HEGEL says that philosophy came first to Germany through Jacob Böhme, the once celebrated mystic, almost forgotten now by the general reader, but long known as “Philosophus Teutonicus,” the Teutonic Philosopher par excellence. He was born at Altseidenberg, a village of Upper Lusatia, where he began life as a shoemaker. His writings which have greatly influenced metaphysics belong to the same school as those of Swedenborg. It is said that Böhme was himself influenced by the writings of Paracelsus. As far as his teaching can be compressed into an intelligible English sentence, it is that the material world is a manifestation of the spiritual. In this his philosophy is the precursor of that of Berkeley. He died in 1624.