it seizes upon things and carries them away with it1 as the zephyr seizes the perfumes of the flowers and bears them away with it4 ,the inner light rules the ear1 touch1 taste and smell1 as also the emotions3 it knits together the link between itself and the objects of the senses4 ,the ignorant know not when the inner light shines forth or is extinguished1 nor when it is married to objects2 only he who partakes of the inner light can know thereof40 ,so strongly does the ,bhagavad-,gt insist upon the transformation of the man1 that it says of the wise man that he can no longer err1 no longer sin4 ,if1 apparently1 he errs or sins1 then he must illuminate his thoughts or his actions with a light wherein that no longer appears as error or as sin which to the ordinary consciousness appears as such4 8,he who has raised himself and whose knowledge is of the purest kind1 he kills not1 nor does he stain himself1 even though he should have slain another40 ,this points only to the same basic mood of the soul flowing from the highest knowledge1 of which ,spinoza1 after having described it in his ,ethics1 breaks out into the passionate words3 8,here is concluded that which ,i aimed to bring forward in regard to the power of the soul over its affections or in regard to the freedom of the soul4 ,hence it is clear how very greatly the wise man is superior to the ignorant1 and how much more powerful than he who is ruled only by his lusts4 ,for the ignorant is not merely driven hither and thither by external causes in many ways and never attains to the true peace of soul1 but he also lives in ignorance of himself1 of ,god and of things1 and when his suffering ceases1 his existence ceases also2 while on the other hand1 the wise man1 as such1 feels hardly any disturbance in his spirit and ever enjoys the true peace of the soul4 ,even if the road which ,i have outlined as leading thereto appears very difficult1 still it can be found4 ,and well may it be difficult1 because it is so seldom found4 ,for how could it be possible1 if salvation lay close at hand and could be found without great trouble1 that it should be neglected by almost all8 ,yet all that is noble is as difficult as it is rare40 ,goethe has indicated in monumental form the point of view of the highest knowledge in the words3 8,if ,i know my relation to myself and to the outer world1 ,i call it truth4 ,and thus every one can have his own truth1 and yet it is always one and the same40 ,each has his own truth3 because each is an individual1 separate being1 beside and along with others4 ,these other beings act upon him through his organs4 ,from the individual standpoint at which he is placed1 and according to the constitution of his power of perception1 he builds up his own truth for himself in intercourse with the things around him4 ,he acquires his relation to things4 ,if1 then1 he enters into self-knowledge1 if he learns to know his relation to himself1 then his special separate truth is merged in the universal ,truth2 and this universal ,truth is in all the same4 ,the understanding of the raising of the individual1 of the single self1 into the ,universal ,self in the personality1 is regarded by deeper natures as the secret which reveals itself in the inmost heart of man as the root-mystery of life4 ,and ,goethe has found an apt expression for this3 8,and so long as thou hast not that1 this3 ,die and ,become6 ,then thou art but a melancholy guest upon this dark earth40 ,not a mere repetition in thought1 but a real part of the world-process1 is that which goes on in man's inner life4 ,the world would not be what it is if the factor belonging thereto in the human soul did not play its part4 ,and if one calls the highest which is attainable by man the ,divine1 then one must say that this ,divine is not present as something external1 to be repeated pictorially in the human mind1 but that this ,divine is awakened in man4 ,angelus ,silesius has found the right words for this3 8,i know that without me ,god can live no instant2 if ,i become nothing1 ,he must of necessity give up the ghost40 8,without me ,god may make no single smallest worm3 if ,i do not sustain it with ,him1 then it must straightway perish40 ,only he can make such an assertion who presupposes that in man something comes to light1 without which external being cannot exist4 ,if everything pertaining to the 8worm0 were there present without man1 then one could not possibly say that it must perish if man did not sustain it4 ,the innermost kernel of the world comes to life as spiritual content in self-knowledge4 ,the experience of self-knowledge means for man working and weaving within the kernel of the world4 ,he who is permeated with self-knowledge naturally carries out his own action in the light of self-knowledge4 ,human action is--in general--determined by motives4 ,robert ,hamerling1 the poet-philosopher1 has rightly said 7,atomistik des ,willens1 p4 #bac73 8,a man can indeed do what he wills--but he cannot will whatever he pleases1 because his will is determined by motives4 ,he cannot will whatever he pleases8 ,look again at these words more closely4 ,is there any sensible meaning in them8 ,freedom of the will ought then to consist in being able to will something without reason1 without motive4 ,but what does willing mean other than the #8having a reason' for preferring to do or endeavour to attain this1 rather than that8 ,to will something without reason1 without motive1 would mean to will something #8without willing it4' ,the concept of motive is inseparably bound up with that of willing4 ,without a definite motive the will is an empty potentiality3 only through a motive does it become active and real4 ,it is therefore quite correct that man's will is in so far not free as its direction is always determined by the strongest motive40 ,for all action that is not accomplished in the light of self-knowledge1 the motive1 the reason for action1 must needs be felt as a constraint4 ,but the matter is otherwise when the reason or motive is taken up into self-knowledge4 ,then this reason becomes a part of the self4 ,the willing is no longer determined2 it determines itself4 ,the law-abidingness1 the motives of willing1 now no longer rule over the one who wills1 but are one and the same with this willing4 ,to illuminate the laws of one's action with the light of self-observation means to overcome all constraint of motive4 ,by so doing1 will transfers itself into the realm of freedom4 ,it is not all human action which bears the marks of freedom4 ,only such action is free action which in its every part is lighted up with the glow of self-observation4 ,and because self-observation raises the individual self up to the ,universal ,self1 therefore free action is that which flows from the ,universal ,self4 ,the old controversy whether man's will is free or subject to a universal law1 to an unalterable necessity1 is a problem wrongly stated4 ,all action is bound which is done by a man as an individual2 all action free which is accomplished after his spiritual re-birth4 ,man1 therefore1 is not1 in general1 either free or bound4 ,he is both the one and the other4 ,he is bound before his re-birth2 and he can become free through this re-birth4 ,the individual upward development of man consists in the transformation of unfree willing into will possessing the character of freedom4 ,the man who has realised the law-abidingness of his action as his own1 has overcome the constraint of this law-abidingness and therewith of un-freedom4 ,freedom is not from the outset a fact of human existence1 but a goal thereof4 ,with the attainment of free action1 man resolves a contradiction between the world and himself4 ,his own deeds become deeds of universal being4 ,he feels himself in the fullest harmony with this universal being4 ,he feels every discord between himself and another as the outcome of a not yet fully awakened self4 ,but such is the fate of the self1 that only in its separation from the whole can it find its contact with this whole4 ,man would not be man if he were not shut off as an individual self from everything else2 but also he is not man in the highest sense if he does not1 as such a shut-off and isolated self1 widen himself out again into the ,universal ,self4 ,it belongs through and through to the nature of man that it should overcome an inherent contradiction which has lain therein from the beginning4 ,any one who regards spirit as1 in the main1 logical understanding1 may well feel his blood run cold at the idea that objects should be supposed to undergo their re-birth in spirit4 ,he will compare the fresh1 living flower1 outside there in its fulness of colour1 with the cold1 faded1 schematic thought of the flower4 ,he will feel himself particularly ill at ease with the conception that the man who draws his motives from the solitude of his own self-consciousness is more free than the original1 nave personality which acts from its immediate impulses1 from the fulness of its own nature4 ,to one who sees only one-sided logic1 another man who sinks himself into his own inner being will appear like a mere walking scheme of concepts1 like a mere ghost in contrast with the man who remains in his own natural individuality4 ,such objections to the re-birth of things in spirit are especially to be heard from those whose power of perception fails in the presence of things with a purely spiritual content2 although they are well provided with healthy organs of sense-perception and with impulses and passions full of life4 ,as soon as they are called upon to perceive the purely spiritual1 the power to do so fails them2 they can deal only with mere conceptual husks1 when even they are not limited to empty words4 ,they remain1 therefore1 in what concerns spiritual content1 men of 8dry1 abstract understanding40 ,but the man who in things purely spiritual possesses a gift of perception like that in things of the senses1 finds life assuredly not the poorer when he has enriched it with its spiritual content4 ,if ,i look out upon a flower1 why should its rich colours lose aught whatever of their freshness1 because not only does my eye see the colours1 but my inner sense also perceives the spiritual being of the flower8 ,why should the life of my personality become poorer1 because ,i do not follow my passions and impulses in spiritual blindness1 but illuminate them throughout with the light of higher knowledge8 ,not poorer1 but fuller1 richer1 is that life which is given back again in the spirit4 ,,meister ,,eckhart ,the world of ,meister ,eckhart's conceptions is aglow through and through with the feeling that things become reborn as higher entities in the spirit of man4 ,like the greatest ,christian theologian of the ,middle ,ages1 ,st4 ,thomas ,aquinas1 who lived from #abbe till #abgd1 ,meister ,eckhart belonged to the ,dominican ,order4 ,eckhart was an unqualified admirer of ,st4 ,thomas2 and this will seem the more intelligible when we fix our gaze upon ,eckhart's whole manner of conceiving things4 ,he believed himself to be as completely in harmony with the teachings of the ,christian ,church as he assumed a like agreement on the part of ,st4 ,thomas4 ,eckhart had neither the desire to take aught away from the content of ,christianity1 nor the wish to add anything to it2 but he desired to bring forward this content anew in his own way4 ,it forms no part of the spiritual needs of a personality such as he was to set up new truths of this or the other kind in the place of old ones4 ,such a personality has grown completely intertwined with the content which it has received from tradition2 but it craves to give to this content a new form1 a new life4 ,eckhart desired1 without doubt1 to remain an orthodox ,christian4 ,the ,christian truths were his own2 only he desired to regard these truths in another way from that1 for instance1 in which ,st4 ,thomas ,aquinas had done4 ,st4 ,thomas accepted two sources of knowledge3 ,revelation1 in matters of faith1 and ,reason1 in those of research4 ,reason recognises the laws of things1 that is1 the spiritual in nature4 ,reason can raise itself above nature and grasp in the spirit from one side the ,divine ,being underlying nature4 ,but it does not attain in this way to merging itself in the full being of ,god4 ,a still higher truth-content must come to meet it4 ,that is given in the ,holy ,scripture1 which reveals what man cannot attain to through himself4 ,the truth-content of the ,scripture must be accepted by man2 ,reason can defend it1 ,reason can seek to understand it as well as possible through its powers of knowing2 but never can ,reason engender that truth from within the spirit of man4 ,not what the spirit perceives is the highest truth1 but what has come to this spirit from without4 ,st4 ,augustine declares himself unable to find within himself the source for that which he should believe4 ,he says3 8,i would not believe in the ,gospel1 did not the authority of the ,catholic ,church move me thereto40 ,that is in the same spirit as the ,evangelist1 who points to the external testimony3 8,that 444 which we have heard1 which we have seen with our eyes1 which we have looked upon1 and our hands have handled1 of the ,word of ,life2 444 that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you1 that ye also may have fellowship with us40 ,but ,meister ,eckhart would rather impress upon man the words of ,christ3 8,it is expedient for you that ,i go away3 for if ,i go not away1 the ,comforter will not come unto you02 and he explains these words by saying3 8,just as if he had said3 ,ye have set too much joy upon my present appearance1 therefore the full joy of the ,holy ,ghost cannot come to you40 ,eckhart thinks that he is speaking of no ,god other than that ,god of whom ,augustine1 and the ,evangelist1 and ,thomas1 speak1 and yet this testimony as to ,god is not his testimony1 their witness is not his4 8,some people want to see ,god with the same eyes they see a cow withal1 and want to love ,god as they would love a cow4 ,so they love ,god for the sake of outer riches and inner comfort2 but such folk do not rightly love ,god4444 ,simple folk fancy they should behold ,god as though ,he stood there and they here4 ,but it is not so4 ,god and ,i are one in the act of knowing 7im ,erkennen740 ,what underlies such expressions in ,eckhart's mouth is nothing else than the experience of the inner sense2 and this experience shows him things in a higher light4 ,he therefore believes himself to have no need of an external light in order to attain to the highest insight3 8,a ,master says3 ,god became man1 whereby the whole human race is uplifted and made worthy4 ,thereof may we be glad that ,christ our brother of ,his own strength rose above all the choirs of angels and sitteth at the right hand of the ,father4 ,that ,master spake well2 but1 in truth1 ,i would give little for it4 ,what would it help me1 had ,i a brother who was a rich man1 and ,i therewithal a poor man8 ,what would it help me1 had ,i a brother who was a wise man1 and ,i were a fool8444 ,the ,heavenly ,father begetteth ,his ,only-,begotten ,son in ,himself and in me4 ,wherefore in ,himself and in me8 ,i am one with ,him2 and ,he has no power to shut me out4 ,in the self-same work1 the ,holy ,ghost receives its being and proceeds from me1 as from ,god4 ,wherefore8 ,i am in ,god1 and if the ,holy ,ghost takes not its being from me1 neither does it take it from ,god4 ,in no wise am ,i shut out40 ,when ,eckhart recalls the saying of ,st4 ,paul3 8,put ye on ,jesus ,christ10 he means to imply in this saying the meaning3 ,sink yourselves into yourselves1 dive down into self-contemplation3 and from out the depths of your being1 ,god will shine forth to meet you2 ,he illumines all things for you2 you have found ,him within you2 you have become united with ,god's ,being4 8,god became man1 that ,i might become ,god40 ,in his booklet upon ,loneliness1 ,eckhart expresses himself as follows upon the relation of the outer perception to the inner3 8,here thou must know that the ,masters say that in every man there are two kinds of man3 the one is called the outer man1 and yet he acts through the power of the soul4 ,the other man is called the inner man1 that is1 that which is within the man4 ,now thou must know that every man who loveth ,god maketh no more use of the powers of the soul in the outer man than so far as the five senses absolutely require2 and that which is within turns not itself to the five senses1 save in so far as it is the guide and conductor of the five senses1 and shepherds them1 so that they follow not after their craving to bestiality40 ,one who speaks in such wise of the inner man can no longer direct his gaze upon a ,being of things lying outside himself2 for he sees clearly that from no kind or species of the outer world can this ,being come to him4 ,an objector might urge3 ,what can it matter to the things of the outer world1 what you add to them out of your own mind8 ,do but rely upon your own senses4 ,they alone give you information of the outer world4 ,do not adulterate1 by a mental addition1 what your senses give you in purity1 without admixture1 as the image of the outer world4 ,your eye tells you what colour is2 what your mind knows about colour1 of that there is nothing whatever in colour itself4 ,to this1 from ,meister ,eckhart's standpoint1 the answer would have to be3 ,the senses are a physical apparatus2 therefore what they have to tell us about objects can concern only that which is physical in the objects4 ,and this physical factor in the objects communicates itself to me in such wise that in myself a physical process is set going4 ,colour1 as a physical process of the outer world1 sets up a physical process in my eye and brain4 ,thereby ,i perceive colour4 ,but in this manner ,i can perceive of colour only so much as is physical1 sensuous4 ,sense-perception cuts out everything non-sensuous from objects4 ,objects are thus by sense-perception stripped of everything about them which is non-sensuous4 ,if ,i then advance to the spiritual1 the ideal content1 ,i in fact only reinstate in the objects what sense-perception has shut out therefrom4 ,thus sense-perception does not exhibit to me the deepest ,being of objects1 it rather separates me from that being4 ,but the spiritual1 the ideal conception1 seizing upon them again1 unites me with that being4 ,it shows me that objects are inwardly of exactly the same spiritual 7geistigen7 nature as ,i myself4 ,the barrier between myself and the outer world falls through this spiritual conception of things4 ,i am separated from the external world in so far as ,i am a thing of the senses among other things of the senses4 ,colour and my eye are two different entities4 ,my brain and a plant are two different things4 ,but the ideal content of the plant and of colour belong together with the ideal content of my brain and eye alike to a single ideal entity4 ,this way of looking at things must not be confused with the very widespread anthropomorphising conception of the world1 which imagines that it grasps the objects of the outer world by ascribing to them qualities of a physical nature1 which are supposed to resemble the qualities of the human soul4 ,this view asserts3 ,when we meet another human being1 we perceive in him only sensuous characteristics4 ,i cannot see into my fellow-man's inner life4 ,i infer from what ,i see and hear of him1 his inner life1 his soul4 ,thus the soul is never anything which ,i can directly perceive2 ,i perceive a soul only within myself4 ,my thoughts1 my imaginations1 my feelings1 no man sees4 ,now just as ,i have such an inner life1 alongside of the life which can be outwardly perceived1 so1 too1 all other beings must have such an inner life4 ,thus concludes one who occupies the standpoint of the anthropomorphising conception of the world4 ,what ,i perceive externally in the plant1 must equally be the outer side of something inward1 of a soul1 which ,i must add in my imagination to what ,i actually perceive4 ,and since for me there exists but one single inner world1 namely1 my own1 therefore ,i can conceive of the inner world of other beings only as resembling my own inner world4 ,along this line of argument one comes to a sort of universal ensouling of all nature 7,pan-psychism74 ,this view depends1 however1 on a failure to recognise what the awakened inner sense really gives us4 ,the spiritual 7geistig7 content of an external object1 which reveals itself to me in my inner self1 is not anything added in or by thought to the outer perception4 ,it is just as little this as is the spirit of another man4 ,i perceive this spiritual content through the inner sense just in the same way as ,i perceive its physical content through the external senses4 ,and what ,i call my inner life in the above sense 7i4e41 thoughts1 feelings1 etc471 is not at all in the higher sense1 my spirit 7,geist74 ,this so-called inner life is only the outcome of purely sensuous processes1 and belongs to me only as a purely individual personality1 which is nothing more than the result of its physical organisation4 ,if ,i transfer this inner life to outer things1 ,i am1 as a matter of fact1 thinking in the air4 ,my personal soul-life1 my thoughts1 memories1 and feelings1 are in me1 because ,i am a nature-being organised in such and such a way1 with a perfectly definite sense-apparatus1 with a perfectly definite nervous system4 ,i have no right to transfer this my human soul to other things4 ,i should only be entitled to do so if ,i happened to find anywhere a similarly organised nervous system4 ,but my individual soul is not the highest spiritual element in me4 ,this highest spiritual element must first be awakened through the inner sense2 and this awakened spiritual element in me is also one and the same with the spiritual element in all things4 ,the plant appears immediately in its own proper spirituality to this spiritual element1--,i have no need to endow it with a spirituality like unto my own4 ,all talk about the unknown 8thing-in-itself0 loses any kind of meaning with this conception of the world2 for it is just that very 8thing-in-itself0 which reveals itself to the inner sense4 ,all such talk originates simply in the fact that those who talk thus are unable to recognise in the spiritual contents of their own inner being the 8things-in-themselves40 ,they think that they know in their own inner selves mere shadows and schemes without being1--8mere concepts and ideas0 of things4 ,but as they still have a sort of premonition of the 8thing-in-itself10 they therefore believe that this 8thing-in-itself0 is concealing itself1 and that there are limits set to man's power of knowing4 ,one cannot prove to such as are entangled in this belief1 that they must grasp the 8thing-in-itself0 in their own inner being1 for even if one were to put it before them1 they would still never recognise or admit this 8thing-in-itself40 ,but it is just this recognition with which we are concerned4 ,all that ,meister ,eckhart says is saturated with this recognition4 8,of this take a comparison3 ,a door opens and shuts upon a hinge4 ,if1 now1 ,i compare the outer plank of this door to the outer man1 ,i must then compare the hinge to the inner man4 ,now1 when the door opens and shuts1 the outer plank moves to and fro1 while yet the hinge remains constantly immovable and is in no way changed thereby4 ,in like manner it is here also40 ,as an individual sense-being1 ,i can investigate things in all directions--the door opens and shuts1--if ,i do not spiritually give birth within me to the perceptions of the senses1 then do ,i know nothing of their nature--the hinge does not move6 ,the illumination brought about through the inner sense is1 according to ,eckhart's view1 the entrance of ,god into the soul4 ,the light of knowledge which flames up through this entrance1 he calls the 8little spark of the soul40 ,the point in man's inner being at which this 8spark0 flames up is 8so pure1 so lofty1 and so noble in itself1 that no creature can be therein1 but only ,god alone dwells therein with ,his purely ,divine ,nature40 ,whosoever has kindled this 8spark0 in himself1 no longer sees only as sees the ordinary man with his outer senses1 and