“You are quite right to use the word _colour_, Böhme thinks of the complexion, or, as we should say, the humour of a person, as of an independent _atmosphere_ through which the soul works, but which is no part of it. He speaks of souls shut up in the dark and melancholy earth element; these are the silent, sensitive, brooding people, who find it very difficult either to give out or receive impressions to or from their fellow-creatures. They are shut up, and as the earth (so at least Böhme says) draws a great deal more heat and light from the sun than it ever gives back, and darkly absorbs and stores up heat within itself, so these earth men and women, separated from their fellows, have the power of drawing great enlightenment and deep warmth of love _direct_ from the spiritual source of light and love. Religious enthusiasts are all of this class; Böhme was an earth person himself, he says so; so was Dante and John Bunyan, and all the other people one reads of who have had terrible experiences in the depths of their own souls and ecstatic visions to comfort them. Böhme says that the very best and the very worst people are those shut in by the earth. They are the most _individual_, the most thoroughly separated; if conquering this hindrance, they re-absorb the Divine into themselves by _direct_ vision; they rise to heights of wisdom, love, and self-sacrifice that no other souls can reach; but if by pride and self-will they cut themselves from spiritual influences, they remain solitary, dark, hungry, always striving vainly to extract the light and warmth they want from some one or two of their fellow-creatures, and being constantly disappointed, because, not having the power of ray-ing out love, they can rarely attract it. They are eaten up by a sad dark egotism. If they have a great deal of intellect they throw themselves vehemently into some one pursuit or study, and become great but never happy.” _K._ “I am thankful to say I don’t know any earth people.”