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 {"text": "# Of Errors and of Truth\n\n## Chapters\n\n- Introduction\n- The Cause of Errors\n- Universal Source of Errors\n- Sequence of Errors\n- Allegorical Tableau\n- Policy Uncertainty\n- Mathematical Principles\n- Human Attributes\n\n## Introduction\n\nThe Work I offer to humankind is not a collection of conjectures. It is not a system that I present to them; I believe I give them a much more useful gift. Nevertheless, I have not come to bring them Science; I know too well that people do not expect this from other people. It is only a ray of their own torch that I revive before them, so it may enlighten them upon the false ideas they have received about the Truth, as well as on the weak and dangerous weapons that unsafe hands have employed to defend it. I was deeply affected, I confess, by looking at the actual state of Science. I have seen how misunderstandings have distorted it. I have seen the hideous veil under which it was covered, and, for the interest of my fellow-creatures, I thought it was my duty to remove it. Undoubtedly, for such an undertaking, I need more than ordinary resources, but without justifying myself upon those I employ, it suffices to say that they belong to the very nature of people, that they have always been known to some of them since the origin of all things, and that they will never be completely withdrawn from Earth as long as there are Thinking Beings. This is where I drew the evidence and the conviction of the truths whose research occupies the whole Universe. After this confession, if they still had to accuse me of teaching an unknown Doctrine, one could not at least suspect that I invented it, since if it is due to the nature of people, not only does it not come from me, but it would have been impossible for me to solidly establish any other. And truly, if the Reader does not draw conclusions on the Work before having perceived the whole and the bond; if he gives himself the time to feel the weight and the sequence of principles which I explain, he will agree that they are the true key of all the mysterious Allegories and Mysterious Fables ofall People, the primary source of all kinds of institutions, the very model of the Laws governing the Universe, and which constitute all Beings; that is to say, they serve as a basis for all that exists and to all that operates, whether it is in people or by the hand of people, or outside people and independent of their will; and that, consequently, outside these Principles, there can be no true Science. Hence the Reader will more readily know why we see among people a universal variety of Dogmas and Systems; why we perceive this innumerable multitude of Philosophical, Political, and Religious Sects, each of which disagrees with itself as with all the others; why, notwithstanding the efforts that the Leaders of these different Sects make every day to form a stable Doctrine on the most important points, and in order to reconcile the particular opinions, they can never succeed in doing so, because offering no fixed thing to their Disciples not only not persuades them, but they even expose them to a distrust of all Science, for they only known imaginary or vicious ones; and finally why the Teachers and the Observers incessantly show they have neither the rule nor the proof of truth. The Reader will conclude, I say, that if the principles I am discussing are the only foundation of all truth, it is because they have forgotten, that all these errors devour the Earth, and thus they have generally been misunderstood, since ignorance and uncertainty are universal. Such are the objects upon which the person who seeks to know will find a way to form ideas more sound and more consistent with the nature of the seed she carries within herself. However, although the Light is made for all eyes, it is even more certain that all eyes are not made to see it in all its brightness. This is why the small number of custodians of the truths I announce are vowed to prudence and discretion by the most formal commitments. Thus, I have promised myself to employ much caution in this writing, and to often cover myself in a veil that the least ordinary eyes will not always pierce, especially as I sometimes speak of something else than what I seem to speak of. For the same reason, although I gather in the same point of view a considerable number of different subjects, I have only revealed a sketch of the vast picture I could offer; nevertheless, I say enough to give to the greatest number of people something to think about, without excluding those who, as a matter of Science, enjoy the highest celebrity. But, with the general good of people in mind, and above all, not wishing to bring disagreement among individuals, I do not directly attack either of the received Dogmas or any of the established Political Institutions; and even in my remarks on Sciences and the different Systems, I have forbidden myself everything that may have the least connection with overly particular objects. Besides, I have committed myself to use no quotation, because first, I seldom visit Libraries, and the Books I read can't be found there; and in the second place, because truths which would only rest on testimonies would no longer be truths. It is expedient, I think, to set forth here the order and the plan of this Work. At first, we shall see some observations upon good and evil, why modern Systems have confounded both, and have been forced to deny their differences. A quick glance at people will fully explain this difficulty, and shed light as to why they are still in the most profound ignorance, not only of their surroundings, but also of their true nature. The distinctions which lie between people's faculties will be confirmed by those which we shall even point out, between the faculties of Lower Beings; in this way we will demonstrate the universality of a double law in everything that is submitted to time. The necessity of a third temporal law will be much more clearly proved by showing that the double law is absolutely in its dependence. The mistakes which have been made on all these objects will clearly reveal the cause of the obscurity, variety, and uncertainty which appear in all the works of people, as well as in all Institutions, both civil and sacred, to which they are linked; what shall be the true source of the Sovereign Power among them, and that of all the rights which constitute their various establishments. We shall make the same applications on the principles received in the higher Sciences, and principally in Mathematics, where the origin and true cause of errors will appear with evidence. Lastly, we shall remind people of their natural attributes, which distinguish them best from other Beings, and which is most fitting to bring them closer to all the knowledge which suits their nature. All these objects are contained in seven divisions, which, though resting on the same basis, each offer a different subject. If some of them had difficulty in admitting the principles which I have just recalled to people, as their embarrassment would only arise from their having followed their own sense and not that of the Work, they ought not to expect from me any other explanations, the more so as they would not be clearer than the Work itself. It is easily perceived, on reading these reflections, that I have paid little attention to form, and neglected the advantages of diction; but if the Reader is honest, he will understand that I have been too busy with it, for my subject had no need of it.\n\n## Chapter 1 - The Cause of Errors\n\nIt is a very distressing spectacle when one desires to contemplate people, to see them all at once tormented by the desire to know, not perceiving the reason for anything, and yet having the audacity and temerity to insist upon giving reasons for everything. Instead of considering the darkness that surrounds them, and beginning by probing its depths, people proceed not only as if they were sure to dispel it, but also as if there existed no obstacles between Science and themselves. Soon, attempting to create a Truth, people dare put the Truth in the place of that which they should respect in silence and about which they have at present almost no right other than to desire and wait for it. And, in fact, if people are entirely separated from the Light, how will they be able to light, on their own, the flambeau that must serve them as a guide? How will they be able to attain by their own faculties a Science that will remove all of their doubts? Do not these glimmers and appearances of reality, which people believe they are discovering in the delusions of their imaginations, vanish under the simplest examination? And having brought forth phantoms without life and substance, do they not see themselves forced to replace them by new illusions, which soon after follow the same course and leave them stuck in the most dreadful uncertainty? Fortunate, nevertheless, if their weakness was the only cause of their mistakes! Their situation then would be much less deplorable because being unable, by their nature, to find peace instead of truth, the more painful the trials would be and the more they should serve to bring people back to the only end suitable for them. But their errors still have their source in their unrestrained will; one perceives that, far from employing to their advantage what little strength they have left, they nearly always direct it against the Law of their Being. One perceives, I say, that being restrained by this obscurity around them, it is by their own hand that they place the blindfold upon their eyes. Then, being unable to catch the least glimmer, despair or fear overcomes them, and they throw themselves into dangerous paths which remove them forever from their true course. It is, therefore, by this mixture of weakness and imprudence that the ignorance of people perpetuates itself. Such is the source of their continual inconsistencies, so that, wasting their days in useless and vain efforts, one should be little surprised that their work either produces no fruit or that which is bitter. However, when I recall here the mistakes and imprudent conduct of my fellow humans, I am far from desiring to debase them in their own eyes; my most ardent wish, on the contrary, would be that they never lose sight of the greatness which they are capable of. May I at least contribute by trying to dispel before them those difficulties which hinder them, to stimulate their courage, and to show them the way which leads to the object of their desires! With the first glance that people direct upon themselves, they will experience no difficulty in feeling and admitting that there must exist for them a Science or an evident Law, since one exists for all Beings, although it is not universally in all Beings, since even in the midst of our weaknesses, ignorance, and mistakes, we occupy ourselves only with the search for peace and light. In that case, though the efforts that people make daily to reach the object of their search succeed so rarely, one must not think that this goal is imaginary, but only that people are mistaken about the road that leads to it, and that they are, consequently, in the greatest of need since they do not even know the way by which they must travel. Consequently, one may agree henceforth that the actual misfortune of humankind is not to be ignorant of the existence of truth, but that they are mistaken about the nature of this truth, because in reality, the very ones who have pretended to deny it and destroy it have never believed that they could succeed without having another truth to replace it. And in fact, they have donned their fanciful opinions concerning force, immutability, universality - in a word, concerning all the attributes of a real and self-existent Being. They have strongly felt that a Truth could not be a truth without essentially existing, without being invariable and absolutely independent, deriving solely from itself the source of its existence; this is because, if it had received it from another Principle, the latter could return it to nothingness or to the inaction from which it would have drawn it. Thus, those who have fought against truth have proved by their own systems that they possessed the indestructible idea of Truth. Therefore, let us repeat, what torments most people on this earth is not so much knowing whether Truth exists, but knowing what this Truth is. But what disturbs this feeling in people, and so often obscures the vivid rays of this light in them, is the continuous mixture of good and evil, of light and darkness, of harmony and disorder that they perceive in the Universe and in themselves. This universal contrast disturbs them and spreads a confusion in their thoughts which they find difficult to untangle. Both distressed and surprised by so strange an assemblage, if they want to explain it, they surrender themselves to the most disastrous opinions, so that, soon ceasing to perceive this same Truth, they lose all the confidence they had in it. The greatest service that one could render them in the painful situation in which they find themselves, would therefore be to persuade them that they could know the source and origin of this disorder which astonishes them, and, above all, to prevent them from reaching any conclusions contrary to this Truth which they recognize, love, and cannot do without. It is certain that, when considering the revolutions and conflicts that befall all Beings in Nature, people must have acknowledged that it was subject to the influence of good and evil, which necessarily brought them to recognize the existence of two opposite Principles. Nothing, in fact, could be wiser than this observation and nothing more just than the consequence they have drawn from it. Why have they not been so fortunate when they have attempted to explain the nature of these two Principles? Why have they given too narrow a base to their science which forces them to continually destroy the systems they wish to support? It is because, after having neglected the true means they possessed of instructing themselves, they have been inconsiderate enough to speak for themselves about that sacred subject, as if, far from the abode of light, people could be assured of their judgments. Also, after having recognized the two Principles, they have been unable to recognize the difference. Sometimes people have accorded to these Principles an equality of force and antiquity that renders them rivals of each other by placing them on the same level of power and grandeur. Sometimes, in truth, they have declared evil as being inferior to good in every respect; but they have contradicted themselves when they wished to understand the nature of evil and its origin. Sometimes they have not feared to place evil and good in one and the same Principle, believing that they were honoring this Principle by attributing to it an exclusive power which renders it, without exception, the creator of all things, meaning that this Principle is simultaneously parent and tyrant, destroying accordingly what it elevates; it is evil and unjust by force of its magnitude and opposition, and consequently it punishes itself for upholding its own justice. Finally, tired of wavering in these uncertainties, without being able to find a solid idea, a few have denied the existence of either Principle, endeavoring to believe that everything progressed without law and order. Being unable to explain that which existed as good and evil, they have stated there was neither good nor evil. When, on the strength of this assertion, they have been asked what was, therefore, the origin of all those precepts universally prevailing on Earth, of this uniform inner voice which, so to speak, forces all people to adopt them, and which, even in the midst of their aberrations, causes people to feel that they have a destination far superior to the objects occupying their attention, then these observers, continually blinding themselves, have treated the most natural feelings as habits. They have attributed to organization and mechanical laws all of humanity's thoughts and faculties. From this they have pretended that, by reason of humany's weakness, great physical events have at all times produced in people fear and terror; that continually experiencing upon their feeble selves the superiority of the elements and Beings by which they are surrounded, they imagined that a certain indefinable power governed and upset Nature at will. Further, from this people created for themselves a succession of fanciful principles of subordination and order, punishments and rewards, which education and examples perpetuated, but without considerable differences relative to circumstances and climates. Then, by taking as proof the continuous variety of usages and the arbitrary customs of peoples, the bad faith and the rivalry of Instructors, as well as the conflict of human opinions - the fruit of doubt and ignorance - it has been easy for them to demonstrate that people, in fact, have only found uncertainty and contradictions surrounding themselves, from which they have believed themselves authorized to affirm anew that there exists nothing that is true - that is, nothing exists in essence - since, according to what has been already propounded, existence and truth are one and the same. These are, however, the means that these imprudent Masters have employed to proclaim and justify their doctrine. These are the poisoned sources from which have flowed all the scourges besetting people upon Earth and tormenting them even more than their natural misfortunes. Therefore, how much errors and suffering would these imprudent Masters have spared us if, instead of searching for truth in the appearances of material nature, they had decided to search within themselves, if they had attempted to explain matter by humanity and not humanity by matter, and, armed with courage and patience, they had pursued in the calm of their imagination, the discovery of this light that we all desire with so much ardor. Perhaps it would not have been in their power to withstand its brilliance at first sight. Struck by the splendor which surrounds it, and employing all their faculties to contemplate it, they would not have thought to pronounce in advance upon its nature nor desire to make it known to their fellow humans before having taken its rays for their guide. When people, after having resisted courageously, succeed in overcoming all that is contrary to their being, they find they are at peace with themselves and, consequently, at peace with all nature. But, if through negligence or being tired of combat, they allow the slightest spark of a fire foreign to their own essence to enter within themselves, they suffer and languish until they are entirely delivered from it. So, in this way people have realized in an even more intimate way that two different Principles exist. As they find happiness and peace with one, and as the other is always accompanied by fatigue and torment, they have distinguished them under the names of good Principle and evil Principle. Now, if people had been willing to make the same observation regarding all the Beings of the universe, it would have been easy for them to concentrate their thoughts on the nature of good and evil, and in this way, to discover the nature of their true origin. Let us say, therefore, that good is for each being the accomplishment of their own law, and evil that which is opposed to it. Let us say that each one of the Beings, possessing only a single law (and all pertaining to a primary Law which is one), the good, or the accomplishment of this law, must also be unique - that is to say, it must be solely and exclusively true, although it embraces the infinity of Beings. Evil, on the contrary, cannot have any affinity with this Law of Beings since it is in conflict with it; consequently, it can no longer be included in unity, since it tends to degrade it by attempting to form another unity. In a word, it is false because it cannot exist alone; because it cannot alter the fact that the Law of Beings has an existence simultaneous to its own; and because it cannot ever destroy it, even when it impedes or disturbs its accomplishment. I have said that when approaching the good Principle, people were in fact filled with delight and consequently above all evil. They are then so entirely absorbed in their enjoyment that they cannot entertain either the feeling or thought of any other Being; and therefore, nothing that proceeds from the evil Principle can intrude upon their joy, which proves that people are thus in their element and that their law of unity is accomplished. But if a person seeks a support other than that law which is her own, her joy is at first troubled and uncertain. She delights only in reproaching herself for her enjoyment and, being for a moment divided between the evil drawing her away and the good which she has forsaken, she experiences strongly the effect of two opposite laws. She learns through her resulting unhappiness that there exists no longer any unity for her because she has strayed from her own law. Soon, it is true, this uncertain enjoyment strengthens itself and even entirely dominates her; but, far from causing it to become more unique and true, it produces in the faculties of people a disorder so much more deplorable that the action of evil, being sterile and limited, brings the person who abandons herself to it, and all the more promptly to an inevitable emptiness and despondency. Here, then, is the infinite difference that is found between the two Principles: good derives all its power and value from itself; evil is nothing when good prevails. The good, by its presence, causes even the thought and the least trace of evil to disappear; evil, even in its success, 1s always fought and disturbed by the presence of good. Evil, by itself, possesses neither force nor power; good has universal and independent powers and these extend even over evil itself. Therefore, it is evident that one cannot admit any equality of power or seniority between these two Principles, because a Being cannot equal another in power without also equaling him in seniority, since it would always be a mark of weakness and inferiority in one of the two Beings to have not existed from the same moment as the other. Now, if from the beginning of time good had inwardly co-existed with evil, they would have never acquired any respective superiority, since in this supposition, the evil Principle, being independent of the good and having consequently the same power, either would have had no action upon the other or they would have mutually balanced and restrained each other. Therefore, there would have resulted from this equality of power an inaction and absolute sterility in these two Beings, because their reciprocal forces, finding themselves continually equal and opposed, would have found it impossible for one or the other to be productive. One should not say that to cause cessation of this inaction, a Principle superior to both would have augmented the forces of the Principle of good as being more analogous to its nature. By saying so, that superior Principle would itself be the good Principle of which we speak. One will then be forced by striking evidence to recognize in the good Principle an overwhelming superiority, unity, and indivisibility with which it has of necessity primarily existed, this being sufficient to fully demonstrate that evil can only have come after good. Establishing in this way the inferiority of the evil principle, and showing its opposition to the good Principle, is to prove that there has never been and never will be either the slightest alliance nor the least affinity between them. How could it enter into the mind that evil had ever been included in the essence and the faculties of the good to which it is so diametrically opposed? But this conclusion necessarily brings us to another just as important, which enables us to feel that this good, however powerful it may be, cannot cooperate in any way in the birth and the effects of evil. To do so would have made it necessary that, before the origin of evil, there be in the good Principle some seed, or evil faculty, and to advance this opinion would be to renew the confusion that the judgments and imprudence of humankind have propagated on these matters. Or it would have been necessary that, ever since the birth of evil, the good have communication and relation with it, which is impossible and contradictory. This, then, is the inconsequence of those who, fearing to limit the faculties of the good Principle, persist in teaching a doctrine so contrary to its nature as to generally attribute to it everything that exists, even evil and disorder. Nothing more need be said to enable one to sense the incommensurable distance found between the two Principles and to recognize the one to which we must give our confidence. Since the ideas that I have just presented are meant to bring people back to natural sentiments and to a Science which must be found within their hearts, as well as to create in them the hope of discovering new lights upon the subject that occupies our attention. Humankind, being the mirror of truth, must perceive reflected within itself all the rays of its light. And in fact, I would not have taken up my pen to refute them had we nothing more to expect but what the systems of humanity promise us. Recognizing the existence of the evil Principle, and considering the effects of its power in the Universe and in people, as well as the false consequences that observers have drawn from these considerations, does not disclose its origin. Evil exists; we see surrounding us its hideous traces, regardless of the efforts that have been made to deny its deformity. Now, if this evil does not originate from the good Principle, how then could it have originated? Certainly, this is for people the most important question, and one upon which I would desire to convince my readers. But I have not deluded myself about the success of my efforts. The truths I am about to present may seem certain, but I would not be surprised to see them rejected or misunderstood by the majority of people. When people, having elevated themselves toward the good Principle, acquire the habit of holding themselves invariably attached to it, they do not even possess the idea of evil. This is a truth that we have established and that no intelligent Being could reasonably contest. If people constantly had the courage and the will not to descend from this elevation for which they are born, evil would then be nothing to them. In fact, they only feel its dangerous influence in proportion to their deviation from the good Principle. Thus, one must conclude from this punishment that people then commit a free act, because if it is impossible for a Being who is not free to separate herself by her own will from the Law imposed upon her. It is also impossible that she renders herself guilty and that she be punished. We will later make this fact possible to conceive of when speaking of the suffering of animals. Finally, it is evident that wisdom and justice are the rule and law of all the power and virtues which form the essence of the good Principle. Consequently, this recognizes that if people suffer, they must have had the power not to suffer. Truly, if the good Principle is essentially just and powerful, our troubles are an evident proof of our wrongdoing, and consequently, of our liberty. When we see people subjected to the action of evil, we may affirm that they have freely exposed themselves to it, and that they could have defended themselves against its influence and remained separate from it. Thus, let us not look for any other cause for their misfortunes but that of having voluntarily deviated from the good Principle with which they would have continually enjoyed peace and happiness. Let us apply the same reasoning to the evil Principle. If it evidently opposes the accomplishment of the law of unity of Beings, either on the material or the intellectual plane, it must itself be in a disordered situation. If bitterness and confusion follow in its wake, this principle is altogether without a doubt their object and agent, which causes us to say that it must be unceasingly subjected to the torment and horror that it creates around itself. But it suffers only because it is removed from the good Principle, for it is only from the instant when Beings are separated from this good Principle that they become unhappy. The sufferings of the evil Principle can only be a punishment because justice, being universal, must act upon it as it acts upon people; but if it experiences punishment, it has then freely deviated from the Law that was to have perpetuated its happiness. It is, therefore, voluntarily that it became evil. This is what induces us to say that if the author of evil had made a legitimate use of its liberty, it would never have separated itself from the good Principle, and evil would as yet be unborn. By the same reasoning, if it could today employ its will to its advantage and direct it toward the good Principle, it would cease to be evil, and evil would no longer exist. It will only be through the simple and natural succession of all these observations that people will ever succeed in definitely determining their ideas concerning the origin of evil, because if it is by allowing his will to degenerate that the intelligent and free Being acquires the knowledge and sentiment of evil, one must be assured that evil possesses no other principle, no other existence but the very same will of that free Being; that it is by this will alone that the Principle, becoming evil, originally gave birth to evil and similarly still creates it today. In a word, it is by this same will that people have acquired and acquire every day this fatal knowledge of evil by which they plunge themselves into darkness, whereas they were born only for the good and for the light. If so many questions relative to Liberty have been debated in vain and have so often been terminated by vaguely deciding that people are not susceptible to it, it is because the dependence and relations of this faculty of people with their will has not been observed, that one has been unable to perceive that this will was the only agent able to conserve or destroy liberty. In other words, in liberty we look for a stable, invariable faculty which unceasingly manifests in all of us, and which likewise cannot diminish or grow, and which we always have found awaiting our orders, whatever use we have made of it. But how is it possible to conceive of a faculty inherent in people which is nonetheless independent of their will, when this will constitutes its fundamental essence? And will not one necessarily agree that either liberty does not belong to people, or that they can exert their influence upon it by the good or evil use they make of it in the more or less proper regulation of their will? And, in fact, when observers desire to study liberty, they make it quite apparent to us that it must belong to humankind, because it is always in people that observers are obliged to follow its traces and characteristics. But when they persist in considering it without regard to humankind's will, is it not exactly as if they wish to attribute to people a faculty that existed in them but was foreign to them; which belonged to them, but upon which they had neither any influence nor any power? Is there anything more absurd and contradictory? Is it surprising that one discovers nothing by observing in this manner? And will we ever be able to make pronouncements on our own nature after such weak research? If the enjoyment of Liberty did not in any way depend upon the use of the will; if people could never alter it by their weaknesses and unrestrained habits, I would then admit that all actions would thereby be fixed and uniform, and so there would not be, as there could never have been, any liberty for them. But if this faculty cannot be such as the observers conceive and would require it to be; if its force can vary at all times; if it can be nullified by inaction as well as by a sustained exercise and a too constant practice of the same acts, then one cannot deny that it belongs to us, is within us, and that we consequently have the power to strengthen and weaken it; and this by the sole right of our Being and by the privilege of our will - in other words, according to the good or evil use we voluntarily make of the laws imposed upon us by our nature. Another error that has caused the rejection of liberty by these observers is that they have desired to prove it to themselves by the very action resulting from it; thus, to satisfy them, it would be necessary that an act be and not be at the same time, which is evidently impossible. From this they have concluded that everything that happens must necessarily have happened, and, consequently, that there was no liberty. But they should have noticed that the act, and the will that had conceived it, can only conform, and not be opposed to each other; that a power that has produced its act cannot arrest its effect; and finally that liberty, taken even in its commonly accepted meaning, does not consist in being able to do one and the other at the same time, but to be able to do one and the other alternately. Whereas, were it only to be taken in this meaning, humankind would be proof enough of what is generally called its liberty, since people obviously do one or the other in their different and successive actions and are the only beings in nature who are not always obliged to walk along the same path. But it would be strangely misleading not to conceive of another idea of liberty, because it is true, this contradiction in the actions of a Being proves that there are disorder and confusion in her faculties, but it does not at all prove that she is free, since it always remains to be discovered whether or not she freely gives herself over to evil as well as good. And it is partly from having wrongly defined liberty that this point is still covered with the most profound darkness for the majority of people. Therefore, I will say that the true faculty of a free Being is to be able, by his own efforts, to maintain himself in the law prescribed to him, and to conserve his strength and independence by voluntarily resisting the obstacles and the objects that tend to prevent him from acting in conformity with this Law. This necessarily carries with it the faculty of failing in the attempt, because so doing only requires that he cease his desire to resist opposition. Then, one must judge if, in the darkness surrounding us, we can delude ourselves on our ability to always reach our goal with the same facility. If, on the contrary, we do not feel that the least negligence adds infinitely to this task by increasing the thickness of the veil that covers us, then, turning our eyes for a moment upon humankind in general, we will discover that if people can degrade and weaken their liberty at all times, likewise humanity is presently less free than it was in its early days, and, continuing a step further, less free than before its birth. Then, it is no longer either in the present state of people or in their daily actions that we must find the light to decide upon their true liberty, since nothing is more rare today than to see any of its effects in a pure state and entirely independent of causes that are foreign to it. But it would be more than senseless to reach the conclusion that liberty had never been numbered among our rights. The chains of a slave prove, I know, that she can no longer act in accordance with the full scope of her natural forces, but they do not prove that she never could. On the contrary, they proclaim that she still could, had she never deserved to be held in servitude, because were it impossible for her to recover the use of her forces, her chains would be neither a punishment nor a shame. At the same time, it would not be more reasonable to infer from the fact that people are so laboriously, so obscurely, and so rarely free today, that their actions are indifferent and that they are not obligated to fulfill the measure of good that is imposed upon them even in this state of servitude. The deprivation of people's liberty consists, in fact, of being unable to obtain by their own power the complete enjoyment of the advantages contained in the good for which they were created, but not in being able to approach evil without rendering themselves even more guilty, since it will be seen that their material body has been loaned to them solely to effect the continual comparison between the true and the false. The insensibility to which their negligence on this point leads them each day, will never be able to destroy their essence. Thus, it suffices that they had once strayed from the light to which they should have been attached, to render the succession of their errors inexcusable and to deny them any right to murmur against their sufferings. Yet it should be said that the observers have stammered so much on the subject of people's liberty, only because they have not yet realized the first notion of the nature of their will. Nothing proves it better than their continual search to determine how it functions. Not being able to surmise that its principle must be contained within itself, they have searched for it in exterior causes. Seeing in fact that here on Earth it was so often brought about by real or apparent motives, they have concluded that it did not act by itself and that it always needed a reason for its determination. But if this were so, could we be said to have a will, since far from being ours, it would always be subordinate to the different causes that continually act upon it? Is this not, then, going in circles and renewing the same errors that we have dissipated relative to liberty? In a word, saying that there exists no will without motive is to say that liberty is no longer a faculty that is a part of us, and that it has never been in our power to conserve it. So, reasoning in this way is to ignore the nature of the will which strictly proclaims a Being motivated by himself without the assistance of any other Being. Consequently, this multitude of objects and exterior motives that seduce and determine us so often today does not prove that we could not make use of our will without them, and that we would not be susceptible to liberty. It only proves that they can seize control of our will and nullify it when we offer no opposition. Because, with good faith one will agree that these exterior causes disturb and tyrannize us. Now, how could we feel and perceive this if we were not essentially created to act by ourselves and not through the attraction of these illusions? As to the manner in which the will can determine itself independently of the motives and the objects that are foreign to us, as much as this truth will seem certain to the person who will be willing to forget all that surrounds her and look within herself, so is it certain that the explanation of it is an impenetrable abyss for people and for any other Being whatsoever, since its presentation would necessitate giving substance to the immaterial. Of all researches, this would be the most detrimental to people, and the more apt to plunge them into ignorance and mental degradation, because it has no foundation and vainly makes use of all faculties inherent in them. Also, the lack of success that observers have had on this matter has only served to plunge into discouragement those who have had the imprudence to follow them and who have wanted to seek from them the return of the light their false course had removed. The wise person occupies herself to searching for the cause of that which has a cause, but she is too prudent and too enlightened to look for a cause where none exists. The will natural to people belongs in this category, since it is cause itself. For this reason, as long as people still have a will, and as long as it cannot be corrupted except by the evil use they make of it, I will continue to consider them as free, although also almost always enslaved. It is not for the person who is blind, frivolous, and without desire that I express such ideas, since he has only his eyes to guide him and judges things by what they are, not by what they have been. It would, therefore, be useless for me to present truths of this nature to him, since by comparing them with his obscure ideas, and with the judgments of his senses, he would only find shocking contradictions which would cause him to deny equally that which he had already conceived, and that which he would be made to conceive anew, and then to abandon himself to the disorder of his impressions and to follow the dead and obscure law of the animal without intelligence. But the person who has thought enough of herself and tried to understand herself, who has watched her habits, and, having already attempted to part the thick veil that envelops her, would be able to reap some fruits from these reflections. That person, I say, may open this book; I entrust it to her wholeheartedly with a view of strengthening the love she already has for the good. However, regardless of whose hands these writings might fall into, I exhort them not to seek the origin of evil anywhere but in the source I have indicated - in other words, in the corruption of the will of the Being or the Principle that has become evil. I will not hesitate to affirm that the efforts they would make to discover another cause for evil would be in vain. If it had a more stable and solid base, it would be as eternal and invincible as the good. If this degraded Being could produce anything other than acts of will, if it could form real and existent Beings, it would possess the same power as the good Principle. It is, therefore, the nonexistence of his works that makes us feel his weakness and which absolutely forbids all comparison between him and the good Principle, from which he has separated himself. It would be even more senseless to seek the origin of good elsewhere but in the good itself. After all, as we have just seen, if degraded Beings such as the evil Principle and people still have the right to be the cause of their own actions, how could we refuse this attribute to the good, which, as such, is the infinite source of all attributes, the very seed and essential agent of all that is perfect? It would, therefore, indicate a lack of common sense to look for the cause and origin of good outside of the good itself, since these exist and can only have their existence in the good Principle. I have already said enough to enable the reader to form a conception of the origin of evil. However, the exposition I have made of it obliges me, first, to give some ideas on the nature and state of the evil Principle before its corruption; and, second, to forestall any difficulty that could impede the very ones who pass as most enlightened on these subjects - namely, why the author of evil does not make use of its liberty to reconcile itself with the good Principle. But I will only pause for a moment on these subjects, so as not to interrupt my progress and stray too far from the limits prescribed to me. When stating that the evil Principle had become evil by the sole act of its will, I have implied that it was good before the instigation of this act. Now, was it then equal to this superior Principle that we have previously acknowledged? Without a doubt, no. It was good, without being its equal; it was inferior to it, without being evil. It had originated from this same superior Principle, and therefore it could not equal it, neither in strength nor in power; but it was good because the Being that produced it was goodness and perfection itself. Finally, it was also inferior because, not being the creator of its own law, it possessed the faculty of following or not following that which had been imposed on it by its origin; and it was thus exposed to the opportunity of separating itself from this law and becoming evil, while the superior Principle, possessing its own law within itself necessarily remains in the good that constitutes it, without ever being able to tend towards any other end. As to the second subject, I have made it known that if the author of evil made use of its liberty to rejoin the good Principle, it would cease to suffer and be evil, and from then on evil would no longer exist. But every day one perceives by its works that it is as though enchained to its criminal will, so that it does not produce a single act that does not aim to perpetuate confusion and disorder. It is on this point that fatalists believed they had triumphed, pretending that evil carries within itself the reason and necessity for its existence; thus, they plunge people into discouragement and despair, since, if evil is necessary, it is impossible to avoid its assaults and to conserve any hope for that peace and light which is the object of all our desires and searches. But let us refrain from adopting these errors, and let us destroy the dangerous consequences that follow in their wake by exposing the true cause for the duration of evil. By searching within ourselves, it will be easy for us to sense that one of the primary laws of universal justice 1s that there always exists an exact relationship between the nature of the punishment and that of the crime, which can only be accomplished by subjecting the transgressor to powerless acts, similar to those she has criminally produced and which, consequently, are opposed to the law from which she moved away. This is why the author of evil, having corrupted itself by the wrong use of its liberty, perseveres in the evil use of its will in the same way that it had conceived it, in other words, it never ceases to oppose the action and will of the good Principle, and in its vain efforts, it experiences a continuation of the same sufferings so that, in accordance with the laws of justice, it is in the commission of the crime itself that it encounters its own punishment. But, let us still add a few reflections upon such an important subject. If the good Principle is essential unity, if it is goodness, purity, and perfection itself, it cannot experience within itself division, contradiction, or defilement. It is therefore evident that the author of evil must have been entirely separated and rejected from it through the sole act of the opposition of its own will to the will of the good Principle so that, from then on, there could only be left to it an evil power and will, without either communication or participation from the good. Being a voluntary enemy of both the good Principle and the sole, eternal, and invariable rule, what good, what law could exist within the author of the evil Principle other than this rule, since it is impossible for a single Being to be good and evil at the same time, to produce simultaneously order and disorder, that which is pure and impure? Thus, one becomes easily convinced that by its complete separation from the good Principle, having necessarily drawn it away from all good, it was no longer in a condition to know or to produce any good. Henceforth, the exertion of its will could only produce actions without law or order, and an absolute opposition to good and truth. Thus, engulfed in its own darkness, it is not susceptible to any light from or any return to the good Principle; because before it could direct its desires toward the true light, knowledge of it should have been returned to the author of evil. It should be able to conceive a good thought, but how could a good thought originate in it, if its will and all its faculties are completely corrupted and impure? In short, from the moment that it does not have by itself any correspondence with the good, and it does not have the power either to know or to sense it, and the faculty and the freedom to return to the good are always without effect. This is what renders so horrible the deprivation to which it is condemned. Although by different means, the law of Justice performs likewise in people. It will also supply us with the lights that will guide us in the research we will have to make upon it. Any person of good faith, whose reason is not obscured or prejudiced will agree that the material life of humankind is filled almost continually with privation and suffering. Thus, in accordance with the ideas we have adopted upon Justice, it will be with good reason that we will consider the duration of this corporeal life as a period of punishment and expiation; but we cannot regard it as such, without forthwith thinking that there must have been for people a former and preferable state to that in which they find themselves today. We may say, that as much as their actual state is limited, painful, and sown with aversions, to the same extent the former must have been unlimited and filled with delights. Every one of their sufferings is an indication of the happiness they are missing; every one of their privations prove that they were created for enjoyment; every one of their subjections declare to them a former authority. In other words, the feeling that today they have nothing is the secret proof that in the past they had everything. We can form an idea of the happy estate formerly enjoyed by people by the painful realization of the appalling situation in which we find them today. At the present time they are not the master of their thoughts, and it is a torment for them to await those they desire and repel those they fear; from this we sense that they were made to own them and create them at will. It is easy, therefore, to understand the invaluable advantages attached to such a power. At present they only obtain peace and tranquility through infinite efforts and painful sacrifices. From this we conclude that they have been created to enjoy, perpetually and without effort, a state of calm and happiness and that the abode of peace had been their true home. Possessing the faculty to see all and know all, they nevertheless grovel in darkness, but in so doing they shudder at their ignorance and blindness. Is this not absolute proof that the light is their element? Finally, their bodies are subject to destruction, and, this death, of which they alone of all Beings in nature have any idea, is the most terrible step and the most humiliating act in their corporeal career and what they abhor the most. Why could not this law, so severe and frightful for people, enable us to conceive that their body had received a law infinitely more glorious, and therefore, must have enjoyed all the rights of immortality? Now then, where could this sublime state have originated that rendered people so noble and happy, if not in the intimate knowledge and continuous presence of the good Principle, since in it alone is to be found the source of all power and happiness? And why do people now languish in ignorance, weakness, and misery if it is not because they have separated themselves from this same Principle, which is the only light and the sole support of all Beings? At this point, when recalling what I have said previously concerning the justice of the first Principle and the liberty of Beings having originated from it, we will sense completely that if as a result of its crime, the evil Principle still experiences the suffering attendant to its rebellious will, so the actual suffering of people is only the natural consequence of their first mistake; similarly this mistake could only be the result of the freedom of people, who, having conceived a thought against the supreme Law, adhered to it through their own will. In accordance with the knowledge of the relationship that exists between the crime and the suffering of the evil Principle, I could, by observing their analogy, indicate the nature of the crime of the original person by the nature of this person's punishment. I could even, in this way, appease the murmurings continually heard relative to our being condemned to participate in his punishment although not having participated in his crime. But these truths would be despised by most people, and appreciated by so few that I believe that I would be committing an error in exposing them to full view. I will content myself therefore in pointing the way to my readers through a figurative picture presenting the glory of people in their former state and the sufferings to which they have been exposed since their deprivation. There is no origin higher than that of people, as they are older than any Being in Nature; they existed before the birth of the smallest of primary forms, and yet they only came into existence after them. But what elevated them well above all these Beings is that they had to be born of a father and a mother, and humankind had no mother. Moreover, their function was absolutely inferior to his; whereas that of humankind was always to fight, so as to eliminate disorder and return all to Unity, that of those Beings was to obey people. But as the combats in which people had to engage could be very dangerous for them, they were protected by an impenetrable armor which they could put to varied usage at will, and from which they even had to form copies absolutely equal and conforming to their model. Moreover, the original human was equipped with a spear composed of four metals, so well amalgamated that ever since the existence of the world, it has never been possible to separate them. This spear possessed the property of burning like fire itself; moreover, it was so sharp that nothing was impenetrable to it, and it was so accurate that it always struck at two places simultaneously. All these advantages, added to an infinity of gifts that humankind had received at the same time, rendered the original human truly strong and formidable. The Land where this original human had to engage in combat was covered with a forest composed of seven trees, of which each one had sixteen roots and four hundred ninety branches. Their fruits, being renewed continually, furnished him with the most excellent food, and the trees themselves, used as entrenchments, rendered his Post practically inaccessible. It is in this place of delights, the abode of humanity's happiness and the throne of its glory, that he would have been forever happy and invincible; because, having received orders to occupy the center, he could easily observe all that transpired around him from this point, thus enjoying the advantage of perceiving all the approaches and stratagems of his adversaries, without ever being seen by them. Therefore, during all the time he remained at his post, he maintained his natural superiority. He enjoyed a peace and tasted of a happiness that words cannot express to the people of today. But, as soon as he left his post, he ceased being its master, and another Agent was sent to take his place. Then, after having been disgracefully deprived of all his rights, the original human was flung headlong into the region of the fathers and mothers, where humanity has remained ever since, in the sorrow and affliction of seeing itself indiscriminately mixed with all the other Beings in Nature. pAl|\n\nIt is impossible to conceive of a more sorrowful and deplorable state than that of this unfortunate original human at the moment of his fall; for, not only did he immediately lose that formidable spear which no obstacle could resist, but the very armor that had covered him also disappeared and was replaced for a while by another armor which, not being impenetrable as the first one, became a source of continuous danger for him, so that, always having to wage the same combat, he was infinitely more exposed. However, in punishing humankind this way, his Father did not wish to deprive the original human of all hope and abandon him to the rage of his enemies. Touched by his repentance and shame, the Father promised him that he could, by his own efforts, recover his former estate; but this could only be accomplished after he had been granted the right to regain possession of that spear he had lost and which had been entrusted to the Agent who had replaced humankind in the very center it had just abandoned. It is therefore in the search for this incomparable spear that people have since had to occupy themselves and must occupy themselves every day. It is by this spear alone that they can secure the return of their rights and obtain all favors for which they were created. One must not be surprised at the resources remaining to the original human after his crime; it was the hand of a Father that punished him, and it was also the tenderness of a Father that watched over him, even when Its Justice removed him from Its presence. Since the place from which people came is regulated with so much wisdom, people, by retracing their steps along the same path that led them astray, can be certain to return to the central point of the forest, which is the only place where they can enjoy any peace and strength. In fact, having strayed by going from four to nine, people will never find their path of return except by going from nine to four. Besides, it would be wrong for them to complain of this inescapable rule; such is the Law imposed upon all Beings that inhabit the region of the fathers and mothers; and since people descended to it voluntarily, it is then necessary that they experience all the sorrows attached to it. This Law is terrible, I know, but it is nothing compared to the Law of the number fifty-six, a frightening Law; terrible for those who have exposed themselves to it, for they will only be able to arrive at sixty-four after they have experienced it in all its rigor. Such is the allegorical story of humankind: what they were at their origin and what they became after departing from their first Law. I have endeavored by this tableau to lead people to the source of all their troubles and to indicate to them, although in a mysterious way, the means necessary to remedy their condition. I must add that, although their crime and that of the evil Principle are equally the fruit of their evil desire, nevertheless it must be remarked that these crimes, one and the other, are of a very different nature and consequently they cannot be subjected to equal punishment nor attain to the same results. After all, Justice evaluates even the difference in the locations where their crimes have been committed. Therefore, people and the evil Principle are thus continually faced with their crimes, but they have neither the same help nor the same consolation. I have previously given to understand that by itself, the evil Principle can only persevere in its rebellious will until communication with the good be returned to it. But people, in spite of their condemnation, can appease Justice itself, reconcile themselves with truth, and savor its delights from time to time as if, somehow, they were not separated from it. It is true, nevertheless, to say that the crime of one as the crime of the other can only be penalized through deprivation. The sole difference exists only in the measure of this punishment. It is even more certain that this deprivation is the most terrible torment, and the only one that really could subjugate people. Pretending to lead us to Wisdom by this frightening picture of corporeal sufferings in a future life has been a great mistake, as a picture means nothing if we do not experience it. Now, these blind Masters must necessarily have little influence on us since the torment they describe can only be the product of their own imagination. If they had at least taken care to picture for humankind the remorse they must experience when they manifest evil, it would have been easier to reach them, because here on Earth it is possible for us to experience this sorrow. But how much happier would they have made us, and given us a more worthy idea of our Principle, had they been exalted enough to tell people that this Principle, being love itself, punishes people solely through love. At the same time, being love only, there is nothing left for people when it removes love from them. It is by this explanation that they would have enlightened and sustained people in making them feel that nothing should frighten them more than ceasing to experience the love of this Principle, since they do experience non-entity; and certainly, this non-entity that people can experience at any time, if presented to them in all its horror, would be an idea more effective and salutary for them, than that of those eternal torments to which, in spite of the doctrine of those ministers of blood, people always perceive an end and never a beginning. The assistance accorded to humanity for its rehabilitation, however precious it may be, nevertheless depends upon very rigorous conditions. And truly, the more glorious the rights that people lost, the more they must suffer to recover them. Finally, being subjected by their crime to the law of time, they cannot avoid experiencing its painful effects, because, having through their own will opposed all the obstacles pertaining to time, the Law demands that people cannot obtain anything, except in the measure that they experience and surmount them. It is at the moment of humanity's corporeal birth that one witnesses the beginning of the troubles which await them. It is then that they show all the signs of the most shameful reprobation. They are born like a vile insect in corruption and filth; they are born amidst the suffering and cries of their mother, as if it were a disgrace for her to give birth. Now, what a lesson it is for the child to realize that for all mothers, childbirth is the most painful and the most dangerous! But no sooner does the child take her first breath that she is covered with tears and tormented by the most acute pains. The first steps that she takes in life proclaim that she has come only to suffer and that she is truly the child of crime and sorrow. If, on the contrary, humanity had not been guilty, birth would have been the first feeling of happiness and peace. Seeing the light, the child would celebrate its splendor by transports of rapture and tributes of praises directed towards the Principle of his happiness. Not troubled regarding the legitimacy of his origin, without anxiety concerning the stability of his fate, he would have enjoyed all of its delights because he would have known and experienced its advantages. 0, Humanity! Shed bitter tears on the enormity of thy crime, which has so horribly changed thy condition. Tremble at the thought of the fatal decree that condemns thy posterity to be born in torment and humiliation when it should have known only glory and continuous happiness. From the first years of their elementary existence, a person's situation becomes much more frightening, because she has as yet only experienced bodily suffering, whereas now she will experience mental suffering. As her corporeal envelope has been, until now, the target of the force of elements before having acquired the minimum strength necessary for her defense, so her thoughts will be beset at an age when, not having yet exercised her will, error can most easily seduce her, carrying its attacks through a thousand paths, even to the source, to corrupt the tree in its roots. It is certain that a person then commences a career so painful and perilous that if succor did not follow the same progression for him, he should infallibly succumb. But the same hand that has given him birth neglects nothing for his preservation. In proportion to his advancement in age, as the obstacles multiply and oppose the exercise of his faculties, so in the same proportion his corporeal envelope acquires consistency. In other words, his new armor gains strength and becomes more powerful against the attacks of his enemies, until at last - the intellectual temple of the person having been erected - this envelope becomes useless and destroys itself, leaving the edifice revealed and beyond reach. It is therefore evident that this material body which covers us, is the organ of all our misfortunes. Therefore, it is this body which, forming dense limitations to our sight and all our faculties, keeps us in deprivation and suffering. Therefore, I must no longer conceal that the joining of a person to that gross envelope is the very penalty to which she has been subjected temporally by her crime, since we see the horrible effects it causes her to experience from the moment it covers her to the moment it is removed from her. This is how the trials are commenced and perpetuated, without which a person cannot re-establish her former connection with the Light. But in spite of the shadows which this material body spreads around us, we are also obliged to admit that it serves as a protection and safeguard against the dangers surrounding us, and that, without this envelope we would be infinitely more exposed. This, undoubtedly, has been the understanding of wise people throughout the ages. Their primary concern has been to guard themselves ceaselessly against the illusions presented by this body. They have despised it, because it is despicable by its nature; they have feared it, because of the fatal effects of the attacks to which it exposed them, and they have all known perfectly well that, for them, it was the way of error and falsehood. But experience has also taught them that it is the channel through which people receive the knowledge and the lights of Truth; they have sensed that since it serves us as a coverage, and our thought is not even ours, it is necessary that our ideas, all originating externally, reach us through this envelope, and that our corporeal senses be its first organs. Now, it is in relation to this subject that people, through their quick and superficial judgments, began to abandon themselves to the fatal errors that have produced the most horrible ideas in their imagination. From this the materialists have derived that humiliating system of sensations that brings people down beneath the level of the beast, since the latter, never receiving more than one impulse at a time, is not apt to go astray. On the contrary, after having been placed between opposites, people could, according to this opinion, abandon themselves indifferently to all the impressions that would affect them while remaining at peace. But according to the lights of justice that we have already recognized in humankind, it is impossible for us to adopt those degrading opinions. We have demonstrated that a person, being in charge of his own conduct, must account for all his actions. I certainly would not at present permit him to be deprived of such a sublime privilege that elevates him so far above all creatures. Nothing, therefore, will prevent me from assuring my fellow people that this error is the most astute and dangerous ruse that could have been employed to arrest them in their course and lead them astray. It would create the most hopeless incertitude for a traveler to encounter two opposite roads without knowing where they would lead her. However, by observing the road she has already traveled, recalling her point of departure and that which is her goal, she would perhaps be able to arrive at a decision and make the right choice by combining the results of her observations. But if someone appeared before her and informed her that it was absolutely useless to take so much trouble to determine the true road, that those offered to her view led equally to her destination and that she could follow one or the other indifferently, then the traveler's situation would become more vexatious and embarrassing than when she was limited to her own counsel. It would really be impossible for her to deny the opposition she would perceive between these two roads. 2D\n\nThe first impression that would then come to her mind would be to guard against the advice given her and to persuade herself that an attempt was being made to entrap her. Such is, however, the actual situation of humankind, relative to the obscurities that the authors of the systems of sensations have spread over their careers. Proclaiming to a person that he has no other law than that of his senses, and that he can have no other guide, is to tell him that he would attempt in vain to make a choice among the objects his senses present to him, since these senses themselves are subject to variance in their action. Thus, being unable to direct the nature of this action, this person would attempt uselessly to direct its courses and its effects. But like the traveler, people cannot refute their own conviction. They truly perceive that the senses bring everything to them, but at the same time, they are forced to admit that among the things the senses bring to them, some are good and some are evil. Why, therefore, should people distrust those who would divert them from making a choice, by insinuating that all these things are either indifferent or of the same nature? Should they not resent this insinuation with the most vigorous indignation and set themselves on guard against such dangerous masters? It is nevertheless, I repeat, the common attempt which is made against the thought of people; it is at the same time the most fascinating and that which the evil Principle draws upon to the best advantage. If it is possible to hold a person to the conviction that she does not have any choice to make among things of the environment, it could easily be conveyed to her the horrible uncertainty and disorder in which she has found herself involved by the privation which is the whole Law. But if Justice always watches over a person, it must be that it is for him the means of discerning the stratagems of his enemy, and of frustrating, when he wishes, all of his enterprises, without which he would only be punished by being taken by surprise. These means are well founded upon its own nature, which cannot provide more changes than the same nature of the Principle from which it comes. Thus, its own essence will be incompatible with falsehood, making known to it sooner or later its misuse and restoring it naturally to Truth. I will employ, therefore, these same means which to me are common to all people so as to show them the danger and absurdity of that injurious belief to their good fortune and which is suitable only to overwhelm them in wickedness and despair. I have sufficiently proven by our sufferings that we are undisciplined; also I address myself to the Materialists and I ask how they can blind themselves sufficiently so as to see in a person a mere machine? I desire at least that they will have the great benefit of seeing an active machine and to experience it from its Principle of action, for if it were purely passive it would receive all and produce nothing. In that case, as soon as it manifests some activity, it has at least the power within it to make this manifestation, and I do not believe that anyone maintains this power by sensations. Moreover, I believe that without this innate power in humankind, it would be impossible either for a person to acquire or to preserve the knowledge of each thing, which can undoubtedly be observed in Beings lacking in discernment. It is clear, therefore, that people carry within them the seeds of light and of truths of which they so frequently offer testimony. And would there be anything more to overthrow these rash principles by which one is intended to be degraded? I know that at first consideration, it could be pointed out to me that not only animals, but all corporeal Beings also perform an exterior action, from which it should be concluded that all these Beings have something within themselves, and are not mere machines. Then, I will be asked, what is the difference between their Principle of action and that which is in people? That difference will be easily perceived by those willing to observe it carefully, and my readers will recognize it with me by fixing their sight for a moment on the cause of this error. Certain Beings are intelligent only; others are sensate only. Humankind is one and the other at the same time. In this lies the answer to the enigma. These different classes of Beings each possess a different Principle of action. Humankind alone possesses both, and whosoever does not confuse them will be certain to discover the solution to all difficulties. Due to his origin, people have enjoyed all the rights of an intelligent Being, although they are clothed in an envelope, because there is not a single being that can exist without one in the temporal world. And now, having already hinted at it, I will hereby willingly admit that the impenetrable armor of which I have previously spoken was none other than this first envelope of humankind. Why was it impenetrable? It was because, being invariable and simple by reason of the superiority of its nature, it could not be subject to decomposition, and the law of elementary assemblage had absolutely no power over it. Since its fall, humanity has found itself clothed in a corruptible envelope. Because of its complexity, it is subject to the different actions of the senses which only operate in succession and consequently destroy one another. Yet, by their subjection to the senses, people have not lost their quality as intelligent Beings, so that they are simultaneously great and small, mortal and immortal, always free in the intellectual but bound to the corporeal by laws independent of their will; in a word, being an assemblage of two diametrically opposed Natures, people alternately demonstrate their effects in a manner so distinct that it is impossible to misinterpret them. If a modern-day person only had material senses, as the human systems endeavor to establish, one would always perceive the same characteristics in all her actions, and it would be that of the senses. In other words, like beasts, whenever she became excited by her corporeal desires, she would make every effort to satisfy them without ever resisting their impulses, except to surrender to a stronger impulse, which by now must be considered the only active one, and, always originating from the senses, which manifests in the senses and always pertains to the senses. Why then can a person depart from the Law of the senses? Why can he refuse to yield to their demands? Why, when pressed by hunger, is he nevertheless still the master and free to refuse the most delicious dishes proffered to him? Why allow himself to be tormented, overcome, even destroyed by want, and this while in full view of that which would be the most likely to pacify him? Why, I repeat, is there within people a will by which they can oppose their senses, if there is not within each of them more than one Being? And, can two such contrary actions, although manifesting together, be derived from the same source? In vain would a person protest to me that when her will acts thus, it is because it is determined by some motive. I have given sufficient explanation when speaking of liberty, that the will of a person, being a cause itself, must have the privilege to determine things by itself alone and without motive. Otherwise, it could not assume the designation of will. But, supposing that in the case under consideration her will was, in effect, determined by a motive. The existence of the two Natures of humankind would nonetheless be evident as it would always be necessary to seek the motive elsewhere rather than in the action of the senses, since her will manifests contrary to it. Even though her body endeavors always to exist and live, a person can desire that it suffer, exhaust itself, and die. This dual action of humankind is therefore a convincing proof that there exists within each person more than one Principle. On the other hand, Beings that are sensate only ever exhibit the attributes inherent to their being. It is necessary, in truth, that they have the power to convey and manifest whatever the sensations produce in them; otherwise, all that would be communicated to them would be nothing and would produce no effect. But I have no fear of being mistaken when I state that the most beautiful affections of animals, their most orderly actions, never go beyond the sensate. Animals have, in common with all Beings in Nature, individuality to preserve, and along with the life they receive, all the powers necessary to attain that object, in spite of the dangers to which they must be exposed according to their species during the course of their existence, be it in the means by which they procure their food, be it in the circumstances that accompany their reproduction, and in all the other events that multiply and vary according to the classes of these Beings, as it does for each individual. But I ask if one has ever perceived in animals any action that did not have for its sole end their corporeal well-being, and if they have ever manifested anything that was a true indication of intelligence? What deceives most people in this regard is to observe that among animals, there are several that are susceptible to being trained in performing acts that are not natural to them; they learn, they remember, they even at times act according to what they have learned and what their memory recalls to them. This observation could in fact hinder us but for the principles we have established. I have said that when animals manifest something outwardly in any way, it was necessary for them to have an active inner Principle, without which they would not exist. But this Principle I have declared as having only the sensate as a guide and the conservation of the corporeal body as an object. A person either beats or feeds animals, and it is by these two methods that he succeeds in training them and thereby directs them at will. As the active Principle of the animal tends toward the maintenance of its Being, it is only with effort that it is prompted to carry out acts it would never have performed had it been left to its own Law. A person, through fear or the appeal of food, urges and obliges the animal to extend and augment its action. It is therefore evident that this Principle, being active and sensible, is susceptible to receiving impressions. If it can receive impressions, it can also conserve them, as to do so requires only that the same impression remains and continues its action. Then, receiving and conserving impressions is, in effect, to prove that the animal is susceptible to habit. We can, therefore, safely recognize that the active Principle of animals is capable of acquiring the habit of different acts through the industry of people; for be it in the acts that the animal performs naturally, be it in those for which it is trained, one cannot perceive either any conduct or any combination in which the sensible was not the aim and motive of all. Now, then, whatever marvels the animal displays before my eyes, I will certainly find it very admirable, but my admiration will not go so far as to recognize in it an intelligent Being, whereas, I see only in it a sensible Being since, after all, the sensible is not intelligent. To better understand the difference between animals and intelligent Beings, it is necessary to consider the classes existing below this same animal, such as the plants and the mineral. When these inferior classes produce exterior acts such as growth, fructification, generation, and so on, we cannot doubt that they have in common with the animal an active Principle innate in them, and from which emanates all their different actions. Nevertheless, although we perceive in them a living Law which tends forcefully to its accomplishment, we have never seen them exhibit the least sign of pain, pleasure, fear, or desire-all of these emotions being characteristic of animals. From this we can state that, as there exists a considerable difference between animals and inferior Beings in their Principles, although they both have the vegetative faculty, so humankind has in common with animals an active Principle, susceptible to corporeal and sensate affections, but a person is essentially distinguished by her intellectual Principle, which eliminates all comparison between her and animals. Humankind has been thought to be no different from the inferior and sensate Principle to which it is attached for a limited time. There has been, therefore, confusion concerning the different links composing present-day people due solely to the concept of universal concatenation in which a Being is always linked to the one following it and the one preceding it. What confidence, then, can we have in those systems which the imagination of humankind has created regarding such matters when we see them erected upon a base so evidently false? And what stronger proof can we desire than that of feeling and experience? At this time, I will enter into some detail concerning the distinctions and concatenations of the three kingdoms of nature, and I will endeavor to substantiate the principles we have just established regarding the differences in Beings, no matter what their affinities. I warn, however, that these discussions are unrelated to people, and it is unfortunate that they feel the need of these proofs to understand themselves and to believe in their own nature, since it carries in itself much more visible proof than they can discover in their observations upon sensate and material objects. Human science does not furnish any positive rule for the orderly classification of the three kingdoms. It will never be possible to arrive at a correct classification except by following an order that conforms to Nature. In this case, it is first necessary to include in the rank of animals all corporeal Beings that carry within themselves the whole of the Principle of their fructification. Consequently, by having only one principle, they do not need to be joined to the earth to cause this action, but obtain their corporeal form by the heat of the female of their species. They acquire it either in the womb of that same female or by the exterior heat she communicates to them, as happens in the fructification of oviparous animals either by acquiring it by the heat of the sun or by some other heat. Secondly, it is necessary to place within the rank of plants all Beings that, having their generative organ in the earth, fructify by the action of two agents and manifest a production either outside of, or within, this same earth. Finally, one must consider as minerals all Beings that have their generative organ in the earth and obtain their growth and vegetation therefrom. But, being a product of the action of three agents, they cannot exhibit any sign of reproduction, because they are only passive, and the three actions that constitute them are not of their own being. After establishing these rules, it is necessary to observe whether a Being secures its substance from the elements of the earth or if it exists upon the products of the earth so as to ascertain whether it is plant or animal. If it is attached to the earth, and dies when detached from it, it is plant. If it is not bound to this same earth, although feeding upon its products, it is animal, no matter what its means of corporeality. I know the difference between plants and minerals is infinitely more difficult to ascertain than the difference between plants and animals, because there exists between plants and minerals so great an affinity, and, moreover, they have so many faculties in common, that it is not always easy to separate them. This difficulty arises from the fact that the differences between the species of all corporeal Beings always occur in a quaternary geometrical proportion. In the true order of all things, the higher the degree of the powers is raised, the more the power is weakened, because it is then further removed from the primary power from which all subsequent powers are emanated. Thus, the first phases of the progression, being closer to the root phase, possess more active properties from which, consequently, more sensate effects result and are thereby more easily distinguished. As this force in the faculties diminishes to the same degree that the phases of the progression multiply, it becomes clear that the results of the final phases must show only somewhat imperceptible nuances. This is why it is more difficult to distinguish between minerals and plants than between plants and animals, because it is within the mineral that is found the final phase of the progression of created things. It is necessary to apply the same principle to all Beings that seem to be intermediary between the different kingdoms and appear to connect them, because the progression of numbers is continuous and without limit or separation. To thoroughly know the power of any phases whatsoever of the progression under consideration, it would at least be necessary to know one of the roots, and this is one of the things that humanity lost when it was deprived of its first estate. In fact, nowadays people do not know the root of any number, because they do not know the first of all roots, as will be seen subsequently. It is equally necessary to apply the principle of the quaternary progression to Beings that are above matter, because it can be observed with the same exactitude and in a manner even more noticeable, in that they are not so far removed from the primary phase of this progression. But few people would understand me in the application I could make of it to this class; thus, my intent and obligations prevent me from speaking about it openly. If people had a chemistry by which they could know the true Principles of bodies without decomposing them, they would see that fire is the property of animals, water is the property of plants, and earth is the property of minerals. They would then have even more certain signs by which to recognize the true nature of Beings, and they would no longer be embarrassed in discerning their rank and class. I will not pause to call to people attention to the notion that these three elements, which must serve as signs in separating the different kingdoms, cannot exist separately and independently of the other two. I presume that this concept is common enough so that I do not have to recall here that although fire predominates in the animal, water and earth must also necessarily exist as is the case in the other two kingdoms, where the dominant Principle must of necessity be accompanied by the other two Principles. This observation applies with the same accuracy to all minerals, even mercury, although certain alchemists do not find any fire in it. But they should give their attention to the fact that the mineral mercury has of yet only received the second operation and therefore, although it has within itself an elementary fire as have all corporeal Beings, this fire is insensate until a superior fire agitates it-this being the third operation that I will demonstrate as necessary to complete all corporeality. This is why mercury, although having an elementary fire, is nevertheless the coldest body in nature. I repeat, I have allowed myself to go into so much detail solely to defend the nature of humankind. I have desired to show to those who degrade people by including them indiscriminately with t animals that, in this regard, they fall into an unpardonable error even when considering the purely elementary Beings, since we perceive infinite differences from one kingdom to another, although all these kingdoms do possess fundamental similarities. We see that in all classes, the inferior has no part of that which manifests in a particular manner within the superior. Thus, since we have not perceived any signs of intelligence in corporeal Beings lower than people, we cannot deny acknowledging that, here on Earth, humans are the only beings favored with this sublime advantage, even though by their elementary form, they find themselves subject to the sensate and to all the material emotions of the animal. Therefore, those who have attempted to deprive humankind of its most sublime rights, by using as a basis for their conclusions humankind's subjection and connections to the corporeal body which envelops it, have simply presented as proof a truth that we recognize as well as they do, as we all know that people do not receive any light except through the senses. But they have remained in darkness because they have not pursued their observations further, and they have thus drawn the multitude into the darkness with them. In the unfortunate condition of modern people, no idea can, in fact, make itself felt within them, except when being received by the senses. It must also be admitted that, not being always able to control the objects and the Beings that act upon their senses, they cannot hereby be held responsible for the ideas originating within them. Therefore, recognizing that we have a good Principle and an evil Principle, and consequently, a Principle of good thoughts and a Principle of evil thoughts, we should not be surprised to find that people cannot avoid sensing them when exposed to one or the other. This is what has caused observers to believe that all our thoughts and intellectual faculties had no other origin than that of our senses. But by blending into one single Being the two Beings which compose contemporary people, and not having perceived in them these two opposed actions that manifest so clearly the different Principles thereof, they only recognize in them one sort of sense, and they vaguely regard all manifestations as having derived from their faculty of feeling. However, in keeping with what we have disclosed, we need only open our eyes to recognize that modem people, having within themselves two different Beings to control and, in fact, not being able to know the needs of one or the other except through the senses, this faculty must of necessity be dual, since they themselves are dual. Moreover, what person is blind enough not to discover within himself a sensory a2\n\nfaculty relative to the intellectual, and a sensory faculty relative to the corporeal? And should it not be admitted that this distinction, taken from Nature itself, would have clarified all errors? Nevertheless, I must say that in this work I shall make use of the words senses and sensibilities in their corporeal connotation most of the time, and when I shall speak of the intellectual senses it will be in such a way that it is impossible for anyone to confuse one with the other. Secondly, from whatever point of view observers have considered the sensory faculty of people, had they better weighed their system they would have seen that our senses are really the organs of our thoughts, but not their origin. This undoubtedly constitutes too great a difference to render it excusable for one not to have perceived it. Yes, such is our torment that no thought can reach us immediately and without the help of our senses, which are necessary organs in our present state, but if we have recognized in people an active and intelligent Principle that so perfectly distinguishes them from other Beings, that Principle must have within itself its own faculties. Whereas, the only one, the usage of which has remained with us in our painful situation, is that innate will within us that people had enjoyed during their glory and which they still enjoy after their fall. Since it is through this faculty that people went astray, it is through the sole force of this will that they can hope to be reestablished in their primal rights. It is this will which absolutely preserves them from any attempt to plunge them over the precipice, and it preserves them from belief in that nothingness to which their nature would be reduced. In other words, it is through this will that people, unable to prevent good and evil from communication with them, are nonetheless responsible for the usage they make of this will in relation to either one. They cannot avoid being offered, but they can choose and choose well; and at this time, I will not furnish any proof other than that when people suffer and are punished, it is because they have chosen wrongly. The intelligent reader for whom I write cannot ignore that the torment and suffering of which I desire to speak are of a very different nature from the passing misfortune, either corporeal or conventional, that are the only ones known to the multitude. Therefore, all the attacks that have been directed against the dignity of people are no longer of any value to us; otherwise, it would be necessary to destroy the basic and most solid foundation of Justice that we previously established, as well as the invariable concepts that we know to be common to all people, and which no intelligent and reasonable Being could ever revoke by reason of doubt. I will not stop to examine whether in the ordinary conduct of people, their will always awaits a decisive reason to determine itself, or whether it is directed by the sole attraction of emotion. I believe it is susceptible to both motives, and I will say that, for the regularity of their progress, people must not exclude either of these two means. To the extent that reflection without sentiment would render people cold and immovable, to that same extent sentiment without reflection would be apt to lead them astray. But I repeat, these questions are extraneous to my subject, and I believe them to be improper and fruitless. Thus, I leave to the school of metaphysics the task of discovering how the will determines itself and acts. It is sufficient for people to recognize that it always acts freely, that this freedom is an additional misfortune for them and the reason for all their sufferings whenever they abandon the Laws that should direct it. Let us return to our subject. Although we have recognized that all Beings necessarily have something within themselves, without which they would not have either life, existence, or action, we do not admit that they all have the same thing. Even though this Law of an innate Principle is unique and universal, we will certainly refrain from saying such Principles are equal and act uniformly in all Beings since, on the contrary, our observations cause us to recognize an essential difference between them, and especially between the innate Principles within the three material kingdoms and the sacred Principle with which humankind alone is favored among all the Beings composing this Universe. Therefore, this superiority of the active and intelligent Principle in people must no longer surprise us, if we remember the property of this quaternary progression that fixes the rank and the faculties of Beings and ennobles their essence in proportion to their proximity to the primary phase of the progression. People are the second power of this universal primary generative phase, whereas the active Principle of matter is only the third. Is anything more needed to recognize that it is absolutely impossible to acknowledge any equality between them? Therefore, the source of the systems injurious to people arises from the fact that their authors have not distinguished the nature of our emotions. On one hand they have attributed to our intellectual Being the movements of the sensate Being, and on the other hand, they have confused the acts of the intelligence with material impulsions, limited in their principles as in their effects. It is not surprising that having thus distorted people, they discover in them a resemblance to the animal, and that alone is what they find in them. It is not surprising, I repeat, that having stifled all ideas and reflections within people by this means, far from enlightening them upon good and evil, they continuously keep them in doubt and ignorance regarding their own nature, since they obliterate from their eyes the only difference that could shed any light upon it. But, after having indicated as we have that people were both intelligent and sensate, we must observe that these two different faculties must necessarily manifest within them through different ways and signs, and that the emotions which are particular to them, being not at all the same, cannot in any way manifest in the same manner. The primary object of a person should therefore be to continually observe the infinite difference that is found between these two faculties and between the emotions characterizing them. Since they manifest together in nearly all these actions, nothing can appear more important to a person than distinguishing accurately that which belongs to one or the other. In fact, during the short span of a person's corporeal life, the intellectual faculty, being joined to the sensory faculty, can receive absolutely nothing except through the channel of this sensory faculty; and in turn the inferior and sensory faculty must always be directed by the accuracy and regularity of the intellectual faculty. Consequently, one perceives that, in such an intimate union, if a person ceases to be on guard for an instant, she will be unable to distinguish between these two natures, and from then on, she will not know where to find the proofs of order and truth. Moreover, as each of these faculties is capable of receiving good impressions and evil impressions apart from the other, people are exposed at every instant to the danger of confusing not only the sensate with the intellectual, but also that which can be advantageous or harmful to one or the other. I shall examine the consequences and effects of this danger attached to the present situation of humankind. I shall unveil the errors to which people's negligence in discerning their different faculties have led them, as much upon the Principle of things as upon the works of Nature. I shall also discourse upon those works and principles that have come out of their own hands and imagination. Divine, intellectual and physical sciences, the civic and natural duties of people, the arts, legislation, any institutions or establishments, are all encompassed in the subject that occupies my attention. I do not even fear to say that I consider this inquiry to be an obligation for me, because if the ignorance and obscurity into which we have fallen regarding these important points are not part of people's essence, but instead the natural effects of their first errors and of all those that have proceeded from them, it is people's duty to attempt to turn once again toward the light they have abandoned. And if this knowledge was their lot before their fall, it has not been absolutely lost to them, since it continually flows from that inexhaustible source from which they originated. In other words, regardless of the state of obscurity in which they languish, if people can always hope to perceive the Truth, and if only courage and effort are needed for them to attain truth, it would be holding it in scorn not to make use of all the power within us to draw closer to it. The continual use I make in this work of the words faculties, actions, causes, principles, agents, properties, and virtues will undoubtedly reawaken the contempt and scorn of my century for the occult qualities. However, it would be unjust to apply this name to this doctrine solely because it offers nothing to the senses. That which is occult to the eyes of the body is that which they do not see; that which is occult to the intelligence is that which it does not conceive. In this sense, I ask if there is anything more occult to the eyes ai)\n\nor to the intelligence than the notions generally received upon all the objects that I have just enumerated? They explain matter by matter; they explain people by the senses; they explain the Author of all things by the elementary Nature. Thus, the eyes of the body, seeing only assemblages, search in vain for the elementary Principles proclaimed to them, and not ever being able to perceive them, it is clear that they have been misled. A person sees in his senses the play of his organs, but does not recognize in them his intelligence. Finally, the visible Nature presents to the eyes the work of a great Artist, but by not offering to the intelligence the reason of things, it leads to ignorance of the Justice of the Master, the tenderness of the Father, and all the counsel of the Sovereign. Thus, one cannot deny that these explanations are absolutely nil and without truth, since they always need to be replaced by new explanations. If I only apply myself to further remove from all these objects the envelopes that have darkened them, if I but turn the thoughts of people solely upon the true Principle of all things, my progress is therefore less obscure than that of the observers. And, in fact, if they truly have any aversion to occult qualities, they should begin by changing their course, as most certainly there is no course more occult and dark than that in which they would lead us.\n\n## Chapter 2 - Universal Source of Errors\n\nEverything that I have said about people - considering their origin and first splendor, their impure will that caused his fall and the distressing situation in which they have placed themselves - will be confirmed by the observations that we will make concerning their conduct and the opinions that they create daily. One may make the same observations regarding the original purity, the degradation, and the actual torments of the Principle that has become evil. The course of all these deviations is uniform. The primary errors, those that have followed and those which will follow, have had, and will have everlastingly, the same causes. In other words, the errors of people and of all other Beings that are clothed with the privilege of Liberty must always be attributed to the evil will, because, as I have already said, it is necessary to consider the consequences so as to demonstrate that the principle of any action is legitimate. If a person is unhappy, she is unquestionably guilty, because she cannot be unhappy unless she is free. Undoubtedly, I could have been stopped at this proposition by having my attention drawn to the sufferings of animals, but that objection has not escaped me, and since I can demonstrate it without interrupting my subject, I will apply myself to that end before embarking upon my main theme. I know that, as a sensate Being, an animal suffers, and thus, in a way, it can be considered unfortunate. But I beg the reader to observe whether the description of \"unfortunate\" would not pertain with more reason to Beings who, knowing that they should be happy by their nature, experience inwardly the despair of not being happy. In this regard, it could not be applied to the animal that belongs here on Earth and is not created for any state of well-being other than that of the senses. Therefore, when the well-being of an animal is disturbed, it suffers without a doubt as a sensate Being, but it perceives nothing beyond its sufferings. It bears them and even attempts to stop them, but only through the action of the sense faculty, and without being able to realize that another condition may exist. In other words, the animal does not possess that which causes unhappiness in people, this remorse and the necessity of attributing its sufferings to itself as people do. How could it do so? It does not act by its own will, but rather, it is caused to act. However, it still remains to be determined why the animal suffers and why it is so often deprived of the sensate well-being that would make it happy in its own way. I could give the reason for this difficulty, were I permitted to expound upon the relationship of things and to show to what extent evil has gained through the errors of people. However, this is a point that I will simply indicate; and so for the present, it will suffice to say that the earth is no longer virgin, which exposes it and its fruits to all the evils resulting from the loss of Virginity. We can therefore state with reason that there cannot be any truly unhappy Being except a free Being, to which I will add that if a person has freely plunged himself into sorrow and suffering, this same freedom imposes upon him the continual obligation to work towards the reparation of his crime. The more he is negligent on this point, the more he will render himself guilty and, consequently, the more he will become unhappy. Let us return to our subject. To guide us in the important examination that we propose to undertake, and which is today essentially part of a person's appointed work, let us note that the principal cause of all our errors in the sciences is not having observed one Law of two distinct actions, which manifests universally in all Beings in Creation and often plunges people into uncertainty. However, we should not be surprised to see that each Being here on Earth is subject to this dual action, since we have previously recognized two very distinct natures or opposed Principles, whose power has manifested itself since the beginning of things and continually makes itself felt in all Creation. Of these two Principles, only one is real and truly necessary, since after One, we no longer are aware of anything. Thus, the second Principle, although requiring the action of the first in creation, can certainly have neither weight, number, nor measure, since these Laws belong to the very Essence of the first Principle. One, stable and permanent, possesses life within itself and by itself; the other, irregular and without law, possesses only apparent and illusory effects for the intelligence that would allow itself to be deceived. If, therefore, it is a dual reason that has been the cause of the birth and the temporal life of the Universe, as we are intimating, it is necessary that particular bodies follow the same Law and can neither reproduce themselves nor exist without the help of a dual action. However, the dual reason directing the bodies and all matter is not the same as that dual reason resulting from the opposition of the two Principles. This one is purely intellectual and only takes its source in the contrary will of these two Beings. When either one acts upon the sensate and the corporeal, it is always with an intellectual purpose in view, in other words, to destroy the intellectual action that is opposed to it. This does not apply to the dual action ruling over Nature. This dual nature is attached only to corporeal Beings and serves as much for their reproduction as for their preservation. It is pure, in that it is directed by a third action which renders it orderly. In other words, this is the necessary means established by the source of all powers for the construction of all its material works. Although there is nothing impure in this dual reason attached to all corporeal things, and neither one of the phases is evil, nevertheless, one of them is permanent and imperishable, and the other is only fleeting and momentary. For this reason, the latter is not real to the intelligence, although its effects are real to the eyes of the body. It will thus advance us considerably if we succeed in distinguishing the nature and the results of these two different phases, or of these two different Laws which support corporeal creation; because if we learn to recognize their action in all temporal things, it will be one more way to untangle them in ourselves. In fact, we cannot conceive the extent to which the errors that are committed daily relative to our Being are closely related to those that are made regarding corporeal Beings and matter. And the person who would have the intelligence to judge the bodies would soon have that which 1s necessary to judge a person. The first error that was introduced in this regard was to make material Nature a separate class and study. Although people have perceived that this branch was alive and active, they have looked upon it as being separated from the trunk. By continually applying themselves to this dangerous examination, the trunk in turn has appeared to them so far removed from the branch that they no longer felt the need of its existence, or if they did at least recognize its existence, they have seen it only as an isolated Being, the voice of which loses itself in the distance and need not even be heard so as to conceive and accomplish the progression and the Laws of material Nature. If we limited ourselves, as they have, to considering this Nature by itself and as acting without the mediation of an exterior Principle, we could, it is true, easily perceive its sensory and apparent Laws. But we could not say that our concept was complete, since it would always remain for us to recognize its real Principle, which is visible only to the intelligence by which everything in existence is necessarily governed, and of which the sensory and apparent Laws are only the result. On the other hand, if during our sojourn among the Beings of this material Nature, we wanted to remove them entirely from our research in an endeavor to arrive at the invisible Principle, we would have to avoid keeping ourselves too far above the path we must follow, as we would then be unable to attain the object of our desires and obtain only part of the lights intended for us. We must sense the disadvantages of these two extremes. They are such that when we devote ourselves to either one, we can be assured of experiencing no success. If we neglect either of these Laws in our search for the other, we will only have a false idea of both, because their actual relationship is indispensable, although it may not always be manifested. Finally, endeavoring today to elevate ourselves to the primary superior and invisible Principle, without the support of matter, is to offend and tempt the latter. Likewise, endeavoring to know matter by excluding this first Principle and the virtues it employs to maintain it is the most absurd impiety. It is not that people can never be destined to have perfect knowledge of the first Principle without being obliged to combine it with the study of matter, much as there was a period after their fall when people were entirely subjected to this Law of matter, without their being able to think of the existence of the first Principle. But, during this intermediary passage accorded to us of being placed between the two extremes, we must not lose sight of either one or the other if we do not want to go astray. The second error is that since people have been held in the sensate region, they have, it is true, searched for the Principle of matter because they cannot doubt that it has one. However, by confusing the two Laws in this search, they have wanted that the Principle of matter must be as obvious as matter itself. They have wanted to submit both of them to the measure of their corporeal eyes. Now, a corporeal measure can only apply to an area. An area is but an assemblage, and consequently a composite Being, and if a person persisted in believing that the Principle of the area or of matter is the same as matter itself, it would then be necessary that this Principle be extended and composed in the same way as matter. Then, it is true that the eyes of her body could calculate its dimensions, according to the limits of her faculties, and yet not have advanced any further. In order to measure correctly, it would be necessary for her to have a base for her measurements, but she has none. Yet we are certainly far from entertaining a similar idea of the Principle of matter when we compare it to that which we already have of a Principle in general. All those who have attempted to explain the nature of a Principle have been unable to avoid stating that it must be indivisible, incommensurable, and absolutely different from that which matter presents to our eyes. Even mathematicians and geometricians, although acting solely by means of their senses and having only the area as their objective, contribute to the support of this definition. As truly material as is this mathematical point which they make the basis of their work, they are obliged to clothe it with all the properties of the immaterial Being; otherwise their science would not, as yet, have begun. Thus, can an indivisible and incommensurable Being, such as we sense must conceive all Principles, be to us anything other than a simple Being? Certainly, we cannot doubt that material appearances are, on the contrary, divisible and subject to sensate measure. Consequently, matter is not therefore a simple Being, and it cannot be its own Principle. It would therefore be absurd to attempt confounding matter itself with the Principle of matter. Concerning this subject, I must call attention to the obscurities in which this false method of considering material bodies has plunged the multitude. Common people have believed that by mutilating, dividing, and subdividing matter, they have actually mutilated, divided, and subdivided the Principle and essence of matter. Believing that only the limits of their corporeal organs prevented them from going as far as their thoughts in this operation, they have imagined that this division was essentially possible beyond that which they themselves could operate, and they have believed that matter was divisible ad infinitum. They have then regarded it as indestructible and, consequently, as eternal. It is definitely by having confounded matter with the Principle of matter that these errors have been almost universally adopted. In reality, dividing the forms of matter is not dividing its essence, or, to better express it, separating the diverse parts of which all bodies are composed is not dividing nor decomposing matter, because each of the material parts resulting from this division remain intact in their material appearance, and consequently, in their essence and in the number of the Principles that constitute all matter. Therefore, by what strange blindness have people come to believe that they really divided matter by modifying the dimensions of bodies? Is it not easy to see that all the operations of people in this regard are limited to the transposition and separation of that which was joined; and in order that matter be decomposed by their hand, would it not be because it was they who had composed it? Thus, I only see here the limits and weakness of the faculties of people. They are impeded by the invincible force of the Principle of matter, because we know that they can vary corporeal figures and forms at will, as these forms are but an assemblage of different particles and, for this reason, possess none of the properties of Unity. But after all, not one of these particles can be destroyed by people, because if the Principle supporting these particles is not a composite, it cannot be subject to any division in its essence. In this sense, not only is matter not divisible ad infinitum as stated by common opinion, but it is not even possible for the hand of a person to commence or operate the first or slightest division upon it, thus providing new evidence to demonstrate that the corporeal Principle is one and undivided, and is, consequently, not matter. What I have said regarding the mathematician's method must have made apparent the difference existing between their progress and that of Nature. The science of mathematics, offering through their hands only a false copy of true science, has for its foundation and results only relationships, upon which, having once established their suppositions, the consequences are found to be justified and suitable to the object they propose. In other words, mathematicians cannot go astray because they do not depart from their circle but only turn upon a pivot; thus, all their steps return them to the point from which they started. In fact, regardless of the height of their edifice, one perceives that it is equal in all its parts, and there is not the slightest difference between the materials which serve for the foundation and those from which they build the highest stories. Therefore, what can they teach us? Nature, on the contrary, having a true and infinite Being for its Principle, produces facts that resemble it. These facts are the envelope by which nature conceals itself from our eyes, and although temporary they are so manifold, varied, and active, that we perceive clearly enough that their source must be inexhaustible. More ample observations will be found further along in this work regarding mathematical science and the use that should be made of it so as to attain knowledge of Nature and of that which lies above it. We will add here another truth that will support all those we have established to prove to what extent matter is inferior to the Principle which serves as its basis and produces it. First, I beg all observers to examine whether it is not universally certain, in any order of generation whatsoever, that the production can never be equal to the Principle which generated it. This truth is continually realized in the order of material generation, although later, when growing, the fruits and the production of this class equal and even surpass in force and grandeur the individual that has engendered them. As the class of these individuals is subject to the Law of time, the old individual withers away as its fruit advances toward the time of its growth and perfection. However, at the moment of generation, this fruit is necessarily inferior to the individual from which it has proceeded, since it is from this individual that it secures its life and action. I do not fear to assert that in whatever class we pursue our researches, we will find the application of this truth; and from this we can state confidently that it is with good reason we have proclaimed it as being universal. Moreover, we must also agree that this truth is applicable to matter in relation to its Principle, because, if we can see the birth of matter, we cannot deny that it has been engendered; and if it has been engendered, it is, like all Beings, inferior to its generative Principle. One is already well advanced to have recognized the superiority of the Principle of matter over matter, and to sense that they cannot both be of the same nature. In this way we find ourselves protected from the bold judgments that have been rashly pronounced upon this subject and which, due to the authority of the Masters who have been their proponents, have become as Laws for the majority of people. We are all freed from believing, as they do, that matter is eternal and imperishable. By distinguishing the form from the principle, we will know that one can vary unceasingly, while the other remains always the same. We will no longer experience any difficulty in recognizing the end and the decline of matter in the succession of facts and Beings that Nature exposes to our eyes, whereas the Principle of this matter, not being matter, remains unalterable and indestructible. This succession of facts, and this continual renewal of corporeal Beings, has led the observers of Nature to other opinions, as false as those mentioned previously, and which expose them to the same inconsistencies. They have seen bodies being altered, being decomposed, and disappearing from their sight; but, at the same time, they have seen these bodies continually replaced by other bodies. They then believed that these new bodies were formed from the remains of the old bodies, and after having been subjected to dissolution, the different parts composing them must in turn enter into the composition of new forms. These observers then concluded that the forms truly experienced a continual mutation, but that their fundamental matter always remained the same. Then, ignorant of the true cause of the existence and action of this matter, they have failed to perceive why it would not always have been, and why it would not always be, in movement, which has caused them to decide anew that it was eternal. But if, elevating their eyes one degree, these observers had recognized the true Principles of bodies and had attributed to them the stability they thought they had perceived in their pretended fundamental matter, we would not have to reproach them for this new error. We see, as they do, the revolutions and mutations of forms. We also recognize that the Principles of bodies are indestructible and imperishable; but having demonstrated as we have that these Principles were not matter, to state that they are imperishable is not to state that matter does not perish. By distinguishing the bodies from their Principles, the observers would have avoided the dangerous error they attempt in vain to palliate, and they would have certainly refrained from attributing eternity and immortality to the material Being that affects their senses. I agree with them about the daily course of Nature. I see the birth and death of all forms, and I see them replaced by other forms. But I will refrain from concluding, as they have, that this revolution had no beginning and will not have an end, since it does not operate in effect and manifests only in bodies of a temporary nature, and not on their Principles, which can never be affected in the slightest degree. When a person has thoroughly understood the existence and stability of such Principles, independent and separate from the bodies, he will be forced to acknowledge that they could have existed before these bodies and that they could still exist after them. To this reasoning I will not add proofs upon which I would be denied credence, but they are of such a nature that it is not within my power to doubt them, any more than if I had been present at the formation of things. Moreover, the numerical Law of Beings is an irrevocable testimony. ONE exists and is conceived independently of the other numbers; and, after having vivified them through the course of the Decad, it leaves them behind and returns to its Unity. The Principles of the bodies, being one, can therefore be conceived alone and separate from any form of matter, whereas the smallest particles of this matter, on the contrary, cannot exist or be conceived without being sustained and animated by their Principle. In the same manner, we conceive of numerical Unity as existing apart from other numbers, although none of the numbers subsequent to Unity can reach our understanding except as the emanation and product of this Unity. In other words, if we wish to apply here the fundamental maxim that has been heretofore established upon the inequality that necessarily exists between the generative Being and its production, we shall see that if the Principles of matter are indestructible and eternal, it is impossible that matter enjoys the same privileges. However, this assertion of a necessary inequality between the generative Being and its production may have allowed for some uneasiness regarding the nature of people, who, having taken birth from an indestructible source should not, as inferior to their Principle, have the same advantage, and, as a consequence, are subject to destruction. But simple reflection will dissipate this doubt. Although both matter and people have their generative Principle, they are far from being the same. The generative Principle of people is Unity. This Unity, possessing all within itself, also communicates to its productions a complete and independent existence, and as chief and principle, it can thus definitely extend or restrain people's faculties; but it cannot give them death, because its works, being real, cannot not be. This is not so with matter which, being the product of a secondary Principle, inferior and subordinated to another Principle, is always dependent upon one and the other in such a way that the cooperation of their mutual action is always necessary for the continuation of its existence, because it is certain that when one of the two becomes inactive, the bodies expire and disappear. The birth and the end of these different actions manifest clearly enough in corporeal Nature to demonstrate to us that matter cannot endure. Moreover, recognizing as we must that the action of Unity, or the primary Principle, is perpetual and indivisible, we could not, without committing the most offensive error, attribute the same perpetuity of action to the secondary Principles that are responsible for the birth of matter. That is why the Author of all things cannot cause the World to be eternal as It is, since it would not render the World eternal to have it succeeded by other Worlds, which will always be within Its power to do, because each of these Worlds, being only the result of a secondary Principle, would then of necessity be perishable. Let us now examine another system relative to our subject. It has been taught that after the dissolution of corporeal Beings, the remains of these bodies were employed as part of the substance of other bodies. The observers of Nature have definitely erred in both this doctrine and in the consequences they have drawn from it. To state that bodies are formed from one another and are only successive assemblages of the same materials is as great an error as pretending that matter is eternal. They would certainly have refrained from advancing such opinions had they taken more precautions to proceed safely in the knowledge of Nature. The universal Principles of matter are simple Beings. Each one of them is ONE as shown by the result of our observations and the idea that we have given of Principles in general. The innate Principles of the smallest particles of matter must therefore possess the same property. Each one of them will thus be unique and simple, like the universal Principles of this same matter. There cannot exist any difference between these two kinds of Principles except in the duration and force of their action, which is longer and further extended within the universal Principles than within the particular Principles. Thus, the particular action of a simple Principle is itself necessarily simple and unique and, consequently, can have only one end to accomplish - it has within itself all that is needed for the complete accomplishment of its Law. Finally, it is susceptible to neither admixture nor division. The action of the universal material Principle has, therefore, the same faculties, and although the results proceeding from it multiply, extend, and subdivide ad infinitum, it is certain that this universal Principle has only one task to accomplish and only one action to perform. When its task is completed, its action must cease and be withdrawn by that which had ordered its production, but through the entire duration of time, it is subjected to the performance of the same act and to the manifestation of the same effects. This also applies to the innate Principles of the various particular bodies. They are subject to the same Law of unity of action; and when the duration of action is accomplished, it is equally withdrawn from them. Thus, if each of these Principles has but one single action, and they must all return to their primeval source upon completion of this action, we cannot reasonably expect new forms from them. We must conclude that the bodies we see successively born secure their origin and substance from Principles other than these, the suspended action of which we have perceived in the dissolution of the bodies they have produced. Therefore, we are obliged to search elsewhere for the source from which these new bodies must originate. But where could we better find it than in the force and activity of this dual Law that constitutes the universal corporeal Nature, and which reveals itself by a thousand different