with his logical understanding which orders and classifies the impressions of the senses1 but he sees how things are in themselves4 ,the outer senses and the classifying understanding separate the individual man from other things2 they make of him an individual in space and time1 who also perceives the other things in space and time4 ,the man illuminated by the 8spark0 ceases to be a single separated being4 ,he annihilates his separateness4 ,all that brings about the difference between himself and things ceases to be4 ,that he1 as a single being1 is that which perceives1 no longer comes into consideration4 ,things and he himself are no longer separated4 ,things1 and with them1 ,god1 see themselves in him4 8,this spark is in very deed ,god1 in that it is a single oneness and bears within it the imagery of all creatures1 image without image1 and image upon image40 ,eckhart proclaims in the most magnificent words the extinction of the isolated being3 8,it is therefore to be known1 that according to things it is one and the same to know ,god and to be known by ,god4 ,therein do we know ,god and see1 that ,he makes us to see and to know4 ,and as the air1 which enlighteneth1 is nothing other than what it enlightens2 for the air giveth light1 because it is enlightened2 even so do we know that we are known1 and that ,he maketh us to know ,himself40 ,on this foundation ,meister ,eckhart builds up his relation to ,god4 ,it is a purely spiritual one1 and cannot be modelled according to any image borrowed from human individual experience4 ,not as one separated individual loves another can ,god love his creation3 not as an architect builds a house can ,god have created it4 ,all such thoughts vanish before the inner vision4 ,it belongs to ,god's very being that ,he should love the world4 ,a ,god who could love or not love at pleasure1 is imagined according to the likeness of the individual man4 8,i speak in good truth and in eternal truth and in everlasting truth1 that ,god must needs ever pour ,himself forth in every man who has reached down to his true root to the utmost of possibility1 so wholly and completely that in ,his life and in ,his being1 in ,his nature and in ,his ,godhead1 ,he keeps nothing back2 ,he must ever pour all forth in fruitful wise40 ,and the inner illumination is something that the soul must necessarily find when it sinks itself deep into the basis of its being4 ,from this it is already obvious that ,god's communication to humanity cannot be conceived after the fashion of the revelation of one human being to another4 ,this communication may also be cut off1 for one man can shut himself off from another2 but ,god must1 by virtue of ,his very nature1 reveal ,himself4 8,it is a sure and certain truth1 that it is a necessity for ,god to seek us1 exactly as if ,his very ,godhead depended upon it4 ,god can as little dispense with us as we with ,him4 ,even though we turn away from ,god1 yet ,god can never turn away from us40 ,consequently1 man's relation to ,god cannot be conceived of as though something image-like1 something taken from the individual human being1 were contained therein4 ,eckhart is thus conscious that it belongs to the perfectness of the ,root-,being of the world to find ,itself in the human soul4 ,this ,root-,being indeed would be imperfect1 incomplete1 if it lacked that part of its unfoldment which comes to light in the soul4 ,what happens in man belongs to the ,root-,being2 and if it did not happen1 then the ,root-,being would be but a part of ,itself4 ,in this sense1 man can feel himself as a necessary part of the ,being of the universe4 ,this ,eckhart expresses by describing his feelings towards ,god as follows3 8,i thank not ,god that ,he loveth me1 for ,he may not do otherwise2 whether ,he will it or no1 ,his nature yet compelleth ,him4444 ,therefore will ,i not pray to ,god to give me anything1 nor will ,i praise ,him for that which ,he hath given me44440 ,but this relationship of the soul to the ,root-,being must not be conceived of as if the soul in its individual nature were declared to be identical with this ,root-,being4 ,the soul which is entangled in the sense-world1 and so in the finite1 has as such not yet got within itself the content of the ,root-,being4 ,the soul must first develop that content within itself4 ,it must annihilate itself as an isolated being2 and ,meister ,eckhart most aptly characterises this annihilation as ,entwerdung 7un-becoming or involution74 8,when ,i come to the root of the ,godhead1 none ask me whence ,i come and where ,i have been1 and none doth miss me1 for here there is an ,entwerdung40 ,again1 the following phrase speaks very clearly about this relation3 8,i take a cup of water and lay therein a mirror and set it under the disc of the sun4 ,the sun casts out its shining light on the mirror and yet doth not pass away4 ,the reflecting of the mirror in the sun is sun in the sun1 and yet the mirror remains what it is4 ,so is it about ,god4 ,god is in the soul with ,his very nature and being and ,godhead1 and yet ,he is not the soul4 ,the reflecting of the soul in ,god1 is ,god in ,god1 and yet the soul is still that which it is40 ,the soul which gives itself up to the inner illumination knows in itself not only what this same soul was before its illumination2 but it also knows that which this soul only became through this illumination4 8,we must be united with ,god in being2 we must be united with ,god uniquely2 we must be united with ,god wholly4 ,how shall we be united with ,god in being8 ,that must happen in the beholding and not in the ,wesung4 ,his being may not become our being1 but it shall be our life40 ,not an already existent life--a ,wesung--is to be known in the logical sense2 but the higher knowing--the beholding--shall itself become life2 the spiritual1 the ideal must be so felt by the beholder1 as ordinary daily life is felt by individual human nature4 ,from such starting points1 ,meister ,eckhart also builds up a pure conception of ,freedom4 ,in its ordinary life the soul is not free2 for it is interwoven with the realm of lower causes1 and accomplishes that to which it is impelled by these lower causes4 ,but by 8beholding0 or 8vision0 it is raised out of the domain of these causes1 and acts no longer as a separated individual soul4 ,the root of being is laid bare in this soul1 and that can be moved to action by naught save by itself4 8,god does not compel the will2 rather ,he sets the will free1 so that it wills not otherwise than what ,god ,himself wills2 and the spirit desires not to will other than what ,god wills3 and that is not its un-freedom3 it is its true and real freedom4 ,for freedom is that we are not bound1 but free and pure and unmixed1 as we were in our first outpouring1 as we were set free in the ,holy ,ghost40 ,it may be said of the illuminated man that he is himself the being which from within itself determines what is good and what is evil4 ,he can do naught absolutely1 but accomplish the good4 ,for he does not serve the good1 but the good realises and lives itself out in him4 8,the righteous man serveth neither ,god1 nor the creature2 for he is free1 and the nearer he is to righteousness1 the more he is ,freedom's very self40 ,what then1 for ,meister ,eckhart1 can evil be8 ,it can be only action under the influence of the lower mode of regarding things2--the acting of a soul which has not passed through the state of ,entwerdung 7un-becoming74 ,such a soul is selfish in the sense that it wills only itself4 ,it could not bring its willing outwardly into accord with moral ideals4 ,the soul having vision cannot in this sense be selfish4 ,even if it willed itself1 it yet could will only the lordship of the ideal2 for it has made itself into this very ideal4 ,it can no longer will the ends of the lower nature1 for it has no longer aught in common with this lower nature4 ,to act in conformity with moral ideals implies for the soul which has vision1 no compulsion1 no deprivation4 8,the man who standeth in ,god's will and in ,god's love1 to him it is a craving to do all good things that ,god willeth1 and leave undone all evil things that are contrary to ,god4 ,and it is impossible for him to leave undone anything that ,god will have done4 ,even as walking is impossible to one whose legs are bound1 just so it would be impossible for a man who standeth in ,god's will to do aught unvirtuous40 ,eckhart moreover expressly guards himself against the idea that1 with this view of his1 free license is given for anything and everything that the individual may will4 ,the man possessing vision is indeed to be recognised by the very fact that as a separated individual he no longer wills anything4 8,certain men say3 ,if ,i have ,god and ,god's freedom1 then ,i may just do whatever ,i please4 ,such understand wrongly this saying4 ,so long as thou canst do aught that is contrary to ,god and ,his commandment1 so long thou hast not ,god's love2 even though thou mayest well deceive the world1 as if thou hadst40 ,eckhart is convinced that to the soul which dives down into its own root1 the most perfect morality will shine forth from that root to meet it2 that there all logical conception1 and all acting in the ordinary sense1 ceases1 and an entirely new ordering of human life makes its appearance4 8,for all that the understanding can grasp1 and all that desiring can desire1 is verily not ,god4 ,where understanding and desiring end1 there it is dark1 there shineth ,god4 ,there that power unfolds in the soul which is wider than the wide heavens4444 ,the bliss of the righteous and the bliss of ,god is one bliss2 for there is the righteous full of bliss1 where ,god is full of bliss40 ,,the ,,friendship ,,of ,,god ,in ,johannes ,tauler 7#acjj-acfa71 ,heinrich ,suso 7#abie-acfe71 and ,johannes ,ruysbroeck 7#abic-acha71 one makes acquaintance with men whose life and work exhibit in a very striking manner those 8motions of the soul0 to which such a spiritual path as that of ,meister ,eckhart is calculated to give rise in natures of depth and power4 ,while ,eckhart seems like a man who1 in the blissful experiencing of spiritual re-birth1 speaks of the nature of ,knowledge as of a picture which he has succeeded in painting2 these others1 followers of his1 appear rather like pilgrims1 to whom their inner re-birth has shown a new road which they fain would tread1 but whose goal seems to vanish before them into the illimitable distance4 ,eckhart dwells more upon the glories of his picture2 they upon the difficulties of the new path4 ,to understand the difference between personalities like ,eckhart and ,tauler1 one must see quite clearly how a man stands towards his higher cognitions4 ,man is interwoven with the sense-world and the laws of nature by which that sense-world is ruled4 ,he is himself a product of that world4 ,he lives because its forces and its materials are at work in him2 nay1 he perceives this sense-world and judges of it by laws1 according to which both he himself and that world are alike built up4 ,if he turns his eyes upon an object1 not only does the object present itself to him as a complex of interacting forces1 ruled by nature's laws1 but the eye1 with which he sees the object is itself a body built up according to just such laws and of just such forces2 and the seeing1 too1 takes place by similar laws and forces4 ,if we had reached the goal of natural science1 we should be able to follow out this play of the forces of nature according to natural laws right up into the highest regions of thought-formation1--but in the very act of doing this1 we raise ourselves above this play of forces4 ,for do we not stand above and beyond all the 8uniformities which make up the laws of nature10 when we over-see the whole and recognise how we ourselves fit into nature8 ,we see with our eyes according to laws of nature4 ,but we know also the laws1 according to which we see4 ,we can take our stand upon a higher summit and overlook at once both ourselves and the outer world in their mutual interplay4 ,is there not here a something working in us1 which is higher than the sensuous-organic personality working with ,nature's forces and according to ,nature's laws8 ,in such activity does there still remain any wall of division between our inner selves and the outer world8 ,that which here judges and gains for itself insight is no longer our separated personality2 it is rather the general world-being1 which has torn down the barrier between the inner and outer worlds and now embraces both alike4 ,as true as it is that1 judged by the outer appearance1 ,i still remain the same separated individual when ,i have thus torn down this barrier1 so true is it also that1 judged according to essential being1 ,i am no longer this separated unit4 ,henceforth there lives in me the feeling that there speaks in my soul the ,all-,being1 which embraces both myself and the entire world4 ,this is what ,tauler felt1 when he said3 8,man is just as if he were three men--his animal man as he is according to the senses2 then his rational man and lastly1 his highest1 godlike man4444 ,the one is the outer1 animal1 sensuous man2 the other is the inner1 understanding man1 with his understanding and reasoning powers2 the third man is spirit1 7,gemth--lit4 emotional1 feeling nature71 the very highest part of the soul40#a ,how far this third man is above the first and second1 ,eckhart has expressed in the words3 8,the eye through which ,i see ,god1 that is the same eye with which ,god sees me4 ,my eye and ,god's eye1 that is one eye and one knowing and one feeling40 #a ,cp4 ,w4 ,preger3 ,geschichte der ,deutschen ,mystik1 vol4 iii1 p4 #afa4 ,but in ,tauler another feeling is active as well as this4 ,he has fought his way through to a real vision of the spiritual1 and does not constantly confuse1 as do the false materialists and the false idealists1 the sensibly-natural with the spiritual4 ,if1 with his disposition1 ,tauler had become a scientist1 he would have insisted upon explaining all that is natural1 including the whole of man1 both the first and the second1 purely upon natural lines4 ,he would never have transferred purely spiritual forces into nature itself4 ,he would never have talked of a 8purposefulness0 in nature conceived of according to men's notions4 ,he knew that there1 where we perceive with our senses1 no 8creative ideas0 are to be found4 ,far rather he was most keenly conscious of the fact that man is a purely natural being4 ,and as he felt himself to be1 not a scientist1 but a devotee of moral life1 he therefore felt most keenly the contrast which reveals itself between this natural being of man and that vision of ,god which arises naturally and within nature1 but as spirituality4 ,and just in that very contrast the meaning of life presented itself to his eyes4 ,man finds himself as a single being1 a creature of nature4 ,and no science can reveal to him anything else about this life than that he is such a creature of nature4 ,as a creature of nature he cannot get outside of the sphere of natural creation4 ,in it he must remain4 ,and yet his inner life leads him outside and beyond it4 ,he must have confidence in that which no science of outer nature can give him or show to him4 ,if he calls only this nature ,being or 8that which is10 then he must be able to reach out to the vision which recognises as the higher1 ,non-being1 or 8that which is not40 ,tauler seeks for no ,god who is present in the same sense as a natural force2 he seeks no ,god who has created the world in the sense of human creation4 ,in him lives the clear insight that the conception of creation even of the ,fathers of the ,church is only idealised human creating4 ,it is clear to him that ,god is not to be found as nature's working and her laws are found1 by science4 ,tauler is well aware that we must not add in thought anything to nature as ,god4 ,he knows that whoever thinks ,god1 in his sense1 no longer thinks thought-content1 as does one who has grasped nature in thought4 ,therefore1 ,tauler seeks not to think ,god1 but to think divinely1 to think as ,god thinks4 ,the knowledge of nature is not enriched by the knowledge of ,god1 but transformed4 ,the knower of ,god does not know a different thing from the knower of nature1 but he knows in a different way4 ,not one single letter can the knower of ,god add to the knowledge of nature2 but through his whole knowing of nature there shines a new light4 ,what root-feelings will take possession of a man's soul who contemplates the world from this point of view1 will depend upon how he regards that experience of the soul which brings about spiritual re-birth4 ,within this experience1 man is wholly a natural being1 when he considers himself in his interaction with the rest of nature2 and he is wholly a spiritual being when he considers the conditions into which this re-birth has brought him4 ,thus we can say with equal truth1 the inmost depth of the soul is still natural2 as also it is already divine4 ,tauler emphasised the former in accordance with his own tendency of thought4 ,however far we may penetrate into our souls1 we still remain separated individual human beings1 said he to himself4 ,but yet in the very depths of the soul of the individual being there gleams forth the ,all-,being4 ,tauler was dominated by the feeling3 ,thou canst not free thyself from separateness1 nor purify thyself from it4 ,therefore the ,all-,being in its purity can never make its appearance within thee1 it can only shed its light into the depths of thy soul4 ,thus in its depths only a mere reflection1 a picture of the ,all-,being comes into existence4 ,thou canst so transform thy separated personality that it reproduces the ,all-,being as a picture2 but this ,all-,being itself does not shine forth in thee4 ,starting from such conceptions1 ,tauler came to the idea of a ,godhead that never merges wholly into the human world1 never flows quite completely into it4 ,more1 he attaches importance to his not being confused with those who maintain that man's inmost being is itself divine4 ,he says3 8,the ,union with ,god is taken by foolish men in a fleshly sense1 and they say that they shall be transformed into divine nature2 but such is false and an evil heresy4 ,for even in the very highest1 most inward ,union with ,god1 ,god's nature and ,god's being still remain lofty1 yea1 higher than the loftiest2 that passeth into a divine abyss1 where never yet was creature40 ,tauler wishes1 and rightly1 to be called a good ,catholic in the sense of his age and of his priestly calling4 ,he has no desire to oppose any other conception to ,christianity4 ,he desires only to deepen and spiritualise that ,christianity through his way of looking at it4 ,he speaks as a pious priest of the content of ,holy ,writ4 ,but this same scripture still becomes in the world of his conceptions a means for the expression of the inmost experiences of his soul4 8,god worketh all his works in the soul and giveth them to the soul2 and the ,father begetteth ,his only begotten ,son in the soul1 as truly as ,he begetteth ,him in eternity1 neither more1 nor less4 ,what is born when one says3 ,god begetteth in the soul8 ,is it a likeness of ,god1 or a picture of ,god1 or is it somewhat of ,god8 ,nay3 it is neither picture nor likeness of ,god1 but the same ,god and the same ,son whom the ,father begetteth in eternity and naught else than the blissful divine word1 that is the second person in the ,trinity1 ,him the ,father begetteth in the soul1 444 and thereof the soul hath thus great and special dignity40#b ,the stories of scripture become for ,tauler the garment in which he clothes the happiness of the inner life4 8,herod1 who drove out the child and sought to slay him1 is a likeness of the world1 which yet seeketh to kill this child in a believing man1 therefore one should and must flee therefrom1 if we do desire to keep that child alive in us1 but that child is the enlightened believing soul of each and every man40 #b ,cp4 ,preger3 ,history of ,german ,mysticism1 vol4 iii41 p4 #bai et seq4 ,as ,tauler directs his gaze mainly upon the natural man1 he is comparatively less concerned to tell us what happens when the higher man enters into the natural man1 than to discover the paths which the lower forces of the personality must follow if they are to be transmuted into the higher life4 ,as a devotee of the moral life1 he desires to show to men the roads to the ,all-,being4 ,he has unconditional faith and trust that the ,all-,being shines forth in man1 if man will so order his life that there shall be in him a shrine for the ,divine4 ,but this ,all-,being can never shine forth while man shuts himself up in his mere natural separated personality4 ,such a man1 separated off in himself1 is merely one member of the world3 a single creature1 in ,tauler's language4 ,the more man shuts himself off within this his being as a member of the world1 so much the less can the ,all-,being find place in him4 8,if man is in reality to become one with ,god1 then all energies and powers even of the inner man must die and become silent4 ,the will must turn away even from the ,good and from all willing1 and become void of willing40 8,man must escape from all his senses and turn inwards all his powers1 and come into a forgetting of all things and of himself40 8,for the true and eternal ,word of ,god is uttered only in the desert1 when the man hath gone out from himself and from all things and is quite untrammelled1 desolate and alone40 ,when ,tauler stood at his zenith1 the problem which occupied the central point of his mental life was3 ,how can man overcome and kill out in himself his separated existence1 so as to live in perfect unison with the ,all-life8 ,for one in this position1 all feelings towards the ,all-,being concentrate themselves into this one thing3 ,awe before the ,all-,being as that which is inexhaustible1 endless4 ,he says to himself3 whatever level thou hast reached1 there remain still higher perspectives1 still more exalted possibilities4 ,thus clear and defined as is to him the direction in which he has to turn his steps1 it is equally clear to him that he can never speak of a goal3 for a new goal is only the beginning of a new path4 ,through such a new goal man reaches a certain level of evolution3 but evolution itself continues illimitably4 ,and what that evolution may attain upon some more distant level1 it can never know upon its present stage4 ,there is no knowing the final goal3 only a trusting in the path1 in evolution itself4 ,there is knowing for everything which man has already attained4 ,it consists in the penetration of an already present object by the powers of our spirit4 ,for the higher life of man's inner being1 there is no such knowing4 ,here the powers of our spirit must first transfer the object itself into the realm of the existent2 they must first create for it an existence1 constituted as is natural existence4 ,natural ,science follows the evolution of beings from the simplest up to the most perfected1 to man himself4 ,this evolution lies before us as already completed4 ,we know it1 by penetrating it with the powers of our spirit4 ,when evolution has reached humanity1 man then finds nothing further there before him as its continuation4 ,he himself accomplishes the further unfoldment4 ,henceforward he lives what for earlier stages he only knows4 ,he creates1 according to the object1 that which1 for what has gone before1 he only copies in accordance with its spiritual nature4 ,that truth is not one with the existent in nature1 but naturally embraces both the existent and the non-existent3 of this truth ,tauler is filled to overflowing in all his feelings4 ,it has been handed down to us that ,tauler was led to this fulfilling by an illuminated layman1 a 8,friend of ,god from the ,mountains40 ,we have here a mysterious story4 ,as to where this 8,friend of ,god0 lived there exist only conjectures2 as to who he was1 not even these4 ,he seems to have heard much of ,tauler's way of preaching1 and to have resolved accordingly to journey to ,tauler1 who was then working as a preacher in ,strassburg1 in order to fulfil a certain duty by him4 ,tauler's relation to the ,friend of ,god1 and the influence which the latter