y case would it be within my power to
do so. But it may be of service to those readers who are not acquainted
with the writings of Behmen or of his disciples, if I here say something
as to his general teaching with regard to the nature of the soul of man
and its relation to that which is not itself, but like to itself.

The Soul, in the doctrine of Behmen, is a Being which has a will or
desire, and is aided by a mirror of understanding or imagination. Will
or Desire is of the very essence of the Soul, inseparable from its
existence. He says: "Where Desire is there is also Essence or Being."
The Soul is subject to the diverse attractions of the Centre of Divine
Life and Light, and of the Spirit of the World. Enlightened by its
understanding it has the free power to turn its will towards, and unite
itself to, this or that. "Choose well, thy choice is brief and yet
endless."

The Soul is a magic Fire derived out of, or from, God the Father's
Essence, _lumen de lumine_, and imprisoned in darkness. It is an intense
and incessant Desire after the Light; it longs to return to the
Light-centre, whence it originally came, that is, to the "heart of God."
Thus longing, it is a "Fire of Anguish," until it becomes a "Fire of
Love." It is a fire of anguish, so long as it is shut up in its dark
self. It is a fire of love when it pierces through and escapes from its
dark self-prison and burns freely and softly in union with the Divine
Love. God then comes as a Light, a soft purifying Fire into the Soul,
and changes all the wanting, hungering, empty, restless, self-tormenting
properties of the Natural Life into a sweetness of rest and peace. This
is called in Scripture the "new birth." Thus the same thing--the same
Fire,--is a cause of torment or of joy according to the conditions under
which it is. Man, who is a microcosm of the whole Universe, is a
mingling of light and darkness. His anguish comes from his Soul's
imprisonment in darkness (as a mere raging fire) and continues until it
can break forth and unite itself with _that_ whence it came and to which
it belongs.

Behmen says "The Eternal Darkness of the Soul is Hell, viz.: an aching
source of anguish, which is called the Anger of God, but the Eternal
Light in the Soul is the Kingdom of Heaven, where the fiery anguish of
darkness is turned into joy. For the _same_ nature of anguish, which, in
the Darkness, is a cause of sadness, is, in the Light, a cause of the
outward and stir