aspects simultaneously in the production and progress of the particular bodies? We know, in fact, that this Earth we inhabit could not exist and conserve itself if it did not have within itself a vegetative Principle which is its own. It is necessary that an exterior cause, which is none other than the Celestial or Planetary Fire, reacts upon this Principle so that its action may manifest. This also applies to the particular bodies. Each of these bodies comes from a seed in which resides an innate Seed or Principle, the depository of all its properties and of all the effects it must produce. But this Seed would always remain inactive and could not manifest any of its faculties, were it not also reactivated by an exterior igneous cause, the heat of which enables it to act upon all corporeal Beings surrounding it, and which in turn penetrate its envelope and stimulate, heat, and prepare it to support the action of the exterior cause - that is, for the manifestation of its own fruits and Virtues. And, in fact, the exterior igneous cause operating the reaction would soon overwhelm the action of the individual Principles and destroy their properties if the assistance of alimentary Beings did not come to renew their force and empower them to resist the devouring heat of this exterior cause. That is why, if Seeds deprived of nutrients are exposed to heat, they are consumed at the beginning without having produced the least part of their action. That is also why Seeds which have been empowered to begin the course of their growth, would be destroyed and consumed even sooner if they were deprived of the nutrients that are necessary for their defense against the constant activity of the igneous reaction, because this reaction, having already penetrated as far as the seed, can then deploy its destructive force all the more readily. Thus, it can be seen that the nutrients of which we speak are themselves a second means of reaction that Nature employs for the upkeep and conservation of its works, but it will be even better understood further on. Such, then, is this universal dual Law that presides at the birth and during the progress of corporeal Beings. The cooperation of these two actions is absolutely necessary so that they can exist perceptibly to our eyes - namely the first, or interior, action innate in them; and the second, or exterior, action which comes to agitate and to react upon the first. And never among material things has a body been formed except by this method. Let us apply to the constitution of the Universe what we have stated regarding the Earth. We can look upon it as an assemblage of an infinite multitude of sprouts and seeds, all of which have within themselves the innate Principle of their Laws and Properties in accordance with their class and species, but which await some exterior cause to assist them in engendering and reproducing outwardly and in preparing them for generation. At this point an explanation might even be appropriate for a phenomenon which astonishes the multitude, namely, why worms are found in fruits where no worm holes are visible and why live animals are found within the heart of stones. Such situations occur when such creatures arrive in these types of matrices either by natural means or filtrations, and then find or receive there, through the same channel of filtration, organic juices suitable to operate the necessary Law of reaction upon them. But let us not deviate from our subject. Therefore, let us now see what part the bodies and the remains of bodies can have in the formation and growth of other bodies. They can augment the forces of corporeal Beings and sustain them against the continual reaction of the igneous exterior Principle. They can even contribute, through their own reaction, to the manifestation of the faculties of Seeds and bring their properties into operation. But it would be acting contrary to the Laws of Nature, and misinterpreting the essence of a Principle in general, to believe that they could infiltrate the substance of these Seeds. They can, I repeat, be their sustenance and incentive, but they will never be part of their essence. The following observations will furnish the proof of this statement. We have previously established that the Principles of bodies are not matter but simple Beings and, as such, they must possess within themselves all that is necessary for their existence and they have nothing to borrow from other Beings. They would not even obtain the help of that exterior reaction we have been mentioning, if, because of the inferiority of their nature, they were not subject to the dual Law regulating all elementary Beings. There exists one Nature where this dual law is unknown, and where Beings receive birth without the help of secondary Beings and by the sole virtue of their generative Principle. This is the Nature through which humankind has once passed. But, in order that our progress be more certain, let us not depend upon theory until experience comes to justify it. In so doing, let us observe what occurs in the destruction of bodies. This destruction cannot occur except through cessation of the action of the innate Principle, the producer of these bodies, since this action is their true base and primary support. Now, this Principle cannot cease its action, except when the Law spurring it to action is suspended, because then, having been freed from its fetters, it separates itself from its productions and returns to its original source. As long as this Law operates, the envelope never ceases to exist under its individual and natural form. And if this form is subject to decomposition, it can only be because the Law of reaction has been removed. The innate Principle within this form, which causes its existence by binding together the three elements of which it is composed, separates itself from these three elements and abandons them to their own Laws. As these Laws are opposed to one another, the elements will now subject to their rule, combat, divide, and finally destroy themselves completely, and vanish from our sight. This is how bodies gradually die, disappear, and are utterly destroyed. Therefore, I no longer see in a corpse anything but lifeless matter deprived of the innate Principle that had produced and sustained its existence. I only see in these remains the parts that are still sustained by the presence of the secondary actions that the innate Principle had emanated in this body during the period of its own action, because its secondary emanations are present in the smallest corporeal particles, but they successively separate themselves from their particular envelope after the Principle of their production has abandoned the entire body formed by their union. What could a body deprived of life and in the process of dissolution communicate to new bodies that would encourage growth and formation? Will it be the dominant Principle? But this no longer exists in the corpse, since it is through the retreat of this Principle that the body has become a corpse. Moreover, each Seed, possessing its own innate Principle and being the depository of all its faculties, has no need to unite with another Principle. In other words, two simple Beings, never being able to unite nor compound their action or assemblage, far from contributing to the life of new bodies, would only cause disorder and destruction since it is not possible to place two centers within one circumference without altering its nature. Shall it be said that the material parts of the disintegrating body reunite and pass into the essence of Seeds? But we have just learned that each Seed is animated by a Principle which contains within itself all that is necessary for its existence. Moreover, do we not see all parts of the corpse successively disintegrating without the least trace of them remaining? Do we not know that this particular dissolution occurs only through the separation of the secondary emanations that remained in the corpse, and that we can consider each one as the center of the part it occupied? It will then become impossible for us to avoid recognizing that the bodies, the parts of the bodies, and the entire Universe are but an assemblage of centers, since we see the bodies gradually being dissipated entirely. Now if everything is a center, and if all centers disappear through dissolution, what will remain of a disintegrated body that could be a part of the existence and life of new bodies? It is therefore an error to believe that the Principles of disintegrating corporeal Beings, whether general or particular, proceed to animate new forms after being separated from their envelope, and, commencing a new career, can exist successively several times. If all is simple, if all is ONE in Nature and in the essence of Beings, this Law must apply likewise to their action, and each one of them must have its particular task, simple and unique as it is itself, or else there could be weakness in the Author of all things and confusion in His work. However, considering animal digestion as an example, I will undoubtedly be offered the objection that, in the dissolution of the nutrients which occurs through this digestion, the greatest part of the nutrients passes into the blood, lymph, and other fluids of the individual, and therefrom, being carried through all parts of the body, the animal receives. I will then be asked how it could be that these nutrients could only serve to fortify the action and the life of the animal which receives them without communicating to it the least part of themselves, and without the innate fire within them penetrating the Principle and Essence of this individual to unite with it and extend its existence. To this I answer that, most certainly, the only function of nutrients is to sustain the life and action of the individual who has devoured them. He cannot receive them either as new Principles for himself or as an augmentation of his Being, but only as agents of a reaction he needs for deploying his forces and conserving his temporal action. Although no corporeal Being could exist without such reaction, there is none in which it does not have its measure; because it is certain that if the Principle contained in the nutrient could unite with the Principle of the body which employs it for nourishment, there would no longer be any measure in the Law of action through which the latter would have been constituted. We know this from experience and by the damages that raw foods, poorly cooked meats, and improperly bled flesh cause in animals. We know, I say, how too strong a reaction is contrary to corporeal life; and we cannot deny that the animals, destined by their nature to devour other animals, are not more ferocious and cruel, that they have indeed a more avid and destructive character than animals which obtain their nourishment solely from the plant kingdom. This is because the former experience an excessive reaction by receiving, along with the flesh that sustains them, a great quantity of secondary animal Principles, and they employ all the efforts of the innate action within to cause the premature dissolution of the envelopes of these Principles. However, in not finding these envelopes in their natural catalytic state at that moment, they employ force to break these alien chains and return them to their primitive source. During this struggle, the individual experiences an effervescence which agitates and leads her to disorderly acts, and only after the envelope of the secondary Principle is dissolved and rejoined to its generative Principle, can she be returned to a more tranquil state. In considering this subject we must, in passing, censure the custom of most nations which have sought to honor their dead by either preserving their bodies or causing them to be consumed by fire. Both of these practices are senseless and contrary to Nature. The true catalyst of bodies is the earth, and since the hand of humankind is incapable of producing such bodies, it must not attempt either to determine or prolong their duration, leaving to each of their Principles the care of suspending its action according to its Law and reuniting with its source in its own time. Neither can I avoid pausing for a moment on this assertion that the true catalyst of bodies is the earth. It is, in effect, within the earth that the principal decomposition of the body of a person must occur. But the body of every person comes into its form in the body of a woman. Therefore, the person returns to the earth only that which is received from the body of a woman. The earth is then the true Principle of the body of a woman, since everything always returns to its source, and of these two Beings, so analogous to one another, it cannot be denied that the body of a woman has a terrestrial origin. But it is strangely deviating from the truth to believe that this difference could be carried beyond the form of the corporeal faculties. Concerning the intellectual Principle, women have the same source and origin as men because a man, being condemned only to trials and sorrow and not to death, has need for a Being of his own nature close to him, a Being as unfortunate as he, who would by her infirmities and privation recall him to wisdom by continually retracing before his eyes the bitter consequences of his errors. Moreover, a man is not the father of the intellectual Being of his productions, as has been taught by certain false doctrines that are so much more disastrous because they are based upon comparisons derived from matter, such as the inexhaustible emanations of the elementary fire. But within all this lies a mystery that I shall never believe to be sufficiently entombed. Let us resume the chain of our observations. There is a fact that the naturalists shall not fail to present in opposition to my statements, and it involves the colored liquids they cause to pass through certain plants, thereby succeeding in varying the color of flowers and even completely changing what was given them by Nature. My answer will be simple and will pertain to all that I have said relative to digestion. Every plant has its own innate Principle, as have all other bodies. The juices that serve the plant as nutrients cannot add anything to this Principle. But they serve as its defense against the reaction of the igneous exterior cause which, if unopposed by these nutrients, would soon overcome and consume by its heat the forces and action of the individual Principles. One can judge the extent of the variety of reaction to which they are exposed by the infinite number of different substances that can serve as nutrients to corporeal Beings. There is only one, it is true, that is really proper to each species. But the nature of perishable things, such as bodies, and the continual revolutions to which they are subjected, expose them to the reception of foreign reactions which weaken and constrain their faculties, or even completely destroy them, despite the fact that the Principle of Being is indestructible. As one knows, these reactions are operated by secondary Beings, which are also depositories of a Principle that is unique to them. This Principle cannot cause any reaction, either by itself or by the particular Principles emanating from it, unless they are all clothed with their corporeal envelope, since it is only upon this condition that simple Beings can exist here on Earth. It is therefore certain that the envelope of these secondary Principles passes, as they do, into the corporeal mass of plants and animals, to serve as nutrients and to help them resist the action of the exterior igneous cause. It is certain that they also endow the Beings with their colors and properties. But, although they pass into these different individuals, we can never admit that they blend with them and become part of their substance. For these alimentary envelopes to succeed in uniting with the substance of the individual taking possession of them, it would be necessary that their Principles intermingle reciprocally. But we have seen that these Principles are simple Beings, and therefore their merger is impossible. Since the envelopes possess properties only through their Principles, merger of the envelopes is also impossible. Therefore, although necessary to the Being that receives them, these nutrients are always foreign substances, as one knows that they benefit this Being only to the extent that it effects their dissolution. I think you will not find it difficult to agree that there cannot be any type of admixture before beginning this dissolution. If the dissolution cannot occur without having been preceded by the retreat of the innate Principles, if it involves simply division and destruction, how would it be possible that the individual operating this destruction be integrated with the very envelope that it destroys? In fact, if the nutrients and Principles enclosed within the alimentary envelopes could mix with the substance and Principles of the Beings upon which they react, they could also serve as a substitute for them and replace them. Then it would be easy to change the entire nature of the individuals and species. Thereupon, having once changed the class and nature of a Being, one could also operate the same change upon all existing classes, resulting in general confusion. This state would prevent our ever being certain of the rank and place that Beings must occupy in the order of things. Thus, the Law by which Nature has constituted its productions absolutely refuses to lend itself to such chimerical attempts. It has given to each corporeal Being a particular innate Principle that can extend, and often does extend, its action beyond the ordinary measure through the help of forced reactions and a more favorable matrix, but which can never lose nor change its essence. This Principle, being the producer and parent of its envelope, cannot separate from it without the envelope immediately entering into dissolution and eventual destruction. And it is absolutely impossible for another Principle or another parent to occupy this envelope in turn and serve as its support, since there are no adulterers, nor adopted children, in corporeal nature due to the fact that there is no freedom. Therefore, each simple Being or Principle has its own separate existence and, consequently, individual actions and faculties which are as incommunicable as its existence. Let no one present to me the objection that by mixing liquids and bodies capable of absorption that one perceives simple and singular effects, of which none of these bodies were capable by themselves. I will not fear to state that in these amalgamations the action and reaction of the various Principles upon one another produce results which are singular and simple in appearance only. This is due to the weakness of our organs, and also that these results are, in fact, combined and produced by the individual action particular to each of the assembled Principles. If one attempts to blend various bodies incapable of either sensate action or reaction upon each other, but having each its own particular property of color, flavor, and so on, there can result from their assemblage a third property which may appear to be a product of the first two being mixed and combined but not at all unified or integrated. One cannot deny to me that in this occurrence the Principles and their envelopes remain perfectly distinct and separate, and only the weakness of our senses prevents us from perceiving separately the individual actions specific to each of these bodies. Therefore, one cannot see anything here but a multitude of bodies of the same kind, stacked up or assembled with a multitude of bodies of a different kind, but always preserving their own individual action, faculties, and existence. If a solid body is projected into a fluid analogous to it, the fluid overcomes its force and properties. The parts are separated and divided, whereupon their apparent solidity is destroyed, so that they are dissolved and appear to be absorbed. Through this method of dissolution, the fluid presents to us, in effect, results which are impossible to discover separately in any of the substances forming the assemblage. But we should not conclude from this that any admixture of Principles is affected. And is it not certain that there exists here only a simple extension of the action of the dominant Principle upon that of the inferior Principle, an extension which diminishes and even ceases when the superior Principle in aa\n\ncontrol has activated a sufficient number of bodies that have been exposed to its action, and in so doing has consumed all the power that was in the inferior Principle? If a solid body takes possession of a fluid and absorbs it; or if two fluids, by their admixture, produce solid bodies or amalgamations indissoluble in appearance; and, lastly, if bodies which previously did not present any particular force or property but by their assemblage produce surprising effects, ardent flames, fires, noises, live and brilliant colors, could one ever demonstrate that there exists in any of these facts a merger, admixture, or communication of one Principle with another Principle? Since, if the force of the dominating Principle has only suspended the action of the weaker Principle without destroying its envelope, then it may happen that the arts could succeed in separating them and returning them both to their former state. This would be invincible proof of the truth that I have just established. If, without ever destroying the envelopes, the superior Principle were to only divide the assemblages, and if, in returning the constituent parts of these masses to their natural liberty and tenuity, it only repelled them through evaporation, then it is true that the individual Principles of the same nature which were previously assembled would find themselves dispersed randomly upon the earth and in the air, but without having communicated anything or without having lost any of their faculties, substance, or actions. If, on the contrary, the dominant Principle were to decompose the very envelope of the inferior Principle by its force and power, thus dissolving and destroying it, then the action of the inferior Principle would be annihilated. In so terminating its career, this Principle would find itself quite unable to unite or communicate its action to the dominant Principle due to the fact that the very action of the dominant Principle is, in this instance, limited to its previous activity, provided it has not been altered or exhausted beyond return by its own victory. Finally, the union and the continuity of action of the same Principle in various successive forms are no more evident in the birth of worms and other insects appearing in the putrefaction of dead bodies. The Principle of the existence of these minute animals is equally resident in their own seed: because our bodies, like all others in Creation, are the assemblage of an infinite multitude of destructive germs and verminous seeds which only await favorable reactions and circumstances so as to produce and engender themselves. As long as our body exists in the plenitude of its life and action, the dominating Principle directing it, holding the whole envelope in equilibrium, prevents its dissolution and restrains the action of these destructive germs. But, when the time is at hand for this dominant Principle to abandon its envelope, then the secondary Principles, no longer having any connection, separate naturally and leave the field open to all these animalcules. Their birth and growth are even encouraged by a reaction and warmth propitious to affecting their emergence from their seminal envelope. SZ\n\nThe remains of the corpse then serve as food to these insects and pass through them as nutrients pass through digestions in all living bodies. Evident in all things is the same dissolution, the same use of the innate Principles; but in none of them does the Principle of the dissolved bodies pass into the living body to animate it, because, as I have sufficiently established, each Being possesses life within itself and only has need of an exterior cause to activate and sustain its own principle. It is therefore evident that, in the most concealed acts of corporeal Beings, such as formation, birth, growth, and dissolution, the Principles never mix or intermingle with other Principles. Thus, nutrients are but a means of reaction necessary to protect living bodies from the excessive igneous action which devours and successively dissolves these alimentary Beings, as it would dissolve the living body itself were it not for these Beings. So they are not, as the observers and their many followers believe, the materials of which the Being in formation must be composed. Truly, this Being, along with life, possesses everything within itself; and alimentary Beings, upon dissolution, no longer possess anything. Whatever might remain with them continually loses itself as the particular Principles separate from their envelope and proceed to reunite with their original source. Thus, this apparent mutation of forms must no longer deceive us to such an extent that we believe the same Principles can embark upon a new existence. But we shall remain convinced that the new forms we see continually being born and reproduced before our eyes are simply the effects, results, and fruition of new Principles which have not as yet been activated. We shall surely have the proper idea regarding the Author of all things when we say that every thing is simple, that every thing new is in Its works, and that every thing must appear therein for the first time. It is by such truths that we demonstrate once more the extent to which such an opinion regarding the eternity of matter runs counter to the laws of Nature. Because not only is it not the same innate Principles that remain continually charged with the successive reproduction of bodies, but it is certain that any Principle whatsoever can have only one single action and, consequently, one single course. It is apparent enough that the course of the particular Beings composing matter is limited, since no moment passes when we do not perceive their end, and time is only made perceptible through their continual destruction. Yet we must no longer be surprised by the errors that have prevailed up to the present time upon this subject, and were we to adopt the opinions of which they are the results, there would be no limit to our misconceptions. The observers, having hardly advanced a single step in distinguishing matter from the Principle which sustains and engenders this matter, give to one that which belongs only to the other. They consider primary matter as being always and essentially the same, receiving only a continuous multitude of different forms. Thus, by confusing it with its inner, innate, and acting Principle, they inform us that there can be only one universal single action in this matter and, consequently, matter is permanent and indestructible. I beg them to ponder deeply what I have said at the beginning of this book regarding the origin and nature of good and evil. I have shown that any person of intelligence will be loath to admit that different properties have the same source. Therefore, let us apply this to the different properties that matter manifests to our eyes and let us determine if it is true that only one material essence exists. I ask if the action of fire is similar to that of water; if water is similar in action to earth; and if we do not perceive in these elements properties that are not only different, but are even completely opposed. However, these elements, although being many, are truly the basis of all material envelopes. It is therefore impossible for us to agree with the observers that there exists only one essence in the bodies, when we see their properties manifesting so differently. Far from being continually employed in the successive revolution of forms as they claim, matter cannot reasonably be acknowledged to be present in even two of them. Therefore, I shall not cease repeating that the essence of bodies is not, as they believe, unique. All forms are the result of their innate Principles, which can only manifest their action through the general Law of the three elements, essentially different by their nature. As a result of this, form cannot be considered a Principle, and thus, not being one, it is subject to variance and depends upon the action, more or less strong, of one or the other of these elements. Accordingly, matter cannot be stable or permanent, nor successively pass from one body to another, but all of these bodies proceed from a new and consequently different Principle. In other words, this difference between all innate Principles is palpable enough if one observes that all classes and all kingdoms of corporeal Nature are marked by striking and distinctive characteristics. By observing the opposition prevailing between most classes and species, we can confirm the fact that the innate and acting Principles of various bodies are necessarily different. For the inner, innate, and acting Principle of the bodies to be one and the same in all Nature, it would need to manifest everywhere and continually reappear in a uniform manner in various bodies. But, after having recognized this individual difference between Principles, let us recall the precision and exactitude each of them manifests in operating the particular action imposed upon it. We shall thereby render complete the idea that we have already given concerning these Principles of corporeal Beings, by asserting that they cannot be an assemblage, similar to the essences of matter. They are simple Beings, depositories of their own Law and all their faculties. They are depositories of a single action, as are all simple Beings - namely, indestructible Beings - but in which perceptible action must end, and end each instant, because they are designed only to manifest in time and to compose time. At this point, I have only a slight comment to make to the observers of Nature concerning a word they employ in describing corporeal bodies. They proclaim their birth and growth under the title of development. We cannot allow them this expression, because if it were true that the bodies only experience development, it would be necessary that they be completely whole in their seeds or Principles. Now, if these bodies were essentially and truly contained in the Principles, the latter would no longer have the primitive quality of simple Beings. They would then no longer be indivisible, nor consequently clothed with immortality, so it would be necessary to retain the immortality of the Principles to also retain it for the corporeal Beings which would be enclosed therein. This would acknowledge what we have denied up to the present and grossly contradict what we have established. If the observers do not wish to expose themselves to the most absurd consequences, they must then accustom themselves to not consider the growth of corporeal Beings as development, but as the work and operation of an innate Principle. This producer of material essences disposes and forms them according to the particular Law that it carries within itself. I know that those to whom I address myself are very far from suspecting the existence of such a doctrine, and that they will be reluctant to accept it; because nothing is more opposed to their thoughts and the manner in which they have envisioned Nature up to the present time. However, I present these Truths to them with confidence and with the conviction that they can offer no other in place of them. I do not even know how, when discussing the growth of corporeal Beings through development, they could have entertained for a moment the idea that I have previously refuted concerning the passage and merger of different parts of a body into another body, because if the seed simply develops, it must therefore possess within itself all its parts. Now, if it possesses all its parts, why should it have need of the parts of another body to form itself? Let no one believe that the argument can be turned against me by stating that if I deny that all the parts, whose formation is necessary for the complete corporification of a material Being, be contained in its seed, is admitting that it must receive the materials for its growth from the outside, which would be without doubt most contrary to the truths I have attempted to expound regarding Nature. This Nature is everywhere alive. It possesses within itself the cause of all its actions, without necessitating that the seeds contain within themselves the condensed assemblage of all the parts which must someday serve them as their envelope. They only need the faculty of producing them, and they have it. Then if they possess this faculty, all the other expedients that have been invented to explain the growth and formation of corporeal Beings become superfluous, because it is only after having failed to recognize in matter the innate Principle of its life and action, and after having so imagined it as essentially dead and sterile, that the observers have had recourse to these expedients. One more word will suffice to banish entirely this idea concerning the development of corporeal Beings. It is that, were this development to occur, there would be no deformed Beings, since everything would have been of uniform creation. And if there existed only development, the Author of All Things would no longer have anything to do. Now, we are far from believing that neither It, nor all It has produced, could remain in a state of inaction. I shall, at this point, limit my observations upon the defective manner by which people have considered the essence of corporeal nature. I dare to believe that, if they are willing to meditate upon that which I have discussed, they will admit that the reason they have so often gone astray is that they have failed to distinguish matter from its Principle. And, in accordance with that which I have just said concerning the formation of Beings, the continual mutation of forms, the distinction of the essences from the innate Principle, the properties and the simplicity of this Principle, in the particular as well as in the universal, and concerning the unity of its action which is prescribed for a limited time only, they will agree that the Principles of the different corporeal Beings do not intermingle, nor do they communicate, for the reason that they are indivisible. Being indivisible, they can never be dissolved, and they remain distinct from one another, as much by the particular nature of their action as by its duration, which is made evident by the destruction of the elements composing matter. There results an infinity of successive corporeal combinations, from which the observers have too lightly concluded that the matter serving as a basis for the constantly succeeding bodies is imperishable. Far from regarding it as eternal, they must agree with us that there is not a single instant when matter is not being destroyed, since one action always takes the place of another within this nature. Then they will no longer retain, as have the alchemists, the illusion of a continual revivification which would render them and all bodies immune to dissolution. Since the existence of bodies is of only a limited duration, it would be impossible to retard their destruction at the end of this period without joining a new Principle to the Principle which is about to separate from them. Now we have seen that this could not occur in the very order natural to all things. Would people therefore believe their powers superior to Nature and to the Laws constituting all Beings? Thus, having learned to distinguish matter from the Principle engendering it, and having recognized the different actions which manifest in this matter, they will no longer believe in all those fanciful identities which have caused them insensibly to confound everything, even the good and the evil. Let us direct our attention to higher subjects.\n\n## Chapter 3 - Sequence of Errors\n\nIf it were possible that an error would not always be the source of an infinite number of other errors, I would be little concerned with those which I have just placed in opposition to the Principle and Laws of matter, as the errors, being of little importance, would not be very dangerous in themselves. But, in the scheme of things, such errors are bound together as truths are bound together. And, in the same way that our proofs against humankind's false reasoning have mutually served to support one another, likewise, the effects of such errors on bodies, and the untenable consequences they bring about, have in effect produced the most disastrous results, because they are essentially connected with things of a higher order. Having erred in their step of confusing matter with the Principle of matter in various bodies, people are no longer in a position either to discover the true essence of such matter or to discern the Principle maintaining it and giving it action and life. Having given equal status to the two natures constituting the whole elementary realm, it has not occurred to them to investigate whether another exists which is different and superior. We have seen that they have exposed themselves to this flawed alternative - either by giving to the Principles the limits and subjectivity of matter, or by giving matter the rights and properties of the Principle. Thereupon, the Principle of the body and the gross parts constituting it are all the same thing to people. By such reasoning, they have also easily succeeded in confusing these bodies and their Principle with Beings of a nature independent of matter. Thus, step by step, people soon established a universal equality between all Beings, so that it would seem necessary to agree with them that matter is itself the cause of everything which manifests, or that the cause of the manifestation of matter is no more intelligent than the Principles which we have recognized in this very matter, which amounts to the same thing. Giving to matter such extensive properties as they do is to declare that it contains everything within itself. Yet if it contains all within itself, what need is there for an intelligent Being to watch over and direct matter, since it can direct itself? Therefore, what would be the nature of this intelligent Being if people deny it awareness of matter and the ability to act upon matter? And, by denying it such power, would we not refuse it intelligence, since there would be something of a lower order that would be unknown to it and of which it could have no conception? Such is the narrow circle in which imprudent people would like to confine our knowledge and lights.\n\nI know that most of them sense the dangerous results of their Principles and that they allow themselves to be led in this way less by conviction or inclination than by a lack of caution. Nevertheless, they are blameworthy for exposing themselves to these inconsistencies. At all times a person is liable to go astray, especially when he himself wants to cast his eyes upon objects, the knowledge of which is obscured within him by his exile. Despite his deprivation, there are nevertheless errors that he is guilty of not having avoided. Those occupying our attention belong to this group, and with a little good faith and the Principles we have established, it will not be possible for the authors of such systems to still find in them any semblance of truth. I could remain content with what I have already said about the difference existing between sensate Beings and intelligent Beings, and with the proofs that I have given that the most singular faculties of a corporeal Being cannot raise it beyond the sensate, as in the example cited regarding animals which hold first rank among the three kingdoms of Nature. Then, by comparing the movements and progress of animals with the faculties of another order which we have discovered to be so evident in people, we could no longer doubt at this point that people are intelligent Beings. Likewise, we cannot deny that there exist other Beings endowed with this faculty of intelligence since we have seen that people, in their present condition, possesses nothing on their own and must expect everything from an external source, even the least of their thoughts. Moreover, people cannot avoid admitting that some of the thoughts communicated to them oppose their nature while others agree with it, so they cannot reasonably attribute them to a single Principle. Therefore, we have already sufficiently proved the existence of two Principles external to people, and, as a consequence, external to matter, since it is infinitely beneath them. Thus, I repeat, one cannot deny intelligence to these two opposing Principles, since in the state of reprobation we experience, they are the only ones by which we can sense our intelligence. Therefore, if they are intelligent, they must know and conceive everything beneath them; otherwise, they would not enjoy even the slightest faculties of intelligence. If they have knowledge of and can conceive of what is beneath them, it is impossible that, as active Beings, they would not concern themselves with it, either to destroy, if it is the evil Principle, or to conserve, if it is the good Principle. By such reasoning we could easily demonstrate that matter does not exist on its own. But we must search within it for proofs that will dissuade those who attribute to it an activity essential to its nature. We have established that the Principles of matter, both general and particular, contain within themselves the life and corporeal faculties which must proceed from them. Furthermore, despite the innate and indestructible property within such Principles, they could never produce anything were they not activated and heated by the exterior igneous Principles destined to place their faculties into action, accomplished by virtue of that dual Law to which all corporeal Beings are subject and which presides over all the actions and generations of matter. Without a doubt, it is a sign of weakness and subjection in the Principle of the corporeal Being to possess life within itself and yet to be unable to put it into action on its own. However, we cannot doubt that this Principle of life, innate within the seed of all corporeal Beings, is above the exterior igneous Principles which subject it only to a simple secondary reaction, without being able to communicate to it anything essential to its existence. Seeing that these igneous Principles are inferior to the Principles of life which they serve to activate, they are even less able than the Principle of life to put themselves into action by their own volition. It would be useless to examine the cycle of corporeal Beings in order to find the primary Principle of such action. Even if it were finally stated that these Beings, mutually reactivating themselves, had no need for another cause to produce what is within them, we would be forced to admit that, in the beginning, the primary movement would have been communicated to this circle in which they are enclosed. Even the most active among the corporeal Principles would not possess any power without the reaction of another Principle, and so how could those which are inferior to them dispense with such a reaction? Therefore, it can be seen that no matter at what point of the circle one places the beginning of the primary action, it is absolutely necessary for such an action to occur. I must then ask the observers of good faith whether they conceive that this beginning action could be found in matter and belong to its nature, and if on the contrary, they conceive that it does not demonstrate physically to them its original dependence through this irrevocable Law subjecting the Principle of its daily reproduction to the cooperation and action of another Principle. Researchers should have even less doubt concerning this truth, since the means they employ in destroying it are those which serve best to support it. Let one put together, they say, such and such materials and one will soon perceive fermentation, putrefaction, and production. But if these different kinds of matter were able to combine on their own, would it then be necessary to assemble them? Therefore, seeing that these particular operations cannot occur without the help of an outside agent, can it not be said that the Universe follows the same procedure, since its nature, not Being different from that of all parts of matter, possesses nothing more than they do and cannot be governed by any other Law? I believe I can declare the necessity for an intelligent and self-activating cause that communicated the primary action to matter and continues to communicate it in all the successive acts of its reproduction and growth and in all the effects that it manifests to our eyes. Not only is it impossible to believe that matter does not owe its origin to an outside cause, but one can see that even today there must surely be a cause which unceasingly directs every action of matter. Indeed, there is not a single instant when matter could exist and sustain itself were it to be left on its own and deprived of its Principles of reaction. Finally, if a cause had been necessary to begin the primary action in matter and if it has always been necessary to have the cooperation of this cause for sustaining matter, it cannot be possible to form an idea of such matter without also having some idea as its cause, which alone makes it what it is, and without which it cannot have one moment of existence. In the same way that I cannot conceive the form of a body without the innate Principle which produced it, I cannot conceive of the activity of bodies and matter without a cause - physical but immaterial, active and intelligent, and at the same time superior to corporeal Principles. This cause provides the movement and action I perceive in them, but which I know does not belong essentially to them. This helps to explain all the regular phenomena of Nature when, by recognizing a superior cause of undeniable intelligence to be its leader and guide, we shall look upon the order and exactitude prevailing in the Universe as an effect and natural result of the intelligence of this very cause. No longer will we be surprised by anything in Nature. All of its operations, and even the destruction of Beings, will seem simple to us and in conformity with its Law because death is not non-existence but an action, and the time of which Nature is composed is simply an assemblage and succession of actions, sometimes creative and sometimes destructive. In short, we must expect to find all through the Universe the character and evidence of the Wisdom which constructed it and supports it. To the same extent that this truth makes itself perceptible to people's thinking, will they be struck by the disasters and confusion they so often perceive in Nature. To what can this contrast be attributed? Will it be to that active and intelligent cause which is the true Principle of the perfection of corporeal things? It is impossible to consider this idea for even a moment, and it is absolutely repugnant to think that this powerful cause could simultaneously act for itself and against itself. Therefore, let not this distorted spectacle take from us any of our reverence and weaken our veneration for this cause. After what has been observed concerning the dual intellectual Law, that is, regarding the opposition of the two Principles, we must know to whom the ills and disorders of Nature can be attributed, although this is not yet the place to speak of the motives causing them to operate. But a childish defiance of such truths is one of the obstacles that has most retarded the progress of our knowledge and light. It is the primary cause of those errors in people's thinking regarding such matters and of all the uncertain reasoning they have advanced when explaining the nature of things. If people had applied themselves better to a consideration of the two differing Principles they were forced to acknowledge, they would have perceived the difference and opposition of their faculties and actions. They would have seen that evil is absolutely foreign to the Principle of good. Although evil acts by its own power upon the temporal productions of the good Principle with which it is imprisoned, it has no real action upon the good in itself. The good Principle soars above all Beings, supporting those which by their nature cannot support themselves and permitting those to whom it has accorded the privilege of freedom to act and defend themselves. They would have seen that although wisdom has arranged things in such a manner that evil often is the occasion of good, this does not mean that, at the moment evil acts, it is not evil, nor could its action be attributed to the Principle of good in any way from then on. Having such awareness could also convince us of the fragility of humankind's systems and confirm our belief in the Principles we are considering. In other words, only by distinguishing the true nature and properties of the different Beings can we arrive at and form a proper understanding of Nature. But it is time to return to our subject. The observations we just made regarding the Laws which direct the formation of bodies may have caused us to discover the necessity for a superior and intelligent cause; and we may have seen that the two inferior agents namely, the primary Principle, innate within the seeds, and the secondary Principle, operating the reaction, are insufficient in themselves to produce even the slightest corporification. In the long run it is Nature itself and reason that teach us such truths, and it is no longer permissible to entertain any doubts in this regard. Nevertheless, I must fortify this doctrine by a simple observation that will give it much greater weight and authority. I shall therefore call attention to the fact that the superior, universal, temporal, intelligent, active cause, possessing as such the knowledge and direction of inferior Beings, has an influence upon these inferior Beings. This will undoubtedly become much more apparent to our eyes if we observe that, through its action, all corporeal Beings originally took their form and now maintain and reproduce themselves, as they will maintain and reproduce themselves until the end of time. The faculties of such a powerful Being must surely extend to all the work it directs. They must be such that it can watch over all, preside over all, and embrace all parts of its works. We must therefore presume that it directed the production of the substance serving as the foundation of bodies, much as it subsequently directed the corporification of this same substance. Moreover, its power and intelligence must extend both to the essence of the bodies and to the actions forming them. Single in its nature and its action, as are all simple Beings, its faculties must manifest the same character everywhere. Although there exists a distinction between the production of the seeds of matter and the corporification of the forms proceeding from it, it is not possible for the Law directing either one to be different, otherwise it would have a diversity of action, which would be completely contrary to everything we have observed. We have previously indicated that the essences or the elements from which bodies are universally composed are three in number, as it is by the number three that the Law directing the production of elements manifests itself. Therefore, the Law directing the corporification of these same elements must also manifest by the number three. It is the necessity of a simple action in a simple Being which causes us to sense this analogy; and when this Law's uniformity happens to be confirmed by strict examination and by fact itself, it then becomes a reality to us. It would, in effect, be profaning the idea that we must have concerning the intelligent cause not to recognize its obvious action upon those Beings which are unable to dispense with it for even an instant. Confusing this intelligent cause with the inferior causes of all acts and corporeal productions would be equivalent to excluding it, and we would in effect be returning matter to the sole direction of these causes or of these inferior actions. We have seen that these causes and inferior actions have been reduced to two in numbernamely, that which is innate in all seeds and that which proceeds from a secondary agent (which is necessarily employed in every act of corporeal reproduction). Let us examine once again whether I have been wrong in stating that it would be impossible to obtain any production from these two causes if left to themselves. If such causes are equal, they will remain inactive; if one is superior to the other, the superior will surmount the inferior and render it nil, so that only one can then act. Yet we know from all possible evidence that one cause alone is insufficient for the formation of any corporeal Being. Besides the action or the innate Principle in all seeds, there must be present a secondary action which is indispensable in causing the production to operate in the same way that this secondary cause must activate the seeds during their entire duration. We know, I repeat, that without the cooperation of these two causes or two actions, it is impossible for any corporeal Being to receive birth and corporification, and for it to conserve life. However, we clearly perceive that if these two causes were returned solely to their own action nothing would occur, since the one surmounting the other would remain alone. Does not this fact teach us the necessity of a third cause, whose presence and intelligence serve to direct these two inferior causes and to maintain between them the balance and mutual cooperation upon which the Law of corporeal nature is established? Therefore, it will suffice to recall what I have previously stated. I have established that there exists one Law by which all the Principles of bodies were subjected to the reaction of other bodies or secondary Principles. Did that not place observers in a position to recognize the two distinct agents employed in the corporification of every Being of form? Then, I demonstrated that without a superior and intelligent cause, those two inferior agents could not produce the slightest corporification, since they must have a primary action although we have been unable to discover it in them. Thus, the necessity for a superior agent in the temporal is demonstrated. Since everything teaches us that there exists a physical, immaterial, and intelligent cause, which presides in all the facts that matter presents to us, the bringing together of all these proofs must produce in us the most steadfast conviction. Let us now return to the tertiary number by which this cause has manifested its Law in the elements. I know that at first there will be a lack of agreement with me when I inform you that the elements are three in number, even though four are universally recognized. Having heard me speak of Earth, Water, and Fire, without having made any mention of Air, has surely caused surprise. I must therefore explain why only three elements should be recognized, and why Air is not one of the elements. Nature indicates that there are only three possible dimensions in bodies; that there are only three possible divisions in every extended Being. There are only three figures in geometry; there are only three innate faculties in any Being; there are only three temporal worlds; there are only three degrees of expiation for a person; and there are only three grades in true Freemasonry. In a word, no matter how one envisages created things, it is impossible to discover anything above three. Why would this Law which universally manifests itself with so much exactitude not have the same number of elements as those which are the foundation for bodies? And why would it make itself apparent in the effects of these elements, if these elements themselves were not subject to it? It must be stated, therefore, that the fragility of bodies indicates the fragility of their base, thus conflicting with the theory which gives them four elements for their essence; for, if they were formed of four elements, they would be indestructible, and the world would be eternal. On the contrary, being formed of only three elements, they have no permanent existence, because unity is not in them, which will be very clear to those who know the true Laws of numbers. Thus, having previously demonstrated the state of imperfection and decay of matter, it is necessary to find this decay in the substances composing it and proof that its number cannot be perfect since it is not perfect itself. I will pause for a moment, so as to prevent any alarm that my statements could spread in many minds at this time. I have declared the number three to be fragile and perishable; therefore, what will become of this Ternary which is so universally revered that certain peoples have never counted beyond this number? I declare that no one respects this sacred Ternary more than I do. I know that without it, nothing people see and know would exist. I believe that it has existed eternally and will exist forever. None of my thoughts disproves it, and this, in fact, is where I shall obtain my answer to the present objection. I dare say to my fellow human beings that despite the veneration they feel for this Ternary, the idea they have of it is nonetheless below what they should have, and I advise them to be very reserved in their judgments upon this subject. Finally, it is very true that there are three in one, but there cannot be one in three, without it being subject to death. Thus, my Principle destroys nothing, and I can safely recognize the imperfection of matter, based upon the imperfection of its number. I strongly urge those who will read my book to make a complete distinction between the sacred Ternary and the Ternary of the actions employed in sensate and temporal things. It is certain that the Ternary employed in sensate things did not receive birth, does not exist, and is not sustained except by the superior Ternary. However, as their faculties and actions are obviously distinct, it would be impossible to conceive how this Ternary could be indivisible and beyond time were one to attempt to judge it by that which exists in time. As the latter is the only one which we are permitted to know here on Earth, I shall say very little regarding the other in this work. This is why it would be contrary to my intention if one were to infer something from my account and make from it the slightest application concerning the most sublime object of our veneration, unless it were to confirm more fully the superiority and indivisibility of this sacred Ternary. Let us now return to the subject of elements. I have taught that Air is not counted among the elements, because we cannot regard as a distinctive element this gross fluid which we breathe and which expands or contracts bodies according to it being charged to some extent with either water or fire. Undoubtedly there is within this fluid a Principle that we must call Air. But countless experiments confirm that it is incomparably more active and powerful than the gross and terrestrial elements of which bodies are composed. Air is a product of Fire, not the material fire we know, but the Fire which has produced Fire and all sensate things. In short, Air is absolutely necessary for the life and sustenance of all elementary bodies; it will not exist any longer than they will. But, not being matter as the bodies are, it cannot be regarded as an element, and consequently, one may truly say that it cannot enter into the composition of these same bodies. What, therefore, is the purpose of Air in Nature? We shall not hesitate to say that it is destined simply to communicate to corporeal Beings the forces and virtues of this Fire which has produced such beings. It is the vehicle for the life of these elements, and only through its help can they receive any support for their existence, since without it all circumferences would return to the center from which they originated. It must be noted, however, that Air not only cooperates the most in the sustenance of bodies, it is also the primary agent of their destruction. This universal Law of Nature should no longer surprise us, since the dual action constituting the material Universe teaches us that one of these actions can never dominate except to the detriment of the other. This is the reason why, when corporeal Beings do not enjoy all of their particular virtues, it is necessary to protect them from Air if we wish to preserve them. This is why we carefully cover all wounds and sores, among which are sometimes found ones requiring no other remedy than protection from the action of Air. This is also why all species of animals seek cover during sleep, because Air will react more strongly upon them at this time than during their waking period when they are in possession of all their forces for resisting its attacks and they derive from it only the advantages necessary for their preservation. If, apart from these properties of Air, one desires to know more about its superiority over the elements, let it suffice to observe that when one succeeds in separating Air from bodies to the fullest possible degree, Air always conserves its strength and elasticity, regardless of the violence and the duration of the operations that are made upon it. From this fact we must recognize that Air is unalterable. This does not apply to any of the other elements, which all fall into dissolution when they are separated from each other. Due to all of these reasons we must place Air above the elements and not confuse it with them. However, at this point the following objection could be made: although I do not include Air among the elements, I nevertheless connect it to the preservation of bodies and I do not grant it any more longevity than they have. This, therefore, necessarily adds one more Principle to the constitution of corporeal Beings, so they will no longer be Ternary as I have stated. By examining the analogy that I have established between the Law of the constitution of bodies and the number of the agents causing corporification to operate, one might conclude that I am also compelled to augment the number of such agents. There undoubtedly exists a cause above the three temporal causes of which I have just spoken, since it is this cause which directs them and communicates their action to them. But this cause, which dominates the three others, makes itself known only by manifesting them to our eyes. It encloses itself within a sanctuary that is impenetrable to all Beings subject to the temporal, with both its abode and actions being absolutely beyond the sensate. This means we cannot include it either with the three causes employed in the actions of the corporification of matter or in any other temporal action. This same reason would also prevent us from admitting that Air is counted among the elements, even though the elements and bodies they engender cannot exist for a moment without it. Although its action is necessary for the preservation of bodies, it is, however, not subject to perception by corporeal sight as are bodies and elements. Finally, in the decomposition of bodies we visibly perceive Water, Earth, and Fire, and although we know that Air is undoubtedly present, we can never see it because its action is of another order and class. Thus, a perfect analogy can always be found between the three actions necessary for the existence of bodies and the number of the three constitutive elements, since Air is in the order of elements, what the primary and dominant cause is in the order of temporal actions operating corporification. And, in the same way that this cause cannot be confused with the three actions mentioned above, even though it likewise directs them, Air cannot be confused with the three elements, even though it vivifies them. As we cannot avoid recognizing the three elements, we are therefore fully justified when admitting the necessity of these three actions. Concerning this subject, I will enter into some detail upon the universal relationship of these three elements with bodies and the faculties of bodies. This will place us on the path leading to the making of some discoveries of another kind and it will confirm our certainty of all the Principles I expound. Among anatomists, the generally accepted division is that which recognizes three sections in the human body, namely, the head, chest, and abdomen. There can be no doubt that Nature itself has directed anatomists in this division, and that through a secret instinct, they themselves justify what I have said concerning the number and different actions of the three different elementary Principles. First, we find that the seminal Principles which serve for a person's corporeal reproduction are contained and operate in the lower abdomen. Now, as it is well known that the action of mercury is the basis for all material form, it is easy to see that the inferior or lower part of the abdomen truly offers us the picture of the action of the mercurial element. Secondly, the chest contains the heart or the seat of blood - in other words, the Principle of life or of the action of bodies. But it is also known that fire or sulfur is the Principle of all vegetation and of all corporeal production. The relation of the chest or upper abdomen to the sulfurous element is thereby clearly and sufficiently indicated. As for the third division, the head, it contains the source or primitive substance of the nerves, which are the organs of sensitivity within animal bodies. Likewise, it is recognized that the property of salt is to render everything perceptible. It is therefore clear that there exists a perfect analogy between their faculties, and that consequently there is an incontestable connection between the head and the third element, or salt. This concurs perfectly with what physiologists teach us regarding the source of nerve fluid. No matter how correct these divisions are found to be, and no matter how certain their relationship with the three elements is, to merely take note of this would indicate a very limited viewpoint. Apart from this faculty pertaining to the head of carrying within itself the Principle and agent of sensitivity, is it not obvious that the head is endowed with all the organs by which an animal can distinguish between objects that are either beneficial or harmful to it? And furthermore, that the head's special duty is to watch over the preservation of the individual? Moreover, seeing that the chest is not only the seat of blood, is it not also possible to observe in it the recipient of water, or the spongy viscera, which gather the air's humidity and communicate it to the fire or blood so as to moderate its heat? Then, without always having to resort to the head in discovering our three elements, we would clearly perceive all three within the two inferior divisions of the abdomen. However, even though the head is elementary in itself, 1t continues to dominate the others by occupying the center of the triangle and maintaining its equilibrtum due to the organs with which it is endowed as well as to the rank it occupies. We can thereby avoid that general error by which the superior is confused with the inferior, and the active with the passive, since the distinction between them is clearly written, even upon matter. But these subjects are too exalted to be completely revealed to the eyes of the multitude. Such things have not been considered by anatomy, because, as it is isolated by people, as are all other sciences, those who are its proponents have believed they could treat bodies and the parts of bodies separately, and they have persuaded themselves that the divisions which they have proposed bear no relationship to the Principles of a superior order. It is, however, in the division I have just discussed that they may find a perceptible image of the Quaternary, that is, of the number without which one cannot know anything, since according to what will be later revealed, it is the universal emblem of perfection. I shall not say any more regarding this number at the present time so as to avoid deviating too much from my subject. I am satisfied in having given a glimpse of it, and I will set forth other truths regarding the arrangement of the different elementary Principles in both the human body and in all other bodies. When observers desired to know the origin of things with so much fervor, it was useless for them to expand their search outside of and far from themselves. Rather, they needed to direct their eyes upon themselves. The Laws of their own bodies would have indicated to them those Laws which gave birth to everything that bodies have received. They would have seen that the opposing action which occurs in the chest between sulfur and salt, or between fire and water, keeps the body alive, and if either of these agents happen to be missing, the body ceases to exist. By applying this observation to all corporeal existence, observers will recognize that these two Principles, through their opposition and combat, are equally responsible for the life and corporeal revolution of all Nature. Nothing else is needed to further our understanding. People have, within themselves, all the means and proofs of knowledge, and they only need to examine themselves so as to know how things obtained their origin. Yet we will note that it is absolutely necessary that the two agents equally hostile to one another have a mediator which serves to limit their action and prevent them from overcoming one another, since otherwise everything would come to an end. This mediator is the mercurial Principle, the basis of all corporification, and the one with which the other two Principles cooperate in reaching the same goal. Mercury, being prevalent everywhere with them, obliges them to act everywhere according to the prescribed order. In short, to operate and sustain forms. By this harmony, animal bodies experience the action of fire through their center, and they do so without suffering and without experiencing any disturbance, since the same Law directs this action. I need not reiterate that in these two examples the true property of fluid is to moderate the ardor of fire, which, without such action, would exceed its limits, as is observed in all the effervescence of the blood of animals and in all the eruptions of terrestrial fire. One senses that if these different fires were not moderated by a fluid penetrating to their very center, they would not experience any limit to their action, and they would successively set fire to all bodies and to the entire Earth. This is why animals breathe and why Earth is subject to ebb and flow in its aquatic portion. Each animal receives a fluid while breathing which humidifies its blood aside from that which it receives from food and from the liquids consumed by drinking; and through ebb and flow the earth receives in all its parts the moisture and salt necessary to water its sulfur, that is, its Principle of vegetation. I have not made any mention of the way in which plants and minerals receive their moisture. Since they are attached to the earth, it is natural that they feed upon foods and from the digestion of their mother; for where would the water come from to even moisten them if not from Earth itself? At this point, we will allow our readers to make comparisons with all they have observed concerning the active and intelligent cause. They will be allowed to note that if everything emanates from a single source, it must be presumed that intellectual law and corporeal law follow the same course, each in its class and within its own specific action. Finally, they will discover that if the volatile is everywhere, there must be likewise a nonvolatile to contain it everywhere. As for us, let us continue to show why such beautiful analogies are nearly always forgotten by observers. The reason is that, far from having discerned agents and Laws of two different classes, they have not even discerned, as we have seen, the agents and different Laws in the same class. It is because when separating all and examining these objects individually, they have scrutinized them in isolation and have not been wise and intelligent enough to suspect any relationship they had with other objects. If, for instance, they are still in search of a satisfactory explanation regarding the ebb and flow of which I have just spoken, it is only because they always retain this unfortunate habit of dividing the sciences and considering each Being separately. Had they not deprived matter of its Principle by confusing the two, had they not removed from this same Principle a superior Law, which is active and intelligent, temporal and physical, and which must regulate all in its progress, they would have perceived that since no corporeal Being can dispense with it, Earth, like all other bodies, was subject to it. They would have seen that it was upon this Earth that this dual Law, indispensable for the existence of all materially corporified Beings, was operative in nature. However, of these two laws, we have seen that one resides primarily in the corporeal Principle of any Being of form, whether general or particular, whereas the other is of external origin. It is therefore necessary that this second law be outside the earth and all other bodies, although it is absolutely essential to the earth's existence, as it is to theirs. Thus, we shall recognize here, as we do in the dual movement of the heart of animal humankind, the presence of two agents violently chained to one another, which are directed by a superior physical cause and which each manifest in turn its sensate action to material eyes. We know that this manifestation occurs during the phases of the moon, at such time as the igneous solar action makes itself felt upon the universal saline part. Although we cannot have knowledge of these two agents, except through their sensate action, much as we cannot know the Principles of bodies except through their corporeal production or their envelope, we have no excuse in doubting their power, since their effects demonstrate it in such an irrevocable fashion. Thus, this phenomenon of ebb and flow is but a grandiose effect of this dual law, to which everything possessing a material body is necessarily subject. I shall add that since we perceive so much regularity in Nature's course and actions, while sensing that the corporeal Beings composing it are not susceptible to intelligence, there must exist for them in the temporal a knowing, powerful, and active hand to direct them, which is placed above them by a Principle as true as the hand itself, and consequently indestructible and self-existent. The law emanating from either one is the rule and measure of all the laws operating in corporeal Nature. However obvious these truths may be, I know that once they exist beyond the sensate, it is only with difficulty that they will receive consideration by the observers of my era, because, having allowed themselves to be engulfed in the sensate, they have lost contact with what lies beyond the sensate. Nevertheless, since the road they follow undoubtedly enlightens them much less than the one I have indicated, I shall not cease to advise them to search for the reason of sensate things within the Principle rather than to search for the Principle within sensate things. If they are searching for a real and true Principle, how can it be found in sensate appearances? If they are searching for an immaterial Principle, how can it be found in a body? If they are searching for an indestructible Principle, how can it be found in an assemblage? In a word, if they are searching for a living Principle in itself, how can it be found in a Being which possesses only a dependent life that must cease as soon as its temporary action is fulfilled? I have only one thing to say to those people who continue to pursue such fanciful research: if they absolutely wish that their senses understand, let them begin by finding senses which speak, as this is the only way they can be made to express intelligence. This proof will eventually become a fundamental Principle, and it is this truth which will cause people to conceive the true means of attaining the knowledge which must be the sole object of their desires. But in the meantime, let us not fail to direct our eyes upon the different parts of Nature, which will best serve to persuade observers of the certainty of the various laws we are disclosing to them. They will then convince themselves of the truth of the causes which are beyond their senses, since they will see their course written in such a palpable way in sensate things. As I previously said, mercury universally serves as a mediator to fire and water. As irreconcilable enemies, they could never act in concert without an intermediary Principle, because this intermediary Principle, partaking of both natures, brings them together at the same moment that it separates them, thus causing all their properties to turn to the advantage of corporeal Beings. There also exists in Nature, in the form of special bodies, an aerial mercury which separates the fire issuing from the terrestrial portion, from the fluid which is spread over the earth. Before this fluid can reach it, aerial mercury purifies it and makes it communicate only healthful properties to the earth. This action produces the beneficial quality of morning dew, which is superior to evening dew and fog, as they are only imperfectly purified fluids. Therefore, due to this universal property, mercury maintains in all bodies the balance between the two opposing Principles of fire and water, and thus it performs in the formation and composition of bodies what the active and intelligent cause performs in all existing things when it maintains the balance between the two laws of action and reaction which constitute the entire Universe. As long as mercury occupies this position, the individual's well-being is assured, because this element tempers the communication of fire with water. When these two last-mentioned Principles surmount or break their barriers and come together, they then engage in combat with all their might. That is in their nature, and they produce the greatest disorders and disturbances in the individual of which they form the assemblage, because, in the collision of these two agents, one must always overcome the other and thereby destroy the balance. Thunder is for us the most perfect image of this truth. We know that it is produced by Earth's saline and sulfurous exhalations, which, being drawn from their neutral abode by the sun's action and thrust outward by terrestrial fire, rise in the air, where aerial mercury takes possession of and envelops them, somewhat like the way that coal amalgamates and envelops sulfur and saltpeter in gunpowder. In this situation, aerial mercury does not thrust itself between the two Principles composing the exhalation, because it would be too active to remain there, and, being of a class superior to theirs, they cannot together constitute a body. Rather, aerial mercury envelops and encloses them through its natural tendency to form circles and spheres, and through its inherent property of binding and embracing all. At the same time, it possesses another very remarkable faculty, that of dividing itself in an incomprehensible manner, so that even the tiniest globule of such sulfurous and saline exhalations will encounter a sufficient quantity of mercury that will serve as its envelope. It is the mass of all these globules that forms clouds or the matrix of the thunderbolt. In this formation, we cannot avoid recognizing very distinctly our two agents, namely salt and sulfur, and also the image of the superior agent, or this aerial mercury, which binds the two others. Thus, we clearly perceive the necessity for these different substances to cooperate in the formation of all types of assemblages, and we perceive that it is matter alone which makes this known to us. But it is not enough to find here the true signs of all the Principles that have been established concerning the universal laws of Beings. They must also be found in the differing actions and results obtained from the mixtures of these elementary substances. For the time being let us consider the clouds where thunderbolts are formed as being merely the union of two kinds of vapors, one terrestrial, the other aerial. If no other agent were to heat them and cause them to ferment, most certainly we would never witness any explosion. It is therefore absolutely necessary to admit once again that an external heat communicates itself to the two substances enclosed in the mercurial envelope and divides with a clap of thunder all the saline and sulfurous globules enclosed in these clouds. This external heat is visible testimony of all the Principles that we have stated previously and which our readers can easily apply. But, to make it even more simple for them, it will not be remiss to examine the different properties of salt and sulfur in the thunderbolt's explosion, because we can then present some ideas regarding the two primary Laws of Nature in view of the fact that fire and sulfur are the organs and instruments of these two Laws. As has been seen, external heat acts upon the mass of material composing the thunderbolt. Its material envelope is dissolved, which by its nature is susceptible to considerable division. The heat then contacts the two internal substances and ignites the sulfurous part, which thrusts away the saline part forcibly, thereby breaking their union, being contrary to its true law, and forming a disorder in Nature. In this explosion, the mercury is so prodigiously divided that everything it contains is liberated. As for the mercury itself, after having experienced this complete dissolution, it falls with the fluid upon the earth's surface. Rainwater possesses more properties than other waters because it is more charged with mercury, and this mercury is infinitely purer than terrestrial mercury. This operation is determined therefore by two other substances, namely those which in corporeal Nature are the signs of the two Laws, and the two incorporeal Principles. Also, all the effects that we see produced by thunder are based upon the various mixtures of these two substances. In fact, it is well known that fire, being the Principle of all elementary action, gathers together the terrestrial and celestial vapors of which the thunderbolt is formed. Fire also causes them to ferment and subsequently brings about their dissolution. Therefore, the thunderbolt's origin and explosion must be attributed to fire. As for the noise which results from the thunderbolt's explosion, it can only be attributed to the shock of the saline part upon columns of air, because fire by itself will not produce any noise which can be readily perceived when fire acts in its usual way. And although fire is the Principle of all elementary action, nevertheless none of these actions can be made perceptible in Nature without salt. Color, taste, scent, sound, magnetism, electricity, and light all manifest and are perceived through it. This is why we cannot doubt that it is also the instrument of the noise in thunder, seeing that the thunderbolt and its explosion will be more violent when the thunderbolt is more fully charged with saline parts. Moreover, we cannot doubt that salt influences the color of lightning, which is much whiter when salt is more dominant than when sulfur is more prevalent. Finally, seeing that salt is the instrument of all perceptible effects, the thunderbolt is much more dangerous when it abounds in salt, because its explosion, being proportionately more violent, causes greater shocks and more frightening destruction. Indeed, the explosion caused by an abundance of salt manifests almost always in the lower part of the cloud, as it is the greater portion, the least exposed to the heat, and consequently the most susceptible to congelation, thereby producing hail. On the other hand, when a thunderbolt abounds in sulfur, its noise is neither sharp nor sudden. Its lightning flashes are red in color, and its explosion only rarely succeeds in communicating its effects down to us because it ordinarily occurs in the upper part of the cloud due to the weakness of this portion of the cloud and to the natural property of fire, which is to rise. a2\n\nAlthough we do not always have visual proof of it, this is why the thunderbolt strikes every time. This is also why knowledge of the materials with which the thunderbolt is charged will indicate on what parts of the earth it may strike, because it always tends toward substances similar to itself. However, due to the fact that in the shock and opposition of all these different materials, the direction changes at every instant, it is impossible to determine the exact point where it will strike, as we would need to know its entire direction. Thus, this is where we clearly perceive the effect of the dual action in Nature. However, when all these different shocks, which are so apparently indistinct, are subjected to closer scrutiny, they present to us the fixed Law of a cause which directs them, in keeping with all other corporeal actions. This cause primarily manifests to us its property and power through this tendency of the materials in thunderbolts toward similar substances. Indeed, if the thunderbolt was directed toward a portion of the earth's surface in which it would lose its communication with columns of air charged with similar substances, the thunderbolt would finish when all its matter had been consumed and it would be extinguished at the site of its fall. This is why a thunderbolt can never rise again when it falls into deep waters, because its free communication with air is then suspended and it does not find the substances necessary for its sustenance within water. But when the direction of a thunderbolt leads it to columns of air charged with substances similar to its own, it follows and attaches itself to them, thereby adding more or less to its forces in keeping with what it finds available in sustaining itself. By means of all these columns of which the atmosphere is composed, a thunderbolt can rapidly cover different routes even when the columns of air are strongly opposed to one another. Thus, it must turn about when it encounters substances opposing it or when it encounters a location where air cannot escape, because such air is impenetrable and thus offers an invincible resistance. In other words, the thunderbolt will stop only when it no longer encounters any of these substances upon which it can sustain itself. And when it seems ready to end its course, should it again encounter new substances, it will again gather its forces and produce new effects. This is what makes thunderbolts seemingly irregular and generally so incomprehensible. However, we cannot deny that there exists a Law in this very irregularity because, in all the Principles we have already discussed, there is not a single instant when this Nature is left to its own direction and can take one step without the cause established to govern it. I have just one more thing to say regarding the subject that I have just covered. It has been commonly believed that the person who sees lightning will have nothing to fear from thunderbolts. Let us see to what extent credence should be given to this idea. If there were only one single column of air and only a single explosion of the thunderbolt, it is certain that the person who has seen lightning will have nothing to fear from the bolt w\n\naccompanying this lightning because celestial time is so instantaneous that it cannot be perceived upon the earth. But, when a series of air columns charged with substances similar to those of the thunderbolt are in great profusion, a person may avoid the first explosion and not be protected from the second explosion, nor from all those which will be successively ignited after the lightning is perceived since the thunderbolt can extend its course as long as it encounters columns suitable for sustaining it. A person who has had time to see the lightning would then be wrong in believing himself safe until the chain of all the explosions occurring in this thunderbolt has run its course. However, this opinion does have some foundation and it cannot be contested in one circumstance. Since there can be no lightning without explosions, likewise and with stronger reason, there can be no explosions without lightning. Now, when the interval between the two is nearly nonexistent, were a man to be struck at the first explosion or at the last, it is certain that he could never have seen the lightning of the particular explosion of the thunderbolt which struck him. No matter how frivolous these natural observations may seem at first glance, I feel that they are most appropriate for creating in human eyes a picture of the universality of the Principle to which a person must attach herself, if she wishes to know. I shall only add that after my little presentation it will be easy for my readers to sense how they may protect themselves from thunder. This can be accomplished by breaking the columns of air in all directions, that is, both horizontal and perpendicular ones, and by chasing to the extremities the direction of the thunderbolt, because then, by remaining in the center, we shall not fear its approach. I shall not reveal the reason for this, as this would lead me astray from my task. I shall therefore allow my readers to discover it on their own, but I beg them to reflect upon what they have just read regarding the different properties and actions of the elements, as well as upon the Laws directing them, even when they appear to be in the greatest confusion. They will undoubtedly conclude that it is impossible for them to deny the existence of such Laws although they cannot perceive their causes and agents. Let us pursue our course and prove through humanity itself the reality of those causes which are superior to or distinct from the sensate. The details previously given concerning the analogy of the three elements with the three different parts of the human body are subject, in connection with humankind itself, to explanations of an order much worthier of people, and which must be of greater interest to them seeing that they are directly related to their Being and that they will indicate the difference between their sensate and intellectual faculties, or, if one wishes to express it another way, their passive and active faculties. The shadows in which people generally dwell regarding such matters may be considered only a minor contribution to the errors that we have seen them commit regarding their own nature, and by not perceiving the most striking disparities, they have not as yet acquired the basic notions of their Being. The real reason which causes people to believe themselves similar to animals is, and let us have no doubt about it, that they have not discerned their various faculties. By confusing the faculties of matter with those of intelligence, they have recognized in humankind only a single Being and consequently only a single Principle, and only the same essence in all things in existence. Thus, people, animals, stones, and all Nature appear the same to them and differ only by their organization and form. I shall not repeat here what was said at the beginning of this work regarding the differences between innate actions in Beings and also the differences between matter and its Principle, from which it has been possible to recognize very clearly the error of those who have confused all of these things. But I shall begin by begging my readers to observe with attentive eyes what occurs in each animal (and animal person as well) to which the division of form into three distinct parts applies, and to determine whether each of these three divisions may not really indicate to us faculties which differ although belonging to the same Being and which all have the material for an object and goal. Who is not aware, in fact, that everything is constituted by weight, number, and measure? Now, weight is not number, number is not measure, and measure is neither one nor the other. If I may be permitted to say it, number is what begets action, measure is what regulates it, and weight is what operates it. Even though these three words are universally applicable, they undoubtedly do not signify the same thing in the animal and the intellectual person. Nevertheless, if the three parts of animal bodies are constituted by these three Principles, it is necessary that we find in them the application thereof. It is through the means of the organs of the head that an animal brings into play the Principle of its actions, which is the reason why number must be applied to this part. The heart or the blood experiences a sensation of greater or lesser force according to the individual's relative strength and constitution. The degree of this sensation determines the degree of the action in the sensate. This, therefore, is why measure can be applied to the second division of the animal body. Finally, the intestines operate the same action which, according to the Law regulating the peaceful tenure of Nature, must be limited within the animal to the digestion of foodstuffs in the stomach and to the preparation of reproductive seed in the loins. This is the reason why weight must be attributed to this third part, which, with the two others, essentially constitute all animals. fis\n\nSince it is certain that we cannot avoid sensing the differing nature of these three kinds of actions, we must necessarily recognize an essential difference existing between the faculties manifesting them. However, we cannot deny that these different faculties do not reside within the same Being. We are therefore obliged to admit that although this Being constitutes only a single individual, it is nevertheless evident that not everything is equal within him. The faculty governing digestion and reproduction does not render him sensate, whereas the faculty rendering him sensate does not cause him to operate and execute his actions according to his sensitivity; and each one of these acts carries with it some peculiar characteristic. Let us apply to people the same observations and we shall then preserve people from the attempts to engulf them in horrible confusion. If one perceives that, within people, weight, number, and measure represent faculties which not only differ between them, but are infinitely superior to those that these three Laws have shown to exist within matter, we will be justified in concluding that the Being who is endowed with these faculties will differ considerably from the corporeal Being, and then there will be no longer any excuse for confusing one with the other. You will surely agree without any difficulty that the three distinctions we have made regarding corporeal functions may be applied to a person's body and to that of any other animal, because she is animal in this part. Through the aid of the organs of her head, a person's body can manifest, as in animals, her faculties and animal functions. She experiences, as they do, sensations in the heart. She experiences in the lower abdomen, as they do, the effects to which corporeal Laws subject all animals for their maintenance and reproduction. Thus, in this sense, weight, number, and measure belong to humankind to the same extent that they belong to any other animal. But it is no longer possible to doubt that these three signs cause within people certain effects of which all the properties of matter do not offer the slightest trace. Although we basically agree that all the thoughts of present-day people are of external origin, we cannot deny, however, that the internal act and the consciousness of this thought occur within them independently of their corporeal senses. It is therefore in such internal acts that we shall surely discover the expression of these three signs - weight, number, and measure - from which all sensate acts, determined by people to be a consequence of their freedom, subsequently originate. The first of these signs is number, which we apply to thought as being the Principle and subject without which none of the subsequent acts could occur. Following this line of thought, we discover in people a will, either good or bad, which is solely responsible for the pattern of their conduct and their conformity to justice. Therefore, it appears to us that nothing could suit this will better than the second sign, namely measure. In the third place, from this thought and this will, there results an act similar to them, and it is to this act, taken as a result, that we must apply the third sign or weight. Nevertheless, as with thought and will, this act occurs within people. It is true that it, in turn, begets a sensate act which must repeat to the eyes of the body the order and progression of everything transpiring within the intelligence. But, as the relationship of this internal act to the sensate act stemming from it is the mystery of people, I cannot, without the danger of committing some indiscretion, continue further on this subject, and if I mention it subsequently when considering languages, it will never be expressed in any other way than with reserve. This does not prevent people from concurring with me by recognizing weight, number, and measure in the inner or intellectual person as being images of the laws by which everything is constituted. Furthermore, even though we recognized these three signs in animals, we shall certainly refrain from making any comparison between animals and people. In animals, these signs operate solely upon the senses, whereas in people, on the contrary, they operate upon their senses and intelligence, but in a manner peculiar to each of their faculties and in relation to the rank they occupy, one in touch with the other. If anyone should persist in denying the existence of these two faculties in people, I would only ask of those who contest them to direct their eyes upon themselves. In so doing, they would perceive that the various parts of their bodies where they manifest constitute a striking indication of the difference in these faculties. When a person wishes to consider some particular subject of reasoning, or when he proposes to find the solution to some difficulty, is it not within the head that all these efforts occur? When, on the contrary, a person experiences feelings, no matter what their nature and object, whether intellectual or sensate, does he not experience within the heart all the movement, agitation, and sensations of joy, pleasure, pain, fear, love, in short, all the behavior of which he is capable? Does he not feel also how the actions that occur within each of these parts are opposite and that, if they did not come closer due to a superior link, they would be by themselves irreconcilable? This, therefore, is the manifest difference that should convince people once again that there exists within them more than one nature. Yet, if a person, despite her state of reprobation, still finds within herself a nature superior to her sensate and corporeal nature, why would she not admit, in the universal sensate, a similar nature but one equally distinct and superior to the Universe, although particularly established to govern it? UL\n\nThis is also where we shall be apprised of what we must think regarding a question that commonly troubles people, namely, in what part of the body the active Principle or soul is placed, and what location has been assigned to it as the seat of all its operations. In corporeal and sensate Beings, the active Principle resides in the blood which, as the fire element of the body, is the source of corporeal life. Then, according to what has been said when discussing the different faculties of Beings, we cannot deny that its primary seat is none other than within the heart, from which it extends its action to all parts of the body. No one should be confused any longer by the difficulty encountered by those who have stated that if the corporeal soul resided in the blood, it would be divided and would partly escape when the animal suffered any loss of blood, as this loss would thereby weaken the animal's action through the loss of a means of exercising the soul. But the soul does not suffer any alteration within itself, because being simple, it is necessarily indivisible. What we call the death of bodies is therefore nothing more than the complete cessation of such action, which finds itself deprived of its secondary vehicles as occurs in the case of exhaustion; or when it is too constrained as happens in diseases caused by tainted fluids within the body; or when it is too free and thereby intercepted or interrupted, as happens in cases where wounds affect any parts indispensable to the life of the body. Although I declare that life or the corporeal soul resides in the blood, I must, nevertheless, call attention in passing to the fact that blood is insensate. Such an observation will enable people to recognize the difference existing between the faculties of matter and the faculties of the Principle of matter, and this will prevent them from confusing two Beings so distinct from one another. As people are similar to animals in their sensate and corporeal lives, everything just stated concerning the active animal Principle can apply to them only in regard to this particular part. But their intellectual Principle was not meant to reside in matter, and one of the greatest errors that people have committed is to search for its origin in matter and to try assigning it a fixed location and a bond selected among corporeal assemblages, as though a portion of impure and imperishable matter could serve as a barrier to a Being of this nature. Due to the Being's quality as an immaterial Being, it is quite obvious that he can only have a link and affinity with another immaterial Being, and one may perceive that communication would be impracticable with any other Being. Moreover, a person's intellectual Principle rests upon her immaterial corporeal Principle, and not upon any part of her material Being. This is where it is bound for a time by the superior hand which has condemned it to this place. But by its nature, the intellectual Principle dominates the corporeal Principle as the corporeal Principle dominates the body. We should no longer doubt this, due to the fact that, as indicated previously, all its faculties are manifested in the superior part of the head. In a word, it makes use of this Principle for the sensate execution of these same faculties, and such is the means of clearly discerning the seat and function of these two different Principles of humankind. Although the corporeal Principle is inferior due to its nature and place, it is through his links with it that a person experiences in his intellectual Being so much suffering, anxiety, deprivation, and that terrible obscurity which causes him to bring forth so many errors. Through such ties, he is forced to submit to the action of the senses of this corporeal Principle, whose medium is today vitally necessary to him for obtaining enjoyment of the true affections intended for him. But, since this method is uncertain and variable and does not always produce light in all its brilliance, people do not secure from it those advantages and satisfactions of which their nature is capable. This is what causes the disorder, either natural or accidental, which the sensate or corporeal Principle may experience to the extreme detriment of the intellectual Principle, in that they together weaken the instrument of people's actions and the organ of their affections. These facts have appeared so favorable to materialists that they have believed they could offer them as a solid basis for their system. In other words, having based people's intellectual faculties upon their corporeal constitution, materialists claim these faculties are fully dependent upon the good or poor condition of a person's body, according to the variable course of Nature. However, after all that has been observed regarding humankind's freedom and the difference existing between the two Beings of which he is composed, such objections are no longer of any value. People do not experience complete enjoyment of all the faculties that could pertain to their intellectual nature, since by their very origin, not all people receive the same measure of these faculties, and since a thousand events, independent of human will, can at any time disturb their corporeal constitution. But people are guilty when they allow the faculties granted to them to deteriorate through their own fault. Not everyone is born to enjoy the same property, but everyone is accountable for the use they make of what is allotted to them. Therefore, no matter what disorder or irregularity a person experiences in her corporeal constitution and intellectual faculties, let it not be a reason for us to believe her to be shielded from justice. No matter how insignificant the number and value of the faculties remaining to her, she will always be held accountable for them. Thus, it is only upon the insane person that true justice can make no demand, since, in this instance, justice itself holds that person under its scourge. Nor should we believe with our adversaries that such corporeal disorders and irregularities possess no other Principle than the blind Law by which they pretend to explain Nature. Later we shall indicate how far a person's conduct extends in his corporeal life even to his descendants. Moreover, we shall indicate at the proper time what immense faculties are at the disposal of the Principle or of this temporal cause, which is necessarily connected to the direction of the Universe. Thus, by reflecting upon the nature of this universal temporal cause, which not only presides primarily in the bodies, but which should also always be the compass to people's actions, it will be easy to see whether anything within this corporeal region can occur which lacks a motive and goal. Rather, we shall believe that all the deformities and accidents to which we are exposed in both our corporeal Being and our intellectual Being incontestably possess a Principle. We may not always recognize it, because it is usually sought for in the dead Law of matter rather than in the Law of justice, in the abuse of our will, or in the mistakes of our ancestors. Let the blind and unthinking person murmur against this justice which extends the punishment for the errors of parents to their descendants. I shall not offer this person, as proof, the physical Law by which an impure source communicates its impurities to its productions, because this well-known Law is false and excessive when applied to what is not a body. The blind and unthinking person would perceive even less that, if this justice can afflict the children through parents, it can also cleanse and exonerate parents through children. As long as we are not admitted to its counsel, this should be enough for us to suspend all our judgments upon this Law. This prudent glance, salutary and just, is one of the rewards of Wisdom itself. Therefore, how could it be granted to those who believe they can dispense with its light and who persuade themselves that they have no need of any other guide than their own senses and the crude notions of the multitude? The question I have just considered, regarding the location occupied in the body by the soul, naturally leads me to another regarding the corporeal Principle that is equally interesting and which likewise occupies observers, namely, determining why, when a person is deprived of one of her limbs through some accident, she will experience for some time afterwards sensations which seemingly emanate from the limb which is no longer a part of her body. The subject I have just considered concerning the location occupied by the soul in the body naturally leads me to another question regarding the corporeal Principle, which is of equal interest to observers. When a person loses one of his limbs through some accident, why does he experience sensations for some time afterwards which seem to emanate from the limb which is no longer part of his body? If the soul or corporeal Principle were divisible, as might be inferred from the opinions of materialists, a person would certainly never suffer again in this limb after its amputation, because the parts of the corporeal Principle separated at the time of amputation would die and no longer show any evidence of sensitivity, as they could no longer maintain any connection with their source. There would be even less reason to look for this sensitivity Principle in the severed limb itself since it loses all connection with the body from which has been separated at the moment of amputation. Therefore, it is solely within the corporeal Principle itself that we shall find the cause of the subject under consideration. Also, reminding ourselves of all the truths we have established, we can say that within people's present makeup, their corporeal Principle serves as the instrument and organ for the faculties of their intellectual Being in much the same way that their body serves as the instrument and organ for the faculties of their corporeal Principle. We have seen that the intellectual Principle will suffer if the corporeal Principle experiences disorders in the body's major organs, as these are fundamentally necessary for the exercise of the intellectual faculties. But I hope no one will believe that the essence of the intellectual Principle can ever be altered or divided in any way through such suffering. By its nature as a simple Being, we know that it always remains constant, and what it now experiences is simply a disturbance within its faculties. The organ that was to serve in their exercise, thus enabling the principle to attain the external intellectual reaction which are indispensable to it, is in a state of imperfection, and so the action of these intellectual faculties becomes either nonexistent or flows back to the intellectual Being itself. In the first instance, when the action of the faculties ceases, the intellectual Being demonstrates only privation, leading to imbecility and insanity, although there is no experience of suffering. Consequently, we must recognize that insanity does not cause suffering. In the second instance, when the action flows back to the Principle, true intellectual suffering is exhibited by a form of confusion, disorder, and uneasiness, because this Principle, in attempting to exert its action, finds itself restricted in the employment of its faculties. This is akin to the corporeal suffering experienced when a limb is severed. The body must serve as an organ to the corporeal Principle animating it. If this body experiences considerable mutilation, the full scope of the corporeal Principle's faculties can certainly no longer be executed in the affected member. This is because the action of the faculty, which has need of the amputated limb to produce its effects, no longer finds its corresponding agent, and it thus becomes nonexistent or flows back upon itself. This leads to confusion and acute suffering in the corporeal Principle from which the action emanates, and the situation is worsened if the amputation of a limb allows entry of destructive external actions which repulse the action of the corporeal Principle and cause it to return toward its center even more rapidly. Therefore, despite such suffering, we can never acknowledge any dismemberment taking place within the corporeal Principle or any other type of Principles. Rather, we shall simply admit that any corporeal Being, having need of organs to cause the execution of its acts, will suffer when these organs are disturbed because their particular effects cannot then be produced. Let me remark in passing that this is true of only the four external limbs or the corresponding parts of the body. In the case of the three primary sections of the body, none can be severed without causing the body to perish. Let us again briefly consider the subjects I have just covered. Through the various properties of the elements, I have shown several different actions in the composition of bodies. Apart from the two opposed and innate actions within these bodies, I have shown that there exists a superior Law by which they are regulated, even during their greatest conflicts and confusion. Afterwards I have shown that this superior Law is even now found in people, in whom it is distinct from the sensate, although it is connected to it. Therefore, we cannot deny that three actions need to be employed in the conduct of temporal things, in keeping with the three elements of which bodies are composed. Of the three actions assigned by the Primary Cause for directing the formation of corporeal Beings, one is the active and intelligent temporal cause, which regulates the action of the innate Principle within seeds by means of a secondary action - or of a reaction without which reproduction cannot occur. Keeping in mind what I have stated, you will undoubtedly sense the existence of and necessity for this intelligent cause, whose superior action must direct the two inferior actions. How can it be possible, therefore, that people have failed to recognize it and have believed that they could advance in the knowledge of Nature without it? The reason may now be perceived. The reason for people's failure in this regard is that they have misrepresented the numbers constituting these actions, much as they have misrepresented those constituting the elements. On one side, within that which is three, they have recognized only two. On the other side, they have thought they were seeing four in that which contains only three. In other words, in considering the two passive actions within bodies, they have lost sight of the active and intelligent cause, so that they have combined and confused the action and faculties of this cause with those of the two inferior actions, much as they have combined the passive faculty of three of the elements with the active faculty of the air, which is one of the strongest Principles of their reaction. By misrepresenting these numbers, these observers no longer perceive the correspondence existing between the ternary of the elements and the ternary of the actions bringing about universal and individual corporification. As this correspondence has eluded them and has thereby become meaningless to them, the observers have no longer felt the necessity and superiority of the intelligent cause's action upon the two inferior actions which serve as a basis for all corporeal production. They have mistaken all these different causes and actions for one another; or else they have considered them as one. And how could they have protected themselves from this error, since at the beginning they confused matter with the Principle of matter? Moreover, after giving to this matter all the properties of its Principle, it was but a simple step to also attribute to it all of the properties and actions of the Superior Cause which are indispensably necessary to its existence. It will be seen that failing to recognize the power and necessity of a third cause deprives us of the only support remaining to people for the explanation of Nature's progression. We will then credit it with Laws other than what it has received, or attribute to it something that is not within it. In brief, this is admitting what is not only unbelievable, but what is beyond all possibility of belief. Furthermore, how can one be unaware of what people have substituted in place of this indispensable cause? Who does not know the childish reasoning they have employed to explain the Laws of matter and also to provide a foundation for the system of the Universe lacking this cause? Blind to the origin of things and to the goal, duration, and action of Creation, all the explanations they have provided are the language of doubt and uncertainty. Thus, their whole doctrine is less a science than a ceaseless question. When through the sole force of their reason, people could make these observations on their own and perceive the indispensable need for a Principle serving as guide to Nature, they either searched for this Principle in the Primary Being itself and feared not to debase it in our eyes by not separating its actions from those of sensate things, or else they confined themselves to a slight recognition of the necessity for an intermediary agent linking this Primary Being and matter. And by not giving themselves the time to consider what this intermediary cause might be, they vaguely termed it blind destiny, fate, chance, and other expressions which, being devoid of life and action, could only increase the shadows in which humankind is now plunged. People have not seen that they themselves are the source for all these obscurities, and that chance was solely engendered by the will of people and occurs only through their ignorance. A person cannot deny that the laws constituting all Beings should possess unchanging effects and universal influence, but when she disturbs their accomplishment within the classes subject to her power, or when she blinds herself to their effects, she no longer perceives such indestructible laws, and she then concludes that they do not exist. Nonetheless, a person can never acknowledge the existence of chance in the acts or manifestations of the Primary Cause. Since this cause is the unique, inexhaustible source of all laws and perfection, it is necessary that the order prevailing about it be as unvarying as its own essence. Nor could chance be conceived of in the manifestations of the intelligent temporal cause, as the temporal action of the Primary Cause will always direct itself to its goal and continually surmount all obstacles. Therefore, it is only in the particular acts of a corporeal Nature and in the acts of a person's will that we can perceive any irregularity or constantly infallible and foreseen results. But, if a person had never forgotten the extent to which these particular acts and his will were intimately linked, if he always had present in his thoughts the fact that he was placed here to govern himself and the sensate realm, he would concede that by fulfilling his destiny, he would not only discover those universal laws governing the higher realms which he has so often failed to recognize, but he would even sense that the power of such imperishable laws would extend both to his own Being and to the particular acts in his region of darkness. In other words, chance would no longer exist either for himself or for any acts of Nature. Then, when a person perceived any disturbance occurring within the particular acts of Nature, or when she was unaware of the causes responsible for their operation and the rules directing them, she would attribute this disorder and ignorance only to her own negligence and the false usage of her will, which did not make use of all its rights - or made use of those which were criminal. However, to acquire understanding of such truths, we must place more confidence in people's grandeur and in the power of their will than is demonstrated by certain observers. It must be believed that if people are superior to the Beings surrounding them, both their vices and virtues must of necessity have some relationship and influence upon their whole realm. It can be agreed, therefore, that a person's ignorance and disordered will are the sole causes of those doubts he is seen wavering between every day. After having allowed the idea of an all-encompassing law and order to disappear within himself, he has substituted for it the first fanciful impression coming from his imagination, since even in his very blindness he always searches for some motive in Nature. By so doing he continually renews the criminal error by which, after having willingly sown uncertainty and chance around himself, he then unfairly and unfortunately imputes these to his Principle. The very people who claim that corporeal things had a beginning attribute no other cause to their existence except chance. Not being aware of the basic reason for their existence, nor even presuming that a cause outside of them is kept sufficiently busy in making it operate, they are convinced that this existence had a beginning, and in the sole properties of bodies they have included the active and innate virtue residing within which animates them and the superior Law which decreed their birth. The same course is followed in the explanation provided for the Law which supports the existence of these corporeal Beings - and it needs to be so. After establishing the origin upon a false and imaginary basis, it has become virtually necessary that the remaining part of the work conform to it. Thus, according to them, bodies exist on their own as they are born on their own. As for those who claim that matter and corporeal Beings have always existed, their error is infinitely more gross and injurious to the truth. These two doctrines have both failed to recognize the Law and the primary reason of things. The first has taught that it is possible to dispense with an active and intelligent cause when explaining their origin, whereas the other has debased this cause by making it equivalent to the active Principle of corporeal Beings, and by not believing it to be superior or more ancient than matter. At this point observers have found themselves obliged to go a step further, because after having presented such obscure Principles regarding the course and nature of things, and after confining themselves in such a tiny circle, they have been practically forced to return to it all the phenomena and events which we witness occurring in the Universe. According to them, a being bereft of intelligence and purpose has created everything and continually creates everything, and since there exist only two causes which are the instruments for everything taking place, the moment these two causes within corporeal Beings are discovered, we may then dispense with the search for a Superior Cause. It is fortunate that Nature does not submit itself to people's thoughts. Even as blind as they suppose it to be, it allows them to reason, but it follows its own course. Meanwhile, the fact that Nature's course is so firm and fearless is even for them of considerable advantage and is the best characteristic of the grandeur of the physical and temporal Being governing them. Being impenetrable to the systems of people, and demonstrating to them their weakness by its constancy in following its own Law, it will perhaps one day force people to admit their errors, abandon the obscure paths on which they crawl, and seek for truth in a more luminous source. However, to forestall any uneasiness among my fellow human beings who might believe that this active and intelligent cause of which I speak is a chimerical and imaginary Being, let me explain that certain people have known it on a physical level, and that everyone would likewise know it were they to put their trust in it and take further care in purifying and fortifying their will. However, I must give warning that I do not take this word \"physical\" in its everyday connotation, which attributes existence and reality solely to objects tangible to the material senses. The slightest reflection upon everything contained in this work will be enough to indicate the extent to which one is removed from the understanding of the sense of this word when it is applied to material appearances. Before taking up another subject, I shall pause a moment to resolve a difficulty that could arise, although to some extent I have already tackled it. At the beginning of this work I discussed the existence of two Principles opposing one another. Although I have amply considered the inferiority of the evil Principle in comparison to the good Principle, you might believe, in accordance with what has just been observed regarding corporeal nature, that these two Principles are necessary to the existence of one another, as it has been seen that the two inferior causes enclosed within corporeal Beings are absolutely necessary in bringing about some production. To avoid such an error, you should recall a previous statement of mine: all production or work result in corporeal Nature, as well as in all other classes, and is always inferior to its generative Principle. This inferiority makes corporeal nature unable to reproduce itself without the action of these two causes that are recognized to be in it, and which declare its weakness and dependence. If this temporal creation draws its origin from the superior good Principle - a fact we cannot doubt - this Principle must display its superiority in all things, and one of its major attributes is to possess absolutely everything except evil within itself and to need only itself and its own faculties in carrying out all of its productions. Consequently, is not the status of the evil Principle simply to serve in manifesting the grandeur and power of the good Principle which shall never be weakened by all the efforts of this evil Principle? Thus, itis no longer possible to declare that the evil Principle has always been universally necessary to the existence and manifestation of the faculties of the good Principle, although in exerting its influence upon the existence of time, this evil Principle is necessary for bringing about the birth of all temporal manifestations. Since certain manifestations do not exist in time, and since the evil Principle cannot separate itself from the temporal, it is evident that the good Principle can operate without it, a fact which will be discussed later in greater detail. Therefore, let people hereby learn to distinguish once more the Laws and faculties of this unique Principle, which is universally good and self-existent, from those of the inferior material Being which cannot exist on its own and can live only through outside assistance. I believe that I have done enough to enable my fellow human beings to perceive how groundless human opinions are regarding all the points I have considered until now. I have placed them on the road to learning how to distinguish bodies from the innate Principle within those bodies. I have also called their attention to the simplicity, unity, and immateriality of these indivisible, incommunicable Principles, which allow no admixture and always remain constant, although the form each principle produces and in which it envelops itself is subject to continued variation. With this evidence in mind, they will be able to recognize that matter, being incontestably dependent and yet acting under the direction of regular laws, requires two inferior causes to bring about its reproduction and all other acts of its existence, and these inferior causes definitely cannot dispense with the action of a superior and intelligent cause that commands them so as to cause their action and directs them toward bringing their acts to a successful conclusion. Consequently, they will admit that the two inferior causes must be subject to the laws of the superior and intelligent cause, so that time and uniformity may be observed in all their acts; that the results of all their various actions cannot be nullified, shapeless, and unpredictable; and that we may be enabled to acknowledge the reason for the order universally reigning therein. Moreover, they will agree quite willingly that this Superior Cause, not being subject to any of the laws of matter, although being charged with its direction, must be entirely distinct from it. They will also agree that the method of obtaining knowledge of either one is to consider each in its class, to study their particular faculties, to bring them together in the same situation (but solely to disentangle their differences, and not to confuse them), to make this same distinction within all other Beings in Nature and within the least of its parts where the eyes of the body and the intelligence inform us that two Beings always coexist. And finally, seeing that violence has united them only for a time, we should not look upon this union as a link existing throughout all eternity because, on the contrary, we see it coming to an end every day. All of these observations will make a person prudent and wise in that they will prevent her from abandoning herself unthinkingly to unknown paths from which she cannot extricate herself without retracing her steps or by surrendering herself to despair when she senses that she has gone too far and time is lacking. This is what will cause her to avoid the peril toward which most people are led when, being alone and in the shadows, they dare to comment upon their own nature and that of truth. We shall see in what follows the frequent falls that have been and always will be the result. We shall perceive that the greatest part of humankind's sufferings has arisen in this way, as it is by reason of having fallen from their primary state of splendor, that people are now inclined to descend ever further into shame and misery.