exercised upon the former1 are to be found described in a text which is printed along with the oldest editions of ,tauler's sermons under the title1 8,the ,book of the ,master40 ,therein a ,friend of ,god1 in whom some seek to recognise the same who came into relations with ,tauler1 gives an account of a 8,master10 whom some assert to be ,tauler himself4 ,he relates how a transformation1 a spiritual re-birth1 was brought about in a certain 8,master0 and how the latter1 when he felt his death drawing near1 called his friend to him and begged him to write the story of his 8enlightenment10 but yet to take care that no one should ever learn of whom the book speaks4 ,he asks this on the ground that all the knowledge that proceeds from him is yet not really from him4 8,for know ye that ,god hath brought all to pass through me1 poor worm1 and that what it is1 is not mine1 it is of ,god40 ,a learned controversy which has connected itself with the occurrence is not of the very smallest importance for the essence of the matter4 ,an effort was made to prove on one side#c that the ,friend of ,god never existed1 but that his existence was fiction and that the books ascribed to him come from another hand 7,rulman ,merswin74 ,on the other hand ,wilhelm ,preger has sought with many arguments 7in his ,history of ,german ,mysticism7 to support the existence1 the genuineness of the writings1 and the correctness of the facts that relate to ,tauler4 #c ,denifle3 ,die ,dichtungen des ,gottesfreundes im ,oberlande4 ,i am here under no obligation to throw light by presumptuous investigation upon a relationship as to which any one1 who understands how to read the writings#d in question1 will know that it should remain a secret4 #d ,the writings in question are1 among others3 ,von eime eigenwilligen weltwisen manne1 der von eime heiligen weltpriestere gewiset wart uffe demuetige gehorsamme1 #acch2 ,das ,buch von den zwei ,mannen2 ,der gefangene ,ritter1 #acdi2 ,die geistliche stege1 #acej2 ,von der geistlichen ,leiter1 #aceg2 ,das ,meisterbuch1 #acfi2 ,geschichte von zwei fnfzehnjhrigen ,knaben4 ,if one says of ,tauler1 that at a certain stage of his life a transformation took place in him1 that will be amply sufficient4 ,tauler's personality need no longer be in any way considered in this connection1 but only a personality 8in general40 ,as regards ,tauler1 we are only concerned with the fact that we must understand his transformation from the point of view set forth in what follows4 ,if we compare his later activity with his earlier1 the fact of this transformation is obvious without further search4 ,i will leave aside all outer circumstances and relate the inner occurrences in the soul of the 8,master0 under 8the influence of the layman40 ,what my reader will understand by the 8layman0 and the 8,master0 depends entirely upon his own mentality2 what ,i myself think about it is a matter as to which ,i cannot know for whom it is of any weight4 ,a ,master is instructing his disciples as to the relationship of the soul to the ,all-,being of things4 ,he speaks of the fact that when man plunges into the abysmal depths of his soul1 he no longer feels the natural1 limited forces of the separated personality working within him4 ,therein the separated man no longer speaks1 therein speaks ,god4 ,there man does not see ,god1 or the world2 there ,god sees ,himself4 ,man has become one with ,god4 ,but the ,master knows that this teaching has not yet awakened to full life in him4 ,he thinks it with his understanding3 but he does not yet live in it with every fibre of his personality4 ,he is thus teaching about a state of things which he has not yet completely lived through in himself4 ,the description of the condition corresponds to the truth2 yet this truth has no value if it does not gain life1 if it does not bring itself forth in reality as actually existent4 ,the 8layman0 or 8,friend of ,god0 hears of the ,master and his teachings4 ,he is no less saturated with the truth which the ,master utters than the ,master himself4 ,but he possesses this truth not as a matter of the understanding2 he has it as the whole force of his life4 ,he knows that when this truth has come to a man from outside1 he can himself give utterance to it1 without even in the least living in accordance with it4 ,but in that case he has nothing other in him than the natural knowledge of the understanding4 ,he then speaks of this natural knowledge as if it were the highest1 equivalent to the working of the ,all-,being4 ,it is not so1 because it has not been acquired in a life that has approached to this knowledge as a transformed1 a reborn life4 ,what one acquires only as a natural man1 that remains only natural1--even when one afterwards expresses in words the fundamental characteristic of the higher knowledge4 ,outwards1 from within the very nature itself1 must the transformation be accomplished4 ,nature1 which by living has evolved itself to a certain level1 must evolve further through life2 something new must come into existence through this further evolution4 ,man must not only look backwards upon the evolution which already lies behind him--claim as the highest that which shapes itself according thereto in his spirit--but he must look forward upon the uncreated3 his knowledge must be a beginning of a new content1 not an end to the content of evolution which already lies before it4 ,nature advances from the worm to the mammal1 from the mammal to man1 not in a conceptual but in an actual1 real process4 ,man has to repeat this process not in his mind alone4 ,the mental repetition is only the beginning of a fresh1 real evolution1 which1 however1 despite its being spiritual1 is real4 ,man1 then1 does not merely know what nature has produced2 he continues nature2 he translates his knowledge into living action4 ,he gives birth within himself to the spirit1 and this spirit advances thence onwards from level to level of evolution1 as nature itself advances4 ,spirit begins a natural process upon a higher level4 ,the talk about the ,god who contemplates ,himself in man's inner being1 takes on a different character in one who has recognised this4 ,he attaches little importance to the fact that an insight already attained has led him into the depths of the ,all-,being2 instead1 his spiritual nature acquires a new character4 ,it unfolds itself further in the direction determined by the ,all-,being4 ,such a man not only looks at the world differently from one who merely understands3 he lives his life otherwise4 ,he does not talk of the meaning which life already has through the forces and laws of the world3 but he gives anew a fresh meaning to his life4 ,as little as the fish already has in itself what makes its appearance on a later level of evolution as the mammal1 as little has the understanding man already in himself what shall be born from him as the higher man4 ,if the fish could know itself and the things around it1 it would regard the being-a-fish as the meaning of life4 ,it would say3 the ,all-,being is like the fish3 in the fish the ,all-,being beholds itself4 ,thus would the fish speak as long as it remained constant to its understanding kind of knowledge4 ,in reality it does not remain constant thereto4 ,it reaches out beyond its knowledge with its activity4 ,it becomes a reptile and later a mammal4 ,the meaning which it gives to itself in reality reaches out beyond the meaning which mere contemplation gives to it4 ,in man also this must be so4 ,he gives himself a meaning in reality2 he does not halt and stand still at the meaning he already has1 which his contemplation shows him4 ,knowledge leaps out beyond itself1 if only it understands itself aright4 ,knowledge cannot deduce the world from a ready-made ,god2 it can only unfold itself from a germ in the direction towards a ,god4 ,the man who has understood this will not regard ,god as something that is outside of him2 he will deal with ,god as a being who wanders with him towards a goal1 which at the outset is just as unknown as the nature of the mammal is unknown to the fish4 ,he does not aim to be the knower of the hidden1 or of the self-revealing existent ,god1 but to be the friend of the divine doing and working1 which is exalted over both being and non-being4 ,the layman1 who came to the ,master1 was a 8,friend of ,god0 in this sense1 and through him the ,master became from a contemplator of the being of ,god1 one who is 8alive in the spirit10 one who not only contemplated1 but lived in the higher sense4 ,the ,master now no longer brought forth concepts and ideas of the understanding from his inner nature1 but these concepts and ideas burst forth from him as living1 actualised spirit4 ,he no longer merely edified his hearers2 he shook the very foundations of their being4 ,he no longer plunged their souls into their inner being2 he led them into a new life4 ,this is recounted to us symbolically3 about forty people fell down through his preaching and lay as if dead4 99 99 99 99 99 ,as a guide to such a new life1 we possess a book about whose author nothing is known4 ,luther first made it known in print4 ,the philologist1 ,franz ,pfeiffer1 has recently printed it according to a manuscript of the year #adig1 with a modern ,german translation facing the original text4 ,what precedes the book indicates its purpose and its goal3 8,here begins the man from ,frankfurt and saith many very lofty and very beautiful things about a perfect life40 ,upon this follows the 8,preface about the man from ,frankfurt03 8,al-mighty1 ,eternal ,god hath uttered this little book through a wise1 understanding1 truthful1 righteous man1 his friend1 who in former days was a ,german nobleman1 a priest and a custodian in the ,german ,house of ,nobles at ,frankfurt2 it teacheth many a lovely insight into ,divine ,wisdom1 and especially how and whereby one may know the true1 righteous friends of ,god1 and also the unrighteous1 false1 free-thinkers1 who are very hurtful to ,holy ,church40 ,by 8free-thinkers0 one may perhaps understand those who live in a merely conceptual world1 like the 8,master0 described above before his transformation by means of the 8,friend of ,god10 and by the 8true1 righteous friends of ,god10 such as possess the disposition of the 8layman40 ,one may further ascribe to the book the intention of so working upon its readers as the 8,friend of ,god from the ,mountains0 did upon the ,master4 ,it is not known who the author was4 ,but what does that mean8 ,it is not known when he was born and died1 or what he did in his outer life4 ,that the author aimed to preserve eternal secrecy about these facts of his outer life1 belongs naturally to the way in which he desired to work4 ,it is not the 8,i0 of this or the other man1 born at a definite point of time1 who is to speak to us1 but the 8,i-ness0 in the depths whereof 8the separateness of individualities0 7in the sense of ,paul ,asmus' saying#e7 must first unfold itself4 8,if ,god took to ,himself all men who are or who have ever been1 and became man in them1 and they became ,god in ,him1 and it did not happen to me also1 then my fall and my turning away would never be made good1 unless it also happened in me too4 ,and in this restoration and making good1 ,i neither can nor may nor should do anything thereto save a mere pure suffering1 so that ,god alone doeth and worketh all things in me1 and ,i suffer ,him and all ,his works and ,his divine will4 ,but if ,i will not submit to this1 but possess myself with egotism1 i4e41 with mine1 and ,i1 to me1 for me1 and the like1 that hinders ,god so that ,he cannot work ,his work in me purely alone and without hindrance4 ,therefore my fall and my turning away remain thus not made good40 ,the 8man from ,frankfurt0 aims to speak not as a separated individual2 he desires to let ,god speak4 ,that he yet can do this only as a single1 distinct personality he naturally knows full well2 but he is a 8,friend of ,god10 that means a man who aims not at presenting the nature of life through contemplation1 but at pointing out the beginning of a new evolutionary pathway through the living spirit4 #e ,vide ante1 page #cd4 ,the explanations in the book are various instructions as to how one comes to this pathway4 ,the root-thought returns again and again3 man must strip off everything that is connected with that which makes him appear as a single1 separate personality4 ,this thought seems to be worked out only in respect of the moral life2 it should be extended1 without further ado1 to the higher life of knowledge as well4 ,one must annihilate in oneself whatever appears as separateness3 then separated existence ceases2 the ,all-,life enters into us4 ,we cannot master this ,all-,life by drawing it towards us4 ,it comes into us1 when we reduce the separateness in us to silence4 ,we have the ,all-,life least of all just then1 when we so regard our separated existence as if the ,whole already dwelt within it4 ,this first comes to light in the separated existence when this separated existence no longer claims for itself to be anything4 ,this pretension on the part of the separated existence our text terms 8assumption40 ,through 8assumption0 the self makes it impossible for itself that the ,universal ,self should enter into it4 ,the self then puts itself as a part1 as something imperfect1 in the place of the whole1 of the perfect4 8,the perfect is a being1 that in itself and in its being has conceived and resolved all beings1 and without which and apart from which there is no true being1 and in which all things have their being2 for it is the being of all things and is in itself unchangeable and immovable1 and changes and moves all other things4 ,but the divided and the imperfect is that which has sprung from out of this perfect1 or becomes1 just as a ray or a light that flows forth from the sun or a light and shines upon something1 this or that4 ,and that is called the creature1 and of all these divided things none is the perfect4 ,therefore also is the perfect none of the divided4444 ,when the perfect cometh1 the divided is despised4 ,but when does it come8 ,i say3 ,when so far as is possible it is known1 felt1 tasted in the soul2 for the defect lies wholly in us and not in it4 ,for just as the sun illuminates the whole world and is just as near to the one as to the other1 yet a blind man sees it not4 ,but that is no defect of the sun but of the blind man4444 ,if my eye is to see anything1 it must become cleansed1 or be already cleansed from all other things4444 ,now one might be inclined to say3 ,in so far then as it is unknowable and inconceivable for all creatures1 and since the soul is also a creature1 how can it then be known in the soul8 ,answer3 ,therefore is it said1 the creature shall be known as a creature40 ,this is as much as to say that all creatures shall be regarded as created and creation and not regard themselves as ,i-ness and self-ness1 whereby this knowing is made impossible4 8,for in whatever creature this perfect one shall be known1 there all creature-being1 created-being1 ,i-ness1 self-ness1 and everything of the kind must be lost1 be and become naught40#f ,the soul must therefore look within itself2 there it finds its ,i-ness1 its self-ness4 ,if it remains standing there1 it thereby cuts itself off from the perfect4 ,if it regards its ,i-ness only as a thing lent to it as it were1 and annihilates it in spirit1 it will be seized upon by the stream of the ,all-,life1 of ,perfection4 #f ,chap4 i41 ,book of the ,man from ,frankfurt4 8,when the creature assumes to itself somewhat of good1 as ,being1 ,life1 ,knowledge1 ,power1 in short1 aught of that which one calls good and thinks that it is that1 or that it belongs to it or comes from it1 so often and so much as that happens1 does the creature turn away40 8,the created soul of man has two eyes4 ,the one is the possibility of seeing in eternity2 the other of seeing in time and in creation40 8,man should therefore stand and be quite free without himself1 that is without self-ness1 ,i-ness1 me1 mine1 for me and the like1 so that he as little seeks and thinks of himself and what is his in all things as if it did not exist2 and he should therefore also think little of himself1 as if he were not1 and as if another had done all his deeds40#g #g ,chap4 xv41 ,book of the ,man from ,frankfurt4 ,one must also take account of the fact in regard to the writer of these sentences1 that the thought-content1 to which he gives a direction by his higher ideas and feelings1 is that of a believing priest in the spirit of his own time4 ,we are here concerned not with the thought-content1 but with the direction1 not with the thoughts but with the way of thinking4 ,any one who does not live as he does in ,christian dogmas1 but in the conceptions of natural science1 finds in his sentences other thoughts2 but with these other thoughts he points in the same direction4 ,and this direction is that which leads to the overcoming of the self-hood1 by the ,self-hood itself4 ,the highest light shines for man in his ,ego4 ,but this light only then imparts to his concept-world the right reflection1 when he becomes aware that it is not his own self-light1 but the universal world-light4 ,hence there is no more important knowledge than self-knowledge2 and there is equally no knowledge which leads so completely out beyond itself4 ,when the 8self0 knows itself aright1 it is already no longer a 8self40 ,in his own language1 the writer of the book in question expresses this as follows3 8,for ,god's #8own-ness' is void of this and that1 void of self-ness and ,i-ness2 but the nature and own-ness of the creature is that it seeketh and willeth itself and its own and #8this' and #8that'2 and in all that it does or leaves undone1 it seeketh to receive its own benefit and profit40 8,when1 now1 the creature or the man loseth his own-ness and his self-ness and himself1 and goeth out from himself1 then ,god entereth in with ,his ,own-ness1 that is with his ,self-hood40#h ,man soars upwards1 from a view of his 8,ego0 which makes the latter appear to him as his very being1 to a view such that it shows him his ,ego as a mere organ1 in which the ,all-,being works upon itself4 ,in the concept-sphere of our text1 this means3 8,if man can attain thereto that he belongeth unto ,god just as a man's hand belongeth to him1 then let him content himself and seek no further40#i ,that is not intended to mean that when man has reached a certain stage of his evolution he shall stand still there1 but that1 when he has got as far as is indicated in the above words1 he should not set on foot further investigations into the meaning of the hand1 but rather make use of the hand1 in order that it may render service to the body to which it belongs4 #h ,chap4 xxiv1 ,book of the ,man from ,frankfurt4 #i ,ibid41 ,chap4 liv4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,heinrich ,,suso and ,,johannes ,,ruysbroek possessed a type of mind which may be characterised as genius for feeling4 ,their feelings are drawn by something like instinct in the same direction in which ,eckhart's and ,tauler's feelings were guided by their higher thought-life4 ,suso's heart turns devoutly towards that ,root-,being which embraces the individual man just as much as the whole remaining world1 and in whom forgetting himself1 he yearns to lose himself as a drop of water in the mighty ocean4 ,he speaks of this his yearning towards the ,all-,being1 not as of something that he desires to embrace in thought2 he speaks of it as a natural impulse1 that makes his soul drunken with desire for the annihilation of its separated existence and its re-awakening to life in the all-efficiency of the endless life4 8,turn thine eyes to this being in its pure naked simplicity1 so that thou mayest let fall this and that manifold being4 ,take being in itself alone1 that is unmoved with not-being2 for all not-being denies all being4 ,a thing that is yet to become1 or that has been1 is not now in actual presence40 8,now1 one cannot know mixed being or not-being except by some mark of being as a whole4 ,for if one will understand a thing1 the reason first encounters being1 and that is a being that worketh all things4 ,it is a divided being of this or that creature1--for divided being is all mingled with something of other-ness1 with a possibility of receiving something4 ,therefore the nameless divine being must so be a whole being in itself1 that it sustaineth all divided beings by its presence40 ,thus speaks ,suso in the autobiography which he wrote in conjunction with his pupil ,elsbet ,stglin4 ,he1 too1 is a pious priest and lives entirely in the ,christian circle of thought4 ,he lives therein as if it were quite unthinkable that anybody with his mental tendency could live in any other world4 ,but of him also it is true that one can combine another concept-content with his mental tendency4 ,this is clearly borne out by the way in which the content of the ,christian teaching has become for him actual inner experience1 and his relation to ,christ has become a relation between his own spirit and the eternal truth in a purely ideal1 spiritual way4 ,he composed a 8,little ,book of ,eternal ,wisdom40 ,in this he makes the 8,eternal ,wisdom0 speak to its servant1 in other words to himself3 8,knowest thou me not8 ,how art thou so cast down1 or hast thou lost consciousness from agony of heart1 my tender child8 ,behold it is ,i1 merciful ,wisdom1 who have opened wide the abyss of fathomless compassion which yet is hidden from all the saints1 tenderly to receive thee and all repentant hearts2 it is ,i1 sweet ,eternal ,wisdom1 who was there poor and miserable1 so as to bring thee to thy worthiness2 it is ,i1 who suffered bitter death1 that ,i might make thee to live again6 ,i stand here pale and bleeding and lovely1 as ,i stood on the lofty gallows of the cross between the stern judgment of my ,father and thee4 ,it is ,i1 thy brother2 look1 it is ,i1 thy spouse6 ,i have therefore wholly forgotten all thou hast done against me1 as if it had never been1 if only thou turnest wholly to me and separatest thyself no more from me40 ,all that is bodily and temporal in the ,christian conception has become for ,suso1 as one sees1 a spiritual-ideal process in the recesses of his soul4 ,from some chapters of ,suso's biography mentioned above1 it might appear as if he had let himself be guided not by the mere action of his own spiritual power1 but through external revelations1 through ghostly visions4 ,but he expresses his meaning quite clearly about this4 ,one attains to the truth through reasonableness1 not through any kind of revelation4 8,the difference between pure truth and two-souled visions in the matter of knowledge ,i will also tell you4 ,an immediate beholding of the bare ,godhead1 that is right pure truth1 without all doubt2 and every vision1 so that it be reasonable and without pictures and the more like it be unto that bare beholding1 the purer and nobler it is40 ,meister ,eckhart1 too1 leaves no doubt that he puts aside the view which seeks to be spiritual in bodily-spacial forms1 in appearances which one can perceive by any senses4 ,minds of the type of ,suso and ,eckhart are thus opponents of such a view1 as that which finds expression in the spiritualism which has developed during the nineteenth century4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,johannes ,,ruysbroek1 the ,belgian mystic1 trod the same path as ,suso4 ,his spiritual way found an active opponent in ,johannes ,gerson 7born #acfc71 who was for some time ,chancellor of the ,university of ,paris and played a momentous rle at the ,council of ,constance4 ,some light is thrown upon the nature of the mysticism which was practised by ,tauler1 ,suso and ,ruysbroek1 if one compares it with the mystic endeavours of ,gerson1 who had his predecessors in ,richard de ,st4 ,victor1 ,bonaventura1 and others4 ,ruysbroek himself fought against those whom he reckoned among the heretical mystics4 ,as such he considered all those who1 through an easy-going judgment of the understanding1 hold that all things proceed from one ,root-,being1 who therefore see in the world only a manifoldness and in ,god the unity of this manifoldness4 ,ruysbroek does not count himself among these1 for he knew that one cannot attain to the ,root-,being by the contemplation of things1 but only by raising oneself from this lower mode of contemplation to a higher one4 ,similarly1 he turned against those who seek to see without further ado1 in the individual man1 in his separated existence 7in his creature-being71 his higher nature also4 ,he deplored not a little the error which confuses all differences in the sense-world1 and asserts light-mindedly that things are different only in appearance1 but that in their being they are all alike4 ,this would amount1 for a way of thinking like ,ruysbroek's1 to the same thing as saying3 ,that the fact that the trees in an avenue seem to our seeing to come together does not concern us4 ,in reality they are everywhere equally far apart1 therefore our eyes ought to accustom themselves to see correctly4 ,but our eyes see aright4 ,that the trees run together depends upon a necessary law of nature2 and we have nothing to reproach our seeing with1 but on the contrary to recognise in spirit why we see them thus4 ,moreover1 the mystic does not turn away from the things of the senses4 ,as things of the senses1 he accepts them as they are1 and it is clear to him that through no judgment of the understanding can they become otherwise4 ,but in spirit he passes beyond both senses and understanding1 and then only does he find the unity4 ,his faith is unshakable that he can develop himself to the beholding of this unity4 ,therefore does he ascribe to the nature of man the divine spark which can be brought to shine in him1 to shine by its own light4 ,people of the type of ,gerson think otherwise4 ,they do not believe in this self-shining4 ,for them1 what man can behold remains always a something external1 that from some side or other must come to them externally4 ,ruysbroek believed that the highest wisdom must needs shine forth for mystic contemplation4 ,gerson believed only that the soul can illuminate the content of an external teaching 7that of the ,church74 ,for ,gerson1 ,mysticism was nothing else but possessing a warm feeling for everything that is revealed in this teaching4 ,for ,ruysbroek1 it was a faith1 that the content of all teaching is also born in the soul4 ,therefore ,gerson blames ,ruysbroek in that the latter imagines that not only has he the power to behold the ,all-,being with clearness1 but that in this beholding there expresses itself an activity of the ,all-,being4 ,ruysbroek simply could not be understood by ,gerson4 ,both spoke of two wholly different things4 ,ruysbroek has in his mind's eye the life of the soul that lives itself into oneness with its ,god2 ,gerson1 only a soul-life that seeks to love the ,god whom it can never actually live in itself4 ,like many others1 ,gerson fought against something that was strange to him only because he could not grasp it in experience4 ,,cardinal ,,nicholas ,,of ,,cusa ,a gloriously shining star in the sky of the thought-life of the ,middle ,ages is ,nicholas ,chrysippus of ,cusa 7at ,trevis1 #adja-adfd74 ,he stands upon the summit of the knowledge of his time4 ,in mathematics he accomplished remarkable work4 ,in natural science he may be described as the forerunner of ,copernicus1 for he took up the standpoint that the earth is a moving celestial body like others4 ,he had already broken away from a view upon which even a hundred years later the great astronomer1 ,tycho ,brahe1 based himself1 when he hurled against the teaching of ,copernicus the sentence3 8,the earth is a gross1 heavy mass inapt for movement2 how1 then1 can ,copernicus make a star of it and run it about in the air80 ,the same man who thus not only embraced all the knowledge of his time1 but also extended it further1 possessed in addition1 in a high degree1 the power of awakening this knowledge in the inner life1 so that it not only illuminates the external world1 but also mediates for man that spiritual life1 which from the profounder depths of his soul he needs must long after4 ,if we compare ,nicholas with such spirits as ,eckhart or ,tauler1 we obtain a remarkable result4 ,nicholas is the scientific thinker1 striving to lift himself from research about the things of the world on to the level of a higher perception2 ,eckhart and ,tauler are the faithful believers1 who seek the higher life from within the content of this faith4 ,eventually ,nicholas arrives at the same inner life as ,meister ,eckhart2 but the inner life of the former has a rich store of knowledge as its content4 ,the full significance of this difference becomes clear when we reflect that for the student of science the danger lies very near at hand of misunderstanding the scope of that species of knowing which enlightens us regarding the various special departments of knowledge4 ,he can very readily be misled into believing that there really is only one single kind or mode of knowledge2 and then he will either over- or under-rate this knowledge which leads us to the goal in the various special sciences4 ,in the one case he will approach the subject-matter of the highest spiritual life as he would a problem in physics1 and proceed to deal with it by means of concepts such as he would apply to gravitation or electricity4 ,thus1 according as he believes himself to be more or less enlightened1 the world will appear to him as a blindly working machine1 or an organism1 or as the teleological structure of a personal ,god3 perhaps even as a form which is ruled and pervaded by a more or less clearly conceived 8,world-,soul40 ,in the other case he notes that the knowledge1 of which alone he has any experience1 is adapted only to the things of the sense-world2 and then he will become a sceptic1 saying to himself3 ,we can know nothing about things which lie beyond the world of the senses4 ,our knowledge has a limit4 ,for the needs of the higher life we have no choice but to throw ourselves blindly into the arms of faith untouched by knowledge4 ,and for a learned theologian like ,nicholas of ,cusa1 who was also a scientist1 this second danger lay peculiarly near at hand4 ,for he emerged1 along the lines of his learned training1 from ,scholasticism1--the way of conceiving things which was dominant in scientific life within the ,medival ,church2 a mode of thought that ,st4 ,thomas ,aquinas 7#abbg-abgd71 the 8,prince of ,scholastics10 had brought to its highest perfection4 ,we must take this mode of conceiving things as the background1 when we desire to portray the personality of ,nicholas of ,cusa4 ,scholasticism is1 in the highest degree1 a product of human sagacity2 and in it the logical capacity celebrated its highest triumphs4 ,any one who is striving to work out concepts in their sharpest1 most clear-cut outlines1 ought to go to the ,scholastics for instruction4 ,they afford us the ,high ,school for the technique of thinking4 ,they possess an incomparable skill in moving in the field of pure thinking4 ,it is easy to under-value what they were able to achieve in this field2 for it is only with difficulty accessible to man as regards most departments of knowledge4 ,the majority rise to its level only in the domains of numbers and calculation1 and in reflecting upon the connection of geometrical figures4 ,we can count by adding in thought a unity to a number1 without needing to call to our help sense-conceptions4 ,we calculate also1 without such conceptions1 in the pure element of thought4 ,in regard to geometrical figures1 we know that they never perfectly coincide with any sensible perception4 ,there is no such thing within sensible reality as an 8ideal0 circle4 ,yet our thinking concerns itself with the purely ideal circle4 ,for things and processes which are more complicated than forms of number and space1 it is more difficult to find the ideal counterparts4 ,this has even led so far that it has been contended1 from various sides1 that in the separated departments of knowledge there is only so much of real science as there is of measuring and counting4 ,the truth about this is that most men are not capable of grasping the pure thought-element where it is no longer concerned with what can be counted or measured4 ,but the man who cannot do that for the higher realms of life and knowledge1 resembles in that respect a child1 which has not yet learned to count otherwise than by adding one pea to another4 ,the thinker who said there was just so much real science in any domain as there was mathematics in it1 was not very much at home in the matter4 ,one ought rather to demand that everything which cannot be measured or counted should be handled just as ideally as the forms of number and space4 ,and the ,scholastics in the fullest way did justice to this demand4 ,they sought everywhere the thought-content of things1 just as the mathematician seeks it in the field of what is measurable and countable4 ,in spite of this perfected logical art1 the ,scholastics attained only to a one-sided and subordinate conception of ,knowledge4 ,their conception is this3 that in the act of knowing1 man creates in himself an image of what he is to know4 ,it is obvious1 without further discussion1 that with such a conception of the knowing process all reality must be located outside of the knowing4 ,for one can grasp1 in knowing1 not the thing itself1 but only an image of that thing4 ,also1 in knowing himself man cannot grasp himself1 but again1 what he does know of himself is only an image of himself4 ,it is entirely from out of the spirit of ,scholasticism that an accurate student thereof#aj says3 8,man has in time no perception of his ego1 of the hidden ground of his spiritual being and life1 444 he will never attain to beholding himself2 for either1 estranged for ever from ,god1 he will find in himself only a fathomless1 dark abyss1 an endless emptiness1 or else1 made blessed in ,god1 he will find on turning his gaze inwards just that very ,god1 the sun of whose mercy is shining within him1 whose image and likeness shapes itself in the spiritual traits of his nature40 #aj ,k4 ,werner1 in his book upon ,frank ,suarez and the ,scholasticism of the ,last ,centuries1 p4 #abb4 ,whoever thinks like this about all knowing1 has only such a conception of knowing as is applicable to external things4 ,the sensible factor in anything always remains external for us2 therefore we can only take up into our knowledge pictures of whatever is sensible in the world4 ,when we perceive a colour or a stone1 we are unable1 in order to know the being of the colour or the stone1 to become ourselves the colour or the stone4 ,just as little can the colour or the stone transform itself into a part of our own being4 ,it may1 however1 be questioned whether the conception of such a knowing-process1 wholly directed to what is external in things1 is an exhaustive one4 ,for ,scholasticism1 all human knowing does certainly in the main coincide with this kind of knowing4 ,another admirable authority on ,scholasticism#aa characterises the conception of knowledge with which we are concerned in this direction of thought in the following manner3 8,our spirit1 allied in earth-life with the body1 is primarily focussed upon the surrounding bodily world1 but ordered in the direction of the spiritual therein3 the beings1 natures1 forms of things1 the elements of existence1 which are related to our spirit and offer to it the rungs for its ascent to the super-sensuous2 the field of our knowledge is therefore the realm of experience1 but we must learn to understand what it offers1 to penetrate to its meaning and thought1 and thereby unlock for ourselves the world of thought40 #aa ,otto ,willman1 in his ,history of ,idealism1 vol4 ii41 p4 #cie4 ,the ,scholastic could not attain to any other conception of knowledge1 for the dogmatic content of his theology prevented his doing so4 ,if he had directed the gaze of his spiritual eye upon that which he regards as an image only1 he would then have seen that the spiritual content of things reveals itself in this supposed image2 he would then have found that in his own inner being the ,god not alone images ,himself1 but that ,he lives therein1 is present there in ,his own nature4 ,he would have beheld in gazing into his own inner being1 not a dark abyss1 an endless emptiness1 but also not merely an image of ,god2 he would have felt that a life pulses within him1 which is the very life of ,god itself2 and that his own life is verily just ,god's life4 ,this the ,scholastic dared not admit4 ,the ,god must not1 in his opinion1 enter into him and speak forth from him2 ,god must only be in him as an image4 ,in reality1 the ,godhead must be external to the self4 ,accordingly1 also1 it could not reveal itself from within through the spiritual life1 but must reveal itself from outside1 through supernatural communication4 ,what is aimed at in this1 is just exactly what is least of all attained thereby4 ,it is sought to attain to the highest possible conception of the ,godhead4 ,in reality1 the ,godhead is dragged down and made a thing among other things2 only that these other things reveal themselves to us naturally1 through experience2 while the ,godhead is supposed to reveal ,itself to us supernaturally4 ,a difference1 however1 between the knowledge of the divine and of the created is attained in this way3 that as regards the created1 the external thing is given in experience1 so that we have knowledge of it2 while as regards the divine1 the object is not given to us in experience2 we can reach it only in faith4 ,the highest things1 therefore1 are for the ,scholastic not objects of knowledge1 but mainly of faith4 ,it is true that the relation of knowledge to faith must not be so conceived1 according to the ,scholastic view1 as if in a certain domain only knowledge1 and in another only faith reigned4 ,for 8the knowledge of that which is1 is possible to us1 because it1 itself1 springs from a creative element2 things are for the spirit1 because they are from the spirit2 they have something to tell us1 because they have a meaning which a higher intelligence has placed in them40#ab ,because ,god has created the world according to thoughts1 we too are able1 when we grasp the thoughts of the world1 to seize also upon the traces of the ,divine in the world1 through scientific reflection4 ,but what ,god is1 according to ,his own being1 we can learn only from that revelation which ,he has given to us in supernatural ways1 and in which we must believe4 ,what we ought to think about the highest things1 must be decided not by any human knowledge1 but by faith2 and 8to faith belongs all that is contained in the writings of the ,new and of the ,old ,testament1 and in the divine traditions40#ac #ab ,otto ,willman1 ,history of ,idealism1 vol4 ii41 p4 #chc4 #ac ,joseph ,kleutgen1 ,die ,theologie der ,vorzeit1 vol4 i41 p4 #ci4 ,it is not our task here to present and establish in detail the relation of the content of faith to the content of knowledge4 ,in truth1 all and every faith-content originates from some actual inner human experience that has once been undergone4 ,such an experience is then preserved1 as far as its outer form goes1 without the consciousness of how it was acquired4 ,and people maintain in regard to it that it came into the world by supernatural revelation4 ,the content of the ,christian faith was simply accepted by the ,scholastics4 ,science1 inner experience1 had no business to claim any rights over it4 ,as little as science can create a tree1 just so little dared ,scholasticism to create a conception of ,god2 it was bound to accept the revealed one ready-made and complete1 just as natural science has to accept the tree ready-made4 ,that the spiritual itself can shine forth and live in man's inner nature1 could never1 never be admitted by the ,scholastic4 ,he therefore drew the frontier of the rightful power of knowledge at the point where the domain of outer experience ceases4 ,human knowledge must not dare to beget out of itself a conception of the higher beings2 it is bound to accept a revealed one4 ,the ,scholastics naturally could not admit that in doing so they were accepting and proclaiming as 8revealed0 a conception which in truth had really been begotten at an earlier stage of man's spiritual life4 ,thus1 in the course of its development1 all those ideas had vanished from ,scholasticism which indicated the ways and means by which man had begotten1 in a natural manner1 his conceptions of the divine4 ,in the first centuries of the development of ,christianity1 at the time of the ,church ,fathers1 we see the doctrinal content of theology growing bit by bit by the assimilation of inner experiences4 ,in ,johannes ,scotus ,erigena1 who stood at the summit of ,christian theological culture in the ninth century1 we find this doctrinal content being handled entirely as an inner living experience4 ,with the ,scholastics of the following centuries1 this characteristic of an inner1 living experience disappears altogether3 the old doctrinal content becomes transposed into the content of an external1 supernatural revelation4 ,one might1 therefore1 understand the activity of the mystical theologians1 ,eckhart1 ,tauler1 ,suso and their associates1 in the following sense3 they were stimulated by the doctrines of the ,church1 which were contained in its theology1 but had been misinterpreted1 to bring to birth afresh from within themselves1 as inner living experience1 a similar content4 99 99 99 99 99 ,nicholas of ,cusa sets out to mount from the knowledge one acquires in the isolated sciences up to the inner living experiences4 ,there can be no doubt that the excellent logical technique which the ,scholastics have developed1 and for which ,nicholas himself was educated1 forms a most effective means of attaining to these inner experiences1 even though the ,scholastics themselves were held back from this road by their positive faith4 ,but one can only understand ,nicholas fully when one reflects that his calling as a priest1 which raised him to the dignity of ,cardinal1 prevented him from coming to a complete breach with the faith of the ,church1 which found an expression appropriate to the age in ,scholasticism4 ,we find him so far along the road1 that a single step further would necessarily have carried him out of the ,church4 ,we shall therefore understand the ,cardinal best if we complete the one step more which he did not take2 and then1 looking backwards1 throw light upon what he aimed at4 ,the most significant thought in ,nicholas's mental life is that of 8learned ignorance40 ,by this he means a form of knowing which occupies a higher level as compared with ordinary knowledge4 ,in the lower sense1 knowledge is the grasping of an object by the mind1 or spirit4 ,the most important characteristic of knowing is that it gives us light about something outside of the spirit1 that therefore it directs its gaze upon something different from itself4 ,the spirit1 therefore1 is concerned in the knowing-process with things thought of as outside itself4 ,now what the spirit develops in itself about things is the being of those things4 ,the things are spirit4 ,man sees the spirit so far only through the sensible encasement4 ,what lies outside the spirit is only this sensible encasement2 the being of the things enters into the spirit4 ,if1 then1 the spirit turns its attention to this being of the things1 which is of like nature with itself1 then it can no longer talk of knowing2 for it is not looking at anything outside of itself1 but is looking at something which is part of itself2 is1 indeed1 looking at itself4 ,it no longer knows2 it only looks upon itself4 ,it is no longer concerned with a 8knowing10 but with a 8not-knowing40 ,no longer does man 8grasp0 something through the mind2 he 8beholds without conceiving0 his own life4 ,this highest stage of knowing is1 in comparison with the lower stages1 a 8not-knowing40 ,but it is obvious that the essential being of things can only be reached through this stage of knowing4 ,thus ,nicholas of ,cusa in speaking of his 8learned not-knowing0 is really speaking of nothing else but 8knowing0 come to a new birth1 as an inner experience4 ,he tells us himself how he came to this inner experience4 8,i made many efforts to unite the ideas of ,god and the world1 of ,christ and the ,church1 into a single root-idea2 but nothing satisfied me until at last1 on my way back from ,greece by sea1 my mind's vision1 as if by an illumination from above1 soared up to that perception in which ,god appeared to me as the supreme ,unity of all contradictions40 ,to a greater or lesser extent this illumination was due to influences derived from the study of his predecessors4 ,one recognises in his way of looking at things a peculiar revival of the views which we meet with in the writings of a certain ,dionysius4 ,the above-mentioned ,scotus ,erigena translated these writings into ,latin1 and speaks of their author as the 8great and divine revealer40 ,the works in question are first mentioned in the first half of the sixth century4 ,they were ascribed to that ,dionysius1 the ,areopagite1 named in the ,acts of the ,apostles1 who was converted to ,christianity by ,st4 ,paul4 ,when these writings were really composed may here be left an open question4 ,their contents worked powerfully upon ,nicholas as they had already worked upon ,scotus ,erigena1 and as they must also have been in many ways stimulating for the way of thinking of ,eckhart and his colleagues4 ,this 8learned not-knowing0 is in a certain way preformed in these writings4 ,here we can only indicate the essential trait in the way of conceiving things found in these works4 ,man primarily knows the things of the sense-world4 ,he forms thoughts about its being and action4 ,the ,primal ,cause of all things must lie higher than these things themselves4 ,man therefore must not seek to grasp this ,primal ,cause by means of the same concepts and ideas as things4 ,if he therefore ascribes to the ,root-,being 7,god7 attributes which he has learned to know in lower things1 such attributes can be at best auxiliary conceptions of his weak spirit1 which drags down the ,root-,being to itself1 in order to conceive it4 ,in truth1 therefore1 no attribute whatsoever which lower things possess can be predicated of ,god4 ,it must not even be said that ,god 8is40 ,for 8being0 too is a concept which man has formed from lower things4 ,but ,god is exalted above 8being0 and 8not-being40 ,the ,god to whom we ascribe attributes1 is therefore not the true ,god4 ,we come to the true ,god1 when we think of an 8,over-,god0 above and beyond any ,god with such attributes4 ,of this 8,over-,god0 we can know nothing in the ordinary sense4 ,in order to attain to ,him1 8knowing0 must merge into 8not-knowing40 ,one sees that at the root of such a view there lies the consciousness that man himself is able to develop a higher knowing1 which is no longer mere knowing--in a purely natural manner--on the basis of what his various sciences have yielded him4 ,the ,scholastic view declared knowledge to be impotent to such a development2 and1 at the point where knowledge is supposed to cease1 it called in to the help of knowledge a faith basing itself upon external revelation4 ,nicholas of ,cusa was thus upon the road to develop out of knowledge itself that which the ,scholastics had declared to be unattainable for knowledge4 ,we thus see that1 from ,nicholas of ,cusa's point of view1 there can be no question of there being only one kind or mode of knowing4 ,on the contrary1 for him1 knowing clearly divides itself into two1 first into such knowing as mediates our acquaintance with external objects1 and second into such as is itself the object of which one gains knowledge4 ,the first mode of knowing is dominant in the sciences1 which teach us about the things and occurrences of the outer world2 the second is in us when we ourselves live in the knowledge we have acquired4 ,this second kind of knowing grows out of the first4 ,now1 however1 it is still one and the same world with which both these modes of knowing are concerned2 and it is one and the self-same man who is active in both4 ,hence the question must arise1 whence comes it that one and the self-same man develops two different kinds of knowledge of one and the same world4 ,already1 