\n\n## Chapter 4 - Allegorical Tableau\n\nA few people, having been brought up in ignorance and idleness and having attained maturity, set out to travel through a great kingdom. But being motivated only by simple curiosity, they made little effort to understand the true methods by which this country was governed. They had neither enough courage nor credibility to gain admission among those of the ruling class, who could have revealed to them the government's hidden operations. Rather, these people were content to roam from city to city, letting their eyes wander randomly over public squares and places. There, viewing the people in tumultuous assemblage and seemingly unrestrained, they obtained no idea of the order and wisdom of those laws secretly guarding the safety and wellbeing of the inhabitants. They believed that all the citizens, being similarly idle, lived here in full freedom. Indeed, what these people had observed presented neither rule nor law to their unenlightened minds so that, trusting only their eyes, they were far removed from the knowledge that people of superior rank and powers were governing this multitude which milled about in confusion before them. They persuaded themselves that the country through which they were traveling had no Laws and therefore lacked a ruler. Or, if it did have a ruler, he was without the authority and power to act. Deceived by such independence and foreseeing no dangerous consequences from their actions, these travelers believed they could abandon themselves to every whim, as they considered the rulers to be arbitrary and indifferent. But it was not long before they became the victims of their own errors and rash judgments, for the vigilant administrators of the state, being informed of their disorders, deprived these people of their freedom and so severely restricted them that they languished in the most profound darkness, without knowing whether the light would ever be returned to them. This is exactly what has been the conduct and fate of those who have dared to pass judgment upon Humanity and Nature. Always occupied with frivolous and useless studies, their viewpoint narrowed by habit, and being unable to envision the entire progression, they have not gone beyond the appearance of things and, by thus limiting their viewpoint, they have ignored or denied everything they could not see. In bodies they have seen only their envelopes, which they then transformed into Principles. They have seen in the Laws of such bodies only two actions or two inferior causes, and they have hastened to reject the active and intelligent superior cause, whose operations they have confused with those of the two lesser causes. Afterwards, believing themselves well assured of their results, they have created from the whole a hypothetical material Being by which they have had the imprudence to measure all the other Beings of Nature, which they have then entirely distorted. It is from this mutilated model that they have dared to envision humankind. Indeed, we can no longer doubt that they have committed the same errors regarding humankind that they have committed regarding the whole of Nature. Not only have they not differentiated the Principle from the appearance or envelope any better in a person's body than in all corporeal Beings, nor recognized or followed the progression or the Laws any better, but, even after having accepted modification upon this point, they still confuse a person's corporeal envelope with his intellectual and thinking Being, much as they have confused the innate Principle in all bodies with the active and intelligent cause directing them. Thus, not having first disentangled the superior cause from the faculties innate within the corporeal Being, and having afterwards confused the faculties of the two different Beings composing contemporary humankind, it has been impossible for these observers to recognize therein the action of the active and intelligent cause which, while communicating all the powers to Nature, gives to a person through her intelligence and likewise communicates all notion of the benefits she has lost. However, from such ignorance not only have they been rash enough to give their opinion upon a person's essence and nature, but they have attempted to explain all the contrasts presented by a person and to establish the basis of her works. When people erred only regarding elementary Nature, we saw that their errors only occasioned minor problems. This is because their opinions have no bearing upon the progress of Beings and their invariable Laws, which operate continuously with constant precision, although humankind has distorted and failed to recognize the Principle. But it will never be so regarding a person's errors about himself. Inevitably they will be disastrous for him, since being the trustee of his own Law, he can be neither mistaken about it nor disregard it without operating directly against himself and causing definite injury to himself. In short, a person is truly happy when he recognizes and follows the Laws of his Principle, whereas his ills and sufferings are obvious proof of his errors and the stumblings that have resulted therefrom. Therefore, let us observe what results from this distorted Being and see whether a person can maintain herself even though deprived of her primary support. It will be easy for us to presuppose the results of this investigation if we recall what was stated regarding the condition of Nature if left to the passive action of the two inferior Beings necessary for all corporeal production. As you know, these two Beings, being merely passive, can never produce anything on their own if the active and intelligent cause does not give them the order and power to activate what is innate within them. If it were possible to imagine a will residing within these inferior agents even though they were still powerless, it is obvious that if they tried to put this will into action without the cooperation of the active cause upon which they necessarily depend, their works would be formless and manifest only shocking confusion. Meanwhile, let us apply to people, who do have wills of their own, what we could not state concerning those inferior agents which are devoid of will. In this way we can better learn to discover the unfortunate effects of the errors we propose to combat. A person is at present composed of two Beings, one sensate, the other intelligent. We have given the understanding that originally, he was not subject to this combination, and that, enjoying the prerogatives of a simple Being, he possessed all within himself and had no need of anything more to maintain himself, since all was included in the precious gifts he derived from his Principle. We have subsequently shown the irrevocable and severe conditions which Justice attached to the rehabilitation of a person, made criminal by the false usage of her will. We have seen, I repeat, the innumerable and frightful perils with which a person is continually menaced during her sojourn in the sensate region which is so contrary to her true nature. At the same time, we have recognized that the body she occupies at present, belonging to the same classification as sensate things, forms around her in effect a shadowy veil which hides the true Light from her view and is also the constant source of her illusions and the instrument of her new crimes. Thus, in their original state, it was the Law of people to rule over the sensate region, as people still must do today, but because they were then endowed with incomparable strength and were entirely unfettered, all obstacles disappeared before them. Today, people no longer possess nearly as many forces, nor the same freedom. They are infinitely closer to peril, so that in the combat they must now maintain, we can only express the disadvantages to which they are exposed. In truth, such is the frightful situation of modem people after the crushing decree was pronounced against them. Of all the gifts people received, there remained to them only a shadow of freedom, in other words, a will almost always devoid of strength or power. All other power was stripped from them, and their union with a sensate Being reduced them to the status of a mere combination of two inferior causes, similar to those regulating all bodies. I say similar to, and not equal to, because the purpose of humankind's two natures is more noble, and their properties are very different. But regarding the action and exercise of their faculties, both are fully subject to the same Law; and the two inferior causes composing modern people do not have, so to speak, more power in themselves than the two inferior corporeal causes. It is true that in his capacity as an intellectual Being, a person always has the advantage over the corporeal beings in sensing a need which is unknown to them. But he cannot obtain solace on his own any better than can they. He cannot vitalize his intellectual faculties any better than can they animate their own Being. In other words, he cannot dispense, any better than they, with the active and intelligent cause without which nothing existing in time can operate effectively. Therefore, what kind of results could a person produce today, if, in the powerless state that we know her to be, she believed she was not subject to any other Law than her own will, and if she attempted to proceed without being guided by this active and intelligent cause upon which she is dependent, notwithstanding her own will, and from which she must anticipate all, as do the corporeal beings among which she is so sadly confused? It is certain that a person's own endeavors would then have neither value nor force, since they would be deprived of the only support that could sustain them; and the two inferior causes of which he finds himself presently composed, being in constant combat within him, would only serve to agitate him and plunge him into the most unfortunate uncertainty. This predicament is similar to the two lines in any angle which can each move in contrary directions, separate, approach each other, intermingle, or be placed one on top of the other, but which can never produce any sort of figure unless a third line is joined to them. This third line is necessary for fixing the instability of the first two lines, as it determines their position and thus perceptibly distinguishes one from the other, so as to constitute a figure eventually. It is indisputably the most productive of all figures. Nonetheless, this situation constitutes the false attempts made by people day after day, which are to work towards the accomplishment of an impossible task, in other words, to try forming a figure with two lines by concentrating upon the action of the inferior causes presently composing their nature, and by continually endeavoring to exclude the active and intelligent superior cause which they absolutely cannot dispense with. Thus, despite the evident need they have of this cause, they move further and further away from it, from illusion to illusion, without ever being able to discover the point where they must remain, because there is no perfect production without the cooperation of this third Principle. If you want to know the reason for this, it is because the instant a person arrives at three, she is at four. Then, reflecting upon the frightful uncertainty in which she finds himself, she is shocked by the disorder accompanying all her steps, and she soon denies the existence of this Principle of order and peace which she has ignored due to her negligence or bad faith. At times, attracted by the power of truth, a person also murmurs against this same Principle which he previously rejected, and he thus demonstrates the certainty of everything we have said regarding the variations and inconsistencies of any Being in which the faculties are not united and made invariable by their natural bond. |\n\nFar from believing that all of a person's errors affect in any way this cause from which she further removes herself, we should now be informed enough about her nature to know that she alone suffers from her errors, since in her quality as a free Being she alone is guilty. We must know that when this cause, unchanging in both its faculties and essence, extends its rays down to a person, they purify her and are not therefore sullied. We will therefore pursue our course and clarify the difficulties which stop observers when, alone and without guidance, they cast their eyes upon all the institutions upon Earth, whether those which have been established by people or those to which a higher origin is attributed. It is truly here that these blind people, not knowing how to untangle the arbitrary from the real, have made of the two a monstrous combination capable of obscuring the most luminous notions. It is also, and let us entertain no doubts about this, one of the most interesting objects for a person and one upon which it is crucial that he make no errors, since this is where he must learn to regulate the faculties of which he is composed. Let us examine the reason why people, due to the observations they have made regarding the practices, usages, customs, laws, and religions that have always differed among various peoples, have been led to think that nothing in existence is true and that, since everything is arbitrary and conventional among people, it would be an illusion to acknowledge any duties to perform or to acknowledge any essential and natural order designed to serve them as a guiding light. If it were true that everything is convention as they pretend, they would be justified in arriving at this conclusion, because there would then be no distinction for them between good and evil. All their judgments would become indifferent, and no one would have any reason to compel them to follow any rules of conduct. But seeing that the error stems from the fact that observers have failed to untangle within people the two faculties of which they are composed; seeing that they have confused the intellectual and the sensate within people, and have applied to the former all the variations and disparities to which the latter is subject; and seeing that they have compounded these errors by confusing the active and intelligent cause with the various faculties of people, can we give any credence to a doctrine so false and so lacking in profound examination? Such, however, is the course these observers have followed. They have seldom if ever cast their eyes beyond the sensate. This sensate faculty, being limited and deprived of the power necessary for directing itself, will never present anything other than the repeated proofs of variation, dependence, and uncertainty. Therefore, through it alone, and through its being left to its own Law, all the differences we witness here on Earth have been introduced. Indeed, of all the branches of political and civil law encompassing different peoples, do any have an objective other than the material? Does even the moral part of all their establishments rise beyond this visible human order? Even in their most virtuous institutions there does not exist any that they themselves have not reduced to sensate rules and external Laws because, in all these things, the instructors have proceeded alone and without guidance - this being the only end towards which they could direct their steps. People's intellectual faculty is therefore not at all involved in such facts nor in the observations of which they have been so often the object. Thus, we must be wary of adopting judgments that have been obtained from them before examining the extent of their consequences and determining whether they are applicable to all. Otherwise, it would be impossible to admit them, since a truth must be universal. Let us begin by observing the most respected and universally prevalent institution among all peoples, what they consider, with reason, to be the one which cannot owe its existence to humankind's handiwork. Considering the zeal with which all people on Earth occupy themselves with this sacred object, it is very clear that all people possess the image and idea of it within themselves. We perceive among all nations a complete uniformity regarding the fundamental Principle of religion. They all recognize a superior Being; they all recognize the necessity of praying to It; they all pray to It; they all sense the necessity of a form to their prayers; and they have all given a form to these prayers. Never has humankind's will been able to destroy this truth nor replace it with another. Nevertheless, the careful attention that various peoples exhibit when honoring the Primary Being present to us differences, and arbitrary and successive changes, as do all other institutions in both practice and theory; so that, among all religions, no two are known to worship It in the same manner. Let me then ask, could this difference have occurred if people had accepted the same guide and if they had not lost sight of the sole light that could have illuminated and reconciled them? And, is this light anything other than the active and superior cause which should maintain the balance between their sensate and intellectual faculties, and without which it is impossible for them to take a single step in the right direction? It is therefore this superior cause that must nourish within people the primitive idea of a unique and universal Being, as well as the knowledge of the Laws to which this Being subjects the conduct of people towards It whenever It permits them to approach It. By removing themselves from this light, people are delivered over to their own faculties, but then those very faculties become weakened and almost entirely disappear within them. Darkness covers the faculties with such an opaque veil that, without the help of a benevolent hand, they can never free themselves from it. However, although people are then abandoned to themselves, they are always obliged to \"travel.\" This is the reason why in the midst of this terrible ignorance, being always tormented with the idea and need of this Being, from which they sense their separation, people turn uncertain eyes towards It and pay homage according to their own thought. And although they no longer know whether the homage they offer is truly what this Being asks, they prefer to render homage, such as they conceive of it, rather than to experience the secret anxiety and regret of rendering none at all. Such is, in part, the Principle that has formed false religions and has distorted what should have been followed by peoples all over the world. Therefore, should we be surprised to see so little uniformity in humankind's pious practices and religions? Should we be surprised to see people produce all these contradictions, and contrary practices and rites, which conflict with one another and in reality, present nothing true to our thought? Is this not where people's imaginations, being freed from all restraint, causes all their works to become the results of their caprice and blind will? Is it not here, consequently, where everyone must seem indifferent to reason, since reason no longer discerns any relationship between the worship and the Being to which the instructors and their followers wish to apply it? However, I must ask whether most of these differences and even palpable clashes do not rest upon something other than what is subject to a person's corporeal eyes - that is, upon the senses. Therefore, could a conclusion be arrived at contrary to the Principle which they do not even take into consideration? Would not this Principle be as unalterable and intact after a person's shadowy thought had introduced variations even into theory and dogmas? As long as a person is not illuminated by her flambeau alone, and maintained by her sole support, she can possess no more certainty of the purity of her doctrine than she can of the justice of her actions. And finally, whatever the nature of her errors may be, could they ever prevail against truth? If errors pursue the observers and render them blind, it is therefore always because of their failure to distinguish the person thus dismembered, who employs but a part of himself, from the person who makes full use of his faculties. It is because of their failure to distinguish the distorted source from which he draws formless productions, that a person is declared to be incapable of knowing anything stable and assured. Nevertheless, let us ascertain how far the special power of people can extend when they are left to their own devices. Let us grant them only the rights that belong to them, and let us examine whether there does not exist anything beyond that which they accomplish and know. First of all, we have seen that despite their reasonings upon Nature, people are obliged to submit to its Laws. We have shown to a sufficient degree that the Laws of this Nature are fixed and invariable, although through the concentration of the two actions existing in the Universe, their accomplishment may often be disrupted. Therefore, we have here already a truth upon which humankind's arbitrariness has not the slightest influence. The time has long passed for offering me such objections, as those sensations and impressions of all kinds which various bodies make upon our senses, differ in each individual. By such means the multitudes have believed themselves fully justified in denying the existence of any rule within animals. We have anticipated this objection by declaring that Nature can act only by correspondence. We can further strengthen this principle by stating that this Law of relation is no more subject to the arbitrariness of people than Nature itself, and that we are not masters of changing their effects in any way, because diverting or hindering them is not at all changing them. On the contrary, their stability is confirmed even more so. Therefore, we already know from the evidence presented that there resides in corporeal Nature, a Power superior to people which subjects them to its Laws. We can no longer doubt its existence, although the concern that people have shown in knowing and explaining this Power has rarely resulted in obtaining enlightenment or any satisfactory success. Secondly, let us recall how we have demonstrated the weakness and infirmity of Nature in comparison to the Principle from which it secured its origin and from which it regularly obtains its existence and reaction. We shall then see that, if people are subject to this Nature, they shall, to a much greater extent, be subject to the superior Principles directing and maintaining it. Although they may have only a meager concept of their power, compared to their concept of Nature's power, their own reason would prevent them from denying the truth of their existence, when their sentiment would not. Therefore, what will result from everything people may accomplish, imagine, say, or institute against the Laws of these superior Principles? Far from being altered to the slightest degree, these Laws will only exhibit their force and power to a greater extent by leaving the person who draws herself further away from them, abandoned to her own doubts and the uncertainties of her imagination, and by obliging her to crawl as long as she chooses to ignore them. Apart from these observations, nothing more is needed to prove the insufficiency of the person who accepts only the tangible for his rule and guidance. If the lack of power which we note in corporeal Nature absolutely prevents us from attributing to it the actions it operates, and 1f, by his own reasoning, a person can arrive at a sense of the indispensable necessity for the cooperation of an active Cause, without which corporeal Beings would have no visible action, he therefore has need only of himself to acknowledge the existence of an active and intelligent Cause. And, from there, he may arrive at the unique and primary Cause from which has emanated all the temporal causes destined for the accomplishment of its works and the execution of its will. I have declared that this active and intelligent Cause possesses a universal action, manifesting in both corporeal Nature and thinking Nature. It is, in fact, the first of the temporal causes without which none of the Beings existing in time can endure. It acts upon them through the very Law of its essence and through the rights to which its destiny in the universe entitles it. Whether or not the Beings inhabiting this Universe conceive of this Cause, there is not a single one which does not receive its assistance. Moreover, since it is active and intelligent, it is obvious that both thinking and non-thinking Beings must partake of its beneficence. This is the reason why I have stated that all peoples on Earth have of necessity recognized a superior Being. They have not made all the distinctions that I have just established between the different causes. They have not distinguished this active and intelligent Cause from the primary Cause which is absolutely separate from the sensate and from time. Often, they have even confounded it with the inferior causes of Creation, to which they have sometimes given their homage. Thus, they have not received from their religion the assistance they could have expected from it had their course been further enlightened. But this subject will lead us much too far afield. Let us therefore limit ourselves to pointing out that because the active and intelligent Cause is universal in nature, people have been forced by perception and reflection to arrive at the recognition of its necessity. And, in whatever way they have imagined it, they have been mistaken only in regard to the true nature of this Cause, but never regarding its very existence. After having made this admission to herself, a person could not avoid pursuing her course. Her perception and reflections have directed her in the second step as they had in the first. By remaining her own guide on this new path, she has been unable to discover either more certitude or more enlightenment. Consequently, after having recognized a superior Cause in Nature and after having recognized that it was superior to his thinking despite his discoveries, a person could not help admitting that Laws must exist by which this Cause acts upon everything which is subject to it, and that, if the Beings which must depend upon it for everything did not fulfill these Laws, they could not hope for any enlightenment, life, or support. People were brought to the realization of these consequences by their observations concerning this same corporeal Nature to which they are attached. They could see, for instance, that if they transgressed the Laws regarding the periods and processes of cultivation, the earth only returned to them imperfect and unwholesome productions. They could see that if they did not observe the order of the seasons and an exactness in all their arrangements, the results would be fruitless and unsuccessful. This is what tangibly taught them that this corporeal Nature was directed by Laws, and that these Laws pertained in essence to the active and intelligent Cause of which all people feel the need. Then, in making the same reflection concerning their thinking Being, people became fully aware that, as they cannot accomplish anything without the primary Cause, it is in their best interests to apply themselves to the task of rendering it favorable to them. They conceived that, since this Cause watches over them and interests itself in their well-being, it must have established some means to preserve them from evil. Consequently, the acts that were advantageous to people must be acceptable to this Cause, and those which could be injurious to people were not in conformity with its Law, the purpose of which is to make all Beings content. Thus, people could do no better than to act always in accordance with its wishes and will. Since each individual was unable to determine whether the religion she conceived of had a definite relationship with both herself and the primary Being she desired to honor, she adopted according to her own inclination the means she believed most suitable in rendering this superior Being favorable to her. All people who have relied only upon themselves in their search for this institution have established what their imagination, or certain particular circumstances, created in their thought. This is the reason why all the nations of the world have been divided whether in their religious ceremonies or in the concept and image they have formed of the one who is the object of this worship. This is also why, despite their division concerning the forms of this worship, they are all in agreement concerning the necessity of possessing a religion. All have recognized the existence of a superior Being and all have sensed the need and desire for Its support. If people, in being left to their own devices, had brought to these establishments as much virtue and good faith as they have zeal, each one of them would follow in peace the religion they had adopted without disparaging those in which they perceived differences. But as unenlightened zeal only leads more promptly to error, they have given exclusive preference to their own works. The principle that caused them to walk alone when establishing a religion for themselves has led them to regard this very religion as being the only true one. They even believe they are fulfilling their religious duties more fully by not allowing any other to exist. They make it a virtue, in the service of their idol, to battle and persecute one another, because in their obscured views, they have joined their own cause to that of their idol, and rarely has there been a nation which has not believed they were honoring the superior Being by banning all religions different from that which they have chosen. As everyone knows, this is one of the principal causes of wars, either general or local, and of disorders that we see every day disturbing the various classes which compose political bodies and even overturning the most firmly established empires. However, there exists in such strife an infinity of other divisive causes sufficiently known and too futile for me to occupy myself, either in enumerating or examining them in this work. Can it not be said that all of these errors and crimes which people have committed in the name of their religion emanate from a source none other than that of having substituted themselves for the enlightened hand that was to lead them, and from having believed that they were guided by a true Principle, whereas they were only guided by themselves? oF\n\nTherefore, we must conclude from what has just been stated that all peoples, by the sole aid of their reflections, and through the voice of their inner sentiment, have been brought to the recognition of the existence of some kind of superior Being and to the necessity of a religion for worshiping It. This concept is one that people cannot entirely efface within themselves, even though it is often obscured in the majority of people. And certainly, we cannot be at all surprised by this, as there are some who have permitted the very idea of their Being to become extinguished within themselves, and in whom the inner faculties have become so weakened that they have believed themselves mortal and perishable. It must also be concluded that if this idea of the existence of a superior Being and the necessity of a religion is a part of a person's being, it is also the final limit to which he can attain on his own while here on Earth. These are the unique fruits which can result from his perceptive and intellectual faculties when left to their own devices. This feeling is a fundamental seed within people. But if no power comes to react upon this seed, it cannot manifest anything substantial. Its productions will most certainly have no consistency, in much the same way as the seeds of corporeal Beings remain devoid of action and production if an active and intelligent Cause does not direct the reaction and, in general, all the acts concerning them. We shall persuade ourselves more fully of the truth of this thought when we reflect upon the nature and the properties of the active and intelligent Cause. It is distinct from the primary Cause, being its primary agent. It does not produce seeds in corporeal Beings, but animates them. It does not produce the intellectual and sensible faculties in people, but directs and enlightens them. In a word, being the primary and sovereign of all temporal Causes, it alone is charged with their direction, and no one can dispense with its help nor avoid being subject to it. Thus, if it is through the active and intelligent Cause that things manifest exclusively, nothing can become sensate without it. As we can only become aware of things here on Earth through the senses, how shall we succeed if this same Cause does not itself act with us and does not operate that which it alone can operate in the Universe? Therefore, we now perceive the absolute necessity for the two faculties of people always to be guided and sustained by this universal temporal Cause. It will not provide people with the idea of the primary Being of which it is the primary moving cause, but it will enable people to recognize the faculties of this primary Being by manifesting them through material productions. Nor will it provide people with the idea of a religion to honor the primary Being, but it will enlighten their ideas upon this subject. And by making the faculties of this primary Being palpable to them, it will make the certain means of honoring this Being equally palpable. This is where I perceive the end to all humankind's doubts and of all the variations which are their consequences. This active and intelligent Cause, being charged with the activation and the direction of everything, cannot fail to reconcile everything whenever its powers are properly used. The unique means that people possess in avoiding the commission of errors is to not exclude this Cause from any of their acts, institutions, or establishments, in much the same way that it cannot be excluded from any of the regular acts of Nature. People will then be sure to experience the true rapport with what they are searching for. No longer will there be any disparity between human religions, as they will all possess the same light. No longer will there exist between them any difficulty concerning dogma or belief, since they will know the primary reason of things. In a word, all will be in accord, because each person will proceed according to the true Law. We can no longer doubt that the reason for all the differences exhibited by nations in their dogmas and beliefs arise solely from the fact that they have not sought in their institutions the support of this active and intelligent Cause, which alone should direct them and which alone can unite them. I maintain that its Light is undoubtedly the only point of reunion. Outside of it, there can exist no hope, only error and suffering. Only to this Cause can this invincible truth be applied in its essence and nature, that outside of the center, there can be no stability. After having made these statements, I hope I shall not be suspected of desiring to establish equality and indifference between the diverse religions prevalent among the peoples of Earth, and even less of attempting to teach the uselessness of religion. On the contrary, I declare that no nation exists which has not felt such a necessity. I further assert that such religions must exist as long as there are people on Earth. But as long as they are not maintained by a common support, it is inevitable that they be divided and, as a consequence, it will be impossible for them to attain their intended aim. Thus, not only do I maintain the necessity for religion, but I make even more apparent the necessity for a single religion, since a single Head or Cause must direct it. Nor should one ask me at present which of all the established religions is the true one. The principle that I have just established must serve as an answer to all questions pertaining to this subject. The religion that will be directed by this active and intelligent Cause will of necessity be just and good. The religion over which it will preside will most certainly be neither negative nor evil-this is the rule. It is up to those who, among the different nations, are charged with instructing and leading men on their path, to confront their statutes and their course with the Law we are presenting to them. Our aim is not to judge established religions, but to enable their directors and ministers to pass judgment upon themselves. Naturally, I must expect objections concerning this active and intelligent Cause which I have described as being the unique, primary head of everything operating in the Universe. People can well agree upon the necessity of this Cause's action upon material Beings. They cannot even doubt that it occurs, seeing the regularity and uniformity of the results arising from it. But they will say to me, even after admitting the necessity for this Cause's action in directing humankind's entire conduct, what methods should they use to determine whether the Cause does or does not preside over it? Since their dogmas and religious establishments lack uniformity, it is absolutely necessary for them to possess some Law other than that of opinion in assuring themselves that they are following the right path. People thereby exhibit their weakness and powerlessness, and much more force is given to what we have said, because if a person could choose and determine her religion by her own volition, the power of the active and intelligent Cause, which I recognize as being indispensable, would then become superfluous in this matter. If, however, this active and intelligent Cause could never be known through a person's senses, it would be impossible for him to be assured that he had found the best path and the true religion, as this Cause must operate and manifest in all things. Therefore, it is necessary that a person possesses the certainty of which we speak, and that it not be given to him by humankind. It is necessary that this Cause itself clearly offer to humankind's intelligence and eyes the testimony of its approbation. Finally, considering that a person can be misled by fellow humans, it is necessary that he possess the means to avoid misleading himself, and that he has resources at hand from which he can expect definite help. The Principles that I have so often established are proof enough of the certainty of what I propound. Have we not already recognized on many occasions that a person is free? As such, is she not responsible for the effects, good or ill, that must result from her choice among the good or evil thoughts she receives? Would she be responsible for them, had she not within herself the faculty of untangling them without error? Thus, we perceive that basically she is not compelled to confront with her rule any of the acts she engenders, as she is not absolutely certain of anything. What can this rule be, if not the testimony and approbation of the active and intelligent Cause, which, being charged with the direction of all Beings subject to time, must visibly establish a balance between humankind's various faculties, as it does among the various actions of corporeal Beings or of matter? If this Cause is charged with the direction of a person's faculties, must it not also be charged, with even more reason, with the direction of his actions? And among these actions, certainly the least indifferent is that by which he must faithfully observe the Laws which can gain for him the approbation of the Primary Principle and bring him closer to that Being to which, he senses universally, he must render homage. And if the active and intelligent Cause is the infallible support which must uphold a person in all his steps, if it is the sure light which must direct all the acts of his thinking Being, it is absolutely necessary that this universal guide preside over humanity's religious institutions and over all their other actions, and that it does so in a way that will protect its voice and testimony from all uncertainty. I know that the question is not yet resolved, and to state how necessary it is that the active and intelligent Cause itself establishes the Laws of our homage to the Primary Principle, does not prove that such is happening. But after having stated where people must obtain this proof, one can no longer expect any other indications on my part. I shall not even cite my own personal experience, regardless of the confidence that I must place upon it. There was a time when I would not have placed any faith in truths that I could verify today. I would therefore be guilty of injustice and thoughtlessness if I were to determine my readers' convictions. No, I am not afraid to repeat it, I sincerely desire that no one believe me on the strength of my word alone, because as a person, I have no claim to the confidence of my fellow human beings. But I would be overwhelmed with joy if each one of them could attain a grand enough idea of themselves and of the Cause watching over them, in the hope that, through their own perseverance and efforts, they may be assured of the truth. I know that, through views wise and beyond the reach of the vulgar, the leaders and ministers of nearly all religions have proclaimed their dogmas with prudence and especially with a reserve that cannot be praised highly enough. Impressed, undoubtedly, by the sublimity of their functions, they have sensed the extent to which the multitude must be kept away from this knowledge. This is surely the reason why, being the trustees for the keys of knowledge, they have preferred to lead their peoples to an obscure veneration of it rather than expose its secrets to profanation. If their motives are truly these, I cannot condemn them. Darkness and silence are the refuge that truth prefers, and people possessing it cannot take too many precautions in preserving its purity. But may I not point out to them that they should also be wary of preventing its spread, their duty being to see that it prospers, to defend it zealously, and not to bury it. And finally, concealing it with too much care would perhaps cause it to fail in attaining its aim, which is to extend itself and to triumph. Therefore, I believe that they would have acted very wisely had they investigated more thoroughly the meaning of the word \"mystery,\" which they have made a bulwark for their religions. They could fully veil the important points, announce its development as being the reward of effort and constancy, and thereby test their proselytes by exercising both their intelligence and zeal. However, they should not have made such discoveries so impracticable that the Universe thus became discouraged. They should not have rendered useless the most noble faculties of the thinking Being, who, having experienced birth in the sojourn of life, was already unfortunate enough to have left its abode without removing from him even the hope of perceiving it here on earth. In a word, I would have announced instead a Mystery as a veiled truth, and not as an impenetrable truth, and I am fortunate enough to possess proof that this definition would have been of greater value. Nothing will prevent me, therefore, from persevering in the principles that I endeavor to bring forth to humankind, and from assuring my fellow human beings that not only does the active and intelligent Cause direct them in all their acts, and consequently in those relating to religion, but moreover that it is within their power to obtain proof of it, and in a manner that does not allow any doubts to remain. In fact, we only need to observe the conduct of various nations to perceive that they all regard their religion as being founded upon the basis I have just established. Does not everyone know the ardor with which they have defended their religious rites and dogmas? Have they not supported their religion with as much zeal and fearlessness as if they had the certainty that truth itself had established it? What I am saying is this: Is not the word \"truth\" the bulwark of all sects and opinions? Have not the very ministers of the greatest abominations been seen enveloping themselves in this sacred name, knowing full well that they would, by so doing, more surely attain domination over people? Why would this course be so universal if its Principle did not exist within people? Why would a person, even in her false steps, seek the support of a name commanding respect, if she were not inwardly aware that this name is powerful and that she has need of it? And at the same time, why would she announce that her steps are directed by truth if she sensed that they might not be? We believe these observations to be sufficient to convince our readers of the necessity and possibility of the cooperation of an active and intelligent Cause in all of humankind's actions, and primarily in the knowledge and practice of those Laws which must direct their homage toward the Primary Being, which can be ignored by none of good faith. Thus, after the Law is imposed upon them by their own nature, and it is possible for them to obtain it according to all the Principles just revealed, by attempting to act on their own and never proceeding without its support will clearly result in their wandering aimlessly and being exposed to all sorts of dangers. They will then be even more blameworthy when they proclaim to other people that they are guided by this true light, even though they do not possess any certainty of it. No matter what their errors or bad faith are regarding this subject, no matter what peculiarities they introduce into their religious institutions, we must acknowledge at present, as I have already stated, that it can never be concluded that neither rule nor truth exists for humanity. Rather, we must become fully aware that the errors of people regarding this subject cannot involve any objects other than the outer or sensate part of their religions and, being inferior and completely subordinated to the Primary Being, all the opinions and contradictions which they might engender will never, in the slightest way, affect this Being. This is the basic consequence that must be inferred from all that has just been stated concerning the diversity of religions. Therefore, the person who is wise and accustomed to searching beyond the outer surface of things must no longer allow herself to be seduced by the variety of institutions of this kind, nor be disturbed by the universal contradictions of people upon this subject. She must actually perceive what the source of it is, and she must not doubt that if people carry within themselves the idea of the Primary Being, they must also have a fixed and uniform method of demonstrating that they know It and of rendering It homage. This method must be as simple and unalterable as this very Being, although people regularly commit errors concerning the nature of one and the other. Meanwhile, this is where we can perceive the slight confidence that can be placed in those who pretend to prove a religion by means of morality, and who well deserve the poor degree of success they usually attain. Morality, being one of the primary duties of contemporary humanity, has not always been taught by masters sufficiently enlightened to apply it justly. It has nearly always been limited to the physical senses, and from then on it has varied according to the locales and the different customs by which people have constituted their virtue. Moreover, attempting to make use of this morality as proof, such morality being no more than an accessory to religion, even the most highly perfected, is to announce right then that one does not know the true proof and that there must likewise exist proofs deserving of this title. Nor do I believe it amiss to call attention to the fact that this is what causes the deficiencies in modern doctrines, which reduce all of humanity's Laws to morality and their entire religion to humanitarian actions, or to the alleviation of the material ills of the unfortunate, in other words, to that virtue so natural and little worthy of note, by which my contemporaries attempt to support their systems, and which, by concentrating humankind in purely passive works, is nothing more than a veil for ignorance and devoid of value in the eyes of the wise person. Such virtue undoubtedly belongs among our obligations, and no one should neglect it under any pretext whatsoever, but all our duties would not be exclusively limited to temporal and physical acts if we had not become persuaded that sensate things and people are of the same rank and nature. After the result we have just noted, we must expect a second one, which can assist us in combating and overcoming another error to which observers have allowed themselves to be led upon the same subject, and which naturally proceeds from the same source. According to them, if indeed the knowledge of a Superior Being, the object of religion and the reason for its existence, were not innate within people, it would follow that the origin and birth of religious institutions would be altogether uncertain. Insurmountable difficulties would be experienced in knowing in what way and during what period they were conceived, because for people, having only the continual revolutions of nature or the impulsions of their caprice and will for their rule and Law, every moment would be the dawn of a new religion, as it would eliminate the most ancient religions and successively destroy all those that were held in respect upon Earth. According to this supposition, it would be very certain that the institutions of which we speak, having become simply the work of weakness or of interest, would not only be despised by the just person, but he would even employ every effort to erase even the slightest traces of them in himself and in all his fellow people. Nevertheless, after having established all our principles by basing them as we have done upon humankind's nature, and after having recognized the universality of a basis for all of humankind's religions, we should be sufficiently persuaded that this sentiment is truly born within people. Henceforth, all difficulty should cease regarding the origin of this idea of a Superior Being and of the worship that is due to It. Therefore, we should see in the harmony and conformity of the idea of humankind regarding these two points only the natural fruits of this indestructible seed, innate within all people and speaking to them through all ages past. Yet we cannot deny the peculiar and false usage that they have nearly always made of it. We may say as much regarding the uniform Laws that all people should observe in their worship, because, through a disastrous result of their freedom, they drive further away and almost continually disregard the superior physical Cause charged with the direction of this religion as well as all their other actions. Soon we may perceive that they have never been deprived of the faculty of sensing and hearing it, because as long as they are bound to time, this active and intelligent Cause which essentially watches over time, never could lose sight of them, and likewise they themselves would still have this same advantage regarding it, had they not been the first to abandon it. If we wish to convince ourselves more fully of the ties existing between humanity and such luminous truths, of which we proclaim humankind to be the safekeeper, we need only reflect upon the nature of thought. We shall soon perceive that as it is simple, unique, and immutable, there can be only one single species of Being which is receptive to it, because there is nothing in common between Beings of a different nature. We shall see that, if a person possesses within herself this primitive idea of a Superior Being and of an active and intelligent Cause executing its will, she must be of the same essence as this Superior Being and of the Cause linking her to this Being. We shall perceive, I repeat, that thought must be common to them, whereas all Beings incapable of receiving any communication from this thought, or of exhibiting the least evidence of it, will necessarily be excluded from the class of which we speak. It is truly in this way that a person can acquire enlightenment regarding himself, by learning to distinguish himself from all passive and corporeal Beings surrounding him. Despite any effort he employs to make himself understood by any among them regarding the principles of justice, regarding the knowledge of a Superior Being, or other objects pertaining to his thinking, he will not witness in these corporeal and sensate Beings any sign or demonstration that will indicate to him that he has been understood. All that he will obtain, and this not even true of all animals, is their conceiving of and executing the acts of his will, without however understanding the reason for it. Moreover, it would be necessary for the perfection of his communication that a person recalls their natural language of which he has lost the knowledge, because the artificial means which he makes use of today to supplement it are simply the proofs of his weakness and serve only to show him that grandeur does not consist of industry, but of force and authority. When a person no longer fixes her eyes upon the sensate and corporeal Being, and instead turns them upon her own Being, and when in her attempt to know herself she makes careful use of her intellectual faculty, her view acquires an immense scope. She conceives and touches, so to speak, rays of light which she definitely senses to be outside herself, but in which she also senses the absolute analogy with herself. New ideas descend to her, but while admiring them, she is surprised to find that they are not foreign to her. Would she experience so much affinity with such ideas if their source and her were not similar? Would she find herself so much at ease and so satisfied at the sight of the glimmerings of truth that make themselves known to her if their Principle and her did not possess the same essence? This similarity is what causes us to recognize that there must certainly have existed between the thought of humanity, the Primary Being, and the active and intelligent Cause a perfect correspondence from the first moment of a person's existence. If all the Laws that must direct humankind in the knowledge of the Superior Being (as well as the worship which must serve to honor It) are truly based upon this affinity which is necessary to all thinking Beings, we can then perceive with evidence what must have been the origin of religion among humanity and ascertain whether it is not as ancient as they are themselves. The similarity existing between all Beings endowed with thought, of which I have just given you a glimpse, requires that I call your attention at this time to an important distinction eluding most people, and one which keeps them in the deepest obscurity and exposes them to the least excusable of errors. Indeed, if they were to grant thought to an immaterial Being, such as humankind, and one informs them as I have done, that the Principle of matter is immaterial, they would also demand that this Principle be accorded thought and could not conceive that it might be denied. On the other hand, if I were to deny thought to the immaterial Principle of matter, they would no longer know whether they should not also deny it to humanity's immaterial Principle, because they perceive in these two different immaterial Beings only one similar nature and consequently the same properties. But, the same error always deceives them. It is always the lack of desire for untangling two natures so distinct from one another that they allow themselves the greatest misconceptions upon this subject. Therefore, let us bring them back to the primary Principles upon which we have already based ourselves. All immaterial Beings proceed directly or indirectly from the same source. However, they are not equal. We cannot entertain any doubt regarding this inequality of Beings, since people (who are immaterial Beings) recognize of necessity the existence of immaterial Beings superior to them, to whom they must render homage and constant attention because they are subject to them. People recognize that although they are similar to these immaterial Beings through their immaterial nature and thought, they are infinitely inferior to them in that they can lose the use of their faculties and go astray, whereas the Beings dominating them are protected from this fatal danger. Likewise, the Principle of matter is as immaterial and indestructible as the immaterial Principle of humankind. But what lessens this relationship is that one possesses thought and the other does not. And this is the case because, as I have just stated, the immaterial Being of humankind proceeds directly from the source of Beings, whereas the immaterial Being of matter proceeds only indirectly from it. I do not believe an indiscretion is committed in stating that a number distinguishes them, as will be explained subsequently. At the same time, I believe I am rendering an essential service to my fellow humans by urging them to believe in the existence of immaterial Beings which do not think. Many contemporary observers have believed they were no longer materialists once they gained, as I have, the admission and recognition of an immaterial Principle within matter. But does materialism consist solely of possessing neither a perfect knowledge nor an accurate idea of matter and its Principle? Or rather, is not the true materialist the one who places, and will always place, the immaterial Principle of intellectual person and the immaterial Principle of matter in the same category and the same rank? Therefore, I cannot urge people too strongly to avoid confounding the true notions residing within us concerning such subjects, and to believe in the existence of immaterial Beings which do not think. This is a distinction and truth which must resolve all the difficulties that have been raised regarding this subject. If, however, there still remains any doubts concerning thought, which I have presented as necessarily being common and uniform in all Beings distinct from matter and the senses, and that to support these doubts, one were to offer as an objection the difference (so remarkable among the intellectual faculties of people) that each of them does not appear to be endowed more equally in these intellectual faculties than in the corporeal and sense faculties, then I would agree with those who experience such uncertainty that, in fact, judging according to the universal difference perceived in people's intellectual faculties, it seems difficult to believe that they could all possess an equal idea of their Being and of the religion they are bound to observe in honoring it. Yet we have never pretended that the ideas of all people were equal concerning this subject. It is enough for us that they are similar. It is unnecessary, and even impossible, that all people sense their Principle equally, but it is certain that they all sense it, and no one exists who does not have some sort of idea about it. Such an admission is all that we desire on their part, and it remains for the active and intelligent Cause to do the rest. I will not be straying too far from my subject if I pause for a moment to consider the natural difference we perceive in people's intellectual faculties. And it will be useful to learn how we may recognize what they would have been in humankind's primary origin if they had remained in their glorious estate, and what they are today after their descent from it. Even if a person had retained all the advantages of his first estate, it is certain that the intellectual faculties of each of his descendants would have manifested differences. These faculties are the sign of the primary Principle from which men emanate, and because this Principle is always new although always remaining the same, the signs representing it must manifest its continual state of newness and thereby make its fecundity all the more apparent. But, far from having produced any imperfection, nor having caused sorrow and humiliation among men, such differences would not even be perceived by any of them. Too occupied in the enjoyment of their state of rapture, they would not have had the leisure to compare, and although the measure of their faculties would not have been equal, each would have amply satisfied those to whom they had been allotted. Apart from these original inequalities which always occur, a person is subject in her present state to those arising from the Laws of the sensate region she inhabits. This fact makes the exercise of her primary faculties even more difficult and multiplies their differences ad infinitum. However, not being condemned to death or to the everlasting loss of these primary faculties, the elementary region only serves to present her with one more obstacle, and she always has the unavoidable obligation of trying to surmount it. Finally, today, as in her first estate, the measure of her advantages is sufficient if she always feels the firm resolve of employing them for his own benefit. Yet who does not know that, far from deriving any advantage from such obstacles and making them serve for a person's glory, she even adds to them through the false use of her will? She does so through irregular generations, through the ignorance which engulfs her every day concerning what is appropriate for her or what is adverse for her, as well as through a multitude of other causes which continually bring about the decay of these same faculties and distorts them to the point of rendering them almost unrecognizable. Moreover, in this state of degradation into which a person allows himself to be drawn, he loses the true concept of those privileges belonging to him. His heart becomes empty, and, no longer knowing true enjoyment, he degrades himself and only values himself according to conventional differences existing only in his disordered will, but to which he clings with such fervent ardor that, having allowed his sole support to escape, he no longer possesses something to sustain him. However, despite such original differences, again multiplied either by the obstacles of the sensate region or by humanity's vicious habits, could we ever state that a person has changed her nature when we have seen that even corporeal Beings could not change theirs, despite the multitude of revolutions to which their own Law and the hand of a person can subject them? If it is within a person's nature and essence to acknowledge a Superior Being and to perceive that, being attached to the sensate realm, there must exist a palpable means enabling people to make their homage manifest to It, it is certain that, despite all their errors, the Law could never vary for them. They will make their task lengthier and more difficult, as they do in fact every day through their blindness and imprudence, but they will never dispense with the obligation of fulfilling it. If one should find himself more burdened than another by his nature and should it be thus through his own doing, it will nevertheless be necessary that his tribute be paid, and this tribute on a person's part is none other than the awareness, acknowledgment, and just employment of the faculties constituting him. Then, no matter how distorted a person may be, we will always find within her the primary Law, since her nature is always the same. We must always find her like the Being which communicates thought to her, because this thought can only be communicated between Beings of the same nature. We must, I repeat, recognize her as being inseparably bound to the idea of her Principle and to that of the duties attaching her to it, since having agreed that such ideas are universal among people, we cannot deny that these ideas are born and live perpetually with them. This is why we have traced the time of her religion's birth to the person's very origins. What value, then, can we place upon the imprudent and insane opinions which have made people's fears and timidity the roots of this sacred institution? How could such weaknesses give people an idea as sublime as that of a guide which can enlighten and sustain them in all their steps, if its seed was not resident within their breast? And since they carry this seed within themselves, why seek its origin elsewhere? Undoubtedly, we will no longer say that nature's frightening revolutions have caused the birth of this idea within humankind. At best, they have been one of the means suitable for reactivating within people the precious faculties so often found dormant. But they would never have communicated to humanity the seed of these faculties, since it is only through this seed that people are human. To an even lesser extent could they have given a person all the enlightenment and knowledge necessary for the entire accomplishment of those duties involving his religion and worship, because, at the moment that a person senses he does not possess such knowledge, he senses he can acquire it only through an intelligent Cause, which, being superior to him, is all the more superior to material nature. If a person, despite his misery and deprivation, remains above this material nature through his essence, what aids and enlightenment could he ever expect from it? In this way we perceive the kind of mediocre effects all the revolutions of the elementary region have thus produced in people, and how unreasonable it would be to search it for the source of their virtues and grandeur. Yet, despite what I have just said, the terrible events to which elementary nature is exposed have often served to reawaken the intellectual faculties benumbed within people by recalling to them both the idea of the Primary Being and the necessity of honoring It. I will even admit that, in the sorrowful situation in which people frequently have found themselves and which must have become even more frightful through the ignorance to which they have nearly always abandoned themselves, they have chosen among the scattered objects surrounding them those which seemed the most powerful to them and addressed their entreaties to the objects so as to obtain assistance against the misfortunes menacing them. I will agree that, having thus selected their deities, they have also evolved a sensate worship for them and offered sacrifices to them. I will say that as this error has occurred in various parts of the world according to the degree of fear experienced more or less by people, it has been one of the causes which has produced the diversity found among all religions. What could anyone conclude from these comments that would be contrary to the principle I defend? Can we not perceive the motivating cause behind such institutions? Can we not perceive the nature of their frivolous object? Finally, can we not perceive that the very institutions which established them, being unable to hide from themselves the weakness of their idols, have attempted to support them by multiplying their number, that they have often repudiated these idols and later replaced them with others at will, and that they have shown the same inconsistency in the choice of the means employed in making them favorable to themselves? If a fixed luminary had directed these institutions, they and their productions would have been protected from all these contradictions. It is therefore evident that those who have observed such facts have carried these consequences much too far. Merely because fear and superstition have engendered the birth of religious institutions in different parts of the world - or, which is even more true, have introduced diversities within the religions already established - it would be unfair to conclude that they have been the source of all religions, and that people have drawn from this the principles and concepts which are universally common to them and other people. But it is not completely impossible to show even more clearly the cause of this error, and to expose it entirely to view. Have I not proclaimed people as being an assemblage of sensate and intellectual faculties? Has not this caused us to conceive that these sensate faculties, being common to both people and animals, have caused people henceforth to become, much like animals, susceptible to habits? But could not these habits, all pertaining to the senses, also come into being except through the help of sensate means and causes? On the contrary, has not this caused us to conceive that people's intellectual faculties, being of an order superior to sensate causes, could not be commanded by such sensate causes, and that they have need of the reaction of a cause and an agent of another order to move and animate them-namely, one that would be of the same nature as the intellectual Being of humankind? Thus, this is where the solution to the problem is to be found. It is necessary to distinguish between a person's sensate productions and her primary ideas which belong only to her intellectual Being. It is necessary to perceive that climate, temperature, and all the relatively numerous accidents of the material and sensate Nature could well have influenced a person's customs, habits, and outward actions; and that they could even, through a manifestation to her senses, operate passively upon her intellectual faculties. But, the cooperation of all the elementary revolutions, whatever their nature, would never give her the least idea of a Superior Cause, nor the fundamental points we have discovered in It. In short, all the causes that we are examining at this moment belong by their nature within the sensate order and can only actively operate upon the senses and never upon the intellect. We would then perceive in all these effects of a person's weakness and fear only the false usage and senseless application of these intellectual faculties, but we would never perceive their origin therein. Even when these intellectual faculties act upon the sensate, they merely cause its movement but do not create it, although being superior to it. For a much stronger reason, the sensate, being inferior to such faculties, could affect them when it acts upon them, but they will never receive birth and life from it. We therefore return once more to our principle, which has been to place the origin of religion at the first moment of humanity's existence. If, after such demonstrations, those who have advanced the contrary opinion still persist in upholding it, and insist that people had found the source of the concepts and all the lights (the seed of which we proclaim that they carry within themselves) in the inferior and sensate causes, we would have but one question to ask of them so as to overturn their system completely. If, as they state, the revolutions of material Nature have given people a religion, why is it that animals do not also have their own, since they as well as people have been present during all these revolutions? Let us therefore stop occupying ourselves with such an opinion, and let us apply ourselves instead to the task of recognizing the full value of the seed that has been placed within us. Let us apply ourselves to the task of sensing that, if this precious seed must provide us with innumerable fruits whenever it has received its natural culture; conversely it cannot manifest anything except confusion and disorder whenever it receives foreign cultures. Finally, let us attribute only to these false cultures the uncertainty that people have shown in all steps, which they have taken without their guide. Yet I sense the curiosity of my readers regarding this natural culture and regarding the invariable effects of the active and intelligent Cause that I have recognized as the indispensable light of humankind-in a word, regarding that religion or unique worship which, according to the principles that I have proclaimed, would return all religions to the same Law. Although I have announced that people should not expect the proofs and positive testimony of these truths from the hand of others, people can at least receive its description from them, and I propose to present it to them. I shall not conceal, however, all the efforts that I make within myself in attempting it. I cannot cast my eyes upon science without being overcome with shame when I perceive all that humankind has lost, and I would wish that I knew not what I know, because I cannot find anything to be worthy of it within myself. For this reason, I can never express myself about such matters except through symbols. The religion of a person in his first estate was subject to a worship, as it still is today, although its form was different. The principal Law of this person was to cast his eyes continually from the East to the West and from the North to the South-in other words, to determine the latitudes and the longitudes in all parts of the Universe. Through this process he had a perfect knowledge of all that happened in the Universe; he purged all his empire of wrong-doers; he ensured the road for all well-intentioned travelers; and he established peace and order in all the states subject to his domination. Also, through this process he fully manifested the power and glory of the Primary Cause which had charged him with these sublime functions, and fulfilling such functions served to provide the homage most worthy of it, and the only homage capable of honoring and pleasing it. Being One by its essence, it has had no other object than to cause its Unity to prevail-in other words, to act for the happiness of all Beings. However, if a person had not been supported in the exercise of the immense task that had been entrusted to her, she could not have embraced all parts of it on her own. Thus, she was surrounded by faithful ministers who executed her orders with precision and clarity. As she thought, her ministers read her wishes and transcribed them into characters so clear and expressive that they were protected from all equivocation. The primary religion of humanity being invariable, people were subject to the same duties despite their fall. But since they had experienced a change of climate, it was also necessary that they change the Law so as to direct themselves in the exercise of their religion. This change is none other than a person having submitted himself to the necessity of employing tangible means for a religion which should never have known them. Nevertheless, since such means present themselves naturally to him, it requires only a slight effort on his part to search for them, but much more effort, it is true, to render them productive and to successfully make use of them. First of all, he cannot take one step without encountering his Altar, and this Altar is always decorated with Lamps which can never be extinguished and which will exist as long as the Altar itself. Secondly, he always carries incense with him, so that he can devote himself at any moment to the acts of his religion. But, with all these advantages, it is frightening to contemplate the extent to which humanity is still far from its goal, and the number of attempts that a person must make before arriving at the point of being able to fulfill her primary duties entirely. Moreover, even if she were to arrive there, she would always remain in an irrevocable subjection, which would cause her to sense, at the very end, the rigor of her condemnation. This subjection consists of a person being absolutely incapable of accomplishing anything on his own and of always being dependent on this active and intelligent Cause. It alone can set him back upon the path whenever he goes astray, and it alone can keep him on it. This Cause must today direct all his steps, because without it he cannot know anything, nor even derive the least benefit from his own knowledge and faculties. Moreover, the situation is not the same as it was during humanity's glory, when a person read even the most intimate thoughts of her superiors and her subjects, and when she could, as a consequence, communicate with them according to her will. But, in the horrible expiation to which she has exposed herself, she cannot hope to reestablish this communication without beginning to learn how to write. And she can consider herself fortunate if, subsequently, she finds herself in a position where she learns how to read, because there are many people, even among the most celebrated for their knowledge, who pass their life without ever having read. It must be said, however, that some people have read without ever having written. Yet these are special privileges, and the general Law is to commence by writing. However, a person in his first estate could, at will, continually occupy himself with reading. Since the expiation of a person must take place in \"time,\" this Law of time subjects him to a painful and indispensable process in the gradual recovery of his rights and knowledge, whereas in his first estate he did not have to wait as each of his faculties always responded to his needs and immediately acted according to his wish. These inexpressible advantages were connected with the possession and comprehension of a priceless Book that was counted among the gifts which a person had received at birth. Although this Book consisted of only ten pages, it contained all the lights and knowledge of what was, is, and will be. The power of people was then so extensive that they possessed the faculty of reading through the ten pages of the Book at once and understanding it at a glance. At the time of humanity's degradation, this Book was indeed still in its possession, but people were deprived of the faculty of comprehending it as easily as before, and they can no longer understand all the pages except by reading one after the other. However, a person will never be entirely reestablished in her rights until she has studied them all. Although each of these ten pages contains a special knowledge, they are, nonetheless, so intertwined that it is impossible to understand one perfectly without attaining an understanding of them all. Even though I have said that a person can no longer read them except in succession, none of her steps will be assured if she does not examine them in their entirety, and the fourth page particularly, which serves as a rallying point for all the others. This is a truth to which people have paid little attention. It is however one which is infinitely necessary for them to observe and understand as they are all born with the Book in their hand. If studying and understanding this Book are precisely the tasks they need to accomplish, we can then judge how advantageous it is for them to avoid making any errors in its study. Yet humankind's negligence concerning this matter has been carried to an extreme. Very few among them have noticed this essential union of the Book's ten pages which renders them absolutely inseparable. Some have stopped in the middle of this Book, others at the third page, others at the first-a situation which has produced atheists, materialists, and deists, respectively. It is true that a few have perceived such ties, but they have not understood the important distinction that needs to be made between each of these pages, and, finding them bound together, they have believed them to be equal and of the same nature. What has been the result? By limiting themselves to that part of the Book they did not have the courage to go beyond, and by depending upon the fact that they were nevertheless expressing themselves according to the Book, they have pretended that they possess an understanding of the entire Book. Thereby believing themselves infallible in their doctrine, they have exerted all their efforts to prove it. But such isolated truths, receiving no sustenance, have soon deteriorated in the hands of those who had thus separated them, and there remained nothing for these imprudent men but a vain phantom of knowledge, which they could not offer as a solid body, nor as a true Being, without having recourse to imposture. This is precisely where all the errors we shall examine eventually in this treatise originated, as have all those we have already disclosed about the two opposing Principles, the nature and Laws of corporeal Beings, the different faculties of humankind, and the principles and origin of its religion and rites. The part of the Book in which these errors have primarily occurred will be shown afterwards, but before considering this matter we will round out the understanding that one must have of this incomparable Book by presenting in detail the different learning and properties, the knowledge of which is contained in its pages. The FIRST dealt with the universal Principle or Center from which all Centers continually emanate. The SECOND dealt with the creative Cause of the Universe, of the double corporeal Law supporting it; of the double intellectual Law manifesting in time; of the double nature of humankind; and generally of everything which is composed of and formed by two actions. The THIRD dealt with the foundation of Bodies; of all the results and productions of all genders. This is where the number of immaterial Beings which do not think is found. The FOURTH dealt with all that is active; of the Principle of all languages, whether temporal or beyond time; of the religion and rites of humanity. This is where the number of immaterial Beings who think is found. The FIFTH dealt with idolatry and putrefaction. The SIXTH dealt with the Laws governing the formation of the temporal world and the natural division of the circle by the radius. The SEVENTH dealt with the cause of winds and tides; of the geographical scale of humankind; of humanity's true knowledge and the source of its intellectual or sensate productions. The EIGHTH dealt with the temporal number of that which is the sole support, force, and hope of humankind-in other words, of that real and physical Being which has two names and four numbers due to it being active and intelligent at the same time and because its action extends over the four worlds. It also dealt with justice and all legislative powers, which include the rights of sovereigns and the authority of generals and judges. The NINTH dealt with the formation of corporeal humankind in the wombs of women and with the decomposition of the universal and particular triangle. Finally, the TENTH was the channel and complement of the preceding nine. It was undoubtedly the most essential and that without which all the others would not be known, because, by placing all ten in a circumference according to their numerical order, it will be found to have the closest affinity with the first, from which all emanates. And if one desires to judge its importance, let it be known that the Author of all things is invincible because of it, as it is a barrier which protects It from all sides and which no Being can pass. Thus, we perceive in this enumeration all the knowledge to which humanity can aspire and the Laws which are imposed upon it. It is clear that people will never possess any knowledge, nor will they ever be able to fulfill any of their true duties, without going to and drawing from this source. We also actually know the hand that must lead them to it, and although they cannot take a single step toward this fertile source on their own, they will certainly advance towards it by forgetting their own will and allowing the will of the active and intelligent Cause to act alone for them. Therefore, let us congratulate humankind for still being able to find such a support in their misery. Let a person's heart be filled with hope when he perceives that even today he can discover without error in this precious Book the essence and properties of Beings, the reason for things, and the certain and invariable Laws of his religion and rites which he must necessarily render to the Primary Being. In other words, being at once intellectual and sensate and because nothing in existence is not one or the other, he must recognize his own relationship with everything which exists. As this Book contains only ten pages and yet contains All, nothing can exist without belonging, by its very nature, to one of these ten pages. Thus, there is not a single Being which does not indicate in itself the nature of its class and to which of the ten pages it belongs. Every Being offers us thereby the means necessary for instructing us in everything concerning it. But, to direct ourselves in such understanding, we must distinguish the true and simple Laws constituting the nature of Beings from those which people think up and substitute for them every day. Let us now consider that part of the Book which I have declared as having been the most abused. It is the fourth page which has been recognized as having the closest affinity to humanity, as this is where its duties and the true Laws of its thinking Being have been written, as well as the precepts of its religion and rites. If, indeed, a person followed with exactitude, constancy, and pure intention all the points clearly expressed therein, she could obtain the help of the very hand that had punished her; elevate herself above that region of corruption to which she is relegated by condemnation; and recover traces of this ancient authority by virtue of which she determined, in the past, the latitudes and longitudes necessary for the maintenance of universal order. But, since such powerful resources were attached to this fourth page, it is also, as we have stated, in this part of the Book that humanity's errors were the most considerable. And, truly, if humanity had not neglected such advantages, all would still be peaceful and happy upon Earth. The first of these errors was to transpose this fourth page and substitute in its place the fifth, or that which deals with idolatry. In so doing, humankind distorted its religious Laws and thus could not derive the same benefits from them nor the same assistance as it would have, had it preserved the true rites. On the contrary, receiving only darkness as its reward, humanity engulfed itself in it to the point of no longer even desiring the light. As we said at the beginning of this book, the course of this Principle was such that it made itself evil by its own will. Such was the error of the first person, and such has been that of many of this person's descendants, chiefly among the peoples which seek their Orient in the South of the Earth. This is what constitutes this error or crime, which cannot be forgiven and which, on the contrary, is inevitably subject to the most rigorous punishment. But the majority of people are protected from these errors, because it is only by walking that one falls, and the greater number of people do not walk. However, how is it possible to advance without walking? The second error consists of having taken a rough idea of the properties connected with this fourth page and to believe that they could be applied to all, because attributing them to objects for which they are unsuitable makes it impossible to discover anything. Moreover, who does not know how slight has been the degree of success attained by those who base matter upon the four elements, who dare not refuse thought to animals, who attempt to square the solar calculus with the lunar calculus, who search for longitude upon the Earth and for the quadrature of the circle-in a word, who attempt every day to find an infinity of discoveries of this sort and in which they never gain satisfactory results (as we shall continue to show later in this treatise)? Yet this error is not directly aimed against the universal Principle. Those who follow it are not punished except by ignorance, and it does not demand any expiation. There is a third error by which, and through the same superficial ignorance, a person has believed himself in possession of the sacred advantages that this fourth page could, indeed, communicate to him. Pursuing this idea, he has spread among his fellow people the uncertain notions of truth which he himself has created. He has directed upon himself the eyes of the people, who should only have directed them towards the Primary Being, as well as towards the physical, active, and intelligent Cause-and upon those who, by their accomplishments and virtues, have obtained the right to represent the Cause upon Earth. This error, without being as disastrous as the first, is however infinitely more dangerous than the second, because it gives people a false and childish idea of the Author of all things and of the paths leading to It. To summarize, those who have had the imprudence and audacity to announce themselves thusly have, so to speak, established an infinity of systems, dogmas, and religions. These establishments, already so lacking in substance in themselves and through the vice of their institutions, could not avoid experiencing further alterations so that, being obscure and shadowy at the moment of their origin, they have completely disclosed their deformities through the passing of time. Therefore, by adding the enormous abuses that have been made in the knowledge contained in the fourth page of this Book, of which we are all guardians at birth, and by adding the confusion that has proceeded therefrom to all that we have observed regarding humanity's ignorance, fears, and weaknesses, as well as its departure from the symbols, we will have the explanation and origin for this multitude of religions and rites prevalent among people. Without a doubt, we can only despise them when we perceive this variety which distorts them and this mutual opposition which unveils their falsities. But if we do not lose sight of the fact that these differences and peculiarities have never affected any but the sensate, and if we recall that a person, being by her thinking the image and likeness of the Primary and Highest of thinking Beings, brings with her all her own Laws, then we shall recognize that when she is born her religion is also born within her. Far from having come to her as a result of the entreaties, caprice, ignorance, and terror which Nature's catastrophes may have inspired within her, all of these causes, on the contrary, constitute what has often distorted humanity's religion and brought her to the point where she even distrusts the only remedy available to her for the alleviation of her misfortunes. We shall recognize to even a much greater extent that people alone suffer from these variations and weaknesses, and that the source of a person's existence and the way granted to her for attaining it will never be less pure. We shall also recognize that she will always be certain to discover a point of reunion which will be common to her and her fellow people whenever she directs her eyes towards this source and towards the only light that must lead her to it. These are the concepts we must have of humanity's true religion and of all those which have usurped this designation upon Earth. Let us now search for the cause of the errors that observers have committed in politics. After having considered humanity in itself and in relation to its Principle, it is now quite important that we consider individuals in relation to other people.\n\n## Chapter 5 - Policy Uncertainty\n\nWhen considering a person in regard to his political relations, he presents two viewpoints as he has in previous observations: first, what he could be and should be in the state of society, and second, what he is in this same state. It is by carefully studying what he should be in the state of society that we can then learn how to better judge what he is today. This comparison is undoubtedly the only method available for clearly unfolding the mysteries still veiling the origin of societies, for establishing the rights of sovereigns, and for laying down the rules of administration by which empires could and should sustain and govern themselves. The greatest difficulty experienced by those statesmen and stateswomen who have tried best to follow the course of Nature has been in reconciling all social institutions with the principles of justice and equality which they perceive within themselves. Once it was made apparent to them that humankind was free, they believed people were created to be independent and thenceforth they ruled that all subjugation was contrary to their true essence. Thus, according to them, all government is truly a vice and people should have no other ruler than themselves. Despite this supposed vice of humankind's dependence and subjection to authority that generally exists before their eyes, they have been unable to resist the curiosity of searching for humanity's origin and cause. By mistaking the thing for its Principle, their imagination has given itself over to all its variations, and this is where observers have exhibited as much inadequacy as when they have attempted to explain the origin of evil. They have pretended that ability and might had placed authority in the hands of those who rule over people, and that sovereign power was based only upon the weakness of those who have allowed themselves to be subjugated. As a result, this invalid right, having no substance, is subject to vacillation as one can see. It then falls successively into those hands which have the strength and talent necessary to seize it. Others have delighted in presenting a detailed account of the violent or shrewd means which, according to them, presided at the birth of states. In so doing, they have presented the same system, but only in a more extensive fashion. Such are the empty reasonings of those who have claimed the motivating cause of such establishments to be the needs and ferocity of primitive people. Living as hunters in the forest, these unrestrained people made incursions upon those who devoted themselves to agriculture and the herding of animalswith a view of turning all advantages to their own profit. The usurpers were then forced to establish laws and punishments so as to maintain themselves in the state of authority which violence had created, and which was becoming a veritable oppression. This is how the most shrewd, daring, and ingenious among them succeeded in remaining master and in assuring their despotism. Yet we perceive that this could not have been the first society, since the existence of tillers of the soil and shepherds has been presupposed. However, this is very close to what is the basic view of those statesmen and stateswomen who have decided that the Principle of justice and equality could never form the basis for governments; and all their systems, and the observations employed to support them, have been brought to this conclusion. Some have believed they could remedy such injustice by establishing each society upon the common accord and unanimous will of the individuals composing it. However, various individuals, being unable to support the dangerous results of their fellow human's natural liberty and independence, have been forced to place the rights of their natural state into the hands of one person or a small number of persons and to pledge themselves to contribute through their united forces to the maintenance of the authority of those they have chosen as their leaders. Since this surrender of their rights is voluntary, they say there is no longer any injustice in the authority emanating from it. Afterwards establishing the powers of the sovereign and the privileges of the subjects through the same act of association, they then formed political bodies, and there is no longer any difference between them except in the particular methods of administration, which may vary according to the times and circumstances. This opinion is one that would appear to be the most judicious as it would better fulfill the natural idea being offered to us regarding the justice of governments by which people and property are under the protection of the sovereign and in which this sovereign, having no other aim than the common good, is occupied only in maintaining the Law which must procure it. In a forced association, on the contrary, we perceive simply the image of revolting atrocity whereby all subjects are victims and the tyrant retains solely for himself all the advantages of the society over which he has made himself master. Therefore, I shall not dwell any longer on the consideration of this sort of government, although it is not without example. But, as there is no trace of justice or reason visible within it, it cannot be reconciled with any of the true natural principles of man. Otherwise, we would have to say that a band of thieves also constitutes a political body. However, having been given the idea of a voluntary association is not sufficient. Nor is it even sufficient that we can find more regularity in the forms of government derived from it than in all those that may have originated in violence. What we need to do is examine carefully whether this voluntary association is possible and whether this structure is not just as imaginary as that of a forced association. Moreover, we need to examine whether, in case this agreement was possible, people would have the right of forming it lawfully. From such an examination, statesmen and stateswomen could judge the validity of the rights upon which societies have been founded, and, if we find them to be obviously defective, by discovering where the fault lies, we shall soon perceive what must necessarily be substituted for them. We need not reflect at length in order to sense how difficult it is to conceive of the voluntary association of an entire nation. For the voices to be unanimous, the manner of envisaging the motives and conditions of the new undertaking would also need to be unanimous. Never has this happened and never will it occur in a realm and in things that have only the senses for their foundation and object, because we can no longer doubt that everything is relative in the senses and nothing is stable therein. Apart from the fact that it would be necessary to suppress in each of the members the ambition either to be the leader or be close to the leader, it would still be necessary to have unanimity among an infinity of opinions, as much upon the most advantageous form of government as upon both general and special interests, and upon the multitude of subjects that must compose the articles of the contract - a situation which has never been encountered among people. Any further observations would therefore be of little value for helping us to recognize that a society freely formed through the efforts of all individuals is completely beyond all probability, and to acknowledge the impossibility that any such government ever existed. But, let us admit of such a possibility. Let us suppose a unanimity of all voices and that both the form and Laws belonging to the government in question have been acted upon through common accord. It still remains to ask whether people have the right to assume such an undertaking and whether it would be reasonable to remain with those they may have formed. In keeping with the knowledge that we should have acquired of humankind through everything that has been said concerning it, it is easy to foresee that such a right could never have been accorded to it and this action would be meaningless. First of all, let us call to mind the unchanging compass that we have recognized as being humanity's guide. Let us always have before our eyes the fact that all the steps people might take without its guidance would be uncertain, since without it a person does not possess light and because it is charged by its very essence to lead her and to preside over all her actions. If a person were to assume an undertaking of such great importance as that of submitting to another person - and then do so without the approval of the Cause which watches over him - he should doubt beforehand that such a demand would conform with his own Law and consequently help to contribute to his own happiness. If he ever so slightly listened to the voice of prudence, such a consideration should be enough to stop him. Reflecting more carefully upon his own conduct, does he not recognize that not only has he exposed himself to error, but he has even directly attacked all the principles of Justice by transferring to other men the rights which he should not legitimately dispose of and which he knows rest basically in the Hand that must lead him in all things? Secondly, such an undertaking would be vague and foolish, because, if it is true that this Cause of which we speak must be a person's guide in all instances and it possesses complete powers, to try employing any other hand would be useless. With all the more reason we shall say the same thing regarding humankind, considered from the viewpoint of statesmen and stateswomen. According to them, a person chooses masters and protectors for herself due to her helplessness and the difficulty she encounters in enduring the natural state. If this person had the strength to sustain herself, she would have no need for outside support. But if she no longer possesses such strength, and after having lost it she wants to clothe another person with it, what should constitute the basis for a contract? Therefore, voluntary association 1s not really any more just or sensible than it is practical because, by this act, a person would need to give to another person a right which he himself does not possess - namely, disposing of himself. By transferring a right to which he has no claim, he makes an absolutely worthless agreement which neither the chief nor the subjects can put into effect, since it cannot be binding upon either of them. Thus, to summarize everything we have just stated: if forced association is obviously an atrocity, and if voluntary association is impossible and at the same time opposed to Justice and reason, then where will we find the true Principles of government? There are, after all, states that have known them and follow them. If, as I have stated, statesmen and stateswomen have employed all their efforts in such research, and if what we have just seen is exactly all that they have discovered regarding this subject, then we can reasonably say that they have not yet taken the first step towards understanding such knowledge. There certainly exists a secret voice within them which inclines them to agree that, whatever has been the cause of the association in a political body, the leader finds herself essentially the guardian of a supreme authority and power which in itself must subordinate all her subjects to her. They recognize in sovereigns, I state, a superior force which naturally inspires respect and obedience for them. This is also what I strongly profess with the statesmen and stateswomen. But since they have not been able to find out where this superiority comes from, they have not formed a clear idea of it. Therefore, its applications only resulted in falsehood or contradictions. Thus, for the majority, not satisfied with their discoveries, and not finding any method of explaining people in society, have returned to their first idea and have been reduced to claiming that people should not be in a society. But we will surely perceive that this conjecture is no more soundly based than those they have formed regarding the methods of association, and instead it is obvious proof of their uncertainty and hasty judgments. We need only to direct our eyes upon a person for a moment before deciding this matter. Isn't his life simply a chain of continual dependence? Doesn't the very act of his entrance into material life carry with it the character of the subjugation to which he will be condemned during his lifetime? Doesn't he have need, when being born, for an external cause to fecundate his seed and create in it a reaction without which it could not live? And isn't it here that we find the humiliating subjection which he possesses in common with all natural Beings? Once a person has seen the light of day, this dependence becomes even more perceptible, a fact to which humankind's physical eyes bear testimony. At that point, by experiencing absolute helplessness and a truly shameful frailty, a person needs constant aid from Beings of her own species so that she will not die. Then, once attaining the age when she can dispense with their help concerning her bodily needs, a person comes into her own and enjoys all the advantages and forces of her physical being. Yet, such is the nature of people and of the wisdom of the eye watching over them, that before coming to this completion of physical independence, they experience a need of another nature - one which binds them ever more closely to the hand that has sustained their childhood. It is that of their intellectual Being which, beginning to sense its deprivation, becomes restless and blindly devotes itself to all that can pacify it. Still weak at this age, a person naturally appeals to everyone about her and above all to those who, by alleviating her corporeal needs each day, would be the ones who by all rights should be the primary repositories of her confidence. At every step she turns to them to gain further self-knowledge. Actually, she should simply expect it from them, as it is their responsibility to direct, sustain, and enlighten her according to her age and to arm her in advance against error and to prepare her for combat. In a word, it is their responsibility to accomplish for her intellectual Being what they have accomplished for her physical Being during the period when she experienced problems without possessing the strength either to handle them or to protect herself from them. This is - and there can be no doubt about it - the true source of society among people. At the same time, it is the source whereby a person can learn what the first of her duties is when she becomes a parent. Why is it that we do not find a similar situation among animals? It is because experiencing such needs is not part of their nature. It is because animals, by directing themselves solely through the senses, satisfy their sensate needs and thus nothing more remains. As corporeal feelings are the extent of all their faculties, when such feelings are satisfied, there no longer remains for them either desires or further sensate needs. This is why animals have no social ties. Examples of devotion among animals, whether between themselves or for a person, should not be given to me as we are describing here only the natural course and movements of Beings. All the examples that could be offered to the contrary would surely be the result of habit which, as we have said elsewhere, is suitable to and can be found within animals in their capacity as sensate Beings. Nor should my attention be called to those various herds of animals living and traveling together, whether upon the earth, in the water, or in the air. Only their special physical needs bring them together; and there exists so little true affection between them that one can perish and vanish without the others noticing it. Therefore, when making these observations regarding the first period of our material existence, we can perceive that people are not born to live in solitude. We perceive that after a person's physical dependence has ceased to be necessary, there still exists within him a tie that is infinitely stronger in that it relates to his very Being. We perceive, I repeat, that by an interest inseparable from his present state, he will always seek the company of his fellow humans and that, if they never deceived him or if he were not already corrupted, he would never think of withdrawing from them, even though his body has no further need of their assistance. Therefore, it is improper to search for the source of sociability in material needs alone and in the powerful means by which Nature brings together people with Beings of their Own species so as to achieve reproduction. Although humans and animals are similar in this regard, animals nevertheless do not live in a state of society, and such a means is insufficient in itself to establish human society. This is why I occupy myself only with those faculties distinguishing people and by which they are inclined to engage with other people in an interchange of moral actions, the source from which all association must derive so as to be just. In growing older, a person's intellectual faculties begin to rise above what she sees, and she begins to perceive a gleam of light in the midst of the shadows in which we are immersed. It is then that a new order of things is born for her. Not only does everything interest her - but, how much more must this interest increase for those who have helped make her taste the happiness of being a person, as well as for those whom she might, in turn, enable to taste it also? As a person advances during the course of life, this social bond becomes even stronger through the expansion of his views and thoughts. Finally, in his declining years, his powers begin to degenerate, and he again falls into that state of physical weakness which accompanied his childhood. He becomes for the second time the object of other people's pity and returns to dependence upon them until the Law common to all bodies completes and fulfills its action upon his own body and thereby terminates its course. What further proof is necessary in admitting that a person was not destined to pass his days alone and without any social bond? We also perceive in this simple natural society that there are always Beings who give and others who receive, and that there always exist superiority and dependence-in other words, this is the true model of what the political society must be. This, however, has not been given thought by those who claim that the state of society is contrary to Nature and by not finding any method of justifying this society, nor of reconciling it with their principles of natural Law, they have decided to reject It. As for those of us who sense the indispensable necessity for the joined and mutual interaction of people, we shall not be deterred by the falsity and injustice of some of those bonds which have often contributed to their assemblage into a social body. We are quite convinced that people would not be born as they are, with such reciprocal needs and with those faculties which promise them so many advantages, if such faculties were not also the legitimate means for using and extracting all the benefits of which they are capable. The use of such means, occurring only in the social interactions between individuals (though this interaction is subject to innumerable inconveniences due to humankind's present state), will not provide sufficient reason for us to reject political bodies. We will merely indicate a more solid foundation and more satisfactory principles than those which have been given up to this time. But we must surely observe that the shadows in which statesmen and stateswomen have enveloped themselves up till now arise from the same source as those which still cover modern-day observers of Nature. By confusing the Principle with its envelope and the conventional force of humankind with its true force, they have obscured and distorted everything. Furthermore, we have witnessed the little degree of success that has resulted from all these observations upon Nature by which attempts have been made to separate it from an active and intelligent Cause, whose cooperation and power has been shown to be absolutely necessary. We shall recognize, therefore, that as the course of all statesmen and stateswomen is similar, theirs must also be equally fruitless. They have searched for the principles of government within the isolated person, and they have discovered no more by this means than have observers found in matter the source of its effects and all of its productions. Thus, just as a circumference without a center cannot be conceived, likewise none of these sciences can progress without the support of their source. This is why all of these systems cannot sustain themselves, and they collapse for no other reason than that of their own weakness. If, through his primal origin, a person was destined to be the leader and command, as we have established clearly enough, what concept must we form of her realm and first estate, and upon which Beings shall we apply her authority? Will it be upon her equals? In everything which exists and in everything we can conceive, nothing will provide an example of such a Law. On the contrary, everything informs us that no authority can exist except upon inferior Beings, and that the word authority necessarily carries with itself the idea of superiority. Therefore, without pausing any longer to determine upon which Beings the rights of a person should extend, it will be enough for us to recognize that it could not be over other people. It is certain, therefore, that if a person had remained in his primal state, he would never have reigned over other people, and political society would never have existed for him, because for him, there would never have been any sensory limitations or intellectual deprivation. His sole object would have been to exercise his faculties fully rather than to conduct their painful rehabilitation as he does today. After humanity found itself fallen from this splendor and condemned to the unfortunate condition to which they are reduced at present, their primary rights were not abolished; they were merely suspended, and there always remained to humankind the power to work and succeed through their own efforts in returning them to their primary value. Therefore, even today a person could govern as she did in her original state and do so without having other people for subjects. But a person cannot regain and enjoy this empire of which we speak except through the same titles which had made her master in the past, and it is only by carrying her ancient scepter that she will fully succeed in reassuming, with justification, the title of ruler. This had been her primary state and that to which she can still aspire through the unchanging essence of her nature. In a word, such was her ancient authority in which, we repeat, the rights of a person over another person were unknown, because it was beyond all possibility that such rights should exist between equal Beings in their state of glory and perfection. In the state of expiation to which person is subject today, not only does he possess the ability to recover the ancient powers that all people enjoyed without being forced to take their subjects from among their own kind, but he can still acquire another right of which he had no knowledge in his primary state; it is that of exercising true authority over other people, and the following describes from whence this power originated. In this state of reprobation in which a person is condemned to grovel, and in which she perceives only the veil and shadow of the true light, he preserves some memory of her glory. She harbors to a certain degree the desire to go back to it, which may be accomplished through the free usage of her intellectual faculties, through the works initiated for her by the practice of justice, and through the role she must play in the accomplishment of the work. Some let themselves be subjugated and succumb to the innumerable obstacles sown in this elementary morass, while others have the courage and good fortune to avoid them. Therefore, it must be stated that the one who best protects himself from this will allow the idea of his Principle to be the least distorted and he will be the least removed from his primary state. If other men have not made the same efforts, they will not achieve the same success nor will they enjoy the same advantages. Clearly, the one who possesses all these advantages over them must be superior to them and govern them. First of all, he will be superior to them through the deed itself, because there will exist between the others and himself a real difference based upon faculties and powers, the value of which will be evident. Moreover, he will be so through necessity because other men, having exerted themselves less and having not harvested the same fruits, will truly have need of him, due to the poor and weakened state of their own faculties. If there is a person in whom this weakness progresses even to depravation, the person who has preserved herself from both will become her master, not only by deed and necessity but also through duty. She must seize control over the deprived individual and allow her no freedom in her actions, as much to satisfy the law of her Principle as for the safety and example of society. In short, she must exercise over this individual all the rights of slavery and servitude, rights as just and real in this particular case as they are inexplicable and of no value in all other circumstances. This is, therefore, the true origin of the temporal empire of humankind over other people, just as the bonds of humanity's corporeal nature were the origin of the first society. This empire, however, far from constraining and hindering natural society, must be regarded as being its most firm support and the surest means by which it can sustain itself, whether against the crimes of its members, or against the attacks of all its enemies. The person who finds himself invested with such power, remaining content only to the degree that he observes the virtues which have allowed him to acquire this power, attempts for his own sake to create happiness among his subjects. And let no one believe that this occupation must be vain and fruitless; because the individual of whom we speak cannot be such without possessing all the means of conducting himself with certainty and always being sure that his researches provide him with obvious results. Indeed, the more a person can approach the light which enlightened her in her primary state, being an inexhaustible source of faculties and virtues, the more she must extend her empire over those who remove themselves from it, and, in addition, the more she must be aware of that which can maintain order among them and assure the solidity of the state. Through the help of this light, she must be able to embrace and successfully oversee all parts of the government; she must obviously be familiar with the true principles of Law and Justice, the rules of military discipline, the rights of particular individuals and her own, as well as that multitude of means which constitute the motivating power of administration. Moreover, a person must be able to carry his views and extend his authority even to those parts which today do not form the principal object of administration in most governments, but which must constitute the firmest bond in the one of which we speak - namely, religion and the cure of disease. Finally, even in the fields of the arts, whether for leisure, or utilitarian reasons, he needs to direct their course and indicate their true taste. The flambeau which he is fortunate enough to hold in his hand, diffusing a universal light, must enlighten him upon all these subjects and enable him to perceive their connection. This situation, as chimerical as it may appear, does not present anything which does not conform to the idea that we might have regarding kings, whenever we are willing to investigate it thoroughly. When reflecting upon the respect that we have for monarchs, shall we not perceive that we regard them as necessarily being the image and representative of a superior force, and as such capable of more virtue, force, enlightenment, and wisdom than other people? Is it not with a pang of regret that we see them exposed to the foibles of humanity? And do we not feel the desire that they only be known through acts as grand and sublime as the hand that is supposed to have placed them all upon the throne? Is it not by this sacred authority that monarchs proclaim themselves and assert all their rights? Although we do not always feel certain that they act by means of it, does there not arise within us a kind of fear resulting from the thought of the possible use of such power and the veneration which monarchs inspire within us? All of this indicates to us that their primary origin is superior to the powers and will of people, thus confirming the idea I have presented - namely, that their source is higher than what is attributed to it by politics. These faculties and innumerable virtues, which we have indicated must be possessed by kings who have recovered their ancient light, are also claimed by the heads of established societies because they act as though they are in possession of all that we feel should be within them. Is not their title the seal of all the powers they discharge within their empire? Do not generals, magistrates, princes, all the orders of state, secure their authority from them, and when this authority is transmitted from hand to hand even to the last branches of the social tree, is it not always by virtue of the first emanation? Is not their connection always necessary in the exercise of useful talents and sometimes for that of talents which are merely agreeable? In all of these cases, the sovereigns themselves present to us an obvious sign that they are the center and source from which all the privileges and powers they communicate must emanate. The very act of this communication and the formalities accompanying it always show that they are, or that they can be, directed in their choice by a steady light, and also that they are enlightened regarding the capacity of the subjects to whom they entrust a part of their rights. Moreover, even these precautions on their part, as well as the decisions resulting from them, presuppose not only their personal capacity but also serve as testimonials of it. However, all the information which is gathered for the sovereigns in the different cases which crop up, and the adherence they show to the knowledge and decisions of their different tribunals, must not be regarded as a result of their ignorance concerning the different matters submitted to their legislation. Nor should it be thought that they are supposed to know everything by themselves, although one cannot avoid this supposition since they themselves create such jurisdictions; but, performing the temporal the functions of a true and infinite Being, they are charged, as It is, with total and infinite action and are, as It is, subject to the indispensable necessity of being unable to effect limited or particular actions except through their attributes and through the agents of their faculties. If we were to enter into a detailed consideration of all the motives operating and sustaining political governments, we would make the same application of it to the faculties of the leaders directing them. The exercise of Justice, civil as well as criminal, although being dispensed by hands other than theirs, but always under their authority, would indicate clearly enough that they might possess the means of discovering the rights and errors of their subjects, and determine with certainty the extent and support of their rights and likewise the reparation for their errors. The care they take in watching over the preservation of governmental Laws, the purity of morals, the maintenance of religious dogmas and practices, the perfection of the sciences and arts would all remind us that there must be within them a fertile light which extends to all, and consequently, knows all. Therefore, we do not stray from the truth by attributing the advantages so perceptibly illustrated for us by the image of monarchs to the person clothed with all the privileges of her primary estate and we can state with reason that they thereby instruct us concerning what a person could and should be, even in the midst of the impure region she inhabits today. I do not conceal from myself, however, the multitude of objections that will crop up regarding this point of view, by which I have just presented the monarchs and all the heads of societies in general. Accustomed as people are to explaining things by themselves and not by their principle, it must be novel for them to perceive in all their rights and powers, a source which is no longer of themselves, but which is nevertheless so analogous to themselves. Thus, being little accustomed to these principles, they will begin by asking me what proof nations could have of the legitimacy of their leaders, and upon what basis they could determine whether those who occupy such a position have not deceived them. I have no fear of going too far by saying that testimony of it will be obvious, whether for the leaders or for the subjects, in those who know how to make just and effective use of their intellectual faculties. Concerning this subject, I refer my readers to what I have previously said regarding the evidence of a true religion. The same answer can serve for the present objection, because sacred institutions and political institutions should have the same aim, guide, and Law. Thus, they should always be under the same direction, and when they become separated, they both lose sight of their true spirit, which consists of union and perfect intelligence. The second question that could be presented to me involves determining whether, in admitting the possibility of a government such as that which I have just described, we could find examples of it upon earth. Undoubtedly, I would