in connection with ,tauler1 the direction could be indicated in which the answer to this question must be sought4 ,here in ,nicholas of ,cusa this answer can be still more definitely formulated4 ,in the first place1 man lives as a separated 7individual7 being amidst other separated beings4 ,in addition to the effects which the other beings produce on each other1 there arises in his case the 7lower7 knowledge4 ,through his senses he receives impressions from other beings1 and works up these impressions with his inner spiritual powers4 ,he then turns his spiritual gaze away from external things1 and beholds himself as well as his own activity4 ,in so doing self-knowledge arises in him4 ,but so long as he remains on this level of self-knowledge1 he does not1 in the true sense of the word1 behold himself4 ,he can still believe that some hidden being is active within him1 whose manifestations and effects are only that which appears to him to be his own activities4 ,but now the moment may come in which1 through an incontrovertible inner experience1 it becomes clear to the man that he experiences1 in what he perceives or feels within himself1 not the manifestation or effect of any hidden power or being1 but this very being itself in its most essential and intimate form4 ,then he can say to himself3 ,in a certain way ,i find all other things ready given1 and ,i myself1 standing apart from and outside of them1 add to them whatever the spirit has to tell about them4 ,but what ,i thus creatively add to the things in myself1 therein do ,i myself live2 that is myself1 my very own being4 ,but what is that which speaks there in the depths of my spirit8 ,it is the knowledge which ,i have acquired of the things of the world4 ,but in this knowledge there speaks no longer an effect1 a manifestation2 that which speaks expresses itself wholly1 holding back nothing of what it contains4 ,in this knowledge1 there speaks the world in all its immediacy4 ,but ,i have acquired this knowledge of things and of myself1 as one thing among other things4 ,from out my own being ,i myself speak1 and the things1 too1 speak4 ,thus1 in truth1 ,i am giving utterance no longer only to my own being2 ,i am also giving utterance to the being of things themselves4 ,my 8ego0 is the form1 the organ in which the things express themselves about themselves4 ,i have gained the experience that in myself ,i experience my own essential being2 and this experience expands itself in me to the further one that in myself and through myself the ,all-,being ,itself expresses ,itself1 or in other words1 knows ,itself4 ,i can now no longer feel myself as a thing among other things2 ,i can now only feel myself as a form in which the ,all-,being lives out ,its own life4 ,it is thus only natural that one and the same man should have two modes of knowing4 ,judging by the facts of the senses1 he is a thing among other things1 and1 in so far as he is that1 he gains for himself a knowledge of these things2 but at any moment he can acquire the higher experience that he is really the form in which the ,all-,being beholds ,itself4 ,then man transforms himself from a thing among other things into a form of the ,all-,being--and1 along with himself1 the knowledge of things transforms itself into the expression of the very being of things4 ,but as a matter of fact this transformation can only be accomplished through man4 ,that which is mediated in the higher knowledge does not exist as long as this higher knowledge itself is not present4 ,man becomes only a real being in the creation of this higher knowledge2 and only through man's higher knowledge can things also bring their being forth into real existence4 ,if1 therefore1 we demand that man shall add nothing to things through his inner knowledge1 but merely give expression to whatever already exists in the things outside of himself1 that would really amount to a complete abnegation of all higher knowledge4 ,from the fact that man1 in respect of his sensible life1 is merely one thing among others1 and that he only attains to the higher knowledge when he himself accomplishes with himself1 as a being of the senses1 the transformation into a higher being1 it follows that he can never replace the one kind of knowledge by the other4 ,his spiritual life consists1 on the contrary1 in a ceaseless oscillation between these two poles of knowledge--between knowing and seeing4 ,if he shuts himself off from the seeing1 he abandons the real nature of things3 if he seeks to shut himself off from sense-perception1 he would shut out from himself the things whose nature he seeks to know4 ,it is these very same things which reveal themselves alike in the lower knowing and the higher seeing2 only in the one case they reveal themselves according to their outer appearance2 in the other according to their inner being4 ,thus it is not due to the things themselves that1 at a certain stage1 they appear only as external things2 but their doing so is due to the fact that man must first of all raise and transform himself to the level upon which the things cease to be external and outside4 ,in the light of these considerations1 some of the views which natural science has developed during the nineteenth century appear for the first time in the right light4 ,the supporters of these views tell us that we hear1 see1 and touch the objects of the physical world through our senses4 ,the eye1 for instance1 transmits to us a phenomenon of light1 a colour4 ,thus we say that a body emits red light1 when with the help of the eye we experience the sensation 8red40 ,but the eye can give us this same sensation in other cases also4 ,if the eyeball is struck or pressed upon1 or if an electric spark is allowed to pass through the head1 the eye has a sensation of light4 ,it is thus evident that even in the cases in which we have the sensation of a body emitting red light1 something may really be happening in that body which has no sort of resemblance to the colour we sensate4 ,whatever may be actually happening 8outside of us0 in space1 so long as what happens is capable of making an impression on the eye1 there arises in us the sensation of light4 ,thus what we experience arises in us1 because we possess organs constituted in a particular manner4 ,what happens outside in space1 remains outside of us2 we know only the effects which the external happenings call up in us4 ,hermann ,helmholtz 7#ahba-ahic7 has given a clearly outlined expression to this thought3 8,our sensations are simply effects which are produced in our organs by external causes1 and the manner in which such an effect will show itself depends1 naturally enough1 altogether upon the kind of apparatus upon which the action takes place4 ,in so far as the quality of our sensation gives us information as to the peculiar nature of the external action which produces the sensation1 so far can the sensation be regarded as a sign or symbol of this external action1 but not as an image or reproduction of it4 ,for we expect in a picture some kind of resemblance to the object it represents2 thus in a statue1 resemblance of form2 in a drawing1 resemblance in the perspective projection of the field of view2 in a painting1 resemblance of colour in addition4 ,a symbol1 however1 is not required to have any sort of resemblance to that which it symbolises4 ,the necessary connection between the object and the symbol is limited to this3 that the same object coming into action under the same conditions shall call up the same symbol1 and that therefore different symbols shall always correspond to different objects4 ,when berries of a certain kind in ripening produce together red colouration and sugar1 then red colour and a sweet taste will always find themselves together in our sensation of berries of this form40#ad #ad ,cp4 ,helmholtz1 ,die ,thatsachen der ,wahrnehmung1 p4 #ab et seq4 ,i have characterised this kind of conception in detail in my ,philosophie der ,freiheit1 ,berlin1 #ahid1 and in my ,welt- und ,lebensanschauungen im ,neunzehnten ,jahrhundert1 vol4 ii41 p4 i41 etc4 ,let us follow out step by step the line of thought which this view makes its own4 ,it is assumed that something happens outside of me in space2 this produces an effect upon my sense-organs2 and my nervous system conducts the impression thus made to my brain4 ,there another occurrence is brought about4 ,i experience the sensation 8red40 ,now follows the assertion3 therefore the sensation 8red0 is not outside1 not external to me2 it is in me4 ,all our sensations are merely symbols or signs of external occurrences of whose real quality we know nothing4 ,we live and move in our sensations and know nothing of their origin4 ,in the spirit of this line of thought1 it would thus be possible to assert that if we had no eyes1 colour would not exist2 for then there would be nothing to translate this1 to us1 wholly unknown external happening into the sensation 8red40 ,for many people this line of thought possesses a curious attraction2 but nevertheless it originates in a complete misconception of the facts under consideration4 7,were it not that many of the present day scientists and philosophers are blinded even to absurdity by this line of thought1 one would need to say less about it4 ,but1 as a matter of fact1 this blindness has ruined in many respects the thinking of the present day47 ,in truth1 since man is but one object or thing among other things1 it naturally follows that if he is to have any experience of them at all1 they must make an impression upon him somehow or other4 ,something that happens outside the man must cause something to happen within him1 if in his visual field the sensation 8red0 is to make its appearance4 ,the whole question turns upon this3 ,what is without8 what within8 ,outside of him something happens in space and time4 ,but within there is undoubtedly a similar occurrence4 ,for in the eye there occurs such a process1 which manifests itself to the brain when ,i perceive the colour 8red40 ,this process which goes on 8inside0 me1 ,i cannot perceive directly1 any more than ,i can directly perceive the wave motions 8outside0 which the physicist conceives of as answering to the colour 8red40 ,but really it is only in this sense that ,i can speak of an 8inside0 and an 8outside0 at all4 ,only on the plane of sense-perception can the opposition between 8outside0 and 8inside0 hold good4 ,the recognition of this leads me to assume the existence 8outside0 of a process in space and time1 although ,i do not directly perceive it at all4 ,and the same recognition further leads me to postulate a similar process within myself1 although ,i cannot directly perceive that either4 ,but1 as a matter of fact1 ,i habitually postulate analogous occurrences in space and time in ordinary life which ,i do not directly perceive2 as1 for instance1 when ,i hear piano-playing next door1 and assume that a human being in space is seated at the piano and is playing upon it4 ,and my conception1 when ,i speak of processes happening outside of1 and within me1 is just the same4 ,i assume that these processes have qualities analogous to those of the processes which do fall within the province of my senses1 only that1 because of certain reasons1 they escape my direct perception4 ,if ,i were to attempt to deny to these processes all the qualities which my senses show me in the domains of space and time1 ,i should in reality and in truth be trying to think of something not unlike the famous knife without a handle1 whose blade was wanting4 ,therefore1 ,i can only say that space and time processes take place 8outside0 me2 these bring about space and time processes 8within0 me2 and both are necessary if the sensation 8red0 is to appear in my field of vision4 ,and1 in so far as this 8red0 is not in space and time1 ,i shall seek for it equally in vain1 whether ,i seek 8without0 or 8within0 myself4 ,those scientists and philosophers who cannot find it 8outside10 ought not to want to find it 8inside0 either4 ,for it is not 8inside10 in exactly the same sense in which it is not 8outside40 ,to declare that the total content of that which the sense-world presents to us is but an inner world of sensation or feeling1 and then to endeavour to tack on something 8external0 or 8outside0 to it1 is a wholly impossible conception4 ,hence1 we must not speak of 8red10 8sweet10 8hot10 etc41 as being symbols1 or signs1 which as such are only aroused within us1 and to which 8outside0 of us something totally different corresponds4 ,for that which is really set going within us1 as the effect of some external happening1 is something altogether other than what appears in the field of our sensations4 ,if we want to call that which is within us a symbol1 then we can say3 ,these symbols make their appearance within our organism1 in order to mediate to us the perceptions which1 as such1 in their immediacy1 are neither within nor outside of us1 but belong1 on the contrary1 to that common world1 of which my 8external0 world and my 8internal0 world are only parts4 ,in order to be able to grasp this common world1 ,i must1 it is true1 raise myself to that higher plane of knowledge1 for which an 8inner0 and an 8outer0 no longer exist4 7,i know quite well that people who pride themselves on the gospel that our entire world of experience builds itself up out of sensations and feelings of unknown origin will look contemptuously upon these remarks2 as1 for instance1 ,dr4 ,erich ,adikes in his book1 ,kant contra ,haeckel1 observes condescendingly3 8,at first people like ,haeckel and thousands of his type philosophise gaily away without troubling themselves about theory of knowledge or critical self-reflection40 ,such gentlemen have no inkling of how cheap their own theories of knowledge are4 ,they suspect the lack of critical self-reflection only in others4 ,let us leave to them their 8wisdom407 ,nicholas of ,cusa expresses some very telling thoughts bearing directly upon this very point4 ,the clear and distinct way in which he holds apart the lower and the higher knowledge enables him1 on the one side1 to arrive at a full and complete recognition of the fact that man as a sense-being can only have in himself processes which1 as effects1 must necessarily be altogether unlike the corresponding external processes2 while1 on the other side1 it guards him against confusing the inner processes with the facts which make their appearance in the field of our perceptions1 and which1 in their immediacy1 are neither outside nor inside1 but altogether transcend this opposition of 8in0 and 8out40 ,but ,nicholas was hampered in the thorough carrying through of these ideas by his 8priestly garments40 ,so we see how he makes a fine beginning with the progress from 8knowing0 to 8not-knowing40 ,at the same time we must also note that in the domain of the higher knowledge1 or 8ignorance10 he unfolds practically nothing but the content of the theological teaching which the ,scholastics also give us4 ,certainly he knows how to expound this theological content in a most able manner4 ,he presents us with teachings about ,providence1 ,christ1 the creation of the world1 man's salvation1 the moral life1 which are kept thoroughly in harmony with dogmatic ,christianity4 ,it would have been in accordance with his mental starting point1 to say3 ,i have confidence in human nature that after having plunged deeply into the science of things in all directions1 it is capable of transforming from within itself this 8knowing0 into a 8not-knowing10 in such wise that the highest insight shall bring satisfaction4 ,in that case1 he would not simply have accepted the traditional ideas of the soul1 immortality1 salvation1 ,god1 creation1 the ,trinity1 and so forth1 as he actually did1 but he would have represented his own4 ,but ,nicholas personally was1 however1 so saturated with the conceptions of ,christianity that he might well believe himself to have awakened in himself a 8not-knowing0 of his own1 while yet he was merely bringing to light the traditional views in which he was brought up4 ,but he stood upon the verge of a terrible precipice in the spiritual life of man4 ,he was a scientific man4 ,now science1 primarily1 estranges us from the innocent harmony in which we live with the world so long as we abandon ourselves to a purely nave attitude towards life4 ,in such an attitude to life1 we dimly feel our connection with the world-whole4 ,we are beings like others1 forming links in the chain of ,nature's workings4 ,but with knowledge we separate ourselves off from this whole2 we create within us a mental world1 wherewith we stand alone and isolated over against ,nature4 ,we have become enriched2 but our riches are a burden which we bear with difficulty2 for it weighs primarily upon ourselves alone4 ,and we must now1 by our own strength1 find the way back again to ,nature4 ,we have to recognise that we ourselves must now fit our wealth into the stream of world activities1 just as previously ,nature herself had fitted in our poverty4 ,all evil demons lie in wait for man at this point4 ,his strength can easily fail him4 ,instead of himself accomplishing this fitting in1 he will1 if his strength thus fails1 seek refuge in some revelation coming from without1 which frees him again from his loneliness1 which leads back once more to the knowledge that he feels a burden1 into the very womb of being1 into the ,godhead4 ,like ,nicholas of ,cusa1 he will believe that he is travelling his own road2 and yet in reality he will be only following the path which his own spiritual evolution has pointed out for him4 ,now there are--in the main--three roads which one can follow1 when once one has reached the point at which ,nicholas had arrived3 the one is positive faith1 forcing itself upon us from without2 the second is despair2 one stands alone with one's burden1 and feels the whole universe tottering with oneself2 the third road is the development of the deepest1 most inward powers of man4 ,confidence1 trust in the world must be one of our guides upon this third path2 courage1 to follow that confidence whithersoever it may lead us1 must be the other4 ,,agrippa ,,von ,,nettesheim ,,and ,,theophrastus ,,paracelsus ,both ,heinrich ,cornelius ,agrippa von ,nettesheim 7#adhg-aece7 and ,theophrastus ,paracelsus 7#adic-aeda7 followed the same road along which points ,nicholas of ,cusa's way of conceiving things4 ,they devoted themselves to the study of ,nature1 and sought to discover her laws by all the means in their power and as thoroughly as possible4 ,in this knowledge of ,nature1 they saw the true basis of all higher knowledge4 ,they strove to develop this higher knowledge from within the science or knowledge of ,nature by bringing that knowledge to a new birth in the spirit4 ,agrippa von ,nettesheim led a much varied life4 ,he sprang from a noble family and was born in ,cologne4 ,he early studied medicine and law1 and sought to obtain clear insight into the processes of ,nature in the way which was then customary within certain circles and societies1 or even among isolated investigators1 who studiously kept secret whatever of the knowledge of ,nature they discovered4 ,for these purposes he went repeatedly to ,paris1 to ,italy1 and to ,england1 and also visited the famous ,abbot ,trithemius of ,sponheim in ,wrzburg4 ,he taught at various times in learned institutions1 and here and there entered the service of rich and distinguished people1 at whose disposal he placed his abilities as a statesman and a man of science4 ,if the services that he rendered are not always described by his biographers as unobjectionable1 if it is said that he made money under the pretence of understanding secret arts and conferring benefits on people thereby1 there stands against this his unmistakable1 unresting impulse to acquire honestly the entire knowledge of his age1 and to deepen this knowledge in the direction of a higher cognition of the world4 ,we may see in him very plainly the endeavour to attain to a clear and definite attitude towards natural science on the one hand1 and to the higher knowledge on the other4 ,but he only can attain to such an attitude who is possessed of a clear insight as to the respective roads which lead to one and to the other kind of knowledge4 ,as true as it is on the one hand that natural science must eventually be raised into the region of the spirit1 if it is to pass over into higher knowledge2 so1 also1 it is true on the other1 that this natural science must1 to begin with1 remain upon its own special ground1 if it is to yield the right basis for the attainment of a higher level4 ,the 8spirit in ,nature0 exists only for spirit4 ,so surely as ,nature in this sense is spiritual1 so surely too is there nothing in ,nature1 of all that is perceived by my bodily organs1 which is immediately spiritual4 ,there exists nothing spiritual which can appear to my eye as spiritual4 ,therefore1 ,i must not seek for the spirit as such in ,nature2 but that is what ,i am doing when ,i interpret any occurrence in the external world immediately as spiritual2 when1 for instance1 ,i ascribe to a plant a soul which is supposed to be only remotely analogous to that of man4 ,further1 ,i again do the same when ,i ascribe to spirit itself an existence in space and time2 as1 for instance1 when ,i assert of the human soul that it continues to exist in time without the body1 but yet after the manner of a body2 or again1 when ,i even go so far as to believe that1 under any sort of conditions or arrangements perceivable by the senses1 the spirit of a dead person can show itself4 ,spiritualism1 which makes this mistake1 only shows thereby that it has not attained to a true conception of the spirit at all1 but is still bent upon directly and immediately 8seeing0 the spirit in something grossly sensible4 ,it mistakes equally both the real nature of the sensible and also that of the spirit4 ,it de-spiritualises the ordinary world of sense1 which hourly passes before our eyes1 in order to give the name of spirit immediately to something rare1 surprising1 uncommon4 ,it fails to understand that that which lives as the 8spirit in nature0 reveals itself to him who is able to perceive spirit in the collision of two elastic balls1 for instance2 and not only in occurrences which are striking from their rarity1 and which cannot all at once be grasped in their natural sequence and connection4 ,but the spiritist further drags the spirit down into a lower sphere4 ,instead of explaining something that happens in space1 and that he perceives through his senses only1 in terms of forces and beings which in their turn are spacial and perceptible to the senses1 he resorts to 8spirits10 which he thereby places exactly on a level with the things of the senses4 ,at the very root of such a way of viewing things1 there lies a lack of the power of spiritual apprehension4 ,we are unable to perceive spiritual things spiritually2 we therefore satisfy our craving for the spiritual with mere beings perceptible to the senses4 ,their own inner spirit reveals to such men nothing spiritual2 and therefore they seek for the spiritual through the senses4 ,as they see clouds flying through the air1 so they would fain see spirits hastening along4 ,agrippa von ,nettesheim fought for a genuine science of ,nature1 which shall explain the phenomena of ,nature1 not by means of spirits phenomenalising in the world of the senses1 but by seeing in ,nature only the natural1 and in the spirit only the spiritual4 ,of course1 ,agrippa will be entirely misunderstood if one compares his natural science with that of later centuries which dispose of wholly different experiences4 ,in such a comparison1 it might easily seem that he was still actually and entirely referring to the direct action of spirits1 things which only depend upon natural connections or upon mistaken experience4 ,such a wrong is done to him by ,moriz ,carrire when he says1 not in any malicious sense1 it is true3 8,agrippa gives a huge list of things which belong to the ,sun1 the ,moon1 the ,planets and the fixed stars1 and receive influences from them2 for instance3 to the ,sun are related ,fire1 ,blood1 ,laurel1 ,gold1 ,chrysolite2 they confer the gifts of the ,sun3 ,courage1 ,cheerfulness1 and ,light4444 ,animals have a natural sense1 which1 higher than human understanding1 approaches the spirit of prophecy4444 ,men can be bewitched to love and hate1 to sickness and health4 ,thieves can be bewitched so that they cannot steal at some particular place1 merchants1 that they cannot do business1 mills1 that they cannot work1 lightning flashes1 that they cannot strike4 ,this is brought about through drinks1 salves1 images1 rings1 incantations2 the blood of hyenas or basilisks is adapted to such a purpose--it reminds one of ,shakespeare's witches' cauldron40 ,no2 it does not remind one of that1 if one understands ,agrippa aright4 ,he believed--it goes without saying--in many facts which in his time everybody regarded as unquestionable4 ,but we still do the same to-day4 ,or do we imagine that future centuries will not relegate much of what we now regard as 8undoubted fact0 to the lumber-room of 8blind0 superstition8 ,i am convinced that in our knowledge of facts there has been a real progress4 ,when once the 8fact0 that the earth is round had been discovered1 all previous conjectures were banished into the domain of 8superstition02 and the same holds good of certain truths of astronomy1 biology1 etc4 ,the doctrine of natural evolution constitutes an advance1 as compared with all previous 8theories of creation10 similar to that marked by the recognition of the roundness of the earth as contrasted with all previous speculations as to its form4 ,nevertheless1 ,i am vividly conscious that in our learned scientific works and treatises there is to be found many a 8fact0 which will seem to future centuries to be just as little of a fact as much that ,paracelsus and ,agrippa maintain2 but the really important point is not what they regarded as 8fact10 but how1 in what spirit1 they interpreted their 8facts40 ,in ,agrippa's time1 there was little understanding or sympathy for the 8natural magic0 he represented1 which sought in ,nature the natural--the spiritual only in the spirit2 men clung to the 8supernatural magic10 which sought the spiritual in the realm of the sensible1 and which ,agrippa combated4 ,therefore the ,abbot ,trithemius of ,sponheim was right in giving him the advice to communicate his views only as a secret teaching to a few chosen pupils who could rise to a similar idea of ,nature and spirit1 because one 8gives only hay to oxen and not sugar as to singing birds40 ,it may be that ,agrippa himself owed to this same ,abbot his own correct point of view4 ,in his ,steganography1 ,trithemius has produced a book in which he handled with the most subtle irony that mode of conceiving things which confuses nature with spirit4 ,in this book he apparently speaks of nothing but supernatural occurrences4 ,any one reading it as it stands must believe that the author is talking of conjurations of spirits1 of spirits flying through the air1 and so on4 ,if1 however1 one drops certain words and letters under the table1 there remain--as ,wolfgang ,ernst ,heidel proved in the year #afgf--letters which1 combined into words1 describe purely natural occurrences4 7,in one case1 for instance1 in a formula of conjuration1 one must drop the first and last words entirely1 and then cancel from the remainder the second1 fourth1 sixth1 and so on4 ,in the words left over1 one must again cancel the first1 third1 fifth letters and so on4 ,one next combines what is then left into words2 and the conjuration formula resolves itself into a purely natural communication47 ,how difficult it was for ,agrippa to work himself free from the prejudices of his time and to rise to a pure perception is proved by the fact that he did not allow his 8,occult ,philosophy0 7,philosophia ,occulta71 already written in #aeaj1 to appear before the year #aeca1 because he considered it unripe4 ,further evidence of this fact is given by his work 8,on the ,vanity of the ,sciences0 7,de ,vanitate ,scientiarum7 in which he speaks with bitterness of the scientific and other activities of his time4 ,he there states quite clearly that he has only with difficulty wrenched himself free from the phantasy which beholds in external actions immediate spiritual processes1 in external facts prophetic indications of the future1 and so forth4 ,agrippa advances to the higher knowledge in three stages4 ,he treats as the first stage the world as it is given for the senses1 with its substances1 its physical1 chemical and other forces4 ,he calls ,nature1 in so far as it is looked at on this level1 8elementary ,nature40 ,on the second stage1 one contemplates the world as a whole in its natural interconnection1 as it orders things according to measure1 number1 weight1 harmony1 and so forth4 ,the first stage proceeds from one thing to the next nearest4 ,it seeks for the causes of an occurrence in its immediate surroundings4 ,the second stage regards a single occurrence in connection with the entire universe4 ,it carries through the idea that everything is subject to the influence of all other things in the entire world-whole4 ,in its eyes this world-whole appears as a vast harmony1 in which each individual item is a member4 ,agrippa terms the world1 regarded from this point of view1 the 8astral0 or 8heavenly0 world4 ,the third stage of knowing is that wherein the spirit1 by plunging deep into itself1 perceives immediately the spiritual1 the ,root-,being of the world4 ,agrippa here speaks of the world1 of soul and spirit4 ,the views which ,agrippa develops about the world1 and the relation of man to the world1 present themselves to us in the case of ,theophrastus ,paracelsus1 in a similar manner1 only in more perfected form4 ,it is better1 therefore1 to consider them in connection with the latter4 ,paracelsus characterises himself aptly1 when he writes under his portrait3 8,none shall be another's slave1 who for himself can remain alone40 ,his whole attitude towards knowledge is given in these words4 ,he strives everywhere to go back himself to the deepest foundations of natural knowledge1 in order to rise by his own strength to the loftiest regions of cognition4 ,as ,physician1 he will not1 like his contemporaries1 simply accept what the ancient investigators1 who then counted as authorities1--,galen or ,avicenna1 for instance1 asserted long ago2 he is resolved to read for himself directly in the book of ,nature4 8,the ,physician must pass ,nature's examination1 which is the world1 and all its origins4 ,and the very same that ,nature teaches him1 he must command to his wisdom1 but seek for nothing in his wisdom1 only and alone in the light of ,nature40 ,he shrinks from nothing1 in order to learn to know ,nature and her workings in all directions4 ,for this purpose he made journeys to ,sweden1 ,hungary1 ,spain1 ,portugal1 and the ,east4 ,he can truly say of himself3 8,i have followed the ,art at the risk of my life1 and have not been ashamed to learn from wanderers1 executioners and sheep-shearers4 ,my doctrine was tested more severely than silver in poverty1 fears1 wars and hardships40 ,what has been handed down by ancient authorities has for him no value1 for he believes that he can attain to the right view only if he himself experiences the upward climb from the knowledge of ,nature to the highest insight4 ,this living1 personal experience puts into his mouth the proud utterance3 8,he who will follow truth1 must come into my monarchy4444 ,after me2 not ,i after you1 ,avicenna1 ,rhases1 ,galen1 ,mesur6 ,after me2 not ,i after you1 ,o ye of ,paris1 ye of ,montpellier1 ye of ,swabia1 ye of ,meissen1 ye of ,cologne1 ye of ,vienna and of what lies on the ,danube and the ,rhine2 ye islands in the sea1 thou ,italy1 thou ,dalmatia1 thou ,athens1 thou ,greek1 thou ,arab1 thou ,israelite2 after me1 not ,i after you6 ,mine is the ,monarchy40 ,it is easy to misunderstand ,paracelsus because of his rough exterior1 which sometimes conceals a deep earnestness behind a jest4 ,does he not himself say3 8,by nature ,i am not subtly woven1 nor brought up on figs and wheat-bread1 but on cheese1 milk and rye-bread1 wherefore ,i may well be rude with the over-clean and superfine2 for those who were brought up in soft clothing and we who were bred in pine needles do not easily understand one another4 ,when in myself ,i mean to be kindly1 ,i must therefore often be taken as rude4 ,how can ,i not be strange to one who has never wandered in the sun80 ,in his book about ,winkelmann1 ,goethe has described the relation of man to ,nature in the following beautiful sentence3 8,when the healthy nature of man acts as a whole2 when he feels himself as one with a great1 beautiful1 noble and worthy whole2 when the sense of harmonious well-being gives him a pure and free delight2 then would the ,universe1 if it could be conscious of its own feeling1 burst forth in joy at having attained its goal1 and contemplate with wondering admiration the summit of its own becoming and being40 ,with a feeling such as finds expression in these sentences1 ,paracelsus is simply saturated4 ,from out of its depths the riddle of humanity takes shape for him4 ,let us watch how this happens in ,paracelsus's sense4 ,at the outset1 the road by which ,nature has travelled to attain her loftiest altitude is hidden from man's power of comprehension4 ,she has climbed1 indeed1 to the summit2 but the summit does not proclaim3 ,i feel myself as the whole of ,nature2 it proclaims1 on the contrary3 ,i feel myself as this single1 separated human being4 ,that which in reality is an achievement of the whole universe1 feels itself as a separated1 isolated being1 standing alone by itself4 ,this indeed is the true being of man1 viz41 that he must needs feel himself to be something quite different from what1 in ultimate analysis1 he really is4 ,and if that be a contradiction1 then must man be called a contradiction come to life4 ,man is the universe in his own particular way2 he regards his oneness with the universe as a duality3 he is the very same that the universe is2 but he is the universe as a repetition1 as a single being4 ,this is the contrast which ,paracelsus feels as the ,microcosm 7,man7 and the ,macrocosm 7,universe74 ,man1 for him1 is the universe in miniature4 ,that which makes man regard his relationship to the world in this way1 that is his spirit4 ,this spirit appears as if bound to a single being1 to a single organism3 and this organism belongs1 by the very nature of its whole being1 to the mighty stream of the universe4 ,it is one member1 one link in that whole1 having its very existence only in relation with all the other links or members thereof4 ,but spirit appears as an outcome of this single1 separated organism1 and sees itself at the outset as bound up only with that organism4 ,it tears loose this organism from the mother earth out of which it has grown4 ,so1 for ,paracelsus1 a deep-seated connection between man and the universe lies hidden in the basic foundations of being1 a connection which is hidden through the presence of 8spirit40 ,that spirit which leads us to higher insight by making knowledge possible1 and leads on this knowledge to a new birth on a higher level--this has1 as its first result for us men1 to veil from us our own oneness with the whole4 ,thus the nature of man resolves itself for ,paracelsus in the first place into three factors3 our sensuous-physical nature1 our organism which appears to us as a natural being among other natural beings and is of like nature with all other natural beings2 our concealed or hidden nature1 which is a link in the chain of the whole universe1 and therefore is not shut up within the organism or limited to it1 but radiates and receives the workings of energy upon and from the entire universe2 and our highest nature1 our spirit1 which lives its life in a purely spiritual manner4 ,the first factor in man's nature ,paracelsus calls the 8elementary body02 the second1 the ethereal-heavenly1 or 8astral body02 and the third he names 8the ,soul40 ,thus in the 8astral0 phenomena1 ,paracelsus recognises an intermediate stage between the purely physical and the properly spiritual or soul-phenomena4 ,therefore these astral activities will come into view when the spirit or soul1 which veils or conceals the natural basis of our being1 suspends its activity4 ,in the dream-world we see the simplest phenomena of this realm4 ,the pictures which hover before us in dreams1 with their remarkably significant connection with occurrences in our environment and with states of our inner nature1 are products of our natural basis or root-being1 which are obscured by the brighter light of the soul4 ,for example1 when a chair falls over beside my bed and ,i dream a whole drama ending with a shot fired in a duel2 or when ,i have palpitation of the heart and dream of a boiling cauldron1 we can see that in these dreams natural operations come to light which are full of sense and meaning1 and disclose a life lying between the purely organic functions and the concept-forming activity which is carried on in the full1 clear consciousness of the spirit4 ,connected with this region are all the phenomena belonging to the domain of hypnotism and suggestion2 and in the latter are we not compelled to recognise an interaction between human beings1 which points to some connection or relation between beings in ,nature1 which is normally hidden by the higher activity of the mind8 ,from this starting point we can reach an understanding of what ,paracelsus meant by the 8astral0 body4 ,it is the sum total of those natural operations under whose influence we stand1 or may in special circumstances come to stand1 or which proceed from us1 without our souls or minds coming into consideration in connection with them1 but which yet cannot be included under the concept of purely physical phenomena4 ,the fact that ,paracelsus reckons as truths in this domain things which we doubt to-day1 does not come into the question1 from the point of view which ,i have already described4 ,starting from the basis of these views as to the nature of man1 ,paracelsus divides him into seven factors or principles1 which are the same as those we also find in the wisdom of the ancient ,egyptians1 among the ,neoplatonists and in the ,kabbalah4 ,in the first place1 man is a physical-bodily being1 and therefore subject to the same laws as every other body4 ,he is1 in this respect1 therefore1 a purely 8elementary0 body4 ,the purely physical-bodily laws combine into an organic life-process1 and ,paracelsus denotes this organic sequence of law by the terms 8archus0 or 8spiritus vit40 ,next1 the organic rises into a region of phenomena resembling the spiritual1 but which are not yet properly spiritual1 and these he classifies as 8astral0 phenomena4 ,from amidst these astral phenomena1 the functions of the 8animal soul0 make their appearance4 ,man becomes a being of the senses4 ,then he connects together his sense impressions according to their nature1 by his understanding or mind1 and the 8human soul0 or 8reasoning soul0 becomes alive in him4 ,he sinks himself deep into his own mental productions1 and learns to recognise 8spirit0 as such1 and thus he has risen at length to the level of the 8spiritual soul40 ,finally1 he must come to recognise that in this spiritual soul he is experiencing the ultimate basis of universal being2 the spiritual soul ceases to be individual1 to be separated4 ,then arises the knowledge of which ,eckhart spoke when he felt no longer that he was speaking within himself1 but that in him the ,root-,being was uttering ,itself4 ,the condition has come about in which the ,all-,spirit in man beholds ,itself4 ,paracelsus has stamped the feeling of this condition with the simple words3 8,and that is a great thing whereon to dwell3 there is naught in heaven or upon earth that is not in ,man4 ,and ,god who dwelleth in ,heaven1 ,he also is in ,man40 ,with these seven principles of human nature1 ,paracelsus aims at expressing nothing else than the facts of inner and outer experience4 ,the fact remains unquestioned that1 what for human experience subdivides itself into a multiplicity of seven factors1 is in higher reality a unity4 ,but the higher insight exists just for the very purpose of exhibiting the unity in all that appears as multiplicity to man1 owing to his bodily and spiritual organisation4 ,on the level of the highest insight1 ,paracelsus strives to the utmost to fuse the unitary ,root-,being of the world with his own spirit4 ,but he knows that man can only cognise ,nature in its spirituality1 when he enters into immediate intercourse with that ,nature4 ,man does not grasp ,nature by peopling it from within himself with arbitrarily assumed entities2 but by accepting and valuing it as it is1 as ,nature4 ,paracelsus therefore does not seek for ,god or for spirit in ,nature2 but ,nature1 just as it comes before his eyes1 is for him wholly1 immediately divine4 ,must one then first ascribe to the plant a soul after the kind of a human soul1 in order to find the spiritual8 ,hence ,paracelsus explains to himself the development of things1 so far as that is possible with the scientific means of his age1 altogether in such wise that he conceives this development as a sensible-natural process4 ,he makes all things to proceed from the root-matter1 the root-water 7,yliaster74 ,and he regards as a further natural process the separation of the root-matter 7which he also calls the great ,limbus7 into the four elements3 ,water1 ,earth1 ,fire and ,air4 ,when he says that the 8,divine ,word0 called forth the multiplicity of beings from the root-matter1 one must understand this also only in such wise as perhaps in more recent natural science one must understand the relationship of ,force to ,matter4 ,a 8,spirit10 in a matter-of-fact sense1 is not yet present at this stage4 ,this 8,spirit0 is no matter-of-fact basis of the natural process1 but a matter-of-fact result of that process4 ,this ,spirit does not create ,nature1 but develops itself out of ,nature4 ,not a few statements of ,paracelsus might be interpreted in the opposite sense4 ,thus when he says3 8,there is nothing which does not possess and carry with it also a spirit hidden in it and that lives not withal4 ,also1 not only has that life1 which stirs itself and moves1 as men1 animals1 the worms in the earth1 the birds in the sky and the fishes in water1 but all bodily and actual things as well40 ,but in such sayings ,paracelsus only aims at warning us against that superficial contemplation of ,nature which fancies it can exhaust the being of a thing with a couple of 8stuck-up0 concepts1 according to ,goethe's apt expression4 ,he aims not at putting into things some imaginary being1 but at setting in motion all the powers of man to bring out that which in actual fact lies in the thing4 ,what matters is not to let oneself be misled by the fact that ,paracelsus expresses himself in the spirit of his time4 ,it is far more important to recognise what things really hovered before his mind when1 looking upon ,nature1 he expresses his ideas in the forms of expression proper to his age4 ,he ascribes to man1 for instance1 a dual flesh1 that is1 a dual bodily constitution4 8,the flesh must also be understood1 that it is of two kinds1 namely the flesh that comes from ,adam and the flesh which is not from ,adam4 ,the flesh from ,adam is a gross flesh1 for it is earthly and nothing besides flesh1 that can be bound and grasped like wood and stone4 ,the other flesh is not from ,adam1 it is a subtle flesh and cannot be bound or grasped1 for it is not made of earth40 ,what is the flesh that is from ,adam8 ,it is everything that man has received through natural development1 everything1 therefore1 that has passed on to him by heredity4 ,to that is added1 whatever man has acquired for himself in his intercourse with the world around him in the course of time4 ,the modern scientific conceptions of inherited characteristics and those acquired by adaptation easily emerge from the above-cited thought of ,paracelsus4 ,the 8more subtle flesh0 that makes man capable of his intellectual activities1 has not existed from the beginning in man4 ,man was 8gross flesh0 like the animal1 a flesh that 8can be bound and grasped like wood and stone40 ,in a scientific sense1 therefore1 the soul is also an acquired characteristic of the 8gross flesh40 ,what the scientist of the nineteenth century has in his mind's eye when he speaks of the factors inherited from the animal world1 is just what ,paracelsus has in view when he uses the expression1 8the flesh that comes from ,adam40 ,naturally ,i have not the least intention of blurring the difference that exists between a scientist of the sixteenth and one of the nineteenth century4 ,it was1 indeed1 this latter century which for the first time was able to see1 in the full scientific sense1 the phenomena of living beings in such a connection that their natural relationship and actual descent1 right up to man1 stood out clearly before one's eyes4 ,science sees only a natural process where ,linnus in the eighteenth century saw a spiritual process and characterised it in the words3 8,there are counted as many species of living beings1 as there were created different forms in the beginning40 ,while thus in ,linnus's time1 the ,spirit had still to be transferred into the spacial world and have assigned to it the task of spiritually generating the forms of life1 or 8creating0 them3 the natural science of the nineteenth century could give to ,nature what belonged to ,nature1 and to ,spirit what belonged to ,spirit4 ,to ,nature is even assigned the task of explaining her own creations2 and the ,spirit can plunge into itself there1 where alone it is to be found1 in the inner being of man4 ,but although in a certain sense ,paracelsus thinks according to the spirit of his age1 yet he has grasped the relationship of man to ,nature in a profound manner1 especially in relation to the idea of ,evolution1 of ,becoming4 ,he did not see in the ,root-,being of the universe something which in any sense is there as a finished thing1 but he grasped the ,divine in the process of ,becoming4 ,thereby he was enabled truly to ascribe to man a self-creative activity4 ,for if the divine root of being is1 as it were1 given once for all1 then there can be no question of any truly creative activity in man4 ,it is not man1 living in time1 who then creates1 but it is ,god1 who is from ,eternity1 that creates4 ,but for ,paracelsus there is no such ,god from ,eternity4 ,for him there is only an eternal happening1 and man is one link in this eternal happening4 ,what man forms1 was previously in no sense existent4 ,what man creates1 is1 as he creates it1 a new1 original creation4 ,if it is to be called divine1 it can only be so-called in the sense in which it is a human creation4 ,therefore ,paracelsus can assign to man a rle in the building of the universe1 which makes him a co-architect in its creation4 ,the divine root of being is without man1 not that which it is with man4 8,for nature brings nothing to light1 which as such is perfect1 but man must make it perfect40 ,this self-creative activity of man in the building of the universe is what ,paracelsus calls ,alchemy4 8,this perfecting is ,alchemy4 ,thus the ,alchemist is the baker1 when he bakes bread1 the vintager1 when he makes wine1 the weaver1 when he makes cloth40 ,paracelsus aims at being an ,alchemist in his own domain as a ,physician4 8,therefore ,i may well write so much here about ,alchemy1 that ye may well understand it1 and experience that which it is and how it is to be understood2 and not find a stumbling-block therein that neither ,gold nor ,silver shall come to thee therefrom4 ,but have regard thereunto1 that the ,arcana curative means be revealed unto thee4444 ,the third pillar of medicine is ,alchemy1 for the preparation of the medicines cannot come to pass without it1 because ,nature cannot be made use of without ,art40 ,in the strictest sense1 therefore1 the eyes of ,paracelsus are directed to ,nature1 in order to overhear from herself what she has to say about that which she brings forth4 ,he seeks to explore the laws of chemistry1 so that1 in his sense1 he may work as an ,alchemist4 ,he pictures to himself all bodies as compounded out of three root-substances3 ,salt1 ,sulphur1 and ,mercury4 ,what he thus names1 naturally does not coincide with that which later chemistry solely and strictly calls by these names2 just as little as that which ,paracelsus conceives of as the root-substance is such in the sense of our later chemistry4 ,different things are called by the same names at different times4 ,what the ancients called the four elements3 ,earth1 ,water1 ,air1 and ,fire1 we still have to-day4 ,but we call these four 8elements0 no longer 8elements10 but states of aggregation and have for them the designations3 solid1 liquid1 gaseous and etheric4 ,the ,earth1 for instance1 was for the ancients not earth1 but the 8solid40 ,again1 we can clearly recognise the three root-substances of ,paracelsus in contemporary conceptions1 though not in present names of like sound4 ,for ,paracelsus1 dissolution in a liquid and burning are the two most important chemical processes which he utilises4 ,if a body be dissolved or burnt1 it breaks up into its parts4 ,something remains behind as insoluble2 something dissolves1 or is burnt4 ,what is left behind is to him of the nature of ,salt2 the soluble 7liquid7 of the nature of ,mercury2 while he terms ,sulphur-like the part that can be burnt4 ,all this1 taken as relating to material things1 may leave the man cold who cannot look out beyond such natural processes2 whoever seeks at all costs to grasp the spirit with his senses1 will people these processes with all sorts of ensouling beings4 ,he1 however1 who like ,paracelsus knows how to regard them in connection with the whole1 which permits its secret to become revealed in man's inner being1--he accepts them1 as the senses offer them2 he does not first re-interpret them2 for just as the occurrences of ,nature lie before us in their sensible reality1 so too do they1 in their own way1 reveal to us the riddle of existence4 ,that which through their sensible reality they have to unveil from within the soul of man1 stands1 for him who strives after the light of higher knowledge1 far higher than all supernatural wonders that man can invent or get revealed to him about their suppositious 8spirit40 ,there is no 8,spirit of ,nature10 capable of uttering loftier truths than the mighty works of ,nature herself1 when our soul links itself in friendship with that ,nature and listens to the revelations of her secrets in intimate and tender intercourse4 ,such friendship with ,nature was what ,paracelsus sought4 ,,valentine ,,weigel ,,and ,,jacob ,,boehme ,in the view of ,paracelsus1 what mattered most was to acquire ideas about ,nature which should breathe the spirit of the higher insight that he represented4 ,a thinker related to him1 who applied the same mode of conceiving things to his own nature especially1 is ,,valentine ,,weigel 7#aecc-aehh74 ,he grew up out of ,protestant theology in a like sense to that in which ,eckhart1 ,tauler1 and ,suso grew up out of ,roman ,catholic theology4 ,he has predecessors in ,sebastian ,frank and ,caspar ,schwenckfeldt4 ,these two1 as contrasted with the orthodox ,churchmen clinging to external profession1 pointed downwards to the deepening of the inner life4 ,for them it is not that ,jesus whom the ,gospels preach who is of value1 but the ,christ who can be born in every man as his deeper nature1 and become for him the ,saviour from the lower life and the guide to ideal uplifting4 ,weigel performed silently and humbly the duties of his office as clergyman in ,zschopau4 ,it was only from the writings he left behind1 printed first in the seventeenth century1 that the world learned anything of the significant ideas which had come to him about the nature of man4#ae #ae ,the following1 from among his writings1 may be named3 ,der gldene ,griff1 das ist alle ,ding ohne ,irrthumb zu erkennen1 vielen ,hochgelehrten unbekandt1 und doch allen ,menschen nothwendig zu wissen2 ,erkenne dich selbst2 ,vom ,ort der ,welt4 ,weigel feels himself driven to gain a clear understanding of his relation to the teaching of the ,church2 and that leads him on further to investigate the basic foundations of all knowledge4 ,whether man can know anything through a confession of faith1 is a question as to which he can only give himself an account when he knows how man knows4 ,weigel starts from the lowest kind of knowing4 ,he asks himself3 ,how do ,i know a sensible object1 when it presents itself before me8 ,thence he hopes to be able to mount upwards to a point of view whence he can give himself an account of the highest knowledge4 ,in cognition through the senses1 the instrument 7the sense-organ7 and the object1 the 8counterpart0 7,gegenwurf7 stand opposed4 8,since in natural perception there must be two things1 as the object or #8counterpart1' which is to be known and seen by the eye2 and the eye1 or the perceiver1 which sees or knows the object1 so do thou hold over against each other3 whether the knowledge comes forth from the object to the eye2 or whether the judgment1 or the cognition1 flows out from the eye into the object40#af ,weigel now says to himself3 ,if the cognition 7or knowledge7 flowed from the 8counterpart0 7or thing7 into the eye1 then of necessity from one and the same thing a similar and perfect cognition must come to all eyes4 ,but that is not the case1 for each man sees according to the measure of his own eyes4 ,only the eyes1 not the 8counterpart0 7or object7 can be in fault1 in that various and different conceptions are possible of one and the same thing4 ,to clear up the matter1 ,weigel compares seeing with reading4 ,if the book were not there1 ,i naturally could not read it2 but it might still be there1 and yet ,i could read nothing in it1 if ,i did not understand the art of reading4 ,the book therefore must be there2 but1 from itself it can give me not the smallest thing2 ,i must draw forth everything ,i read from within myself4 ,that is also the nature of sensible perception4 ,colour is there as the 8counterpart10 but it can give the eye nothing from out of itself4 ,the eye must recognise1 from out of itself1 what colour is4 ,as little as the content of the book is in the reader1 just so little is colour in the eye4 ,if the content of the book were in the reader1 he would not need to read it4 ,yet in reading1 this content does not flow out from the book1 but from the reader4 ,so is it also with the sensible object4 ,what the sensible thing before him is2 that does not flow from outside into the man1 but from within outwards4 #af ,der gldene ,griff1 p4 #bf et seq4 ,starting from these thoughts1 one might say3 ,if all knowledge flows out from man into the object1 then one does not know what is in the object1 but only what is in man4 ,the detailed working out of this line of thought1 brought about the view of ,immanuel ,kant 7#agbd-ahjd74ag #ag ,the error in this line of thought will be found explained in my book1 ,the ,philosophy of ,freedom1 ,berlin1 #ahid4 ,here ,i must limit myself to mentioning that ,valentine ,weigel1 with his simple1 robust way of conceiving things1 stands far higher than ,kant4 ,weigel says to himself3 ,even if the knowledge flows out from man1 it is still only the being of the 8counterpart0 7or object7 which comes to light in this indirect way through man4 ,as ,i learn the content of the book by reading it1 and not by my own content1 so also ,i learn the colour of the 8counterpart0 through the eye1 not any colour to be found in the eye1 or in myself4 7,thus ,weigel arrives by a road of his own at a result that we have already encountered in ,nicholas of ,cusa4 ,cp4 pages #aea-afj74 ,in this way ,weigel attained to clearness as to the nature of sense-perception4 ,he arrived at the conviction that everything which external things have to tell us can only flow forth from our own inner nature itself4 ,man cannot remain passive when he tries to know sensible objects and seeks merely to allow them to act upon him2 but he must assume an active attitude1 and bring forth the knowledge from within himself4 ,the counterpart 7or object7 merely awakens the knowledge in the spirit4 ,man rises to higher knowledge when his spirit becomes its own 8counterpart40 ,one can see from sensible cognition that no cognition can flow into man from outside4 ,therefore there can be no such thing as an external revelation1 but only an inner awakening4 ,as now the external counterpart waits till there comes into its presence man1 in whom it can express its being1 so too must man wait1 when he seeks to be his own 8counterpart0 7or object7 until the knowledge of his own being shall be awakened in him4 ,if1 in cognition through the senses1 man must assume an active attitude in order that he may bring to meet the 8counterpart0 its own being1 so in the higher knowing1 man must hold himself passive1 because he is himself now the 8counterpart40 ,he must admit its being into himself4 ,therefore the cognition of the spirit appears to him as enlightenment from above4 ,in contrast to cognition through the senses1 ,weigel therefore terms the higher cognition the 8,light of ,mercy0 ,this 8,light of ,mercy0 is1 in reality1 nothing other than the self-knowledge of the spirit in man1 or the re-birth of knowledge on the higher level of beholding4 ,now just as ,nicholas of ,cusa1 in following up his road from knowing to beholding1 does not really bring about the re-birth of the knowledge he has gained1 on the higher level1 but only the faith of the ,church in which he was brought up appears deceptively before him as such a re-birth1 so is it also the case with ,weigel4 ,he guides himself to the right road1 but loses it again in the very moment in which he steps upon it4 ,he who will travel the road that ,weigel points out1 can regard the latter as his guide only as far as the starting-point4 99 99 99 99 99 ,what rings out to meet us from the works of the ,master-,shoemaker of ,grlitz1 ,,jacob ,,boehme 7#aege-afbd71 sounds like the joyous outburst of ,nature admiring her own being upon the summit of her evolution4 ,a man appears before us whose words have wings1 woven out of the inspiring feeling of having seen knowledge shining within him as ,higher ,wisdom4 ,jacob ,boehme describes his own state as ,piety which strives only to be ,wisdom1 and as a ,wisdom that seeks to live only in ,piety3 8,as ,i was wrestling and fighting in ,god's behalf1 behold a wondrous light shone into my soul1 such as was quite foreign to savage nature2 therein ,i first knew what ,god and man were1 and what ,god had to do with men40 ,jacob ,boehme no longer feels himself as a separated being expressing its insights2 he feels himself as an organ of the great ,all-,spirit1 speaking in him4 ,the limits of his personality do not appear to him as the limits of the ,spirit that speaks from within him4 ,this ,spirit is for him present everywhere4 ,he knows that 8the ,sophist will blame him0 when he speaks of the beginning of the world and its creation3 8the while ,i was not thereby and did not myself see it4 ,to him be it said that in the essence of my soul and body1 when ,i was not yet the #8,i1' but when ,i was still ,adam's essence1 ,i was there present and myself squandered away my glory in ,adam40 ,only in external similes is ,boehme able to indicate how the light broke forth in his inner being4 ,when once as a boy he finds himself on the top of a mountain1 he sees above him a place where large red stones seem to shut up the mountain2 the entrance is open and in its depth he sees a vessel full of gold4 ,a shudder runs through him2 and he goes on his way without touching the treasure4 ,later on he is apprenticed to a shoemaker in ,grlitz4 ,a stranger steps into the shop and demands a pair of shoes4 ,boehme is not allowed to sell them in the absence of his master4 ,the stranger departs1 but after a while calls the apprentice out of the shop and says to him3 8,jacob1 thou art little1 but thou wilt some day become quite another man1 over whom the world will break out into wonder40 ,in riper years1 ,jacob ,boehme sees the reflection of the bright sun in a tin vessel3 the view that thus presents itself to him seems to him to unveil a profound secret4 ,even after the impression of this appearance1 he believes himself to be in possession of the key to the riddles of ,nature4 ,he lives as a spiritual anchorite1 humbly earning his living by his trade1 and between whiles1 as though for his own recollection1 he notes down the harmonies which resound in his inner being when he feels the ,spirit in himself4 ,the zealotry of priestly fervour makes life hard for the man2 he1 who desires naught but to read the ,scripture which the light of his inner nature illuminates for him1 is persecuted and tortured by those to whom only the external writ1 the rigid1 dogmatic confession of faith1 is accessible4 ,one world-riddle remains as a disquieting presence in ,jacob ,boehme's soul1 driving him on to knowledge4 ,he believes himself to be in his spirit enfolded in a divine harmony2 but when he looks around him1 he sees discord everywhere in the divine workings4 ,to man belongs the light of ,wisdom2 and yet he is exposed to error2 in him lives the impulse to the good1 and yet the discord of evil sounds throughout the whole of human development4 ,nature is governed by its own great laws2 yet its harmony is disturbed by happenings of no purport1 and the warfare of the elements4 ,how is this discord in the harmonious world-whole to be understood8 ,this question tortures ,jacob ,boehme4 ,it strides into the centre of the world of his thought4 ,he strives to gain a view of the world as a whole1 which shall include the discordant4 ,for how can a conception which leaves the actual present discord unexplained explain the world8 ,the discord must be explained out of the harmony1 the evil out of the good itself4 ,let us restrict ourselves1 in speaking of these things1 to the good and the evil1 wherein the lack of harmony in the narrower sense finds its expression4 ,for1 fundamentally1 ,jacob ,boehme also restricts himself to this4 ,he can do so1 for ,nature and man appear to him as a single entity4 ,he sees in both similar laws and processes4 ,the purposeless seems to him an evil something in ,nature1 just as evil seems to him something purposeless in man4 ,similar fundamental forces rule both here and there4 ,to one who has known the origin of evil in man1 the source of evil in ,nature also lies open and clear4 ,now1 how can the evil as well as the good flow forth from the very same ,root-,being8 ,speaking in ,jacob ,boehme's sense1 one would give the following answer4 ,the ,root-,being does not live out its existence in itself4 ,the multiplicity of the world shares in this existence4 ,as the human body lives its life1 not as a single member1 but as a multiplicity of members1 so also the ,root-,being4 ,and as human life is poured out into this multiplicity of members1 so too the ,root-,being is poured out into the manifoldness of the things of this world4 ,as true as it is that the entire man has only one life1 so true is it that every member has its own life4 ,and as little as it contradicts the whole harmonious life of a man1 that his hand should turn itself against his own body and wound it1 so little is it impossible that the things of the world1 which live the life of the ,root-,being in their own way1 should turn themselves against each other4 ,thus the ,root-,being1 in dividing itself among different lives1 confers upon each such life the capacity to turn itself against the whole4 ,it is not from the good that evil streams forth1 but from the way in which the good lives4 ,as the light is only able to shine when it pierces the darkness1 so the good can bring itself to life only when it permeates its opposite4 ,from out of the 8fathomless abyss0 of darkness there streams forth the light2 from the 8groundlessness0 of the indifferent there is brought to birth the ,good4 ,and as in the shadow only the brightening demands a pointing to the light2 but the darkness1 as a matter of course1 is felt as that which weakens the light2 so too in the world1 it is only the law-abiding character that is sought for in all things2 and the evil1 the purposeless1 is accepted as a matter of course1 intelligible in itself4 ,thus1 in spite of the fact that for ,jacob ,boehme the ,root-,being is the ,all1 still nothing in the world can be understood1 unless one has an eye both to the ,root-,being and its opposite at once4 8,the good has swallowed up into itself the evil or the hideous4444 ,every being has in itself good and evil1 and in its unfoldment1 as it passes over into division1 it becomes a contradiction of qualities1 as one seeks to overcome the other40 ,hence it is altogether in accordance with ,jacob ,boehme's view to see in everything1 and in every process of the world1 both good and evil2 but it is not in accord with his meaning1 without more ado to seek the ,root-,being in the mingling of good and evil4 ,the ,root-,being must swallow up the evil2 but the evil is not a part of the ,root-,being4 ,jacob ,boehme seeks the ,root-,being of the world2 but the world itself has sprung forth from the 8fathomless abyss0 through the ,root-,being4 8,the external world is not ,god1 and eternally will not be called ,god1 but only a being wherein ,god manifests ,himself4444 ,when one says3 ,god is all1 ,god is heaven and earth1 and also the outer world1 so is that true3 for from him and in him all stands originally rooted4 ,but what am ,i to do with such a saying1 which is no religion80 ,with such a view in the background1 ,jacob ,boehme's conceptions as to the being of the whole world built themselves up in his mind1 so that he makes the orderly world emerge in a series of steps from the 8fathomless abyss40 ,this world builds itself up in seven natural forms4 ,in dark astringency the ,root-,being receives form1 dumbly shut up within itself and motionless4 ,this astringency ,boehme grasps under the symbol of ,salt4 ,in employing such designations he leans upon ,paracelsus1 who had borrowed from chemical processes his names for the processes of ,nature4 ,by swallowing up its opposite1 the first nature-form passes over into the form of the second2 the astringent1 the motionless1 takes on movement2 ,power and ,life enter into it4 ,quicksilver 7,mercury7 is the symbol for this second form4 ,in the struggle of ,rest and ,motion1 of ,death with ,life1 the third form of ,nature unveils itself 7,sulphur74 ,this ,life battling within itself1 becomes manifest to itself2 it lives thenceforward no longer an outer battle of its members2 there quivers through it as it were a unifying glowing flash1 itself lighting up its own being 7,fire74 ,this fourth form of ,nature rises to the fifth1 the living battle of the parts resting in themselves 7,water74 ,on this level1 as upon the first1 there is present an inner astringency and dumbness2 only it is not an absolute rest1 a silence of the inner opposites1 but an interior movement of the opposites4 ,it is not the motionless resting in itself1 but the moved1 that which has been kindled by the fire-flash of the fourth stage4 ,upon the sixth level1 the ,root-,being itself becomes aware of itself as such inner life4 ,living beings endowed with senses represent this form of ,nature4 ,jacob ,boehme calls it the 8,clang0 or ,call1 and in so doing adopts the sense-perception of sound as the symbol for sense-perception in general4 ,the seventh form of ,nature is the ,spirit1 raising itself on the basis of its sense-perceptions 7,wisdom74 ,he finds himself again as himself1 as the ,root-,being1 within the world that has grown up out of the 8fathomless abyss10 shaping itself out of the harmonious and the discordant4 8,the ,holy ,ghost brings the ,glory of this ,majesty into the being1 wherein the ,godhead stands revealed40 ,it is with such views that ,jacob ,boehme seeks to fathom that world which for him1 according to the knowledge of his time1 was reckoned as the actual world of fact4 ,for him all is fact which is so regarded by the natural science of his time and by the ,bible4 ,his way of conceiving things is one thing1 his world of facts quite another4 ,one can imagine the former applied to a totally different knowledge of facts4 ,and thus there appears before our eyes a ,jacob ,boehme as he might stand at the parting of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries4 ,such a one would not saturate with his way of conceiving things the six days' creation work of the ,bible and the fight of the angels and the devils1 but ,lyell's geological knowledge and the facts of ,haeckel's ,the ,history of ,creation4 ,he who can penetrate into the spirit of ,jacob ,boehme's writings must arrive at this conviction4#ah #ah ,we may here name the most important of ,boehme's writings3 ,die ,morgenrthe im ,aufgang2 ,die drei ,prinzipien gttlichen ,lebens oder ber das dreifache ,leben des ,menschen2 ,das umgewandte ,auge2 8,signatura rerum0 oder von der ,geburt und ,bezeichnung aller ,wesen2 ,das 8,mysterium ,magnum40 ,,giordano ,,bruno ,,and ,,angelus ,,silesius ,in the first decennium of the sixteenth century1 the scientific genius of ,nicholas ,copernicus 7#adgc-aedc7 thinks out in the castle of ,heilsberg1 in ,prussia1 an intellectual structure which compels the men of subsequent epochs to look up to the starry heavens with other conceptions than those which their forefathers in antiquity and the ,middle ,ages had4 ,to them the earth was their dwelling-place1 at rest in the centre of the ,universe4 ,the stars1 however1 were for them beings of a perfect nature1 whose motion took place in circles because the circle is the representative of perfection4 ,in that which the stars showed to human senses they beheld something of the nature of soul1 something spiritual4 ,it was one kind of speech that the things and processes upon earth spoke to man2 quite another1 that of the shining stars1 beyond the moon in the pure ther1 which seemed like some spiritual nature filling space4 ,nicholas of ,cusa had already formed other ideas4 ,through ,copernicus1 earth became for man a brother-being in face of the other heavenly bodies1 a star moving like others4 ,all the difference that earth has to show for man he could now reduce to this3 that earth is his dwelling-place4 ,he was no longer forced to think differently about the events of this earth and those of the rest of universal space4 ,the world of his senses had expanded itself into the most remote spaces4 ,he was compelled henceforth to allow that which penetrated his eye from the ther to count as sense-world just as much as the things of earth4 ,he could no longer seek in the ther in sensuous fashion for the ,spirit4 ,whoever1 henceforth1 strove after higher knowledge1 must needs come to an understanding with this expanded world of the senses4 ,in earlier centuries1 the brooding mind of man stood before a world of facts4 ,now he was confronted with a new task4 ,no longer could the things of earth only express this nature from within man's inner being4 ,this inner nature of his was called on to embrace the spirit of a sense-world1 which fills the ,all of ,space everywhere alike4 ,the thinker of ,nola1 ,,philotheo ,,giordano ,,bruno 7#aedh-afjj7 found himself faced by such a problem4 ,the senses have conquered the universe of space2 henceforth the ,spirit is no more to be found in space4 ,thus man was guided from without to seek henceforward for the ,spirit there alone where from out of profound inner experiences those glorious thinkers sought it1 whose ranks our previous expositions have led before us4 ,these thinkers drew upon a view of the world to which1 later on1 the advance of natural knowledge forces humanity4 ,the sun of those ideas1 which later should shine upon a new view of ,nature1 with them still stands below the horizon2 but their light already appears as the early dawn at a time when men's thoughts of ,nature itself still lay in the darkness of night4 ,the sixteenth century gave the heavenly spaces to natural science for the sense-world to which it rightfully belongs2 by the end of the nineteenth century1 this science had advanced so far that1 even within the phenomena of plant1 animal1 and human life1 it could assign to the world of sensible facts that which belongs to it4 ,neither1 then1 in the ther above1 nor in the