not be believed if I tried to persuade my readers that all established governments conform to the model that has been presented, because, in truth, the majority are far removed from it. But I beg people to be fully convinced that true sovereigns, as well as legitimate governments, are not imaginary Beings, that they have existed at all times, that they actually exist now, and that they always will exist, because this enters into the universal order and, in short, this pertains to the Great Work, which is something other than the Philosopher's Stone. A third problem that will naturally present itself according to the principles which I have established is in perceiving that any person, by his very nature, can hope to recover the light he has lost, even though I recognize the existence of sovereigns among men. If each person achieves his full rehabilitation, who then will be the leaders? Would not all people be equal; would not they all be monarchs? This difficulty can no longer exist, considering what I have stated concerning the obstacles which so often hinder people in their course and which, multiplied further by their imprudence and the false usage of their will, are so rarely and unequally overcome on their part. You may even recall at this point what I have said concerning the natural differences in people's intellectual faculties. You may notice that, even when comparing them only from this viewpoint, there always remains an inequality among them, but an inequality that is not distressing nor humiliating for them, because their importance is real in each one of them and not relative as that which is but conventional and arbitrary. This is, in some ways, what is represented to us by the laws of military institutions, which, among all the works of people, shows us the primary estate more faithfully, and as such, is the most noble of all their establishments. Although not possessing a foundation more true or solid than humankind's other works, it should only hold in the eyes of the sensate person the first rank in order of preference; but, I repeat, it is so noble and induces so much virtue, that one almost forgets that it has need of being true. Thus, concerning this institution which best relates to the Principle of humankind, we will note that all members composing a military body are supposed to be provided and endowed with the particular faculties which are proper to their rank. They are supposed to have attained and fulfilled the goal assigned to them as part of their unit. Although these members are all unequal, they function well as a unit, and no individual is degraded, because the duties of each is fixed. In this institution it is no disgrace to be inferior to other members of the corps, but only to be inferior to one's own rank. At the same time, these military bodies, being composed of unequal members, can never remain a moment without a leader, since there will always be one member who is superior to the others. If these corps were not the work of humankind, the differences and superiority of their members would be fixed, and the subjects' quality and real worth would serve as the rule. However when the legislator needs to act, as she must, but she is not directed by her true light, she makes up for this deficiency by establishing a value and merit easier to recognize, and which has need only of the help of corporeal eyes to be determined. After the differences in rank, it is seniority which establishes rights in military bodies; and should there be only two soldiers at a post, the Law demands that the one senior in service command over the other. Is not this Law, artificial though it may be, an indication of the justice of the principle that I have set forth, and, by supposing all people to be in possession of their privileges, since there would never be complete equality between them, could we not believe that we will always have monarchs? Nevertheless, it would be the greatest of follies to take this comparison literally, as the military corps, being but the work of humankind, can only have conventional differences. This is why the superior and the inferior in the military are by their very nature alike, and despite such imposing distinctions, they all are for the most part similar, since they are always people in privation. But, in the natural order, if each person attained the utmost degree of his power, he would then be king. Yet, just as earthly monarchs do not recognize other monarchs to be their master and, as a consequence, are not subject to one another, likewise, in the case under consideration, if all people were fully rehabilitated in their rights, masters and subjects could not be found among people, as they would all be monarchs within their own realm. But I reiterate, in the present state of affairs, not all people will attain this degree of grandeur and perfection that would render them independent of one another. Thus, since this state of reprobation subsists, if they always have leaders chosen from among themselves, it must be expected that they will always have them and that it will even be indispensable until this period of punishment is entirely completed. Therefore, upon the rehabilitation of a person in his Principle, I establish with confidence the origin of his authority over his fellow people, that of his power and of all the titles of political sovereignty. I do not even fear to state that this is the sole means of explaining all rights and of reconciling the multitude of different opinions which statesmen and stateswomen have originated concerning this matter; because, to recognize the superiority of one Being over Beings of the same class, we must not search for it in the ways in which they resemble each other, but in the ways in which the one can be distinguished from the others. As people are condemned to privation by their present nature, all resemble one another fully in this regard, with the exception of a few slight differences. Therefore, it is only by endeavoring to make this privation disappear that they can hope to establish real differences between themselves. I also believe that I cannot offer to other people a more satisfactory picture than that of this society, which, as we stated previously, would be founded upon people's corporeal needs and upon the desire which they have for knowledge. And, to give it a leader such as I have just pictured is to complete and confirm the natural idea that we all carry secretly within ourselves concerning the society of humankind and the principles of governments. In effect, we would perceive reigning therein only order and universal activity that would create a network of delights and joy for all members of the political body. We would perceive that even their physical ills would find alleviation in it, because, as I have indicated, the light directing the association would embrace and enlighten all of the parties involved. This would then present to us in the midst of all perishable things the grandest image and the most just idea of perfection. It would recall that blissful age which is said to exist only in the imagination of poets, because, having strayed from it and no longer knowing its peacefulness, we have the weakness to believe that, since it has ceased to exist for us, it must have ceased to be. At the same time, if such is the Law which should bind and govern people, if this is the sole flambeau which can, without injustice, unite them in a body, it is therefore certain that by abandoning it they can expect only ignorance and all the torments inevitable for those who err in obscurity. Then, if by a subsequent examination of accepted governments, some irregularities are discovered, we may justly conclude that they exist only as a result of the abandonment of this same light and because those who have instituted political bodies did not know the principles, or because their successors allowed its purity to become altered. Yet, before undertaking this important examination, I must pacify the suspicious governments which could become alarmed by my sentiments, and fear that by unveiling their defectiveness, I would destroy the respect which is their due. Although I have already shown in some parts of the subject which I am presently considering, my veneration for the sovereigns' person and character, it is fitting that I reiterate this solemn affirmation at this time so that all those reading this book will be persuaded that I only express peace and order, that I deem submission to their leaders to be the indispensable duty of all subjects, and that I condemn without reservation all insubordination and revolt as being diametrically opposed to the principles I have set to establish. Credence must surely be given to this genuine declaration, whenever one recalls what I have previously established concerning the Law which must govern a person in her entire conduct here on earth. Have I not shown that the concatenation of her sufferings was simply the result of the false usage of her will; that the usage of this will had become false only when a person had abandoned her guide; and that, as a consequence, were she to manifest this same imprudence today she would only perpetuate her crime and thereby further augment her misfortunes? I absolutely condemn rebellion, even in the instance where the sovereign and the government have reached the height of injustice, and where neither can maintain any trace of the powers which constitute them. As iniquitous and revolting as such an administration may be, I have shown that it is not the subject who has established its political Laws nor its leaders. Therefore, it is not for him to overthrow them. Yet it is necessary to present reasons even more easily perceived. If evil is found only in the administration, and the leader has persevered in that force and those incontestable rights that we suppose her to possess as the fruit of her efforts and of the exercises that she has performed, she will have within herself all the faculties necessary to untangle and remedy the government's vice, without the subject being in a position to participate in it. If the vice is present both in the government and the leader, but the subject knows how to preserve himself from it by fulfilling that obligation common to all people of never departing from the unchanging Law which must be their guide, this subject will know how to protect himself from those vexations without employing violence. Or he will know how to recognize whether or not this calamity emanates from a superior hand. He will then refrain from murmuring or from manifesting opposition to Justice. Finally, if the vice is present at the same time in the leader, the administration, and the subject, then I should not be asked what should be done; because this would no longer be a government, it would be a tyranny; and for in a tyranny there is no Law. It would even be useless to proclaim to people living in such disorder that the more they give themselves over to it, the more they will attract suffering and affliction to themselves; that the interests of their true happiness will always forbid their fighting injustice with injustice, and that misfortune will pursue them as long as they do not endeavor to bend their thought and will to their natural rule. Such discourses would not find any access within this tumultuous confusion because they express the language of reason, and a Being left to their own resources does not reason. Let no one offer once more the objection presented by that difficulty of recognizing the signs by which one could discern whether things are or are not in order, and when one must either act or refrain from acting. I have sufficiently given to understand that every person was born to have the certainty of the legitimacy of her actions, and this is indispensable in determining the morality of her entire conduct. Thus, as long as this proof is lacking, she exposes herself if she advances even one step. From the previous remarks, one may judge whether I allow people the least imprudence and, moreover, the smallest act of violence or private authority. I believe, therefore, that this acknowledgment on my part will reassure sovereigns concerning the principles directing me. They will never perceive anything other than an inviolate attachment to their person and the most sublime respect for the sacred rank they occupy. They will perceive that even if there were usurpers and tyrants among them, their subjects would not have any legitimate pretext to cause them the slightest harm. If any sovereigns were ever to read these writings, I do not think they could persuade themselves that, in avowing my submission to their person, I have increased their powers in any way whatsoever or that I consider them to be excused from their obligation as people to subject their course to the common rule which should direct us all. On the contrary, if it is only through the intimate knowledge they are supposed to have of this rule and by their fidelity in observing it that they have assumed the title of monarch, restoring to them the right of straying from it would only favor imposture and insult the very name which causes us to honor them. Thus, if the subjects do not possess the right to avenge an injustice inflicted on them, they must be aware that they have even less right to commit an injustice themselves; because in their quality as people, the sovereign and the subject are both subservient to the same Law. The political state changes nothing in their nature as thinking Beings. It is only one more responsibility for both of them, and neither should they nor can they do anything on their own. I thought it appropriate to make this formal declaration before entering into the examination of political bodies, and I now believe that I can follow my plan without concern, because, as defective as governments may seem, I can no longer be suspected of working toward their ruin. On the contrary, all that I could earnestly desire would be to help them to appreciate the only means which are clearly proper for their happiness and perfection. First of all, what causes us to presume that most governments have not had for their basis the principle that I have previously established - namely, the rehabilitation of sovereigns in their original light-is that nearly all political bodies which have existed upon the earth have passed out of existence. This simple observation does not allow us to be persuaded that they had a real foundation or that the Law which constituted them was the true Law. The Law of which I speak possesses by its nature a living and invincible force, and thus everything it binds together should be indissoluble as long as those who are charged with being its ministers do not forsake it. The Law was therefore either not well known at the birth of the governments under consideration or it was neglected during the periods following their institution, otherwise, they would still exist. This is certainly not contrary to the idea that we all carry within ourselves concerning the stability of the effects of such a Law. According to the notions of truth residing within people, that which does not pass away, and durability is for us the proof of the reality of things. Thus, when people have accustomed themselves to regarding governments as being temporary and subject to vicissitudes, it is because they have placed such governments in the same category as all human institutions, which, being supported only by whim and unruly imagination, can vacillate in their hands and be destroyed by some other whim. Nevertheless, and by an intolerable contradiction, they demand our respect for these types of establishments whose transitory nature they themselves recognize. Is it not certain that the Principle spoke to them even in their blindness and they sensed that, as defective and fragile as their social institutions were, they were the image of one which could not possess any of these defects? This would be enough to support what I have propounded regarding the unchanging Law which must preside over any association. However, despite the idea which we all have regarding such a Law, undoubtedly we will always hesitate before giving it credence, because, having witnessed the disappearance of all empires, it becomes rather evident that they cannot endure, and we will experience difficulty in believing that there are any which will not pass out of existence. This, however, is one of the truths which I can best assert, and I do not believe that I am going too far by assuring others that there are governments which have continued since people appeared upon Earth, and which will exist until the end of time. I say this for the same reasons that have caused me to say that there have always been and always will be legitimate governments here on Earth. Therefore, I cannot be faulted in giving you to understand that if the political bodies which have disappeared from the Earth's surface had been founded upon a true Principle, they would still be in existence; that those which exist today will pass away without fail if they do not have such a principle for their basis; and that if they have moved away from it, the best means available to sustain themselves would be to draw closer to this principle. When I assert that a government is capable of enduring, it is clear that I mean to speak only of temporal duration, since governments are all established only in time. Yet, although they must come to an end as do all things, they would, nevertheless, enjoy the fullness of their action simply by carrying it full term - and this is what they could hope for if they knew how to rely upon their Principle. I shall not pause to cite as proof that pride with which governments boast of their antiquity, nor the efforts they make to extend their origin further. Nor shall I call attention to the precautions they take to ensure their preservation and duration, nor to all those establishments they continually form with a view to the future, whose fruits can only be harvested centuries afterwards. We may perceive that such considerations would thereby constitute so many secret indications of the certainty they have that they should be permanent. Consequently, I repeat, as soon as we witness the ending of a state, we can presume, without fear, that its birth was not legitimate or that the sovereigns who have successively governed it have not all endeavored to regulate their conduct by the light of that natural flambeau which we remind them must be their guide and that of humankind. By converse reasoning, if we had only this sole motive to direct our judgment, it would not yet be time to give an opinion upon existing governments, because, as long as we see them in existence, we could suppose that they are in conformity with the Principle which should constitute them all, and only their destruction would reveal to us any defects they may have. But, we have yet to consider them from other viewpoints which can also aid us in becoming aware of their faults and irregularities. The second vice that we cannot ignore in recognized governments is that they are different from one another. If some true Principle had formed them, this Principle, being unique and unvarying, would have manifested itself everywhere in the same way, and all governments produced by it would be similar. Thus, as soon as any disparity exists among them, we can no longer admit the Unity of their Principle, and most certainly some among them must be illegally established. I do not attach any importance to those local differences which, being brought about by circumstances and the continual flow of things, must make themselves felt in administration on a daily basis. Since the progress of this administration must itself be regulated by the universal constitutive Principle, any differences that it will allow, according to time and place, will indicate much more to us its wisdom and fecundity rather than causing any alteration of the Principle. At this time, I must therefore take into account only the fundamental differences which pertain to the constitution of the state. Numbered among these are the diverse forms of government, of which I shall consider only the two most important, because all the others are more or less connected to them; namely, that form in which the supreme power is held by a single hand, and that form in which it is held by several hands at once. Of these two kinds of government, if one is supposed to conform to the Principle, it must be presumed that the other is opposed to it, because, one being so different from the other, they cannot reasonably possess the same basis or origin. Consequently, I cannot admit the generally accepted opinion which determines the form of government according to its situation, area, and other considerations of this nature, by which one pretends to decide upon the kind of legislation most suitable to each people or country. According to this rule, the constitutive reason of a state would be definitely found in the secondary Causes, and this is entirely contrary to the idea that I have already presented of this Cause or constitutive Principle. As a Principle, it must dominate everywhere and direct all. It is true that being illuminated, it can accommodate itself to the circumstances that I have just cited, but it must never bend before them to the point of losing its own nature or of producing contrary effects. In a word, this would be renewing the error that we have unveiled when speaking of religion - in other words, it would be searching for the source of a true Principle in the action and Laws of tangible things, whereas these things actually repudiate and distort it. Thus, I persist in maintaining that, of the two forms of governments which I have just mentioned, one must of necessity be defective. Although in my plan I would rather present the Principles instead of giving my opinion, if you were to insist that I must decide upon which is deserving of preference, I could not avoid admitting that government by one alone is, without contradiction, the most natural, simple, and analogous to the true Laws that I have previously set forth as being essential to humanity. It is in fact, within himself and in the flambeau which accompany him, that a person must seek all counsel and enlightenment. If this person is a monarch, his duties as a person do not change; they are only extended. Thus, in this elevated rank, having always the same task to perform, he also can always hope for the same assistance. Therefore, it is not among the other members of his state that he must look for his guides; and if he is a person, he will know how to be sufficient unto himself. Although being the image of the chief, all the hands which will necessarily be employed in the administration will, each in their own class, have as their sole object only that of seconding him, and by no means that of instructing and enlightening him, since we have recognized him as being in possession of the source of the immense powers extending throughout his empire. Therefore, if we conceive that one person can unite within herself all of these privileges, it would be quite useless that there be, at the same time, several people at the head of a government since one alone can, in this case, accomplish the same thing which could be accomplished by all the others. Thus, despite any advantages we may wish to find in the government by many, I cannot regard this form as being the most perfect because there is a fault in it that is superfluous in nature - and in the idea that we carry within ourselves of a true government, there must not be any defect. Although I give preference to the government by one, nonetheless I do not maintain that all those having this form are true according to the entire regularity of the principle. After all, even among governments by one, there are still to be found infinite differences. In some, the leader possesses scarcely any authority; in others his authority is absolute; in still others he steers the middle course between dependence and despotism. Nothing is fixed, nothing is stable in these considerations. For this reason, it is very probable that all the governments where the power is solely in one hand, do not come from this invariable Law we are referring to. Therefore, we should not adopt them all. However, the third and at the same time the most powerful motive which must keep us in suspense concerning the legitimacy of all social institutions upon Earth, in those which have but one leader as well as in those which have several, is that they are at all times enemies of one another. Most certainly this enmity would not occur if the same Principle had presided over all these associations and had continually directed their course. Since the object of this Principle is order, in general as well as in particular, all the establishments over which it has presided would undoubtedly have only a single aim; and this aim, far from being to invade one another would, on the contrary, be to support one another against the common and natural vice which incessantly seeks their destruction. Thus, whenever I see them reciprocally employing their forces against one another and so grossly departing from their object, I must presume without any qualms whatsoever that it is impossible to find among all these governments one that is not irregular or defective. I know that statesmen and stateswomen employ all their efforts to mitigate this deformity. They consider social institutions to be formed in imitation of the works of nature, forgetting that the copy can never be equal to its model, especially in their hands. They carry and attribute to these artificial bodies the same life, faculties, and powers as those with which material Beings in nature are clothed. They attribute to them the same activity, force, and right to conserve themselves and, consequently, also that of repulsing the attacks of their enemies and of fighting them. This is how they justify wars between nations and the multitude of Laws established as much for the inner as for the outer security of the states. But even legislators cannot fool themselves as to the weakness and imperfection of the means they employ for the maintenance of such rights and for the conservation of political bodies. They apparently believe that if the active Principle they presuppose to be in their work were alive, it would animate without violence and conserve without destruction the active Principle manifested in natural bodies in the same way. Once the complete opposite occurs, once any Laws whatsoever of the governments cease to create and possess only the power to destroy, the leader no longer finds any true power in the instrument she employs and she can no longer deny even to herself that the Principle which caused her to form her Law has deceived her. I must then ask what this error can be if it is not to delude oneself regarding the type of combat she must wage; to have the weakness of believing that her enemies are the people who compose political bodies, and thus that it is against such bodies that she must direct all her forces and vigilance. Since this idea is one of the most disastrous results of the shadows in which a person is plunged, it is not surprising that the rights which it has caused to be established are equally false and that henceforth they can no longer be productive. Thus, you should not be surprised when I declare that a person cannot have other people for his true enemies; and that according to the Law of his nature he has actually nothing to fear from them. Indeed, once recognizing that they could not, by themselves, become superior to one another and that they all are subject to the same weakness and privation, it is certain that they have no real advantage over other people in this state. If they attempted to make use of the corporeal advantages residing within themselves - such as skill, agility, or strength-against some person - this individual who was the object of their attacks would undoubtedly succeed in preserving himself from them by allowing himself to be guided by the primary and universal Law which I have constantly presented in this work as being the indispensable guide of humankind. If, on the contrary, it was by virtue of the faculties of this same Law, and by the power of the Principle which has prescribed it, that a person really found her superiors, then the person enjoying such powers would only employ them for her own good and true happiness. Thus she would clearly have nothing to fear from others and she would be wrong in regarding them as her enemies. Therefore, people are timorous among other people through weakness and ignorance, having falsely interpreted the purpose of their origin and the object of their destination upon Earth. And if, as we have observed, one perceives a jealous and avid enmity between various governments, we must believe that this error has not had any other source or Principle. Consequently, the light which has presided over their association does not have all the rights it would have in our confidence, had it been as pure as it should have been. Apart from the defects of administration of which we shall speak later, we shall now observe three essential vices which are clearly shown among accepted governments - namely, instability, disparity, and hatred. When we consider them in themselves and in their respective relations, I would, on this basis alone, have the right to state that such associations were formed by humankind's hand and without the assistance of the superior Law which must give them sanction. This sanction having been neglected, none of the governments can sustain themselves without its aid, having degenerated from their primary state. However, since I have imposed upon myself the obligation of not passing Judgment upon any government, I shall not yet speak my mind, inasmuch as each of these governments could present objections in defending themselves from any charges. Although those which have become defunct have been in error, those which exist may not be in error. If among these I have noted a nearly universal difference, from which I have concluded of necessity that some were evil, I have merely condemned only the government by the many and even then only in general. Thus the governments by one have not been included in this judgment. Finally, if I find a well-defined hatred even among governments by one, or, to express it more appropriately, a general rivalry - each one of them could offer as an objection that it alone is the depository of those true rights which should preside over any society, and thus its duty is to be on guard against other states. All of these are the combined reasons which will always prevent me from expressing my opinion upon any existing political bodies; but since my intention is, at the same time, to place them all in a position of being able to judge themselves, I will offer other observations that will assist them in directing their judgments upon what they are and what they should be. I shall now cast my eyes upon their administration, because for a government to conform with the true Principle, its administration must be regulated by clear Laws and dictated by true Justice. If, on the contrary, it is found to be unjust and false, it will rest with the governments that make use of it to bear the consequences concerning the legitimacy of the Principle and motive to which they owe their birth. Political bodies must regulate two principal subjects: first, the rights of the state and of each of its members, that which constitutes the object of public right and civic Justice; and second, it must watch over the security of society, general as well as particular, which constitutes the object of war, police, and criminal Justice. As each of these different branches have Laws to direct themselves, in order to assure ourselves of their justness, we need only examine whether such Laws emanate directly from the true Principle or whether they have been established by people alone, deprived of their guide. Let us begin with public right. I shall only examine a single article of it, because It will suffice to indicate the obscurity in which this part of the administration is still immersed. This involves the exchanges of different parts of their states which sovereigns often make between themselves, according to their convenience. Indeed, I ask whether after a subject has or is supposed to have taken an oath of fidelity to a sovereign, that sovereign has the right to relieve him of it, and this despite all the advantages that the state might incur from this act. Does not the sovereign's custom of failing to obtain the consent of the inhabitants of the territory they exchange, point out that the original oath was not freely taken and that neither will the new one be more so? Can this conduct ever conform with the idea of a legitimate government that the legislators themselves wish to give us? In the one [form of government] whose truth and indestructible existence I have proclaimed, such exchanges are likewise customary, and those which are practiced among the accepted governments are simply the image of it, because a person cannot invent anything new. But their formalities are different and dictated by motives which render all acts equitable-in other words, the exchange is free and voluntary on the part of both parties. are not considered to be attached to the soil and being part of the domain; in short, their nature is not confused with that of temporal possessions. I dare not speak here of those well-known usurpations by which various governments have claimed to acquire property rights over peaceful and unknown nations or even over neighboring and defenseless countries, thereby manifesting their strength and cupidity against them. As everything in the Universe is accomplished through reaction, it is true that Justice has often allowed the arming of nations for the punishment of criminal peoples. However, in reciprocally serving as ministers to its vengeance, they have only added to their own crimes and defilement, and these horrible invasions, of which we have so many frightful examples before our eyes, have perhaps been less disastrous to those who have been their victims than to those who have enforced them. Let us now proceed with the examination of civil Law. I presuppose all property rights to be established and I presuppose the division of the land to be legitimately accomplished among people as was the case at the beginning of things through means which today ignorance would cause to be regarded as imaginary. When avarice, bad faith, and even uncertainty succeed in producing disputes, who is able to stop these? Who can ensure rights threatened by injustice and who can reinstate those which have declined? Who can follow the long line of inheritances and modifications from the first division to the moment of dispute? How can one remedy so many difficulties without having clear knowledge of the legitimacy of such rights and without being able to identify the true owner positively? How can one judge without having such certainty and dare to decide without being sure that one is not condoning some usurpation? No one dares to deny that this uncertainty is almost universal, from which we can boldly conclude that civil Justice is often imprudent in its decisions. But it is even more guilty and openly displays its rashness in those extremely difficult situations with which it is often confronted when determining the origin of different rights and properties. It then sets a limit to its inquiries by assigning a period during which all peaceful possession becomes legitimate, this being what justice calls statute of limitations. Yet in the case where possession is wrongfully acquired, can such an injustice can ever be effaced by any period of time? It is therefore evident that at present civil Law acts on its own. Civil Law creates Justice although it should only execute it, thus repeating the universal error by which people always confuse things with their Principle. It will probably suffice that I limit myself to this single example of civil Justice, although it may offer me several others which would equally bear witness against it, such as those varieties and contradictions to which it is exposed at every step and which oblige it to disavow itself on thousands of occasions. I shall only add that there is one circumstance in which civil Law completely exposes its imprudence and blindness, and in which the Principle of Justice, which should always direct its course, is much more grievously wounded than when it passes foolhardy judgments upon simple possessions. This is when it declares the separation of a couple joined by marriage for reasons other than adultery. In truth, adultery is the only motive upon which husband and wife can be separated legitimately, because it is the only contravention directly harming the alliance and because this act alone can break it in that the alliance was founded upon an absolute union. Thus, when civil Law allows itself to be guided by other considerations, it quite obviously does not possess even the least rudimentary idea of such a bond. Therefore, I cannot help recognizing the extent to which the course of civil Law is defective, considering both the physical being and the property rights of the members of society. This absolutely prevents me from considering this Law as being in conformity with the Principle that should be directing society, and I am forced to recognize humankind's hand in operation rather than that superior and enlightened hand which should be accomplishing everything. I shall not continue any longer regarding the first part of the administration of political bodies, but before passing to the second, I believe it appropriate to say a little concerning adultery, which we have declared to be the only legitimate cause for the dissolution of marriages. Adultery was the crime of the first person, although he committed it before there were any women. Once they came into being, the peril which led him into his first crime persisted and now people are also exposed to the adultery of the flesh. Thus, this last adultery cannot occur without being preceded by the first. What I am expressing here will become more understandable if one perceives that the primal adultery was committed only because Adam strayed from the Law that had been prescribed for him, whereas he followed the complete opposite. Physical adultery repeats the same act fully, since marriage, being subject to direction by a pure Law, cannot be the work of a person any more than her other actions. Since this person could not have formed this bond by her own will, she does not possess within herself the right to sever it. Giving herself over to adultery removes by her own authority the will of the temporal universal Cause which is supposed to have concluded the engagement, and for her to heed a will of which it has not approved. Thus, as a person's will always precedes her actions, she cannot become heedless in her physical acts without previously being heedless in her will, so that today, in abandoning herself to the adultery of the flesh, she commits two crimes rather than one. The intelligent reader of this work will easily discover in the adultery of the flesh several clear indications concerning the adultery committed by humankind before it became subject to the Law of the elements. As much as I desire that a person succeeds in this, my obligations forbid me the slightest clarification upon this point; and, furthermore, for my own good, I would rather blush for humankind's crime than speak of it. All I have to say is that if adultery seems to be of little concern for certain people, it is surely only for those who have been blind enough to be materialists. If, indeed, people possessed only the senses, adultery would not exist for them, because the Law of the senses is not stable but relative, and everything pertaining to the senses must be equal. Although people have in addition a faculty which must even measure the actions of their senses, a faculty which makes itself evident even in the choice and refinement with which they flavor their corrupted pleasures, one wonders if a person can, in good faith, persuade himself of the unimportance of such acts. Thus, far from adopting this depraved opinion, I shall employ every effort to combat it. I shall boldly affirm that the primal adultery has been the cause of the deprivation and ignorance in which humankind is still immersed, and this is what has changed humanity's state of enlightenment and splendor into a state of shadow and ignominy. The second adultery, besides rendering the first judgment even more rigorous, exposes a person temporally to inexpressible disorders, grievous sufferings, and misfortunes - the primary source of which she is often unaware and which she is far from suspecting to be so near to her. This, however, does not prevent the possibility of their being subject to a multitude of other causes. In such corporeal adultery, a person can still easily form an idea of the hardships he prepares for the descendants resulting from his crimes by considering that this temporal universal Cause, or this superior will, does not preside over couplings of which it has not approved, nor does it preside, for all the more reason, over those which it condemns. If its presence is necessary for everything existing in time, whether sensate or intellectual, a person deprives his descendants of this support when he engenders them through an illegitimate will, and consequently he exposes his descendants to extraordinary suffering and the terrible decline of all the faculties of their Being. It is in the various original adulteries that the people avid of science would find the explanation for all degenerated races, for all those nations in which the species are so peculiarly constructed, and for those monstrous and defectively colored generations with which Earth is covered and in which the observers search in vain for a class within the order of the normal works of Nature. No one should offer me the objection presented by those arbitrary concepts of beauty, which are the result of habit, recognized in various lands. These are only judged by senses that have become accustomed to all things. There must certainly exist for the human species a fixed regularity, independent of peoples' conventions and caprices, because a person's body has been constituted by a number. There is also a Law for her color, and this Law is clearly enough indicated to us by the arrangement and order of the elements present in the composition of all bodies, wherein salt is always seen upon the surface. This is the reason why the differences of climate and those often brought about by the way of life, upon both bodily form and color, do not destroy the principle which has just been established, since the regularity of people's stature does not reside in the equality of their relative height but in the just proportion of all their parts. Likewise, although there are shadings in their true color, there does exist, however, a degree they can never pass, because the elements cannot change their places without an action contrary to what is natural to them. Therefore, we can attribute without fear all those physical signs which are a striking indication of an original defilement to the dissoluteness of the ancestors of nations. Let us attribute to the same source the degradation in which entire peoples are so far immersed that they have lost all feelings of decency and shame, and that not only do they not prohibit adultery among themselves, but they are even so little shocked by nudity that the act of corporeal generation has become a public and religious ceremony among some of them. Some observers have even claimed that the feeling of modesty is not natural to people, but they did not notice that they were obtaining their examples among degenerated peoples. They did not perceive that those who show little repugnance and delicacy in this regard are also the most abandoned to the sensual life, and they are so little advanced in the enjoyment and usage of their intellectual faculties that the difference between them and animals has become almost nonexistent, except through the vestiges of some Laws which have been transmitted to them and which they conserve through habit and imitation. When, on the contrary, observers have decided to obtain their examples within wellregulated societies in which decency and the respect for the conjugal bond are merely the effect of education, they have again erred in their judgments, because these societies, having not enlightened people as to the rights of their true nature, compensate for it through instructions and artificial sentiments that time, place, and the way of life cause to disappear. Thus, by removing from these wellregulated societies the outward signs of received and accepted decency, or a relatively strong attachment to the principles of primary education, one would perhaps not really find any more decency than among the crudest of nations. But this will never prove anything against the true Law of humankind, because in these two examples the people under consideration are both removed from it, the one by a defect in culture and the other through depravation, so that neither of them are living in their natural state. To resolve this matter, we therefore need to go back as far as the natural state of humankind. We would then perceive that as the physical form, which represents the Being, is most disproportionate in comparison with the intellectual person, she is provided with the most humiliating spectacle. And if she were aware of the Principle of this form, she could not consider it without blushing, although the various parts of this body would not be at all likely to inspire within her the same horror, as they each possess a differing aim and usage. We would have seen, I repeat, that this person would have shuddered at the very notion of adultery because it would have recalled to her the frightful and despairing memory of that first adultery from which all of her misfortunes have proceeded. But how would the observers have considered a person in her Principle? They are not aware of her having any; so what credence can we give to their opinions? Thus, let us never forget that all the deformities and vices perceived in different people, whether in their bodies or in their thinking Being, derive from the fact that either their ancestors had not followed their natural Law or that they themselves have departed from it. Materialists should not believe me to be in accord with them when hearing me speak at this time of a natural Law for humankind. I desire, as they do, that people follow their natural Law. But we differ in that materialists desire that people follow the natural Law of animals, whereas I desire that they follow that which differentiates them from animals - in other words, what enlightens and assures all their steps; in a word, what pertains to the very flambeau of Truth. Let us not forget, I repeat, that a person's second crime, that of physical adultery, originates solely in the first adultery, or that of the will, by which a person has followed a corrupt Law in his production, rather than the pure Law which had been imposed upon him. Today a person may commit adultery with another, but he can also commit adultery without another person even more, as in the beginning. In other words, he may commit intellectual adultery because nothing existing in time, other than the primary temporal Cause, is more powerful than a person's will. And, in keeping with the Principle which became evil, it possesses powers even when it is impure and criminal. Let us then examine whether a person who finds herself to be the author ofall the disorders we have revealed should ever be happy and at peace, and whether she could conceal from herself that she owes even more tribute to justice than her unfortunate descendants. Those who believe themselves capable of remedying all these evils by negating the results of their crime will never, in good faith, intend to cause this depraved opinion to be adopted. On the contrary, they cannot doubt that this directs the entire scourge against themselves, while their descendants could have shared it with them. Moreover, this attributes to this same scourge an unlimited extension because, by this criminal act, added to the physical and intellectual adulteries of all the Laws forming a person's essence, not a single one has been left unviolated. I cannot expound further upon this subject without being indiscreet, as profound Truths are not suitable for all eyes. Although I do not reveal to humankind the basic reason for all the Laws of wisdom, they are nonetheless bound to observe them, because they are perceptible and people can perceive everything that is perceptible. Moreover, although it is also accepted among people that generation is a mystery, it is nevertheless true that it manifests within a Law and order unknown to animals, and that the rights attached to it are the most noble testimony of its grandeur, as well as the source of a person's condemnation and misery. Let us allow our readers to meditate on this point, and let us proceed to a consideration of the second part of social administration - namely, that which watches over the state's outer and inner security. We have observed that this second part, having two objects, also possesses two kinds of Laws for its direction. The first ones, charged with outer security, form the Laws of war and the political rights of nations. But noting the falsity of people's behavior and the custom they have of considering one another as enemies, I cannot place any degree of confidence in the Laws they have created concerning such matters. You will find it easy to agree with me by examining the continual uncertainty we perceive in those statesmen and stateswomen who meander about in their attempt to seek among human things a basis for their establishments. By recognizing only force and convention as the principle of government; by tending to ignore their sole point of support; by desiring to open the door and yet persisting in their refusal to make use of the only key with which they could succeed, the search of these statesmen and stateswomen remains absolutely fruitless. That is why I shall not add to what I have already stated upon this subject. Therefore, I shall only direct my observations to the second kind of Laws, or those which concern the inner security of the state - namely, that aspect of administration concerning the police and criminal Laws. I have even combined these two branches into a single category because, despite the difference in the subjects they embrace, they each have for their aim the maintenance of order and the reparation for crimes, since both have the same origin and are derived from the right to punish. In the examination that I am about to undertake, my design will always remain the same as that followed throughout the course of this work. I shall continue in my attempt to ascertain in every subject whether or not things are in conformity with their Principle. In this way each person may come to his own conclusions and learn on his own rather than through my own judgments. I shall, at this point, examine in whose hand the right to punish must primarily reside, and then in what way the person who is invested with such power should legitimately proceed. Without such clarifications it would be extremely rash to take up the sword since it could fall upon the innocent as well as the guilty. Even in the event that this harmful consequence could be avoided, with the blows falling only upon the criminals, there would still remain the uncertainty of whether the one who has directed the blow has the right to do so. It there exists a superior Principle, unique and universally good, as all my efforts have tended to establish up to now, and if, as I have also demonstrated, there exists an evil Principle which ceaselessly works to oppose the action of the good Principle, then it seems inevitable that crimes have taken place within this intellectual class. Since Justice is one of the essential attributes of this good Principle, crime cannot tolerate its presence for a single instant, and the penalty thereof is just as prompt as it is indispensable. The absolute necessity to punish is what is proved by this good Principle. Humanity, in its primary origin, physically experienced this truth and was solemnly invested with the right to punish. This is what constituted humanity's resemblance to its Principle. It is also by virtue of this resemblance that its Justice was exact and certain. Humankind's rights were real, enlightened, and would never have been altered had they been willing to preserve them. At that time, I assert, they truly possessed the right of life and death over the wrongdoers in their realm. However, let us keep in mind that it was not upon others that a person could have exercised it, because in the realm she then inhabited, one could not be subject to another among similar Beings. When, after degenerating from their glorious estate, humankind had fallen into the state of nature, from which results the state of society, and before long, that of corruption, they found themselves in a new order of things in which they had to fear and punish new crimes. However, no person in their present state can exercise just authority over others without having, through their own efforts, recovered the faculties they had lost. Likewise, whatever this authority may be, it can never uncover within them the right to physically punish others, nor the right of life and death over people. Even during their glorious state, people did not have the right of life and corporeal death over their subjects. For such a situation to prevail, it would have been necessary that through a person's fall his realm be extended and new subjects be acquired. But, far from having augmented their number we perceive that, on the contrary, he lost the authority he once had over his former subjects. We even perceive that the only kind of superiority that he could acquire over others would be that of placing them back on the right path when they go astray. He may even stop them when they give themselves over to crime, or rather uplift them by bringing them, through his example and virtue, nearer to that state, whose enjoyment they no longer possess. But he cannot demonstrate that kind of superiority which enables him, on his own, to exercise over them a rule that their own nature disavows. It would therefore be in vain that we would search today within humankind for the titles of a legislator and a judge. However, according to the Laws of truth, nothing must remain unpunished, and it is inevitable that Justice universally follows its course with the greatest exactitude in both the sensate and intellectual states. Rather than acquiring new rights, a person has, by her fall, allowed herself to be deprived of those rights which she once possessed. Thus it is absolutely necessary for her to find elsewhere instead of within herself those rights which are necessary so as to direct herself in that social state to which she is bound at present. And where could we better discover these rights than in this same physical and temporal Cause which has taken the place of humankind by order of the primary Principle? Has not this cause been placed, in effect, in the position that humanity lost through its own fault? Has not the aim and the employment of this aim been to prevent the enemy from remaining master of the realm from which humankind had been expelled? In a word, is it not that which is charged with serving as a beacon for humanity and for the enlightenment of all its steps? Therefore, the work which a person previously had to perform, as well as that which he has imposed upon himself by having come to inhabit a place which had not been created for him, must today be operated solely through this cause. This alone is what can explain and justify the course of humankind's criminal Laws. The society in which a person exists of necessity, and to which she is destined, engenders crimes. She does not possess within herself either the right or the strength to stop them. It is therefore quite necessary that some other cause do it for her, because the rights of Justice are irrevocable. However, since this cause is above sensate things, although it directs and presides over them, and since the punishments of a person in society need to occur in the sensate as do his crimes, it is necessary that it employ sensate means to manifest its decisions and to cause the execution of its judgments. It employs the voice of a person for this function, but only when he has rendered himself worthy of it. It is people who are charged with proclaiming Justice to other people and with making them observe it. Thus, far from being through his essence the depository of the sword, the avenger of crime, a person's very functions announce that the right to punish resides in a hand other than his own and of which he must merely be the organ. We can also perceive what infinite advantages would result for the judge who obtained the right to be truly the organ of this universal, temporal, intelligent Cause. She would find in it a steady light that would enable her to discern the innocent from the guilty without error. She would thereby be protected from committing any injustice; she would be certain to have the punishment fit the offense; and she would endeavor to repair the outcomes of other people so as to not burden herself with crimes. Nonetheless, a person's inestimable advantage, however unknown it is among people in general, offers nothing that would astonish or surpass any of those which I have up to this moment shown people to be capable. They all proceed from the faculties of this active and intelligent Cause destined to establish order in the Universe among all Beings of two natures. And if, by its means, a person can assure himself of the necessity and truth of his religion, and if he can acquire incontestable rights which will elevate and legitimately establish him above other people, doubtlessly he can hope for the same assistance in the sure administration of civil or criminal Justice in the society entrusted to his care. Moreover, everything that I have proposed is represented and indicated by what is commonly observed in criminal Justice. Is not the judge supposed to forget herself so as to become the simple agent and organ of the Law? Even though it is human, is not this Law sacred for him? Does she not make use of all the means at her command so as to enlighten her conduct and judgments, and to fit the punishment to the crime as much as the Law allows? However, is it not more often the Law itself that is the measure thereof, and when the judge observes it, does he not persuade herself that she has acted according to Justice? Therefore, it would be people themselves who would make known to us the reality of this Principle if we did not have the most intimate conviction of it otherwise. At the same time, it appears even more evident to us that the criminal Justice in use among nations is, in effect, only the appearance of what belongs to the aforementioned Principle. By not employing it as a basis of support, such Justice proceeds in the shadows much like all other human institutions, and from whose effects issue a frightening chain of iniquities and veritable assassinations. Indeed, this injunction imposed upon the judge to forget himself and his testimony so as to listen only to the voice of the witnesses, rightly proclaims that there are witnesses who do not lie and whose evidence must direct him. But since witnesses are susceptible to corruption, it is most obvious that the Law is wrong in seeking them only among people from whom it can anticipate ignorance and bad faith, because it then exposes itself to the acceptance of falsehood as proof. It thus renders itself altogether inexcusable, since it is only in the presence of a sure and true witness that a judge will forget himself and transform himself into a simple instrument. Finally, the false Law upon which he believes he can support himself will never assume responsibility for either his errors or crimes. This is why, in the judge's own eyes, the most important of her duties is attempting to determine the truth within the evidence of the witnesses. But how can she succeed in this without the help of that light which I indicate as being her sole guide as a person and which must accompany her at all times? Therefore, is it not an atrocious vice in criminal Laws not to have had this light for their principle, and does not this fault expose the judge to the greatest abuse? But let us examine the abuse which will result from the very power that human Law attributes to itself. When people state that political Law assumes responsibility for punishing individuals to whom it then denies the right of seeking redress through their own means, it is certain that they have thus given privileges to this Law that will never be suitable to it as long as it is left to its own devices for direction. Nevertheless, I agree that this political Law, which can in some fashion control the force of its blows, offers a kind of advantage in that its vengeance will not always be unlimited as that of individuals might be. Nonetheless, it can be mistaken as to who is guilty, whereas a person will not err as easily regarding his own adversary. Moreover, if this particular vengeance, however admissible it might be in a case in which a person would only be endowed with a sensate nature, is still entirely foreign to his intellectual nature - and if this intellectual nature not only has never possessed the right to punish physically, but is even presently deprived of any sort of authority and cannot in any way exercise Justice - it is most certain that until it has recovered its original state, the political Law which is not guided by another light will commit the same injustices under another name. According to the Laws of all Justice, if a person does me harm in any manner whatsoever, she is guilty. If on my own authority I strike her, or shed her blood, or kill her, I am just as much remiss as she is in the Laws of my true nature and in those of the intelligent and physical Cause that should guide me. Thus, when political Law, on its own volition, takes my place for the punishment of my enemy, it takes the place of a sanguinary person. In vain would one now protest to me that through social convention, every citizen has subjected themselves in the case of prevarication to the penalties provided by the different criminal Laws. As we have observed, people have been unable to establish political bodies legitimately by the sole effect of their convention, and so a citizen cannot transmit to his fellow citizens the right to punish him in that his true nature has not given it to him and because the contract he is supposed to have entered into with them cannot extend the essence which constitutes a person. Can it be said that this act of political vengeance is no longer considered to be operated by a person, but by Law? I shall always answer that this political Law, deprived of its flambeau, is nothing other than mere human will to which even unanimous approval does not give one additional power. Henceforth, if it is a crime for a person to act through violence and by her own volition, if it is a crime for her to shed blood, the united will of all people on Earth could never efface it. To avoid this danger, statesmen and stateswomen have believed they could do no better than to consider a criminal as a traitor and, as such, to be the enemy of the social body. By placing him, so to speak, in an assumed state of war, his death appears to them to be legitimate. According to them the political bodies are formed, as they are, in the image of a person, so they must likewise watch over their own preservation. In accordance with such principles, sovereign authority has the right to mass all its forces against the wrongdoer who menaces the state, whether in itself or in its members. We can easily perceive the flaw of this comparison by observing that in one-on-one combat, it is truly people who are fighting. On the contrary, in a war between nations one cannot state that the governments are the combatants, since they are but moral Beings of which the physical action is imaginary. Also, besides having shown that war between nations does not occupy itself with its true object, I have shown that its very aim is not to destroy people, but much rather to prevent them from doing harm. Never should an enemy be killed except when it is impossible to subdue them, and among warriors, it will always be more glorious to vanquish a nation than to annihilate it. Certainly, the advantage of an entire kingdom against a single culprit is sufficiently obvious so that the right and the glory of killing them disappears. Moreover, something which proves that this pretended right does not resemble in any way the right of war is that in the latter situation, the life of each soldier is in danger and the death of each enemy is uncertain. However, in the previous situation, an iniquitous display accompanies the executions. One hundred people arm themselves, assemble, and proceed in cold blood to exterminate one of their fellow humans who is not even permitted to use their own forces. Yet one contends that this simple human power is legitimate, a power which can be deceived every day, a power which so often pronounces unjust sentences - in short, a power which a corrupted will can turn into an instrument of murder. No, a person undoubtedly has within herself other rules. If she sometimes serves as the organ of superior Law to pronounce its judgments and to dispose of the lives of people, it is by a right which is worthy of her respect and which can teach her at the same time to direct her course in dispensing justice and equity. Should one wish to judge even more thoroughly the incompetence of contemporary humankind, it is only necessary to reflect upon its ancient rights. During humanity's glory, a person fully exercised the right to life and incorporeal death, because being then in possession of life itself, he could either communicate it to his subjects or take it away from them at will, whenever prudence caused him to judge it necessary. And since it was only through his presence that these subjects could exist, he also possessed the power to cause their death simply by separating himself from them. Today, it is only through momentary flashes that he experiences this primary life, and even then, it is no longer in relation to his former subjects but in relation to his fellow men that he succeeds in making use of it. As for this right of life and corporeal death which is the object of the present matter, we can affirm that it belongs even less to people, considered on their own and viewed in their present state. Can a person in fact consider herself to be the possessor and dispenser of her own corporeal life which is bestowed upon her and which she shares with all of her species? Do her fellow humans have need of her help to breathe and live corporeally? Shall her will and even all her forces suffice to conserve their existence? Is she not obliged at every moment to witness the Law of nature cruelly acting upon them without her being able to stop its course? Likewise, does a person possess within himself an inherent power and force which generally can deprive them of life according to his desire? When his corrupt will inclines him to think thus, imagine if you will what distance there is between this thought and the crime which must follow it! What obstacles, what trepidation between the project and the execution! And does not one perceive that the care he takes to prepare his attacks seldom agrees fully with his view? We shall therefore state with truth that by the simple Laws of his corporeal Being, a person must encounter resistance everywhere, thus proving that this corporeal Being does not give him any right whatsoever. And in fact, have we not sufficiently observed that the corporeal Being possessed only a secondary life, which was dependent upon another Principle? Consequently, is it not evident that any Being that would possess nothing more than this would be dependent as well and would henceforth exhibit the same lack of power? I repeat, therefore, it would not be within a corporeal person, when considered by herself, that we could recognize this essential right of life and death which verifies a true authority. All of this will only serve to confirm what has been determined regarding the fountainhead where, today, a person must seek the same right. It is even less true that within people we shall find the right of execution. If a person did not employ violence and foreign forces, it would be seldom that he could succeed in causing the death of a criminal unless he had recourse to treason or some ruse, and those methods would be very far removed from proclaiming a true power within people. The execution of criminal Laws is absolutely necessary so that Justice is not rendered useless. I contend, moreover, that it is inevitable. Since this right cannot belong to us, it is necessary that it be returned, along with the right to judge, to that hand which must serve as our guide. This hand will give a true strength to the natural weapon of a person, and which will place her in a position to bring about the execution of the decrees of Justice without attracting condemnation upon herself. Such, at least, are the means that true legislators have put into effect, although they make them known to us solely through symbols and allegories. Perhaps they have employed the hand of other people in making the punishment of criminals seemingly operative so as to impress the gross eyes of the peoples they govern by perceptible figures and to cover with a veil the secret powers which directed the execution. I speak with even more assurance since we have seen these legislators make use of the same veil in the simple exhibition of their civil and social Laws. Although these were the work of a sure and superior hand, they have limited themselves to speaking only to the senses so as to avoid profaning their knowledge. But, regarding their criminal Laws, they have painted the lifelike scene with such extreme severity to make the peoples under their rule feel all the rigor of true Justice and to make them realize that the slightest action contrary to the Law will not go unpunished. It is with this end in view that some of them have even imposed punishments upon animals. All of these observations teach us once again that a person cannot find within himself either the right to condemn other people or to carry out his condemnation. But, were this right to be truly part of the essence of the men who govern or are employed in the maintenance of criminal Justice within governments, as they are all so convinced, a much more difficult question would always need to be decided upon-namely, ascertaining how they would find a trustworthy rule for the direction of their judgments and for the application of the penalties in a just manner by fitting them exactly to the degree and nature of the crime. In all of these things criminal Justice is blind, uncertain, and almost never has for its guide more than the precedent in force at the moment and the legislator's talent or will. Certain governments have had the honesty to sense and admit their profound ignorance, and they have solicited the counsel of people enlightened upon such matters. I praise their zeal for having assumed the responsibility of undertaking such steps. Yet I feel no hesitancy in assuring them that they will hope in vain to obtain satisfactory enlightenment so long as they try to find it in a person's opinion and intelligence, and they themselves will have neither the courage nor the resolution to seek for enlightenment at its true source. In fact, the most celebrated of statesmen and stateswomen and jurists have not yet thrown any light upon this problem. They have accepted governments as they are, and they have admitted, as has the average person, that the basis of government is real and that the knowledge and the right to punish exists within people. They have then exhausted themselves in seeking to build a solid edifice upon this foundation. But, as we can no longer doubt that they are building only upon some supposition, it is clear that the governments which desire to learn must address themselves to other masters. Therefore, I will not decide upon the nature of the punishments to be meted out for individual crimes. On the contrary, I contend that it is impossible for a person to ever decree anything absolutely fixed regarding this matter, because, since no two crimes are exactly alike, if the identical penalty is pronounced upon each one, then some injustice will surely result. Simple logic must at least teach people to search for the punishment of the guilty solely in the object and order that have been outraged. They should not be selected from some other category which, having no bearing upon the subject of the offense, will in turn cause harm without the offense having been repaired. Human Justice is thus so weak and horribly defective that its power is at times nil, as in suicide and in concealed crimes. At times this power acts only to violate the analogy which should constantly guide it, as happens in all physical punishments which are pronounced for crimes that do not attack persons and involve only possessions. Even when it appears to be observing this analogy to a considerable extent and it seems to maintain a kind of wisdom in this regard, this human Justice is still infinitely flawed in that there exists a tiny number of penalties to be inflicted in each category, whereas in each one of these categories the crimes are innumerable and always different. This is also why written criminal Laws are one of the greatest vices of the states, in that they are dead Laws which remain always the same whereas crime is constantly increasing and renewing itself. The talion has been almost entirely banished from criminal Laws as all of its clauses can hardly ever be humanely fulfilled, either because they are not always aware of all the circumstances of the crimes, or, even if they were to know them, they are not prolific enough in themselves to always bring forth the true remedy for such a multiplication of evil. What then are such criminal codes if we do not find in them this talion which is the sole penal Law that is just and the only one that could surely regulate the progress of humankind - and which, consequently, does not emanate from people but is necessarily the work of a powerful hand, whose intelligence knows how to measure the penalties and extend or diminish them according to need? I shall not stop to consider that barbarous custom by which nations are not simply content to condemn a person blindly, but even impose torture upon them so as to extort the truth. Nothing more proclaims the weakness and darkness in which the legislator languishes, because, if she enjoyed her true rights, she would have no need for such false and cruel methods in serving as guides to her judgment. In a word, that same light which would authorize her to pass judgment upon other people causes her to execute this condemnation and instructs her in the nature of the penalties she must inflict, leaving her neither in error concerning the nature of the crimes nor concerning the names of the guilty and their accomplices. But what clearly discloses to us the impotence and blindness of legislators is the perception that they only inflict capital punishment upon crimes concerning the sensate and temporal, whereas everyday a multitude of crimes involving much more important matters are committed around them, all escaping their view. I am speaking of those monstrous ideas which reduce a person to the status of a material Being; of those corrupted and hopeless doctrines which remove from him even the sentiment of order and happiness - in short, of those foul systems which, in carrying putrefaction to his own seed, smother it or render it absolutely pestilential and cause the sovereign to have only vile machines or crooks to rule over. We have given enough consideration to the defectiveness of administration. Let us now limit ourselves to reminding those people who command and those who judge of the injustices to which they expose themselves when they act without certainty and without being assured of the legitimacy of their course. The first drawback is that of running the risk of condemning the innocent. The evils resulting from this are of such a nature as can never be evaluated by a person. They depend to a great extent upon a relatively considerable wrong which the condemned must experience regarding the fruits she might have reaped from her intellectual faculties had she remained a longer time upon Earth and to the discouraging impression that must be made upon her by an infamous, cruel, and unexpected physical punishment. How could the judge ever estimate the extent of all these ills if she did not someday acquire the bitter feeling of her own imprudence and mistakes? And yet, how could she satisfy justice if the condemned did not experience some rigorous expiation? The second drawback 1s that of inflicting a penalty upon a criminal which is not applicable to his crime. Here is the chain of evil that the imprudent judge prepares in this case, be it for his victim or for himself. First of all, the physical punishment to which the judge condemns the victim does not in any way compensate for that which true Justice has specified for them and only serves to render it more certain. Without such hasty condemnation, true Justice would perhaps allow sufficient time for the guilty party to expiate her crime through remorse and, rigorous as true Justice is, it would reduce her debt to the experience of a state of repentance. Secondly, if the blind and thoughtless judgment of a person removes from the criminal the time necessary for repentance, the atrocity of the execution removes from him the strength to repent and exposes him to lose in despair a precious life, whereas a more just use and sacrifice made at the proper time may have effaced all of his crimes. It thus forces him to incur two penalties rather than one. Far from expiating anything, these penalties can, on the contrary, cause a person to multiply his iniquities and thereby render the second penalty more inevitable. Thus, whenever the judge is willing to scrutinize herself closely, she cannot avoid imputing to herself the first of these penalties, which differs from murder only in its form. She will also be obliged to impute to herself all the disastrous consequences which we have just perceived arising from her temerity and injustice. Let her then reflect upon her situation and determine if she can be at peace with herself. Let us depart from these scenes of horror and instead employ our efforts in recalling to the minds of the sovereigns and judges the knowledge of their true Law and their reliance on that light destined to be the flambeau of humankind. Let us persuade them that if they were pure they would cause criminals to tremble more by their presence and title than by the gallows and the scaffold. Let us persuade them that this would be the only method for dissipating all those shadows that we have discovered clouding the origin of their sovereignty, the cause of the association of political states, and the laws of the civil and criminal administration of their governments. Finally, let us encourage them to cast their eyes continually upon the Principle which we have offered them as the only compass for their conduct and the sole measure of their powers. To augment the idea that the sovereigns must assume, let us at this time point out to them that this same Principle from which they should expect so much assistance could also communicate to them the powerful gift I have previously numbered among their privileges, which is that of curing disease. If this universal temporal Cause, charged with the direction of humanity and all Beings existing in the temporal, is at once active and intelligent, then surely there is no aspect of science and knowledge that it does not embrace. This indicates to an adequate degree what the person who would be directed by it should expect. Thus it would not be in error to state that a sovereign who acknowledges this light as his guide would know the true Principles of bodies - namely, those three fundamental elements which we discussed at the beginning of this work. He would distinguish in what proportion their action manifests in different bodies according to age, sex, climate, and other natural properties of each of these elements, as well as the relationship that must always reign between them. At any moment this relationship could be disturbed or destroyed when the elementary Principles try to surmount one another or separate, but he would perceive the method for reestablishing order promptly and without error. This is why Medicine must reduce itself to this simple, unique, and consequently universal rule: that of bringing together what has become divided and dividing what has become joined. But, is there any disorder or any profanation to which this rule, taken from the very nature of things, is not exposed when passing through the hands of people? The least degree of difference in the means they employ and in the action of the remedies produces effects so contrary to those they should expect, in that the admixture of those fundamental Principles, which are reduced to three in number, nevertheless changes and multiplies in so many ways that ordinary eyes could never follow all their variations. Finally, in these sorts of combinations, the same Principle often acquires different properties according to the type of reaction it experiences. Although we recognize fire to be as universally prevalent as the other two elements, we know, nonetheless, that interior fire creates, superior fire fecundates, and inferior fire consumes. We can say as much regarding salts: interior salt excites fermentation, superior salt conserves, and inferior salt corrodes. As for mercury, its general property is that of occupying an intermediary position between the two opposing Principles just mentioned. By this means it establishes peace between them by bringing them together through a thousand circumstances. However, by enclosing them in the same circle, it becomes the source of the greatest elementary disorder and at the same time offers the image of universal disorder. What cares and precautions must therefore be taken to determine the nature and effects of these different principles which, by their admixture, become even more diversified than through their natural properties? Yet, despite this infinite multitude of differences that can be observed in the revolutions of corporeal Beings, an enlightened eye, which should be possessed by a sovereign, will never lose sight of her rule. She will always classify such differences within the three types by means of the three fundamental principles from which they emanate. Consequently, she will recognize merely three maladies, and she will even know that these three maladies must possess signs as marked and distinctive as the three fundamental principles are themselves marked and distinctive in their action and in their primitive property. Of these three types of maladies, each concern one of the principal substances of which animal bodies are composed - namely, blood, bone, and flesh - three parts which are related to one of the three elements from which they originate. Their cure is obtained through their corresponding elements. Thus, with suitable preparations and temperaments, flesh is cured by salt, blood by sulfur, and bones by mercury. It is known, for example, that the diseases of the flesh and the skin originate from the thickening and the corruption of saline secretions in the capillary vessels where they can be fixed by too strong or too sudden an action of the air as well as too feeble an action of the blood. It is therefore natural to place in opposition to these stagnant and corrupted liquids a salt which divides them without repercussion, corroding and consuming them in their center without permitting them entry into the mass of the blood to which they would communicate their own putrefaction. Although this salt is the most common of those produced by Nature, it must be admitted nonetheless that it is, so to speak, still unknown to human medicine. This is why medicine is so little advanced in the cure of such maladies. Regarding the second classification - the diseases of the bone - mercury must be employed with extreme moderation because its action upon the two other principles sustaining the life of all bodies, joins and compresses them to too great a degree. It is through the restrictions which it manifests primarily upon sulfur that it becomes the destroyer of all vegetation, terrestrial as well as animal. Prudence, therefore, often requires that the mercury innate within a person's body simply be allowed to perform its natural action as the action of such mercury harmonizes with the action of blood. It does not become stronger than blood and it contains enough so that it does not weaken and evaporate, but not so much as to stifle and smother. Thus, Nature provides us regarding this subject the most clear and instructive lessons by repairing bone fractures through its own virtue and without the help of any foreign mercury. Concerning diseases of the blood, sulfur must be employed with infinitely more caution, because bodies, being much more volatile than fixed, would be exposed to even more volatile action when augmenting their sulfurous and igneous action. Therefore, the truly enlightened person will never apply this remedy except with the greatest moderation, inasmuch as he knows that when the radical humid element is altered, the gross humid element can never repair it on its own. This is why he will join it to the radical humid element itself by obtaining it from the source, which is not found entirely in the marrow of bones. Let us mention in passing that this is the reason for the frequent inadequacy and danger of pharmacy, which, in searching with so much diligence for the volatile principle of medicinal bodies, neglects far too much the usage of fixed principles, the need of which is so universal that if a person were wise they would be exclusively employed. Furthermore, who is not aware that this pharmaceutical art destroys rather than conserves, that it agitates and burns rather than restores, and that when, on the contrary, its purpose is to calm, the only way it knows how to proceed is through the use of absorbents and poisons? We can therefore perceive what would be the extent of medicine in the hands of a person who would reestablish herself in the rights of her origin. She would give salutary activity to all remedies and thereby render all cures infallible, and thus the active Cause of which she is the instrument would not have the ability to act otherwise. She would most certainly refrain from employing in this worthy and useful science the material calculations of human mathematics, which, never operating except through results that are negative or dangerous in medicine, have the objective of operating upon the very principles which manifest within bodies. For this very reason, a person would not restrict himself to formulae which, in the art of healing, represent the same thing as criminal codes do in the administration of states, since among all illnesses, there have never existed two diseases which present absolutely the same gradations, and thus it is possible that a given remedy would harm one or both. But, in the role of sovereign, a person would know the virtues of corporeal Beings. She would know of their disorders and from then on, she would be protected from committing any error regarding the application of the remedy. Therefore, let us not forget that in order to arrive at this point, a person must not mistake matter for the Principle of matter, because we have seen that this error has been the chief cause of her ignorance. Nor should we believe that this inestimable power is beyond a person's reach. On the contrary, it is numbered among the Laws that are given to him for the task he needs to accomplish during his sojourn upon Earth, because, if attacks are directed upon him through his corporeal envelope, he must not be entirely deprived of the means of sensing and repulsing them. Since the use of this privilege can be common to all people, it should, for even stronger reasons, belong in particular to sovereigns whose true aim is to preserve their subjects, as much as possible, from all sorts of evil and to defend them in both the sensate and the intellectual. If this privilege is not known to them any better than all their other rights, it will be one more reason for them to sense whether or not they have been placed in charge of people by that Principle, the power of which I have indicated to them and which is absolutely necessary for the regularity of all their undertakings. This is, I repeat, one more method that I offer them for judging themselves. Therefore, let them combine the observations I have just made regarding the art of healing to those I have made about the vices of the political, civil, and criminal administration of states; regarding the vices of the governments themselves, which have unveiled to us those of their associations; and regarding the source from which leaders must derive their different rights. Then let them decide if they recognize within themselves traces of this light which is supposed to have constituted them all and not leave them for an instant, because it is only in this way that they will be assured of the legitimacy of their power and of the justness of the institutions over which they preside. Nevertheless, let us now repeat with equal firmness and frankness that any subject who perceives all these defects within a state, and who, perceiving the sovereigns themselves to be so far below what they should be, believes herself to be freed from the least of her duties toward them and from any submission to their decrees, she would thenceforth deviate tangibly from her Law and would directly proceed against all the principles that we are establishing. Instead, let every person persuade himself that Justice will never attribute to him any but his own faults. Thus, a subject would only augment the disorders by pretending to oppose and combat them, since this would be proceeding through the will of humankind, and the will of humankind only leads to crime. Therefore, I believe that regardless of any application the sovereigns might make to themselves of everything I trace before their eyes, they can never accuse me of having established principles contrary to their authority. Rather, my sole desire is to persuade them of the existence of one invincible and unshakable authority which can be theirs. In following the chain of our observations, we will now tum our attention to the examination of those errors which have been made regarding the higher sciences, because the principles of these sciences pertain to the same source as that of political and religious Laws. Knowledge of them must thus be numbered as well among the rights of people.\n\n## Chapter 6 - Mathematical Principles\n\nNow I shall primarily examine mathematical science, which is connected to all the higher sciences and thus holds first rank among the objects of humankind's reasoning or intellectual faculty. First of all, let me reassure those who might pause at the mention of the word mathematics by informing them that it is unnecessary to be advanced in this science to follow my observations. In fact, there is hardly even any need to have the slightest notion of it, and the method I use in discussing this subject will be suitable to all of my readers. This science will undoubtedly offer us even more striking proofs of the Principles that have been previously advanced, as well as the errors that it has occasioned whenever people have blindly delivered themselves over to the judgments of their senses. This must seem natural because mathematical Principles, although not material, are nevertheless the true Law of the sensate. In their own way geometricians are always the true masters of reasoning upon the nature of such Principles, but as for the application of the ideas they have formed of it, they must necessarily acknowledge their errors. In this instance they no longer direct the Principle, but the Principle directs them. Thus, in order to discern the true from the false it is most fitting that we conduct a careful examination of the course they have followed and the consequences that would result from this were we to follow in their footsteps. I shall begin by pointing out that nothing can be demonstrated in mathematics if it is not traced back to an axiom, as this alone constitutes what is true. At the same time, I shall beg my readers to notice the reason why axioms are true. It is because they are independent of the sensate or the material and because they are purely intellectual. This will confirm everything I have said regarding the course that must be followed in arriving at the truth and at the same time reassure observers about a matter which is not subject to their physical sight. Therefore, it is clear that if geometricians had not lost sight of such axioms, they would never have erred in their reasoning, because axioms are connected to the very essence of the intellectual Principle and are therefore based upon the most obvious certainty. Corporeal and sensate production that has been accomplished in accordance with such intellectual Laws, taken within its own class, is undoubtedly perfectly regular, inasmuch as it conforms exactly to the order of this intellectual Principle or to the axioms which everywhere direct its existence and execution. However, as the perfection of such corporeal production is simply dependent on or relative to the Principle engendering it, its rule and source cannot reside in this production. Therefore, we can judge its regularity only by continually comparing this sensate production with the axioms or the Laws of the intellectual Principle. Let me repeat, it is through this method that we can succeed in demonstrating its justness. However, if this is the only rule that is true and if at the same time it is purely intellectual, how then can men hope to supplant it by a rule taken from the sensate? How can they expect to replace a true Being with a conventional and suppositional Being? Nonetheless, it cannot be doubted that the efforts of geometricians are trending in this direction. We shall see that after having established the axioms which are the foundations of all the truths they would have us learn, the only means they propose for teaching us how to evaluate areas are either by a measure taken in this same area or by some arbitrary numbers which in themselves always have need of a perceptible measure so as to be realized by our corporeal eyes. Must we then be satisfied with such a demonstration and consider such proofs as evidence? Since measure always resides within the Principle where the birth of the sensate production occurs, could this sensate and passive production serve as a measure and proof to itself? And are there any Beings other than those which are not created - that is, true Beings - which could prove themselves on their own? Far from contesting the evidence of intellectual mathematical Principles or that of axioms, we must already acknowledge the feeble idea that geometricians have adopted and the slight usage they have made of it so as to achieve the science of the area and other properties of matter. We must state that if they know nothing regarding this subject, it is because they have fallen into the same error that observers have committed concerning all the other subjects I have considered. In other words, they have separated the area from its true Principle, or rather, they have confounded it with its Principle and have not perceived that they are two distinct manifestations although indispensably united for the purpose of constituting the existence of matter. To make this even more palpable, we need to direct our attention to the nature of the area. The area, as is true of all other properties of bodies, is a production of the generative Principle of matter in accordance with the Laws and order which are prescribed to this inferior Principle by the superior Principle directing it. In this sense, as the area is considered only a secondary production, it cannot possess the same advantages enjoyed by the Beings included in the class of primary productions. These possess their fixed Laws within themselves. All their properties are invariable because they are united to their essence. In short, this is where weight, number, and measure are so well regulated that they can be altered no more than Being itself can be destroyed. However, concerning the properties of bodies or of secondary Beings, we have perceived amply enough that this cannot be so. Our senses have absolutely no fixed property, and thus no value can manifest to our eyes except by comparison with Beings of their own class. This being so, the area of bodies is therefore not determined for us with any more certainty than their other properties. Thus, to make known to us the value of this area, one will make use of a measure that is taken from that same area. The measure employed will be subject to the same disadvantage as the object that we wish to measure - in other words, its area cannot be more fully determined, and thus we will still need to search for the measure of this measure. No matter what means we would employ, we shall clearly perceive that we can never discover its true measure within this area, and, consequently, it will always be necessary to have recourse to the Principle which has engendered the area and all the properties of matter. This, therefore, is what completely demonstrates the inadequacy of the course that geometricians have followed when they have pretended to determine the true measure of corporeal Beings. I am aware that they do indeed attach numbers to this palpable and extended measure to which they have recourse. Yet not only are such numbers relative and conventional in themselves, and not only is a person free to vary their relations and to establish such scale as she will deem relevant, but this scale, however useful it may be in measuring all the areas of a single type in general, will definitely not be suitable for measuring the areas of some other type. Thus people still need to discover a universal, fixed, and invariable base to which they can relate all the types of areas, whatever they may be. This is the cause of the difficulty geometricians experience when they attempt to measure curves, because, having been intended for a straight line, the measure they employ only accommodates itself to this sort of line and offers insurmountable difficulties whenever one tries to apply it to a circular line or to any other curve which is derived from it. I state that this measure offers insurmountable difficulties, because, although geometricians have seemingly resolved the matter by stating the circular line to be an assemblage of infinitely small straight lines, they are wrong in their belief, since a false premise can never resolve anything. I cannot avoid regarding this definition as being false, as it is in direct opposition to the idea that Nature and geometricians themselves give us of a circumference, which is nothing more than a line in which all points are equidistant from a common center. I do not even understand how geometricians can reasonably depend upon two propositions so contrary. After all, if a circumference is simply an assemblage of straight lines - albeit infinitely small - the points of this circumference can never be equally equidistant from the center since such straight lines are themselves composed of several points, including those of the extremities and the intermediate points, which certainly will not be equidistant from the center. Thus, the center will no longer be common to them and, consequently, the circumference will no longer be a circumference. All of this, therefore, is attempting to unite contraries. It is endeavoring to make two things which are ofa very opposed nature to have an identical nature. It is, I repeat, attempting to apply the same number to two different kinds of Beings, which being different from one another must undoubtedly be calculated differently. We must admit therefore that this is where people demonstrate to us most clearly their natural penchant to confound everything and to perceive in Beings of different classes only a misleading uniformity by means of which they strive to compare things that are diametrically opposed. It is impossible to conceive of things that are more opposed, more contrary to one another in a word, more contradictory than a straight line and a circular line. Apart from the moral proofs found either in the relationship of the straight line with the regularity and perfection of unity, or in those of the circular line with the impotency and confusion connected to the multiplicity of which the circular line is the image, I can in addition advance reasons much more convincing, because they encompass intellectual principles, the only principles that can be admitted as being real and constituting the Law in the research of the nature of things-the only ones I repeat, which are as immovable as axioms. I shall warn nevertheless that these truths will not be intelligible to the majority of people and even much less to those who, up till now, have proceeded only according to the false principles which I combat. Therefore, the first step that needs be taken in understanding me would be that of studying things within their very source, and not in the notions given to them by imagination and precipitous judgments. But I know the degree to which people are capable of having such courage, and were I to assume that a large number possessed this courage I would also assume that few of them would attain full success, as this science has been so infected with error and poison. I have set forth the belief that everything in Nature has its number, and that this is the way by which all Beings of whatever nature are easy to distinguish from one another. Furthermore, all of their properties are simply the results conforming to the Laws enclosed within their number. Thus, as I have already indicated, it is certain that the straight line and the circular line are of a different nature, each having its particular number which designates its distinctive nature and serves to prevent us from making them equal in our thoughts by indiscriminately taking one for the other. If you will simply reflect for a moment upon the functions and properties of these two types of lines, you will surely be convinced of the truth of what I have just stated. What is the object of the straight line? Is it not to perpetuate ad infinitum the productions of the point from which it emanates? Is it not, when considered as perpendicular, to regulate the base and position of all Beings and to ascribe to each their own Laws? Does not the circular line, on the contrary, limit the productions of the straight line at all its points? Consequently, does it not tend to destroy the straight line continually, and can it not be considered, in its own way, as its enemy? How could two things so opposed in their course and which possess such different properties not be distinguished in number as they are in action? If this important observation had been made sooner, all those who occupy themselves in the science of mathematics would have been spared endless labor and difficulties, as it would have forestalled their search regarding a common measure for two types of lines which will never have anything in common between them. Therefore, after having recognized this essential difference which distinguishes them in their form, usage, and properties, I will not hesitate to affirm that their numbers differ. If I were pressed to explain myself more clearly and to indicate what number I would attribute to each of these lines in particular, I would readily acknowledge that the straight line bears the number four and the circular line the number nine. I will also be so bold as to state that there is no other way of knowing them, because, whether large or small, the extent of these lines will not in any way change the number that I attribute to them in particular. Each of them, in its own class, always preserves the same number regardless of whatever extent is given to it. Let me reiterate that this may not be very well understood, as matter has attained such importance in the intelligence of humanity. Despite the clarity of my proposition, some people may falsely infer from it that a long and a short line, having according to my statement the same number, must consequently be equal. But, to forestall this paradox, let me add that both long lines and short lines are simply the result of their own Laws and numbers. Although either one always has in its own class the same Law and number, this Law and number always operate differently in each onethat is, with greater or lesser force, activity, and duration. From this we perceive that the result proceeding from it must express to our eyes all of these perceptible differences, although the Principles varying such action are themselves invariable. Only this can explain the universal difference between all Beings of two natures, whether they are among those which in either nature occupy different classes or whether they are among those which belong to the same class and species. This makes comprehensible the fact that all individuals of the same class are different, although having the same origin and being subject to the same Law and number. This also causes the annihilation of the arbitrary and conventional numbers employed by geometricians in their measurements, and truly the disadvantages involved in this measurement allow us to perceive its defects clearly. Endeavoring to select the measure of the area within the area itself exposes us to the obligation of truncating this measure or lengthening it whenever the area upon which it has been based happens to receive any variations. As these variations do not always occur exactly according to multiples or submultiples of the given measure, and as they can fall upon parts of numbers which are not integers in relation to the primary number, it must necessarily follow that the given measure undergoes similar mutilation. Finally, we must also acknowledge what the calculators call fractions of unit, as though it were ever possible for a simple Being or a unit to be divided. If mathematicians had accepted this last consideration they would have adopted a more accurate idea of the clever calculation they have invented namely, that of infinity. They would have seen that they could never discover the infinitely large in matter, which is limited to three elements, but would instead have discovered it within the numbers which are the powers of all that exists and which truly have no limit, either in our thought or in their essence. They would have recognized, on the contrary, that they could not discover the calculation of the infinitely small except in matter, of which the endless division of molecules is thought to be always possible, although our senses cannot always realize it, but they have never searched for this sort of infinity in numbers, since the unit, being indivisible, is the primary manifestation of Being and does not admit of any number higher than itself. Nothing, therefore, is less similar to the true Principle than this conventional measure which people have established for themselves in their geometrical processes, and consequently, nothing is less apt to advance them in the knowledge which is absolutely necessary to them. I am aware that the assistance of such a measure is of the greatest importance in the material details involving the relations of a person's social and physical life. Thus, I do not contend that he is at fault in applying it to this usage. All that I would ask of him is not to go so far as to have the imprudence to apply it in his research upon natural truths, since he will only be misled in this category. Even the simplest errors in this realm can induce major consequences; and as all truths are connected, not a single one exists which could be subjected to the slightest deviation without communicating it to all the others. The numbers four and nine, which I proclaim as belonging essentially to the straight line and the curved line respectively, do not possess the disadvantage that has just been noted in the arbitrary method. These numbers remain always intact although their faculty expands or retracts in all the variations of which the area is susceptible. Thus, in the reality of things, there never exists any fraction within a Being, and if we recall what has been previously stated concerning the nature of the Principles of corporeal Beings, we will see that since they are indivisible as simple Beings, the numbers used to represent them and make them perceptible must enjoy the same property. Yet, I will repeat once more, all of this is beyond matter and the sensate, so I do not delude myself in thinking that a great number of people will understand me. That is why I expect a new attempt will be made and I shall be asked to explain how it will be possible to evaluate the different areas of the same order, if I give to all straight lines, without exception, the number four and to all circular and curved lines the number nine. I will be asked, I repeat, at which sign will it be possible to know definitely the various ways in which the same number acts upon unequal areas and what method should be employed to determine with accuracy any area whatsoever. It is useless for me to attempt to find an answer other than that I have already given concerning this subject. Therefore, if a person who asks me this question only desires to know areas for her own material usage and sensory inclinations or needs, | shall say that the conventional and relative measures are sufficient, since in this realm it is possible to carry regularity to the point of rendering the error undetectable to the senses. If our object is to know more than this relative value, which is also a value of approximation, and if we want to discover the real and fixed value of the area - since this value exists according to the action of its number and the number is not matter - it is easy to perceive whether we can find the rule we are searching for within material extension and whether we have been incorrect when stating that the true measure of the area could not be known through the physical senses. If this measure cannot be found within the physical senses, it will not be necessary to reflect at length in determining where it might be, since I have never ceased to indicate the sensate or intellectual is unique in all things. Henceforth we will perceive what geometricians want to teach us and the nature of the errors by which they lull our intelligence by offering it only the measure taken within the sensate and consequently relative, whereas the intelligence conceives that true measures exist and that it is capable of understanding them. At the same time, we will perceive the reappearance of this universal truth constituting the object of this work, namely that only in the Principle of things is it possible to evaluate their properties accurately, and whatever difficulties are encountered in knowing how to read it, undoubtedly if we should choose to reject this Principle regulating and measuring all things, we will no longer discover anything. I must add, nevertheless, that although we can arrive at an accurate evaluation of the measure of the area through the help of this Principle, since this Principle alone directs it, employing it in material combinations would be a real desecration, in that it can help us to discover more important Truths than those which relate only to matter. As I have stated, the senses are sufficient to direct people in sensate matters. We even perceive that Beings of a lower order than humankind have no other Law and that their senses are sufficient for their needs. Thus, for this purely relative subject, the true and just mathematics, in a word, intellectual mathematics, would not only be useless, but would not even be understood. What can be more inconsistent, therefore, than endeavoring to subject and subordinate this invariable and luminous mathematical science to that of the senses which are so limited and obscure; to maintain that this take the place of the other; and finally, to insist that the sensate serve as the rule and guide of the intellectual? What I am doing here, instead, is simply indicating once again the disadvantage to which geometricians have exposed themselves. In attempting to find a sensate measure for the area and presenting it to us as real, they do not perceive that it is as variable as the area itself. Far from directing matter, this measure is itself dependent upon this very matter, as it necessarily follows the course thereof and all the results obtained from the connection. Thus, since the numbers four and nine, which I have acknowledged to be the true measure of the two sorts of possible lines, are entirely free from this subjection, I must not fear any possibility of error in giving them all my confidence and proclaiming them, as I have done, as being the true measure, each in its own class. I will admit that it is painful for me to reveal such truths as I realize they are humiliating for geometricians. Judging from the efforts they make on a daily basis to confound these two measures, I am obliged to state that even the most celebrated among them do not yet know the difference between a straight line and a curved line, as will be subsequently seen in more detail. But the error we have just perceived is not the only one they have made concerning the area. As they have pointed out, not only have they searched for its measure, but they have even searched in it for the source of movement. Never daring to rise above this shadowy matter surrounding them, they have believed they could allocate space and limit to the principle of this movement, so that according to this system, it is no longer possible to conceive of anything manifesting action and movement beyond this limit. If they have not yet acquired a more accurate idea of movement, is it not always through the same error which causes them to confound the most distinct things, and is it not because they search only within the area itself rather than searching within its Principle? By possessing only relative properties or abstractions, it is impossible for this area to offer anything fixed or stable enough for a person's intelligence to depend upon in a satisfactory way. And endeavoring to discover within the area itself the source of its movement is to repeat all of those inadequate attempts which have already been proven wrong, and it is also endeavoring to subordinate the Principle to its production, whereas, according to the natural and true order of things, production has always been inferior to its generative Principle. It is therefore in the immaterial Principle of all Beings, be they intellectual or corporeal, that the source of movement found in each of them essentially resides. It is through the action of this Principle that all of their faculties manifest, according to their class and personal usage - in other words, intellectual faculties within the intellectual order and sensate faculties within the sensate order. If the sole action of the Principle of corporeal Beings is movement, if they grow and nourish themselves through it alone - in other words, if they manifest and render perceptible and conspicuous all their properties and consequently the area itself - how then can anyone pretend that such movement is dependent upon the area or matter since, on the contrary, it is the area or matter which proceeds from it? How can anyone state that this movement belongs essentially to matter, whereas it is matter that belongs essentially to movement? Matter, beyond all question, exists only through movement, because we perceive that when bodies are deprived of such movement, which is theirs only briefly, they disintegrate and disappear from the senses. Through this same observation it becomes just as certain that the movement which gives life to bodies does not belong to them in particular, since we perceive it being completed within them before they have ceased being perceptible to our eyes. Likewise we cannot doubt that they are fully dependent upon it, because the cessation of such movement is the primary act in their destruction. Moreover, let us recall the Law of universal reaction to which all corporeal Beings are subject and let us recognize that if the immaterial Principles of corporeal Beings were themselves subject to the reaction of another Principle, it would be even more evident that the perceptible results of these Principles, such as the area and so on, must necessarily experience this subjection. Let us conclude therefore that if everything disappears to the degree that movement recedes, it is obvious that the area exists only through movement, which is very different from stating that movement belongs to the area and within the area. We could infer, however, from this assertion that as movement creates the area - such movement, being of the essence of immaterial Principles which we must now recognize as being indestructible - it is impossible for this movement not to exist forever and consequently for the area or matter not to be eternal. This would again engulf us in those shadowy depths from which I have taken so much care to protect my readers, because, as I am well aware, the objection could be offered that it is impossible to conceive of movement without the area. This last proposition is true within the sensate order, where movement cannot be conceived which does not produce the area or does not occur within the area. But, although Principles engendering movement in the sensate order are immaterial, it would be a mistake to claim that their action is necessary and eternal, since we have seen that they are simply secondary Beings possessing only a specific action and not an infinite action. Moreover, they are completely subject to the dependence of an active and intelligent Cause which communicates this action to them for a time and then withdraws it, according to the Law and order of the Primary Cause. Furthermore, it is within this sensate order itself that we can find proofs of movement without area, although in this sensate realm it always occurs within the area. To further substantiate this let us remark that, because of the dual universal Law directing corporeal nature, two types of movement are found in all bodies. The first is growth, or the very action which manifests and sustains their material existence. The second is their attraction toward Earth which is their common center, a tendency which is apparent both in the fall of bodies and in the pressure that their own weight exerts upon them or upon the terrestrial surface. These two movements are directly opposed to one another. Thus, although it can occur only within the area, the second movement, or the attraction of bodies towards their terrestrial center, does not produce any area as does the first movement - that of the growth and existence of these same bodies. On the contrary, one tends to destroy what the other produces. For instance, if corporeal Beings could unite with their center, they would thenceforth be without action and sensate manifestation. In short, they would be without movement and consequently without area, since it is certain that all these effects only occur because the Beings which produce them are separated from their center. If, as previously stated, there exist two movements, one of which produces the area while the other destroys the area, the latter one should at least not be regarded as belonging to the area although it occurs only within the area. Therefore, this is where we could learn how to resolve this objection: that it is impossible to conceive of movement without area; and this is where we could also learn that we should no longer generally believe that movement is of the essence of all classes of immaterial Beings, since those of the sensate class are its repository for only a short while. Let me reemphasize this truth: there cannot be movement without area. Have we not admitted that there could not be any other than intellectual and sensate Beings? If the intellectual class governs the other and causes it to manifest such movement, the producer of sensate things, then this class must essentially be the true source of movement. As such, it is of another order than the class of immaterial corporeal Principles which are subordinated to it. Thus, within this class there must exist actions and results which are, as it is itself, distinct and independent of the sensate - that is, within which the sensate has no manifestation. Thus, since the sensate does not enter into any of the operations pertaining to the Primary Cause or into any of the immaterial results proceeding from it, and if it only receives from it passive life which sustains it during the passage of time, and if, in short, all sensate effects are absolutely without any influence upon the purely intellectual class during the actual time of their very existence, this class has then been able to operate, for quite obvious reasons, prior to the existence of sensate things and it will continue to act after their disappearance, because the period during which such sensate things have lived will not disturb the actions of the Primary Cause, even for an instance. Although movement and area are of necessity linked to one another within the sensate, this does not mean that there can never be action or movement within the superior class, even though nothing sensate would be existent. In this sense, we can state with certainty that although we cannot conceive of area without movement, we can unquestionably conceive of movement without area, since the Principle of movement, whether sensate or intellectual, is beyond the area. Then, in combining all these observations, we must decide whether it is ever possible to attribute with good reason any movement to the area as being essential to its being, and whether a person is not mistaken whenever he searches within the area itself for the principle and knowledge of it. I have stated that movement is generally nothing more than the effect of action, or rather action itself, since they are inseparable. Moreover, I have recognized that there are two types of opposed movements or actions within sensate things-namely, growth and deterioration; or the force which distances bodies from their center and their own Law which tends to return them to their center. But as the latter of these movements only retrace the steps of the former within the temporal and according to the same Law in reverse order, we are not afraid of being mistaken in declaring that both of them proceed from the same number. And the least informed of geometricians knows that this number is four. Who, in fact, does not know that all movements and possible revolutions of bodies are accomplished through a quaternary geometrical progression, either ascendant or descendant? Who is not aware that the number four is the universal Law of the course of celestial bodies, of mechanics, of pyrotechnics in a word, of all that moves in the material world, whether naturally or through the hand of a person? And, in truth, if life manifests without interruption and if its action is always renewed - in other words, if it continually grows or deteriorates within material Beings subject to destruction - what other Law but that of the ascending or descending geometrical progression could be appropriate for Nature? Arithmetical progression is entirely banned in fact, because it is sterile and can only encompass limited facts and constantly regular and uniform results. Thus people should never apply it except for inanimate objects, fixed divisions, or unmoving assemblages. Whenever they have attempted to employ it in the designation of Nature's simple and living actions - as that of air, or that which produces heat or cold, or all other causes of changes occurring within the atmosphere - the results or divisions have been quite flawed. They have given people a false idea of the Principle of life or corporeal action, the measure of which, not being sensate, cannot be traced in matter without committing the grossest of errors. Therefore, we shall not lead anyone astray in describing the quaternary geometrical progression as being the life principle of Beings, or, no matter how unfamiliar this language be, by asserting that the number of all action is four. But what we have not yet done is to declare what the number of the area is - and we must therefore declare that it is the number nine which has heretofore been applied to the circular line. Indeed, the area and the circular line possess such a close rapport, and are so inseparable, that they bear the same number, which is nine. As they have the same number, they must necessarily have the same measure and weight, and since these three principles always function in harmony, one cannot be determined on its own without determining the other two as well. However novel this must appear to be at present, I cannot avoid acknowledging that the area and the circular line are but one and the same. In short, the area exists only through the circular line, and conversely, only the circular line is corporeal and sensate. Material Nature and areas cannot be formed except by lines that are not straight - or, what amounts to the same thing, there is not a single straight line in Nature, a fact we will perceive in the following. But before approaching this subject I have something to say. If observers had examined Nature more closely, long ago they would have resolved a matter which is not yet properly clarified among them-namely, if generation and reproduction are accomplished through eggs, larvae, or spermatic animals, they would have perceived that everything here on Earth possesses an envelope. Moreover, since any envelope or any area whatsoever is circular, all is larva in Nature because all is egg. And, conversely, all is egg because all is larva. Let me now return to my subject. I realize that simply excluding straight lines from Nature is not enough, and that it is necessary to reveal the reasons which have contributed to my decision for doing this. First of all, if we follow the origin of all sensate and material things, we cannot deny that the Principle of corporeal Beings is fire, but their corporification results only from water, and thus bodies originate by fluid. Secondly, we cannot deny that this fluid is the principle which effects the dissolution of bodies and that subsequently fire effects their reintegration, since one of the highest Laws of Truth is that direct sequence and inverse sequence follow a uniform course in opposite directions. Yet all fluid is only a collection of spherical particles, and it is this very same spherical form of these particles which gives fluid the necessary property for extending and circulating itself. Since bodies attain birth by fluid, it is therefore consistent that they must retain in their state of perfection the same form they received at their origin since they will manifest it once again when dissolving into fluidic and spherical particles. For that reason, bodies must be considered to be a collection of these same spherical globules, but which have acquired consistency to the degree to which their fire has more or less reduced the gross portion of their humid content. No matter to what degree this collection of spherical globules is extended, it is obvious that the result will always be circular and spherical, in keeping with its principle. Do you wish to be materially convinced of what I postulate? Carefully observe bodies in which the dimensions appear straight to us; observe the most even surfaces. Everyone knows that we can discover on such surfaces only inequalities, elevations, and depressions; everyone knows, I repeat, or ought to know, that the surfaces of bodies, when viewed closely, present only a multitude of grooves. Such grooves are in turn composed of similar inequalities, and this ad infinitum; and no matter what extent our eyes or the instruments employed to supplement them can attain, we shall perceive either upon the surface of bodies or in the grooves they exhibit never anything more than a joining together of many spherical particles which touch each other only at one point of their surface. Therefore, let us now examine whether it is possible to allow a straight line therein. No one should offer me as an objection the interval existing between two given points, between which one can surmise a straight line connecting one to the other. First of all, by being thus separated, these two points are no longer said to constitute a single body, Therefore, the straight line that is said to exist between them would exist purely in the imagination and could not be conceived of as being corporeal and sensate. Secondly, this interval separating them is itself filled with aerial mercurial particles which, being spherical as are those of other bodies, could never touch one another only through their surface. Thus, this interval would itself constitute a body and would for this reason be subject to the same inequalities as are all bodies. This agrees entirely with what has been previously stated concerning the principles of matter, which despite their union could never be confused. Therefore, there being no continuity within bodies, as all are in successive and interrupted manifestation, it is impossible in any sense whatsoever to suppose and recognize any straight lines therein. Apart from the reasons which we have just seen, there are others which will serve to support and confirm the evidence of this Principle. I have decided to acknowledge that the number four is the number of the straight line; since then in concert with all other observers I have seen that the number four 1s also that which directs all kinds of movements. Therefore, a great analogy exists between the principle of movement and the straight line since we see them bearing the same number and furthermore we have recognized that the source and action of corporeal and sensate things resides within such movement. At the same time, we have noted that the straight line was the symbol of infinity and the continuity of the production of the point from which it emanates. I have demonstrated sufficiently that movement, although producing corporeal and sensate things or the area, can never belong properly to this same area nor depend upon it. Thus, if the straight line were to have the same number as movement, it must have the same Law and property - in other words, although it directs the areas and corporeal things, it will never become a part of nor blend with them and become sensate, since a principle cannot be blended with its production. All of these are the reasons which, when considered together, must prevent anyone from ever admitting the existence of a straight line within material Nature. Let us now review all of our principles: The number four is that of movement; it is that of the straight line - in other words, it is the number of everything which is not corporeal or sensible. The number nine is that of the area and of the circular line which universally constitutes the area - in other words, it is the number of bodies and all parts of bodies, because it is absolutely essential to consider the circular line as the necessary production of the movement occurring in time. We have here two unique Laws we can possibly recognize, and with them we can undoubtedly embrace everything in existence, since nothing can be either within the area or beyond the area, passive or active, result or Principle, transitory or immutable, corporeal or incorporeal, perishable or indestructible. Therefore, taking these two Laws as our guide, we shall return to the way by which we perceive that geometricians regard the two types of possible lines - the straight and the circular - and we shall determine whether it is true that the circle is, as they contend, an aggregate of straight lines since, on the contrary, no straight line can be found within the corporeal which does not consist of a collection of curved lines. Nevertheless, by not having discerned the different numbers of these two different lines, humankind has endeavored to reconcile them ever since its exile or - which is the same thing - humankind has attempted to discover what is called the quadrature of the circle. Before humanity's fall, when a person was aware of the nature of Beings, she would not have exerted herself in such fruitless efforts and she would not have applied herself to the search for a discovery whose impossibility would have been obviously known to her. Nor would she have been blind or imprudent enough to try reconciling principles as different as those of straight and circular lines. In short, it would have never entered her thought to believe that she could change the nature of Beings and somehow cause nine to equal four or four to equal nine - which is literally the object of the study and occupation of geometricians. Let us attempt to reconcile these two numbers. How can we succeed in this? How can we adapt nine to four? How can we divide nine by four, or, in effect, divide nine into four parts without allowing fractions, which, according to what we have seen, cannot be found within the natural Principles of things, although they can be operative upon their results which are simply aggregates? After having found two to be the quotient, would there not always remain a unit that would need to be divided equally by the number four? We perceive, therefore, that in form, or in the corporeal and sensate, such quadrature is impracticable and that it could never occur except immaterially or through number - in other words, by recognizing the center which is corporeal and quaternary, as will be proven fully before long. Therefore, at this time, I leave it to your thought to determine whether this quadrature is permissible as it is now approached. If its impossibility is not obviously demonstrated, then one should not be surprised that nothing has yet been discovered concerning this object, since, in regards to truth, an approximation is of no value whatsoever. It is necessary to say something about longitude, which so many people have contended for when searching for it upon Earth's surface. It will be enough to formulate an opinion regarding it to observe the difference existing between longitude and latitude. Latitude is horizontal and proceeds from south to north. The south is not designated by any of the imaginary points invented by astronomers when explaining the Universe to us, but is most definitely indicated by the sun, of which the vertical mid-point varies by rising or descending each day in relation to the previous day. It thus follows that latitude is necessarily circular and variable and, as such, it bears the number nine according to all the principles which have just been established. Longitude, on the contrary, is perpendicular and originates in the east, which is always at the same point of elevation, although this east appears each day at different points of the horizon. Longitude, being thus fixed and always the same, is the real image of the straight line and consequently bears the number four. We have just seen the incompatibility of the two numbers four and nine. Therefore, how is it possible to find the perpendicular within the horizontal? How is it possible to compare the superior to the inferior? In short, how is it possible to discover the east upon the earth's surface since it does not exist within its area? When I stated that the east was immovable, you most surely perceived that I was not speaking of that east indicated by the rising of the sun since it changes every day. Furthermore, much like latitude, the type of longitude that the sun thus indicates is always horizontal in relation to us, and for that reason alone it is extremely defective. Rather, I speak of the true east of which the rising of the sun is but the indicative sign and which manifests visibly and more truly in the verticalness and perpendicularity. I speak of that east which by its number four, can alone embrace all space, since after joining the number nine, which is that of the area, by uniting the active to the passive, it forms the number thirteen, which is the number of Nature. Therefore, locating longitude upon Earth is no more possible than is reconciling the straight line with the curved line or finding the measure of the area and movement within the area - further proof of the truth of the principles we have presented. Let us apply this Law to yet another observation by stating that even now, due to this difference between the numbers four and nine, it has been and will always remain impossible to quadrate the lunar calculus within the solar calculus accurately. This is because the moon, being associated with the earth, which has only curvatures in latitude, pertains to the number nine. Although the sun designates latitude by the south, it is nevertheless in its terrestrial east, or at the point of its rising, the image of the principle of longitude or the straight line, and as such it is quaternary. Moreover, it is clearly distinct from the region of Earth, to which it communicates the necessary reaction to its vegetative faculty - a further indication of its quaternary activity. In short, its quaternary manifests upon the moon itself through the four phases we perceive upon it and which are determined by its various positions in relation to the sun from which it receives light. Thus, by applying the principle which occupies us at present to this example, we will clearly see the reason why solar calculus and lunar calculus are incompatible and that the true method of attaining knowledge of things is not to begin by intermingling them but by separating and examining them, each according to the number and the Laws pertaining to it in particular. If only I were allowed to expand further upon the number nine, which I attribute to the moon and consequently to Earth of which it is the satellite! I would then show by the number of this Earth what its use and intention is in the Universe. This could even give us indications concerning the true form it bears and spread further light upon the present system which does not recognize it as being immovable but, on the contrary, as traveling across a very large orbit. Ness\n\nIt would appear that astronomers have perhaps been a little too hasty in their judgments. Before placing full trust in their observations, they should have examined what manifests the greatest action among corporeal Beings and what causes the reaction or what receives it. If fire were not the most mobile of the elements and blood were not more active than the bodies in which it circulates, they should have thought that Earth, although not occupying the center of the orbits of celestial bodies, could serve nonetheless as their recipient and that henceforth it would receive and await their influences without having to add a second corporeal action to its very own vegetative action, and of which those celestial bodies are deprived. Finally, the simplest experiments upon cones would have proven to them what the true form of Earth is; and we could offer them insurmountable difficulties which their systems could never resolve in the destination of the earth, in the rank it occupies among created Beings, and in the properties of the perpendicular or straight line. It might also happen that such difficulties would not be perceived, because, as with all sciences in which humankind has had a hand, astronomy has become isolated in that it has considered Earth and each of the celestial bodies as distinct Beings without any connection between them. In short, because people have acted in this regard as rashly as in all else - that is, by not directing their attention upon the principle of the existence of all these bodies nor upon the principle of their Laws and destination - they do not yet know which of them is the primary object. Moreover, it is through a seemingly praiseworthy motive that people have endeavored to belittle Earth by comparing it to the immensity and grandeur of celestial bodies. People have been weak enough to believe that Earth, being only a speck in the Universe, little deserved the attention of the Primary Cause, and thus it would be against all probabilities that Earth was the most precious jewel within creation and everything existing around or above Earth renders tribute to it - as if the Author of all things had to evaluate Its works upon a sensate measure and as if their worth did not reside in the grandeur of their use and properties rather than in the magnitude of the space and the area they occupy. It is perhaps this false combination which can lead a person to this other still further false combination by which he pretends to believe himself unworthy of his Author's attention. He has believed he was only giving heed to humility by refusing to admit that Earth and everything contained in the Universe has been created for him alone. He has feigned fear of listening too much to his pride by delivering himself over to such a thought. But he has not feared the indolence and cowardice which necessarily proceed from such pretended modesty. And if a person today avoids seeing himself as destined to be the monarch of the Universe, it is because he does not have the courage to work towards the recovery of his titles, and because the attendant duties appear to him too exhausting, and he fears renouncing his estate and all his rights less than undertaking to return them to their former value. However, if he were to look at himself for a moment, he would soon perceive that his very humility would cause him to admit, with reason, that he is now below his proper rank, but he would not believe himself of such a nature as never having occupied such rank nor or ever being able to return to it. Therefore, I repeat, if only it were possible for me to devote myself to all that I could say upon such matters! If only I could show the relationship that is to be found between Earth and a person's body, which is formed of the same substance since one proceeded from the other! If my plan allowed, I would draw out from their incontestable analogy the testimony of the uniformity of their Laws and proportions, from which it would be easy to see that both have the same aim to accomplish. You would then understand the reason why, at the beginning of this work, I indicated that people are so intensely interested in maintaining their bodies in good condition, because if they are made in the image of Earth and Earth is the foundation of corporeal creation, they can only preserve their resemblance to it by resisting, as it does also, the forces which continually battle against it. You would also see that this Earth, being our mother, must be held worthy of respect by people and that being the most powerful of entities of a temporal Nature after the Intelligent Cause and people, it is itself proof that no corporeal worlds exist other than that which is visible to us. As this opinion regarding the plurality of worlds also arises from the same source as all human errors, it is by endeavoring to separate or dismember all things that a person conjures up a multitude of other Universes of which the stars are the suns and there exists no more correspondence between themselves than with the world we inhabit. If this separate existence were compatible with the understanding we have of unity and if, in the event these supposed worlds did exist, a person would not possess knowledge of such in her capacity as an intellectual Being. If she were to possess knowledge regarding everything in existence, it would be necessary that nothing be isolated and that all be connected, since it is through one single principle that a person embraces all and she could not do so with this single principle if all corporeally created Beings were not of the same nature and similar to one another. Undoubtedly there are many other worlds since the smallest of Beings is a world in itself, but all are part of the same chain; and as a person has the right to extend his hand even to the first link of this chain, he cannot approach it without also touching all other worlds. Moreover, you would perceive in the description of its properties that Earth constitutes a fertile and inexhaustible source for humankind's well-being, both sensate and intellectual. You would also perceive that it unites all proportions, both numerical and geometrical, that it is the primary point of support which humanity has encountered in its fall and as such, a person could not overestimate its importance, since without it he would have fallen much lower. What, therefore, would happen if I dared to speak of the Principle which animates it and in which reside all the faculties of vegetation and the other virtues that I could reveal? It is certain that were I to do so, people would then learn to venerate Earth, occupying themselves all the more with its culture, and they would regard it as the entrance to the road they must travel so as to return to the place which gave them birth. Perhaps I have already said too much regarding these matters, and I would fear to usurp rights which do not belong to me were I to proceed further. Therefore, I will return to the numbers four and nine, which I have stated as being characteristic of either the straight line or the curved line, and as being also for one the number of movement or action, and for the other that of the area, because these numbers might appear to some to be either supposed or imaginary. It is fitting that I make known the reason why I employ them and why I contend that they each belong naturally to the lines which I have attributed to them. Let us begin with the number nine-that of the circular line and the area. Undoubtedly, no one will object to considering a circumference as being zero, because, what figure resembles a circumference more than zero? It will even be less objectionable to regard the center of it as a unit, since it is impossible for a circumference to possess more than one center. Everyone is also aware that a unit joined to zero produces ten - thus: 10. We can then envisage the entire circle as equaling ten (or 10) - or, in other words, the center and the circumference. Yet we can also regard the entire circle as being a corporeal Being, of which the circumference is the form or body and the center is the immaterial Principle. We have seen with sufficient clarity that one should never confuse this immaterial Principle with the area and corporeal form. Although the existence of matter is based upon their union, it is, nonetheless, an unpardonable error to consider them as being the same Being and to assume that a person's intelligence can always separate them. Is not separating the center from its circumference the same thing as separating this Principle from its corporeal form and, consequently, the same as removing the unit (1) from the denary (10)? But if one removes the unit (1) from the denary (10), most certainly only nine will remain in number; however, in figure, it is zero (0) or the circular line - in short, the circumference - that will be the remainder. Therefore, let us determine at this time whether the number nine and the circumference are not suited to one another, and whether we have been wrong in allocating the number nine to all area, since we have proven that all area is circular. Let us also determine from the relationship existing between zero (which is nil by itself) and the number nine (which is that of the area) whether we should have so thoughtlessly censured those who have contended that matter was but apparent. I am aware that since most geometricians consider the number of arithmetical characters to be dependent upon human conventions, they will have little confidence in the present demonstration. I even know that some among them have even attempted to carry the number of such characters to twenty so as to facilitate their arithmetical calculations. Let us first note that although many nations make use of arithmetical characters arising only from their conventions, Arabic characters are an exception because they are based upon the Laws and nature of sensate things which, along with intellectual things, have numerical signs properly belonging to them. Secondly, seeing that geometricians are completely ignorant of the Laws and properties of numbers, they have not seen that by multiplying them beyond the number ten, they have denatured everything and have attempted to attribute to Beings a Principle which is not simple and offers no point of unity. They have not perceived that unity, being universal as it is the sum of all these numbers, should principally retrace its image to us. Then, by showing itself as real and unalterable in its productions as it is in its essence, this unity has invincible rights to our homage and a person thus has no excuse in ignoring them. Geometricians have not perceived, I repeat, that the number ten bears this impression most perfectly, and thus a person's will can never extend the signs of numbers or the Laws of unity beyond ten. This is why experience has fully confirmed this principle and why the means employed to combat it have remained unsuccessful. I am therefore undertaking its defense, and in attributing the number one or unity to the center, I attribute the number nine to the circumference or the area. I shall not recall here what I have said concerning the union of the three fundamental elements, all of which are always to be found together in each of the three parts of bodies, a circumstance in which you will easily discover a positive relationship between the number nine and matter, or to the circular area. Nor shall I say anything regarding the formation of the cube, whether algebraic or arithmetic, which, when the factors have but two terms, can occur through only nine operations. Of the ten that are found absolutely necessary to include therein, the second and the third are simply a repetition of one another and consequently must be considered as being simply one. Yet I shall substantiate the principle which I have established with a few observations upon the nature and division of the circle. It is a mistake to claim that it was geometricians who divided the circumference into 360 degrees as being the most convenient division and that it lent itself more easily to all the operations of calculus. Dividing the circle into 360 degrees is not at all arbitrary. Nature itself presented it to us since the circle is composed only of triangles, and there exist six of these equilateral triangles in the entire area of this very circle. Let us therefore attentively follow the natural order of these numbers by joining the product which is the circumference or zero, and let us then determine whether these divisions were established by people. Must I personally indicate the natural order of these numbers? All production of whatever nature is ternary, three. There are six of these perfect productions within a circle, or six equilateral triangles, six. Finally, the circumference itself completes the operation and adds nine or zero (0). Therefore, if we reduce all these numbers to figures, we shall have primarily three (3), secondarily six (6), and finally zero (0) which, when joined together, will equal 360. Let us now perform whatever multiplications we wish upon the numbers we have just recognized as constituting the circle. Then, since all of the results will be in the ninth degree, we will no longer doubt the universality of the number nine in matter. Nor will we doubt the impotency of this number when we reflect that, no matter what number is joined to it, its nature is never altered. For those who possess the proper key, this will be striking proof of what we have previously stated - namely, that the form or envelope can vary without its immaterial Principle ceasing to be immutable and indestructible. Through such simple and natural observations, one can uncover evidence of the principle I have set forth. This also constitutes one of the methods demonstrating how we should proceed when reading within the nature of Beings, in that all their Laws are written upon their envelope, in their progression, and in the different revolutions to which their course subjects them. For example, not having distinguished the natural circumference from the artificial circumference, gave rise to the mistake I have already remarked upon regarding the way in which the circumference was viewed up to the present time - that is, as a collection of an infinite number of points united by straight lines. It is true that the circumference which a person traces with the aid of dividers can only be formed in succession, and in this sense, we can regard it as an assemblage of many points which, being traced one after the other, are not supposed to have any connection or continuity between them. All of this has caused humankind's imagination to suppose that they were united by straight lines. But, apart from my previous explanations that even in such cases the line uniting two points must be acknowledged as not being straight, as there is no straight line in the sensate, we need only recognize the formation of the natural circle so as to realize the falsity of the definitions generally offered to us regarding the circular line. The natural circle grows instantly in all directions, occupying and filling every part of its circumference. Only within the sensate order and through our material eyes do we perceive inevitable inequalities in corporeal forms because they are mere assemblages. However, through the eyes of our intellectual faculty, we perceive the same force and power everywhere and we no longer perceive such inequalities because we sense that the action of the Principle must be uniform and complete; otherwise, it would itself be exposed. In passing, let us say that this is what causes the collapse of all those childish scholastic disputes regarding the void. The limited sight of a person's body must encounter inequalities at every step because it can only read within the area, whereas a person's thinking cannot conceive of a void anywhere because it reads within the Principle. It perceives that this Principle is manifested everywhere, necessarily permeating everything, since resistance must be as universal as pressure. Therefore, we cannot compare the natural circle with the artificial circle in any way whatsoever since the natural circle creates itself instantaneously through the single explosion of its center. The artificial circle, on the other hand, begins only at the end which constitutes the triangle. As everyone knows or should know, the compass, one of whose points is kept immobile, cannot make a single move without creating a triangle. Let us now proceed to the reasons why the number four is that of the straight line. First of all, I shall state right away that I am not using the words straight line in accordance with the meaning it has in the common vernacular, by which we indicate that this area appearing to our eyes has the same alignment. And, in fact, after having demonstrated that no straight lines exist in sensate Nature, I cannot adopt the common opinion in this matter without following a course contrary to everything I have established. I shall therefore regard the straight line to be only a Principle and, as such, to be distinct from the area. Have we not perceived that the natural circle grew in all directions simultaneously and that the center instantly emitted from itself an innumerable and inexhaustible multitude of radiuses? Is not each radius thought to be a straight line in the material sense? And through its apparent straightness and through the faculty it possesses of extending itself ad infinitum, the radius is truly the image of the generative Principle which ceaselessly emanates from itself and never departs from its own Law. Moreover, we have seen that the circle itself is simply an assemblage of triangles since we have recognized everywhere that only three principles exist within bodies and that the circle itself is a body. Now, if this radius, if this seemingly straight line, if the action of this generative Principle can manifest only through a ternary production, we would simply need to unite the center's number of unity, or of this generative Principle, to the ternary number of its production to which it is joined during the corporeal Being's existence. We would then have an indication of the quaternary which we endeavor to find in the straight line according to the concept we have given of it. But, to make certain that you do not believe that we are now muddling what we have distinguished with so much care - namely, the center which is immaterial with the production or the triangle which is material and sensate - you need to recall what was said about the Principles of matter. I have clearly shown that even though they produce matter, they are immaterial in themselves. Being considered as such, it is then easy to conceive of an intimate tie existing between the center (or generative Principle) and the secondary Principles, since the three sides of the triangle and the three dimensions of forms have indicated to us perceptibly that these secondary Principles are only three in number, whereas their union with the center offers us the most perfect idea of our immaterial quaternary. Furthermore, this quaternary manifestation occurs only through the emanation of the radius from its center, and this radius, which always extends itself in a straight line, is the organ and action of the central Principle, whereas the curved line on the contrary produces nothing and always limits the action and production of the straight line or radius. Such evidence cannot be resisted and we can therefore apply the number four unhesitatingly to the straight line or radius representing it, since only this straight line or radius can give us a proper understanding of this number. By such means can a person succeed in distinguishing the corporeal envelope and form of Beings from their immaterial Principles, thereby obtaining a fair enough idea of their different numbers. She can avoid confusion in this way, and she can proceed with assurance along the path of observation. This is, I repeat, the means of finding that quadrature we have discussed, and which will never be discovered except through the number of the center. In fact, this straight line or quaternary is so indubitably the source and organ of everything which is corporeal and sensate, that geometry returns everything it attempts to measure to the number four and to the square, and it considers all the triangles established for this purpose only to be a division and a half of this same square. Is not this square composed of four lines that are considered to be straight or similar to the radius and consequently quaternary as it is itself? Is anything further needed to demonstrate that geometricians prove, by their very own process, what I have expounded to them? In other words, that the number producing Beings is the same as that which serves as their measure? And thus, the true measure of Beings can only be found within their Principle and not within their envelope or within the area, since, on the contrary, everything that is an envelope or that is the area can only be evaluated with precision by proceeding towards the center and the quaternary number which we call the generative Principle. I hope no one will consider offering the objection that, being limited by supposedly straight lines, all figures called rectilinear in geometry also bear the quaternary and thus I should not limit myself to the square for indicating quaternary measure, as it would seem to contradict the simplicity and unity of the stated principle. Even if fact could not verify my proposition, and even if it were not true, as I have previously stated, that geometricians return to the square everything that they have attempted to measure, what we have just stated concerning this immaterial quaternary would be enough to make one agree that all sensate things proceeding from it must preserve upon themselves the perceptible mark of this quaternary origin. Since this quaternary is definitely the sole generative Principle of sensate things and the only number to which this property of production is essential, it is likewise indispensable that there exists among sensate things a unique figure indicating this to us. And this figure, as stated, is the square. How could it be possible that this truth would not manifest itself to us among sensate things since we find it clearly indicated in an incontestable way within numerical Law - that is, within the most intellectual and dependable of a person's possessions here on Earth? Let me repeat, how could we find more than one quaternary measure or - what amounts to the same thing - more than one square within sensate or corporeal figures constituting the object of geometry, since it is impossible to find more than one square number in this numerical Law or that of calculation of which we have just spoken? I know that this must cause surprise and it will undoubtedly appear novel no matter how incontestable this proposition is, because it is generally accepted that a numerical square is the product of any given number multiplied by itself - and one does not even question that all numbers have this property. But, since the analogy that we have discovered within all classes between the Principles and their productions is still insufficient to dispel error upon this point, and despite the unity of the square among all sensate figures that a person can trace, geometricians have persuaded themselves that more than one numerical square can exist. I shall go into further detail so as to confirm the truth of what I have just expounded. The square expressed in figures is most certainly the quadruple of its base. And if it is only the sensate image of the intellectual and numerical square from which it originates, it is absolutely necessary that this numerical and intellectual square be the type and model of the other - that is, as the square in form is the quadruple of its base, likewise, the numerical and intellectual square must be the quadruple of its root. I can now assure all people - who are as capable of knowing it as I am - that there exists only a single number that is the quadruple of its root. I shall even refrain as much as possible from positively indicating it to them, either because it is too easily discovered or because I regret to reveal such truths. But you will perhaps ask, how will it then be possible to consider the products of all the other numbers multiplied by themselves if I allow only one numerical square? After all, if there is only one numerical square, there can only be also one square root among all numbers, and however, there is not a single number which cannot be multiplied by itself. Therefore, since all numbers can be multiplied by themselves, what will they then be if not square roots? I agree that any number whatsoever can be multiplied by itself, and consequently, none can be regarded as being a root. I further agree with the least of mathematicians that there exists no root which is not the proportionate mean between its product and the unit. But, for all of these numbers to be square roots it would be necessary that they all be connected through four with the unit. Now, among this multitude of different roots, quantity can never be determined since the number or single root must be connected through four with the unit. It is therefore clear that the number which is found to possess this connection is the only one which essentially deserves the designation of square root. And all other roots, having a different connection with the unit, will assume designations obtained from these different relationships, but they must never be designated as square roots since their connection with the unit will never be quaternary. By the same reasoning, although all roots being multiplied by themselves yield a product, it is absolutely necessary, however, that this product itself be to its root what its root is to the unit, since every root is the proportionate mean between its product and the unit. Then, if there is but a single root which is in relationship to four with the unit or which is square, it is also incontestable that there can be but one single product which is connected through four with its root, and consequently, that there can be only a single square. All other products, not being in this quaternary connection with their root, must therefore not be considered as squares, but they will carry the designations of their different relationship with their root, much as the roots which are not square bear the designation of their different connection with the unit. In short, if it is true that all roots are square roots, all roots in a dual relationship would certainly produce squares which would be doubled - the ones by the others. Yet we know that this is absolutely impossible in numbers. That is why we admit only one square and only one square root. Because they have not had an accurate enough idea of a square root, the geometricians have attributed the properties thereof to all numbers, whereas they properly belong only to a single number. It is necessary, nevertheless, to notice that the difference existing between this single square root and all other roots, as well as that existing between the sole admissible square product and all other numerical products, proceeds only from the quality of the factors which it further extends upon the results proceeding from it. In modern practice, the quaternary always directs all these operations of whatever nature or, to express it more clearly, in every form of multiplication we shall always find: first the unit; second the primary factor; third the secondary factor; and finally the result or the product proceeding from the mutual action of the two factors. And when I say \"in every form of multiplication,\" this is because it happens to be true, not only in all those products where we know of two roots or two factors, as occurs in the multiplication of two different numbers, one by the other, but also in all the products where we know of only a single root; because this root, being multiplied by itself always distinctly offers us our two factors. Here, therefore, presenting us with added evidence, is the real power of the number four, the universal generator and Principle of all production, as well as the virtues of the straight line which is the image and action of it. Here also is where we find further proof of the distinction existing between sensate and intellectual things, and also of everything that has been said regarding their different number since, in all numerical multiplications, we tangibly recognize three things - namely, the two factors and the product. Intellectually, on the other hand, we recognize only the unity with which they are connected and that such unity never enters into the operation of composite things. Therefore, we now perceive the reason why we have recognized this quaternary as being both the Principle and the fixed measure of all Beings, and also why any product of whatever nature whether it is the area or all the properties of this area-are engendered and directed by this quaternary. Geometricians themselves corroborate all of the advantages which have been attributed to the quaternary up to now, and this they do through the division they perform upon the radius so as to estimate its connection with the circumference. They take care to divide it into the greatest possible number of parts so as to make the approximation less defective. But, in all the divisions they make, it is important to observe that they always employ decimals. Now, through a calculation that we shall not consider here, although it is fairly well known, it cannot be denied that the decimal and the quaternary have an incontestable connection since they both possess the privilege of corresponding and belonging to the unit. Therefore, by making use of decimals, geometricians still proceed through the quaternary. I know that, if need be, it might be possible to divide the radius by numbers other than decimals. I even know that these decimals never render accurate results as occurs in the division of the circle into 360 degrees, from which one could infer that neither decimals nor the quaternary to which they are inseparably united constitute the true measure. But it must be noted that the division of the circle into 360 degrees is perfectly exact because it is based upon the true number of all forms, whereas the decimal divisions expressing the number of the immaterial Principle of such forms cannot be exact in sensate nature, nor upon the corporeal radius or any other type of matter. However, this does not mean that, of all the divisions from which a person could choose, decimals are not the means which brings him closest to the point he desires. We may even say that in this, as in many other circumstances, he has been led by the Law and Principle of things without being aware of it. We may even say that his choice is a result of the natural light residing within himself which always tends to lead him to the truth. Moreover, even though the means which he has adopted may be worthless and useless for him in that he wants to make it agree with both the area and matter, it is nevertheless the best he could select for this type of calculation. Thus, despite the little success humankind has derived from its efforts, we will always be obliged to agree that the division which he has made of the radius into decimal parts confirms what I have said regarding the universality of the quaternary measure. Despite the reserve I have promised myself, after having revealed so much concerning the number four and the square root, surely all of my readers will realize that both are the same. Therefore, this is no longer the time to conceal it. Moreover, after having advanced to this point, I find myself somehow forced to admit that they would search vainly elsewhere than in this square root and in the unique square which results therefrom for the source of light and knowledge. And truly, if it is possible for the readers of this book to grasp on their own the connection of everything that I have revealed to their sight and to obtain a proper idea of the numerical and intellectual square I have presented to them, I am somehow obliged to admit the truth and I no longer refuse any admission they wrest from me. Therefore, to the extent that prudence and discretion permit, I will present beforehand a few of the properties of this quaternary and, so as to make myself more understandable, I shall consider it as the sensate and corporeal square which is the figure and production thereof - that is, as possessing four visible and distinct sides. By examining each of these four sides separately, we may then conclude that the square under consideration is truly the only means by which a person can be led to the understanding of everything contained within the Universe, and that it is also the only support which can sustain her against all the tempests she is forced to endure during her voyage in time. However, to sense the endless advantages connected with the square more fully, let us remember what was stated when we compared it to the circumference. We then learned that the circumference serves to limit and oppose the action of the center or of the square, and that they mutually react upon one another. Consequently, the circumference stops the rays of light, whereas the square, being in itself the Principle of this light, has enlightenment as its true object. In short, the circumference holds a person shackled in a prison, whereas the square is provided to deliver him from it. Indeed, the inferiority of this circumference causes all of a person's misfortunes in that she can cover all of its points only one after another, which causes her to sense to the fullest extent the penalty of time for which she was not created. The square, on the other hand, because of its correspondence with the unit, does not subject her to this Law since, in the image of its Principle, its action is complete and uninterrupted. However, we must admit that Justice itself has favored humankind even in the punishments it has inflicted upon it. Even the circumference, which has been provided so as to limit and make a person expiate his primal errors, does not leave him bereft of hope and consolation. By means of the circumference, a person can still travel over the whole Universe and return to the point from whence he departed without being forced to face another direction - in other words, without losing sight of the center. This constitutes for him the most useful and salutary exercise, much as the person who wants to magnetize an iron blade knows that after each stroke he must return the blade to the magnet, thus causing it to complete a circuit. Otherwise, it would lose the potency it has just received. Nevertheless, despite this property of the circumference, it cannot be compared with the square, since the latter directly instructs a person about the virtues of the center without her having to leave her place. In this way a person can attain and embrace the same things that she could not know by means of the circumference, but without covering all of its points. Finally, the person who has fallen within the circumference revolves around the center, because he has deviated from the action of this center or of the radius which is straight, and he is forever revolving because the action is universal and he finds it in opposition all along his path. On the other hand, the person who is attached to the center, or to the square which is its image and number, is always immovable and unvarying. Undoubtedly no purpose would be served in pursuing this allegorical comparison further because I do not doubt that intelligent eyes cannot fail to make many discoveries in what I have just stated. Therefore, it is with good cause that I declare this square to be superior to all things because, there being definitely only two types of lines - the straight and the curved - whatever does not pertain to the straight line or to the square is necessarily circular and hence temporal and perishable. Therefore, by virtue of this universal superiority, I had to give people a hint of the infinite advantages that they could discover within this square or quaternary number upon which I have proposed to present a few preliminary details to my readers. People should remember that the commonly known square is simply the image and form of the numerical and intellectual square. Moreover, they will undoubtedly realize that I propose to speak to them only of the numerical and intellectual square manifesting in time and directing it - this very square providing proof that another square exists beyond time, but complete knowledge of it is forbidden until such time as we ourselves are beyond the temporal prison. That is why I have refrained from mentioning the conclusions of the quaternary progression rising above the causes acting within time. In keeping with this, and to help us conceive how this square contains everything and leads to the understanding of everything, let us observe that in mathematics the four angles are those which measure the entire circumference. And since each of these four angles designate a particular region, it is clear that the square embraces the east, west, north, and south. Now, if we could find only these four regions in all existing things, whether sensate or intellectual, what more could we perceive beyond this? And after having surveyed them as a class, shall we not consider ourselves as certain that nothing more will remain for us to know within this class? That is why a person who had observed the four cardinal points of corporeal Creation with care and perseverance would have nothing more to learn in astronomy, and she could take pride that she completely possesses the system for both the Universe and the true arrangements of celestial bodies. In other words, she would possess an understanding of the properties of fixed stars, of Saturn's ring, of weather and the seasons suitable to agriculture, and the nature of the two causes capable of producing eclipses. By being willing to recognize only one material and visible Law in eclipses, observers have denied the existence of those arising from another source and in a period different than that indicated by the sensate order. Regarding the order of the movements of celestial bodies, a person can also possess certain knowledge of it through a careful examination of the four divisions which complete their temporal course. Of all sensate measures, time is the least subject to error. Therefore, since it is the true measure of the course of celestial bodies, we may sense that it would be easier to estimate accurately their periodic return through time calculation than it would be to evaluate the precise length of one's arm by conventional measures taken in the area, since these have a basis neither fixed nor determined by sensate nature. This is why so many nations measure space itself and route distance by the duration or passage of time. By aid of the square a person would succeed in freeing himself from the dense shadows which still cover all eyes regarding the antiquity, origin, and formation of things. He could even throw light upon the dispute regarding the birth of our world and upon all the revolutions written upon its surface, whose traces may represent the consequences and effects of the primal explosion as well as the subsequent and successive revolutions which the Universe has continually experienced since its inception. Such revolutions have always been produced by physical forces, even though they have been authorized by the primary cause and executed under the eyes of the superior temporal cause through the continued counteraction of the evil Principle, to which immense powers have often been accorded over the sensate, for the purification of the intellectual, since it is the only way leading to true transmutation (the Philosopher's Stone) or the reestablishment of Unity. But how can such purification take place without its opposite or its reaction since it must occur in time, seeing that no action can occur in time without the aid of reaction? What would enlighten a person upon this subject is, that by observing the four regions of which we speak, she would perceive that one directs, one receives, and two react. From this she would note that disasters, whose vestiges are apparent everywhere on Earth, necessarily arise from the action of the two actively opposed regions - namely, the one where fire rules and the one where water rules. No longer could he attribute the effects to which her eyes bear witness every day to the single element which seems to produce them, because she would recognize that such revolutions result from the constant struggles of these two enemies in which the advantage lies sometimes with one and sometimes with the other - but also in which neither can be the victor without that area of Earth where the combat occurs suffering proportionately and thereby experiencing alterations and changes. That is why none of what we perceive on Earth should surprise us because, even if daily revolutions (whose existence is undeniable) did not occur, these two elements would nonetheless have begun acting in opposition from the very moment temporal things originated. This is also why we must be certain that each instant produces new revolutions, because the action of these two elements upon one another is and will always be constant until the general dissolution. Thus, all those marvels which so greatly surprise naturalists will disappear. All irregularities and devastations occurring before our very eyes - as well as those where the remains and debris proclaim their antiquity - will no longer be difficult to explain and they will agree perfectly with everything we have observed regarding the innate Principles of Beings, upon their differing and opposing actions upon one another, and finally upon the disastrous results of the universal counteraction. However, all these phenomena will appear far less surprising when we recall that these two opposing elements, these two agents, or this dual universal Law within matter, are always dependent upon the active and intelligent cause which constitutes their center and bond. This cause can activate at will either of these diverse agents which are subject to it, and it can even deliver them over to an evil inferior action. Therefore, we have one more method of determining where, within the greatest revolutions, such prodigious excesses of water upon fire or of fire upon water may have originated. We need only to consider the active and intelligent cause and recognize that when the Principles of these elements are no longer within their natural limits, this is because the Principle has abandoned such limits or because it activates one rather than other by its own virtue for the accomplishment of the primary cause's decrees of Justice, and also to hasten the action or to stop the excessive counteraction of the evil Principle opposing it. In so doing we will perceive that if we wish to know the reasons behind the course this intelligent cause follows in the Universe, we must search within its intelligent nature and in everything resembling it. Being simultaneously active and intelligent, its activity causes the production of perceptible effects by communicating its diverse actions and reactions to all temporal Beings. However, only its intelligent faculty can provide the proper explanation, since it is admitted to the superior council only because of this title. Thus, there will never be any satisfactory result for those who search for this explanation simply in matter. Let us apply this to everything that has been stated concerning the method of seeking everywhere for the truth of all things so we can decide whether or not the principles guiding us are universal. Apart from the enlightenment that knowledge of the square can impart upon the constitutions of corporeal Beings, upon the harmony established between them, and upon the causes of their destruction, it also embraces the four distinct degrees to which their particular course subjects them, and which are clearly indicated by the four seasons. Who is not aware of the different properties attached to each of these seasons? Who does not know that since corporeal Beings cannot receive birth except through the reunion of two inferior actions, it is first of all necessary that these two actions be suitable to each other and in mutual accord. This is what we call adoption. This act of adoption is attributed to autumn, because during this season, Beings send forth from themselves, through the Law of their immaterial Principle, those seeds which must serve for their reproduction. And this Law begins to act only when such seeds are placed within their natural matrix. This constitutes the first stage in their progression, a stage upon which reflection and intelligence will easily discover an infinity of things which I must not mention. When the seeds are thus adopted by their matrix, the two actions acting in concert create what we must designate as conception, which, according to the Law of this same corporeal nature, is indispensable for the generation of Beings composed of matter. This second stage in their progression occurs during the winter, whose influence preserves their strength by keeping them at rest and concentrating all their fire in the center, operating upon them a violent reaction which causes them to exert themselves and renders them more apt to join together and communicate their virtues reciprocally. The third stage in their progression takes place during the springtime, and we can consider this act as that of vegetation or corporification, because it is primarily the third. We have indicated to a sufficient degree that the number three is dedicated to results, both corporeal or incorporeal. Secondly, the saline influences of wintertime, having ceased after having fulfilled their Law of reactivating not only the Principles of the generative seeds but even those of their productions, make use of their faculty and natural property by manifesting externally everything which resides within themselves. That is why the fruits of this vegetative property begin to appear during this season and why we see them issuing from the womb which has given them birth. Finally, summer completes the entire cycle. At this time all the productions issuing from the matrix where they have been formed receive the full action of the sun which brings them to maturity. This is what constitutes the fourth degree of the progression of all corporeal Beings on Earth. We sense, however, that most animals must be excluded from this progression. Even though they are subject to the four stages I have just recognized as being within the special progression of all corporeal Beings, they nevertheless do not always follow the Laws and ordinary length of seasons for their generation and growth. This exception concerning animals should not surprise anyone because, not being inherent to Earth although arising from it, their Law certainly cannot be like that of vegetative Beings which are attached to the earth. The Principle of quaternary universality should not be rejected, because we will perceive that even among vegetative Beings, some do not await the entire revolution of the four seasons to complete their course, whereas others reach this completion only after many annual solar revolutions. Such differences stem from the fact that some need a lesser reaction and others a stronger reaction so as to act and perform their own particular task. Yet these four stages or actions that I have just noted are nonetheless suitable for them and always take place with perfect exactitude in Beings exceptionally early in their development and in those that are exceptionally late in their development. According to what we have learned regarding the number four in its relationship with the area, it is the one number which measures all and carries its action everywhere, although it does not manifest an equal action everywhere as it universally proportions such action to the varying nature of Beings. Do not these observations concerning the properties attached to the four seasons throw light upon the period in which the Universe may have received birth? It is true that this can only concern those people who acknowledge an origin for the Universe. For those who have acted in bad faith or have been blind enough not to recognize an origin of the Universe, this research becomes superfluous. However, persuaded as I am that these very same individuals would profit from what I would say upon this subject, I shall, to the degree I am allowed, lift a corner of the veil before their eyes. Concerning the world's origin, if we consider only the first instant of its corporification, we would surely be tempted, by guiding ourselves according to the order of the seasons, to attribute it to springtime because it is indeed the time of vegetation. But, if we would direct our eyes a little higher and examine all the acts which must have preceded this visible corporification, the origin of the world seed would be necessarily placed in a season other than that of springtime. We would be obliged to agree that the actual progress of universal Nature is the same now as it was at the moment of its birth. The adoption of its constitutive Principles must then have taken place in the same circumstances and in the same period of time in which we perceive the adoption of the particular Principles 19]\n\nperpetuated during its present-day course and existence. In other words, this original adoption must have commenced in autumn. Indeed, this is when Beings cease to experience the sun's heat as this celestial body moves further away from them, so they seek and draw closer to each other in order to supplement its absence by mutually communicating their own warmth. And as we have seen, this is the primary act of what must take place corporeally among individual Beings in Nature. This act must therefore occur in universal Nature in the same way. It is when the sun ceases to be perceptible to those it has warmed until that moment, that corporeal things take the first step toward existence and Nature begins. Using the same analogy, we can presuppose in which season Nature must experience decomposition and cease to exist. In other words, by following the Law of its present course, we should believe that the Universe will obtain the completion of the four acts of its universal course in the summertime. Once this completion is achieved, its career will then be terminated, and by detaching itself from the branch, it will, like all fruits, cease to be and completely disappear while the tree to which it was attached will remain forever. What I have just stated is based upon this generally accepted Law: things always end where they have experienced their beginning. However, I wish to emphasize that although the four acts of the temporal progression occur in all Beings, there are nevertheless some in which this Law operates at different times. Seeing that this progression varies between plants and animals, and even within these two classes it operates so diversely among the different species as well as among different individuals, it would be particularly difficult, for all the more reason, to establish its Law and duration by judging from the particular to the universal. Thus, nothing is further removed from my thought than to attempt to attribute a temporal season to these great periods. And in truth, such matters are entirely superfluous to people, inasmuch as they can acquire a light more useful, certain, and important upon such matters than what falls only upon the periods of transitory Beings by using the flambeau which they carry within themselves. I equally beg to not be accused of contradiction or oversight if you have heard me speak of the existence of the sun prior to the existence of corporeal things. I have not forgotten that the visible sun originated along with all other bodies, and in the same way, but I am also aware that there exists another very physical sun of which the above is merely the form and under whose eyes all acts of Nature's birth and formation have taken place, much as the daily and yearly revolutions of particular Beings occur in the sight and through the Laws of our perceptible corporeal sun. Thus, in their own self-interest, I urge the readers of this book to be wary enough not to judge me before having understood me; and if they wish to understand me, it is necessary that they often look beyond what I have said. Whether through a sense of duty or through prudence, I have left much to be desired. After having indicated in general many of the properties of the square which I have always proclaimed to be unique, I shall briefly describe some of the properties that are connected with its sides. I will then reserve the right to deal with this universal emblem in a slightly more extensive way in the following chapter. The first of these sides, as the base, foundation, or root of the other three sides, is the image of the primary, unique, universal Being, which has manifested Itself within time and within all sensate productions, but which, being Its own cause and the source of all Principle, resides outside of time and the sensate. To become aware of what I have already stated on many occasions - namely, that sensate productions, although originating from it are hardly necessary for its existence - we need only to determine the number which is suitable to it, and there is not a single person who is not aware that it is the Unit. Whatever operation we perform upon this number taken by itself - that is, whether we multiply it, elevate it to the greatest power that the imagination could conceive, or successively search for the root of all these powers - the number, the unit, will always remain as the result in all these operations. The number one, being simultaneously its own root, square, and all powers, necessarily exists by itself and independently of all other Beings. I do not mention division, because this mathematical operation can only be affected upon assemblages, but never upon a simple number such as the unit, which confirms what I have already said regarding the nonexistence of fractions. Nor do I mention the operation of addition, because it is likewise clear that it cannot occur except within composed things and also because a Being which possesses all within itself cannot add anything to itself from a union with any other Being. This serves as proof for everything which has been said heretofore regarding matter, in which those things employed for the growth and nutrition of corporeal Beings never become part of their principles. However, I speak of the multiplication or elevation of powers, as well as the extraction of roots, because the one is the image of the productive property innate within every simple Being, and the other is the correspondence of every simple Being with its production, since it is through this correspondence that reintegration becomes operative. This is what must help to convince us that this primary side of the square, the number one or the primary cause, of which it is characteristic, produces everything through this cause and receives nothing that is not from it or does not belong to it. The second side is what belongs to that active and intelligent cause that I have presented through the course of this work, as holding primary rank among temporal causes. By its active faculty, it directs the course of Nature and corporeal Beings in the same way that, using its intelligent faculty, it directs all the steps of a person, who is similar to it through her quality as an intellectual being. We attribute the second side of the square to this cause for the reason that this second side is the closest to the root. Likewise the active and intelligent cause appears immediately after the primary Being which exists beyond temporal things. Then, if we place it in parallel with the second side of the square, we must therefore also credit it with a dual number; and we perceive that we could not apply this dual number to any Being more appropriately than to this cause since it indicates this to us on its own, as much by its secondary rank as by the dual property which it possesses. And, in actual fact, this active and intelligent cause is the primary agent of all temporal and sensate things, so that nothing here on Earth could ever have existed without its help and, so to speak, without having originated through it. Does not the square itself offer us proof of this? Is not the second of its sides which we are presently examining, the first stage or step towards the manifestation of the powers of its root? In a word, is it not the image of this straight line which is the primary production of the point, and without which there would never have been either surface or solid? Therefore, within the square, we immediately discover two of the most important points for people - namely, knowledge of the primary universal cause and knowledge of the secondary cause which is its primary temporal agent and representative within sensate things. I have dwelt sufficiently elsewhere upon the immense attributes belonging to this active and intelligent secondary cause so that I can dispense with recalling them at this time. And if one wants to have the idea that suits one, it will be enough to never forget that it is the image of the Primary Cause, and loaded with all its powers for all that happens in Time. This is what one can conceive of being true about it: it is at the same time what will teach us, if after it there is no Being in Time in whom we can better place our trust. The third side of the square is that which designates whatever results, that is to say, both those which are corporeal and sensible, and those which are immaterial and beyond Time; for, just as there is a Square assigned to Time, and a Square independent of Time, so there are results attached to each of these two Squares, because each of them has the power to manifest productions, and as the productions that manifest themselves in the one and the other class are always three in number, that is why we apply them to the third side of the square. This is in perfect agreement with what we have seen on bodily productions, all of which are the assembly of three Elements; all that there is to be observed is the considerable distinction which, in spite of the similarity of the Number, is between temporal productions and those which are not; these, coming directly from the Primary Cause, are simple beings like it, and are therefore an absolute existence which nothing can annihilate, the others being born only by a secondary Cause, cannot have the same privileges as the first, but must necessarily feel the inferiority of their Principle; so their existence is only transient, and they do not subsist by themselves, like the beings who have reality. This is what the third side of the square obviously tells us; for if the second has given us the line, the third will give us the surface; and since the number three is at the same time the number of the surface and the number of the bodies, it is clear that the bodies are composed only of surfaces, that is to say, substances which are only the envelope or external appearance of the Being, which, however, neither the solidity nor the life belong to. And indeed, the last operation, indicated by human Geometry, to compose the solid, is only the repetition of those which preceded, that is to say, those which have formed the line and the surface; for the depth which this third and last operation generates is nothing else than the vertical direction of several united lines, and all the difference which is there, is that in the preceding operations the direction of the lines were only horizontal; thus this depth is always the product of the line, and as such, it cannot be anything other than an assembly of surfaces Do we want, since the opportunity arises, to still learn to evaluate more justly what the Bodies are? For this purpose, one only has to follow the reverse order of their formation. The solids will be composed of surfaces, the surfaces of lines, the lines of points, that is to say, of Principles which have neither length nor width nor depth; in a word, which have none of the dimensions of Matter, as I have amply expounded when I have had the opportunity to speak of it. Let us thus bring back the Bodies to their source and their primordial Essence, and let us see by that the idea that we must have Matter. Finally, the fourth side of the square, as repeating the Quaternary Number, by which everything has its origin, offers us the Number of all that is Center or Principle, in any class; but, as we have spoken enough of the universal Principle which is beyond Time, and this square of which we are now dealing has simply the temporal for its object, we must understand by its fourth side only the different acting principles in the temporal class, that is to say, both those who enjoy the intellectual faculties, and those who are limited to the sensible and bodily faculties; and even as to the Immaterial Principles of the corporeal beings on which we have extended ourselves as long as we have been permitted to do, we shall not here recall either their different properties, their innate action, or the necessity of a second action to make the first operate, or in a word, all these observations which have been made on the laws and the course of material Nature. We will just point out, that the relation which can be found between these bodily Principles and the fourth side of the square, is a new proof that, as quaternaries or centers, they are simple Beings, distinct from Matter and therefore indestructible, although their sensate productions, which are only assemblies are subject by their nature to decompose. It is only on the immaterial Intellectual Principles that we must now fix our attention, and among these Principles there is none upon which we can focus more aptly than on humankind at this moment; since it was humankind who was the main object of this writing; since it is in humankind that should essentially reside all the virtues contained in that imposing Square which we are occupied with; since, in the end, this Square has never been traced except for humankind and is the true source of science and enlightenment from which this human being has unfortunately been stripped. It would be by carefully contemplating the fourth side of this square, that the human being would really learn to evaluate its cost and advantages. This would be where at the same time humankind would see the Errors, by which human beings have obscured the foundation and the very object of Mathematics; how much they deceive themselves, when they substitute for the simple Laws of this sublime Science, their faulty and uncertain decisions, and how much they harm themselves when they confine it to the examination of the Material Facts of Nature, while by making another use, they would be able to get so precious fruits. But we know that we can no longer today observe this square from the same point of view as we used to do, and that among the four different classes contained in it, we occupy only the most mediocre and the darkest, instead of in our original state we occupied the first and brightest. It was then that, drawing knowledge from their very source, and approaching, without fatigue and without work, the Principle that had given us being, we enjoyed a boundless peace and happiness, because we were in his Element. It was by this means that we could with advantage and safety direct our progress in all Nature, because, having gained control over all the three lower classes of the temporal square, we could direct them, at our pleasure, without being terrified or stopped by any obstacle: it is, I say, by the properties attached to this eminent place, that we had a certain notion of all the Beings that make up this corporeal Nature, and for that reason we were not exposed to the danger of confusing our own Essence with theirs. On the contrary, relegated today to the last class of the temporal square, we find ourselves at the end of this same bodily Nature that was once submitted to humankind, and that we should never have experienced either resistance or rigor. We no longer have this inappreciable advantage, which we enjoyed in all its extent when placed between the temporal Square and the one that is beyond Time, we could read both in the one and the other. Instead of this light which we could never have separated, we perceived nothing more than a frightful darkness about humankind, which exposes us to all the sufferings to which we are subject in our body, and to all the misunderstandings to which we are trained in our thought by the false use of our will and by the abuse of all our intellectual faculties. It is therefore only too true that it is impossible for humankind to reach today without help from the knowledge contained in the Square of which we are dealing, since it no longer presents itself to us with the face that alone can render it intelligible to humankind. However, I have promised it, I do not want to discourage humankind; on the contrary, I would like to light in us a hope that never went out; I would like to bring consolations for our misery, by committing us to compare it with the means at our disposal to get rid of them. I am now going to concentrate on an incorruptible attribute which we possessed completely in our beginning, and whose enjoyment not only is not totally forbidden to us today, but which is even a right which we can claim, and which offers us the only way and the only means to recover this important place of which we have just spoken. Nothing will appear less imaginary than what I put forth, when one will think that even in our privation we still possesses the faculties of desire and will; that, therefore, having faculties, we must have attributes to manifest them, since the Primary Cause itself is subject, as well as all that pertains to its Essence, to the necessity of being unable to manifest anything without the aid of its attributes. It is true that since the faculties of this Primary Principle are as infinite as the Numbers, the attributes that respond to them must be equally limitless; for not only does this primary Principle manifest productions beyond time, for which it employs attributes inherent to it, and which are distinct from each other only by their different properties; but it still manifests productions in time, and for which, the help of these attributes inseparable from itself, it also needed attributes out of itself, coming from it, acting through it, and were not it; which constitutes the Law of Temporal Beings, and explains the double action of the Universe. But although humankind's manifestations are in no way comparable to those of the Primary Cause, we cannot be denied the faculties we have just recognized in us, as well as the indispensable need for attributes similar to these faculties, in order to enhance them; and since these attributes are the same as those by which we formerly proved our greatness, we Shall see that we should expect the same help today, if we had a constant desire to make use of it, and give them all our trust.\n\n## Chapter 7 - Human Attributes\n\nThose priceless attributes, in which are found humankind's sole resource, are discovered in the knowledge of languages - in other words, in that faculty common to the entire human species for reciprocally communicating their thoughts. It is a faculty which indeed all peoples have cultivated, but they have done so in a way not at all profitable for themselves because they have not applied it to its true object. Consequently, we perceive that the advantages attached to the faculty of speech involve a person's true rights, since he communicates with other people through this means and he makes all his thoughts and feelings perceptible. Only this can truly address his needs in this matter, since all the signs employed to replace speech for those who are deprived of it, whether by nature or accident, fulfill this end most imperfectly. These signs are ordinarily limited to such things as negations and affirmations, all signs by which one may respond to a question. Even if we exhaustively question such people, they cannot transmit a single thought to us, unless - which amounts to the same thing - the object is present before their eyes, and they can make us understand their intention by touch or some other demonstrative sign. Those who have advanced further in this work can be understood only by their teachers or others who have learned the same method. Although this may actually be a kind of language, we nevertheless cannot call it a true language. First, it is not common to all people. Second, it is strongly deficient in power of expression since it lacks the inestimable advantages of pronunciation. In neither this nor any other artificial language will a person's true attributes be found, for nothing that is conventional and arbitrary and constantly shifting can signify a true property. By this explanation, we can already conceive something of the necessary nature of language; for I have said that languages must be common to all people. Yet how can they be common to all people if they do not possess the same signs? Which is to say, properly speaking there can only be one language. I shall not offer as proof the eagerness with which people seek to acquire a great many languages or the admiration we have for those who are so versed, although such eagerness and admiration, false as they may be, do offer some indication of our tendency towards universality and unity. Nor shall I mention the pride with which different nations regard their particular language and the extent to which each nation is jealous of its own. I shall speak even less of the custom established among some sovereigns of corresponding with each other only in a dead language common between themselves in formal matters, for not only is this custom not general but moreover it proceeds from a motive too trivial to carry any weight in the matter under consideration. Therefore, we must find the reason and proof within people themselves for why they were created to have only a single language. In consequence, we will discern the error that has led many to deny this truth and state that language, being simply the product of habit and convention, must inevitably vary like all earthly things, a fact that has caused observers to believe that there could be all at one time many languages equally valid though different from one another. For us to proceed with some certainty, I shall advise these individuals to inquire whether they do not recognize within themselves two kinds of languages - one sensate and demonstrative by means of which they communicate with other people; and the other inner, silent, but always preceding the language which is manifested outwardly, and which is thus truly its mother. I shall ask them then to examine the nature of this inner secret language to determine whether is it anything other than the voice and expression of a Principle outside themselves which etches thought in them and thereby actualizes its inner processes. Now, in accordance with the understanding we have acquired of this Principle, we must realize that since all people are necessarily directed by it, there can exist only one uniform process, aim, and Law, regardless of the innumerable varieties of good thought which can be communicated to them through this channel. But since this process must be quite uniform, as this secret expression must be everywhere alike, it is certain that those who had not allowed the traces of this inner language to decay within them would all understand it most perfectly. They would find everywhere a resemblance to what they sense within themselves. They would perceive the similitude and representation of their selfsame ideas therein. They would learn that, apart from those things arising from the evil Principle, there does not exist anything which 1s foreign to them. Finally, they would convince themselves, in a striking manner, of the universal similarity of the intellectual Being constituting them. This is where they would clearly recognize that the true intellectual language of humankind, being everywhere the same, is essentially one - that it can never vary and that it is impossible for two languages to exist without one being fought and destroyed by the other. Then, in keeping with our understanding, since the outer sensate language is simply the product of the inner secret language, if this secret language were always in conformity with the Principle which must direct it, if it were always one and the same, it would produce the same outer sensate expression everywhere. Consequently, although today we are obliged to employ material organs, we would still have a common language that would be intelligible to all peoples. Therefore, when did sensate languages begin to vary so much among people? When did people become aware of the disparity in the way by which they communicated their ideas? Is it not when this inner secret expression had itself begun to vary? Is it not when humanity's intellectual language had become obscure and was no longer the work of a pure hand? Then, with their light no longer close to them, people indiscriminately accepted the first idea offered to their intellectual Being and they no longer sensed the connection or correspondence between what they received and the true Principle from which they should obtain all. Finally, left to their own devices, people's wills and imaginations have been their only resources, and out of necessity and ignorance they have worshiped all the productions which these false guides have presented to them. This is how the outer expression of language became so totally altered. By no longer perceiving things according to their true nature, people gave them names of their own creation which, by not being analogous to the things they represent, could not designate them unequivocally, as their natural names could have. Even though only a few people may have followed this erroneous road, one which is unlikely to result in uniformity, it is most certain that every one of these people gave different names to identical things. By being repeated and perpetuated a great number of times through the ages, these must in truth offer us the most varied and bizarre spectacle. Let us not doubt that this is the origin of the differences and divisions of languages, and based on what I have said on this subject, even if I had no other proof, this would be more than enough to convince us that people are far removed from their Principle. For, I repeat, if people were all guided by this Principle, their intellectual language would be the same and consequently their outer sensate languages would possess the same signs and idioms. I hope no one will contest what I have just stated concerning the natural and significant names of Beings. Although the different languages used on Earth do not offer uniform names, we are obliged to believe that languages should only make use of names which denote objects clearly and universally. For this reason, none of these languages, differing greatly from one another, can reasonably pass for a true language. Moreover, each of these languages considered by itself, false though it may be, clearly provides proof of what I suggest. Although the words which each language employs may be conventional, might they not still serve as clear and definite signs of the Beings they represent to all those instructed in that conventionally created language? Do we not observe a natural penchant possessed by everyone for expressing things by signs or words that seem to us to be the most analogous? And do we not enjoy a secret pleasure mixed with admiration whenever someone offers us signs, expressions, and figures which bring us closer to the nature of the object presented to us and which cause us to understand them better? Therefore, what else are we doing than repeating the progress of truth itself which has established a common language among all its productions and which, having given to each an appropriate name linked to its essence, has protected them from equivocation among themselves? In using the same means might it not protect those who, faced with the task of reestablishing their connection with its works, have known how to labor and arrive at an understanding of the true names? Thus, we cannot deny that in our very deformity and privation, we trace for ourselves the expressive emblems of the Law of Beings. And the false usage which we make of the spoken word proclaims to us the just and satisfactory usage that we could make of it without needing to go beyond Nature by simply not forgetting the source from which this language should originate. It is therefore true that had observers returned to this inner secret expression which the intellectual Principle operates within us before it manifests outwardly, the origin of the true Principle of sensate language would have been discovered therein, and not in the fragile and impotent causes which are limited to the operation of their own particular Law and incapable of producing anything else. They would not have attempted to explain by simple Laws of matter, facts of a superior order, which have existed before time and will exist beyond time without interruption and independently of matter. This is no longer the organization, no longer the discovery of primitive people which, being transmitted from age to age, has perpetuated itself up to the present time among human species by means of example or instruction. But, as we shall see, this is humankind's true attribute, and although people have been deprived of it since they rebelled against its Law, there have remained to them vestiges which could return them to its source were they to possess the courage of following them step by step and applying themselves vigorously to such endeavors. I am aware that among other people this is one of the most contested points. Not only are they uncertain as to what humankind's primal language could have been, but by deliberations upon the subject they have even arrived at the belief that people do not possess its source within themselves, all because they do not observe them speaking naturally when abandoned at infancy. But will they never see the defect in their observation? Are they not aware that in the state of deprivation in which a person finds herself today, she is condemned to accomplishing nothing, even through her intellectual faculties, without the help of an external reaction which sets them in motion? And thus to deprive a person of this Law is to remove from her absolutely all the resources which Justice accorded her and to place her in the situation of allowing her faculties to become smothered without bearing any fruit. However, we cannot deny that this is the argument of observers based on repeated experiments performed upon children in which the former refrain from speaking in their presence so as to discover what their natural language may be. When they have subsequently perceived that these children made no use of speech or that they uttered only confused sounds, they interpreted their findings according to their fancy and built opinions upon facts that they themselves had concocted. But is it not obvious that sensate nature and intellectual Law likewise call for a person to live in society? Now, why do people find themselves thus placed amidst other people, who are supposed to accomplish their own rehabilitation, if not to receive all the help they need in reawakening their dormant faculties and exercising them for their own benefit? Thus, by depriving a person of the help he should expect from these two Laws is to act directly against them and against humankind itself. It does not indicate much intelligence to pass judgment upon a person after having taken away from him the means of acquiring the ability to make use of faculties that he is said not to possess, an ability they endeavor to believe him incapable of. It is the equivalent of placing a seed upon a stone, observing its inactivity, then denying that this seed was destined to bear fruit. But, without proceeding any further, if it is evident that when a person is deprived of the help which is indispensably necessary to her, he cannot produce any fixed language, and yet seeing that languages do indeed exist among people, where then can we discover the origin of this universal language and will it not be necessary to agree that the person who was the first to teach it must have received it from a source other than the hand of another person? There is, I know, a kind of natural and uniform language that observers generally agree to recognize in people, by which they indicate feelings of pleasure and pain, and which indicates within them the existence of a type of sounds appropriate for this usage. But it is very obvious that this language - if indeed it is a language - has only corporeal sensations for its guide and object. The most convincing proof we have of this is that it is found likewise within animals, most of which manifest their sensations outwardly through movement and even through characteristic sounds. Nevertheless, we should not be surprised to discover this type of language in animals, if we recall the principles established previously. Is not the corporeal Principle of animals immaterial, since no Principle can exist that is not immaterial? As such, must they not possess faculties, and if they possess faculties, must they not have the means to manifest these? Moreover, the means by which each Being functions must always be in relation to its faculties, for if there did not exist some measure in this, as in all else, it would be an irregularity and we could never permit any irregularity within the Law of Beings. Therefore, it is through this measure that we must evaluate the kinds of language by which animals demonstrate their faculties; since, being limited to sensing, they only have need of the means of making known this sensing, and they do possess such means. Beings which possess no other faculties than those of vegetation demonstrate this faculty of vegetation through the fact itself just as clearly, but that is all they demonstrate. Thus, although animals have sensations and are capable of expressing them, although in the actual state of things these sensations are of two kinds, one good and the other bad, and since animals express both by showing when they are happy or suffering, we cannot dispense with limiting their language and all the associated demonstrative signs to this sole object. Nor will we be able to regard this manner of expression as a true language since the aim of a language is to express thought. Thought belongs to intellectual Principles, and I have demonstrated clearly enough that the Principle of animals is not intellectual although it is immaterial. If we are agreed not to regard the demonstrations through which animals make known their sensations as a real language, then, although a person as an animal also has these sensations and the means of manifesting them, we shall never admit to the slightest comparison between this limited and obscure language and that of which people are made aware through their intellectual nature. It would undoubtedly prove to be an interesting and instructive study to observe all through Nature that measure existing between the faculties of Beings and the means accorded them for their expression. In this way we would perceive that their faculties are less extended to the degree to which they are removed by their nature from the first link of the chain. At the same time, we would perceive that the means they possess to make these known follow this progression strictly. In this sense we could accord a sort of language even to the least of created Beings, since this language would be none other than the expression of their faculties and of this uniformity without which there could exist neither commerce, correspondence, nor affinity between Beings of the same class. However, in this study we need to use the utmost care when considering all Beings so as to place each in its own class and not to attribute to one class that which belongs to another. We should not attribute to minerals all the faculties of plants, nor should we attribute to both the same manner of manifesting those faculties which are common to both. Nor should we attribute to plants what we have observed in animals. Much less again should we attribute to those lesser Beings which possess only transitory actions everything that we have just discovered within a person. For this would be again descending into this horrible confusion of languages, the principle of all our errors and the true cause of our ignorance, in that henceforth the nature of all Beings would be distorted for us. However, since full consideration of this point would perhaps exceed the scope intended for my work, I am satisfied merely to mention it, and I leave its consideration to those who possess the modesty to limit themselves to isolated subjects less vast than that with which I am now occupied. Therefore, I return to humankind's most precious resource: its true and original language. I declare once more that as an intellectual and immaterial Being, people must have received faculties of a superior order and consequently the necessary attributes to manifest them during their primal existence. These attributes are nothing other than the knowledge of a language common to all thinking Beings. Furthermore, this universal language must have been dictated to them by a single Principle, of which it is the true symbol. And, finally, people no longer possess these primal faculties in their entirety as we have perceived that, since even thought did not originate within people, the attributes which accompanied these faculties have also been taken away from them and this is why we no longer perceive in them this fixed and invariable language. Yet we must also repeat that humankind has not abandoned the hope of recovering this language, and with effort and courage a person can always aspire to regain possession of his primal rights. If I were permitted to enumerate proofs of this, I would show that Earth abounds with them, and ever since the world's beginning, there has existed a language which has never been lost and will not even be lost after the world has ceased to be, although it must then be simplified. I shall show that people of all nations have had knowledge of it, and that some, although separated by centuries as well as by considerable distances, have understood each other by means of this universal and imperishable language. Through this language we would comprehend how true legislators have learned the Laws and principles by which the possessors of justice have conducted themselves since time immemorial, and how, by regulating their course upon these models, they have possessed the certainty that they were taking the correct steps. We would also perceive true military principles, the knowledge of which great generals have acquired and which they have employed with such success in combat. This language would provide the key to all calculations, the knowledge of the construction and decomposition of Beings as well as that of their reintegration. It would make known the virtues of the north; the cause of the deviation of the compass; the virgin Earth, the object of desire for aspirants to occult philosophy. Finally, without entering here into further detail upon its advantages, I do not fear to state that those it can procure are innumerable and there does not exist a Being upon which its power and light do not extend. But, besides the fact that I could not further expound upon this subject without violating my promise and failing in my duty, it would be most useless for me to speak of it more clearly because my words would be lost upon those who have not cast their eyes in this direction - and their number is nearly infinite. As for those who are proceeding along the path of knowledge, what I have said already will suffice, without it being necessary to lift another corner of the veil for them. Therefore, all I can do to indicate the universal correspondence of the principles that I have established is to beg my readers to call to mind once again this Book of Ten Leaves given to people in their primal origin which they have retained even after their second birth, but of which the understanding and the true key have been taken away from them. I also beg them to examine the relationship that can be perceived between the properties of this book and those of the fixed and unique language, to determine whether there does not exist between them a very great affinity and to try explaining the ones by the others. For this is in fact where the key to knowledge will be found, and if the book in question contains all knowledge as previously explained, the language of which we speak is its true alphabet. I must observe the same precaution when speaking about another essential point which pertains to what I have just covered namely, the means by which this language manifests. It undoubtedly occurs in only two ways, as in all languages; first, by verbal expression manifesting through the sense of hearing, and secondly, by characters or writing manifesting through the sense of sight, the only senses which are connected with intellectual actions. They are found only in people. Although animals also possess these two senses, they serve within the animal only for a material and sensate goal, since animals do not possess intelligence. Thus, the purpose of hearing and sight within animals is only the preservation of the corporeal body, as is true of all their other senses. This explains why animals have neither language nor writing. It is therefore true that it is by these two means that a person attains knowledge of so many elevated subjects, and this language really needs the aid of a person's senses so as to cause her to conceive of its precision, force, and accuracy. And how could this be otherwise since a person cannot receive anything except through the senses? Even in her primal state a person possessed senses through which all else operated, as is true today, but with a major difference - they were not liable to variation in their effects as are the corporeal senses of a person's material body, which offer her only uncertainty and which constitute the primary instruments of her errors. Moreover, how could a person succeed in understanding those who have preceded him or who dwell far away if not through the help of writing? It must, however, be agreed that these same people, whether of the past or separated by distance in the present, must have interpreters or commentators who, being likewise instructed in the true principles of the language of which we speak, make use of it in conversation, thereby bringing times and distances closer. This constitutes one of the greatest satisfactions that true language can bring, because this voice is infinitely more instructive. It is also the rarest, and the art of writing is far more common among people than that of the spoken word. The reason for this is that in our present condition, we cannot ascend except by a gradual process. Indeed, as is true of all languages, the sense of sight ranks below that of hearing, because in nature people receive through hearing, by means of the spoken word, the living explanation or the intellectual part of a language, whereas, by offering to the eyes only an inanimate expression or material object, writing merely indicates it. Be that as it may, it is by means of speech and writing appropriate to true language that a person can instruct herself in everything pertaining to the most ancient of things. For no one has spoken or written as much as have people of ages past, although today many more books are produced than in former times. It is true that there are many among the ancients and the moderns who have deformed writing and spoken language. We can recognize those who have committed such disastrous errors and we can thereby clearly perceive the origin of all languages on Earth - how they have deviated from the primal language, and how the relationship between these deviations and the profound ignorance of peoples has plunged them into an abyss of misery which they have complained about rather than accepting responsibility for this state. We can also learn how the hand which thus wounded these people only intended to punish them rather than to deliver them forever to despair. Its justice being satisfied, it has returned their first language to them with even greater extension than formerly, so that not only can they repair their disorders, but they even possess the means of protecting themselves in the future. If I were permitted to expound further upon the infinite advantages that this language employs by various means, whether through the ears or eyes, I could speak indefinitely. However, considering that it demands the complete sacrifice of a person's will as its price and that it is intelligible only to those who have forgotten their own selves so as to allow the Law of the active and intelligent cause which must govern a person and the entire Universe to act fully upon them, we may then determine whether it can possibly be known to a large number of people. However, not a moment passes when this language does not manifest itself, whether through speech or writing. But a person deliberately closes his ears and looks only for writing within books. How, then, could the true language be intelligible to him? Undoubtedly, an attribute such as that of which I have just described cannot tolerate comparison with any other. This is why I have believed myself justified in proclaiming it as being unique and independent of all the variations in which a person can indulge upon this object. However, it is not enough to have proven the necessity of such a language for the expression of the faculties within intellectual Beings. It is not even sufficient to have assured its existence by announcing that this was where the true legislators and other celebrated people had found the principles, Laws, and motives behind all their great actions. It is also necessary to prove its reality within people themselves, so that they have no further doubt upon this particular subject. It is necessary to point out to people that the multitude of languages in use among other people has varied only in sensate expression, both in written form and in the spoken language. But concerning the Principle, not a single one has strayed from it. They all follow the same course and it is absolutely impossible for them to follow any other. In short, all people on earth possess only a single language, although hardly two of them understand each other. Indeed, we cannot say that any language, imperfect as it may be, is not governed by grammatical principles. This grammar, being none other than a result inherent to our intellectual faculties, adheres so closely to their inner language that we can regard them as being inseparable. Therefore, this grammar constitutes the invariable rule of language among all people. This is the Law to which they are necessarily subject even when they make the worse possible usage of their intellectual faculties or of their inner secret language. It is because this grammar, serving only to direct the expression of our ideas, does not judge whether they are in conformity with the sole Principle which should vitalize them. Its function is only to convey this expression correctly. And this can never fail to happen since it is always correct when motivated by grammar; otherwise, it expresses nothing. For proof of this I shall only make use of what enters into the composition of discourse, or what is generally known as the parts of speech. Among such parts of speech some are fixed, fundamental, and indispensable to the completion of the expression of a thought-and they are three in number. The others are simply accessories, and this is why their number is not generally determined. The three fundamental parts of speech, without which it is completely impossible to express a thought, are the noun or active pronoun [which is the subject], the verb which expresses the manner of existence as well as the action of Beings, and lastly the noun or passive pronoun which is the object or product of the action. Let every person examine this proposition with all the care that she deems necessary and she will always perceive that a discourse of whatever nature can never take place without representing an action. And it is impossible to conceive of an action if it is not directed by an agent which operates it and is followed by the effect which is, must be, or can be the result thereof. If any of these three parts of speech are omitted we cannot acquire a complete notion of the thought involved, and we then sense that something is missing in the order demanded by our intelligence. A noun or a substantive alone signifies absolutely nothing if it is not accompanied by an agent which operates upon it and by a verb which designates the way in which this agent operates upon this noun and disposes of it. Eliminate any of these three signs, and the discourse will then offer only an abbreviated idea of which our intelligence will always await the complement. On the other hand, when these three signs are together, we can complete a thought because we can represent therein the agent, action, and product or the subject. It is therefore certain that this Law of grammar is invariable and that, if we select an example from any language whatsoever, we will find it to be in conformity with the principle that I have just propounded, since it is that of Nature itself and of the essential Laws established within a person's intellectual faculties. Let us now reflect upon everything that I have said regarding weight, number, and measure. Let us determine whether these Laws do not encompass a person, with everything residing within him and everything proceeding from him. Let us also recall what I have said regarding the illustrious ternary, whose universality I have proclaimed. Let us examine whether there exists any object that it does not embrace and let us then learn to acquire a more noble idea than we have attained up to the present regarding the Being who, despite his degradation, can elevate his sight to this point, and who can bring such knowledge and understanding closer to himself and apprehend such a vast conception of the whole. One may, however, object that there are situations in which the three parts that I recognize as fundamental to discourse are not all expressed. Often there are only two, sometimes only one, and at times even none at all, as occurs in a negation or in an affirmation. But this objection will collapse by itself when we observe that in all these cases, the number of the three fundamental parts always preserves its power, and its Law is always in force. This is because those parts of speech that are expressed will be implied. They will always maintain their rank, and only through a tacit relationship with them will others produce their effect. And in truth, if | were to answer a question only with a monosyllable, this monosyllable would always present the image of the ternary Principle, in that it would always indicate on my part some kind of action related to the object presented to me, and it is within the question itself that the part of speech that is implied in my answer would be expressed. I shall not give an example of this, as everyone can easily formulate their own. Thus, I perceive with the greatest evidence everywhere the three signs of the agent, action, and product. This order being common to all thinking Beings, I will not hesitate to state that, even if they so desired, they could not stray from it. I will not mention the order in which these three signs should be arranged so as to conform with the order of the faculties they represent. This order has undoubtedly been interchanged by passing through humankind's hands, and nearly all human languages vary upon this point. But the true language being unique, the arrangement of such signs would not have been subject to all these contrasts had humankind known how to preserve it. However, we should not believe that, even in the true language, these three signs have always been arranged in the same order that they are in our intellectual faculties, because such signs are simply their sensate expression and I have acknowledged that the sensate can never follow the same course as the intellectual. In other words, the production can never be liable to the same laws as its generative Principle. However, the superiority that the true language would have over all other languages lies in the lack of variation in its sensate expression. And this expression, without the slightest alteration, would follow the order and Laws belonging to and specific to its essence. Moreover, this language would have, as we have already seen, the advantage of being protected from all equivocation and always having the same meaning, because it pertains to the nature of things, whose nature is invariable. Of the three fundamental signs to which every expression of our thought is subjected there is one which, through preference, merits our attention and upon which we will direct our eyes for a moment. It links the other two and is the image of the action among our intellectual faculties and the image of mercury among corporeal principles. In a word, it is what grammarians designate as the verb. Therefore, it cannot be overlooked that if the verb is the image of the action, then all sensate production is based upon it. And since the property of the action is to accomplish all, that of its sign or image is to represent and indicate everything that is being accomplished. Thus, let us reflect upon the properties of this sign in the composition of discourse. Let us recognize that the stronger and more expressive it is, the more pronounced and sensate are the results proceeding from it. Let us perceive through an easily accomplished experiment that the effect of everything subject to a person's power or conventions is regulated, determined, and principally animated by the verb. Finally, let the observers examine whether it is not by this sign called the verb, that everything we know to be the most intellectual and active within us is manifested. Let observers determine whether it is not the only one of the three signs which is susceptible to strengthening or weakening expression - whereas, once the designations of the agent and the subject are determined, they remain always the same. This is how we will ascertain whether we have been justified in attributing action to the verb, since it is truly its agent, and its help is absolutely necessary for anything to be accomplished or expressed, even tacitly. This is the place to point out why idle observers and speculative Kabbalists discover nothing: it is because they always speak and they never verb. I shall not expound further upon the properties of the verb. By studying what I have just stated, intelligent eyes will be able to make most important discoveries and convince themselves that a person, at every instant of her life, represents the sensate image of the means by which everything has received birth, operates, and is governed. This, therefore, is another of the Laws to which all Beings possessing the privilege of speech are obliged to submit themselves. This is why I have stated that all the people on Earth possess only one language, although the way in which they express themselves is universally different. I have made no mention of the other parts entering into the makeup of speech. I have simply declared them to be accessories, serving only to aid the expression of words and supplement their weaknesses, and to detail certain relationships to action. Or, if one prefers, they serve as the images and repetitions of the three parts that we have recognized as being the only ones essential in completing the picture of any thought whatsoever. We need to be aware that articles (or the endings of nouns in those languages not making use of articles) serve to express the number and gender of nouns and to determine the essential relationship existing between the agent, the action, and the object of the action. Adjectives also express the qualities of nouns, while adverbs are the adjectives of the verb or action. Finally, the other parts of speech form their relationship and make the sense more or less expressive or the phrasing more harmonious. But, since the usage of these different signs is not uniformly common to all languages, and pertains to a great extent to national customs and habits, all things connected with the sensate must therefore follow such variations. We cannot admit them to the rank of the fixed and immovable parts of speech. Thus, I shall not include them among the proofs offered demonstrating the unity of human language. Nevertheless, I advise grammarians to consider their science with a little more attention than they have undoubtedly shown up to the present time. They will readily admit that languages originate from a source higher than themselves and that all the pertinent Laws are dictated by Nature. But this humble opinion has had little effect upon them, and they are far from surmising the existence of all that could be discovered within languages. Does anyone wish to know the reason for this? It is that these individuals commit the same mistake upon grammar that observers commit upon all sciences. In other words, they give a passing glance to the Principle, but, not possessing the courage to investigate at length, they degrade themselves by directing their attention to tangible and mechanical details which absorb all their faculties and allow the most essential faculty - that of intelligence - to become obscured within them. Therefore, by persuading themselves that the Laws of their science should hold to the Principle as do all other sciences, grammarians will discover in it an unending source of light and truth of which they have scarcely the slightest notion. The small number of these Laws offered to them must seem sufficient in placing them on the right path. If they clearly perceive in these the representative signs of the faculties of intellectual Beings, they will perceive the same thing regarding Beings which are not intellectual. They will then acquire a clear notion of the Principles which have been established concerning matter by simply considering the difference existing between substantives and adjectives. One of them is the Being or innate Principle; the other, the adjective, expresses the faculties of all kinds which are assumed to reside within this Principle. But it must be carefully observed that the adjective cannot join a substantive on its own, and also that the substantive is powerless in itself in the production of the adjective. Both of these await a superior action to bring them together and join them according to its will. And it is only by virtue of this action that they can receive their union and manifest properties. Let us also note that it is the work of thought and intelligence to employ adjectives at the proper place; it is what perceives or creates them and, in some manner, communicates them to the subjects it intends to thus qualify. From now on let us recognize the immense property of that universal action to which we have previously called attention since it is certain that we will encounter it everywhere. Furthermore, after having thus communicated faculties or adjectives to innate Principles or substantives, this same action can extend, diminish, and even remove them completely at will and thereby cause the Being to return to its former state of inaction, a sufficiently tangible image of what it operates in reality upon Nature. However, in this dissolution, grammarians can also perceive without fear of error that the adjective, which is simply the quality of Being, cannot exist without a Principle - a subject or substantive - whereas the substantive can be indicated quite well in speech without its qualities or adjectives. Grammarians may thus perceive a relationship with what has been shown concerning the existence of corporeal immaterial Beings, apart from their sensate faculties. And from this they may also understand what has been said regarding the eternity of the Principle of matter, although matter itself cannot be eternal; being only the effect of a reunion, matter is nothing more than an adjective. This is the method by which they will subsequently conceive how it is possible that a person may be deprived of his primary attributes, since it is by a superior hand that he has been invested with them. But, at the same time, recognizing a person's own insufficiency with even more certainty, they will admit that in order to be reestablished in these same rights, a person must definitely have the help of this very hand that has deprived him of it, and which, as I have previously stated, only demands the sacrifice of his will to return them to him. Grammarians could also discover in the six cases the six primary modifications of matter as well as the detail of the acts of its formation and all the revolutions that it experiences. The genders will represent to them the image of the opposed Principles which are irreconcilable. In short, they could make a multitude of observations of this nature, which, without being the fruit of the imagination or of systems, will convince them of the universality of the Principle and of the fact that one hand directs everything. However, after having established as I have, this unique and universal language offered to a person, even in the state of privation to which she is reduced, I must anticipate the curiosity of my readers concerning the name and nature of this language. Regarding its name, I cannot satisfy them, having promised myself not to name anything. But, regarding its nature, I will admit that each word in this language carries within itself the true meaning of things and designates them so well that it causes them to be clearly perceived. I shall add that this language constitutes the object of the desires of all nations upon Earth and secretly directs people in all their institutions. It is what each of them cultivates privately with care and without realizing it, and which they all endeavor to express in all the works they produce, because it is so well imprinted within them that they cannot produce anything which does not carry its mark. Therefore, to indicate knowledge of this to other people, I can do no better than assure them that it pertains to their very essence and that they are people by virtue of this language alone. Let them then determine whether I have been wrong in telling them that it is universal and if, despite the false usage they make of it, it will ever be possible for them to forget it entirely, since they would need to provide themselves with a different nature in doing so. This is all that I can say regarding the matter in question. Let us now continue. I have stated that this language manifests itself in two ways, as do all other languages - namely, by verbal expression and by writing. As I stated a moment ago, all human works bear its seal, so it is necessary that we quickly examine some of them so as to perceive the relationship they have with their source, no matter how false they may be. Let us first consider those works which, as images of the verbal expression of the language in question, must offer us the most correct and elevated idea of it. Afterwards we shall consider those which have a bearing upon the characters or writing of this language. The first expression of their works generally includes all that is regarded among people to be the fruit of genius, imagination, reasoning, and intelligence - or, in general, what constitutes the object of all possible types of literature and fine arts. In this classification of humankind's productions, we perceive a single prevailing design even though all of them may appear to belong to separate classes. We perceive them all animated by the same motive, which is that of depicting, of proving their object, and of inducing the conviction of its reality or at least giving the appearance of it. If the advocates of some of these types of productions allow themselves to be overcome by jealousy at times, and if they attempt to establish their prestige by heaping contempt upon the other branches that they have not cultivated, they inflict an obvious wrong upon science. We cannot doubt that among the fruits of humanity's intellectual faculties, these merit a preference that will not detract from the others but will, on the contrary, help support them and thereby offer a more solid appreciation of their unequivocal beauty. This idea is certainly shared by all judicious people endowed with sure and true taste. They know that it will only be within an intimate and universal union that their endeavors can find greater force and consistency. For a long time, it has been accepted that all parts of science are connected and reciprocally communicate their help to one another. It is a feeling so natural to people that they carry it with them everywhere, even when they follow a course disavowed by this Principle. If a speaker wants to condemn the sciences, he would need to prove himself well informed in science. If an artist wants to deprecate eloquence, no one would listen to him if he did not employ its language. However, this useful observation, proper though it may be, has been made in a manner so vague as to have produced hardly any fruit. People have accustomed themselves, in this as in all else, to make absolute distinctions and to consider each of these different parts as so many objects, all foreign to one another. This does not mean that we should not discern different types in these products of a person's intellectual faculties, and that everything therein must represent only the same subject. On the contrary, since these faculties are themselves different from one another, and since we can notice striking distinctions within them, it is natural to think that their fruits must indicate this difference and not resemble one another. Yet, at the same time, since these faculties are essentially bound to each other and it is absolutely impossible for one to act without the help of the others, we perceive that the same relationship must prevail between the different sorts of productions and that they all proclaim the same origin. However, I have already said too much about an object which is only superfluous to my scheme. Let me return to the examination that I have begun upon the relationship existing between