development of living creatures1 can this natural science henceforth seek for anything but sensible1 matter-of-fact processes4 ,as the thinker in the sixteenth century had to say3 8,the earth is a star among other stars1 subject to the same laws as other stars02 so must the thinker of the nineteenth century say3 8,man1 whatever may be his origin and his future1 is for anthropology only a mammal1 and further1 that mammal whose organisation1 needs and diseases are the most complex1 whose brain1 with its marvellous capacities1 has reached the highest level of development40#ai #ai ,paul ,topinard3 ,anthropologie1 ,leipzig1 #ahhh1 p4 #ebh4 ,from such a standpoint1 attained through natural science1 there can no longer occur any confusion between the spiritual and the sensible1 provided man understands himself rightly4 ,developed natural science makes it impossible to seek in ,nature for a ,spirit conceived of after the fashion of something material1 just as healthy thinking makes it impossible to seek for the reason of the forward movement of the clock-hand1 not in mechanical laws 7the ,spirit of inorganic ,nature71 but in a special ,daimon1 supposed to bring about the movements of the hands4 ,ernst ,haeckel was quite right in rejecting1 as a scientist1 the gross conception of a ,god conceived of in material fashion4 8,in the higher and more abstract forms of religion1 the bodily appearance is abandoned and ,god is worshipped as pure ,spirit1 devoid of body4 #8,god is a ,spirit1 and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth4' ,but1 nevertheless1 the soul-activity of this pure ,spirit remains quite the same as that of the anthropomorphic personal ,god4 ,in reality1 even this immaterial ,spirit is not thought of as bodiless1 but as invisible1 like a gas4 ,we thus arrive at the paradoxical conception of ,god as a gaseous vertebrate40#bj #bj ,haeckel1 ,riddle of the ,universe4 ,in reality1 the matter-of-fact1 sensible existence of something spiritual may be assumed only when immediate sensible experience shows something spiritual1 and only such a degree of the spiritual may be assumed as can be perceived in this manner4 ,that first rate thinker1 ,b4 ,carneri1 ventured to say 7in his book3 ,empfindung und ,bewusstsein1 p4 #ae73 8,the dictum3 ,no spirit without matter1 but also no matter without spirit1--would entitle us to extend the question to the plant also1 nay1 even to any block of stone taken at random1 wherein there seems very little to speak in favour of these correlative conceptions40 ,spiritual occurrences as matters of fact are the results of various doings of an organism2 the ,spirit of the world is not present in the world in a material sense1 but precisely after a spiritual fashion4 ,man's soul is a sum of processes in which ,spirit appears most immediately as fact4 ,in the form of such a soul1 however1 ,spirit is present in man only4 ,and it implies that one misunderstands ,spirit1 that one commits the worst sin against ,spirit1 to seek for ,spirit in the form of ,soul elsewhere than in man1 to imagine other beings thus ensouled as man is4 ,whoever does this1 only shows that he has not experienced ,spirit within himself2 he has only experienced that outer form of appearance of ,spirit1 the ,soul1 which reigns in him4 ,but that is just the same as though one regarded a circle drawn with a pencil as the real1 mathematically ideal circle4 ,whoever experiences in himself nothing other than the soul-form of the ,spirit1 feels himself thereupon driven to assume also such a soul-form in non-human things1 in order that thereby he may not need to remain rooted in the materiality of the gross senses4 ,instead of thinking of the ,root-,being of the world as ,spirit1 he thinks of it as ,world-,soul1 and postulates a general ensoulment of ,nature4 ,giordano ,bruno1 upon whom the new ,copernican view of ,nature forced itself1 could grasp ,spirit in the world1 from which it had been expelled in its old form1 in no other manner than as ,world-,soul4 ,on plunging into ,bruno's writings 7especially his deeply thoughtful book3 ,de ,rerum ,principiis et ,elementis et ,causis7 one gets the impression that he thought of things as ensouled1 although in varying degree4 ,he has not1 in reality1 experienced in himself the ,spirit1 therefore he conceives ,spirit after the fashion of the human soul1 wherein alone he has encountered it4 ,when he speaks of ,spirit1 he conceives of it in the following way3 8,the universal reason is the inmost1 most effective and most special capacity1 and a potential part of the ,world-,soul2 it is something one and identical1 which fills the ,all1 illuminates the universe and instructs ,nature how to bring forth her species as they ought to be40 ,in these sentences ,spirit1 it is true1 is not described as a 8gaseous vertebrate10 but it is described as a being that is like to the human soul4 8,let now a thing be as small and tiny as you please1 it yet has within it a portion of spiritual substance1 which1 when it finds a substratum adapted thereto1 reaches out to become a plant1 an animal1 and organises itself to any body you choose that is ordinarily called ensouled4 ,for ,spirit is to be found in all things1 and there does not exist even the tiniest little body which does not embrace in itself such a share thereof as causes it to come to life40 ,because ,giordano ,bruno had not really experienced the ,spirit1 as ,spirit1 in himself1 he could therefore confuse the life of the ,spirit with the external mechanical processes1 wherewith ,raymond ,lully 7#abce-acae7 wanted to unveil the secrets of the ,spirit in his so-called 8,great ,art0 7,ars ,magna74 ,a recent philosopher1 ,franz ,brentano1 describes this 8,great ,art0 thus3 8,concepts were to be inscribed upon concentric1 separately revolving discs1 and then the most varied combinations produced by turning them about40 ,whatever chance brings up in the turning of these discs1 was shaped into a judgment about the highest truths4 ,and ,giordano ,bruno1 in his manifold wanderings through ,europe1 made his appearance at various seats of learning as a teacher of this 8,great ,art40 ,he possessed the daring courage to think of the stars as worlds1 perfectly analogous to our earth2 he widened the outlook of scientific thinking beyond the confines of earth2 he thought of the heavenly bodies no longer as bodily spirits2 but he still thought of them as soul-like spirits4 ,one must not be unjust towards the man whom the ,catholic ,church caused to pay with death the penalty for his advanced way of thinking4 ,it required something gigantic to harness the whole space of heaven in the same view of the universe which hitherto had been applied only to things upon earth1 even though ,bruno did still think of the sensible as soul-like4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the seventeenth century there appeared ,johann ,scheffler1 called ,,angelus ,,silesius 7#afbd-afgg71 a personality in whom there once more shone forth1 in mighty harmony of soul1 what ,tauler1 ,weigel1 ,jacob ,boehme1 and others1 had prepared4 ,gathered1 as it were1 into a spiritual focus and shining with enhanced light-giving power1 the ideas of the thinkers named make their appearance in his book3 8,cherubinischer ,wandersmann4 ,geistreiche ,sinn- und ,schlussreime40 ,and everything that ,angelus ,silesius utters appears as such an immediate1 inevitable1 natural revelation of his personality1 that it is as though this man had been called by a special providence to embody wisdom in a personal form4 ,the simple1 matter-of-course way in which he lives wisdom1 attains its expression by being set forth in sayings which1 even in respect of their art and their form1 are worthy of admiration4 ,he hovers like some spiritual being over all earthly existence2 and what he says is like the breath of another world1 freed beforehand from all that is gross and impure1 wherefrom human wisdom generally only toilsomely works itself free4 ,he only is truly a knower1 in the sense of ,angelus ,silesius1 who brings the eye of the ,all to vision in himself2 he alone sees his action in the true light who feels that this action is wrought in him by the hand of the ,all3 8,god is in me the fire1 and ,i in him the light2 are we not in most intimate communion one with another80--8,i am as rich as ,god2 there can be no grain of dust that ,i--believe me1 man1--have not in common with ,him40--8,god loves me above ,himself2 if ,i love ,him above myself3 ,i so give ,him as much as ,he gives me from ,himself40--8,the bird flies in the air1 the stone rests on the earth2 in water lives the fish1 my spirit in ,god's own hand40--8,art thou born of ,god1 then bloometh ,god in thee2 and ,his ,godhead is thy sap and thy adornment40--8,halt6 whither runnest thou8 ,heaven is in thee3 seekest thou ,god otherwhere1 thou missest ,him ever and ever40 ,for one who thus feels himself in the ,all1 every separation ceases between self and another being2 he no longer feels himself as a single individual2 rather does he feel all that there is of him as a part of the world1 his own proper being1 indeed1 as that ,world-,whole itself4 8,the world1 it holds thee not2 thou art thyself the world that holds thee1 in thee1 with thee1 so strongly captive bound40--8,man has never perfect bliss before that unity has swallowed up other-ness40--8,man is all things2 if aught is lacking to him1 then in truth he knoweth not his own riches40 ,as a sense-being1 man is a thing among other things1 and his sense-organs bring to him1 as a sensible individuality1 sense-news of the things in space and time outside of him2 but when ,spirit speaks in man1 then there remains no without and no within2 nothing is here and nothing is there that is spiritual2 nothing is earlier and nothing is later2 space and time have vanished in the contemplation of the ,all-,spirit4 ,only so long as man looks forth as an individual1 is he here and the thing there2 and only so long as he looks forth as an individual1 is this earlier1 and this later4 8,man1 if thou swingest thy spirit over time and place1 so each moment canst thou be in eternity40--8,i am myself eternity when ,i leave time behind1 and self in ,god and ,god in self together grasp40--8,the rose that here thine outer eye doth see1 it so hath bloomed in ,god from all eternity40--8,in centre set thyself1 so see'st thou all at once3 what then and now occurred1 here and in heaven's realm40--8,so long for thee1 my friend1 in mind lies place and time3 so long graspest thou not what's ,god1 nor what eternity40--8,when man from manifoldness withdraws1 and inward turns to ,god1 so cometh he to unity40 ,the summit has thus been climbed1 whereon man steps forth beyond his individual 8,i0 and abolishes every opposition between the world and himself4 ,a higher life begins for him4 ,the inner experience that comes over him appears to him as the death of the old and a resurrection in a new life4 8,when thou dost raise thyself above thyself and lettest ,god o'errule2 then in thy spirit happens ascension into heaven40--8,the body in the spirit must arise1 the spirit1 too1 in ,god3 if thou in him1 my man1 will live for ever blessed40--8,so much mine #8,i' in me doth 'minish and decrease2 so much therefore to power cometh the ,lord's own #8,i4'0 ,from such a point of view1 man recognises his meaning and the meaning of all things in the realm of eternal necessity4 ,the natural ,all appears to him immediately as the ,divine ,spirit4 ,the thought of a divine ,all-,spirit1 who could still have being and sub-existence over and beside the things of the world1 vanishes away as a superseded conception4 ,this ,all-,spirit appears so outpoured into things1 so becomes one in being with the things1 that it could no longer be thought at all1 if even one single member were thought away from its being4 8,naught is but ,i and thou2 and if we twain were not2 then is ,god no more ,god1 and heaven falleth in40--,man feels himself as a necessary link in the world-chain4 ,his doing has no longer aught of arbitrariness or of individuality in it4 ,what he does is necessary in the whole1 in the world-chain1 which would fall to pieces if this his doing were to fall out from it4 8,god may not make without me a single little worm3 if ,i with him uphold it not1 straightway must it burst asunder40--8,i know that without me ,god can no moment live3 if ,i come to naught1 he needs must give up the ghost40--,upon this height1 man for the first time sees things in their real being4 ,he no longer needs to ascribe from outside to the smallest thing1 to the grossly sensible1 a spiritual entity4 ,for just as this minutest thing is1 in all its smallness and gross sensibility1 it is a link in the ,whole4 8,no grain of dust is so vile1 no mote can be so small3 the wise man seeth ,god most gloriously therein40--8,in a mustard seed1 if thou wilt understand it1 is the image of all things above and beneath40 ,man feels himself free upon this height4 ,for constraint is there only where a thing can constrain from without4 ,but when all that is without has flowed into the within1 when the opposition between 8,i and world10 8,without and ,within10 8,nature and ,spirit10 has disappeared1 man then feels all that impels him as his own impulse4 8,shut me1 as strongly as thou wilt1 in a thousand irons3 ,i still will be quite free and unfettered40--8,so far as my will is dead1 so far must ,god do what ,i will2 ,i myself prescribe to him the pattern and the goal40--,at this point cease all moral obligations1 coming from without3 man becomes to himself measure and goal4 ,he is subject to no law2 for the law1 too1 has become his being4 8,for the wicked is the law2 were there no command written1 still would the pious love ,god and their neighbour40 ,thus1 on the higher level of knowledge1 the innocence of ,nature is given back to man4 ,he fulfils the tasks that are set him in the feeling of an external necessity4 ,he says to himself3 ,through this iron necessity it is given into thy hand to withdraw from this very iron necessity the link which has been allotted to thee4 8,ye men1 learn but from the meadow flower3 how ye shall please ,god and be beautiful as well40--8,the rose exists without why and because1 she blooms because she blooms2 she takes no heed of herself1 asks not if men see her40 ,the man who has arisen upon the higher level feels in himself the eternal1 necessary pressure of the ,all1 as does the meadow flower2 he acts1 as the meadow flower blooms4 ,the feeling of his moral responsibility grows in all his doing into the immeasurable4 ,for that which he does not do is withdrawn from the ,all1 is a slaying of that ,all1 so far as the possibility of such a slaying lies with him4 8,what is it1 not to sin8 ,thou need'st not question long3 go1 the dumb flowers will tell it thee40--8,all must be slain4 ,if thou slayest not thyself for ,god1 then at last eternal death shall slay thee for the enemy40 ,,afterword ,nearly two and a half centuries have passed since ,angelus ,silesius gathered up the profound wisdom of his predecessors in his ,cherubinean ,wanderer4 ,these centuries have brought rich insights into ,nature4 ,goethe opened a vast perspective to natural science4 ,he sought to follow up the eternal1 unchangeable laws of ,nature's working1 to that summit where1 with like necessity1 they cause man to come into being1 just as on a lower level they bring forth the stone4#ba ,lamarck1 ,darwin1 ,haeckel1 and others1 have laboured further in the direction of this way of conceiving things4 ,the 8question of all questions10 that in regard to the natural origin of man1 found its answer in the nineteenth century2 and other related problems in the realm of natural events have also found their solutions4 ,to-day men comprehend that it is not necessary to step outside of the realm of the actual and the sensible in order to understand the serial succession of beings1 right up to man1 in its development in a purely natural manner4 #ba ,cp4 my book3 ,goethe's ,weltanschauung1 ,weimar1 #ahig4 ,and1 further1 ,j4 ,g4 ,fichte's penetration has thrown light into the being of the human ego1 and shown the soul of man where to seek itself and what it is4#bb ,hegel has extended the realm of thought over all the provinces of being1 and striven to grasp in thought the entire sensible existence of ,nature1 as also the loftiest creations of the human spirit4#bc #bb ,cp4 ante1 and the section upon ,fichte in my book3 ,welt- und ,lebensanschauungen im neunzehnten ,jahrhundert1 vol4 i41 ,berlin1 ,s4 ,cronbach4 #bc ,cp4 my presentation of ,hegel in ,welt- und ,lebensanschauungen im neunzehnten ,jahrhundert1 vol4 i4 ,how1 then1 do those men of genius whose thoughts have been traced in the preceding pages1 appear in the light of a world-conception which takes into account the scientific achievements of the centuries that followed their epoch8 ,they still believed in a 8supernatural0 story of creation4 ,how do their thoughts appear when confronted with a 8natural0 history of creation1 which the science of the nineteenth century has built up8 ,this natural science has given to ,nature naught that did not belong to her2 it has only taken from her what did not belong to her4 ,it has banished from ,nature all that is not to be sought in her1 but is to be found only in man's inner being4 ,it sees no longer any being in ,nature that is like unto the human soul1 and that creates after the manner of man4 ,it no longer makes the organic forms to be created by a man-like ,god2 it follows up their development in the sense-world according to purely natural laws4 ,meister ,eckhart1 as well as ,tauler1 and also ,jacob ,boehme with ,angelus ,silesius1 would needs feel the deepest satisfaction in contemplating this natural science4 ,the spirit in which they desired to behold the world has passed over in the fullest sense to this view of ,nature1 when it is rightly understood4 ,what they were still unable to do1 viz43 to bring the facts of ,nature themselves into the light which had risen for them1 that1 undoubtedly1 would have been their longing1 if this same natural science had been laid before them4 ,they could not do it2 for no geology1 no 8natural history of creation0 told them about the processes in ,nature4 ,the ,bible alone told them in its own way about such processes4 ,therefore they sought1 so far as they could1 for the spiritual where alone it is to be found3 in the inner nature of man4 ,at the present time1 they would have quite other aids at hand than in their own time1 to show that an actually existing ,spirit is to be found only in man4 ,they would to-day agree unreservedly with those who seek ,spirit as a fact not in the root of ,nature1 but in her fruit4 ,they would admit that ,spirit as perceivable is a result of evolution1 and that upon lower levels of evolution such ,spirit must not be sought for4 ,they would understand that no 8creative thought0 ruled in the forthcoming of the ,spirit in the organism1 any more than such a 8creative thought0 caused the ape to evolve from the marsupials4 ,our present age cannot speak about the facts of ,nature as ,jacob ,boehme spoke of them4 ,but there exists a point of view1 even in this present day1 which brings ,jacob ,boehme's way of regarding things near to a view of the world that takes account of modern natural science4 ,there is no need to lose the ,spirit1 when one finds in ,nature only the natural4 ,many do1 indeed1 believe to-day that one must needs lose oneself in a shallow and prosaic materialism1 if one simply accepts the 8facts0 which natural science has discovered4 ,i myself stand fully upon the ground of this same natural science4 ,i have1 through and through1 the feeling that1 in a view of ,nature such as ,ernst ,haeckel's1 only he can lose himself amid shallows who himself approaches it with a shallow thought-world4 ,i feel something higher1 more glorious1 when ,i let the revelations of the 8natural history of creation0 work upon me1 than when the supernatural miracle stories of the confessions of faith force themselves upon me4 ,in no 8holy book0 do ,i know aught that unveils for me anything as lofty as the 8sober0 fact1 that every human germ in the mother's womb repeats in brief1 one after the other1 those animal types which its animal ancestors have passed through4 ,if only we fill our hearts with the glory of the facts that our senses behold1 then we shall have little left over for 8wonders0 which do not lie in the course of ,nature4 ,if we experience the ,spirit in ourselves1 then we have no need of such in external ,nature4 ,in my ,philosophy of ,freedom1 7,berlin1 #ahid7 ,i have described my view of the world1 which has no thought of driving out the ,spirit1 because it beholds ,nature as ,darwin and ,haeckel beheld her4 ,a plant1 an animal1 gains nothing for me if ,i people it with souls of which my senses give me no information4 ,i do not seek in the external world for a 8deeper10 8more soulful0 being of things2 nay1 ,i do not even assume it1 because ,i believe that the insight which shines forth for me in my inner being guards me against it4 ,i believe that the things of the sense-world are1 in fact1 just as they present themselves to us1 because ,i see that a right self-knowledge leads us to this3 that in ,nature we should seek nothing but natural processes4 ,i seek no ,spirit of ,god in ,nature1 because ,i believe that ,i perceive the nature of the human spirit in myself4 ,i calmly admit my animal ancestry1 because ,i believe myself to know that there1 where these animal ancestors have their origin1 no spirit of like nature with soul can work4 ,i can only agree with ,ernst ,haeckel when he prefers the 8eternal rest of the grave0 to an immortality such as is taught by some religions4#bd ,for ,i find a dishonouring of ,spirit1 an ugly sin against the ,spirit1 in the conception of a soul continuing to exist after the manner of a sensible being4 #bd ,cp4 ,haeckel's ,riddle of the ,universe4 ,i hear a shrill discord when the scientific facts in ,haeckel's presentation come up against the 8piety0 of the confessions of some of our contemporaries4 ,but for me there rings out from confessions of faith1 which give a discord with natural facts1 naught of the spirit of the higher piety which ,i find in ,jacob ,boehme and ,angelus ,silesius4 ,this higher piety stands far more in full harmony with the working of the natural4 ,there lies no contradiction in the fact of saturating oneself with the knowledge of the most recent natural science1 and at the same time treading the path which ,jacob ,boehme and ,angelus ,silesius have sought4 ,he who enters on that path in the sense of those thinkers has no need to fear losing himself in a shallow materialism when he lets the secrets of ,nature be laid before him by a 8natural history of creation40 ,whoever has grasped my thoughts in this sense will understand with me in like manner the last saying of the ,cherubinean ,wanderer1 with which also this book shall close3 8,friend1 it is even enough4 ,in case thou more wilt read1 go forth1 and thyself become the book1 thyself the reading40 ,,the ,,end ,,transcribers' ,,notes ,all obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected1 while original spellings and inconsistent hyphenation have been preserved to maintain the authenticity of the original text4 ,in the text version of this book1 underscores were used to indicate a word originally printed in italics4 ,all words_/phrases originally printed as small caps have been converted to capital letters4 ,the following changes have been implemented to improve the clarity and flow of the text3 ,page #aje3 8uncreate0 changed to 8uncreated03 but he must look forward upon the uncreated3 his knowledge must be a beginning ,page #aee3 8less0 changed to 8lesser03 ,to a greater or lesser extent this illumination ,page #agc3 8of0 added3 ,i should in reality and in truth be trying to think of something not unlike ,page #aha3 8to0 added3 which leads back once more to the knowledge ,page #bed3 8of0 added3 ,instead of thinking of the ,root-,being of the world as ,spirit ,the chapter headings have been synchronized with the ,table of ,contents for consistency4 ,new original cover art included with this e,book is granted to the public domain4