the unique and universal language and the different intellectual productions of humankind. Whatever the nature of these productions may be, we can reduce them to two classes to which all others pertain. This is because, there being only either the intellectual or the sensate within all existing things, the totality of everything that a person could produce would never have for its object simply one or the other of these two parts. And, in effect, everything that people imagine and produce of this nature on a daily basis is limited either to instruct or excite emotions or to manifest reason or feeling. It is absolutely impossible for people to state or manifest anything outside themselves which does not possess as its object either one or the other of these two points. Regardless of any division we would make of a person's intellectual productions, we will always perceive that they either intend to enlighten and lead to the understanding of certain truths, or they intend to subjugate the intellectual person through the senses and cause her to experience situations in which, no longer being master of herself, she would be under the control of the voice speaking to her and blindly follow the good or evil attraction leading her on. We shall attribute to the first category all the works of reasoning, or in general, all that should proceed only through axioms and all that which is limited to the establishment of facts. To the second, we shall attribute all that which has for its goal the creation of impressions, of whatever nature, upon people's hearts, so as to agitate them in all directions. Now, in either of these two categories, what is the object of the authors' desire? Is it not to show their subject under aspects so luminous or attractive that those who contemplate them cannot contest its truth nor resist the force and allurement of the means used to captivate them? What are the resources they employ to create this effect? Do they not exercise extreme care in approximating the very nature of the object which occupies their attention? Do they not endeavor to return even to its source so as to penetrate its very essence? In a word, do not all their efforts tend to cause the expression to agree perfectly with their conception and render it so natural and true that they are certain to cause the same effect upon other people, were the object itself present before their eyes? Do we not experience this effect upon ourselves to some degree according to the extent of the success of the author in the accomplishment of her purpose? Is not this effect general, and are not similar beauties to be found all over Earth in this same manner? Therefore, this represents to us the image of the faculties of this veritable language we are discussing. It is within the very works and efforts of people that we find the traces of all that has been said concerning the justness and force of its expression as well as that of its universality. We must not be deterred by this inequality of impression resulting from the differences existing in the idioms and conventional languages established among various peoples. This difference in language is but an unintentional defect and not one of nature. A person can succeed in eliminating it by familiarizing himself with the idioms that are foreign to him. This difference could not in any way act contrary to the principle, and I do not hesitate to say that all the languages of the earth constitute so many testimonials confirming it. Although I have reduced the verbal productions of humankind's intellectual faculties to two categories, I have not lost sight of the multitude of branches and subdivisions to which they are susceptible, as much by the number of the different objects which are within the province of our reasoning as by the infinity of variations that our sensate feelings can receive. Without enumerating them or examining each one individually, we may consider in each category a single principal one occupying the primary rank such as mathematics among objects of reasoning, and poetry among those relating to a person's sensory faculty. But, having previously discussed the mathematical part, I shall refer my reader to it so that she may convince herself once again of the reality and universality of the principles that I have expounded. I shall now direct my eyes for a moment upon poetry. I regard it as being the most sublime of the productions of a person's faculties, as it brings him closer to his Principle and proves to him more fully the dignity of his origin because of the transport it causes him to experience. But, to the extent that this sacred language is ennobled ever more by elevating itself towards its true object, to the same extent it loses a part of its dignity when lowering itself to artificial or despicable subjects, upon which it cannot touch without soiling itself as though being prostituted. The very people who have dedicated themselves to this endeavor have always proclaimed poetry as being the language of heroes and of those benevolent Beings, which they have portrayed as watching over the protection and preservation of humankind. Its nobility has been sensed so strongly that they have not feared to attribute it to It, whom they regard as being the Author of All. They have even chosen this language whenever they proclaimed Its revelations or when they have desired to render homage to It. However, it should be unnecessary for me to warn that this language has no relation whatsoever with that trivial form which people among the various nations employ to express their thoughts. Are we not aware that the latter results from their blindness which has caused the belief that beauty could thereby be increased manyfold? Instead, they have only added to their toil and the useless care to which they subject us. The result has been to affect our sensate faculties only, as it cannot fail to encroach upon our true feelings. This language is the expression and voice of those privileged individuals who, being nourished by the continual presence of truth, have depicted it with the same fire which serves as its substance - a fire alive in itself and therefore an enemy to cold uniformity because it directs all its acts, ceaselessly recreates itself, and consequently is always renewed. We can perceive in such poetry the most perfect image of this universal language we are attempting to make known. When it truly attains its object, all things will bow down before it because it possesses, as does its Principle, a consuming fire that accompanies its every move, which softens all, dissolves all, and illuminates all. It is even the first law of poets not to break out in song when they do not sense its warmth. We must not assume, however, that this fire produces the same effect everywhere. Since all these different forms are within its province, it adjusts itself to their differing natures, but it must never manifest without attaining its goal, which is to sweep away everything it encounters in its wake. Let us at this time determine whether such poetry could ever have received birth within a frivolous or corrupted source. Must not the thought which gives it birth be at the highest degree of elevation? Would it not be true to state that the first person must have been the first poet? Let us also determine whether human poetry can indeed be this genuine and unique language which we know belongs to our kind. Definitely not! It is simply a feeble imitation. But I have selected it so as to provide the most suitable idea of poetry because, among the fruits of a person's endeavors, it adheres most closely to her Principle. Moreover, we can say that the conventional measures employed in the poetry invented by people, imperfect as they may appear, must nevertheless provide proof of the precision and justness of the true language in which weight, number, and measure are invariable. Since such poetry applies to all objects, we should also recognize that the true language of which it is, but the image must, with all the more reason, be universal and capable of encompassing everything in existence. In short, by a more detailed examination of the properties connected with this sublime language, we come closer to its model and can read within its very source. In so doing we will perceive why poetry has been celebrated among people throughout the ages, why it has accomplished so many marvels, and where that general admiration arises which all the nations of the earth preserve for those who have distinguished themselves in it. This examination expands ever further our ideas upon the Principle which has given birth to poetry. We will also perceive that the use people often make of poetry debases and distorts it to the point of rendering it unrecognizable, thus proving that poetry for people is not always the fruit of the true language occupying our attention. Employing it to extol people is profane, and making use of it to express passion is idolatrous. Poetry should have no other object than to point out to people the asylum from which it has descended so as to create within people the virtuous desire to follow in its footsteps when returning to this asylum. I have now done enough to indicate the path so that those who entertain certain desires can penetrate much further along this path. Let us now proceed to the second way by which we have learned that true language should manifest itself - namely, by the characters employed in writing. I will not hesitate to state that such characters are as varied and multitudinous as everything else contained in Nature. Not one being exists which cannot find a place in it and serve as its sign. All find their true image and representation in it, thus extending these characters to such an immense number that it is impossible for any person to retain all of them within his memory, not only because of their inconceivable multitude but also because of their differences and peculiarities. Even if we were to suppose that a person could retain all the characters of which she might have knowledge, she still could not delude herself in thinking that she had nothing more to learn about the subject, because Nature produces new things every day. Apart from showing us the infinity of things, the limit and deprivation of our species is also indicated. We can never succeed in embracing everything, since here on earth we cannot even succeed in knowing all the letters of our alphabet. The variety of those objects contained within Nature extends not only to their forms, as we can easily verify, but also to their color and the rank they occupy in the order of things. This causes the writing of the true language to vary as much as the multitude of nuances that we may perceive on material bodies, because each one of these slight nuances conveys as many different meanings. Consequently, the characters employed are as numerous as the points of the horizon, and since each of these points occupies a place belonging to itself alone, each of the letters of the true language also possesses a sense and an explanation which are quite distinct. But I shall stop, 0 Holy Truth! It would be usurping Thy rights to make public Thy secrets, even obscurely. It is for Thee alone to reveal them to whomever Thou desirest and as Thou desirest. I must limit myself to respecting Thy rights in silence, to bring together all of my desires so that other people can open their eyes to Thy Light. Then, disabused of the illusions seducing them, they may be wise and fortunate enough to prostrate themselves at Thy feet. Therefore, always taking prudence for my guide, I shall only say that the great diversity in human languages has been introduced by this infinite multitude of characters and their enormous variety in the true language. Few among them make use of identical signs, but those which agree upon this point still vary as to their number by accepting or rejecting certain signs, each according to its idiom or particular characteristics. Nonetheless, since the characters of the true language are as numerous as the Beings contained within Nature, so is it certain that such characters can originate only within this very Nature. From Nature they draw everything which serves to distinguish them, since nothing beyond Nature is perceptible. This is also why, despite the variety of the characters employed by human languages, they can never go beyond these limits. They are always obliged to render all the signs they make use of in lines and figures, which graphically proves that people cannot invent anything. We shall convince ourselves of all this with several observations upon the art of painting, which may be regarded as having received birth in the characters of the language in question, in the same way that human poetry received birth in its verbal expression. Seeing that this language is unique and as ancient as time itself, we cannot doubt that the characters it employs have been the primary models. Those people who have devoted themselves to its study have often needed to assist their memory with notes and copies. The greatest precision has been necessary in making these copies since the least misrepresentation in the multitude of characters - sometimes distinguished by only the tiniest of differences - would surely distort and confuse them. We will surely sense that if people had been wise, they would have made no other use of the art of painting and, for the sake of this art, they would have been content to limit themselves to imitating and copying the primary characters. If they are, with good reason, so particular concerning the choice of models, where could they find models truer and more exact than those which express the very nature of things? If they are so particular regarding the quality and use of colors, where else should they inquire than to forms which convey the proper colors? In a word, if they desire lasting paintings, how could they succeed more fully than by copying objects always fresh and from which they can make comparison with their productions at any time? Yet the same imprudence which removed people further from their Principle also removed them further from the means provided them in returning to it. People have lost their confidence in those true and luminous guides which, furthering their pure intentions, would surely have returned them to their goal. A person no longer seeks his models in useful and beneficent objects, from which he could continually receive assistance. Instead, he seeks them only in transitory and misleading forms which, offering him only uncertain features and changing colors, continually allow him to stray from his own Principles and despise his own works. This is what happens constantly to a person when she attempts to imitate quadrupeds, reptiles, and other animals, as well as all other Beings surrounding her. This occupation, seemingly so innocent and agreeable, accustoms a person to direct her eyes upon objects foreign to her and causes her to lose not only the sight but the very idea of what is her own. In other words, the objects a person busies herself in representing today are simply the appearance of what she should investigate at all times. According to all established Principles, the copy she makes is inferior to her model, and consequently painting as it is practiced at present is nothing more than a likeness of the likeness. Nevertheless, it is through this same crude form of painting that we shall convince ourselves fully of the incontestable truth proclaimed above - namely, that people can invent nothing. Indeed, is it not always through the representation of material Beings that people compose their paintings? How can they select their subjects elsewhere since painting, being but the science of sight, relates only to the senses and, consequently, only exists to the senses? Let us suppose instead that some painter can not only dispense with seeing sensate objects but can even apprehend his subjects within his imagination by raising himself above them. Such a supposition would be easy to disprove. Let us grant the most liberal scope to the imagination; let us allow it all the fantasies to which it could deliver itself. Let me then ask whether it could ever give birth to anything that is beyond Nature and whether we will ever be in a position to state that it has ever created anything. Undoubtedly, it will possess the faculty of visualizing bizarre Beings and monstrous assemblages of which Nature, in truth, cannot provide any examples. But are these chimerical Beings not the product of various pieces joined together? And of all these pieces, will there ever be a single one that is not found among the palpable things of Nature? It is therefore certain that in painting, as well as in all other forms of art, the inventions and works of humankind are nothing more than transpositions. Far from producing anything on her own, all of a person's works are limited to the allocation of another place to things. Thus, by learning to evaluate the worth of her productions in painting as in all other arts and although still devoting herself to this charming occupation, a person will stop believing in the reality of her works since this reality does not exist even in the models she selects. Needless to say, this crude form of painting carries with it striking indications that it descends from a more perfect art. In this sense it gives us further proof of that superior writing belonging to that unique and universal language whose properties we have indicated. In effect, it requires the resemblance of sensate Nature in everything it represents. It does not desire anything that shocks the eyes or judges. It embraces all the Beings of the Universe; and it even extends a bold hand to higher Beings. But it is then truly reprehensible, because, first of all, not being able to make such Beings known except through sensate and corporeal features, it thereafter debases them in the eyes of a person, who can only know them through the sensate, even though these Beings are not part of the material realm. Secondly, when the art of painting attempts to represent higher Beings, where does it find the model for those bodies which they do not possess and which artists nonetheless attempt to give them? Undoubtedly it could only be among the material objects of Nature, or - what amounts to the same thing - these bodies can be found within a poorly regulated imagination which, even within its very disorder, can only employ the material Beings surrounding contemporary humankind. Therefore, what relationship can exist between the model and the image which has been substituted for it, and to what conception have these kinds of images given birth? Is it not clear that this is one of the most disastrous consequences of people's ignorance, that which has exposed them the most to idolatry and which continually contributes towards engulfing them in profound darkness? And in truth, what can lifeless matter and features represented according to the painter's imagination produce if not the obliteration of the simplicity of Beings, the knowledge of which is so necessary to a person and without which all of his kind is delivered over to the most frightening superstitions? Is it not thus that the steps of a person, as alike as they are in appearance, lead him unwittingly astray and cast him into precipices once he no longer perceives the edge? People, therefore, have contented themselves with confusing the cruder forms of painting and their handiworks with the true characters copied from Nature itself. They have even disregarded the Principle from which these true characters derive their origin. In other words, perceiving that they were the masters of employing at will all the different features of this corporeal nature when composing their paintings, they have had the temerity to rely complacently upon their own work, thus neglecting the superiority of the models which they should have chosen and the source which could produce them. Having lost sight of them, they no longer even suspect their existence. We can say as much regarding heraldry which likewise derives its origin from the characters of the true language. The average person takes pride in the nobility of her armorial bearings, acting as though their symbols were real and truly carried with them the rights which preconceived opinion attributes to them. Allowing herself to be blinded by the puerile distinctions that he herself attaches to such symbols, she has forgotten that they are simply the dismal images of the natural arms physically accorded to each person so as to serve as her defense and to act also as the seal of her virtue, strength, and grandeur. Finally, the average person has acted in the same way upon the verbal expression of that sublime language from which it has been established that poetry originated. The arbitrary words and languages of human convention have taken the place of the true language in people's thoughts. In other words, because these conventional languages possess neither uniformity nor a fixed course in a person's eyes regarding expression, symbols, and generally everything that is sensate within them, he has not perceived their universal relationship with the language of the intellectual faculties, of which they are but a distorted imitation. Since the very idea of the Principle of this unique and universal language, which alone could enlighten him, has become effaced within him, he can no longer distinguish it from those which he himself has established. If a person is so ignorant as to place her works alongside those of the true and invariable Principles; if her audacious hand believes itself to equal that of Nature; and if she almost always confounds the works of this Nature with the general or particular Principle which manifests them, we should no longer be surprised that all of a person's notions are so confused and obscure. Not only has she lost the knowledge and the intelligence of the true language, she is no longer even persuaded that one exists. Nonetheless, if this true language is the only one which could reinstate a person within his rights, return to him the enjoyment of his attributes, cause him to understand the principles of Justice, and lead him to knowledge of everything in existence, it is easy to perceive how much he loses by straying from it and not devoting every moment of his life to recovering knowledge of it. No matter how immense, how frightening this course may be, no individual should ever abandon himself to despair and discouragement. I have always declared this very language to be the veritable domain of humankind and that people have been deprived of it for only a time. Far from being deprived of it forever, the hand which will return a person to it is, on the contrary, forever extended. The price attached to this favor is truly so moderate and so natural that it provides further proof of the kindness of the Principle which requests it. It consists simply of asking a person not to give equal weight to the two distinct Beings of which she is composed; and to recognize the difference in the Principles of Nature between them, and that which exists between them and the temporal cause superior to this same Nature. In other words, we must believe that a person is not matter and that Nature does not manifest on its own. We still need to examine one of the products of this true language, whose concept I am attempting to teach again to people. Being an adjunct to the verbal expression of language, this product measures its pronunciation and regulates its force. In a word, it is that art which we call music, but which among people is still stmply a shell of true harmony. Such verbal expression cannot employ words without causing sounds to be heard. This intimate relationship of words with sounds forms the fundamental Laws of true music. It is what we imitate in our artificial music, to the degree it is possible for us to do so, by the pains we take in depicting the meaning of our conventional words through sound. But, before indicating the basic defects of such artificial music, let us consider some of the true principles it offers us. We may thus find a sufficiently striking relationship with everything that has been established to convince ourselves that it still pertains to the same source, and that henceforth it is within the province of a person. Moreover, in this examination we may perceive that we always remain infinitely below our model, no matter how admirable our talents in musical imitation are. This will cause a person to determine whether this powerful instrument was given him simply to engage in childish amusements or whether it was not destined for a nobler employment from its inception. First of all, what is known in music as the perfect chord is for us the image of that primal Unity which contains everything within itself and from which all things issue. This chord is singular in nature, entirely complete in itself without needing the aid of any other sound but its very own. In short, it is unalterable in its intrinsic value because of its similarity to Unity. We must not count as an alteration the transposition of its sound, from which chords of differing denominations result. This transposition does not introduce any new sounds within the chord and, consequently, its true essence cannot be changed. Secondly, the perfect chord is the most harmonious of all, being in itself what is agreeable to a person's ear and leaving nothing to be desired. The three first sounds composing this chord are separated by two intervals of thirds which are distinct but linked to one another. This is where the repetition of everything occurring within sensate things is found. A corporeal being can neither receive nor preserve its existence without the aid and support of another Being, as corporeal as it is, thus reviving its forces and sustaining its existence. Finally, these two thirds are surmounted by a fourth, of which the terminating sound is called an octave. Although the octave is simply the repetition of the initial sound, it nevertheless fully designates the perfect chord. This is because the octave pertains essentially to the chord, as it is included within the original sounds that a resonating body causes to be heard above its own particular sound. Thus this quaternary interval is the primary agent of the chord. It is placed above the two ternary intervals so as to preside over and direct the entire action, much as the active and intelligent cause dominates and presides over the dual Law of all corporeal Beings. This interval cannot allow any mixture, no more than the active and intelligent cause can, and when it operates alone as does the universal temporal cause, all of its results are sure to be exact. However, I am aware that the octave, being in truth a mere repetition of the initial or fundamental sound, can be omitted and not entered into the enumeration of the sounds composing the perfect chord if need be. But, basically, the octave is what essentially terminates the scale. Moreover, we need to include the octave if we wish to know the nature of the alpha and omega and possess obvious proof of our chord's unity - all of this through a mathematical reasoning that I cannot reveal except by stating that the octave is the primary agent or organ by which we have arrived at the understanding of ten. Nor should it be demanded that in the sensate description I present there exist complete uniformity with the Principle of which it is but the image, because the copy would then be equal to the model. However, even though this sensate description is inferior and, moreover, subject to variation, it nevertheless exists in a complete way and represents the Principle because our senses instinctually fill in the rest. It is through such reasoning, and after having presented the two thirds as being connected with one another, we refrain from stating that both need to be heard. We are aware that both may be heard separately without offending the ear, but this will not cause the Law to be less valid, since the interval thus heard always preserves its secret correspondence with the other sounds of the chord to which it belongs. Therefore, the same situation still holds true, although we now perceive only one part of it. We may also apply the same reasoning whenever we wish to omit the octave, or even all the other sounds of the chord, and retain but one, whatever it may be. One sound heard alone is not offensive to the ear and, moreover, this sound could in itself be considered the generative sound of a new perfect chord. We have noted that the fourth is dominant over the two inferior thirds and that these two inferior thirds are the image of the dual Law directing elementary Beings. Is this not where Nature itself indicates to us the difference existing between a body and its Principle by causing us to perceive the one in subjection and dependence, whereas the other is its leader and support? These two thirds represent to us by their differences the state of perishable things of a corporeal nature which exist only through the union of differing actions. And the last sound formed by a single quaternary interval is a new image of the primary Principle, because it reminds us of its simplicity, grandeur, and immutability, as much through its rank as through its number. This does not mean that this harmonic force is more permanent than all other created things. As soon as it becomes sensate, it must pass, but this does not prevent, during its passing, its picturing to the intelligence the essence and stability of its source. Therefore, we find within the assemblage of the intervals of the perfect chord everything that is passive and everything that is active - in other words, everything that exists and everything of which a person can conceive. Yet it is not enough that we have perceived the representation of all things, both general and particular, within the perfect chord. Through fresh observations we may yet perceive the source of these same things and the origin of the distinction existing between these two Principles which took place before time and which manifest continually within time. To this end, let us not lose sight of the beauty and perfection of this perfect chord which obtains all of its advantages from itself alone. We can easily determine that if it had always remained within its own nature, complete harmony and order would have been perpetually maintained. Evil would be unknown because it would not have been born. In other words, only the action of the good Principle's faculties would have manifested because it is the only one that is real and true. How then was it possible for the second Principle to have become evil? How was it possible for evil to have originated and become manifest? Was it not when the superior and dominant sound of the perfect chord - in short, the octave - was suppressed and another sound was introduced in its stead? Now, what is this sound that was introduced in place of the octave? It is what immediately precedes it. We are aware that the new chord resulting from this change is called the chord of the seventh, and we are also aware that this seventh chord fatigues the ear, holds it in suspense and, in terms of musical art, demands that it be rescued. It is therefore through the opposition of the perfect chord to this dissonant chord, and to all those which are derived from it, that all musical productions are created. These are nothing other than a constant interplay that could be termed a combat between the perfect chord, or consonance, and the chord of the seventh, or generally, all dissonant chords. Why does this Law thus indicated by Nature not represent to us the image of the universal production of things? Why do we not discover herein its principles as we have previously discovered the assemblage and the constitution of it within the order of the intervals of the perfect chord? Why should we not put our finger and direct our eyes upon the cause, the beginning, and the result of universal temporal confusion since we are aware that, within this corporeal nature, there reside two Principles which are in constant opposition and that this nature cannot sustain itself except through the help of two contrary actions proceeding from the combat and violence we perceive? This is the mixture of regularity and disorder that harmony and composition faithfully represent to us through the combination of consonances and dissonances permeating all musical productions. Nevertheless, I hope that my readers will be wise enough to simply perceive the exalted truths of which I have spoken in such images. They will undoubtedly sense the allegory when I shall proclaim to them that, if the perfect chord had remained within its true nature, evil would yet to be born. This is because, according to established principle, it is impossible for the musical order, within its particular Law, to equal the superior order that it represents. Moreover, the musical order having been founded upon the sensate, and the sensate being simply the product of numerous actions, if only a continuity of perfect chords were to be offered to the ear, it would in truth remain undisturbed. But, apart from the tedious monotony that would result, we would discover neither expression nor order. In short, this would not constitute music for us because music, and generally everything that is sensate, is incompatible with both the unity of action and of agents. Consequently, in acknowledging all the laws necessary for the constitution of musical works, we can nevertheless apply these same laws to truths of another rank. This is why I shall continue my observations upon the chord of the seventh. By replacing the octave by this seventh, we perceived that one principle was placed alongside another, from which nothing can result except disorder according to the dictates of most sound judgment. We perceived this to be even more evident by noting that the seventh producing dissonance was likewise the sound immediately preceding the octave. Yet this seventh, being such in relation to the fundamental sound, can also be regarded as a second in relation to the octave, which is a mere repetition of the fundamental sound. We shall then recognize that the seventh is not at all the only dissonance in that the second likewise possesses this property. Therefore, any joining of two diatonic tones is condemned by the special nature of our ear, and whenever the ear senses two consecutive notes sounding simultaneously, it will be offended. Thus, since in the scale absolutely nothing other than the second and the seventh can be found in this particular relationship with the lower sound or its octave, this causes us to perceive clearly that any result or product in this field of music is based upon two dissonances from which all musical reaction arises. By subsequently extending this observation to sensate things, we shall perceive with the same evidence that these sensate things never could have been, and can never be, anything other than the product of two dissonances. Despite all efforts we may make, we shall never discover any origin for disorder other than the number connected with these two kinds of dissonance. Furthermore, by observing that what is generally called the seventh is in effect a ninth, since it is simply the assemblage of three very distinct thirds, one can determine whether I have led my readers astray when previously stating that the number nine is the true number of the area and matter. If, on the contrary, we choose to direct our eyes upon the number of consonances or sounds harmonizing with the fundamental sound, we shall perceive that they are four in number - namely, the third, the fourth, the true fifth, and the sixth. In this instance, it is not necessary to speak of the octave as an octave since we are concerned only with the particular divisions of the scale, among which this octave does not possess any other character except that of the fundamental sound itself of which it is the image. We could consider it as the fourth of the second tetrachord, which would not alter in any way the number of the four consonances that we are establishing. I will never be able elaborate upon the infinite properties of these four consonances to the extent that I would wish. I truly regret this because it would be easy for me to indicate with striking clarity their direct relationship with unity, and to indicate the way in which universal harmony is connected to this quaternary consonance and why it is impossible for any Being to remain in good condition without it. But, at every step, prudence and duty prevent me because in these matters one single point leads to all the others. I would never have undertaken to deal with even a single point if the errors with which the human sciences poison humankind had not led me to take up its defense. Nevertheless, I have promised myself not to finish this treatise without offering a few more detailed explanations upon the universal properties of the quaternary. I am not unmindful of my promise and I propose to fulfill it to the degree I am allowed to do so. But for the present, let us again return to the seventh. Let us note that although the seventh causes deviation from the perfect chord, the resulting crisis and revolution help to bring about order and the rebirth of peace for the ear, since one is obliged to reenter the perfect chord following this seventh. What is referred to in music as a series of sevenths - which is none other than a continuity of dissonances and which can never be avoided without ending with the perfect chord or its derivatives - I do not consider to be contrary to this principle. This very same dissonance also repeats for us what occurs within corporeal nature, whose course is simply a series of disorders and rehabilitations. If this same observation has previously indicated to us the true origin of corporeal things, and if it causes us to perceive today that all natural Beings are subjected to this violent law which presides at their birth, during their life, and at their demise, why could we not apply the same law to the entire universe? Why could we not recognize that if violence has caused it to be born and sustain its existence, violence must also operate its destruction? It may be noted that at the moment a musical composition is completed, a confused beat is ordinarily heard, a trill between one of the notes of the perfect chord and the second or the seventh of the dissonant chord. This dissonant chord is indicated by the bass which usually holds the fundamental note, so as to return the complete composition to the perfect chord or unity. We must also perceive that following this musical cadenza, we will necessarily return within the perfect chord, which reestablishes complete peace and order. It is certain that, following the crisis experienced by the elements, the Principles in conflict must also recover their tranquility. Then, applying the same reasoning to a person, we must understand the degree to which true musical knowledge could preserve him from the fear of death since death is merely the trill which terminates his state of confusion and returns him to his four consonances. What I am saying concerning this subject is sufficient for my readers' intelligence. It remains for them to extend the limits which I have prescribed for myself. Consequently, I may presume that they will not consider dissonances in music to be vices, but only an indication of the contraries governing all things. From such dissonances music's greatest beauty is obtained. My readers will even conceive that, in the harmony of which the music of the senses is simply the image, there must exist the same opposition from dissonance to consonance. Far from causing even the slightest defect, they are its sustenance and life. The intelligence perceives within it only the action of several different faculties which mutually sustain rather than combat one another and which, by their reunion, cause the birth of a multitude of results that are always striking and fresh. Therefore, this is only a very abbreviated extract of all the observations of such nature that I could make upon music and the relationship existing between music and important truths. But what I have said regarding this subject is sufficient to make apparent the reason of things and to teach people to not isolate their different forms of knowledge since we are indicating to them that they all are simply different branches of the same tree and that the same impress exists everywhere. Is it necessary to speak at this time about the obscurity in which the science of music still remains? We could begin by asking musicians what their rule is for obtaining tonality - that is, their scale or diapason - but if they lack one and are forced to construct one for themselves, they need to be certain of having something stable in this field. Then, if they do not possess a fixed diapason, the result is that the numerical relationship which may be obtained from their artificial diapason, with sounds which must be its correlatives, are not true tonalities either. The principles which musicians represent to us as true, using the numbers they have accepted, can simultaneously exist as other numbers, depending upon the scale's being higher or lower. This renders absolutely unreliable most of their opinions upon the numerical values they attribute to different sounds. However, I speak here only of those who have attempted to evaluate these different sounds by the number of vibrations in chords of other resonating bodies. A fixed diapason is then definitely necessary so that the resonating bodies are essentially similar, and in this way one can regulate their results authoritatively. But as these two methods were not accorded to people, since matter is only relative, it is obvious that everything they may establish upon such a basis would be liable to many errors. Therefore, it was not within matter but within the very nature of things that we should have searched for the principles of harmony. According to all that we have observed, matter cannot offer the principle of anything as it is never stable; but within the nature of things, since everything is stable and always the same, it is only necessary to have eyes to read the truth therein. Finally, a person would have perceived that she had no other rule to follow except what is found within the dual relationship of the octave, or within that wellknown double reason which is written upon all Beings and from which triple reason has descended. This would have retraced anew for her the dual action of Nature and the third temporal cause established universally upon the two others. At this point I shall limit my observations upon the defects of the Laws that people's imaginations have introduced within music, because anything that I could add would always pertain to this primal error and it is so obvious that I do not need to pursue this subject any further. I shall merely advise the innovators to meditate at length upon the nature of our senses and to notice that the sense of hearing, and that of the other senses, is susceptible to habit. Even acting in good faith, they have been mistaken as they have failed to notice this, and they have created for themselves rules based upon suppositions and unproved things, which time only has caused to appear true and normal. However, it remains for me to examine the use people have made of this music with which they are almost universally occupied, and to determine whether or not they have ever suspected its true application. Apart from the innumerable beauties of which music is susceptible, we recognize in it a strict Law. It is that rigorous measure from which it absolutely cannot deviate. Does not this alone proclaim that music possesses a true Principle and that the hand which directs it is higher than the power of the senses, since the senses possess no stability? Yet, if it pertains to this kind of principles, it is therefore certain that it was never meant to have any other guide and it was intended to be united to its source forever. As we have already perceived, its source being that primal and universal language which indicates and represents things in their natural state, we cannot doubt that music has not been the true measure of things in the same way that writing and the spoken word have expressed their meaning. Therefore, simply by attaching itself to this invariable and fruitful principle, music could have maintained its original rights and fulfilled its true function. This is how it could have painted true-to-life pictures and how all the faculties of its listeners would have been fully satisfied. In short, through this method, music would have accomplished the marvels of which it is capable, and which have been attributed to it at all times. Consequently, in separating music from its source by trying to find its subjects only within artificial sentiments or vague ideas, we have deprived it of its primary support and have removed the means of presenting itself in all its glory. Therefore, what impressions or effects does music produce at the hands of people? What ideas or meanings does it convey to us? Aside from composers, are there many ears which could possess the understanding of what they hear expressed by perceived music? And furthermore, does not the composer himself, after having given rein to his imagination, ever lose the sense of what he has represented or of what he has attempted to depict? Thus, there is nothing more formless or defective than the usage which people have made of this art. This is solely because, having so little occupied themselves with its Principle, they have not endeavored to uphold one by the other reciprocally and they have believed that they could produce copies without having their model before their eyes. It is not that I blame other people for seeking within the infinite resources of this artificial music the pleasure and relaxation it can offer. Nor do I wish to deprive them of the solace which, despite its defects, this art can provide them every day. It can, I am well aware, sometimes assist in reviving within them several of these obscured ideas which, being more refined, may be their sole nourishment and which alone can cause them to discover a point of support. But I shall always advise them to elevate their intelligence above what their senses apprehend, because a person's element is not within the senses. I shall advise them to believe that, however perfect their musical production may be, some are more regular and belong to another order, and that it is even only according to the degree of relative conformity with them that artificial music attracts us and causes us some degree of emotion. When I laid stress upon the precision of the measure to which music is subject, I did not lose sight of this Law's universality. On the contrary, I propose to return to it so as to indicate that, although it embraces all, it nevertheless possesses distinct characteristics and everything here is in full accord with all that has been established. Measure has been shown holding its place among people's intellectual faculties and as being numbered among the Laws directing them We have thereby been able to realize that these intellectual faculties, being themselves the image of the faculties of the superior Principle to which a person is indebted for all, this Principle must also possess its own measure and its own particular Laws. Therefore, if superior things possess their own measure, we should no longer find it surprising that the sensate and inferior things they have created are also subject to it, and consequently, that we should discover within this measure a strict guide for music. But, if we would briefly reflect upon the nature of this sensate measure, we would soon perceive the difference existing between this nature and that which regulates the things of another order. In music, we notice that the measure is always uniform. Once established, the movement perpetuates and repeats itself by the same form and by the same number of beats. In short, everything within it appears so regular and exact that it is impossible not to sense the Law and admit its necessity. This is why this uniform measure is so well adapted to sensate matters, and why we perceive people applying it to all of their productions which occur only as continuous action. We note that this Law serves as a point of support upon which they are content to rest, and we even perceive them making use of it in their most arduous works. In this way we can appreciate the extent of the advantage and usefulness of this powerful aid, since through this aid the worker seems to alleviate hardships that would otherwise appear unbearable to her. Moreover, music can be of assistance in instructing us concerning the nature of sensate things. Offering us such regularity within action and, I dare say, such servitude, it clearly proclaims to us that the residing Principle is not the director of this same action, but on the contrary, everything is constrained and forced within this Principle. This brings to mind what we can observe in different parts of this work concerning the inferiority of matter. Consequently, this only offers us a marked dependence and all the signs of a life that we cannot recognize as other than passive. In other words, not possessing an action of its own, it is obliged to await and receive it from a superior Law which disposes of it and subjects it to its command. Secondly, we may notice that this Law regulating the course of music manifests itself in two ways or by two types of measure known as the two-beat measure and the three-beat measure. We will not take into account the four-beat measure nor all the other subdivisions that can be formulated and which are simply multiples of the two basic measures. Even less can we accept a one-beat measure for the reason that sensate things are neither the result nor the effect of a single action, but have originated and exist only through the means of several united actions. It is the number and quality of such actions we find plainly indicated within the two different types of measure employed in music, as well as within the number of beats that these two types of measure contain. And most certainly, nothing would be more enlightening than to consider this combination of two and three beats in relation to all material things. This is where we would clearly perceive once more the double reason and the triple reason directing the universal course of things. But these points have already been given too much attention. I merely urge people to evaluate what surrounds them, and by no means may I communicate to them the knowledge that can only be the reward of their own desires and efforts. With this in view, I shall promptly bring to an end what I have yet to say regarding the two sensate measures of music. To determine which of these two measures is employed in any given musical composition, we must wait for the completion of the first measure or, what amounts to the same thing, for the beginning of the second measure. Only then does the ear become attuned and sense the number upon which it can depend. As long as a measure is not completed in this manner, we can never know what its number will be since it is always possible to add to the beats already heard. Consequently, is this not an indication to us within Nature itself of an oft-repeated truth, that the properties of sensate things are not stable but only relative, and that they only sustain themselves by one another? If it were not so, a single one of their actions in manifesting itself would carry its own true character and would not await comparison to make itself known. Therefore, the inferiority of artificial music and of all sensate things is such that they only contain passive actions. Their measure, although self-determined, can only be known to us in relation to the other measures with which comparison is being made. Among things of an order more elevated and fully beyond the sensate, this measure makes itself known by more noble traits. In this instance, each Being possesses its own action and also a measure proportional to this action within its Laws. At the same time, since each of these actions is always new and different from what precedes and follows it, it is easy to perceive that the measure accompanying them can never be identical. Thus, the uniformity of measure prevailing in music and sensate things will not be found within this class. Within perishable Nature, everything is subject to dependence and manifests only blind execution. This is simply the effect of the forced assemblage of many agents subject to the same law which, always converging towards the same end in the same way, can only produce a uniform result as long as they experience no disturbance and encounter no obstacles in the accomplishment of their action. In imperishable Nature, on the contrary, all is alive and simple. Each action carries its own Law within itself-in other words, the superior action itself regulates its own measure, whereas measure regulates the inferior action or that of matter and of all passive Nature. Nothing more is needed for us to sense the countless differences existing between artificial music and the living expression of this true language which we proclaim to people as being the most powerful of the means destined to reestablish them within their rights. Therefore, let people now learn how to distinguish this unique and invariable language from all the artificial productions that they continually substitute in its stead. The unique and invariable language, harboring its own Laws within itself, always manifests only those which are just and in conformity with the Principle which makes use of them. Artificial products are created by a person while he is in the shadows and he is unaware whether his actions are in conformity with this superior Principle from which he is separated and which he no longer knows. Thus, when a person observes that her handiwork varies continuously, that the misuse she has made of languages multiplies endlessly in the use of the spoken word and in writing and music; when she perceives that here on Earth we know only the number of things and that most of us die without ever having known their names, then a person will no longer believe that the Principle through which she gives birth to her productions is subject to the same vicissitudes and obscurity. On the contrary, a person will admit that, today, being unable to accomplish anything except through imitation, his works will never possess the solidity of those which are real. Then, debating whether it is possible for everyone to view the model from the same vantage point, he will sense nevertheless that, as this model is in the center, it remains always the same in comparison to the Principle, whose Laws and will it expresses. And, if people were courageous enough to draw nearer to it, they would perceive that all these differences, which occur only because they are so far removed from the center, gradually fade away. Therefore, a person will no longer attribute the properties of the priceless seed which resides within her to habit and imitation. On the contrary, she will agree that habits and imitations are what degrade and obscure the properties of this true, simple, and indestructible seed. In a word, if a person had known how to anticipate all these obstacles or if she had had enough strength to overcome them, she would possess a language as common to herself and to all other people as the essence which constitutes them and which establishes a universal resemblance between them. Indeed, the unity of people's Principle and essence makes it conceivable to better sense the possibility for the unity of their language. If, through the rights of their nature they can all possess the same concepts upon the Laws of Beings, upon the rules of justice, upon their religion and worship, they can then hope to recover use of all their intellectual faculties. In short, if they all tend towards the same goal, if they all have the same work to perform, and if they, however, cannot succeed without the help of languages, it is essential that this attribute be capable of acting through a uniform Law analogous to the universality and intimate unity of all their knowledge. That is why, without recalling all that we have said concerning the superiority of this true language, we believe we can make our readers understand rather clearly how unique and powerful it must be by repeating that it is the only path which can lead a person to Unity and the source of all powers. In other words, it can lead a person to the root of that square of which it is his task to traverse all the sides and of which, according to my promise, I will here reveal the properties and virtues. Previously we have seen established in sufficient detail the relationship of the square, or quaternary number, with causes external to humankind and with the Laws regulating the course of all Beings in Nature. But all that was previously shown is enlightening enough to end any further doubt that this universal emblem must possess an even more interesting relationship with a person, in that it is in more direct relation to himself and that it personally concerns him. Therefore, no one exists who does not recognize in the square a very great affinity with the fourth of the Ten Leaves comprising that Book which, before humankind's reprobation, was always clear and intelligible to people, but which today they can no longer read nor comprehend except through the succession of time. We will, moreover, perceive just as easily a striking similarity with the powerful weapon which was placed in humankind's possession at the time of humanity's original birth and of which the laborious quest constitutes the primary law of a person's condemnation and the sole object of her temporal course. Even still more will we discover the analogy with the productive center that a person occupied at the time of his glory and which he will never fully know without reentering it. Play\n\nAnd truly, what can better remind us the eminent rank that a person occupied at the time of his origin than this square? This square, as well as the root of which it is the product and image, is singular in nature. The place which a person inhabited is such that it could never be compared with any other. This square measures the total circumference. A person, in the center of his kingdom, embraced all the regions of the Universe. This square is composed of four lines: a person's position was indicated by four communicating lines extending to the four cardinal points of the horizon. This square proceeds from the center and is clearly indicated to us by the four musical consonances which are the primary agents of all the beauties of harmony and which precisely occupy the center of the scale. A person's throne was in the very center of the countries over which he had dominion. And from there he governed the seven instruments of his glory, which I have previously designated as the seven trees. The majority of people would be tempted to assume them to be the seven planets; however, they are neither trees nor planets. Therefore, we can no longer doubt that the square in question is the true sign of this delightful place known upon Earth as the terrestrial paradise. In other words, it is that place of which all peoples have conceived some idea; which each of them has represented in the guise of different fables and allegories according to their wisdom, enlightenment, or blindness; and which naive geographers have sought to discover upon Earth. Thus, the immensity of the privileges which we have attributed to this square in the different sections of this book wherever we have made mention of it must no longer surprise anyone. If all truth and all enlightenment proceed from this sole Principle, if the quaternary emblem is the most perfect image of it, I say one must no longer be surprised that this emblem could enlighten a person upon the knowledge of all phases of Nature. By this I mean the Laws of the immaterial order, temporal order, corporeal order, and mixed order, which constitute the four columns of the edifice. In short, we must admit that the person who possesses the key to this universal symbol will no longer find anything hidden from her in everything that exists, because this number is identical to that of the Being which produces, operates, and embraces all. Yet, however innumerable are the advantages which are connected with it, and however powerful is the true and unique language which leads to it, we are well aware that the unfortunate state of a contemporary person is such that not only can he not reach his destination, but he cannot even take a simple step in that direction without a hand other than his opening the door for him and supporting him all during his lifetime. We are also aware that this powerful hand is that same active and intelligent physical cause, whose eye sees all and whose power supports all existing within time. Yet if its rights are exclusive, how could a person, in her weakness and most absolute privation, and alone in Nature, dispense with such support? Therefore, a person must acknowledge once again both the existence of this cause and the indispensable need that he has of its help so as to reestablish himself in his rights. He will also be obliged to admit that, if it alone can fully satisfy his desire concerning the difficulties which disturb him, the first and the most useful of his duties is to renounce his own weak will as well as the false glimmer of light by which he endeavors to color its errors and to rely solely and absolutely upon the powerful cause that today is the unique guide which must lead him. And truly, this cause is designated to repair not only the wrongs which a person has allowed to occur but even those which she has committed against herself. This cause is continually watching over her, as it does over all other Beings of the Universe, but a person is infinitely more precious to it since she is composed of its own essence and is equally indestructible. Of all the Beings corresponding to the square, they alone are endowed with the privilege of thought, whereas this perishable Nature is, in their eyes, seemingly nonexistent and like a dream. Will not a person's confidence increase in this cause in which all powers preside when he learns that this cause eminently possesses the true and unique language which he has forgotten and which he is today obliged to recall laboriously to his memory; when he realizes that without this cause he cannot know its primary element; and most of all, when he perceives that it resides within and rules supremely over this fruitful square outside of which he will find neither peace nor truth? A person will then no longer doubt that by approaching nearer to it, she approaches nearer to the true and unique light which is her only hope. And along with it, she will discover not only all the knowledge of which we have dealt, but even more importantly, knowledge of herself. Even though this cause pertains to the source of all numbers, it nevertheless manifests itself everywhere, especially through the number of this square, which is likewise the number of humankind. If only it were possible for me to lay aside the veil with which I enfold myself and pronounce the Name of this beneficent cause, the very image of strength and excellence, and upon which I wish I could direct the attention of the entire Universe! Even though this ineffable Being, the key to all Nature, the love and delight of simple Beings, the flambeau of the wise, and even the secret support of the blind, does not cease to sustain a person in all his steps, in the same way that it supports and directs all the actions of the Universe, nevertheless, the Name which would make it better known, were I to utter it, would suffice to cause a majority of people to scorn giving credence to its virtues. It would only make them wary of my entire doctrine. Designating it more clearly would thus have the effect of defeating my purpose, which is to cause people to render it honor. Therefore, I prefer to rely upon the penetrating intelligence of my readers, fully persuaded that, despite the veil with which I have concealed the truth, intelligent people will be able to understand it. Sincere people will be able to appreciate it, and even corrupt people will at least be unable to refrain from sensing it, because all people are Christs. This summarizes the reflections that I have proposed to present. If my pledges had not restrained me, I could undoubtedly have covered a much wider field. Nevertheless, in the few remarks that I have dared to present, I pride myself in having offered only what all people will sense within themselves, whenever they attempt to search inwardly with courage and at the same time protect themselves from blind credulity and haste in their judgments, two vices which both lead to ignorance and error. Consequently, even if I did not possess my own conviction as proof, I would always believe that I have recalled people to their Principle and to truth. Indeed, a person will never be deceived by representing to her forcefully what constitutes her privation and misery, as long as she is bound to transitory and sensate things, and also by pointing out to her that, among this multitude of Beings surrounding her, she and her guide are the only ones who enjoy the privilege of thought. Ifa person desires further proof of this, let him consult within this sensate class regarding all that he perceives surrounding him. Let him inquire of the elements, enemies though they may be, why they are united for the formation and existence of bodies. Let him inquire of the plant why it vegetates, and the animal why it roams upon the surface of the earth. Let him even inquire of the stars why they give light, and why, from the moment they came into existence, they have not for a single instant ceased to follow their course. Deaf to the voice that will interrogate them, each of these Beings will continue to perform its work in silence. They will not render any satisfaction to the desires of a person because their silent actions, speaking only to her corporeal eyes, will reveal nothing to her intelligence. Moreover, let a person inquire of that which is infinitely closer to himself - I speak of that corporeal envelope which he painfully carries with him. Let him ask it why it happens to be joined to a Being with which, according to the Laws constituting him, it is so incompatible. This blind form will not clarify this new problem any better and will still leave a person in uncertainty. Therefore, is there a condition more frustrating and, at the same time, more humiliating than to be relegated to a region in which all Beings living therein are so many strangers to us? Where the language we use to address them cannot be understood? Where, finally, a person, in spite of herself, being chained to a body which is not superior in any way to the other productions of Nature, drags along everywhere with her a Being with which she cannot converse? Thus, regardless of the grandeur and beauty of all these works of Nature among which we are placed, it is certain that being among them is similar to being in a desert in that they can neither understand us nor speak to us. Consequently, if observers were convinced of these truths, they would not have searched in corporeal Nature for the explanations and solutions that it can never provide. Nor would they have searched within contemporary people for the true model of what they should be, since they are so horribly distorted. Nor would they have attempted to explain the Author of All things by Its material productions, whose existence and Laws are subordinate and thus cannot reveal anything concerning It who encompasses all within Itself. Thus, announcing to observers that the path they have taken creates in itself the primary obstacle to their progress and removes them entirely from the road of discovery is to state a truth to which they will easily agree, whenever they may be willing to consider it. Likewise, since they cannot deny possessing the faculty of intelligence, is not telling them that they are created to know and embrace all, speaking the language of their own reason? A faculty of this kind would not be as noble as we sense it to be if, among transitory things, there existed some which ranked above it. Nor would people make such constant effort, as a natural movement, to escape from the annoying fetters of ignorance and bring themselves closer to knowledge, as to a realm which is particularly their own. If they have so little reason to compliment themselves upon their success, they must no longer attribute it to the weakness of their nature nor to the limits of their faculties. It is solely due to the false path they take in attaining their destination. Also, because they do not observe with sufficient attention that each class possesses its own measure and Law, the senses are required to judge sensate things. As long as things are not sensed by the body, they appear nonexistent, since the intelligence is required to judge intellectual things of which the senses can have no knowledge. In short, attempting to apply to one of these classes the Laws and the measure of the other clearly goes against the order dictated by the very nature of things, and consequently, this departs from the only existing method for discerning the truth. Therefore, I find it possible to believe that I am offering to other people only easily perceived truths when I state that the object of their search exists only in the center. For this reason, as long as they travel only around the circumference, they will discover nothing. This center, which must be unique in each Being, is indicated to us by that universal square which is evident in all existing things and is found written everywhere in indelible characters. I have made available to them only a few of the methods of reading within this productive center, which is the sole Principle of light, because, aside from my obligation, revealing myself further would have caused harm. Most certainly they would not have believed me. Therefore, as I have promised myself, I will refer them to their own experience, and never have I pretended, as a person, to possess any other rights. However, few are the means of which I have given them some idea, and however few are the steps that I have caused them to take in their progress, they will not fail to attain some confidence upon perceiving the expanse it has disclosed to their eyes and the application which we have made upon so great a number of different objects. Since it would be contrary to all the Laws of truth to assert that the multitude and diversity of objects could constitute what is forbidden to a person's understanding, I do not assume that this field could by its very vastness appear impracticable to other people. Definitely not. If a person is born within the center, there exists nothing that he cannot perceive, nothing that he cannot embrace. On the contrary, the only fault that he could commit would be to isolate and dismantle some phases of universal knowledge, since this would divide Unity by directly attacking its Principle. And in this sense, let my readers decide between this method and my own. Despite the prodigious variety of points that I have covered, I have unified all and made it a single science. Observers, on the other hand, make a thousand sciences of it, and every matter becomes the object of a separate doctrine and study. Nor do I need to call their attention to the fact that, after having presented all these observations regarding the various human sciences, they must assume that I possess at least basic notions regarding these. Moreover, by observing the marked reserve prevailing in this writing and the widely prevalent veil found herein, they can presume that I would probably have more to say to them than what they have perceived and more than what is generally known among them. However, far from viewing them with contempt when considering the obscurity in which they still dwell, all of my wishes tend to perceive them emerging from the darkness so as to direct their steps towards paths more luminous than those in which they grovel. Continuing in the same vein, although I have been fortunate enough to have been led farther than they in the search for truth, far from being consumed with pride and far from believing that I know anything, I openly proclaim my ignorance. In anticipation of their suspicion upon the sincerity of this admission, I will add that it would be impossible for me to delude myself upon this subject because I possess proof that I know nothing. This is why I have so often stated that I have no pretension of leading my readers to some conclusion. It will be enough for me to have somehow forced them to admit that the blind course of human sciences takes them even farther from the goal towards which they tend, since it leads them to even doubt that such a goal exists. They will be forced to admit that by depriving the sciences of the single Principle which directs them and from which they are in themselves inseparable, they can only become further immersed in the most fearful ignorance, rather than becoming enlightened. It is only by having rejected this Principle that observers search everywhere and why they almost never agree among themselves. Therefore, I repeat, it is enough today to have unveiled for them the essential point of the difficulties standing in their way. Truth will extend its rays more abundantly in the future and it will, in its own time, again take possession of the kingdom for which the vain sciences contend today. As for myself, being ever so slightly worthy of contemplating it, I have been obliged to confine my endeavors to causing other people to sense that it exists, and that a person, despite her misery, could convince herself of this every day of her life if she would better regulate her will. Therefore, I know that it would afford me the most exquisite recompense if, after having read my book, each person would say in the heart of her heart, there is a Truth, but I can address myself to something superior to humankind so as to learn it.\n"}
 {"text": "# THE CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME\n\n## Contents\n\n- Note By The Editor\n- Introduction\n- Chapter 1\n- Chapter 2\n- Chapter 3\n- Chapter 4\n- Chapter 5\n- Chapter 6\n- Chapter 7\n- Chapter 8\n- Chapter 9\n- Chapter 10\n- Chapter 11\n- Chapter 12\n- Chapter 13\n- Chapter 14\n- Chapter 15\n- Chapter 16\n- Chapter 17\n\n## Note By The Editor\n\nONE day last winter, in a moment which I must confess to have been idle, I took up Dr. Alexander Whyte's \"Appreciation\" of Behmen as, following William Law, he calls him. There I found the following passage: \"While we have nothing that can properly be called a biography of Jacob Behmen, we have ample amends made to us in those priceless morsels of autobiography that lie scattered so plentifully up and down all his books. And nothing could be more charming than just those incidental and unstudied utterances of Behmen about himself. Into the very depths of a passage of the profoundest speculation Behmen will all of a sudden throw a few verses of the most childlike and heart-winning confidences about his own mental history and his own spiritual experience. And thus it is that, without at all intending it, Behmen has left behind him a complete history of his great mind and his holy heart in those outbursts of diffidence, depreciation, explanation, and self-defence, of which his philosophical and theological, as well as his apologetic and experimental, books are all so full. It were an immense service done to our best literature if some of Behmen's students would go through all Behmen's books, so as to make a complete collection and composition of the best of these autobiographic passages. ... It would then be seen by all, what few, till then, will believe, that Jacob Behmen's mind and heart and spiritual experience all combine to give him a foremost place among the most classical masters in that great field.\" I turned at once to the massive volumes of English translation which the eighteenth century has bequeathed to us. My copy has the name of Maurice on the title-page - Frederick Denison Maurice - for whom Boehme was, he said, \"a generative thinker,\" and on the fly-leaf there is John Sterling, whose granddaughter gave me the books. There I found, where before I had looked for the doctrine only, the man himself. I determined to do my best to extract from the formless mass of writings what was necessary to show that man.\n\nThe old translation was known to be as faithful as could fairly be hoped for, and nothing better existed or could now be made. Twentieth-century English would not do. So I used my own copy and followed it very closely. No translation is as sacred as an original, and I have therefore allowed myself to make small changes in the interests of clearness and accuracy, while carefully respecting both the style of the translator and the mind and meaning of the author.\n\nMy task has been in the main one of rigorous omission; I have kept only what was precious for my purpose. Everything that did not reveal the man himself I have rejected; but some of his doctrine is eminently the man, and this I have retained. The outcome, I believe, is a spiritual autobiography which, although it is by a writer who was born nearly three hundred and fifty years ago and has been read and studied by thousands, has never been seen in its continuity before.\n\n## Introduction\n\nIM Wasser lebt der Fisch, die Pflanze in der Erden,  \nDer Vogel in der Luft, die Sonn' am Firmament,  \nDer Salamander muss im Feu'r erhalten werden,  \nUnd Gottes Herz ist Jakob Boehmes Element.  \n*Angelas of Silesia*.\n\nI\n\nJACOB BOEHME, who reveals to us in this book some of the secrets of his inner life, was among the most original of the great Christian mystics. With a natural genius for the things of the spirit, he also exhibited many of the characteristics of the psychic, the seer, and the metaphysician; and his influence on philosophy has been at least as great as his influence on religious mysticism.\n\nNo mystic is born ready-made. He is, like other men, the product of nurture no less than of nature. Tradition and environment condition both his vision and its presentation. So, Boehme's peculiar and often difficult doctrine will better be understood when we know something of his outer life and its influences. He was born of peasant stock in 1575, at a village near Gorlitz on the borders of Saxony and Silesia, and as a boy tended cattle in the fields. Of a pious, dreamy, and brooding disposition, even in childhood he is said to have had visionary experiences. Not being sufficiently robust for field-work, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker; but, his severe moral ideas causing disputes with the other workmen, he was dismissed and became a travelling cobbler. During this enforced exile, which coincided with the most impressionable period of youth, Boehme learned something of the unsatisfactory religious conditions of his time; the bitter disputes and mutual intolerance which divided Protestant Germany, the empty formalism which passed for Christianity. He also came into contact with the theosophic and hermetic speculations which distinguished contemporary German thought, and seemed to many to offer an escape into more spiritual regions from the unrealities of institutional religion. He was himself full of doubts and inward conflict; tortured not only by the craving for spiritual certainty but also by the unruly impulses and passionate longings of adolescence that \"powerful contrarium\" of which he so constantly speaks which are often felt by the mystic in their most exaggerated form. His religious demands were of the simplest kind: \"I never desired to know anything of the Divine Majesty ... I sought only after the heart of Jesus Christ, that I might hide myself therein from the wrathful anger of God and the violent assaults of the Devil.\" Like St. Augustine in his study of the Platonists, Boehme was seeking \"the country which is no mere vision, but a home\"; and in this he already showed himself a true mystic. His longings and struggles for light were rewarded, as they have been in so many seekers at the beginning of their quest, by an intuition of reality, resolving for a time the disharmonies that tormented him. Conflict gave way to a new sense of stability and \"blessed peace.\" This lasted for seven days, during which he felt himself to be \"surrounded by the Divine Light\": an experience paralleled in the lives of many other contemplatives.\n\nAt nineteen, Boehme returned to Gorlitz, where he married the butcher's daughter. In 1599 he became a master-shoemaker and settled down to his trade. In the following year, his first great illumination took place. Its character was peculiar, and indicative of his abnormal psychic constitution. Having lately passed through a new period of gloom and depression, he was gazing dreamily at a polished pewter dish which caught and reflected the rays of the sun. Thus brought, in a manner which any psychologist will understand, into a state of extreme suggestibility, the mystical faculty took abrupt possession of the mental field. It seemed to him that he had an inward vision of the true character and meaning of all created things. Holding this state of lucidity, so marvellous in its sense of renovation that he compares it to resurrection from the dead, he went out into the fields. As Fox, possessed by the same ecstatic consciousness, found that \"all creation gave another smell beyond what words can utter,\" so Boehme now gazed into the heart of the herbs and grass, and perceived all nature ablaze with the inward light of the Divine.\n\nIt was a pure intuition, exceeding his powers of speech and thought: but he brooded over it in secret, \"labouring in the mystery as a child that goes to school,\" and felt its meaning \"breeding within him\" and gradually unfolding \"like a young plant.\" The inward light was not constant; his unruly lower nature persisted, and often prevented it from breaking through into the outward mind. This state of psychic disequilibrium and moral struggle, during which he read and meditated deeply, lasted for nearly twelve years. At last, in 1610, it was resolved by another experience, coordinating all his scattered intuitions in one great vision of reality. Boehme now felt a strong impulse to write some record of that which he had seen, and began in leisure hours his first book, the *Aurora*. The title of this work, which he describes as \"the Root or Mother of Philosophy, Astrology, and Theology,\" shows the extent to which he had absorbed current theosophic notions: but his own vivid account - one of the most remarkable first-hand descriptions of automatic or inspirational writing that exists - shows too how small a part his surface mind played in the composition of this book, which he \"set down diligently in the impulse of God.\" Boehme, like the ancient prophets and many lesser seers, was possessed by a spirit which, whether we choose to regard it as an external power or a phase of his own complex nature, was dissociated from the control of his will, and \"came and went as a sudden shower.\" It poured itself forth in streams of strange and turbid eloquence, unchecked by the critical action of the intellect. He has told us that during the years when his vision was breeding within him he \"perused many masterpieces of writing.\" These almost certainly included the works of Valentine Weigel and his disciples, and other hermetic and theosophic books; and the fruit of these half-comprehended studies is manifest in the astrological and alchemical symbolism which adds so much to the obscurity of his style. Like many visionaries, he was abnormally sensitive to the evocative power of words, using them as often for their suggestive quality as for their sense. A story is told of him that, hearing for the first time the Greek word \"Idea,\" he became intensely excited, and exclaimed: \"I see a pure and heavenly maiden!\" It is to this faculty that we must probably attribute his love of alchemical symbols and the high-sounding magical jargon of his day.\n\nA copy of the manuscript of the *Aurora* having fallen into the hands of Gregorius Richter, the Pastor Primarius of Gorlitz, Boehme was violently attacked for his unorthodox opinions, and even threatened with immediate exile. Finally he was allowed to remain in the town but forbidden to continue writing. He obeyed this decree for five years; for him, a period of renewed struggle and gloom, during which he was torn between respect for authority and the imperative need for self expression. His opinions, however, became known. They brought him much persecution - \"shame, ignominy, and reproach,\" he says, \"budding and blossoming every day\" - but also gained him friends and admirers of the educated class, especially among the local students of hermetic philosophy and mysticism. It was under their influence that Boehme - his vocabulary now much enriched and his ideas clarified as the result of numerous discussions began in 1619 to write again. In the five years between this date and his death, he composed all his principal works. Their bulk - and also, we must confess, their frequent obscurities and repetitions - testify to the fury with which the spirit often drove \"the penman's hand.\" Some, however, do seem to have been written with conscious art, to explain special points of difficulty; for Boehme's first confused and overwhelming intuitions of reality had slowly given place to a more lucid vision. The \"Aurora\" had turned to \"a lovely bright day,\" in which his vigorous intellect was able to deal with that which he had seen \"couched and wrapt up in the depths of the Deity.\" Thus the *Forty Questions* gives his answers to problems stated by the learned Dr. Walther, principal of the chemical laboratory at Dresden. His reputation had now spread through Germany, and eminent scholars came to his workshop to learn from him. In 1622 he left off the practice of his trade and devoted himself entirely to writing and exposition.\n\nThe publication of the beautiful *Way to Christ*, which was privately printed by one of these admirers in 1623, caused a fresh attack on the part of his old enemy Richter. For once, Boehme condescended to controversy, and replied with dignity to the violent accusations of blasphemy and heresy brought against him. He was nevertheless compelled by the magistrates to leave the town, where he now had a large number of disciples. He went first to the electoral court of Dresden; there meeting the chief theologians of the day, who were deeply impressed by his prophetic earnestness and intense piety, and refused to uphold the charge of heresy. In August 1624, the death of Richter allowed him to return to Gorlitz; but he was already mortally ill, and died on November 21st of that year, at the age of forty-nine.\n\nII\n\nIn trying to estimate the character of Boehme's teaching, it is important to realize the sources of his principal conceptions. Though his early revelations, abruptly surging up from the unconscious region, seemed to him to owe nothing to the art of reason, yet it is undeniable that they were strongly influenced by memories of books read, beliefs accepted, and experiences endured. The \"lightning-flash\" in which he had his sudden visions of the Universe, also illuminated the furniture of his own mind and gave to it a fresh significance and authority. Thus it is often his own interior drama which he sees reflected on the cosmic screen; a proceeding which the \"theosophic\" doctrine of man as the microcosm of the Universe helped him to justify. His unstable temperament, with its alternations between gloom and illumination, its constant sense of struggle, its abrupt escapes into the light the \"powerful contrarium\" with which he \"stood in perpetual combat\" - conditions his picture of the eternal conflict between light and darkness at the very heart of creation; the crude stuff of striving nature and the formative Spirit of God. The \"living running fire\" which he feels in his own spirit, is his assurance of the Divine fiery creative energy.\n\nFurther, the Lutheran Christianity which formed the basis of his religious life contributed many elements to his scheme. Thence came the intense moral dualism, the Pauline opposition between the \"dark-world\" of unregenerate nature and the \"light-world\" of grace, the doctrines of the Trinity and of regeneration, and generally those credal symbols which he often uses in a theosophic sense. He is familiar with the Bible, making constant though sometimes fantastic use of its language and imagery. Finally, the German mystics and hermetic philosophers of the Renaissance, in whom he was deeply read, gave him much of the raw material of his philosophy. Alchemy in his day was still a favourite toy of speculative minds; being understood partly in the physical, partly in the transcendental sense. The \"doctrine of signatures,\" which is the subject of one of Boehme's later works, was still taken seriously as a guide to practical medicine; the stuffed crocodile hung in the laboratory, the toad and the spider were carefully distilled. Yet for the spiritual alchemists the quest of the Stone was the quest of an unearthly perfection, and human nature was the true matter of the \"great work.\" This \"hermetic science,\" in which chemistry, magic, and mysticism were strangely combined, plainly made a strong appeal to Boehme; and its influence upon his work was not always fortunate. But his debt to the more genuinely mystical writers of the sixteenth century, especially the Silesian reformer, Caspar Schwenckfeld, and Valentine Weigel, is of far greater importance. Certainly through Weigel, and perhaps also at first-hand, he became acquainted with Paracelsus, whose doctrine of humanity as the sum of three orders - the natural, the astral, and the divine - he adopts in the *Threefold Life of Man* and *Three Principles of the Divine Essence*. Through Weigel, too, he traces his descent from the great German mystics of the fourteenth century; for the saintly pastor of Zschopau was soaked in the works of Tauler, and edited that pearl of Christian mysticism the *Theologia Germanica*. Boehme, therefore, was far from being an isolated spiritual phenomenon. He was fed from many sources; but all that he received was fused and remade in the furnace of his own inner life. The result was a new creation, as unique as the White Stone which the alchemist made from his mercury, sulphur, and salt; but we do it no honour by ignoring the elements from which it sprang.\n\nIt is not possible to extract from Boehme's vast, prolix, and often difficult works any closed system of philosophy. Often he repeats himself, sometimes contradicts himself, or hides his meaning behind a haze of inconsistent symbols; for his writing never wholly lost its inspirational character. But as we study these writings we gradually discern certain guiding lines, certain fixed characters, which help us to find our way through the maze. These, thoroughly grasped, enable us to recognize order and meaning in that which is often an apparent chaos; to enjoy and understand something of that revelation which transformed the little Saxon cobbler into a prophet of the Kingdom of God.\n\nBoehme's map of reality is based, like that of most mystics, on the number three, and has several interesting points of contact with Neoplatonism. The universe in its essence consists of three worlds, which are \"none other than God Himself in His wonderful works.\" Without and beyond Nature is the Abyss of the Deity, \"the Eternal Good that is the Eternal One\": a Plotinian definition of the Absolute which may have reached Boehme through Eckhart and his school. The three worlds are the trinity of emanations through which the transcendent Unity achieves self-expression. Boehme calls them the fire-world, the light-world, and the dark-world. They are not mutually exclusive spheres, but aspects of a whole. By them \"we are to understand a threefold Being, or three worlds in one another\"; and all have their part in the production of that outward world of sense in which we live.\n\n*Fire* is the eternal energetic Divine will towards creation; that unresting life, born of a craving, which inspires the natural world of becoming. \"What ever is to come to anything must have Fire\": it .is the self-expression of the Father. From the primal fire or fount of generation in its fierceness are born the pair of opposites through which the Divine energy is manifested: the \"dark-world\" of conflict, evil, and wrath which is Eternal Nature in itself, and the \"light-world\" of wisdom and love, which is Eternal Spirit in itself the Platonic *Nous*, the Son of Christian theology. The dark-world represents that quality in life which is recalcitrant to all we call divine; \"unregenerate nature,\" which was for Boehme no illusion but a dreadful fact. It is the sphere of undetermined non-moral striving, and of all \"biting, hating, and striking and arrogant self-will among men and beasts.\" The light-world is the sphere of all determined goodness and beauty; the state of being towards which the fiery impulse of becoming should tend. It is the Word, or \"Heart of God,\" as distinguished from His Will, and holds within itself all those values which we speak of as divine. In the Light is \"the eternal original of all powers, colours, and virtues.\" Here again, we perceive the Platonic ancestry of one of Boehme's most characteristic ideas. In and through this Light the crude strivings of the fiery life-force are sublimated; its titanic zest is transformed into \"the desire of love and joy.\" The Dark is necessary to it, because \"nothing without opposition can become manifest to itself.\"\n\nThe outer world in which we dwell according to the body is the creation of the Fire and the Light. Ignoring the separate existence of the dark-world, which is then looked upon as one aspect of the Fire, Boehme sometimes speaks of this physical order as the third Divine Principle, or sphere of the Holy Spirit, the \"Lord and Giver of Life\"; who is thus assigned a position very close to the Plotinian *Psyche*, or \"soul of the world.\" This outer world, he says, is \"both evil and good, both terrible and lovely,\" since in it love and wrath strive together. \"The Nature-life works unto Fire, and the Spirit-life unto Light.\" The business alike of universal and of human life, the essence of its \"salvation,\" is the bringing of the Light out of its fiery origin - spiritual beauty out of the raw stuff of energetic nature. This perpetual shooting up of life from nature-dark to spirit-light is sometimes called by Boehme the \"new birth of Christ\" and sometimes the \"growing up of the Lily.\" It is happening all the while; the triumphant self-realization of the perfection of God. He sees the universe as a vast alchemic process, a seething pot, perpetually distilling the base metals into celestial gold.\n\nAs with the cosmos, so with its microcosm man. He, too, is in process of becoming. The \"great work\" of the hermetists must be accomplished in him, and he must accept its \"anguish\" the conflict of the fire and the light. \"Man must be at war with himself, if he wishes to be a heavenly citizen.\" The combat is inevitable, and the victory is possible, because we have the essence of all three worlds within us, and are \"made of *all* the powers of God.\" The eternal Light \"glimmers\" in every consciousness. \"When I see a right man,\" says Boehme, \"there I see three worlds standing.\" Hence human life is \"a hinge between light and darkness; to whichever it gives itself up, in that same does it burn.\" Its possibilities of adventure are infinite. The arc through which it may swing is as wide as the difference between hell and heaven. Fire - anguish, effort, and conflict - it cannot escape; this is the manifestation of that will which is life. But it can choose between the torment of its own separate dark fire the self-centred craving which is the essence of sin and self-abandonment to the divine fire of God's unresting will towards perfection. The one sets up a whirlpool within the eternal process: the other contributes its store of energy and love to that universal work which transmutes the dark elements into the light, and heals the apparent cleavage between \"nature\" and \"spirit.\" \"Our whole teaching,\" says Boehme, \"is nothing else than how a man should kindle in himself God's light-world.\" That world is here and now; and his one aim was to open the eyes of other men to this encompassing and all-penetrating reality. All lies in the direction of the will: \"What we make of ourselves, that we are.\" For him, the universe was primarily a religious fact: its fiery energies, its impulse towards growth and change, were significant because they were aspects of the life of God. His cosmic vision was the direct outcome of spiritual experience; he told it, because he wished to stimulate in all men the spiritual life, make them realize that \"Heaven and Hell are present everywhere, and it is but the turning of the *will* either into God's love or into His wrath, that introduceth into them.\" When the restlessness of becoming, the anxious craving, which should lead both cosmic and human life to its bourne, is turned back on itself and becomes a fiery self-devouring desire, a \"wheel of anguish,\" the alchemic process goes wrong. Then is produced the condition which Boehme calls the *turba;* and the *turba* is the essence of hell. But everyone who yields himself to the impulse of the Light stands by that very act in the heaven of God's heart; for \"Heaven is nothing but a manifestation of the Eternal One, wherein all worketh and willeth in quiet love.\"\n\nHence at the end of this vast dynamic vision, this astonishing harmony of the scientific and the Christian universe, we find that the imperatives which govern man's entry into truth are moral: patience, courage, love, and surrender of the will. These evangelical virtues are the condition of our knowledge of reality; for though \"God dwells in all things, nothing comprehends Him unless it be one with Him.\" This is the doctrine of all the great mystics, and they have proved its truth in their own lives. Such an attunement of human to divine life is the real object of Christianity: and we must not forget that Boehme was before all else a practical Christian, for whom his religion was a vital process, not merely a creed. He complained that the orthodox of his day were content to believe that Christ had once died for them; but such acceptance of history saved none. \"A true Christian is not a mere historical new man\" - he is a biological fact, the crown of the \"great work\" of spiritual alchemy. Christian history is only \"the cradle of the Child\"; the framework within which the law of regeneration is perpetually manifested, and the \"heavenly man,\" citizen of the eternal light-world, is brought forth in the world of time. This, says Boehme, \"we heartily wish that the titular and Lip-Christians might once find by experience in themselves, and so pass from the history into the substance.\" It was from the fulness of his own experience that he wrote, as this collection of his personal declarations shows. In it we see how close was the connection between his inner life and his \"mystical\" vision; the great moral demands and perpetual conflicts which conditioned his intuitive knowledge of reality. That knowledge was the fruit of the \"earnest seeking\" pursued from adolescence to the end of his earthly life: of a will and craving persistently yet humbly set on the only rational object of desire, and turning to its purposes every element of his threefold nature. Such completeness of dedication is the foundation of all sane mysticism, and works in those who achieve it a veritable change of consciousness, an enhancement of life, inconceivable to other men.\n\n\"Make trial in this manner,\" says Boehme again, \"and thou wilt quickly see and feel another man with another sense and thoughts and understanding. I speak as I know and have found by experience; a soldier knows how it is in the wars. This I write out of love as one who telleth in the spirit how it hath gone with himself, for an example to others, to try if any would follow him and find out how true it is.\"\n\nEVELYN UNDERHILL\n\n## Chapter 1\n\nART has not wrote this, neither was there any time to consider how to set it punctually down, according to the right understanding of letters, but all was ordered according to the direction of the Spirit, which often went in haste; so that in many words letters may be wanting, and in some places a capital letter for a word. The Penman's hand, by reason he was not accustomed to it, did often shake; and though I could have wrote in a more accurate, fair, and plain manner, yet the reason I did not was this, that the burning fire often forced forward with speed, and the hand and pen must hasten directly after it; for that fire comes and goes as a sudden shower. I can write nothing of myself but as a child which neither knows nor understands anything, which neither has ever been learnt; and I write only that which the Lord vouchsafes to know in me according to the measure as himself manifests in me.\n\nI never desired to know anything of the Divine Mystery, much less understood I the way to seek and find it. I knew nothing of it, which is the condition of poor laymen in their simplicity.\n\nI sought only after the heart of Jesus Christ, that I might hide myself therein from the wrathful anger of God and the violent assaults of the Devil. And I besought the Lord earnestly for his Holy Spirit and his grace, that he would please to bless and guide me in him, and take that away from me which turned me from him. I resigned myself wholly to him, that I might not live to my own will, but his; and that he only might lead and direct me, to the end I might be his child in his son Jesus.\n\nIn this my earnest and Christian seeking and desire (wherein I suffered many a shrewd repulse, but at last resolved rather to put myself in hazard than leave off), the Gate was opened to me, that in one quarter of an hour I saw and knew more than if I had been many years together at an University, at which I exceedingly admired and thereupon turned my praise to God for it.\n\nSo that I did not only greatly wonder at it, but did also exceedingly rejoice; and presently it came powerfully into my mind to set the same down in writing, for a memorial for myself, though I could very hardly apprehend the same in my external man and express it with the pen. Yet, however, I must begin to labour in this great mystery as a child that goes to school.\n\nI saw it as in a great deep in the internal; for I had a thorough view of the Universe, as a complex moving fulness wherein all things are couched and wrapped up; but it was impossible for me to explain the same.\n\nYet it opened itself in me, from time to time, as in a young plant. It was with me for the space of twelve years, and was as it were breeding. I found a powerful instigation within me before I could bring it forth into external form of writing; but whatever I could apprehend with the external principle of my mind, that I wrote down.\n\nAfterwards, however, the Sun shone upon me a good while, but not constantly, for sometimes the Sun hid itself, and then I knew not nor well understood my own labour. Man must confess that his knowledge is not his own but from God, who manifests the Ideas of Wisdom to the soul, in what measure he pleases.\n\nIt is not to be understood that my reason is greater or higher than that of all other men living; but I am the Lord's twig or branch, and a very mean and little spark of his light; he may set me where he pleases, I cannot hinder him in that.\n\nNeither is this my natural will, that I can do it by my own small ability; for if the Spirit were withdrawn from me, then I could neither know nor understand my own writings.\n\nO gracious amiable Blessedness and great Love, how sweet art thou! How friendly and courteous art thou! How pleasant and lovely is thy relish and taste! How ravishing sweetly dost thou smell! O noble Light, and bright Glory, who can apprehend thy exceeding beauty? How comely adorned is thy love! How curious and excellent are thy colours! And all this eternally. Who can express it?\n\nOr why and what do I write, whose tongue does but stammer like a child which is learning to speak? With what shall I compare it? or to what shall I liken it? Shall I compare it with the love of this world? No, that is but a mere dark valley to it.\n\nO immense Greatness! I cannot compare thee with any thing, but only with the resurrection from the dead; there will the Love-Fire rise up again in us, and rekindle again our astringent, bitter, and cold, dark and dead powers, and embrace us most courteously and friendly.\n\nO gracious, amiable, blessed Love and clear bright Light, tarry with us, I pray thee, for the evening is at hand.\n\n## Chapter 2\n\nI AM a sinful and mortal man, as well as thou, and I must every day and hour grapple, struggle, and fight with the Devil who afflicts me in my corrupted lost nature, in the wrathful power which is in my flesh, as in all men continually.\n\nSuddenly I get the better of him, suddenly he is too hard for me; yet, notwithstanding, he has not overcome or conquered me, though he often gets the advantage over me.\n\nIf he buffets me, then I must retire and give back, but the divine power helps me again; then he also receives a blow, and often loses the day in the fight.\n\nBut when he is overcome, then the heavenly gate opens in my spirit, and then the spirit sees the divine and heavenly Being, not externally beyond the body, but in the well-spring of the heart. There rises up a flash of the Light in the sensibility or thoughts of the brain, and therein the Spirit does contemplate.\n\nFor man is made out of all the powers of God, out of all the seven spirits of God, as the angels also are. But now seeing he is corrupted, therefore the divine moving does not always unfold its powers and operate in him. And though it springs in him, and if indeed it shines, yet it is incomprehensible to the corrupted nature.\n\nFor the Holy Ghost will not be held in the sinful flesh, but rises up like a lightning-flash, as fire sparkles and flashes out of a stone when a man strikes it.\n\nBut when the flash is caught in the fountain of the heart, then the Holy Spirit rises up, in the seven unfolding fountain spirits, into the brain, like the dawning of the day, the morning redness.\n\nIn that Light the one sees the other, feels the other, smells the other, tastes the other, and hears the other, and is as if the whole Deity rose up therein.\n\nHerein the spirit sees into the depth of the Deity; for in God near and far off is all one; and that same God is in his three-foldness as well in the body of a holy soul as in heaven.\n\nFrom this God I take my knowledge and from no other thing; neither will I know any other thing than that same God. And he it is which makes that assurance in my spirit, that I steadfastly believe and trust in him.\n\nThough an angel from heaven should tell this to me, yet for all that I could not believe it, much less lay hold on it; for I should always doubt whether it was certainly so or no. But the Sun itself arises in my spirit, and therefore I am most sure of it.\n\nThe soul liveth in great danger in this world; and therefore this life is very well called the valley of misery, full of anguish, a perpetual hurly-burly, pulling and hauling, warring, fighting, struggling and striving.\n\nBut the cold and half-dead body does not always understand this fight of the soul. The body does not know how it is with it, but is heavy and anxious; it goes from one business to another, and from one place to another; it seeketh for ease and rest.\n\nAnd when it comes where it would be, yet it finds no such thing as that which it seeks. Then doublings and unbelief come upon it; sometimes it seems to it as if God had quite cast it off. It doth not understand the fight of the spirit, how the same is sometimes down and sometimes uppermost.\n\nThou must know that I write not here as a story or history, as if it was related to me from another. I must continually stand in that combat, and I find it to be full of heavy strivings wherein I am often struck down to the ground, as well as all other men.\n\nBut for the sake of the violent fight, and for the sake of the earnestness which we have together, this revelation has been given me, and the vehement driving or impulse to bring it so to pass as to set all down on paper.\n\nWhat the total sequel is, which may follow upon and after this, I do not fully know. Only sometimes future mysteries in the depth are shown to me.\n\nFor when the flash rises up in the centre, one sees through and through, but cannot well apprehend or lay hold on it; for it happens to such an one as when there is a tempest of lightning, where the flash of fire opens itself and suddenly vanishes.\n\nSo it goes also in the soul when it breaks quite through in its combat. Then it beholds the Deity as a flash of lightning; but the source and the unfolding of sins covers it suddenly again. For the old Adam belongs to the earth, and does not, with the flesh, belong to God.\n\nIn this combat I had many hard trials to my heart's grief. My Sun was often eclipsed or extinguished, but did rise again; and the oftener it was eclipsed the brighter and clearer was its rising again.\n\nI do not write this for my own praise, but to the end that the reader may know wherein my knowledge stands, that he might not seek from me that which I have not, or think me to be what I am not.\n\nBut what I am, that all men are who wrestle in Jesus Christ our King for the crown of the eternal Joy, and live in the hope of perfection.\n\nI marvel that God should reveal himself thus fully to such a simple man, and that he thus impels him also to set it down in writing; whereas there are many learned writers which could set it forth and express it better, and demonstrate it more exactly and fully than I, that am a scorn and fool to the world.\n\nBut I neither can nor will oppose him; for I often stood in great striving against him, that if it was not his impulse and will he would be pleased to take it from me; but I find that with my striving against him I have merely gathered stones for this building.\n\nNow I am climbed up and mounted so very high that I dare not look back for fear a giddiness should take me; and I have now but a short length of ladder to the mark to which it is the whole desire, longing, and delight of my heart to reach fully. When I go upward I have no giddiness at all; but when I look back and would return, then am I giddy and afraid to fall.\n\nTherefore have I put my confidence in the strong God, and will venture, and see what will come of it. I have no more but one body, which nevertheless is mortal and corruptible; I willingly venture that. If the light and knowledge of my God do but remain with me, then I have sufficiently enough for this life and the life to come.\n\nThus I will not be angry with my God, though for his Name's sake I should endure shame, ignominy, and reproach, which springs, buds, and blossoms for me every day, so that I am almost inured to it: I will sing with the prophet David, Though my body and soul should faint and fail, yet thou, O God, art my trust and confidence; also my salvation and the comfort of my heart.\n\n## Chapter 3\n\nMEN have always been of the opinion that heaven is many hundred, nay, many thousand, miles distant from the face of the earth, and that God dwells only in that heaven.\n\nSome have undertaken to measure this height and distance, and have produced many strange and monstrous devices. Indeed, before my knowledge and revelation of God, I held that only to be the true heaven which, in a round circumference, very azure of a light blue colour, extends itself above the stars; supposing that God had therein his peculiar Being, and did rule only in the power of his Holy Spirit in this world.\n\nBut when this had given me many a hard blow and repulse, doubtless from the Spirit, which had a great longing yearning towards me, at last I fell into a very deep melancholy and heavy sadness, when I beheld and contemplated the great Deep of this world, also the sun and stars, the clouds, rain and snow, and considered in my spirit the whole creation of the world.\n\nWherein then I found, in all things, evil and good, love and anger; in the inanimate creatures, in wood, stones, earth and the elements, as also in men and beasts.\n\nMoreover I considered the little spark of light, man, what he should be esteemed for with God, in comparison of this great work and fabric of heaven and earth.\n\nAnd finding that in all things there was evil and good, as well in the elements as in the creatures, and that it went as well in this world with the wicked as with the virtuous, honest and godly; also that the barbarous people had the best countries in their possession, and that they had more prosperity in their ways than the virtuous, honest and godly had; I was thereupon very melancholy, perplexed and exceedingly troubled, no Scripture could comfort or satisfy me though I was very well acquainted with it and versed therein; at which time the Devil would by no means stand idle, but was often beating into me many heathenish thoughts which I will here be silent in.\n\nYet when in this affliction and trouble I elevated my spirit (which then I understood very little or nothing at all what it was), I earnestly raised it up into God, as with a great storm or onset, wrapping up my whole heart and mind, as also all my thoughts and whole will and resolution, incessantly to wrestle with the Love and Mercy of God, and not to give over unless he blessed me, that is, unless he enlightened me with his Holy Spirit, whereby I might understand his will and be rid of my sadness. And then the Spirit did break through.\n\nBut when in my resolved zeal I gave so hard an assault, storm, and onset upon God and upon all the gates of hell, as if I had more reserves of virtue and power ready, with a resolution to hazard my life upon it (which assuredly were not in my ability without the assistance of the Spirit of God), suddenly my spirit did break through the gates of hell, even into the innermost moving of the Deity, and there I was embraced in love as a bridegroom embraces his dearly beloved bride.\n\nThe greatness of the triumphing that was in my spirit I cannot express either in speaking or writing; neither can it be compared to any thing but that wherein life is generated in the midst of death.\n\nIt is like the resurrection from the dead. In this light my spirit suddenly saw through all, and in and by all, the creatures; even in herbs and grass it knew God, who he is and how he is and what his will is. And suddenly in that light my will was set on by a mighty impulse to describe the Being of God.\n\nBut because I could not presently apprehend the deepest movings of God and comprehend them in my reason, there passed almost twelve years before the exact understanding thereof was given me.\n\nAnd it was with me as with a young tree, which is planted in the ground and at first is young and tender, and flourishing to the eye, especially if it comes on lustily in its growing; but does not bear fruit presently, and though it has blossoms they fall off: also frost and snow and many a cold wind beat upon it before it comes to any growth and bearing of fruit.\n\nSo also it went with my spirit: the first fire was but a beginning and not a constant and lasting light; since that time many a cold wind blew upon it, yet never extinguished it.\n\nThe tree was also often tempted to try whether it could bear fruit, and showed itself with blossoms; but the blossoms were struck off till this very time, wherein it stands in its fruit.\n\nFrom this light now it is that I have my knowledge, as also my will, impulse and driving; and therefore I will set down the knowledge in writing according to my gift, and let God work his will. Though I should enrage the whole world, the Devil, and all the gates of hell, I will look on and wait what the Lord intends with it.\n\nFor I am too, too weak to know his purpose; and though the Spirit affords in the light some things to be known which are to come, yet according to the outward man I am too weak to comprehend them.\n\nThe animated or soulish spirit, which unfolds its powers and unites with God, comprehends it well; but the animal body attains only a glimpse thereof; just as by a lightning-flash. This is the state of the innermost moving of the soul, when it breaks through the outermost in an elevation by the Holy Ghost. But the outermost presently closes again, for the wrath of God is stirred up there as fire is struck from the stone, and holds it captive in its power.\n\nThen the knowledge of the outward man is gone, and he walks up and down, afflicted and anxious, as a woman with child who is in her travail, and would willingly bring forth, but cannot and is full of throes.\n\nThus it goes also with the animal body when it has once tasted of the sweetness of God. Then it continually hungers and thirsts after it; but the Devil in the power of God's wrath opposes exceedingly, and so a man in such a course must continually be anxious; and there is nothing but fighting and warring for him.\n\nI write not this for my own glory, but for a comfort to the reader, so that if perhaps he be minded to walk with me upon my narrow bridge, he should not suddenly be discouraged, dismayed, and distrustful, when the gates of hell and God's wrath meet him and present themselves before him.\n\nWhen we shall come together, over this narrow bridge of the fleshly working, to be in yonder green meadow to which the wrath of God does not reach, then we shall be fully requited for all our damages and hurts we have sustained; though indeed at present the world accounts us for fools, and we must suffer the Devil to domineer, rush, and roar over us.\n\nNow observe: if thou fixest thy thoughts concerning heaven, and wouldst willingly conceive in thy mind what it is and where it is and how it is, thou needst not to cast thy thoughts many thousand miles off, for that place, that heaven, is not thy heaven.\n\nAnd though indeed that is united with thy heaven as one body, and so together is but the one body of God, yet thou art not become a creature in that very place which is above many hundred thousand miles off, but thou art in the heaven of this world, which contains also in it such a Deep as is not of any human numbering.\n\nThe true heaven is everywhere, even in that very place where thou standest and goest; and so when thy spirit presses through the astral and the fleshly, and apprehends the innermost moving of God, then it is clearly in heaven.\n\nBut that there is assuredly a pure glorious heaven in all the three movings aloft above the deep of this world, in which God's Being together with that of the holy angels springs up very purely, brightly, beauteously, and joyfully, is undeniable. And he is not born of God that denies it.\n\nThou must know that this world in its innermost unfolds its properties and powers in union with the heaven aloft above us; and so there is one Heart, one Being, one Will, one God, all in all.\n\nThe outermost moving of this world cannot comprehend the outermost moving of heaven aloft above this world, for they are one to the other as life and death, or as a man and a stone are one to the other.\n\nThere is a strong firmament dividing the outermost of this world from the outermost of the upper heaven; and that firmament is Death, which rules and reigns everywhere in the outermost in this world, and sets a great gulf between them.\n\nThe second moving of this world is in the life; it is the astral, out of which is generated the third and holy moving; and therein love and wrath strive one with the other.\n\nFor the second moving stands in the seven fountain spirits of this world, and is in all places and in all the creatures as in man. But the Holy Ghost also rules and reigns in that second, and helps to generate the third, the holy moving.\n\nThis, the third, is the clear and holy heaven which unites with the Heart of God, distinct from and above all heavens, as one heart.\n\nTherefore, thou child of man, be not discouraged, be not so timorous and pusillanimous; if thou in thy zeal and earnest sincerity sowest the seed of thy tears, thou dost not sow it in earth but in heaven; for in thy astral moving thou sowest, and in thy soulish moving thou reapest, and in the kingdom of heaven thou possessest and enjoyest it.\n\nIf man's eyes were but opened he should see God everywhere in his heaven; for heaven stands in the innermost moving everywhere.\n\nMoreover, when Stephen saw the heaven opened and the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God, then his spirit did not first swing itself aloft into the upper heaven, but it penetrated into the innermost moving wherein heaven is everywhere.\n\nNeither must thou think that God is such a kind of Being as is only in the upper heaven, and that the soul, when it departs from the body, goes aloft many hundred thousand miles off. It needs not do that; it is set in the innermost moving, and there it is with God and in God, and with all the holy angels, and can suddenly be above and suddenly beneath; it is not hindered by any thing.\n\nFor in the innermost the upper and nether Deity is one body and is an open gate. The holy angels converse and walk up and down in the innermost of this world by and with our King Jesus Christ; as well as in the uppermost, aloft in their quarters, courts or region.\n\nWhere then would or should the soul of man rather be than with its King and Redeemer Jesus Christ? For near and afar off in God is one thing, one comprehensibility, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, everywhere.\n\nThe gate of God in the upper heaven is no other, also no brighter, than it is in this world. And where can there be greater joy than in that place where every hour and moment beautiful, loving, dear, newborn children and angels come to Christ, which are passed through death into life? Where can there be greater joy than where in the midst of death life is generated continually? Does not every soul bring along with it a new triumph? and so there is nothing else but an exceedingly friendly welcoming and salutation there.\n\nDost thou think my writing is too earthly? If thou wert to come to this window of mine thou wouldst not then say that it is earthly. Though I must indeed use the earthly tongue, yet there is a true heavenly understanding couched under it, which in my outermost moving I am not able to express.\n\nI know very well that the word concerning the three movings cannot be comprehended or apprehended in every man's heart, especially where the heart is too much steeped, soaked, or drowned in the flesh. But I cannot render it otherwise than as it is, for it is just so; and though I write mere spirit, as indeed and in truth it is no other, yet such a heart understands only flesh.\n\nThou shouldst not suppose that which I write here to be as a doubtful opinion, questionable whether it be so or no; for the gate of heaven and hell stands open to the spirit, and in the Light it presses through them both and beholds them, also proves and examines them.\n\nAnd though the Devil cannot take the Light from me, yet he hides it often with the outward and fleshly moving, so that the astral is in anxiety and in a strait, as if it were imprisoned.\n\nBut these are only his blows and strokes whereby the seed of paradise is covered and obscured. Concerning which also the holy apostle Paul saith that a great thorn was given him in his flesh and he besought the Lord earnestly to take it from him, whereupon the Lord answered, Let my grace be sufficient for thee. For he also was come to this place and would fain have had the Light without obstruction or hindrance, as his own in the astral moving. But it could not be; for wrath abides in the fleshly moving, and he must endure corruption there. If wrath should be wholly taken away from the astral, then in that he would be like God and know all things as God himself does.\n\nWhich now in this life that soul only knows which unfolds its powers in union with the Light of God, and even that soul cannot perfectly bring it back again into the astral. Just as an apple on a tree cannot bring its smell and taste back again into the tree or into the earth, though it be indeed the son of the tree, so it is also in the nature of man.\n\nThe holy man Moses was so high and deep in this Light that it glorified, clarified, or brightened the astral also, whereby the outermost of the flesh in his face was clarified, brightened, or glorified. He also desired to see the light of God perfectly in the astral; but it could not be, for the bar of the wrath lies before it. Even the whole and universal nature of the astral in this world cannot comprehend the Light of God; and therefore the Heart of God is hidden, though it dwells in all places and comprehends all.\n\nThou seest how the wrath of God in the outermost of nature lies hid and rests, and cannot be awakened unless men themselves awaken it, who with their fleshly moving unfold their powers to stir up and unite with the wrath in the outermost of nature.\n\nTherefore if anyone should be damned into hell he ought not to say that God has done it, or that he wills it to be so. Man awakens the wrath-fire in himself, and this, if it grows burning, afterwards unites with God's wrath and the hellish fire, as one thing. For when thy light is extinguished, then thou standest in the darkness. Within the darkness the wrath of God is concealed, and if thou awakenest it, then it burns in thee.\n\nThere is fire even in a stone: if you do not strike upon it the fire remains concealed; but, if you strike it, then the fire springs forth, and if any combustible matter be near it, that will take fire and burn, and so there comes to be a great fire. Thus it is also with man, when he kindles the wrath-fire which is otherwise at rest.\n\n## Chapter 4\n\nWHEN thou beholdest the deep above the earth thou oughtest not to say that it is *not* the gate of God where God in his holiness dwells: No, no, think not so, for the whole Holy Trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, dwells in the centre under the firmament of heaven, though that very firmament cannot comprehend him.\n\nIndeed all is as it were one body, the outermost and the innermost moving together with the firmament of heaven, as also the astral moving therein, in and with which the wrath of God unfolds; but yet they are one to another as the government, frame or constitution in man.\n\nThe flesh marks the outward moving, which is the house of death. The second moving in man is the astral, in which the life stands, and wherein love and wrath wrestle one with another. Thus far man himself knows himself, for the astral generates the life in the outermost, that is, in the flesh. The third moving is generated between the astral and the outermost, and is called the animated or soulish moving, or the soul, and is as great as the whole man.\n\nThat moving the outward man neither knows nor comprehends, neither does the astral comprehend it; but every fountain spirit comprehends its innate source, which resembles the heaven.\n\nThe animated or soulish man must press through the firmament of heaven to God, and live with God, else the whole man cannot come into heaven to God.\n\nMan cannot be wholly pure from wrath and sin, for the movings of the depth in this world are not fully pure before the Heart of God; always love and wrath wrestle one with another.\n\nIn the second, the astral, wherein now the love and the wrath are against one another, is a spirit of the life, and of the firmament of heaven which is of the midst of the spirit.\n\nAnd the Devil can reach half into this moving, so far as the wrath reaches and no farther; therefore the Devil cannot know how the other part in this moving has its source. This other part of the astral, which abides in the love, is the firmament of heaven holding captive the kindled wrath; together with all the devils, for they cannot enter thereinto. In that heaven dwells the Holy Spirit, which goes forth from the Heart of God, and strives against the wrath, and generates to himself a temple in the midst of the fierceness of the wrath of God.\n\nAnd in this heaven dwells the man that fears God, even while alive in the body here upon earth; for that heaven is as well in man as in the deep above the earth. And as the deep above the earth is, so is man also, both in love and wrath, till after the departure of the soul; but when the soul departs from the body, then it abides either only in the heaven of love or only in the wrath.\n\nAnd in this heaven the holy angels dwell amongst us, and the devils in the other part. In this heaven man lives between heaven and hell, and must suffer from the wrath and endure many hard blows, temptations, persecutions; and, many times, torments and oppression.\n\nThe wrath is called the Cross, and the love-heaven is called patience, and the spirit that rises up therein is called hope and faith, which unites with God and wrestles with the wrath till it overcomes and gets the victory.\n\nO ye theologists, the spirit here opens a door and gate for you! If you will not now see and feed your sheep and lambs on a green meadow, instead of a dry, parched heath, you must be accountable for it before the severe, earnest and wrathful judgement of God; therefore look to it.\n\nI take heaven to witness that I do here what I must. The Spirit drives me to it, so that I am wholly led captive thereby, and cannot be freed from it whatever may befal me hereafter, or ensue upon it.\n\nThe third moving in the body of God in this world is hidden. In it is the almighty and holy Heart of God, wherein our King, Jesus Christ, with his natural body, sits at the right hand of God, as a King and Lord of the whole body of this world.\n\nThe body of Christ is no more in the hard palpability, but in the divine palpability, of nature, like the angels. Our bodies also at the resurrection will have no more such hard flesh and bones, but be like the angels; and though indeed all forms and powers shall be therein, yet we shall not have the hard palpability.\n\nChrist says to Mary Magdalen in Joseph's garden at the Sepulchre, after his resurrection, *Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my God and to your God*, as if he would say, I have not now the animal body any more, although I show myself to thee in my form or shape which I had, because otherwise thou in thy animal body couldst not see me.\n\nSo during the forty days after his resurrection he did not always walk visibly among the disciples, but invisibly, according to his heavenly and angelical property. When he would speak or talk with his disciples, then he showed himself in a palpable manner and form, that thereby he might speak natural words with them, for corruption cannot apprehend the divine. Also it sufficiently appears that his body was of an angelical kind, in that he went to his disciples through the doors, being shut.\n\nThus thou must know that his body unites with all the seven spirits in nature in the astral moving in the part of love; and holds sin, death and the Devil captive in its wrath part.\n\nThou seest also how thou art in this world everywhere in heaven and also in hell, and dwellest between heaven and hell in great danger. Thou seest how heaven is in a holy man, and that everywhere, wheresoever thou standest, goest or liest, if thy spirit does but co-operate with God, then as to that part thou art in heaven and thy soul is in God. Therefore says Christ: My sheep are in my hands, no man can pull them away from me.\n\nIn like manner thou seest also how thou art always in hell among all the devils as to the wrath; if thine eyes were but open thou wouldst see wonderful things, but thou standest between heaven and hell, and canst see neither of them, and walkest upon a very narrow bridge.\n\nSome men have many times, in the astral spirit, entered in thither, being ravished in an ecstasy, as men term it, and have in this life known the gates of heaven and of hell, and have shown and declared how that many men dwell in hell with their living bodies. Such indeed have been scorned, derided or laughed at, but with great ignorance and indiscretion, for it is just so as they declare.\n\n#\n\n## Chapter 5\n\nTHE Simple says, God made all things out of nothing; but he knows not God, neither does he know what he himself is. When he beholds the earth together with the deep above the earth, he thinks verily all this is *not* God; or else he thinks God is *not there*. He always imagines with himself that God dwells only above the azure heaven of the stars, and rules, as it were, by means of some spirit which goes forth from him into this world; and that his body is not present here upon the earth or in the earth.\n\nJust such opinions and tenets I have read also in the books and writings of Doctors, and there are also very many opinions, disputations and controversies risen about this very thing among the Learned.\n\nBut seeing God opens to me the gate of his Being in his great love, and remembers the covenants which he has with man, therefore I will faithfully and earnestly, according to my gifts, set wide open all the gates of God, so far as he will give me leave.\n\nIt is not so to be understood, as that I am sufficient in these things, but only so far as I am able to comprehend.\n\nFor the Being of God is like a wheel, wherein many wheels are made one in another, upwards, downwards, crossways, and yet continually turn all of them together.\n\nAt which indeed, when a man beholds the wheel, he highly marvels, and cannot at once in its turning learn to conceive and apprehend it. But the more he beholds the wheel the more he learns its form; and the more he learns the greater longing he has towards the wheel, for he continually sees something that is more and more wonderful, so that a man can neither behold nor learn it enough.\n\nThus I also. What I do not fully describe in one place concerning this great mystery, that you will find in another place; and what I cannot describe here in regard of the greatness of this mystery and my incapacity, that you will find elsewhere.\n\nFor here is the first sprouting or vegetation of this twig, which springs in its mother, and is as a child which is learning to walk and is not able to run apace at the first.\n\nThough the spirit sees the wheel and would fain comprehend its form in every place, yet it cannot do it exactly enough because of the turning of the wheel. But when it comes about that the spirit can see the first apprehended form again, then continually it learns more and more, and always loves and delights in the wheel, and longs after it still more and more.\n\nNow observe: The earth has just such qualities and quality-expressing or fountain spirits as the deep above the earth, or as heaven has, and all of them together belong to one only body. The universal God is that one only body. But sin is the cause that thou dost not wholly see and know him. With and by sin thou, within this great divine body, liest shut up in the mortal flesh; and the power and virtue of God is hidden from thee, even as the marrow in the bones is hidden from the flesh.\n\nBut if thou in the spirit breakest through the death of the flesh, then thou seest the hidden God. For the mortal flesh belongs not to the moving of life, so it cannot receive or conceive the Life of the Light as proper to itself; but the Life of the Light in God rises up in the flesh and generates to itself, from out of it, another, a heavenly and living, body, which knows and understands the Light.\n\nThe mortal body is but a husk from which the new body grows, as it is with a grain of wheat in the earth. The husk shall not rise and be living again, no more with the body than with the grain, but will remain for ever in death.\n\nBehold the mystery of the earth: as that brings forth so must thou bring forth. The earth is not that body which is brought forth, but is the mother of that body; as also thy flesh is not the spirit but is the mother of the spirit.\n\nAnd in both of them, in the earth and in thy flesh, the Light of the clear Deity is hidden, and it breaks through and gathers to itself a body for each after its kind.\n\nAs the mother is, so also is the child: man's child is the soul which is born in the astral moving from the flesh; and the earth's child is the grass, the herbs, the trees, silver, gold, and all mineral ores.\n\nOut of the earth sprang grass, herbs and trees; and in the earth silver, gold, and all manner of ore came to be. In the deep above the earth sprang the wonderful forming of power and virtue.\n\nI now invite all lovers of the holy and highly to be esteemed arts of philosophy and theology before this mirror wherein I lay open the root and ground of these matters.\n\nI use not their tables, formulas, or schemes, rules and ways, for I have not learned from them. I have another teacher, which is the living fountain of nature.\n\nWhat could I, simple layman, teach or write of their high art if it was not given to me by the Spirit of nature, in whom I live and am? Should I oppose the Spirit that he should not open where and in whom he pleases?\n\nO thou child of man, open the eyes of thy spirit, for I will show thee here the right and real proper gate of God.\n\nBehold! that is the true, one, only God out of whom thou art created and in whom thou livest; and when thou beholdest the deep and the stars and the earth, then thou beholdest thy God. In that same thou livest and hast thy being; and that same God rules thee also, and from that same God thou hast thy senses. Thou art a creature from him and in him; else thou wouldst never have been.\n\nNow perhaps thou wilt say that I write in a heathenish manner. Hearken and behold! Observe the distinct understanding how all this is so; for I write not heathenishly, but in the love of wisdom; neither am I a heathen, but I have the true knowledge of the one only great God who is All.\n\nWhen thou beholdest the deep, the stars, the elements and the earth, then thou comprehendest not with thine eyes the bright and clear Deity, though indeed he is there and in them; but thou seest and comprehendest, with thine eyes, first death and then the wrath of God.\n\nBut if thou liftest up thy thoughts and dost consider where God is, then thou shalt comprehend the astral moving, where love and wrath move one against another. And when by faith thou drawest near to God who rules in holiness in this dominion, then thou layest hold on him in his holy Heart.\n\nWhen this is done, then thou art as God is, who himself is heaven, earth, stars and the elements.\n\n## Chapter 6\n\nWHERE will you seek for God? Seek him in your soul that is proceeded out of the eternal nature, the living fountain of forces wherein the divine working stands.\n\nO that I had but the pen of a man, and were able therewith to write down the spirit of knowledge! I can but stammer of great mysteries like a child that is beginning to speak; so very little can the earthly tongue express of that which the spirit comprehends. Yet I will venture to try whether I may incline some to seek the pearl of true knowledge, and myself labour in the works of God in my paradisical garden of roses; for the longing of the eternal nature-mother drives me on to write and to exercise myself in this my knowledge.\n\nNo money, nor goods, nor art, nor power can bring you to the eternal rest of the eternal paradise, but only the knowledge in which you may steep your soul. That is the pearl which no thief can steal away; seek after it and you will find the noble treasure.\n\nOur skill and understanding are so cramped and narrowed that we have no more any knowledge of paradise at all. And except we be born anew, the veil of Moses lies continually before our eyes, and we suppose that was paradise whereof he said: God placed Adam in the garden of Eden which he had planted, that he might till it.\n\nO beloved man, paradise is the divine Joy. It is the divine and angelical Joy, yet it is not outside the place of this world. When I speak of the fountain and joy of paradise, and of its substance, what it is, I have no similitude for it in this world; I stand in need of angelical speech and knowledge to express it; and though I had them yet I could never express it with this tongue. It is well understood in the mind, when the soul rides in the chariot of the Spirit, but I cannot express it with the tongue; yet will I stammer with the children till another mouth be given me to speak with.\n\nAnd seeing somewhat is lent me from the grace of the power of God, that I might know the way to paradise, seeing also that it behoves everyone to work the works of God in which he stands, I will not neglect my task but will labour as much as I can on the way.\n\nAlthough I shall scarce be able to spell out the letters in this so high a way, yet my labour shall be enough that many will have to learn in it all their life long. He that thinks he knows it well, he has not yet learnt the first letter of paradise, for no Doctors are to be found in this school, but only learners.\n\nThere is nothing that is nearer to you than heaven, paradise, and hell. Unto which of them you are inclined and towards which of them you walk, to that in this lifetime you are most near. There is a moving between each two of them; and you have both movings in you. God beckons to you in the one, and calls you; and the Devil beckons to you in the other, and calls you; with whom you go, with him you enter in. The Devil has in his hand power, honour, pleasure, and worldly happiness; and the root of these is death and hell-fire. God has in his hands crosses, persecution, misery, poverty, ignominy and sorrow; and the root of these is a fire also. But in this fire there is a light, and in the light virtue and in the virtue paradise. In paradise are the angels, and among the angels is Joy. Dim and fleshly eyes cannot behold it; but when the Holy Ghost comes into the soul it is born anew in God, and then it becomes a child of paradise and has the key of paradise, and sees into the midst thereof.\n\nIf you be born of God, then you understand God, paradise, the kingdom of heaven and hell, the entrance thereinto of the creatures and the creation of this world; but if not, then the veil is before your eyes as it was before the eyes of Moses. Therefore saith Christ: *Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you*.\n\nIf you do not understand this writing, seek the humble lowly Heart of God, and that will bring a small seed from the tree of paradise into your soul; and if you abide in patience then a great tree will grow out of that seed, as you will think has come to pass with this author. For he is to be esteemed as a very simple person, in comparison of the great learned men; but Christ saith: My power is strong in the weak; yea Father, it hath so pleased thee to hide these things from the wise and prudent, and thou hast revealed them to babes and sucklings; the wisdom of this world is foolishness in thy sight. And although now the children of the world are wiser in their generation than the children of light, yet their wisdom is but a corruptible thing, and this wisdom continues eternally.\n\nSeek for the noble pearl; it is much more precious than this whole world; it will never more depart from you. Where the pearl is, there will your heart be also; you need not in this life seek any further after paradise, joy and heavenly delight; seek but the pearl, and when you find that, then you find paradise and the kingdom of heaven.\n\nI have perused many masterpieces of writing, hoping to find the high and deep wisdom of God, the pearl of the understanding of man; but I could find nothing of that which my soul lusted after. I have found very many contrary opinions, and at times I have found some who forbid me to search, but I cannot know with what reason except it be that the blind grudge at the eyes of them that see.\n\nWith all this my soul is become very disquiet within, and has been as full of pain and anguish as a woman at her travail; and yet to no end till I followed the words of Christ when he said: You must be born anew, if you will see the kingdom of God. This at first confounded me; I supposed that such a thing could not be done in this world, but only at my departure out of this world. And then my soul was at first in anguish, longing after the pearl; but, yielding itself, at last obtained the jewel. Therefore I will write, for a memorial to myself and for a light to them that seek. For Christ said: None lights a candle and puts it under a bushel, but sets it upon a table that all that are in the house may see by the light of it. To this end he gives the pearl of divine wisdom and knowledge to them that seek, that they should impart it to the desirous for their healing, as he has very earnestly commanded.\n\nIndeed Moses writes that God made man of the dust of the earth. And that is the opinion of very many. I also should not have known how that was to be understood, and I should not have learned it out of Moses, nor out of the glosses put upon his words. The veil would have continued still before my eyes, though I was much troubled thereby. But when I found the pearl, then I looked Moses in the face, and found that he had wrote very right, but that I had not rightly understood it.\n\nNow the question is: What is God's image? Behold, and consider the Deity, and then you will light upon it. God is not an animal man; and man should be the image and similitude of God, wherein God may dwell. God is a spirit; three principles are in him, that is, the sources and powers of the darkness, of the light, and of this world. He would make such an image as should have all these three and so be rightly a similitude of himself. Therefore Moses may be well understood to say that God created man and did not make him of a lump of earth. But the forming power in which God created him is the matrix of the earth, out of which the earth was generated; and the matter in which he created him is a quintessence of the stars and elements, and came forth from the heavenly matrix which is also the root of the earth.\n\nNow the soul stands in two gates, and touches two principles, the eternal darkness and the eternal light of the Son of God, as God the Father himself does. Thus it may be in heaven and in paradise, and enjoy the unutterable joy of God the Father which he has in his Son, and it may hear the inexpressible words of the Heart of God.\n\nThere the soul feeds on all the words of God, for these are the food of its life; and it sings the paradisical songs of praise concerning the pleasant fruit of paradise which grows in the divine virtue and is the food of the heavenly and eternal body.\n\nCan this be no joy and rejoicing? Should not that be a pleasant thing, to eat heavenly bread with the many thousand sorts of angels, and to rejoice in their communion and fellowship? What can possibly be named which can be more pleasant? Where there is no fear, no anger, no death; where every voice and speech is of the divine salvation, power, strength and might; and this voice going forth into eternity. There is the place where Paul heard words unutterable that no man can express.\n\n## Chapter 7\n\nTHANKS be to God who has regenerated me, by water and the Holy Ghost, to be a living creature, so that I can in his Light see my great inbred vices, which are in my flesh.\n\nThus now I live in the spirit of this world in my flesh, and my flesh serves the spirit of this world; but my mind serves God. My flesh is generated in this world and is ruled by the quintessence of the stars and elements, which dwells in it and is master of the body and the outward life; but my mind is regenerated in God and loves God. And although o I cannot now comprehend and hold fast the divine wisdom, because my mind falls into sins, yet the spirit of this world shall not always thus hold captive my mind.\n\nFor the Virgin, the divine Wisdom, has given me her promise not to leave me in any misery; she will come to help me in the Son of Wisdom. I must hold fast to him, and he will bring me to her in paradise. I will make the venture, and go through the thistles and thorns as well as I can, till I find my native country where Wisdom dwells. I rely upon her faithful promise, when she appeared to me, that she would turn all my mourning into great joy. When I lay upon the mountain at midnight, so that all the trees fell upon me and all the storms and winds beat upon me, and Antichrist gaped at me with his open jaws to devour me, then she came and comforted me and took me for her own.\n\nTherefore I am but the more cheerful, and care not for him; he rules over me no further than over the transitory house of flesh, whose patron he is; he may take that quite away, but so I shall come into my native country. Yet he is not absolute lord over that house, he is but God's ape; for as an ape plays all manner of tricks and pranks to make itself sport, and would fain seem to be the finest and the nimblest of beasts, so also does he. His power hangs on the great tree of this world, and a storm of wind can blow it away.\n\nThou wilt ask, What is the new regeneration? or how is that done in man? Hear and see, close not thy mind, let it not be filled by the spirit of this world with its might and pomp. Lay hold upon thy mind and break through the spirit of this world entirely; yield thy mind unto the kind love of God; make thy purpose earnest and strong to overcome the pleasure of this world and not to regard it. Consider that thou art not at home in this world, but art a strange guest, made captive in a prison; cry and call to him who has the key of the prison; yield thyself up to him in obedience, righteousness, humility, purity and truth. And seek not so eagerly after the kingdom of this world; it will stick close enough to thee without that. Then the pure Virgin, the Wisdom of God, will meet thee in the height and depth of thy mind, and will lead thee to him who has the key to the gate of the deep. Thou must stand before him and he will give thee to eat of the heavenly manna which will quicken and refresh thee. Thou wilt be strong, and wilt break through the gate of the deep as the morning star, and though thou liest captive here in the night yet the rays of the dawn will appear to thee in paradise, where thy pure Virgin stands, waiting for thee with the joy of the angels, who will kindly receive thee in thy newborn mind and spirit. And though indeed here thou must walk, as to thy body, in the dark night, yet the noble Virgin will help thee still.\n\nLook well to it, close not thy mind and understanding; when thy mind says, Turn, then know that so thou art called by the Wisdom of God; turn instantly, and consider where thou art lodged, in how hard a house of bondage thy soul lies imprisoned; seek thy native country from whence thy soul is wandered and whither it should return again.\n\nThen if thou wilt follow the counsel of the Wisdom of God thou wilt find in thyself, not only after this life, but also in this life in thy regeneration, that Wisdom will very worthily meet thee. And thou wilt see out of what kind of spirit this author has wrote.\n\n## Chapter 8\n\nMY beloved Reader, I tell thee this, that everything has its impulse in its own form. It always makes that very thing with which the spirit is impregnated; and the body must always labour in that wherein the spirit is kindled. When I consider and think why I thus write many wonders and leave them not for other sharper wits, I find that my spirit is kindled in this matter whereof I write; for there is a living running fire of these things in my spirit, and thereupon (let me purpose what I will) yet they continually come uppermost, so that I am made captive thereby, and it is laid upon me as a work which I must do. Therefore, seeing it is my work wherein my spirit drives, I will write it down for a memorial in such a manner as I know it in my spirit and as I attained to it; I will set down no other thing than that I myself have tried and known, that I be not found a liar before God.\n\nNow, then, if there be any that have a desire to follow me and would fain have the knowledge whereof I write, I advise him to accompany me in this way, not at present with the pen, but with the labour of his mind; and then he shall find how I could come to write thus.\n\nSeeing I have in hand the matter of repentance, therefore I certify the reader than in my earnestness this pen was given me, which the Oppressor would have broke. With him I began an earnest fight, insomuch that he would have cast me down to the ground under his feet had not the Spirit of God helped me, so that now I stand up.\n\nTherefore, if we will speak of this most serious matter, we must go from Jerusalem to Jericho, and see how we lie among murderers who have so wounded and beaten us that we are half dead; and must look about us for the Samaritan with his beast, that he may dress our wounds and bring us into his inn. O how lamentable and miserable it is, that although we are so beaten by the murderer that we are half dead, yet we feel our smart no more! Oh, if the physician would come and dress our wounds, that our soul might revive and live, how we should rejoice! Thus speaks desire, and has such longing heartfelt wishes; yet although the physician is here, the mind can in no wise apprehend him, because it is so much wounded and lies half dead.\n\nMy dear Mind, thou supposest thou art very sound, but thou art so beaten that thou feelest thy disease no more. Art thou not very near unto death? How then canst thou account thyself to be sound? O my dear Soul, boast not of thy soundness. Thou liest fettered in heavy bonds, yea, in a very dark dungeon; thou swimmest in a deep water which rises up to thy very lips, and thou must continually expect death. Besides, the Oppressor, thine own corrupt nature, is behind thee with a great company of thy worst enemies, whereby he draws thee continually down by his chains towards the horrible deep, the abyss of hell; and his crew assault thee, and run upon thee on all sides, as hounds upon their quarry.\n\nThen says Reason, Why do they so? O my dear Soul, they have great cause for it; thou hast been their hind, and thou art broken out of their park; besides thou art so strong that thou hast broken down their park-wall and taken possession of their dwelling. Thou art their worst enemy and they thine; and if thou wast but gone out of their enclosure they would be content, but thou being in it still the strife continues, and has no end till the Ancient of Days comes, who will part you asunder.\n\nDost thou suppose that I am mad that I write thus. If I did not see and know it I should be silent. Dost thou still say thou art in the garden of roses? If thou thinkest thou art there, see well whether thou art not in the Devil's pasture, and art his most beloved hind which he fattens to the slaughter for his food.\n\nO dear Soul, turn, and let not the Devil capture thee; regard not the scorn of the world; all thy sorrow must be turned into great joy. And though in this world thou hast not great honour, power and riches, that is nothing; thou knowest not whether to-morrow it will come to be thy turn to die. Why then dost thou contend and strive so much after worldly honour that is transitory? Rather endeavour after the tree of paradise, which thou mayst carry with thee and wherein thou shalt rejoice eternally for its growth and fruit.\n\nOh! is not that a blessed welfare when the soul dares to look into the Holy Trinity, wherewith it is filled, so that its powers grow and blossom in paradise, where songs of praise break forth, where the ever-growing fruit springs up endlessly according to thy desire, where there is no fear, envy, nor sorrow, where there is love one of another, where everyone rejoices in the form and beauty of another?\n\nBeloved Mind, if thou hast a desire to this way and wouldst attain it, then thou must use great earnestness; it must be no lip-labour, with the heart elsewhere. No, thou canst not attain it thus. Thou must collect thy mind with all thy purposes and reason, wholly together in one will and resolution, and desire to turn from thy abominations; and thou must set thy thoughts upon God and goodness with a steadfast confidence in his mercy. Then thou wilt attain it.\n\nThou must continue steadfast in this resolute purpose; and though thou gainest no strength into thy heart, and though the Devil should beat down thy tongue so that thou canst not pray to God, yet thou must continually hold and go on in this thought and purpose. The more thou pressest forward the weaker the Devil is; the more earnestly thou pressest forth from the Devil and thy sins, the more mightily does the kingdom of God press into thee. Have a care that thou dost not depart from this thy will before thou hast received the jewel, the pearl of divine wisdom and knowledge; though it holds off from morning till night, and still from day to day, if thy earnestness be great, then thy jewel will also be great which thou shalt receive in thy victory.\n\nNone knows what it is but he that has found it by experience. It is a most precious guest; when it enters into the soul there is a very wonderful triumph there; the bridegroom embraces his beloved bride, the hallelujah of paradise sounds. Oh! must not the earthly body needs tremble and shake at it? Yet though it knows not what it is, all its members rejoice. What beauteous knowledge does the Virgin of the Divine Wisdom bring with her! She makes learned indeed; and though one were dumb, yet the soul is crowned in God's works of wonder, and must speak of his wonder; there is nothing in the soul but longing to do so; the Devil must begone, he is quite weary and faint.\n\nThus the seed of paradise is sown. But observe it well; it is not instantly become a tree. How many storms must the soul undergo and endure! How often is it overwhelmed by sins! For all in this world is against it, it is as it were left alone and forsaken; even the children of God themselves assault it; and the Devil does plague the poor soul, trying to lead it astray, either with flattery that it may flatter itself, or else with the burden of sins in the conscience. He never ceases, and thou must always strive against him; for so the tree of paradise grows, as corn does in the tempestuous winds. If it grows high and comes to blossom, then thou wilt enjoy the fruit; and thou wilt understand better what this pen has written and what moved me to write. For I was a long time in this condition, many storms went over my head. Therefore this shall be for a lasting memorial and continual remembrance to me.\n\nNow, says Reason, I see no more in thee, nor in any such as thou art, than in other poor sinners; thine must needs be but a hypocritical pretence; besides, says Reason, I also have been in such a way, and yet remain in wickedness still and do that which I would not do; I am still moved to anger, covetousness and malice. What is the matter that a man does not perform what he purposes, but that he does even what himself reproves in others, and that which he knows is not right?\n\nHere the tree of paradise is not discerned. Behold, my beloved Reason, this tree is not sown into the outward man, he is not worthy of it, he belongs to the earth; and the poor soul is often brought into sins to which it does not consent, the body being drawn into that which the soul rejects. Now when this is so, it is not the soul that works it. The soul says, This is not right, nor well; but the body says, We must have it that we may live and have enough. So it is, one time after another. And a true Christian knows not himself; how then should he be known by others? Also the Devil can hide him sufficiently that he may not be known; that is his masterpiece, when he can bring a true Christian into wickedness, to fall into sins, while this is not discerned by him, but he reproves the sins of others yet is sinning, outwardly, himself.\n\nI do not say that sin in the old man is no hurt; though indeed it cannot sway the new man yet it scandalizes him. We must with the new man live to God and serve him, though it is not possible to be perfect in this world; we must continually go on and hold out: the new man is in a field where the ground is cold, bitter, sour and void of life.\n\n## Chapter 9\n\nTHOU Sophister, I know thou wilt accuse me of pride because I saw so far into the Deep. But it is said that you look only upon the wisdom of this world: I do not esteem it or care for it; it affords me no joy at all. I rejoice at this, that my soul moveth in wonders to the praise of God, so that I know his wondrous works, in which my soul delighteth.\n\nNow, since I know the wonders shall I be silent? Am I not born to this, as are all creatures, that I should open the wonders of God? Therefore now I labour in my work and another in his; and thou, proud Sophister, in thine.\n\nWe stand all in God's field, and we grow to God's glory and to his works of wonder, as well the wicked as the godly. But every fruit groweth in its own manner: when the mower shall cut it down, then every fruit shall come into its own barn, each receiveth that which is its own. Then the field in its nature, out of which each is grown, shall be made manifest; there are two centres in eternity, the love and the wrath, and each centre brings forth its own crop.\n\nTherefore consider, O man, what you condemn, that you fall not upon the sword of the Spirit of God, and that your work be not consumed in the fire of wrath.\n\nThou, Sophister, runnest on wittingly to the Devil, for thine own profit, for thy transitory voluptuousness and honour, and dost not see the open gate which the Spirit showeth thee. If thou wilt not, then it is as was said: *We have piped unto you but ye have not danced*. We have called you, but you are not come to us; I have been hungry after you, but you have not fed me; you are not grown in my garden of roses, therefore you are none of my food; your heart hath not been found in my praise, therefore you are not my food. And the bridegroom passeth by; then cometh the other, and gathereth what he findeth into his barn.\n\nO dear children, if you understood this, how would you tread underfoot the contentions of the Sophisters! Much consisteth therein which shall hereafter be shown you, so far as we ought; let none be wilfully blinded, nor be offended by the simplicity of this hand.\n\nIf we will enter into the kingdom of heaven we must be children, and not cunning and wise in the understanding of this world; we must depart from our earthly reason and enter into obedience to our eternal first Mother. So we shall receive the spirit and life of our Mother, and then also we shall know her habitation.\n\nNo wit of our own attaineth the crown of the mystery of God. It is indeed revealed in the writings of the Saints, but the spirit of this world apprehendeth it not. No Doctors, though they have studied ever so much, have any ability in their own wit to attain the crown of God's hidden mysteries.\n\nNo one can in his own power apprehend anything of the depths of God and teach it to another; all are children and scholars in their A B C. Although I write and speak in high fashion thereof, yet the understanding is not my own; the spirit of the Mother speaketh out of her children what it will; it revealeth itself in many ways, in one otherwise than in another, for its wondrous wisdom is a deep without measure, and you should not marvel that the children of God have not one manner of speech and word, for each speaketh out of the wisdom of the eternal Nature-Mother whose diversity is infinite.\n\nBut the goal is the Heart of God; they all run thither, and herein lies the test whereby you shall know whether the spirit of a man speaketh from God or from the Devil.\n\nHereby we know that we are God's children and generated of God. God is himself the Being of all beings; and we are as Gods in him, through whom he revealeth himself.\n\nNow therefore I set before you the ground of the heavens, the stars and elements, that you may see what is heavenly and what is earthly, what is transitory and mortal, and what is eternal and enduring. To which end I have now purposed to myself to write; not to boast of my high knowledge but out of love in Christ, as a servant and minister of Christ.\n\nFor the Lord hath both the willing and the doing in his hands; I am able to do nothing; also my earthly reason understandeth nothing: I am yielded into our Mother's bosom and do as the Mother showeth me; I know not from anybody else, I am not born with knowledge from the wisdom of this world, neither do I understand it; but what is bestowed upon me that I bestow again. I have no other purpose herein, neither do I know to what end I must write these high things: what the Spirit showeth me, that I set down.\n\nThus I labour in my vineyard, in which the Master of the house hath put me; hoping also to eat of the pleasant sweet grapes, which indeed I have very often received out of the paradise of God. I will so speak as for the use of many, and yet I think I write it but for myself: the fiery driving will have it so as if I did speak of and for many; and yet I know nothing of this while I write.\n\nTherefore if it shall happen to be read, let none account it for a work of the outward reason; for it hath proceeded from the inward hidden man, according to which this hand hath written it without respect of any person.\n\nI exhort the reader that he will enter into himself and behold himself in the inward man; then I shall be welcome to him. This I speak seriously and faithfully.\n\nWhen we consider ourselves aright in this knowledge we see clearly that we have been locked up and led as it were blindfold. The wise of this world have shut and barred us up in their art and reason, so that we are made to see with their eyes. And this spirit which hath so long led us captive may well be called Antichrist; I find no other name in the light of nature, which I can call it by, but Antichrist in Babel.\n\n## Chapter 10\n\nTHE law of God and also the way to life is written in our hearts; it lies in no man's supposing, nor in any historical opinion, but in a good will and well doing. The will leadeth us to God or to the Devil; it availeth not that thou hast the name of a Christian, salvation doth not consist therein. A heathen and a Turk is as near to God as thou who art under the name of Christ; if thou bringest forth a false ungodly will in thy deeds, thou art as much without God as a heathen that hath no desire nor will to him. And if a Turk seeketh God with earnestness, though he walketh in blindness, yet he is of the company of those that are children without understanding, and he reacheth to God with the children which do not yet know what they speak; for this lies not in the knowing but in the will.\n\nWe are all blind concerning God; but we put our earnest will into him and into goodness, and so desire him; then we receive him into our will, so that we are born in him in our will.\n\nDost thou boast of thy calling, that thou art a Christian? Indeed let thy conversation be accordingly, or else thou art but a heathen in the will and in the deed. He that knoweth his Master's will and doeth it not must receive many stripes.\n\nDost thou not know what Christ said concerning the two sons? When the father says to one of them, Go and do such a thing, and he said he would; and the other said, No; the first went away and did it not, but the other, that said No, went away and did it, and so did the will of his father; the one that was under the name of obedience did it not. And we are all such, one and another; we bear the name of Christ and are called Christians and are within his covenant: we have said, Yes, we will do it; but they that do it not are unprofitable servants and live without the will of the Father.\n\nBut if the Turks, as also the Jews, do the Father's will, who say to Christ, No, and discern him not; who is now their judge to thrust them out from the will of the Father? Is not the Son the Heart of the Father? If they honour the Father they lay hold also on his Heart, for beyond his Heart there is no God.\n\nDost thou suppose that I encourage them in their blindness that they should go on as they do? No: I show thee thy blindness, O thou that bearest the name of Christ! Thou judgest others, and yet dost the same thing which thou judgest in others, and so thou wilfully bringest the judgement of God upon thyself.\n\nHe that saith: Love your enemies, do well to them that persecute you, doth not teach you to condemn and despise, but he teacheth you the way of meekness; you should be a light to the world, that heathens may see that you are the children of God.\n\nIf we consider ourselves according to the true man, who is a similitude and image of God, then we find God in us, yet ourselves without God. And the only remedy consisteth herein, that we enter again into ourselves and so enter into God in our hidden man. If we incline our wills in true earnest singleness of mind to God, then we go with Christ out from this world, out from the stars and elements, and enter into God; for in the will of earthly reason we are children of the stars and elements, and the spirit of this world ruleth over us.\n\nBut if we go out from the will of this world and enter into God, then the spirit of God ruleth in us and establisheth us for his children. Then also the garland of paradise is set upon the soul, and it becometh a child without understanding after this world. It hath lost the ruler of this world, who once ruled it and led it in the earthly reason.\n\nO man! consider who leadeth and driveth thee, for eternally without end is very long. Temporal honour and goods are but dross in the sight of God; it all falleth into the grave with thee and cometh to nothing: but to be in the will of God is eternal riches and honour; there, there is no more care, but our Mother careth for us in whose bosom we live as children.\n\nThy temporal honour is thy snare and thy misery; in divine hope and confidence is thy garden of roses.\n\nDost thou suppose again that I speak from hearsay? No, I speak the very life in my own experience; not in an opinion from the mouth of another, but from my own knowledge. I see with my own eyes; which I boast not of, for the power is the Mother's. I exhort thee to enter into the bosom of the Mother, and learn also to see with thy own eyes: so long as thou dost suffer thyself to be rocked in a cradle and dost desire the eyes of others thou art blind. But if thou risest up from the cradle and dost go to the Mother, then thou shalt discern the Mother and her children.\n\nO how good it is to see with one's own eyes! We are all asleep in the outward man, we lie in the cradle and suffer ourselves to be rocked asleep by the outward reason; we see with the eyes of the dissimulation of our play-actors, who hang bells and baubles about our ears and cradles, that we may be lulled asleep or at least play with baubles, and they may be lords and masters in the house.\n\nRise up from thy cradle: art thou not a child of the Mother, and moreover a child and lord of the house, and an heir to its goods? Why sufferest thou thy servants thus to use thee? Christ saith: I am the Light of the World, he that followeth me shall have the light of the eternal life. He doth not direct us to the play-actors, but only to himself. With the inward eyes we must see in his light: so we shall see him, for he is the Light; and when we see him then we walk in the light. He is the Morning Star and is generated in us and riseth in us, and shineth in our bodily darkness.\n\nO how great a triumph is there in the soul when he ariseth! Then a man seeth with his own eyes, and knoweth that he is in a strange lodging, concerning which I here write what I see and know in the light.\n\nI declare unto you that the eternal Being, and also this world, is like man. Eternity bringeth to birth nothing but that which is like itself; as you find man to be, just so is eternity. Consider man in body and soul, in good and evil, in joy and sorrow, in light and darkness, in power and weakness, in life and death: all is in man, both heaven and the earth, stars, and elements; also the threefold God.\n\nO man! seek thyself and thou shalt find thyself. Open the eyes of thy inward man and see rightly.\n\nThis is the noble precious stone, the philosopher's stone, which wise men find. O thou bright crown of pearl, art thou not brighter than the sun? There is nothing like thee; thou art so very manifest, and yet so very secret that among many thousand in this world thou art scarce rightly known of anyone. Yet thou art borne by many that know thee not.\n\nChrist saith, Seek and thou shalt find. The noble stone must be sought for; a lazy man findeth it not; though he carrieth it about with him he knoweth it not. To whomsoever it revealeth itself, he hath all joy therein, for its virtue is endless. He that hath it doth not give it away; if he doth impart it to any it is not profitable to him that is lazy, who diveth not into its virtue to learn that.\n\nThe seeker findeth the stone and its virtue and benefit together. When he findeth it and knows that he is certain of it, there is greater joy in him than the world is able to apprehend; no pen can describe nor any tongue express it in the manner of the world.\n\nIt is accounted in the world's eyes the meanest of all stones and is trodden under foot. If a man light upon it he casteth it away as an unprofitable thing. None enquire after it, though there is none upon earth but desires it. All great ones and wise seek it. Indeed they find one and think it the true stone; but they mistake it. They ascribe power and virtue to it and think they have it and will keep it. But the true stone is not thus: it needeth no virtue to be ascribed to it, all virtue lies hid in it. He who has it, and has knowledge of it, if he seeks, may find all things whatsoever, in heaven and in earth. It is the stone which is rejected of the builders, the chief corner-stone.\n\nO you Sophisters! that out of envy often revile honest hearts according to your own pleasure, how will you be able to stand with those lambs whom you should have led into the fresh green pastures of the way of Christ, into love, purity and humility?\n\nI speak not this out of a desire to reproach any man; I discover only the smoky pit of the Devil that it may be seen what is in man, as well in one as in another, unless he be born anew and resisteth the spirit of the Devil and thrusteth it away from him.\n\nThere is another Devil more crafty and cunning than this, a glistering angel with cloven feet. He, when he seeth a poor soul afraid, and desiring to repent and amend, saith, Pray, and be devout; repent for once in a way. But when the poor soul goes about to pray, he slippeth into his heart and taketh away the understanding of the heart, and putteth it into mere doubting, as if God did not hear it.\n\nSo the heart standeth and repeateth over the words of a prayer, as if it were learning to say something without book; and the soul cannot reach the centre of nature; it hath only rehearsed words, not in the spirit of a soul in the centre where the fire is kindled, but only in the mouth, in the spirit of this world. Its words vanish in the air or as those wherein God's name is taken in vain.\n\nThere belongeth great earnestness to prayer; for praying is calling upon God, entreating him and speaking with him, going out of the house of sin and entering the house of God. If the Devil offers to hinder it, then storm his hell. Set thyself against him as he setteth himself against thee, and then thou shalt find what is here told thee. If he opposes strongly, then oppose thou the more strongly; thou hast, in Christ, greater power than he.\n\nDo but fix thy trust and confidence upon the promise of Christ, and let thy storming be grounded in the death of Christ, in his sufferings and wounds, and in his love. Dispute no further about thy sins, for the Devil involveth himself therein and upbraideth thee for them, that thou mightest despair. If thou doubtest of the grace of God thou dost sin greatly, for he is always merciful; there is no other will in him at all but to be merciful. He cannot do otherwise; his arms are spread abroad day and night towards the poor sinner.\n\nMake trial in this manner, and thou wilt quickly see and feel another man, with another sense and thoughts and understanding. I speak as I know and have found by experience; a soldier knows how it is in the wars. This I write out of love, as one who telleth in the spirit how it hath gone with himself, for an example to others, to try if any would follow him and find out how true it is.\n\n## Chapter 11\n\nGOD has set light and darkness before everyone; thou mayest embrace which thou wilt, thou dost not thereby move God in his being. His Spirit goes forth from him and meets all those that seek him. Their seeking is his seeking, in which he desireth humanity; for humanity is his image, which he has created according to his whole being, and wherein he will see and know himself. Yea, he dwells in man, why then are we men so long a-seeking? Let us but seek to know ourselves, and when we find ourselves we find all; we need run nowhere to seek God, for we can thereby do him no service; if we do but seek and love one another, then we love God; what we do to one another, that we do to God; whosoever seeketh and findeth his brother and sister hath sought and found God. In him we are all one body of many members, everyone having its own office, government and work; and that is the wonder of God.\n\nBefore the time of this world we were known in his wisdom, and he created us that there might be a sport in him. Children are our schoolmasters; in all our wit and cunning we are but fools to them; their first lesson is to learn to play with themselves, and when they grow bigger they play one with another. Thus hath God from eternity in his wisdom, in our hidden childhood, played with us: when he created us in knowledge and skill we should then have played one with another; but the Devil grudged us that and made us fall out at our sport. Therefore it is that we are always at variance, in contention; but we have nothing to contend about but our sport; when that is at an end we lie down to our rest and go to our own place. Then come others to play and strive and contend also till the evening, till they go to sleep and into their own country out of which they are come.\n\nDear children, what do we mean that we are so obedient to the Devil? Why do we so contend about a tabernacle which we have not made? Here we contend about a garment, because one brother has a fairer garment than another; are we not all our Mother's children? Let us be obedient children, and then we shall rejoice.\n\nWe go into the garden of roses, and there are lilies and flowers enough; we will make a garland for our sister, and then she will rejoice with us; we have a round to dance and we will all hold hands together. Let us be very joyful; there is no more might to hurt us, our Mother taketh care for us. We will go under the fig-tree, how abundant is its fruit!\n\nHow fair are the pine trees in Lebanon! Let us be glad and rejoice that our Mother may have joy of us. We will sing a song of the Oppressor who hath set us at variance. How is he made captive! Where is his power? How poor he is! He domineered over us, but now he is fast bound. O great Power, how art thou thus brought to scorn! Thou that didst fly aloft above the cedars art now laid underfoot and art void of thy power. Rejoice, ye heavens and ye children of God; for he that was our oppressor, who plagued us day and night, is made captive. Rejoice, ye angels of God, for men are delivered, and malice and wickedness laid low.\n\nDear children and brethren in Christ, let us in this world join our hearts, minds and wills in humility into one love, that we may be one in Christ. If thou art highly advanced to power, authority and honour, then be humble, despise not the simple and miserable; grind not the oppressed, afflict not the afflicted. If thou art fair, beautiful and comely of body, be not proud; be humble that thy brother and sister may rejoice in thee, and present thy beauty to the praise of God.\n\nThou that art rich, let thy streams flow into the houses of the miserable that their soul may bless thee.\n\nDear brethren and sisters in the congregation of Christ, bear with me; let us a little rejoice one with another: I bear a hearty love towards you and speak out of the Spirit of the eternal Wisdom of God.\n\nChrist earnestly teaches us love, humility and mercifulness; and the cause why God is become man is for our salvation and happiness' sake, that we should not turn back from his love: God has spent his heart that we may be his children and remain so for ever. Therefore, dearly beloved children, do not so reject and cast from you the love and grace of God, else you will lament it for ever. Learn divine wisdom, and learn to know what God is; do not set any image of any thing before you; there is no image of him but in Christ. We live and are in God; we have heaven and hell in ourselves. What we make of ourselves that we are: if we make of ourselves an angel, and dwell in the Light and Love of God in Christ, we are so; but if we make of ourselves a fierce, false and haughty devil which contemns all love and meekness in mere covetousness, greedy hunger and thirst, then also we are so. After this life it is otherwise with us than here; what the soul here embraces that it has there; and so, though the outward breaks in death, yet the will retains that embraced thing as its own and feeds upon it. How that will subsist in the paradise of God and before his angels, you yourself may consider: I would faithfully set it before you for a warning, as it is given to me.\n\n## Chapter 12\n\nWHEN Christ asked his disciples, Whom do the people say that the Son of Man is? they answered: Some say thou art Elijah, some, that thou art John the Baptist. Then he asked them and said: Whom say ye that I am? Peter answered him, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God. And he answered them and said, Of a truth, flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father in heaven.\n\nSeeing it is a familiar, intimate and native work to the children of God, wherewith they should exercise themselves daily and hourly, go forth from the earthly reason to enter into the incarnation of Christ, and so in this miserable life be born in the birth of Christ; I have therefore undertaken to write of this high mystery, according to my knowledge and gifts, for a memorial. Seeing that I also, together with others the children of God and Christ, stand in this birth, I have undertaken it as an exercise of faith, whereby my soul may thus, as a branch in its tree Jesus Christ, quicken itself from his sap and virtue.\n\nAnd that not with wise and high eloquence of art, or from the reason of this world, but according to the knowledge which I have from Christ. But though I search sublimely and deep, and shall set it down very clearly, yet this must be said to the reader, that without the Spirit of God it will be to him a hidden mystery.\n\nWe should rightly understand the incarnation of Christ, the Son of God, thus: he is not become man in the Virgin Mary only, so that his divinity was confined thereto. No, it is in another manner.\n\nAs little as God, who is the fulness of all things, dwells alone in one only place, so little also has God manifested himself by one spark of his light.\n\nGod is not measurable; for him is no place found unless he makes a place for himself in a creature; yet he is totally within the creature and without and beyond the creature. He is not divisible, but total everywhere; where he manifests himself there he is totally manifest.\n\nUnderstand it right: God has longed to become flesh and blood; and although the pure clear Deity continues Spirit, yet it is become the Spirit and Life of flesh and works in the flesh. So we may say that when we with our imagination enter into God, and wholly give up ourselves unto him, we enter into God's flesh and blood and live in God. For the Word is become man, and God is the Word.\n\nWe do not thus take away the creature of Christ, that he should not be a creature; I will give you a similitude thereof in the sun and its lustre and take it thus: in a similitude we liken the sun to the creature of Christ, which is indeed a body; and we liken the whole deep of this world to the eternal Word in the Father.\n\nNow we see plainly that the sun shines in the whole deep, and gives it warmth and power. But we cannot say that in the deep beyond the body of the sun there is not also the power of the sun; if that was not there then would the deep not receive the power and lustre of the sun. One power and one lustre receives the other; the deep with its lustre is hidden.\n\nIf God would please, the whole deep would be a mere sun; then would the lustre of the sun shine everywhere.\n\nKnow also that I understand that the Heart of God hath rested from eternity; but that with the moving and entering into the Wisdom it is become manifested in all places; though in God there is neither place nor mark but merely in the creature of Christ, where the total holy Trinity has manifested itself in a creature and so by the creature through the whole heaven.\n\nHe is gone thither and has prepared the place for us, where we shall see his light and dwell in his wisdom and share in his divine substantiality.\n\nWere we not in the beginning made out of God's substantiality? Why should we not also abide therein?\n\nFor this has the Heart of God moved itself, destroyed death, and regenerated the Life.\n\nThus now to us the birth and incarnation of Christ is a joyful and very weighty matter. The abyssal Heart of God hath moved itself; and therewith the heavenly substantiality, which was shut up in death, is become living again.\n\nSo we may now say with good ground that God himself hath withstood his anger, and with the centre of his Heart, which filleth eternity, has again opened himself, taken away the power of death, and broke the sting of the fierce wrath, inasmuch as love has opened itself and quenched the power of the fire.\n\nIn our imagination we become impregnated of his opened Word and of the power of the heavenly and divine substantiality, which indeed is not strange to us though it seems strange to our earthliness.\n\nThe Word has opened itself everywhere, in every man's light of life; and there is wanting only this, that the soul-spirit give itself up thereto. In that soul-spirit God is born.\n\n## Chapter 13\n\nOUTWARD reason saith, How may a man in this world see into God, into another world, and declare what God is? That cannot be: it must needs be a fancy wherewith the man amuses and deceives himself.\n\nThus far such reason comes: it cannot search further that it might rest; and if I staid in that same art, then would I also say the same; for he who sees nothing says nothing is there; what he sees, that he knows, and further he knows of nothing but that which is before his eyes.\n\nI would have the scorner and wholly earthly man asked whether the heaven is blind, as also hell and God himself.\n\nOr whether there is any seeing in the divine world; whether also the Spirit of God sees both in the love-light world and in the fierce wrath in the anger-world.\n\nDoes he say there is a seeing therein? as indeed is very true: then he should look to it that he himself does not often see with the Devil's eyes in his purposed malice.\n\nIf he would drive the Devil out, then he would see his great folly which the Devil has prompted him to. Yet he is so blinded that he knows not that he sees with the Devil's eyes.\n\nIn like manner the holy man sees with God's eyes; what God purposes, that the Spirit of God in the new birth sees out of the right human eyes of the image of God. It is to the wise a seeing and also a doing.\n\nIn the way through the death of Christ the new man sees into the angelical world; it is to him much easier and clearer to apprehend than the earthly world; it is done naturally, not with fancying but with seeing eyes, with eyes of that spirit which goes forth out of the soul's fire.\n\nThat spirit sees into heaven; it beholds God and eternity. It is the noble image according to the similitude of God.\n\nOut of such seeing has this pen written, not from other masters, nor out of conjecture whether it be true or no. Though now indeed a creature is but a piece and not a total consummation, so that we see only in part, yet what is written here is to be searched into, and is fundamental.\n\nThe Wisdom of God suffers not itself to be written, for it is endless, without number and comprehension; we know only in part.\n\nAnd though indeed we know much more, yet the earthly tongue cannot exalt itself and declare it: it speaks only words of this world and not words of the inward world, though the mind retains them in the hidden man.\n\nTherefore one always understands otherwise than another, according as each is endued with the Wisdom; and so also he apprehends and explains it.\n\nEveryone will not understand my writings according to my meaning and sense; indeed there may not be one who does so; but everyone will understand according to his gifts, for his benefit; one more than another, according as the Spirit has its property in him.\n\nFor the Spirit of God is often subject to the spirits of men, if they will that which is good or well; and it furthers what man wills, that his good work be not hindered, but that everywhere, above all, God's willing and desire be done.\n\nWhat is there now that is strange to us or in us, that we cannot see God? This world and the Devil are the cause that we see not with God's eyes, else there is no hindrance.\n\nNow if anyone saith I see nothing divine, he should consider that flesh and blood, together with the subtlety and craft of the Devil, is oftentimes a hindrance to him, in that he willeth in his high-mindedness for his own honour to see God, and oftentimes in that he is filled and blinded with earthly malignity.\n\nLet him look into the footsteps of Christ and enter into a new life, and give himself to be under the Cross of Christ, and desire only the entrance of Christ into himself; what shall hinder him then from seeing the Father, his Saviour Christ, and the Holy Spirit?\n\nIs the Holy Spirit blind when he dwells in man? Or write I this for my own boasting?\n\nNot so, but that the reader may forsake his error, and that with the divine eyes he may see the wonders of God, and so God's will may be done. To which end this pen has written very much, and not for its own honour or for the sake of the pleasures of this life.\n\nDear children of God, you who seek with much sighing and tears, I say to you in earnest sincerity: Our sight and knowledge is in God; he manifests to everyone in this world as much as he will, as much as he knows is profitable for the man.\n\nHe that sees from God, he has God's work to manage; he should and must order, speak, and do that which he sees, else his sight will be taken from him; for this world is not worthy of God's vision.\n\nBut for the sake of the wonders and of the revelation of God it is given to many to see; that the Name of God may be manifested to the world. We are not our own, but his whom we serve in his light. We know nothing of God; he, God himself, is our knowing and seeing; we are nothing that he may be all in us. We should be blind, deaf and dumb, and know no life in us, that he may be our life and vision, and our work be his.\n\nIf we have done anything that is good, our tongue should not say, This have we done, but, This hath the Lord in us done; his name be highly praised.\n\nBut what does this evil world now? If anyone says, This has God in me done; if it be good, then saith the world, Thou fool! thou hast done it; God is not in thee; thou liest. Thus they make fool and liar of the Spirit of God.\n\nWhen you see that the world fighteth against you, persecutes you, despises, slanders you because of your knowledge and the Name of God, then consider that you have the black Devil before you. Then sigh, and long that God's kingdom may come to us, and the Devil's sting may be destroyed, that the man, so influenced by the Devil, may through your longing, sighing and prayer be released. Then you labour rightly in God's vineyard and prevent the Devil of his kingdom.\n\nIn love and meekness we become newborn out of the wrath of God; in love and meekness we must strive and fight against the Devil in this world. For love is his poison; it is a fire of terror to him wherein he cannot stay. If he knew the least spark of love in himself he would cast it away, or would destroy himself that he might be rid of it. Therefore is love and meekness our sword, wherewith we can fight with the Devil and the world.\n\nLove is God's fire; the Devil and the world are an enemy to it. Love hath God's eyes and sees in God; anger has the eyes of the fierce wrath that sees in hell, in torment and in death.\n\nThe world supposes merely that a man must see God with the earthly and the starry eyes; it knows not that God dwells in the inward and not in the outward.\n\nIf it sees nothing admirable or wonderful in God's children it says, Oh, he is a fool, he is an idiot, he is melancholy; thus much it knows.\n\nO hearken, I know well what melancholy is; I know also well what is from God. I know them both, and thee also in thy blindness; but such knowledge is not purchased by melancholy, only by a wrestling to victory.\n\nIt is given to none without striving, unless he is a vessel chosen of God; otherwise he must strive for the garland.\n\nIndeed many a man is chosen to it in his mother's womb, chosen to open and disclose the wonders which God intends; but not all are chosen thus. Many are accepted out of their zealous seeking; for Christ saith, Seek and ye shall find, knock and so it will be opened unto you. Also, whosoever come to me, those I will not cast out.\n\nHerein lies the seeing out of Christ's spirit, out of God's kingdom, in the power of the Word, with the eyes of God and not with the eyes of this world and of the outward flesh.\n\nThus, thou blind world, know wherewith we see when we speak and write of God, and let thy false judging alone: see thou with thine eyes and let God's children see with their eyes; see from out thy gifts, let another see from out his gifts.\n\nAs everyone is called, so let him see; and so let him converse. We manage not all one and the same conversation, but everyone according to his gift, and his calling to serve God's honour and wonders.\n\nThe Spirit of God suffers not itself to be tied or bound up, as outward reason supposes, with decrees, canons and councils, whereby always one chain of Antichrist is linked to another so that men come to judge about God's Spirit, and to hold their own conceits or opinions to be God's covenant, as if God was not at home in this world, or as if they were Gods upon earth.\n\nI say that all such compacts and binding is Antichrist and unbelief, let it seem or flatter how it will. God's Spirit is unbound, he enters not into such compacts or obligations, but enters freely the seeking, humble, lowly mind, according to its gift and capacity.\n\nHe is also even subjected to it, if it does but earnestly desire him; what then can institutions in human wit and prudence of this world do for that mind, since it belongs to the honour of God?\n\nFriendly conference and colloquy is very good and necessary, wherein one presents or imparts his gifts to another; but compacts are a chain against God.\n\nGod has once made one covenant with us in Christ; that is enough for eternity, he makes no more. He has once taken mankind into the covenant and sealed it by blood and death; there is enough in that.\n\nIt is not so slight a thing to be a right true Christian, it is the very hardest thing of all; the will must be a soldier, and fight against the corrupted will. It must sink itself down out of the earthly reason into the death of Christ, and break the power of the earthly will.\n\nThis must be with so hardy and bold a courage that it will hazard the earthly life upon it and not give over till it has broke the earthly will; which indeed has been a strong battle with me.\n\nIt is no slight matter to fight for the garland of victory; for no one wins that unless he overcomes; which yet of his own might he cannot do.\n\nHe must make his will as it were dead, and so he lives to God and sinks into God's love; though he lives now in the outward kingdom.\n\nI speak of the garland of victory which he getteth in the paradise world if he once presses in; for there the noble seed is sown, and he receives the highly precious pledge and earnest of the Holy Spirit, which afterwards leads and directs him.\n\nAnd though he must in this world wander through a dark valley, wherein the Devil and the world's wickedness continually rush and roar tumultuously upon him, and often cast the outward man into evils and so hide the noble seed, yet it will not suffer itself to be kept back.\n\nThence it sprouts forth, and a tree grows out of it in God's kingdom, despite all the raging and raving of the Devil and his followers and dependents.\n\nAnd the more the noble tree is cherished, the more swiftly and strongly it grows; it suffers not itself to be destroyed though it costs the outward life.\n\nGod is in Christ become man, and the faith-spirit is also in Christ born man. In that the will-spirit converses or walks in God, for it is one spirit with God, and works with God divine works.\n\nAnd though it may be that the earthly life so hides it that a man knows not his work which he has generated in the faith, yet in breaking the earthly body it will be manifest. Seeing we know this we should let no fear or terror keep us back, for we shall well reap and enjoy eternally. What we have here sown in anguish and weariness, that will comfort us eternally. Amen.\n\n## Chapter 14\n\nWE cannot say that the outward world is God, or the speaking Word; or that the outward man is God. That is only the expressed Word, which has stiffened itself in union with the elements. I say, the inward world is the heaven where God dwells; and the outward world is expressed out of the inward, through the moving of the eternal speaking Word, and enclosed between a beginning and an end.\n\nThe inward world abides in the eternal speaking Word. The eternal Word speaks it into Being through Wisdom, out of its own powers, colours, and virtue, as a great mystery from eternity. This Being is a breathing from the Word in the Wisdom; it has the power of generation in itself, and introduces itself into forms, after the manner of the generation of the eternal Word, or, as I might say, out of the Wisdom in the Word.\n\nTherefore there is nothing nigh unto or far off from God; one world is in the other and all are one as soul and body are in each other, and time and eternity. The eternal speaking Word rules through and over all; it works from eternity to eternity; and though it can neither be apprehended nor conceived, yet its work is conceived, for this is the formed Word, of which the working Word is the life.\n\nThe eternal speaking Word is the divine understanding or *sound*. That which is brought forth from the love-desire into forms, that, I say, is the natural and creaturely understanding and sound which was in the Word; as it is said, In him was life, and that life was the light of men.\n\nThe harmony of hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting, and smelling, is the true intellective life. When one power enters into another, then they embrace each other in the sound; and when they are become one they mutually awaken and know each other. In this knowledge consists the true understanding, which, according to the nature of the eternal wisdom, is immeasurable and abyssal, being of the One which is All.\n\nTherefore one only will, if it has divine light in it, may draw from this fountain and behold infinity. From which contemplation this pen has wrote.\n\nIn the light of God (which is called the kingdom of heaven) the sound is wholly soft, pleasant, lovely and pure; yea, as a stillness in comparison with our outward gross speaking and sounding. It is as if the mind did play and melodize in a kingdom of joy within itself, and did then hear in a most entire inward manner a sweet, pleasing melody and tune; and yet outwardly did neither hear nor understand it. For in the divine light all is subtle, in manner as the thoughts play and make mutual melody in one another. And yet there is a real, intelligible, distinct sound and speech used by the angels, according to their own property, in the kingdom of glory. The powers of the formed and manifested Word, in their love-desire, do introduce themselves, according to the property of all the powers, into an external being, where, as in a mansion, they may act their love-play, and so have somewhat wherewith and wherein mutually to play and melodize one with another, in their wrestling sport of love.\n\nGod, who is a Spirit, has by and through his manifestation introduced himself into distinct spirits, which are the voices of his eternal pregnant harmony in the manifested Word of his great kingdom of joy: they are God's instrument, in which his Spirit melodizes in his kingdom of joy; they are angels, the flames of fire and light, in a living, understanding dominion.\n\nWe are not to think that the holy angels dwell only above the stars beyond the place of this world, as the outward reason, which knows nothing of God, fancies. Indeed they dwell beyond the dominion of this world, but the place of this world (although there is no place in eternity), and also the place beyond this world, is all one to them. We men see not the angels or the devils with our eyes; yet they are about us and among us. The evil and the good angels dwell near one another, and yet there is the greatest immense distance between them. For heaven is in hell and hell is in heaven, and yet the one is not manifest to the other. Although the Devil should go many millions of miles, desiring to enter heaven and to see it, yet he would still be in hell and not see it.\n\nIf evil was not known, joy would not be manifest. But if joy be manifest, then is the eternal Word spoken in joy, to which end the Word, with nature, has brought itself into a creation. Whosoever rightly sees and understands this has no further question about any thing, for he sees that he lives and subsists in God, and that he may further know and will through him and speak what and how he will. Such a man seeks only the estate of lowliness, that God may alone be accounted high.\n\nMy will-spirit, which now is in Christ's humanity, lives in Christ's spirit, that shall in his power give sap to the dry tree, that it may arise in the sound of the trumpet of the divine breath in Christ's voice, which is also my voice in his breath, and spring afresh in paradise. Paradise shall be in me; all whatever God has and is shall appear in me as an image of the divine world's being; all colours, powers and virtues of his eternal Wisdom shall be manifest in me, as in his likeness. I shall be the manifestation of the divine and spiritual world and an instrument of God's Spirit, wherein he makes melody with himself, with this voice which I myself am. I shall be his instrument, an organ of his expressed Word and Voice; and not only I, but all my fellow-members in the glorious choir and instrument of God. We are all strings in the concert of his joy; the spirit from his mouth strikes the note and tune of our strings.\n\nTherefore God became man, that he might repair his glorious instrument of praise, which would not sound according to the desire of his joy and of his love. He would bring again the true love-sound into the strings; he has brought the voice which sounds in his presence again into us; he is become that which I am and has made me that which he is, so I may say that in my humility I am in him his trumpet and the sound of his instrument and his divine voice.\n\n## Chapter 15\n\nI WILL now speak to those who feel indeed in themselves a desire to repent, and yet cannot come to acknowledge and bewail their committed sins; the flesh saying continually to the soul, Stay awhile, it is well enough, or, It is time enough tomorrow; and when tomorrow is come then the flesh says again, Tomorrow; the soul in the meanwhile, sighing and fainting, conceiveth neither any true sorrow for the sins it hath committed nor any comfort. Unto such an one, I say, I will write a process or way, which I myself have gone, that he may know what he must do and how it went with me, if peradventure he be inclined to enter into and pursue the same way.\n\nWhen any man findeth in himself, pressed home upon his mind and conscience, a hunger or desire to repent, and yet feeleth no true sorrow in himself for his sins which he hath committed, but only an hunger or desire of such sorrow; so that the poor captive soul continually sighs, fears, and must needs acknowledge itself guilty of sins before the judgement of God; such an one, I say, can take no better course than this, namely, to wrap up his senses, mind and reason together, and make to himself instantly, as soon as ever he perceiveth in himself the desire to repent, a mighty strong purpose and resolution that he will that very hour, nay, that minute, immediately enter into repentance, and go forth from his wicked way, not at all regarding the power and respect of the world. Yea, and if it should be required, that he will forsake and disesteem all things for true repentance sake; and never depart from that resolution again though he should be made the fool and scorn of all the world for it; that with the full bent and strength of his mind he will go forth from the glory and pleasure of the world, and patiently enter into the passion and death of Christ, and set all his hope and confidence upon the life to come; that even now in righteousness and truth he will enter into the vineyard of Christ and therein do the will of God; that in the Spirit and will of Christ he will begin and finish all his actions in this world; and for the sake of Christ's word and promise, which holds forth to us a heavenly reward, willingly take up and bear every adversity and cross, so that he may be admitted into the communion and fellowship of the children of Christ.\n\nHe must firmly imagine to himself, wholly wrapping up his soul in this persuasion, that in such his purpose he shall obtain the love of God in Christ Jesus, and that God will give unto him that noble pledge, the Holy Ghost, for an earnest; that in the humanity of Christ he himself shall be born again, and that the Spirit of Christ will renew his mind with love and power and strengthen his weak faith. Also that in his divine hunger he shall receive the flesh and blood of Christ for food and drink in the desire of his soul, which hungereth and thirsteth after it as its proper nutriment; and with the thirst of the soul drink the water of eternal life out of the pure fountain of Jesus Christ.\n\nHe must also wholly and firmly imagine to himself and set before him the great love of God. He must persuade himself that God in Christ will much more readily hear him and receive him to grace than he come; that God in the love of Christ, in the most dear and precious name Jesus, cannot will any evil; and that there is no angry countenance at all in this Name, but only the highest and deepest love and faithfulness, the greatest sweetness of God.\n\nIn this consideration he must firmly imagine to himself that this very hour and instant God is really present within and without him. He must know and believe that in his inward man he standeth really before God on whom his soul hath turned its back; and he must, with the eyes of his mind cast down in fear and deepest humility, begin to confess his sins and unworthiness before the face of God in some such manner as the following:\n\nO thou great unsearchable God, Lord of all things; thou who in Christ Jesus, of thy great love towards us, hath manifested thyself in our humanity: I, poor, unworthy, sinful wretch, come before thy presence, though I am not worthy to lift up mine eyes unto thee, acknowledging and confessing that I am guilty of breaking off from thy great love and the grace which thou hast freely bestowed upon us. My soul knoweth not itself because of the mire of sin; but accounteth itself a strange child before thee, not worthy to desire thy grace.\n\nO God in Christ Jesus, thou who for poor sinners' sake didst become man to help them, to thee I complain. The Devil hath poisoned me so that I know not my Saviour; I am become a wild branch on thy tree. In myself I am become a fool; I am naked and bare, my shame stands before mine eyes, I cannot hide it; thy judgement waiteth for me. What shall I say before thee, who art the Judge of all the world?\n\nO merciful God, it is owing to thy love and longsuffering that I lie not already in hell. I lie before thee as a dying man whose life is passing from his lips, as a spark of life going out; kindle it, O Lord, and lift up the breath of my soul before thee.\n\nA man must bring a serious mind to this work. If ever he would obtain the divine love, and union with the noble Wisdom of God, he must make an earnest vow in his purpose and mind.\n\nBeloved Reader, out of love to thee I will not conceal from thee what is made known to me. If thou lovest the vanity of the flesh still, and art not in an earnest purpose on the way to the new birth, intending to become a new man, then leave the above-written words in that prayer unspoken; else they will turn to a judgement of God in thee. Thou must not take the holy names in vain; they belong to the thirsty soul. But if thy soul be indeed athirst it shall find by experience what words they are.\n\nBeloved Soul; Christ was tempted in the wilderness, and, if thou wilt put on him, thou must go through his whole progress even from his incarnation to his ascension. Though thou art not able nor required to do that which he hath done, yet thou must enter wholly into his process and therein die continually from corruption. For the Virgin, the Holy Wisdom, expouseth not herself to the soul except the soul, through the death of Christ, spring up as a new plant, standing in heaven.\n\nTherefore take heed what thou doest: when thou hast made thy promise keep it; then Wisdom will crown thee more readily than thou wouldst be crowned. But thou must be sure, when the Tempter cometh to thee with the pleasure and glory of the world, that thy mind reject it. The free will of thy soul must stand the brunt as a warrior and champion. If the Devil cannot prevail against thy soul with vanity, then he cometh against it with its unworthiness and its catalogue of sins. There thou must fight hard, for in this conflict it goeth so terribly with many a poor sinner that outward reason thinketh him to be distracted, or possessed by an evil spirit. In this kind of combat heaven and hell are fighting one against the other. Yet a soldier who hath been in the wars can tell how to fight, and can teach another that may be in the like condition.\n\nI have set down here for the help of the reader a very earnest prayer in temptation, that he may know what to do if the same should befall him:\n\nMost deep Love of God in Christ Jesus, leave me not in this distress. I confess I am guilty of the sins which now rise up in my mind and conscience; if thou forsake me I must perish. But hast thou not promised me in thy word, saying, *If a mother could forget her child* (which can hardly be), *yet thou wilt not forget me?* Thou hast set me as a sign in thy hands which were pierced through with sharp nails, and in thy open side whence blood and water gushed out. Poor wretch that I am! I can in my own ability do nothing before thee; I sink myself down into thy wounds and death; into thee I sink down in the anguish of my conscience; do with me what thou wilt.\n\nBeloved Reader, this is no light matter; he that accounteth it so hath not yet passed through the trial. His conscience is still asleep. Happy is he who passeth through this fire in the time of his youth, before the Devil buildeth up in him a stronghold; he may prove a labourer in the heavenly vineyard, and sow his seed in the garden of Christ, where in due time he shall reap the fruit. This trial continueth a long while with many a poor soul, several years if he do not earnestly and early put on the armour of Christ. But to him who with a firm purpose striveth to depart from his evil ways the temptation will not be so hard, neither will it continue so long. Yet he must stand out valiantly till victory be gotten over the Devil. He shall be mightily assisted, and all shall end in the best for him; so that afterwards, when the day breaketh in his soul, he turneth all to the great praise and glory of God.\n\n## Chapter 16\n\nALL sorrow, anguish, and fear concerning spiritual things, whereby a man is dejected and terrified in himself, proceedeth from the soul. The outward spirit, which is from the stars and elements, is not thus disturbed and perplexed; because it liveth in its own matrix from which it had its birth. But the poor soul is entered into a strange lodging, into the spirit of this world, which is not its proper home. Whereby that fair creature is obscured and defaced, and is also held captive therein, as in a dark dungeon.\n\nThe soul is in its first being a magical fire-source from God's nature. It is an intense and incessant desire after the divine Light.\n\nSo then, the soul, being of itself a hungry magical fire-spirit, desireth spiritual virtue in order to sustain and preserve thereby its fire-life and allay the hunger of its source.\n\nBut seeing that the hungry soul, from the mother's womb, is involved in the spirit of the great world and its own temperament; therefore it feedeth, immediately from its birth, yea, even in the mother's womb, of the spirit of this world. The soul eateth spiritual food according to its temperament; it is the kindling of its fire. The fuel of its fire must be either its temperament or a divine sustenance from God.\n\nHence we may understand the cause of that infinite variety which there is in the wills and actions of men. Of whatever the soul eateth, wherewith its fire-life is fed, according: to that the soul's life is led and o governed.\n\nIf it goes out from its own temperament into God's love-fire, into the heavenly substantiality which is Christ's, then it eateth of Christ and of the meekness of the light of his majesty, wherein is the fountain of eternal life.\n\nFrom thence the soul getteth a divine will, and bringeth the body to do that which, according to its natural inclination and the spirit of this world, it would not do. In such a soul the temperament ruleth not; it bears sway only over the outward body. Such a man hath a continual longing after God.\n\nOftentimes when his soul eateth of the divine love-essence, it bringeth to him an exulting triumph, and a divine taste into the temperament itself. So that the whole body is thereby affected and even trembleth for joy, being lifted up to such a degree of divine sensation, as if it was on the very borders of paradise.\n\nBut this rapturous state rarely continueth long. The soul is soon clouded with somewhat of another nature from the spirit of this world, of which it maketh a lookingglass wherein it begins to speculate with its outward imagination. Thus it goeth out from the Spirit of God and is often bemired in the dirt of the world, if the Virgin of Divine Wisdom doth not call it back again to repent and return to its first love. Then, if the soul washeth itself anew in the water of eternal life, through earnest repentance, it becometh renewed again in the love-fire of God's meekness and in the Holy Spirit, as a new child; and beginneth again to drink of that water and recovereth at length its life in God.\n\nThere is no temperament in which the Devil's will and suggestions may be more clearly discovered, if the soul be once enlightened, than in the melancholy, as the tempted, who have resolutely and successfully stormed his stronghold, very well know.\n\nO how subtilly and maliciously doth the Devil spread his nets for such a soul, as a fowler for the birds! Oftentimes he terrifieth it in its prayers, especially in the night, when it is dark, injecting his suggestions into it and filling it with fearful apprehensions that the wrath of God is ready to seize and destroy it. Thus he maketh a show as if he had power over the soul of the man, and it was his property, whereas he hath not power to touch a hair of his head. Unless the soul itself despaireth, and by that means giveth itself up to him, he dareth not spiritually and really to seize or even touch it.\n\nHe hath more than one temptation for the melancholy soul. For, if he cannot persuade it absolutely to despair and so to give itself up to him that way, he bringeth it, when over-burthened with fears and sad apprehensions about its present state and future doom, and impatient under the weight thereof, to thoughts and designs of self-murder. He dareth not destroy a man; the man himself must do that. For the soul hath freedom. If it resisteth the Devil and will not do as he counselleth, then, however he may tempt, yet hath he not power to touch even the outward and sinful body.\n\nThe trouble of mind here spoken of is rather a subject of God's pity than of wrath. He will not break the bruised reed, nor extinguish the smoking flax. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in his blessed call and promise, saith, Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, so shall ye find rest unto your souls.\n\nThis yoke of Christ is no other than the Cross of nature and providence. This is the yoke which a man is required to take up and carry after Christ with patience, and with full submission thereto. Then the affliction, whatever it be, is so far from hurting the soul that it doeth it much good. For while it standeth in the house of sorrow it is not in the house of sin, or in the pride, pomp, and pleasure of the world. God holdeth it with tribulation, as with a father's restraint, from the sinful pleasure of this world.\n\nThe troubled soul is apt to perplex and torment itself because it cannot open by its desire the spring of divine joy in the heart. It sigheth, lamenteth, and feareth that God will have nothing to do with it, because it cannot feel the comfort of his visible presence.\n\nBefore the time of my illumination and high knowledge it was just so with me. I went through a long and sore conflict before I obtained my noble garland. Then did I first learn to know how God dwelleth not in the outward fleshly heart, but in the centre of the soul in himself, in his own principle.\n\nThen also I first perceived in my inward spirit that it was God himself who had drawn me to him in and by desire. Which I understood not before, but thought the good desire had been my proper own and that God was far distant from us men. But afterwards I clearly found, and rejoiced to find, how it is that God is so gracious to us. Therefore I write this for an example and a caution to others, not in the least to give way to despair when the Comforter delayeth his coming, but rather to think of the consolatory encouragement given in David's psalm, Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.\n\nIt hath fared no otherwise with the greatest saints of God. They were forced to wrestle long and earnestly for the noble garland. With which indeed no man will be crowned unless he strive for it and overcome.\n\nIt is indeed laid up in the soul, but if a man will put on that crown in the time of this mortal life he must wrestle for it. Then, if he doth not obtain it in this world, yet he will certainly receive it after he has put off this earthly tabernacle. For Christ saith, In the world ye shall have anxiety and trouble, but in me peace. And, Be of good comfort, I have overcome the world.\n\nI have neither pen that can write nor words that can express what the exceeding sweet grace of God in Christ is. I myself have found it by experience in this my way and course, and therefore certainly know that I have a sure ground from which I write. And I would from the bottom of my heart most willingly impart the same to my brethren in the love of Christ, who, if they will follow my faithful child-like counsels, will find by experience in themselves from whence it is that my simple mind knows and understands great mysteries.\n\n## Chapter 17\n\nTHE disciple said to his Master: Sir, how may I come to the supersensual life, so that I may see God, and hear God speak?\n\nThe Master answered and said: Son, when thou canst throw thyself into That, where no creature dwelleth, though it be but for a moment; then thou hearest what God speaketh.\n\nWhen thou standest still from the thinking of self and the willing of self; when both thy intellect and thy will are quiet, and passive to the impress of the eternal Word and Spirit; and when thy soul is winged up above that which is temporal, the outward senses and the imagination being locked up in holy abstraction, then the eternal hearing, seeing, and speaking will be revealed in thee. So God heareth and seeth through thee who art now the organ of his Spirit; so God speaketh in thee and whispereth to thy spirit, and thy spirit heareth his voice.\n\nThree things are requisite in order to this. The first is, Thou must resign thy will to God, and must sink thyself down to the dust in his mercy. The second is, Thou must hate thy own will and forbear from doing that to which thy own will doth drive thee. The third is, Thou must bow thy soul under the Cross, heartily submitting thyself to it, that thou mayest be able to bear the temptations of nature and the creature. And if thou doest this, then thou shalt hear, my Son, what the Lord speaketh in thee.\n\nThough thou lovest the earthly wisdom now, yet when thou shalt be clothed upon with the Heavenly Wisdom, then thou wilt see that all the wisdom of the world is folly. So shalt thou be able to stand under every temptation and to hold out to the end in a course of life above the world and above sense. In this course thou wilt hate thyself; and thou wilt also love thyself; I say, love thyself, and that even more than ever thou didst yet.\n\nIn loving thyself, thou lovest not thyself as thine own; but as given thee from the love of God thou lovest the divine ground in thee, by which and in which thou lovest the divine wisdom, the divine goodness, the divine beauty. Thou lovest also God's works of wonder, and in this same ground thou lovest thy brethren. In hating thyself thou hatest only that wherein the evil sticks close to thee. There is, there can be, no selfishness in love; they are opposed one to another. Love, that is, divine love (of which alone we are now discoursing) hates all evil selfhood. It is impossible that these two should subsist in one person; by a necessity of nature the one drives out the other.\n\nThe height of love is as high as God; it brings thee to be as high as God himself is, by uniting thee with God. Its greatness is as great as God: there is a latitude of heart in love which cannot be expressed; it enlarges the soul as wide as the whole creation of God. This shall be experienced by thee, beyond the compass of all words, when the throne of love shall be set up in thy heart. Its power supports the heavens and upholds the earth; its virtue is the principle of all principles, the virtue of all virtues. It is the worker of all things and a vital energy through all powers natural and supernatural. It is the power of all powers, nothing being able to let or hinder the omnipotence of love, or resist its penetrating might. If thou findest it thou comest into that fountain from whence all things are proceeded, into that ground wherein they subsist; and thou art a King over all the works of God.\n\nBe silent therefore and watch unto prayer, that thy mind may be disposed for finding that jewel, which to the world appears as nothing, but which to the children of Wisdom is all things. The way to the love of God is folly to the world, but wisdom to the children of God, for whom that which is despised of the world is the most precious treasure; yea, so great a treasure it is, that no life can express, nor tongue so much as name, what this inflaming, all-conquering love of God is. It is brighter than the sun; it is sweeter than any thing that is called sweet; it is stronger than all strength; it is more nourishment than any food, more cheering to the heart than wine, more pleasant than all the pleasantness of this world. Whosoever obtaineth it is richer than any monarch on earth, and he who winneth it is nobler than an emperor and more potent and absolute than all earthly powers and authorities.\n"}
 {"text": "# THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS AND OTHER WRITINGS\n\n## Contents\n\nIntroduction\n\nTHE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS\n\nPreface To The Reader\n\nChapter 1. How That All Whatever Is Spoken Of God Without The Knowledge Of The Signature...\n\nChapter 2. Of The Opposition And Combat In The Essence Of All Essences...\n\nChapter 3. Of The Grand Mystery Of All Beings\n\nChapter 4. Of The Birth Of The Stars, And Four Elements In The Metalline And Creaturely Property\n\nChapter 5. Of The Sulphurean Death, And How The Dead Body Is Revived, And Replaced Into Its First Glory\n\nChapter 6. How A Water And Oil Are Generated, And Of The Difference Of The Water And Oil...\n\nChapter 7. How Adam In Paradise, And How Lucifer Was A Fair Angel, And How They Were Corrupted...\n\nChapter 8. Of The Fiery Sulphureous Seething Of The Earth, And How The Growth Is In The Earth...\n\nChapter 9. Of The Signature, Shewing How The Internal Signs The External\n\nChapter 10. Of The Inward And Outward Cure Of Man\n\nChapter 11. Of The Process Of Christ In His Suffering, Death, And Resurrection: Of The Wonder Of The Sixth Kingdom...\n\nChapter 12. Of The Seventh Form In The Kingdom Of The Mother; How The Seventh Kingdom...\n\nChapter 13. Of The Enmity Of The Spirit And Of The Body, And Of Their Cure And Remedy\n\nChapter 14. Of The Wheel Of Sulphur, Mercury, And Salt; Of The Generation Of Good And Evil...\n\nChapter 15. Concerning The Will Of The Great Mystery In Good And Evil, Shewing From Whence A Good And Evil Will Arises...\n\nChapter 16. Concerning The Eternal Signature And Heavenly Joy; Why All Things Were Brought Into Evil And Good\n\nPostscript By The Translator\n\nTHE SUPERSENSUAL LIFE\n\nDialogue 1. Disciple. Master\n\nDialogue 2. Argument\n\nDialogue 3. Of Heaven And Hell. A Dialogue Between Junius A Scholar And Theophorus His Master\n\nDialogue 4. The Way From Darkness To True Illumination\n\n## Introduction\n\n*The biographic substance of this introduction is principally drawn from Dr. Hartmann's rare volume, and from Professor Deussen's Preface to the magnificent edition of Boehme's works.*\n\n*Trasumanar significa per verba  \nnon si poria; però, l'esemplo basti  \na cui esperienza grazia serba.*\n\nThere are few figures in history more strange and beautiful than that of Jacob Boehme. With a few exceptions the outward events of his life were unremarkable. He was born in 1575 at the village Alt Seidenberg, two miles from Goerlitz in Germany and close to the Bohemian border. His parents were poor, and in childhood he was put to mind their cattle. It was in the solitude of the fields that he first beheld a vision, and assuredly his contemplative spirit must have been well nourished by the continual companionship of nature.\n\nPhysically he was not robust (though he never had a sickness), and for this reason his parents, when he was fourteen, apprenticed him to a shoemaker. Of his apprenticeship nothing is recorded, I think, except a story about a mysterious man who came once to the shop when the master was away, and taking Jacob by both hands foretold to him the great work that he should accomplish.\n\nIn 1599, when he was four-and-twenty, he became a master shoemaker, and in the same year he married the daughter of a butcher. The girl developed into a capable considerate woman, and they lived together happily until Boehme died. They had four sons and probably two daughters, but his children do not figure prominently in the story of his life. Already he had been visited by a sudden illumination of mind, and in 1600 he experienced the second of those marvellous ecstasies that gave splendour to the whole of his after-life. This, also, was followed by a third and still more brilliant illumination that made clear and complete much that in his previous visions had been obscure and unrelated.\n\nThe more dramatic portion of his life begins, however, with the publication of his first book (about 1612). At first he called it *Morning-Glow*, but at the suggestion of a friend he altered the title to that under which it has become world-famous—*Aurora*.\n\nNow although Lutheranism had severely shaken the old orthodoxy, it had itself become, in Boehme's time, an orthodoxy just as rigid. Quite naturally the book was read by the pastor of Goerlitz, one Gregorius Richter. He was a man intolerant, conceited, violent of temper, and obtuse of intellect. He despised and feared the shoemaker. The book ruffled him into a self-righteous passion, and hurrying to the City Council he demanded that Boehme should be banished. The Council was afraid to refuse, and Boehme (like nearly all the truth-bringers) was exiled from his native town.\n\nOn the morrow, however, the Council convened again. Its members were stirred by a fine shame when it was put to them that they had banished a citizen of stainless reputation, and one, indeed, who regularly attended church. They recalled him at once, but on condition that he should write no books.\n\nIn the following year he changed his occupation. Literary work had caused his business to decline, and having sold the shop he journeyed to the larger cities of the neighbourhood (such, for example, as Prague and Dresden) selling woollen gloves; but after a while it was no longer possible for him to disobey the inner command that he should give to men his revelations, and in these last ten years he composed the unique and shining books of which we have a selection in this volume.\n\nGregorius Richter, as we should expect, by no means left him at peace. He was denounced from the pulpit and in his own hearing. Scurrilous treatises were flung at him, treatises full of personal abuse and ignoble sneers at his profession. \" His writing,\" observed those who represented the Son of the carpenter, \"smells overmuch of cobbler's pitch;\" and again we read, \"Will ye have the words of Jesus Christ or the words of a shoemaker?\" The shoemaker answered them gently and with dignity, as when he declared, \"Not I, the I that I am, knows these things, but God knows them in me.\"\n\nIn 1624 his friend Abraham von Frankenburg republished a selection of his writings under the title of *The Way to Christ*. Its radiant beauty impelled the respect of many who belonged to the orthodox church, and this very fact inflamed the Tertullians of his native town. Again they banished him on the charge of impiety, and even refused that he should say farewell to his wife and sons. He went to Dresden. There already he had found a friend in Dr. Hinkelmann. It is pleasant to, record that while he was at Dresden the emperor convened a meeting of eminent divines, that Boehme was invited, and that the depth and spirituality of his thought, together with the charm and modesty with which he expressed it, were received with admiration by many and with enthusiasm by the learned doctors Gerhard and Meissner.\n\nBut at the end of the year (November 20, 1624) he died, happily and in the presence of a loving and beloved son. He had foretold the very hour of his death. So relentless were his opponents in Goerlitz that, until the intervention of the powerful Count Hannibal von Drohna, they refused a burial service, and the very priest who had attended him in death, being forced by the Council to make an oration, began by declaring that he would rather walk twenty miles than praise the gentle Boehme. The elaborate cross, too, which was put upon his tomb was torn down in anger.\n\nWe are told by Frankenburg, his friend, that he was short in stature, \"worn and very plain,\" with \"grey eyes, that lightened into a celestial blue, a low forehead, a thin beard, and an aquiline nose.\"\n\nNow in the study of mysticism we soon find the essential experience of all mystics to have been identical, and that among them is no figure more representative than Jacob Boehme: so that when we read this book we are like men who from the vantage-point of one of its highest hills can see below and around them the whole expanse of a beautiful and unearthly island. If it allures us we shall then delight in exploring its verdant valleys or spirit-peopled woods or quiet starlit gardens, and all the mysterious birds and blossoms that fly or flutter within them; but if it does not seem attractive we can push off and sail for another country. By no true philalethe can mysticism be honourably ignored. It is either the noblest folly or the grandest achievement of man's mind. Alexander and Napoleon were ambitious, but their ambition dwindles to insignificance when it is compared with that of the mystic. The purpose of the mystic is the mightiest and most solemn that can ever be, for the central aim of all mysticism is to soar out of separate personality up to the very Consciousness of God.\n\nSo well, indeed, had Roman Catholicism taught those who were religious the insignificance of the human soul that few among the European mystics of the Middle Ages or the Renaissance were so brilliantly conscious that they could cry out boldly with Meister Eckhardt, \"I truly have need of God, but God has need of me.\" Often they shrank from the ultimate experience, wholly worshipping God indeed, but retaining ever a sense of separateness. Their very humility was the final veil of egotism which they dared not rend.\n\nJacob Boehme, the last of the great European mystics, having imagined the Spirit which pervades the universe, knew well how little was the stature of his human personality; but he had realised that God was verily within him, and he spoke with the uprightness of a divine being. Unflaggingly he counsels men (as in *The Supersensual Life*) to turn away from the worthless and separated self which hungers for honour or for bodily comfort, in order that they should rediscover within themselves \"what was before nature and creature.\" And he means by this phrase \"that light which lighteth every man who cometh into the world.\" It is here, he says, now and always: we have but to extricate our consciousness from all that is the effect of our time and place. We have but to quiet cur own thoughts and desires, and we shall hear at once the harmonies of heaven.\n\nThe danger of such a doctrine is apparent. The true mystic may safely follow his Inward Light, but the enchanted apples are guarded by dragons and are only to be captured by the strong. Many a self-styled mystic has wasted his life in \"waiting for the spark that never came:\" wasted, we say, though surely not worse wasted than the thousands of lives that, for all their activity, bring nothing to the soul. It is something at least to have striven for the noblest of all ends. We must choose either safety or romance, and mysticism is the romance of religion; the mystic an explorer in the spiritual world. He does not use the instruments of intellect. He experiments. Perhaps, like the Persian Sufi poets, he thinks of God as the Great Beloved, and then, directing all his power of love to the most glorious idea that he is able to conceive, he finds that his emotion like a river has carried him into a state of soul in which he is vividly conscious of the Divine Presence. In that state he beholds the visible world as it were from within. He perceives the spiritual cause of all these material effects. He understands the essential nature of trees and flowers and mountains and the live creatures of the world. No longer does he see men by those dim lights that penetrate the dense and cloudy world of matter. He sees them as angelic toilers bowed by the burden of their own mundane selves. And he knows the insignificance of much that we deem important, the deep value of much that we count accessory, for having cleansed his vision of all personal impediment he apprehends the true proportion of all the elements that compose the universe. The vast realisations that shine within him then are by their nature not easy to express in common terms. Who that has loved could explain his experience to one that had never loved? Only those who are near can understand, and that is why so often the words of mystics are obscure.\n\nSometimes the seer will attempt to explain his illumined state, like St. John or Jalàlu-d-din Rūmi, by the use of brilliant symbols adapted from the material world; sometimes, like Plotinus or Boehme, by the use of the most abstract words in order that the mind may be led away from worldly associations: but all alike have looked upon one splendour. By many ways they have travelled homeward to that ideal state in which alone the unshackled soul has perfect freedom, and in this book, assuredly, we are communing with one who, if any among men has ever done so, broke free from the bonds of personality and could look upon the universe with the eyes of God.\n\nCLIFFORD BAX.\n \n## THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS\n\nShewing the Sign and SIGNIFICATION of\n\nThe several Forms and Shapes in the Creation\n\nAND WHAT THE\n\nBEGINNING, RUIN, AND CURE OF EVERYTHING IS.\n\nIT PROCEEDS OUT OF\n\nEternity into Time, and again out of Time into Eternity,\n\nAND COMPRIZES ALL MYSTERIES.\n\n## Preface To The Reader\n\nTHIS book is a true mystical mirror of the highest wisdom. The best treasure that a man can attain unto in this world is true knowledge; even *the knowledge of himself*: For *man* is the great mystery of God, the *microcosm*, or the complete abridgment of the whole universe: He is the *mirandum Dei opus*, God's masterpiece, a living emblem and hieroglyphic of eternity and time; and therefore to know whence he is, and what his temporal and eternal being and well-being are, must needs be that ONE necessary thing, to which all our chief study should aim, and in comparison of which all the wealth of this world is but dross, and a loss to us.\n\nHence Solomon, the wisest of the kings of Israel, says: \"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding; for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold; she is more precious than rubies, and all things that can be desired are not to be compared unto her.\"\n\nThis is that wisdom which dwells in nothing, and yet possesses all things, and the humble resigned soul is its playfellow; this is the divine alloquy, the inspiration of the Almighty, the breath of God, the holy unction, which sanctifies the soul to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, which instructs it aright in all things, and searches τὰ βάθη το̃υ Θεο̃υ,1 the depths of God.\n\nThis is the precious pearl, whose beauty is more glorious, and whose virtue more sovereign than the sun: It is a never-failing comfort in all afflictions, a balsam for all sores, a panacea for all diseases, a sure antidote against all poison, and death itself; it is that joyful and assured companion and guide, which never forsakes a man, but convoys him through this valley of misery and death into the blessed paradise of perfect bliss.\n\nIf you ask, What is the way to attain to this wisdom? Behold! Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, tells you plainly in these words; \"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me;\"2 or as he says elsewhere, \"Unless you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven:\" or as St. Paul says, \"If any man seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise.\"3 \n\nHerein lies that simple childlike way to the highest wisdom, which no sharp reason or worldly learning can reach unto; nay, it is foolishness to reason, and therefore so few go the way to find it: The proud sophisters and wiselings of this world have always trampled it under foot with scorn and contempt, and have called it enthusiasm, madness, melancholy, whimsy, fancy, etc., but wisdom is justified of her children.\n\nIndeed, every one is not fit for or capable of the knowledge of the eternal and temporal nature in its mysterious operation, neither is the proud covetous world worthy to receive a clear manifestation of it; and therefore the only wise God (who giveth wisdom to every one that asketh it aright of him) has locked up the jewel in his blessed treasury, which none can open but those that have the key; which is this, viz., \"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: \"The Father will give the Spirit to them that ask him for it.\n\nThis is the true theosophic school wherein this author learned the first rudiments and principles of wisdom, and to which we must go if we would understand his deep writings: For we must know that the sons of Hermes, who have commenced in the high school of true magic and theosophy, have always spoken their hidden wisdom in a mystery; and have so couched it under shadows and figures, parables and similies, that none can understand their obscure, yet clear writings, but those who have had admittance into the same school, and have tasted of the Feast of Pentecost.\n\nAnd this does not seem at all strange to the children of divine Mercury; for the mysteries of philosophy, divinity, and theosophy must not be profaned, and laid open to the view of the outward astral reason, which turns all to its selfish pride, covetousness, envy, wrath, and cunning hypocrisy; and therefore a parabolical or magical phrase or dialect is the best and plainest habit and dress that mysteries can have to travel in up and down this wicked world: And thus parable have a double and different respect and use; for as they conceal and hide secrets from the rude and vulgar sort, who are not able or patient to bear anything but what suits with their common conceits and opinions, so likewise they sweetly lead the mind of the true searcher into the depths of wisdom's council. They are as the cloudy pillar of Moses; they have a dark part, and they have a light part; they are dark to the Egyptians, the pharisaical sons of sophistry, but light to the true Israel, the children of the mystery.\n\nAnd therefore whoever will be nurtured and trained up by Sophia, and learn to understand and speak the language of wisdom, must be born again of and in the Word of Wisdom, Christ Jesus, the Immortal Seed: The divine essence which God breathed into his paradisical soul must be revived, and he must become one again with that which he was in God before he was a creature, and then his Eternal Spirit may enter into that which is within the veil, and see not only the literal, but the moral, allegorical, and anagogical meaning of the wise and their dark sayings: He then will be fit to enter, not only into Solomon's porch, the outer court of natural philosophy, sense and reason, but likewise into the inward court of holy and spiritual exercises, in divine understanding and knowledge; and so he may step into the most inward and holiest place of theosophical mysteries, into which none are admitted to come, but those who have received the high and holy unction.\n\nI will now endeavour briefly to hint to the reader what this book contains, though in it the spirit of wisdom cannot be delineated with pen and ink, no more than a sound can be painted, or the wind grasped in the hollow of the hand: But know, that in it he deciphers and represents in a lively manner the Signature of all Things, and gives you the contents of eternity and time, and glances at all mysteries.\n\nHerein the author sets forth fundamentally the birth, sympathy, and antipathy of all beings; how all beings originally arise out of one eternal mystery, and how that same mystery begets itself in itself from eternity to eternity; and likewise how all things, which take their original out of this eternal mystery, may be changed into evil, and again out of evil into good; with a clear and manifest demonstration how man has turned himself out of the good into the evil, and how his transmutation is again out of the evil into the good: Moreover, herein is declared the outward cure of the body; how the outward life may be freed from sickness by its likeness or assimulate, and be again introduced into its first essence; where also, by way of parable and similitude, the Philosopher's Stone is with great life described for the temporal cure; and along with it the holy Corner Stone, Christ alone, for the everlasting cure, regeneration, and perfect restitution of all the true, faithful, eternal souls. In a word, his intent is to let you know the inward power and property by the outward sign; for nature has given marks and notes to everything, whereby it may be known; and this is the Language of Nature, which signifies for what everything is good and profitable: And herein lies the mystery, or central science of the high philosophical work in the true spagiric art, which consummates the cure, not only for the body, but for the soul.\n\nBut let the reader know that the sharp speculation of his own reason will never pry into the depth of this book, but rather bring him into a maze of doubtful notions, wherein he will bewilder himself, and think the author's phrase tedious and strange; and therefore the understanding lies only in the manifestation of that Spirit, which in the Day of Pentecost gave forth the true sense and meaning of all languages in one: Now if that Spirit rules and dwells in you, then you may understand this author in the deepest ground, according to your creaturely constellation, both in the eternal and temporal nature; but if not, these things will be but as a relation of trifles and chimeras to you. And therefore if you be of a saturnine property, dull and dark, shut up in the house of Luna, soar not too high with your censure and scorn, or with a critical speculation of your outward reason, lest you fall indeed into the deep abyss of darkness; but wait patiently, till the divine Sol shall shine again in your dark and selfish Saturn, and give you some beams and glimpses of his eternal light, and then your angry Mars will be changed into pure love-zeal, and your prating, pharisaical and hypocritical Mercury into a meek, mild, and Christian speaking of God's works and wonders in the dispensation of his wisdom; and your doubtful, unsettled Jupiter will be turned into a plerophory, or most full assurance of true joy and saving comfort in your religion; your earthly Venus into heavenly love, and your eclipsed mutable Luna into the pure, perfect, and crystalline streams of light, life, and glory.\n\nBut the proud scorner that will take no warning is of Lucifer's regiment, who saw the mystery of God's kingdom to stand in meekness, simplicity, and deep humility, and therefore out of his pride would aspire to be above the divine love, and harmony of obedience to God's will, and so fell into the abyss of the dark world, into the outmost darkness of the first principle, which we call Hell, where he and his legions are captives; from which the Almighty God of Love deliver us.\n\nI will end with the words of the author at the conclusion of the book, where he says thus; \"I have faithfully, with all true admonition, represented to the reader what the Lord of all beings has given me; he may behold himself in this looking-glass4 within and without, and so he shall find what and who he is: Every reader, be he good or bad, will find his profit and benefit therein: It is a very clear gate of the great mystery of all beings: By glosses, commentaries, curiosity and self-wit, none shall be able to reach or apprehend it in his own ground; but it may very well meet and embrace the true *seeker*, and create him much profit and joy; yea be helpful to him in all natural things, provided he applies himself to it aright, and seeks in the fear of God, seeing it is now a time of seeking; for a lily blossoms upon the mountains and valleys in all the ends of the earth: 'He that seeketh findeth.'\" And so I commend the reader to the grace and love of Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.\n \n## Chapter 1. How That All Whatever Is Spoken Of God Without The Knowledge Of The Signature...\n\nHOW THAT ALL WHATEVER IS SPOKEN OF GOD WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SIGNATURE IS DUMB AND WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING; AND THAT IN THE MIND OF MAN THE SIGNATURE LIES VERY EXACTLY COMPOSED ACCORDING TO THE ESSENCE OF ALL ESSENCES5\n\n1. All whatever is spoken, written, or taught of God, without the knowledge of the signature is dumb and void of understanding; for it proceeds only from an historical conjecture, from the mouth of another, wherein the spirit without knowledge is dumb; but if the spirit opens to him the *signature*, then he understands the speech of another; and further, he understands how the spirit has manifested and revealed itself (out of the essence through the principle) in the sound with the voice. For though I see one to speak, teach, preach, and write of God, and though I hear and read the same, yet this is not sufficient for me to understand him; but if his sound and spirit out of his signature and similitude enter into my own similitude, and imprint his similitude into mine, then I may understand him really and fundamentally, be it either spoken or written, if he has the hammer that can strike my bell.\n\n2. By this we know, that all human properties proceed from one; that they all have but one only root and mother; otherwise one man could not understand another in the sound, for with the sound or speech the form notes and imprints itself into the similitude of another; a like tone or sound catches and moves another, and in the sound the spirit imprints its own similitude, which it has conceived in the essence, and brought to form in the principle.\n\n3. So that in the word may be understood in what the spirit has conceived,6 either in good or evil; and with this signature he enters into another man's form, and awakens also in the other such a form in the signature; so that both forms mutually assimulate together in one form, and then there is one comprehension, one will, one spirit, and also one understanding.\n\n4. And then secondly we understand, that the signature or form is no spirit, but the receptacle, container, or cabinet of the spirit, wherein it lies; for the signature stands in the essence, and is as a lute that liest still, and is indeed a dumb thing that is neither heard or understood; but if it be played upon, then its form is understood, in what form and tune it stands, and according to what note it is set. Thus likewise the signature of nature in its form is a dumb essence; it is as a prepared instrument of music, upon which the will's spirit plays; what strings he touches, they sound according to their property.\n\n5. In the human mind the signature lies most artificially composed, according to the essence of all essences; and man wants nothing but the wise master that can strike his instrument, which is the true spirit of the high might of eternity; if that be quickened in man, that it stirs and acts in the centre of the mind, then it plays on the instrument of the human form, and even then the form is uttered7 with the sound in the word: As his instrument was set in the time of his incarnation,8 so it sounds, and so is his knowledge; the inward manifests itself in the sound of the word, for that is the mind's natural knowledge of itself.\n\n6. Man has indeed all the forms of all the three worlds lying in him; for he is a complete image of God, or of the Being of all beings; only the order is placed in him at his incarnation; for there are three work-masters in him which prepare his form [or signature], viz. the threefold fiat, according to the three worlds; and they are in contest about the form, and the form is figured according to the contest; which of the masters holds the predominant rule, and obtains it in the essence, according to that his instrument is tuned, and the other lie hid, and come behind with their sound, as it plainly shews itself.\n\n7. So soon as man is born into this world, his spirit plays upon his instrument, so that his innate genuine form [or signature] in good or evil is seen by his words and conversation; for as his instrument sounds, accordingly the senses and thoughts proceed from the essence of the mind, and so the external spirit of the will is carried in its behaviour, as is to be seen both in men and beasts; that there is a great difference in the procreation, that one brother and sister does not as the other.\n\n8. Further we are to know, that though one fiat thus keeps the upper hand, and figures the form according to itself, that yet the other two give their sound, if their instrument be but played upon; as it is seen that many a man, and also many a beast, though it is very much inclined either to good or evil, yet it is moved either to evil or good by a contrary tune, and often lets its inbred signature [or figure] fall, when the contrary tune is played upon his hidden lute or form: As we see that an evil man is often moved by a good man to repent of and cease from his iniquity, when the good man touches and strikes his hidden instrument with his meek and loving spirit.\n\n9. And thus also it happens to the good man, that when the wicked man strikes his hidden instrument with the spirit of his wrath, that then the form of anger is stirred up also in the good man, and the one is set against the other, that so one might be the cure and healer of the other. For as the vital signature, that is, as the form of life is figured in the time of the fiat at the conception, even so is its natural spirit; for it takes its rise out of the essence of all the three principles, and such a will it acts and manifests out of its property.\n\n10. But now the will may be broken; for when a stronger comes, and raises his inward signature with his introduced sound and will's spirit, then its upper dominion loses the power, right, and authority; which we see in the powerful influence of the sun, how that by its strength it qualifies a bitter and sour fruit, turning it into a sweetness and pleasantness; in like manner how a good man corrupts among evil company, and also how that a good herb cannot sufficiently shew its real genuine virtue in a bad soil; for in the good man the hidden evil instrument is awakened, and in the herb a contrary essence is received from the earth; so that often the good is changed into an evil, and the evil into a good.\n\n11. And now observe, as it stands in the power and predominance of the quality, so it is signed and marked externally in its outward form, signature, or figure; man in his speech, will, and behaviour, also with the form of the members which he has, and must use to that signature, his inward form is noted in the form of his face;9 and thus also is a beast, an herb, and the trees; everything as it is inwardly [in its innate virtue and quality] so it is outwardly signed; and though it falls out, that often a thing is changed from evil into good, and from good into evil, yet it has its external character, that the good or evil [that is, the change] may be known.\n\n12. For man is known herein by his daily practice, also by his course and discourse; for the upper instrument, which is most strongly drawn, is always played upon: Thus also it is with a beast that is wild, but when it is overawed and tamed, and brought to another property, it does not easily shew its first innate form, unless it be stirred up, and then it breaks forth, and appears above all other forms.\n\n13. Thus it is likewise with the herbs of the earth; if an herb be transplanted out of a bad soil into a good, then it soon gets a stronger body, and a more pleasant smell and power, and shews the inward essence externally; and there is nothing that is created or born in nature, but it also manifests its internal form externally, for the internal continually labours or works itself forth to manifestation: As we know it in the power and form of this world, how the one only essence has manifested itself with the external birth in the desire of the similitude, how it has manifested itself in so many forms and shapes, which we see and know in the stars and elements, likewise in the living creatures, and also in the trees and herbs.\n\n14. Therefore the greatest understanding lies in the signature, wherein man (viz. the image of the greatest virtue) may not only learn to know himself, but therein also he may learn to know the essence of all essences; for by the external form of all creatures, by their instigation, inclination and desire, also by their sound, voice, and speech which they utter, the hidden spirit is known; for nature has given to everything its language according to its essence and form, for out of the essence the language or sound arises, and the fiat of that essence forms the quality of the essence in the voice or virtue which it sends forth, to the animals in the sound, and to the essentials10 in smell, virtue, and form.\n\n15. Everything has its mouth to manifestation; and this is the language of nature, whence everything speaks out of its property, and continually manifests, declares, and sets forth itself for what it is good or profitable; for each thing manifests its mother, which thus gives the essence and the will to the form.\n \n## Chapter 2. Of The Opposition And Combat In The Essence Of All Essences...\n\nOF THE OPPOSITION AND COMBAT IN THE ESSENCE OF ALL ESSENCES, WHEREBY THE GROUND OF THE ANTIPATHY AND SYMPATHY IN NATURE MAY BE SEEN, AND ALSO THE CORRUPTION AND CURE OF EACH THING\n\n1. Seeing then there are so many and divers forms, that the one always produces and affords out of its property a will different in one from another, we herein understand the contrariety and combat in the Being of all beings, how that one does oppose, poison, and kill another, that is, overcome its essence, and the spirit of the essence, and introduces it into another form, whence sickness and pains arise, when one essence destroys another.\n\n2. And then we understand herein the cure, how the one heals another, and brings it to health; and if this were not, there were no nature, but an eternal stillness, and no will; for the contrary will makes the motion, and the original of the seeking, that the opposite sound seeks the rest, and yet in the seeking it only elevates and more enkindles itself.\n\n3. And we are to understand how the cure of each thing consists in the assimulate; for in the assimulate arises the satisfaction of the will, viz. its highest joy; for each thing desires a will of its likeness, and by the contrary will it is discomfited;11 but if it obtains a will of its likeness, it rejoices in the assimulate, and therein falls into rest, and the enmity is turned into joy.\n\n4. For the eternal nature has produced nothing in its desire, except a likeness out of itself; and if there were not an everlasting mixing, there would be an eternal peace in nature, but so nature would not be revealed and made manifest, in the combat it becomes manifest; so that each thing elevates itself, and would get out of the combat into the still rest, and so it runs to and fro, and thereby only awakens and stirs up the combat.\n\n5. And we find clearly in the light of nature, that there is no better help and remedy for this opposition, and that it has no, higher cure than the liberty, that is, the light of nature, which is the desire of the spirit.\n\n6. And then we find, that the essence cannot be better remedied than with the assimulate; for the essence is a being, and its desire is after being: Now every taste desires only its like, and if it obtains it, then its hunger is satisfied, appeased and eased, and it ceases to hunger, and rejoices in itself, whereby the sickness falls into a rest in itself; for the hunger of the contrariety ceases to work.\n\n7. Seeing now that man's life consists in three principles, viz. in a threefold essence, and has also a threefold spirit out of the property of each essence, viz. first, according to the eternal nature, according to the fire's property; and secondly, according to the property of the eternal light and divine essentiality; and thirdly, according to the property of the outward world: Thereupon we are to consider the property of this threefold spirit, and also of this threefold essence and will; how each spirit with its essence introduces itself into strife and sickness, and what its cure and remedy is.\n\n8. We understand that without nature there is an eternal stillness and rest, viz. the Nothing; and then we understand that an eternal will arises in the nothing, to introduce the nothing into something, that the will might find, feel, and behold itself.\n\n9. For in the nothing the will would not be manifest to itself, wherefore we know that the will seeks itself, and finds itself in itself, and its seeking is a desire, and its finding is the essence of the desire, wherein the will finds itself.\n\n10. It finds nothing except only the property of the hunger, which is itself, which it draws into itself, that is, draws itself into itself, and finds itself in itself; and its attraction into itself makes an overshadowing or darkness in it, which is not in the liberty, viz. in the nothing; for the will of the liberty overshadows itself with the essence of the desire, for the desire makes essence and not the will.\n\n11. Now that the will must be in darkness is its contrariety, and it conceives in itself another will to go out from the darkness again into the liberty, viz. into the nothing, and yet it cannot reach the liberty from without itself, for the desire goes outwards, and causes source and darkness; therefore the will (understand the reconceived will) must enter inwards, and yet there is no separation.\n\n12. For in itself before the desire is the liberty, viz. the nothing, and the will may not be a nothing, for it desires to manifest in the nothing; and yet no manifestation can be effected, except only through the essence of the desire; and the more the reconceived will desires manifestation, the more strongly and eagerly the desire draws into itself, and makes in itself three forms, viz. the desire, which is astringent, and makes hardness, for it is an enclosing, when coldness arises, and the attraction causes compunction,12 and stirring in the hardness, an enmity against the attracted hardness; the attraction is the second form, and a cause of motion and life, and stirs itself in the astringency and hardness, which the hardness, viz. the enclosing,13 cannot endure, and therefore it attracts more eagerly to hold the compunction, and yet the compunction is thereby only the stronger.\n\n13. Thus the compunction willeth upwards, and whirls crossways, and yet cannot effect it, for the hardness, viz. the desire stays and detains it, and therefore it stands like a triangle, and transverted orb, which (seeing it cannot remove from the place) becomes wheeling, whence arises the mixture in the desire, viz. the essence, or multiplicity of the desire; for the turning makes a continual confusion and contrition, whence the anguish, viz. the pain, the third form (or sting of sense) arises.\n\n14. But seeing the desire, viz. the astringency becomes only the more strong thereby (for from the stirring arises the wrath and nature, viz. the motion), the first will to the desire is made wholly austere and a hunger, for it is in a hard compunctive dry essence, and also cannot get rid and quit of it, for itself makes the essence, and likewise possesses it, for thus it finds itself now out of nothing in the something,14 and the something is yet its contrary will, for it is an unquietness, and the free-will is a stillness.\n\n15. This is now the original of enmity, that nature opposes the free-will, and a thing is at enmity in itself; and here we understand the centre of nature with three forms, in the original, viz. in the first principle, it is Spirit; in the second it is Love, and in the third principle Essence; and these three forms are called in the third principle Sulphur, Mercury, and Sal.\n\n16. Understand it thus: Sul is in the first principle the freewill, or the lubet in the nothing to something, it is in the liberty without nature; Phur is the desire of the free lubet, and makes in itself, in the Phur, viz. in the desire, an essence, and this essence is austere by reason of the attraction, and introduces itself into three forms (as is above mentioned) and so forward into the fourth form, viz. into the fire; in the Phur the original of the eternal and also external nature is understood, for the hardness is a mother of the sharpness of all essences, and a preserver of all essences; out of the Sul, viz. out of the lubet of the liberty, the dark anguish becomes a shining light; and in the third principle, viz. in the outward kingdom, Sul is the oil of nature, wherein the life burns, and everything grows.\n\n17. But now the Phur, viz. the desire, is not divided from Sul; it is one word, one original also, and one essence, but it severs itself into two properties, viz. into joy and sorrow, light and darkness; for it makes two worlds, viz. a dark fire-world in the austereness, and a light fire-world in the lubet of the liberty; for the lubet of the liberty is the only cause that the fire shines, for the original fire is dark and black, for in the shining of the fire in the original the Deity is understood, and in the dark fire, viz. in the anguish-source, the original of nature is understood, and herein we do further understand the cure.\n\n18. The source is the cure of the free lubet, viz. of the still eternity; for the stillness finds itself alive therein, it brings itself through the anguish-source into life, viz. into the kingdom of joy, namely that the nothing is become an eternal life, and has found itself, which cannot be in the stillness.\n\n19. Secondly, we find that the Sul, viz. the lubet of the liberty, is the curer of the desire, viz. of the anxious nature: for the lustre of the liberty does again (from the enkindled fire out of nature) shine in the dark anguish, and fills or satiates the anguish with the liberty, whereby the wrath extinguishes, and the turning orb stands still, and instead of the turning a sound is caused in the essence.\n\n20. This is now the form of the spiritual life, and of the essential life; Sul is the original of the joyful life, and Phur is the original of the essential life; the lubet is before and without nature, which is the true Sul; and the spirit is made manifest in nature, viz. through the source, and that in a twofold form, viz. according to the lubet of the liberty in a source of joy, and according to the anxious desire's lubet; according to the astringency, compunctive, bitter, and envious from the compunction, and according to the anguish of the wheel wholly murderous and hateful; and each property dwells in itself, and yet they are in one another; herein God's love and anger are understood, they dwell in each other; and the one apprehends not the other, and yet the one is the curer of the other; understand through imagination, for the eternal is magical.\n\n21. The second form in nature, in eternity is the Orb with the compunctive bitter essences: for there arises the essence, understand with the perturbation; for the nothing is still without motion, but the perturbation makes the nothing active: but in the third principle, viz. in the dominion in the essence, and source of the outward world, the form is called Mercury, which is opposite, odious, and poisonful, and the cause of life and stirring, also the cause of the senses: Where one glance15 may conceive itself in the infinity, and then also immerse itself into it, where out of one only the abyssal, unsearchable, and infinite multiplicity may arise.\n\n22. This form is the unquietness, and yet the seeker of rest; and with its seeking it causes unquietness, it makes itself its own enemy; its cure is twofold, for its desire is also twofold, viz. according to the lubet of the liberty, according to the stillness and meekness; and then also in the hunger according to the rising of unquietness, and the finding of itself; the root desires only joy with the first will, and yet it cannot obtain it, except through the opposite source, for no joy can arise in the still nothing; it must arise only through motion and elevation that the nothing finds itself.\n\n23. Now that which is found desires to enter again into the will of the still nothing, that it may have peace and rest therein; and the nothing is its cure; and the wrath and poison is the remedy of the seeker and finder, that is their life which they find, an example whereof we have in the poisonous gall, whence in the life arises joy and sorrow, wherein we also understand a twofold will, viz. one to the wrathful fire and anxious painful life to the original of nature, and one to the light-life, viz. to the joy of nature; this takes its original out of the eternal nothing.\n\n24. The first will's cure is the lubet of the liberty, if it obtains that, then it makes triumphant joy in itself; and the wrath in the hungry desire is the curer and helper of the other will, viz. the will of nature; and herein God's love and anger are understood, and also how evil and good are in the centre of each life, and how no joy could arise without sorrow, and how one is the curer of the other.\n\n25. And here we understand the third will (which takes its original out of both these, viz. out of such an essence, viz. out of the mother), viz. the spirit, which has both these properties in it, and is a son of the properties and also a lord of the same; for in him consists the power, he may awaken which he pleases; the properties lie in the essence, and are as a well-constituted life, or as an instrument with many strings,16 which stand still; and the spirit, viz. the egress is the real life, he may play upon the instrument as he pleases, in evil or good, according to love or anger; and as he plays, and as the instrument sounds, so is it received of its contra-tenor, viz. of the assimulate.\n\n26. If the tune of love be played, viz. the liberty's desire, then is the sound received of the same liberty and love-lubet; for it is its pleasing relish, and agreeable to its will's desire; one similar lubet takes another.\n\n27. And thus likewise is it to be understood of the enmity and contrary will; if the instrument be struck according to the desire to nature, viz. in the wrath, anger, and bitter falsehood, then the same contrary sound and wrathful desire receives it; for it is of its property, and a satiating of its hunger, wherein we understand the desire of the light, and also of the dark world; a twofold source and property.\n\n28. The desire of the liberty is meek, easy, and pleasant, and it is called good;17 and the desire to nature makes itself in itself dark, dry, hungry, and wrathful, which is called God's anger, and the dark world, viz. the first principle; and the light world is the second principle.\n\n29. And we are to understand, that it is no divided essence, but one holds the other hidden or closed up in it, and the one is the beginning and cause of the other, also its healing and cure; that which is awaked and stirred up, that gets dominion, and manifests itself externally with its character, and makes a form and signature according to its will in the external after itself. A similitude whereof we see in an enraged man or beast; though the outward man and beast are not in the inward world, yet the outward nature has even the same forms; for it18 arises originally from the inward,19 and stands upon the inward root.\n\n30. The third form is the anxiousness which arises in nature from the first and second form, and is the upholder or preserver of the first and second; it is in itself the sharp fiat; and the second form has the Verbum, viz. the property to the word, and it consists in three properties, and makes out of herself with the three the fourth, viz. the fire; in the external birth, viz. in the third principle, it is called Sal, or salt, according to its matter; but in its spirit it has many forms; for it is the fire-root, the great anguish, it arises betwixt and out of the astringency and bitterness in the austere attraction; it is the essentiality of that which is attracted, viz. the corporality, or comprehensibility; from Sulphur it is of a brimstone nature, and from Mercury a blaze or flash; it is in itself painful, viz. a sharpness of dying, and that from the sharp attraction of the astringency: It has a twofold fire, one cold, another hot; the cold arises from the astringency, from the sharp attraction, and is a dark black fire; and the hot arises from the driving forth the compunction20 in the anguish in the desire after the liberty, and the liberty is its enkindler, and the raging compunction is the cold's fire's awakener.21  \n\n31. These three forms are in one another as one, and yet they are but one; but they sever themselves through the original into many forms, and yet they have but one mother, viz. the desiring will to manifestation, which is called the father of nature, and of the Being of all beings.\n\n32. Now we are to consider the hunger of the anxiety, or the salt-spirit, and then also its satiating or fulfilling: The anguish has in it two wills, from the original of the first will out of the liberty to the manifestation of itself; viz. the first will is to nature, and the other reconceived will is the son of the first, which goes out of the manifestation again into itself into the liberty; for it is become an eternal life in nature, and yet possesses not nature essentially, but dwells in itself, and penetrates nature as a transparent shining, and the first will goes outwards,22 for it is the desire of manifestation; it seeks itself out of itself, and yet amasses the desire in itself; it desires to educe the internal out of itself.\n\n33. Thus it has two properties; with the seeking in itself it makes the centre of nature: For it is like a poison, a will of dreadful aspiring, like a lightning and thunder-clap; for this desire desires only anguish, and to be horrible, to find itself in itself, out of the nothing in the something; and the second form proceeds forth as a flagrat, or produces sound out of itself; for it is not the desire of the first will to continue in the horrible death, but only thus to reduce itself out of the nothing, and to find itself.\n\n34. And we understand by the centre in itself, with the aspiring wrathfulness, with the wrathful will to nature, the dark world, and with the egress out of itself to manifestation, the outward world; and with the second will out of the first, which enters again into the liberty, we understand the light world, or the kingdom of joy, or the true Deity.\n\n35. The desire of the dark world is after the manifestation, viz. after the outward world, to attract and draw the same essentiality into it, and thereby to satisfy its wrathful hunger; and the desire of the outward world is after the essence or life, which arises from the pain and anguish.\n\n36. Its desire in itself is the wonder of eternity, a mystery, or mirror, or what is comprehended of the first will to nature.\n\n37. The outward world's desire is Sulphur, Mercury, and Sal; for such an essence it is in itself, viz. a hunger after itself, and is also its own satisfying; for Sul desires Phur, and Phur desires Mercury, and both these desire Sal; for Sal is their son, which they hatch in their desire, and afterwards becomes their habitation, and also food.\n\n38. Each desire desires only the essentiality of salt according to its property; for salt is diverse; one part is sharpness of cold, and one part sharpness of heat; also one part brimstone; and one part salniter from Mercury.\n\n39. These properties are in one another as one, but they sever themselves, each dwelling in itself; for they are of a different essence, and when one enters into another, then there is enmity, and a flagrat. A similitude whereof we may apprehend in thunder and lightning, which comes to pass when the great Anguish, viz. the mother of all salts, understand the third form of nature, impresses itself; which comes to pass from the aspect of the sun, which stirs up the hot fire's form, so that it is penetrative, as the property of the fire is; and when it reaches the salniter, then it enkindles itself; and the salniter is in itself the great flagrat in Mercury, viz. the flash, or compunction, which enters into the coldness, so also into the cold sharpness of the salt-spirit; this coldness is exceedingly dismayed at the flash of the fire, and in a trice wraps or folds up itself in itself, whence arises the thunder-clap (or the tempestuous flash, which gives a stroke in the flagrat) and the flagrat goes downwards, for it is heavy by reason of the coldness, and the sal-nitrous spirit is light by reason of the fire, which [spirit] carries the thunder or sound sideways, as is to be heard in tempests and thunder; presently thereupon comes the wind or spirit out of all the four forms one against another, for they are all four enkindled in the penetrating flagrat; whereupon follows hail and rain; the hail folds itself together in the coldness, in the property of the cold salt-spirit; for the wrath attracts to itself, and turns the water to ice, and the water arises from the meekness, viz. from the desire of the light, for it is the essentiality of the meekness; this the cold salt-spirit congeals into drops, and distils it upon the earth, for before the congelation it is only as a mist, or steam, or as a vapour, or damp.\n\n40. Thus we see this ground very exactly and properly in thunder and lightning; for the flash, or lightning, or ethereal blaze, goes always before, for it is the enkindled salniter; thereupon follows the stroke in the flagrat of the coldness; as you see, as soon as the stroke is given the astringent chamber is opened, and a cool wind follows, and oftentimes whirling and wheeling; for the forms of nature are awakened, and are as a turning wheel, and so they carry their spirit the wind.\n \n## Chapter 3. Of The Grand Mystery Of All Beings\n\nOF THE GRAND MYSTERY OF ALL BEINGS\n\n1. Courteous reader, observe the meaning right; we understand not by this description a beginning of the Deity, but we shew you the manifestation of the Deity through nature; for God is without beginning, and has an eternal beginning, and an eternal end, which he is himself, and the nature of the inward world is in the like essence from eternity.\n\n2. We give you to understand this of the divine essence; without nature God is a mystery,23 understand in the nothing, for without nature is the nothing, which is an eye of eternity, an abyssal eye, that stands or sees in the nothing, for it is the abyss; and this same eye is a will, understand a longing after manifestation, to find the nothing; but now there is nothing before the will, where it might find something, where it might have a place to rest, therefore it enters into itself, and finds itself through nature.\n\n3. And we understand in the mystery without nature in the first will two forms; one to nature, to the manifestation of the wonder-eye; and the second form is produced out of the first, which is a desire after virtue and power, and is the first will's son, its desire of joyfulness. And understand us thus; the desire is egressive, and that which proceeds is the spirit of the will and desire, for it is a moving, and the desire makes a form24 in the spirit, viz. formings of the infinity of the mystery.\n\n4. And this form [or likeness] is the eternal wisdom of the Deity; and we understand herein the Trinity of the only Deity, whose ground we must not know, how the first will arises in the abyss from eternity, which is called Father; only we know the eternal birth, and distinguish the Deity, viz. what purely and merely concerns the Deity, or the good, from nature, and shew you the arcanum of the greatest secret mystery; namely, how the abyss, or the Deity, manifests itself with this eternal generation; for God is a spirit, and as subtle as a thought or will, and nature is his corporeal essence, understand the eternal nature; and the outward nature of this visible comprehensible25 world is a manifestation or external birth of the inward spirit and essence in evil and good, that is, a representation, resemblance, and typical similitude of the dark fire and light world.\n\n5. And as we have shewn you concerning the original of thunder and lightning with the tempestuous stroke; so likewise the inward nature of the inward world is, and stands in the generation: For the outward birth takes its original from the inward; the inward birth is unapprehensible to the creature, but the outward is apprehensible to it; yet each property apprehends its mother from whence it is brought forth.\n\n6. As the soul comprehends the inward eternal nature, and the spirit of the soul, viz. the precious image according to God, comprehends26 the birth of the angelical light-world, and the sidereal and elemental spirit comprehends the birth and property of the stars and elements; every eye sees into its mother from whence it was brought forth.\n\n7. Therefore we will set down the generation of all essences out of all mothers and beginnings, how one generation proceeds from another, and how one is the cause of another, and this we will do from the eyesight of all the three mothers.\n\n8. Let none account it impossible, seeing man is a likeness according to and in God, an image of the Being of all beings; and yet it stands not in the power of the creature, but in the might of God; for the sight and science of all essences consist alone in the clearest light.\n\n9. We have made mention before how the external birth, viz. the essence of this world, consists in three things, viz. in Sulphur, Mercury, and Sal: Now we must set down and declare what it is, seeing that all things arise from one original, and then how its inward separation is effected, that out of one beginning many beginnings are produced; this is now to be understood, as is before mentioned, concerning the centre of all essences.\n\n10. For Sulphur in the eternal beginning consists in two forms, and so also in the outward beginning of this world: viz. in the internal the first form, viz. the Sul consists27 in the eternal liberty; it is the lubet of the eternal abyss, viz. a will or an original to the desire; and the other original is the desire, which is the first motion, viz. an hunger to the something; and in this same hunger is the eternal beginning to the pregnant nature,28 and it is called Sulphur, viz. a conception of the liberty, viz. of the good, and a conception or comprehension of the desire, viz. of the austere attraction in the desire.\n\n11. Sul in the internal is God, and Phur is the nature; for it makes a spirit of the nature of brimstone, as is to be seen externally in the property of brimstone; for its substance is a dry constringent matter, and is of a painful anxious fiery property, forcing itself forth; it attracts eagerly and hardly into itself, and parches up as a dry hunger, and its painful property does eagerly and anxiously force itself forth: The cause and original is this, because it stands in two beginnings, viz. in the property of the desire, which is an attraction; and in the property of the light or liberty, which is driving forth, or pressing to the manifestation through the desire of nature.\n\n12. The desire, viz. the attraction makes hardness, and is the cause of the fire, and the lubet is a cause of the lustre or light of the fire: Sul is light, and Phur makes fire, yet it cannot be reduced alone in Sulphur to fire and light, but in Mercury, and at last in Sal, which is the real body, but not of the brimstone, but of the essence and water: And so understand, that in the first desire, which arises in the lubet of the liberty, all things are, and are made substantial and essential, from whence the creation of this world is proceeded; and we find herein the property of the earth, so likewise of all metals and stones, and also of the astrum,29 and the original of the elements, all out of one only mother, which is the lubet and the desire, from whence all things proceeded and still proceed.\n\n13. For Mercury is generated in Sulphur: It is the severing, viz. of light and darkness from one another, the breaking wheel, and cause of the various division or multiplicity: it separates the dark essentiality from the essentiality of the light, viz. the metals from the gross, astringent, dark, stony, and earthly property; for the property of the desire gives and makes dark essence, and the property of the free lubet makes light essence, viz. metals, and all of the same kind and resemblance.\n\n14. Mercury has in the beginning of his birth three properties, viz. the *trembling* in the austereness, and *anguish* from the hard impressing of the astringent hard desire, and the *expulsion* of the multiplicity, viz. the essential life; for the desire attracts very hard to itself, and the attraction makes the motion, or sting of trembling [or horrible compunction], and that which is impressed is the anguish; but if the liberty be therein comprehended, it refuses it, and there arises the original of enmity, and the severing, that one form separates from another, and a twofold will arises.\n\n15. For the lubet of the liberty does again set its desire into the stillness, viz. into the nothing, and forces again out of the darkness of the desire's austereness into itself, viz. into the liberty, without the wrath of the enmity; and so it has only sharpened itself in the austere impression in Mercury, that it is a moving feeling life, and that its liberty is sharpened so that it becomes a lustre, which is, and causes a kingdom of joy in the liberty; and so understand us, that the spirit's dominion, viz. the spirit and the essence30 do thus separate.\n\n16. The essence remains in the impression, and becomes material; that is not God, but gold, or any other metal, according to the property of the first conception in the Sulphur, or stone, or earth, out of the desire's own peculiar property, all according to the first sude31 or seething in Mercury; for no metal can be generated without salniter, which is the flagrat in Mercury; which also becomes material in the astringent impression, and divides itself in the separation, one part into brimstone, another into salniter, and a third into a salt sharpness; whereas yet there cannot be any corporeal essence in all these, but only the spirit of the essence; the essence proceeds wholly out of the death through mortification, which is effected in the great anguish of the impressure, where there is a dying source, which is the mercurial life, where the salnitral flagrat arises as an opening, displaying flash: For the liberty, viz. the property of the eternal lubet, does there separate itself,32 and yet the attracted essence out of the lubet of the liberty continues all along in the comprehension of the attraction in the astringent austere dark anguish: Now if the wrath enters so vehemently into itself as to raise up the salnitral flagrat, then it apprehends the essentiality of the free lubet in itself, from whence arises the flagrat; for the wrath there apprehends the meekness, which is even as if water were poured into fire, which gives a flagrat; and then the wrath of the great anguish dies, and with the flagrat the joy ascends, and the flagrat is out of mercury, or out of the anguish of death, and becomes also material, but by reason of the liberty it changes itself into white, which is salniter: Now if the fire, viz. the horrible anxious sharpness, does again come into it, then the salniter is dismayed, and gives a repulse;33 for the first property [which was] before the death is again enkindled with the brimstone spirit; a sufficient resemblance of which you have in gunpowder, which is the matter of these properties.\n\n17. Further, we are to know the dying with the enkindling of the fire, all which is done in the flagrat; for it is a flagrat to death, and to life; one part immerses itself into the property of death, viz. into the wrath of the austere desire; and the other part, which is from the lubet or love-essentiality, arises up in the kingdom of joy: But seeing there happens also a mortifying in the free materia (though it is no mortifying, but a redeeming from the wrath, for the materia of the liberty will be free from the wrath), thereupon this materia falls34 downwards, which is water; and it is not of the property of the wrath, but the wrath holds it captive in itself; but they are separated from one another in the essence and source; the wrath's essence gives earth and stones, and the essence of the liberty is water, which arises with the enkindling of the fire through the mortification out of the meekness of the light.\n\n18. But seeing this water does also separate itself in the salnitral flagrat, and before the salniter was all mutually enwrapt together, thereupon it obtains different properties in the separation, and there is a diversity of water; and this various diversity of properties gives in each property also a bodily or corporeal essence, all according to the first separation of mercury in sulphur, for in the mortification in the salnitral flagrat two things are effected and come forth, viz. a life, and a body of the life; understand an essential, and a lifeless senseless body, whose materia is mortified in the flagrat: Thus there is a diversity of water, and a diversity of the life, and a diversity of the body,35 or of the materia; as each body is, so is also its essential spirit.\n\n19. Now we must consider this from the first original; as (1) from the lubet of the liberty; and (2) from the desire to nature, or the manifestation of the abyss.\n\n20. First, in the salnitral flagrat there is produced through the anxious mortification a sulphureous water from the anguish, which affords a brimstone, as we plainly see, and all whatever is of the like sort and resemblance.\n\n21. Secondly, there is generated from the astringent, austere, attractive property, which draws in to itself, a salt water; its materia is salt; if it be again impressed through the fire or heat, then it turns into salt; and all whatever is sharp and attractive, be it either in herbs or trees, proceeds from thence; for there is as much diversity of brimstone and salt, as there is variety of taste and fire to be found in all creatures, herbs, and trees; also all whatever lives and grows has brimstone and salt; for the saltish property attracts, and preserves the body;36 and the brimstone has in it the oil or light, wherein the free lubet to manifestation consists, whence the growth arises.\n\n22. Thirdly, there is brought forth through the salnitral flagrat out of the property of the bitter compunctive attraction, in the first impression in the spirit, an earthly property of water; its materia is earth; for the same arises from the dark essentiality, where the darkness impresses itself in the first desire, wherein the darkness arises, as is before mentioned: Thus it begets out of its property in the impression a mist, smoaky steam, or vapour, which the flagrat in the salniter apprehends, and its essence is dismayed or dies, and falls downwards; this is the materia of the earth, though the earth is not of one only sort, but has in it all whatever became corporeal in the flagrat, all which springs through the death of the earth, according as it was wrapt and driven together in the creation into a lump, as we plainly see.\n\n23. Further, we are to consider of the highest arcanum, viz. of the heavenly essentiality, and then of the precious stones and metals, from whence they all take their rise and original; seeing that all things come out of one mother, which is the lubet and desire of eternity to its own manifestation.\n\n24. Now concerning the incorruptible essence of corporality, the same arises also in the first desire to nature, yet in the impression of the free lubet, and goes all along through all the forms even into the highest sharpness, where it retires again into itself, as a life out of the fire: The eternal fire is magical, and a spirit, and dies not; the liberty is its enkindler, but the eternal nature is its sharpness; this same essence loses the wrath's property in the light; it is in the same fire as a dying, yet there is no dying, but an entrance into another source, viz. out of a painful desire into a love-desire; it yields also spirit and essence from the fire-spirit, and the essence of meekness from the light.\n\n25. For that which dies to the fire, or sinks through death, that is divine essence; and it is effected likewise through the salnitral flagrat of the divine joyfulness, where the property trembles in the joy of meekness, and immerses itself through the death of the fire, which is called God's anger, and quenches it, so that God dwells in a meek light; and the first property to the enkindling of the light is fire, and wrath of the eternal nature, and makes37 the dark world.\n\n26. The properties of the first mother in the lubet and desire do also divide themselves in the salnitral flagrat of joyfulness into distinct parts, as is to be seen in this outward world; it yields also water, but of a very sovereign essence, and it resembles only a spirit of a pleasant lovely desire: This is the water of which Christ told us that he would \"give us to drink,\" and \"whosoever should drink the same, it should spring up in him to a fountain of eternal life.\"\n\n27. It retains also in the flagrat of the disclosure the fiery property which is called heaven, in which the wonders of the divine kingdom of joy are known and manifest; and in the watery property [it retains] the pleasant spring, or paradise; for in the fiery [property] the eternal element arises, and it is the real essence of the divine corporality, wherein consists all whatever may be known in God, as is sufficiently and in order cleared at large in our other writings of the *Divine revelation*, treating of the *Divine wisdom*, and of the *Divine eternal abyssal birth: *And now we will turn us to the essence of the outward world, viz. to the manifestation of the eternal, viz. to metals, herbs, and trees; so also to men and beasts.\n\n28. We see that the metals have another manner of body than the living creatures, or are otherwise than the earth and stones are: Now reason asks, How is the original of everything, seeing that in the beginning all arose out of one mother, and yet the eternity has no temporal beginning? Here we must again consider the mother of the first pregnatrix, where, and how one essence separates itself from another, viz. the inchoative from the eternal, time from eternity, and yet they stand mutually in each other, but are severed into two principles, viz. into the kingdom of God, and of this world; and yet all is God's: But seeing Christ calls the devil \"a prince of this world,\" and we also are able to declare how far, and in what he is a prince, and that this world is not his own,38 but he is the poorest creature in this world, and also not at all in this world; now therefore look upon the first ground, upon the mother which has thus generated all creatures.\n\n29. So also as to the earth, stones, and all metals, the earth's property, consists in a spiritual Sulphur, Mercury, and Sal, and all whatever has had beginning is arisen in and out of her impression, and inchoatively thereupon it came forth with the first form of the mother, viz. with the astringent attraction, through the fiat into a creatural being, and affords a diversity of essence and spirit, according to the first property of the separation.\n\n30. As first, the high spirits, which were created out of the free lubet in the desire, in the fire's property, viz. out of the centre of all essences, had in them the properties of both the eternal worlds; but those which after their corporising [or being made creaturely] remained with their desire in the property of the free lubet, and introduced their will out of the fire into the light, they became angels; and the other, which introduced their desire again into the centre (viz. into the austere properties), became devils, viz. outcasts from the free lubet out of the light, as is mentioned in other writings.\n\n31. Therefore the devils have neither the kingdom of God, nor the kingdom of this world in possession; for in the beginning of the creation this world was created out of both the inward properties, whereupon the devil has now only the wrath's part in possession, the other profits him nothing; and thus he is in the world, and also not in the world, for he has but one part thereof in possession, from the other he is cast out.\n\n32. After the creation of the highest spirits, God created this visible world with the stars and elements as an external birth out of the mother of all essences; all which proceeded out of the eternal beginning, and took a temporal beginning: For here we are to consider, that the eternal pregnatrix moved itself, and enkindled its own form [or similitude], where then the one became corporeal in the other; but afterwards God created the earth, which we are thus to consider of.\n\n33. The first desire to nature impresses itself, and introduces itself with the impression into three forms, viz. into Sulphur, Mercury, and Sal, and in the impression all become rising and moving, which is not in the still nothing, and so forces itself into the highest anguish, even to39 the salnitral flagrat, where then is the original of the fire: Thus the source whirls in itself, as a boiling of water upon the fire: for the austere desire is attractive, and the fiery is expulsive, which is a sulphur; and the astringent attraction is a wrathful sting [or compunction], viz. a contrition; and yet it is held by the austereness, that it cannot move away, whereupon it is painful, and causes pain, as if it were seething, which yet is only spirit without essence, which comes to pass in Mercury, and is Mercury's own form.\n\n34. And there is the separation of two wills, viz. one remains, and is the very anxious essence, seeing it originally arises from the desire; the other, which arises out of the lubet of the liberty, retires back again into itself into the liberty, and yet there is no parting or dividing from one another, but thus it goes one with another all along through the enkindling of the fire through the salnitral flagrat, where with the enkindling of the fire the death is effected in the wrath of the fire, where the source dies, and yet there is no death, but a likeness of death; and yet the real, eternal, and temporal death is in that manner, even where the liberty apprehends itself in itself, and the death or flagrat falls down into the liberty as impotent, and freely resigns itself; and the spirit, viz. the source (understand the very sharp, fiery, anxious source), becomes material, and retains only an essential working, like to an impotent desire; and in the enkindling of the fire in the salnitral flagrat each property separates itself in itself, and the whole materia is particularised, viz. to metals, stones, and earth.\n\n35. The highest metal,40 as gold, arises from the liberty, which is comprised all along in the flagrat in the astringent impression; and it is not free from the materia of the rest, for all is comprised or wrapt up together; but seeing the liberty with the Sul, or light's property, is comprised or comprehended therein also, thereupon Sul is expulsive to the manifestation of itself, as it is the property of the liberty so to be: Hence it comes that metals grow, and not the gross hard stones, which are too hard comprised in the impression out of the wrathful essentiality, and have too little Sul in them.\n\n36. But concerning the precious stones, with their radiant lustre and great virtue, the same have their original in the flash of the fire, where life and death separate; as when one part by reason of the dark essentiality descends, and the other by reason of the liberty ascends, and yet all is brought into essence in the flagrat; so that the same flash or glance becomes also material in the flagrat; and therefore they are hard, and of a blinking glance, like an eye; for so also is the original of the eye or sight in the womb,41 when the life enkindles; all according to the right of eternity.\n\n37. And therefore they are of so great power, efficacy, and virtue, in that they are so nigh to the Deity, and bear the incorporated names of the divine power in them; as also gold is nigh to the divine essentiality, or heavenly corporality: If man could open [or disclose] the dead body, and reduce it to a flying42 moving spirit, which only can be effected through the divine motion, then it should be seen what it could be, which no reason believes or understands without divine sight [or vision].\n\n38. Further, we are also to consider of the other metals and minerals, which in like manner do thus take their original; but in the salnitral flagrat each property is separated; as we see that the property of the fire and light is different, and all from the first impression; where before the impression the lubet and desire of the liberty stand mutually in each other, as a *chaos*, a complexion of great wonders, where all colours, powers, and virtues are contained in this only Chaos, or wonder-eye; which Chaos is God himself, viz. the Being of all beings, who thus manifests himself in particular beings with the eyes of eternity; each materia is an essence according to the spirit from whence it was generated; and if it be enkindled in the fire, it yields likewise such a light as the spirit is in the essence.\n\n39. And thus also we are to consider of the metals; what kind of spirit each of them has, such a glance and lustre it yields, and also such a body43 it has.\n\n40. As the mind acts and moves the thoughts and senses from the highest to the lowest, and comprehends and commands by the thoughts from the highest to the lowest; so the eternal mind has manifested itself from the highest majesty, even to the lowest [meanest, or outermost thing], viz. to the greatest darkness; and this world, with the sun, stars, and elements, and with every creaturely being, is nothing else but a manifestation of the eternity of the eternal will and mind; and as it was in the beginning, so it still stands in its seething and vegetation,44 and so it still puts forward to light and darkness, to evil and good. And all things consist in these first three forms, viz. in Sulphur, Mercury, and Sal, as one degree in order after another; for so likewise are the quires of the spirits, as also of the stars, trees, herbs, and of all kinds whatever which have been, and are; so also are the inward heavenly quires with their distinction.\n \n## Chapter 4. Of The Birth Of The Stars, And Four Elements In The Metalline And Creaturely Property\n\nOF THE BIRTH OF THE STARS, AND FOUR ELEMENTS IN THE METALLINE AND CREATURELY PROPERTY\n\n1. As it is before mentioned, all things proceed out of one only mother, and separate themselves into two essences, according to the right of eternity, viz. into a mortal and an immortal, into life and death, into spirit and body; the spirit is the life, and the body is the death, viz. a house of the spirit: As the holy Trinity stands in the birth, so also is the external birth: There is likewise essence and spirit in heaven; a figure of which we see in this outward world, where there are four elements, and yet there is but one only element, which separates itself into four properties, viz. into fire, air, water, and earth, as is above mentioned.\n\n2. For so we are to consider of the creation of this world, that the whole essence of eternity has moved itself in the place45 of this world, and the whole form was enkindled and stirred, and that in the desire to manifestation; and there the generation divided itself in the flagrat of the enkindled fire into four parts, viz. into fire, water, and earth, and the air is its moving egressive46 spirit; as is to be considered in Sulphur, which consists in these four things.\n\n3. In like manner also the astrum is thus generated out of the first mother; and all put together is only one body, and it all takes its rise from the inward spirit; as a hand or foot grows forth from the inward centre, and has already its form in the centre, viz. in the first operation, and so only grows into a form as the spirit is.\n\n4. The first mother of all things, viz. the lubet with the desire, does especially introduce itself into seven forms, and yet continues steadfast in three only, but manifests itself in seven forms.47 \n\n5. The first form is astringent, viz. an austere attraction, which is a cause of coldness and salt, and all corporality.\n\n6. The second form is the compunction,48 viz. the drawing or motion, and causes the feeling, also pricking, aking, tormenting; the affection49 of bitterness, enmity and friendliness, joy and sorrow.\n\n7. The third form is the great anguish in the impression, which causes two wills, viz. one to the fire, where the will of the free lubet falls down to the wrath in the fire, and again goes into itself, and makes a lustre in the fire's sharpness.\n\n8. Now the fourth form is the fire itself, viz. the first principle in the life, with which the dark and light world do separate; also in this flagrat all material separations are effected, and the corporality and multiplication begin according to the property of the first eternal mind, viz. according to the essentiality a mortal [ens], and according to the free source a living [*ens*].\n\n9. The fifth form is now the second desire, which is effected after the separation, and that according to two properties; viz. one according to the lubet of the liberty out of the light, which is the highest love-desire; and the other according to the fire's lubet, which leads its life of its essence in the love in the light, from whence the joyfulness and every true life arises.\n\n10. The love gives essence; for it is expressive, and yielding, viz. itself; for God gives himself to every essence; and the fire is receptive; for it needs essence in its wrathful hunger, else it extinguishes; and then the lustre of the light would go out, and the desire of love would cease, for the fire makes the light desiring, viz. of the joyfulness; for if the fire dies, the light waxes dark, and love turns into anguish, as may be conceived of in the devils.\n\n11. The sixth form arises from the turning wheel before the fire, where the multiplication of the essence arises out of the property of Mercurius in the salnitral flagrat; with the enkindling of the fire one form is introduced into another; and if now the love-desire penetrates all the forms, then all the forms grow very desirous the one after the other, for the dear lovely child Venus is in all.\n\n12. Here begin the taste, smell, hearing, seeing, feeling, and speaking; for the light opens another principle of another source, and fills all; and here springs up the life in death, viz. the love in the anger, and the light shines in the darkness; here the bridegroom embraces his bride, and God himself resists his anger, viz. the wrath of nature; and in this form all speeches, understanding, and senses arise, and the true real life of all creatures; so also the life in the vegetables, viz. trees and herbs, in each thing according to its property.\n\n13. The seventh form arises from all the other, and is the body, mansion-house, or food of the other, and it is thus effected; when the other forms taste each other in their mutual penetration in the love-desire, then in each form there is an hunger or desire after the love, viz. after the light; now each hunger or desire is reaching forth after the thing it desires, and eagerly attracts the property of the thing desired; and thus out of two one essence is made, viz. out of the hunger, and that which the hunger desires; for this hunger does not stand in death, it does not any more enclose itself up in death, unless it be too great, and the imagination in the hunger be too great, and the hunger cannot obtain that same thing, then it choaks; as many times a child is so choaked or smothered in the mother's womb, if this form be enkindled in another form to eat of some external thing, whereupon the mother grows so ardent in longing, and if she cannot get it, the child also cannot get it; now it choaks in the hunger, or else a member is spoiled, from whence the hunger arose.\n\n14. The first hunger in the centre before the fire is a spiritual hunger, which makes the dark world; and the hunger of the free lubet makes the light world; both which are only spirit, till they pass both together through the enkindling of the fire, where then they are mortified to the spirit, and are a likeness of the first spirit, viz. a manifestation of the incomprehensible spirit, which is called God in love and anger, in a twofold source: Thus each stands undivided in itself, viz. God in the time, and the time in God, and the one is not the other, but they come from one eternal original; thus the temporal spirit's hunger gives a temporal body, and the eternal spirit's hunger affords an eternal body, and are both mutually in each other, and yet are distinct.50 \n\n15. The seven forms make them a body according to their hunger out of their own property; therefore all whatever the spirit has in all properties lies in the body.\n\n16. Further we are to know, that there is a separation made in the creation of this world; for this is to be seen in the sun and stars; so likewise in all creatures; also in metals, stones, and earths; for this same is the manifestation of God.\n\n17. We see in the firmament seven planets, and in the earth seven metals which are fixed, and also seven planets only which are fixed in their property; the rest are minerals, and so of the stars: And as the planetary orb has its predominant stamp or influence, so is also the birth of each thing.\n\n18. As the Deity, viz. the divine light, is the centre of all life; so also in the manifestation of God, viz. in the figure, the sun is the centre of all life; in the highest life the highest things have taken their beginning, and so forward successively one from another to the lowest: In every external thing there are two properties; one from time, the other from eternity; the first property of time is manifest; and the other is hidden, yet it sets forth a likeness after itself in each thing.\n\n19. Whatever has its beginning out of the lubet of the liberty stands with the root in an heavenly property, and with the body in an earthly; but the eternal stands in time, and manifests itself with time.\n\n20. Sulphur is on one part in the internal heavenly, and as to the body earthly, yet puts forth an heavenly likeness according to the eternal out of itself, which is fixed and stedfast; as is to be seen in gold, and is much more to be understood in the human body, if it were not corrupted in the desire in Mercury; for the spiritual or heavenly man consists in Sulphur, and in Mercury the corporeal, viz. the similitude of the divine [man]; so also the metalline property in Sulphur is the noblest, most excellent, and highest, for it is the highest spirit.\n\n21. Understand it thus: In the heavenly being there is also a property of a seething,51 when the liberty is apprehended and enkindled in the highest desire, wherein the joyfulness arises; this is effected in the heavenly Sulphur, where it is made essential in the heavenly Mercury, viz. in the eternal word, which is a spiritual essence.\n\n22. But if the same spirituality longs to manifest itself in a similitude, both according to the property of the spirit, and the essentiality too, according to the Trinity of the Deity, according to the mortal and immortal essence, then that image is represented in the stars and elements; and lastly it is set forth in man, who is a lively image of the whole essence according to the divine and outward world; also the inward and outward worlds are represented with the metals in a mortal image, as a resemblance and similitude of the living heavenly essentiality.\n\n23. The beginning is in Sulphur; for Sul is the lubet of the light, or the liberty, which longs to manifestation, and it cannot otherwise be effected but through fire: In Phur arises the desire, viz. an austere attraction, which makes the dark earthly property, and the austereness of the spirit, viz. the fiery essence: In this austereness arises Saturn, which is the thing impressed; and Mercury is the desire of the hunger, and the rager, raver, and breaker; and Mars is the wrath in the hunger, a cause of anger; these three are the property of Phur, viz. of the free lubet's desire.\n\n24. The free lubet's property begets the essence in the three fore-mentioned forms, viz. in Saturn, Mercury, and Mars; for it gives itself in to each property, and the property in the hunger of Mercury makes it a corporeal form; but if the free lubet turns also to an hunger in the austere desiring, then it makes also three forms according to itself, viz. Jupiter, who is the understanding of the lubet; and Venus, which is the desire of the lubet; and Luna, which is the body of the lubet; and according to the property of the light it makes Sol; all this is spirit; but now in every spirit's hunger there is also an essence, both according to the mortal and immortal ens, a fixed, and unfixed; a figure according to the heavenly, and a figure according to the earthly [being, or property].\n\n25. In the saturnine property the desire of the free lubet makes (according to Saturn's own property) lead, and according to the watery [property] in Saturn, salt; and according to the mortal and earthly [property] in Saturn, stones, and earth, and all whatever is of that sort and semblance.\n\n26. But according to the liberty, or according to the free desire's own property (in that it yields up itself to Saturn, viz. to the desire), it makes in Saturn gold, according to the desire of the light, where the spirit and body separate; the spirit of its desire is Sol, and the body is gold, understand, the golden body is in Saturn according to the property of the free desire, and not according to Saturn's property; his property in himself is lead, salt, and earth; but he keeps the golden child shut up in himself as a black raven, not in his gray form, but in a darkish cast: He is a great lord, but his dominion, by reason of the golden child which he has in his bowels, stands not in his own power: He is not father of the child, but Mercury is he which forms52 the child; but he puts his morning mantle upon it, that he can have no joy with the golden child; he corporises the fair child; for he is its fiat or creator, and hides and covers it close under his mantle: He cannot give it the body from his own property, for it (understand the golden body) is the essence of the free desire in the highest degree of corporality in the fixed death, where yet there is no death, but an enclosing, and in the similitude a representation of the divine heavenly essentiality.\n\n27. Mercurius is the master-workman53 of this child, which Saturn hides; when he gets it into his hunger, he casts off his black cloak, and rejoices in it; but he is too malignant in his fire-wrath,54 he devours the child, and turns it wholly to his own property: When he is most sharply hungry in the fire, then Sol must be given him (it is his wife) that his hunger may be appeased; and then when he is satisfied, he labours in the materia of the child with his own hunger or fire,55 and fills up his sufficed desire out of Sol's property, which he before had eaten, and nourishes the child till it gets upon it all the four elements with the constellation, and he grows exceeding pregnant with the child, and then it belongs [or is fit for] a strange fire, and yet not strange, an earnest fire; and then the father gives it the soul, viz. the fire-spirit; and its first mother, which Mercury did eat down in its hunger, which was fixed and perfect, [gives] the soul's-spirit, viz. the light-life: Then the death56 arises, and the child is born, and becomes afterwards its own, and a child of the liberty, and cares no more for its work-master: It is better than its father, but not better than its mother, in whose seed it lay, before the father wrought in it; it bruises the head of its father's fiery essence, viz. of the serpent, and passes freely through death in the fire: Dost thou understand nothing here? Then thou art not born to the highest knowledge of the spagirical science.\n\n28. Further, we are to consider of the degrees, what the liberty, viz. the eternal lubet, gives to the hunger of the other forms in Sulphur, in the property of the other planets; the form of the birth is as a turning wheel,57 which Mercury causes in the Sulphur.\n\n29. The birth of the highest degree turns round (viz. the desire), for this world is round, so also the birth; when the liberty has given its highest lubet (as a golden hunger) to Saturn, and placed Mercury for work-master, then it betakes itself into itself, into its desire, according to the property of meekness; for the first conception to the golden child is effected according to the property of joyfulness; but this out of goodness and meekness resigns itself to Luna; for it is a pleasant demission by reason of the meekness, which Mercury apprehends and works therein also; this body is silver, and comes from the first impression, where the yellow and white separate in the fire, viz. the colours of the virtue; then Luna arises out of the yellow and turns into white, by reason of the divine meekness; and because its original is from Sol's colour, therefore it has a perpetual hunger after Sol, and receives the sun's lustre into it, puts it on58 and shines with it.\n\n30. Now as the superior is, so is likewise the inferior (namely metals), therefore silver is the next degree to gold; and as gold is generated, so is also silver: Venus clothes it, which Mercury cannot endure, seeing he is the master-worker, and he gives his garment also; but the silver has neither the property of Venus nor Mercury, for it retains the property of its mother, viz. the meekness in the liberty, and is hatched, as the gold by reason of the sun: The moon has an heavenly property, but in reference to its own proper form from the property of the desire, it is of a very earthly property, it is a cabinet and keeper of the earthly and heavenly essence: In like manner as the outward body of man, which before the Fall in Adam was comparable to silver, but when he died in the lubet then the earthly property only lived in him, and therefore he continually hungers after Sol's glance [and glory], he would fain take again his splendour with Luna from the sun, but he gets only an earthly lunar lustre, wherein he acts and exercises pride, unless he be born again out of Sol's splendour, that is, out of God's power in the heavenly Mercurius; and so he becomes again the golden silver-child in divine essentiality, only covered and clothed this life-time with the earthly moon, that is, with earthly flesh.\n\n31. Saturn also is the house of silver, he is likewise the cause of the first conception, but he turns his desire only upon the golden child, and leaves the silver its garment, and takes it into his stony earthly property, and lets Mercury hatch it.\n\n32. The desire of the free lubet is fixed and steadfast, as concerning the property of the desire only, which brings its will again from the body into the combat in the senses, and makes Jupiter, that is on the orb59 upwards under Saturn under the saturnine power; its metal is tin, and it is the third degree; for the lubet of the liberty in the desire proceeds forth into the desire of the austereness, and so it gives itself into the fiat.\n\n33. We must understand it thus; the lubet of the liberty goes forth out of itself, as a plant, and makes one degree after another in order, but Mercury makes the sphere, for he is the work-master: And as the eternal birth is in itself in the heavenly Mercury, viz. in the eternal word in the Father's generation; so likewise with the motion of the Father it came into a creaturely being, and so proceeds in its order, as may be seen in the wheel of the planets; for the order is just so placed as man is in his order.\n\n34. First there is in him the true golden divine man, which is the likeness of God: Next there is in him the man of heavenly essentiality, viz. the inward holy body, generated from the fire and light in the tincture, which is like to the pure silver if it were not corrupted. Thirdly, there is in him the elemental man from the pure element resembling Jupiter. Fourthly, the mercurial, which is the growing or paradisical [man]. Fifthly, the martial, from the fire, viz. the soulish [man], according to the Father's property. Sixthly, the venerine [man], according to the outward desire, and the water's property. Seventhly, the solar, according to the sun's property, viz. according to the outward world, as a seer and knower of the wonders of God: And yet it is but the one only man; yet is both in the inward and outward world. Thus likewise is the similitude [or form] of the seven metals; with one property according to the inward world, and with another visible and palpable property according to the outward world.\n\n35. From Jupiter the sphere turns round, and out of the separation Mercury proceeds forth with a broken metal, according to his spirit's property; externally quicksilver, and internally he is a paradisical working; he is in his spiritual property the distinguisher (or articulator) of the words, voices, and speeches. It is written, \"God hath made all things by his word: \"The heavenly eternal Mercurius is his word, which the Father expresses in the enkindling of his light, and the expressed is his wisdom; and the word is the worker, framer, and maker of the formings in the expressed wisdom. Now what the inward Mercurius does internally in God's power, that likewise the outward Mercurius effects in the outward power in the created essence: He is God's instrument, wherewith he works extrinsically to death and to life; in each thing according to its property he builds, and breaks down.\n\n36. According to Saturn's property he builds, and according to his own property he distinguishes and dissipates60 the hardness in Saturn, viz. the enclosed, and opens it to life: He opens the colours, and makes forms and shapes, and carries in him an heavenly, and also an earthly property; in the earthly he carries out of the first desire to nature, viz. out of Saturn, Mars, viz. the wrathfulness of the impression; for he is his soul, wherein Mercury lives; he gives him the fiery essence, and stands under Jupiter in the order upwards on the sphere; for he carries the fire-spirit in Sulphur into all planets, and forms and gives to each thing its source, and true spirit of life.\n\n37. Mars in the first impression is the great anguish, and causes the love-will of the liberty to separate from him; and that which is separated is called God; and the anguish, or fire-source, is called God's anger, viz. the wrath of the eternal nature: And as internally God's love separates from God's anger, that is, from the wrathful property of the eternal nature, viz. heaven from hell, God from the devil; so also it is effected in the birth of the outward nature.\n\n38. Love proceeds out of the wrath, and is an humility, or submission: Thus likewise it came in the creation into order; therefore Venus stands in the sphere on the line of Mars under the sun, for so is the separation in nature; and so one proceeds forth from another: Its metal is copper, the on final whereof is this, that the love is a desire, and desires only light and joy; for the materia is made out of the desire's property: But if the love-desire shall come to be corporeal in the impression, then it must resign itself to the wrathful fiat, viz. to the desire of Mars in the fire, or in the fiery property; for the saturnine property takes all into its might, and makes it corporeal.\n\n39. Therefore the metal of Venus is so nearly related to gold, by reason of her own property from the liberty, but Mars makes it too wrathful; and because it separates itself out of Mars's fire, it retains a great part of the property of Mars in it.\n\n40. Mars's metal is iron, for he is the wrath in Sulphur, in which the fire enkindles, and arises; his original with the materia is in the austereness of the desire: copper separates itself in the generation out of iron, for it arises from the will of Venus, and they differ as body and soul; for Mars is the fire-soul of Venus, and makes Venus corporeal; otherwise Venus, as to her own property, gives only water in the mortification in the salnitral flagrat; for her fire is only a pleasant shining, smile, or love-fire, as she is alone void of other mixture; and therefore she cannot produce any corporeal essence from her own power and ability, which is hard and tough; she is only the mother61 to her child without a creaturely soul; Mars is her soul, and Saturn makes her body.\n\n41. The spirit of Sol may tincture Mars and Venus, and change them into the highest metalline perfection, viz. into gold; which cannot so easily be effected in silver, unless it be reduced into the first materia, where Saturn, Mars, and Mercury are together in the Sulphur, and then it can be done: Venus receives its toughness from Saturn, and its redness from Mars as the fire.\n\n42. Now the desire of Venus is only eager, and longing after Sol, as after her first mother, from whence she springs forth in her birth in the first original; for the love comes forth originally from God, and so it is likewise in the external birth in the figure: The desire of Venus goes into Sol, into the sun, and receives in its desire the property of the sun, and shines from Sol; she has a very peculiar shining and lustre above all the planets and stars, which she receives from her mother; and in her mother's power consists her joy, viz. the pleasant twinkling smiling aspect which she has in her; she is in her own property (as she is purely alone without the property of the other planets) a real daughter of the sun (understand in Sulphur, where all is wrapt together), therefore she stands next under the sun, as a child of the sun; not that the sun did generate that star, for he is likewise created with her, but in the Sulphur without the creation, merely in the generation, it is so, both in the heavenly and earthly [being, or principle].\n\n43. For God the Father generates the love through his heart; now the sun, by way of similitude, betokens his heart; for it is a figure in the outward world according to the eternal heart of God, which gives strength and virtue to every life and essence.\n\n44. And understand it right; all things proceed from the word and heart of God (which is the divine Sulphur) in the birth of the Holy Trinity, and manifest themselves in and through the proceeded (or egressed) essence, which is God's wisdom; and they again do eagerly force and press out of the egress, in and towards his heart and power, and vehemently long after it, as Paul saith, all creatures groan and pant with us to be delivered from vanity.\n\n45. So also does the outward essence in the outward birth of metals, planets, stars, and creatures; each thing longs after its centre, viz. after its first mother, whence it proceeded, viz. after the sun in Sulphur, for it is the tincture of all essences: Whatever the first desire with the impression in Saturn makes evil in the wrath of Mars, that the sun turns again into good. As the divine sun tinctures the anger or wrath of God, so that the wrathful property of God's anger is changed into a joyfulness; so likewise the outward sun tinctures the outward Sulphur, viz. Saturn and Mars, that there is a pleasant temperature, viz. a growth, springing, and blooming in all metals and creatures; therefore the sun is the centre, which reason will not believe; understand, in the planetary orb, and in all vegetables and animals.\n \n## Chapter 5. Of The Sulphurean Death, And How The Dead Body Is Revived, And Replaced Into Its First Glory\n\nOF THE SULPHUREAN DEATH, AND HOW THE DEAD BODY IS REVIVED, AND REPLACED INTO ITS FIRST GLORY\n\n1. All life and motion, with understanding, reason, and senses, both in animals and vegetables, consist originally in Sulphur, viz. in nature's desire, and in the lubet's desire of the liberty,\n\n2. In nature's desire arises the death and enclosing, and in the desire of the liberty arises the opening and the life; for the liberty's desire tinctures the desire of the dark nature, so that the wrathful mother foregoes her own right, and freely resigns to the liberty's desire, and so the life grows in death, for there is no life without light; but if the light goes out in the essence of the Sulphur, then it is an eternal death, which no man can revive, unless God moves himself in the lubet-desire in the same death; for death can receive no life into it, unless the first desire, viz. the free lubet's desire, manifests itself in the desire to nature, wherein the enclosing and death are generated.\n\n3. Therefore when man died in the Sulphur, none could have made him alive again, unless the free lubet, viz. the desire to the eternal life did again enter into his Phur, viz. into the birth of the nature of the human property, and moved the enclosed death, viz. the centre of nature, and gave itself again into the centre, viz. into the soul-like property, and into the soul's essentiality and corporality; and this was so brought to pass.\n\n4. We know that the right Sulphur is a generation of all spirituality and corporality; so far as concerns its first original, where it is heavenly, it is the generation of the essence of all essences: For all, whatever eternity and time is in itself, has, and is able to effect, lies in this birth: But now as to the kingdom of this world it is earthly, viz. a figure of the eternal; for in it the time and creature consist, and all whatever is visible and invisible.\n\n5. Now man, and every life also, as to the kingdom of this world, was created and generated out of the outward Sulphur; man out of the inward and outward [Sulphur], and the outward creature only out of the outward; for man is an image and likeness of God, and the other creatures are as a similitude according to the figuration in the internal generation in God's wisdom, viz. in the expressed or procreated heavenly essence, according to both eternal principles.\n\n6. But now man was created good and perfect, according to and out of all the three worlds, as an image of the Deity, in whom God dwelled; and he was even that essence what God is, according to eternity and time in all the three worlds; but he was a creature with a beginning, as to the creature, and died through the lubet62 as to the heavenly and divine essence: \n\nFor the inward lubet, which was generated in the centre, viz. in the fire, wherein stood the life in the divine essentiality, that is, that which enkindled the essence of the divine meekness, wherein the joyfulness or the angelical form consists; that (I say) turned itself from the inward lubet of the liberty and eternity into the time, viz. into the external birth, into the planetary property, [it departed] out of the pure divine element into the four elements: \n\nThus the inward divine essentiality, or inward corporality did no longer retain any leader or life: And this was the death; for the soul's fire proceeding from the Father's property turned itself away from the Son's property, in which alone the divine life consists.\n\n7. Thus the property of the soul remained naked only with its will in the outward Sulphur, and the inward disappeared, and continued steadfast in the eternal unchangeableness,63 as in an eternal nothing, wherein there was no more any effecting [or working efficacy to bring to pass].\n\n8. Thus man with his outward body lived barely and merely to the time; the precious gold of the heavenly corporality, which tinctured the outward body, was disappeared, and so the outward body stood barely and alone in the life of nature's desire, viz. in the soul's fiery property; understand in the form and property of Mars, viz. in the wrath of God, which is the wrath in Sulphur, viz. the property of God's anger and the dark world: But seeing the outward body was created out of the time, therefore the time, viz. the constellation with the four elements, presently obtained the dominion in him; and the divine property, viz. the desire of the Deity (which ruled and tinctured time, so that there was a holy life in the creature out of the time), was vanished; its own peculiar love in the divine desire was turned to water, and it became blind and dead in the will and desire of God; and the soul must help itself with the sun's light.\n\n9. But seeing that time has beginning and end, and the will with the desire has given up itself to the temporal leader, therefore the dominion of time destroys its own contrived spirit, and so the body also dies and passes away; and this is that which God said to Adam, that \"he should not eat of the tree, or plant, of the knowledge of good and evil,\" of both properties, lest he died;64  as it also came to pass, he died in the Sulphur; the Sul in the kingdom of God, viz. the lubet of the divine liberty, out of which the light of God shines, and in which the divine love, viz. the love-fire burns [disappeared and withdrew from him].\n\n10. Now there was no remedy for him, unless God's desire entered again into his dead Sulphur, that is, into his Sul, which was dead, viz. into the dead [or mortified] essentiality, and again enkindled it with the love-fire; which came to pass in Christ: And there the heavenly body, wherein God's light shines, did again arise. But if this must be effected, then the love-desire must again enter into the desire of the enkindled anger, and quench and overcome the anger with the love; the divine water must enter again into the soul's burning fire, and quench the wrathful death in the astringent fiat, viz. in the desire to nature, that the love-desire, which desires God, might be again enkindled in the soul.\n\n11. For man's happiness65 consists in this, that he has in him a true desire66 after God, for out of the desire springs forth the love; that is, when the desire receives the meekness of God into itself, then the desire immerses itself in the meekness, and becomes essential; and this is the heavenly or divine essentiality, or corporality; and therein the soul's spirit (which lay shut up in the anger, viz. in death) does again arise in the love of God; for the love tinctures the death and darkness, that it is again capable of the divine sunshine.\n\n12. And as this is done in man, so likewise it is in the transmutation of metals: The Sulphur is shut up in Saturn, viz. in the death, and yet there is no death, but a vegetative life; and the outward Mercury is the life thereof.67 Now if the metalline body shall come to the highest perfection, then it must die unto the external dominator,68 viz. to the elements, and come again into such a Sulphur as it was, when as yet it had not the four elements on it, but lay only in the element in unity.69 \n\n13. But now none can reduce it into such a body, but he only who has generated; he that has given it the four elements, he alone can take them away; and he that at first made it corporeal, he must bring it to himself, and transchange it in himself into another body; and this is the Sulphur, which has Mercurius as its chief faber in itself. He must again take it out of dark Saturn's bowels in the fiat, and introduce it into his own, and with his own fire separate the four elements from it, and reduce it into one; as God at the last day will in the enkindling of his own fire separate the essence of the four elements from the pure element, that the eternal corporality in the pure element may arise70 and spring forth: And as in the death of man the four elements separate from the true man (who is the element of God) and the heavenly body remains only in itself; so it goes in the transmutation of metals.\n\nPROCESS\n\n14. The body lies shut up in a disesteemed form in Saturn, not wholly in Saturn's property, in a dark colour, marked with Mercurius its father, and Sol its mother, clothed with Saturn, and manifest with the life of Mars; but its mother is not outwardly manifest and known on it, unless its faber be enraged with its own iniquity; which yet cannot be, unless an alienate be applied, whereby its propriate is enraged; and then (if his anger be set on a fire or fury) he becomes so very hungry and thirsty, and yet can find no refreshment in itself; then it seizes on its faber who has made it, and fights against its creator, as the earthly wicked man does against God, so long till he devours and consumes himself, as a fiery [pestilent] poison consumes the body, unless you remedy, stay, and allay its hunger; yet there is none that can still this horrible hunger, but God himself who has made him; and if he assists not in due time, then the hunger in the wrath consumes the body, and puts it into the eternal darkness.\n\n15. This hunger desires nothing but the mercy of God, that he might be freed from the anguish of hell; but this he cannot obtain of himself, for he is shut up in the anger of God; and his dear mother, which nursed him in the beginning, is also shut up in death: But if God shews his grace, and gives him again of his love, then the anger is dismayed at the love;71 and this is a flagrat of great joy: For he again tastes the sweetness of his dear mother, and then he knows full well that he has been so vile and wicked, and repents of his iniquity, and will turn and mortify the old Adam, and cast it away from him.\n\n16. So the artist takes him presently away with the old Adam from the strange anger, and lays him in a soft bed; for the old Adam is sick, and will die; and then his own faber in the old Adam is in the love of God,72 which destroyed the anger, and will make a young child, and rejoices in the child; and the old Adam grows sick, and weak, wholly dark, and swarthish, and dies; and the four elements go out73 from him with their colours: So the faber gives him even leave to go, and continually labours on the new body, which shall arise from death; and none sees his labour, for he works in the dark.\n\n17. But the artist takes no care about the work,74 but gives the faber his own food, till he sees that a vegetative life appears in the dark death with a new colour out of the black; and then, when the new man is ready, the artist comes, and brings the soul, and gives it the faber; at which the faber is dismayed that another life comes into him; and he puts the soul into the new body, and it goes inwardly in the anger: Thus the new man arises in great power and glory from death, and bruises the head of the old serpent in the anger of God, and passes through the anger, and the anger can do him no harm at all.\n\nWhoe'er thou art, that to this work art born,  \nA chosen work thou hast, howe'er the world may scorn.\n \n## Chapter 6. How A Water And Oil Are Generated, And Of The Difference Of The Water And Oil...\n\nHOW A WATER AND OIL ARE GENERATED, AND OF THE DIFFERENCE OF THE WATER AND OIL, AND OF THE VEGETABLE LIFE AND GROWTH\n\n1. All life, growth, and instigation consist in two things, viz. in the lubet, and then in the desire; the lubet is a free will, and as a nothing in comparison to nature; but the desire is as a hunger: In the desire arises the moving spirit, viz. the natural, and in the lubet the supernatural, which yet is nature's,75 but not out of its own property, but out of [or from] the property of the desire.\n\n2. The desire is the instigation of the essence, viz. an hunger, and the lubet is the hunger's essence,76 which it takes into itself; for the desire is only an hungry will, and it is the natural spirit in its forms; but the lubet is out of the liberty: For God is without desire as concerning his own essence, inasmuch as he is called God; for he needs nothing. All is his, and he himself is all.\n\n3. But he has a lubet-will, and he himself is the will, to manifest himself in the lubet; yet in the lubet which is free, without affection, no manifestation can be effected, for it is void of desire; it is as if it were nothing in respect of nature, and yet it is all; but not according to the desire, viz. according to nature, but according to the satisfying of nature it is the satisfying of the hungry desire, viz. of nature; it freely and willingly gives itself into the hunger of nature; for it is a spirit without essence and desire, wholly free as a nothing; but the desire makes it essential [or materialises] in itself, and that according to two properties, viz. one according to the eternal liberty, which is free from the source; and the other according to the desire, which gives a vegetative life, viz. a growing, or a giving forth of itself.\n\n4. The free essence is, and gives an oil, and the desire's property gives a life of the oil; the oil is a light, and the desire's property gives to the light the essence, viz. the fiery property, so that the light shines, as is to be seen in the fire and light, and the free lubet remains yet a free will in itself, but gives its meekness, viz. a free resignation into the desire, that it comes to essence and lustre: Its will is only good, it has no other desire but only to be good, meek, and pleasant; there is also no other possibility therein; for it77 is as a nothing, wherein no disturbance or source can be, but it is the meekness itself.\n\n5. But seeing it cannot be a nothing, by reason that it is a cause and beginning of the desire, therefore it gives itself freely, as the sunshine freely gives itself into every property; and the desire conceives [or takes] this free lubet, viz. the lustre or shining of the abyss of eternity into itself, and makes it in itself into essence according to its property; so much property as is in the desire, so much also there is of essence: And we are to consider, that when the free lubet gives in itself into the hunger of the desire, that the desire then makes out of the free lubet's property a similitude according to the liberty, which is as if it were nothing, and yet is; this is a water and oil.\n\n6. But seeing the desire, that is, the hunger, is filled with the free lubet, it makes its own property in the essence of the liberty also into essence; its essence is water, and the essence of the free lubet is an oil. Thus a twofold property arises in one only spirit, viz. a fiery [property] according to the property of the desire, and a joyful or lucid property according to the liberty.\n\n7. The fiery gives78 in its essence, viz. in its water a sharpness from the austere desire, which is saltish, or a salt; and from the fiery anguish a brimstone, from whence in the *impression* and creation of the world, are made stones, earth, and metals; so also the elements and stars, all according to the forms in the desire; and the oleous property gives its meekness, viz. a love-lubet, wherein the fiery is impressed with the desire, and makes corporality: And the oleous gives itself out in its meekness, and makes the vegetable life, viz. a springing and growing in the fiery impression, whereinto the fire must give its essence and instigation, viz. the vehement compunction79 in the attraction of the desire, which is the separator in the corporality, viz. the distinguisher, carver, and cause of the essence and multiplicity [or variety].\n\n8. Philosophers have called this form Mercurius, from the anxious inciting sphere, which is the cause of all life and motion, and a faber in the oily and watery property.\n\n9. Thus we are to search and find out the great mystery, how there is an oil, brimstone, and salt in everything, and how they arise; for God has made all things out of nothing, and that same nothing is himself, viz. a love-lubet dwelling in itself, wherein there is no affection: But now the love-lubet would not be manifest, if it remained one in the stillness without essence, and there would be no joy or moving therein, but an eternal stillness.\n\n10. But seeing80 he introduces himself into essence through the desire, his eternal stillness becomes an essence and working power, and that with two properties, viz. in an oil, in which the working power is a good spirit according to the property of the love-lubet, which resists the desire's wrath in the brimstone, salt, and poisonful Mercury, and appeases and heals his poisonful hunger with the pleasant meekness; that which Mercury destroys with the raging sphere81 of his own property, that the lubet of the love-oil does again heal: And thus there is good and evil in each life, and yet there is no evil in anything, unless the good, viz. the love-oil famishes in its own lubet, which falls out in the forms of the impression of the hunger of the desire.\n\n11. That is, if the hunger-spirit does in its own forms too much impress itself [long, or imagine] after itself, and too eagerly hunger after its own manifestation, it cannot take the free lubet, which appeases its hunger, into itself; for nature's property must be sincerely bent and inclined to the free lubet's property, viz. to God's love-*ens*, and wholly direct its hunger after love; and then the hunger receives the love into itself, and makes the same essential in itself, and is no longer a famished dark hunger, which rages in itself, and raves as a poisonful Mercury; but the hunger becomes a love-desire, which is called God's nature, and the hungry fiery [desire] is called God's anger; and in the outward nature it is called a fire, but in the inward world's property, where the desire does act with energy in the property of the free lubet, this desire is called the divine desire, wherein the fiery love burns, and from whence the joyfulness proceeds; for the free lubet does therefore give itself into the austere desire, that it may bring forth a fiery love, viz. a joyfulness, which could not be in the still lubet; for where there is a stillness there is no joy, or motion.\n\n12. Now the free lubet, viz. God's property, manifests itself through the fiery property, and the fiery property makes the free lubet's essence, viz. the oil which arises in the impression of the desire into a light or lustre; for the austere desire gives the anxious darting flash, viz. a sulphureous spirit, and the meekness of the oil gives its love into it, and dispels that which was drawn into it, viz. the darkness, and manifests the eternal liberty, viz. the nothing, and this is now the seeing.\n\n13. For when the fire-splendour tastes the sweetness of the light, then the fire's desire reaches after the meekness, and the meekness of the free lubet is as a nothing wholly incomprehensible: Now the hunger of the desire comprehends its own essence and devours it, and makes it to nothing; this is the darkness, which is the hunger's essence, which the fiery hunger devours through the property of the light, or free lubet: As we see, that as soon as the light shines it deprives the darkness of its power; therefore God is a Lord over all beings, for he is the eternal Power and Light: A similitude whereof we see in the sun, that it is lord of the darkness and of all essences, and rules whatever grows, lives, and moves in this world.\n\n14. Further, we are to consider of the manifold salts, how they take their rise in the original, and separate into many properties. In the original of the impression, viz. in the verbum fiat, a twofold salt does arise: The first is spiritual, and gives the sharpness in the essence of the free lubet; it is a severising, or a sharpness of the powers: The other salt is the sharpness of the impression, according to the property of the astringent austerity which is the anguish in the impression, that is, brimstone, and the essential property is water.\n\n15. The water is the senseless mortal property of the salt; and the sulphureous, which is from the anguish, is the property of the quick salt; for it has the sting of motion, viz. the Mercury in it, which makes life's form, and yet the brimstone is not the salt, but it is the anguish in the impression, which also comes to be corporeal.\n\n16. The salt is the sharpness in brimstone as to the astringency; the salt causes the anguish to be corporeal; and so salt dwells in the brimstone, and is the brimstone's sharpness, and preserves the brimstone in the corporeal essence, and also the spirit of the brimstone, that it falls not to dust: The salt impresses the powers of the anguish, and the impressed life is the mercurial life; the same is the life of the anguish, viz. of the brimstone, and separates the materia according to the forms to nature, and the materia of the free lubet into two essences, viz. into a watery and oily, and then into a corporeal.\n\n17. The corporeal is twofold; both according to the darkness and the light: According to the property of the austere desire it makes in the watery [property] a sand, or stony nature, from whence the stones have their original; understand out of the sulphureous, viz. out of the brimstone's water.\n\n18. The other property, as to82 the mortification in the salnitral flagrat, is the common running water; the other corporeal [water] is the metalline body from the free lubet's property in the impressed form; and from the watery property (where the brimstone is in the water) it produces trees, herbs, and all whatever grows in the earthly property, viz. in the mortified or dead substantiality, which yet has a life without sense,83 viz. a vegetative.\n\n19. The oily property is also twofold according to the impression; viz. one part forces again into the liberty to be free from the wrath of the impression, which is the good spirit, viz. the light in the oil; the other part yields itself into the anguish of the brimstone, and remains in the corporality, and unites and applies itself in each thing, according to the salt-property of the thing; as in a fiery salt, it is fiery; in a bitter salt, it is bitter; in an astringent, astringent, etc.\n\n20. The first property according to the light is sweet in all things, and the other property of the oil is according to the form, viz. the taste of the thing, let it be either sweet, sour, astringent, sharp, or bitter, or how it will; as it is to be found out and known in herbs: In some it is a bitter poison, and in some again a healing of the poison; but if the poisonful property be broken by Mercury in the oil of meekness, then the love of the light inclines itself also into the oil, for the original of both is from one will, but it is altered in the impression: As the devil, when he was an angel, changed himself into a poisonous devilish property, and Adam out of an heavenly into an earthly [property].\n\n21. Whatever grows, lives, and moves in this world, consists in Sulphur, and Mercury is the life in Sulphur, and the salt is the corporeal being of Mercury's hunger, though the body is manifold; according as the property of the brimstone and salt is, according to the same property is also the ingrafted oil, which springs up all along in the power; for the oil makes the power [or virtual influence] in each thing. In the oil of the impression, viz. in the impressed oil, is the other oil, viz. the spiritual, which gives us light, but it has another principle; it receives no other source into it but the lubet of love; it is divine essentiality: Therefore God's own essence is nigh unto all things, but not essentially in all things; it has another principle, and yet inclines itself to all things; as far as the thing has anything of the divine property in it, it receives virtue from the divine property, be it either a vegetable or animal; for there are herbs and trees, and also creatures to be found, in which something of the divine power is couched, with which in the magical cure the false magic, viz. the corrupt evil oil can be resisted, and changed into a good oil.\n\n22. All sharpness of taste is salt, let it be whatever it will in this world, nothing excepted; and all smell proceeds from the brimstone, and Mercury is the distinguisher in all motion [or affection], both in the smell, power, and taste; but I understand by my Mercury the sphere of the birth of all essences, as is before mentioned; not a dead Mercury, but a living one, viz. the strongest, according to the property of the dry poison, etc.\n\n23. Now it behoves the artist and physician to know these things, else he cannot cure any sickness or disease, unless he hits on it by chance, if he knows not wherewith the oil is poisoned in the body, and what kind of hunger Mercury has in the sickness, and after what he hungers; for if he may obtain84 the salt according to the property of his hunger (after which he is desirous) with such an oil as he fain would have, then is the sickness over very soon; for he turns his oil again into the property of the love of the light, whereupon the life begins again to shine bright.\n\n24. For every disease in the body is nothing else but a corruption or poisoning of the oil, from which the life's-light burns or shines; for when the light of the life shines or burns clear in the oil, it expels and drives away all poisonful influences and operations, as the day expels the night.\n\n25. For if the oil, out of which the life burns, be infected [or inflamed] with a poisonful Mercury or salt, let it be done either from the constellation, or salt of meat, viz. from a contrary source, whereby a loathing [or nauseous detestation] arises in the oil, which the oil would always spew out, which Mercury helps; then Mercury eagerly troubles and perplexes itself in the sulphureous fire more and more, and continually labours to drive forth the abominate, but does only inflame itself in itself in this austere endeavour, and more and more enkindles its inward form, whereupon the oil grows more dark and poisonful, until at last the oil becomes wholly waterish and earthly, and then the light, and also the fire, extinguishes, and Mercury with the sulphureous spirit departs from it, as when a candle is put out; thus Mercury passes out with the sulphureous spirit in death's baneful steam,85 until he also be famished; for a time he may help himself in the sidereal body, which passes along with it; but when Mercury in the spirit of the great world has consumed and starved its property, then is the temporal life wholly gone; for as soon as the light of the vital oil extinguishes, the elemental body falls down into putrefaction, viz. into the fiat, from whence it came to be; and then this time ends in the creature, which is the death, dying, or departure; and from thence there is no deliverance or return, unless the heavenly divine Mercury does once more move itself in him, which yet cannot be, except there has been a good property of the oil in him, viz. from the divine essentiality: In this property, which is capable of 'the divine essentiality, the light does only enkindle itself again.\n\n26. For the divine essentiality, or this heavenly Mercury, changes the dead oil again into his, and becomes its life; for the outward Mercury, which has ruled the life, returns not again, it has only been for a time a mirror of the eternal, but he is changed into another source; for being suffocated, he passes again into the mystery, from whence he at first proceeded in the creation of the world, and the body also goes into the same mystery.\n\n27. Thus it remains, and belongs yet to another motion of the Deity, viz. to a separating, where the evil, wherein the death was, shall be separated from the good, and the verbum fiat shall restore and bring forth that which has fallen into it in death.\n\n28. The physician is to know, that in the strongest Mercury, which is most poisonful, the highest tincture lies, but not in Mercury's own property, which must be broken;86 for his own property, even from the centre, is the anxious poisonful life: But he has another property in him, viz. an oil from the light, whereby he is so strong and potent, which is his food and preservation; if this may be separated from him, it becomes a tincturing and mighty enkindling of all obscured lives, viz. of all diseases and sicknesses; for in this oil lies the joyful life, and it is an hunger after life, viz. that it might enkindle the weak, and lift it up on high.\n\n29. In a toad, viper, or adder, or the like poisonful beasts, worms, or insects, the highest tincture is to be found, if they are reduced into an oily substance, and the wrath of Mercury separated from them; for all life, both external and internal, consists in poison and light, as we understand, that the wrath and anger-fire of God is a cause of the divine joyfulness: The like also we are to know is externally; for all life that is void of the poisonful Mercury is mort, and an abominate,87 and accounted as dead.\n\n30. Now Mercury is an enkindler of the fire, and every moving life consists in the fire; and though some creatures dwell in the water, yet fire is their life, viz. the poison-gall, wherein Mercury manages the life; but the water in the gall is a poison, wherein an oil is hid, in which the life in Mercury does burn and shine; of which thou hast a similitude: If in a creature there be a strong poisonful Mercury, of a dry quality, that creature is strong, bold, courageous, and potent, which has also a clear oil in it; for the fiery property of the Mercury consumes the waterish, but if its fat be enkindled, it yields a clear light; much more would it be, if the watery property were separated from the oleous.\n \n## Chapter 7. How Adam In Paradise, And How Lucifer Was A Fair Angel, And How They Were Corrupted...\n\nHOW ADAM IN PARADISE, AND HOW LUCIFER WAS A FAIR ANGEL, AND HOW THEY WERE CORRUPTED AND SPOILED THROUGH IMAGINATION AND PRIDE\n\nPROCESS\n\n1. We will give an occasion of consideration to the earnest searcher and seeker, and if he apprehends our meaning he shall indeed be able to find the noble philosopher's stone, but so that he be chosen thereto by God, and his life also stands in the heavenly Mercury, otherwise we are a mystery to him; and we will represent it to him in similitudes, in the most manifest, and yet mystical manner.\n\n2. When Adam was created in paradise, the heavenly Mercury did then lead him; his life burned in a pure oil, therefore his eyes were heavenly; and his understanding did excel nature, for his light shined in the oil of the divine essentiality; the external waterish property was not manifest in his oil; he was *iliastrich*, that is, angelical, and became in the Fall *cogastrish*, that is, the watery nature in the mortal property was manifest in his oil, and penetrated, so that the mercury in him became an anxious poison, which before in his oil was an exaltation of joyfulness.\n\n3. For the salnitral flagrat in the impression in the coldness, viz. according to the saturnine property, was thereby elevated, and got the dominion, as a cold poison, which arises in the impression of death, from whence the darkness was generated in the oil, and Adam died to the divine light; to which the devil persuaded88 him by89 the serpent, that is, by the essence and property of the serpent; for the kingdom of wrath, and also the outward kingdom was manifest in the serpent; for it was more subtle than any beast of the field, and this subtlety Eve desired; for the serpent persuaded her that her eyes should be opened, and she should be as God, and know good and evil.\n\n4. Which also was the will of the devil, that he would know evil: And in the enkindling to the knowledge in Mercury he became corrupt and dark; for he entered with the imagination, according to his condition, knowledge, and desire, into the fiery byss; and Adam, according to his knowledge and desire, went into the cold byss into the impression, into the procreated watery property in the salniter, where both kingdoms stand separated: He desired to prove and taste the watery mercury, in which is the mortal poison; and Lucifer [desired] the fiery Mercury, which gives strength and might; from whence his pride arose, viz. out of the fiery Mercury: But both, viz. Lucifer, and also Adam, lost the oil of the meekness of the divine essentiality.\n\n5. Now we are to consider of the serpent, which deceived Adam with its craft; how it was, and what its subtlety was after which Adam and Eve did imagine; why they did eat of the forbidden tree which was evil and good, and how they did eat death thereby; and what their salvation and restoration is naturally and properly; what evil and good are, what the property of the eternal life, and then the property of eternal death is; what the cure is, whereby the sickness introduced by Adam, and its death, may be healed, and restored both to the temporal and eternal life.\n\n6. Let the reader attend to the sense and meaning; for we have not the ability to give this into his hands; that only belongs to God; but the gates shall stand open for him, if he will enter in; if not, flattery90 avails him not.\n\n7. The devil was a fair angel, and the serpent the subtle beast, and man the likeness of the Deity; now all three were corrupted91 by imagination and pride, and got the curse of God for their false lust [or cunning].\n\n8. All whatever is eternal proceeds originally from one ground, as angels and souls; but the serpent is not out of the eternal ground, but out of the beginning, as we have before given you to understand, how with the enkindling of the fire in the salnitral flagrat two kingdoms separate, viz. eternity and time; and how the eternity dwells in the time, but yet only in itself; but yet so nigh to the time, as fire and light which are in one another, and yet make two kingdoms; or as darkness and light dwell in each other, and the one is not the other. The like we are to consider of the inchoative poisonful mercury in the devil, and in man, and in the serpent also; how an oil corrupts, and yet the essence or being of God is not hereby at all corrupted, but enters into itself, viz. into the nothing; and the creaturely mercury, which arises, or is begotten with the beginning of the creature in the creature, goes out of itself,92 that is, out of the eternal into time, viz. into the beginning of the creature; it desires its own self, that is, the beginning; and will be its own, or of a selfish property, and forsakes the eternity, into which it should be wholly confined, and resigned with its desire, and bring its hunger thereinto; and then its poison-source would not be manifest.\n\n9. For whatever hungers after the eternal nothing, viz. after the quiet meek liberty of God, that is not manifest to itself, but it is manifest in the still liberty, viz. in God; for as the hunger is, such is also the essence in the hunger; each hunger or desire makes itself an essence according to the property of the hunger or desire.\n\n10. Thus the devil makes [or causes] in himself his darkness; for he went with his desire into himself, into the property of the centre to the desire, and forsook the eternity, viz. the nothing, that is, the lubet of love; so that he enkindled himself in his poisonful mercury, that is, in the forms to life in himself, and became an anxious fire-source in the darkness; as wood that is burnt to a coal, which only glows, and has no more any true light in it, also no oil or water; so it went with him. Now in his own property, viz. in his life's forms, there springs forth nothing but a stinging envious property, where one form hates and annoys the other, and yet they so beget each other.\n\n11. And so was the serpent likewise, yet not by its own aspiring haughtiness; but when God said; Let all sorts of beasts come forth, each according to his property [or kind], then came forth beasts out of every property of nature, as it was manifest in the separation, when God moved himself to the creation; for the devil would domineer over the love and meekness of God, and put his desire also into the anger,93 that is, into the austere might, where the poison-life arises, viz. into the fiat of the wrathful property, out of which form are proceeded vipers, serpents, toads, and other venomous worms; not that the devil has made them, that he cannot; only as the desire was in the impression of the fiat, such also was the creature in the evil and good.\n\n12. For in the impression of the fiat, in the original of the outward Mercury, viz. of the life, which is manifest to itself internally, was the separation, where God and the world separate, viz. God inwardly,94 the world outwardly,95 as a similitude of the abyss, or a looking-glass of eternity; even there the inward wrath, from whence God is called an angry zealous God, and a consuming fire, manifested itself externally in figures, as in a similitude of the inward birth in the centre; like as the eternal lubet, which he is himself, stirs up [awakens] and causes the desire to the nature of the eternal manifestation, and gives in itself into the desire, and turns the wrath of the desire into joyfulness.\n\n13. Thus it is also with the serpent's craft:96 In the highest Mercury is the highest sharpest proof of all things; the more poisonful a thing is, the more sharply it proves a thing; for the sharpest97 taste and smell consists in the great poison, viz. in a dying source.\n\n14. And the eternal light is generated98 out of the Father's sharpness, that it attains the shining, and goes forth with its own source through the sharpness out of the anguish-source again into the liberty, viz. into the nothing, where the light, by reason of the fire's-source and property, becomes also a desire, which is the desire of the divine love and joyfulness; in which desire Mercurius, the eternal word, or the understanding of eternity, or deity, is rightly considered and named: And this efflux from the fire (understand from the eternal magical spiritual fire) is a procreation, viz. of the word of the power, colours, and virtue: And this desire of the same mercury, or word, does also modelise99 the power into its own desire, and makes it essential; which is the meekness and the love, which quenches the wrath of the Eternal Father, viz. of the eternal nature's desire with love, and changes it into joyfulness, where the name of God has its original from eternity. This immassed essentiality causes100 two properties, viz. one oleous, which is heavenly essence, a cause of the shining of the light; and also a powerful [property] from the motion of the eternal impression, or desire of the Father after the birth of the Son; from whence the divine air (as the power through the shining of the light) proceeds forth out of this love-fire, which is the Spirit of God.\n\n15. In like manner know this, that the eternal love (understand the essence, viz. the heavenly essentiality) has given itself forth into the creation with the verbum fiat, to set101 the Father's anger, viz. the form of the eternal nature, into the highest joyfulness, and to set forth the likeness of the eternal generation; and where the nature of the wrath was most elevated through the fiat, there also the desire did most incline itself towards the liberty, to be free from the wrath, and to bring it into the kingdom of joy,102 from whence the great and deep knowledge is arisen, and also the most precious and highest tincture; understand the desire of the wrathful hunger received that into itself after which it hungered,103 viz. the liberty; for all things were created good in the beginning; also the devil was good while he was an angel; so also the serpent [was good in its creation before the curse].\n\n16. But seeing the devil went into the highest fire's desire, God departed from him, as a light that is put out, or extinguished in a candle; and afterwards he lived according to his own desire.\n\n17. But seeing he knew that there was such a tincture in the serpent, and the serpent being created out of the beginning of time, therefore he insinuated104 with his desire into the serpent, and took possession of the serpent's tincture, and wrought forth his desire through the serpent against man, to introduce him to long after the serpent's property: For the serpent's tincture was from both originals, viz. out of the deadly mercury from the dying in the fire, viz. from the coldness in the impression; and then also from the wrathful [fiery property in the impression]. The cold impression is earthly, which arises from the wrath, viz. from the dying in the wrath, in the impression; and the fiery [impression] arises from the quick poison of mercury, in which property the spirit's life consists.\n\n18. Thus Adam and Eve were infected with the devil's desire through the serpent, viz. through the earthly, deadly property of the serpent; and also [through] the wrathful poisonful living property of God's wrath according to the devil's own property; and was inflamed in his divine oil, that is, in the heavenly essentiality.\n\n19. Even then the divine light, which shined out of the divine body of the heavenly essentiality, was extinct to him; for the curse seized upon the soul. Now God's cursing is a withdrawing,105  viz. the divine power, which was in the body, departed into its own principle; and his holy oil (wherein the power of God dwelt, and had made a kingdom of joy, viz. the paradise) became a poison.\n\n20. For the earthly part according to the mortifying of the water, viz. the cogastrish property, was manifest; and forthwith mercury, viz. the coldness in the death's property, got the dominion, whereas before he was as it were swallowed up in the divine power: Thus Adam died unto God, and lived to death; here it was necessary that God should regenerate him; and therefore the serpent was cursed, because it had served, and willingly obeyed the devil.\n\n21. Thus we understand what lies hid in the greatest anguish, viz. in the strongest mercury, viz. an oil, which cures and tinctures all diseases; but the cold poison, viz. the death's source must be done away, and put into a fiery [property] which is desirous of the light; for God created all things good in the beginning, but through his cursing or withdrawing the evil came in: For when God's love-desire dwelt in the outward world's-source, and penetrated it, as the sun the water, or the fire an iron, then the outward world was a paradise, and the divine essence sprang forth and budded through the earthly, the eternal life through the mortal; but when God cursed it for man's sake, the mortal [life 106] was manifest in man, and also in the fruit of which man should eat, which property before was only manifest in the \"tree of the knowledge of good and evil,\" on which Adam and his wife were tempted, whether their desire would enter into the eternity, viz. into God's essence, or into the essence of time, into the living or mortal oil, in which source the soul's spirit would live, that is, burn.\n\n22. Thus by God's curse, or withdrawing, the heavenly body was shut up, and the anger-source set open, and so [the heavenly body] lies still shut up: But seeing man by the eternal mercury, that is, by the word of divine power, was in one part formed out of eternity into body and soul, none could disclose107 the poison-death, and destroy the mortal mercury, and change it again into the light's-source, viz. into the source of the divine joyfulness, but only the very divine Mercury, viz. the power and the word of life itself: For the serpent's poisonful earthly property was manifest and stirred up in man; therefore when God's word did pity the corruption of man, and did again embrace him,108 he said, \"The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head,\" and thou (understand the serpent's poison or fire) shalt sting him in the heel.\n\n23. Herein now lies the philosopher's stone, [to know] how the seed of the woman bruises the serpent's head, which is done in the spirit and essence temporally and eternally; the sting of the serpent is God's anger-fire, and the woman's seed is God's love-fire, which must be again awakened, and illustrate109 the anger, and deprive the wrath of its might, and put it into the divine joyfulness, and then the dead soul, which lay immersed in God's curse, does arise: When the poisonful Mercury, which resembles God's anger, is tinctured with love, then the death's anguish in Mercury is changed into the highest joyfulness and desire of love, which does again make a love-essence in itself, viz. an heavenly body out of the earthly: When Mercury is changed into an heavenly source, it desires no longer [or more] the earthly mortal life; [it desires] not the four elements, but only the one, wherein the four are contained, as it were swallowed up; as the light holds the darkness swallowed up in itself, and yet the darkness is in it, but not manifest in the light; as God dwells in time, and the time comprehends him not, unless it be translated and wrapped up into eternity, that the divine light does again shine in its source, and then the time is manifest with its wonders110 in the eternity.\n\n24. In this manner also is the process of the wise men with the precious stone: There is no nearer consideration of the same than to consider [and know] how the eternal word, viz. the heavenly divine Mercury in the divine power, is become man, and has slain death, and the anger in man, viz. changed the Mercury into the divine joyfulness, whereby the human Mercury, which before lay shut up in God's anger, viz. in the source of death, does with its new enkindled desire, which now is called faith in the Holy Ghost, attract divine essentiality, viz. Christ's body to itself, and sets itself in divine power and light above the anger of God, and the poison of the serpent, and bruise the head of the anger, viz. the poison of death with the life of divine joyfulness: That is, the anger was master, but in the light it became a servant, which now must be a cause of the joyfulness, as it is most plain, clear, and manifestly made known and shewn to us in the mercurial life.\n\n25. Now observe the process, and meditate on it, ye dear children of wisdom, and then you shall have enough temporally and eternally;111 do not as Babel does, which amuses and comforts itself with the philosopher's stone, and boasts of it, but keeps only a gross mason's stone shut up in poison and death, instead of the precious philosopher's stone:112 What is it for Babel to have the stone, when it lies wholly shut up in Babel? It is as if a lord bestowed a country upon me, which indeed was mine, but I could not take possession of it, and remained still a poor man notwithstanding, and yet I boasted of the dominion, and so had the name, and not the power: Even thus it goes with Babel about the precious stone of the new-birth in Christ Jesus.\n\n26. In the sweet name, Jesus Christ, the whole process is contained, what, and how the new-birth is out of death into life, which is very clearly understood in the language of nature: For the name Jesus is the property of the free lubet of eternity, which yields itself into the pregnant centre, viz. into the Father's property, and figures itself in the centre in the Father's property, viz. in the Father's fire, to a word of eternal power.\n\n27. Understand, the Father, viz. the Father's fiery forms, do figure [shape] this divine voice essentially in itself in the lubet of the liberty; that is, the Father's fiery property makes itself in the divine essence of the eternal love to a mercury of joyfulness; for the Father's property is the fire-source, and the Son's, viz. the eternal lubet's property, is the love-source; and yet also there would be no desire of love, if the Father's fire did not enkindle it, and make it movable, viz. desirous; from the fire arises the desire.\n\n28. The Father of all essences begets this holy desire through his fire-source, which is now his heart of love, which gives in his fire the shining lustre and splendour; even there the wrath in the fire's property dies from eternity to eternity, and is changed into a love-desire.\n\n29. Thus observe it; the free lubet's property is here in the fire's property called Christ, which signifies in the language of nature a potent champion,113 depriving the wrath of its power, a shining of the light in the darkness, a transmutation, where the love-lubet rules over the fire-lubet, viz. over the wrath, the light over the darkness: Here the seed of the woman (understand of the free lubet, in which there is no source) bruises the head of the wrath of the eternal nature, viz. of the eternal desire; for the fire's property is rightly called the head, for it is the cause of the eternal life; and the liberty, viz. the free lubet, or the nothing, is rightly called the woman; for in the nothing, viz. in the liberty of all source,114 consists the birth of the Holy Trinity of the Deity.\n\n30. Now the fire gives life, and the free lubet gives essence into the life, and in the essence is the birth, where the Father, viz. the eternal ground, begets his essence, viz. his heart out of the abyss in himself, that is, out of the abyss in himself into a byss; the Son is115 the Father's byss: Thus the Father remains in himself, as touching his own property only, the byss of the eternal nature; and the Son remains in the Father, the byss of the power and kingdom of joy; a resemblance whereof you see in the fire and light: And thus the Son tinctures the Father with the liberty, viz. with the nothing; and the Father tinctures (the Son) the nothing, that there is an eternal life therein, and no more a nothing, but a sound or voice of the manifestation of the eternity.\n\n31. Thus, dear philosophers, observe here the ground how you should tincture; seek not the Son without the Father to tincture therewith: It must be one body;116 the serpent-bruiser lies therein beforehand; for the seed of the woman has not bruised the serpent's head without the humanity, but in the humanity: The source of the divine lubet (understand of the love) manifested itself through a resurrection117 in the human essence, and became manifest in the human life, and tinctured the wrath of death with the blood of the divine tincture, and there the wrath of death was changed into a source of divine love and joyfulness: Thus the love bruised the head of the anger and the oleous poison in Mercury, and deprived the wrath of its dominion, and sublimed the wrath into the highest joyfulness; even there the anger, and the astringent cold death, were made open shew of118 in a fiery love: Then it was said, \"Death, where is thy sting? Hell, where is thy victory? God be thanked who has given us victory.\"\n\n32. Now it behoves the wise seeker to consider the whole process with the humanity of Christ from his opening in the womb of his mother Mary, even to his resurrection and ascension; and so he may well find the Feast of Pentecost with the joyful spirit, wherewith he may tincture, cure, and heal whatever is broken and destroyed: We declare it in the ground of truth, as we have highly known it; for the rose in the time of the lily shall blossom in May when the winter is past,119 for blindness to the wicked, and for light to the seeing.\n\n33. God be for ever praised, who has granted us eyes to see through the poisonful heart of the basilisk, and see the day of restitution of all whatever Adam lost.\n\n34. Now we will come to the process of Christ, and go with him out of eternity into time, and out of time into eternity, and bring again the wonders of time into eternity, and openly set forth the pearl, for honour unto Christ, and scorn to the devil; he that sleeps is blind, but he that wakes sees what the May120 brings.\n\n35. Christ said, \"Seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: \"You know that Christ signifies in a parable concerning the wounded Samaritan, that he fell among murtherers, who beat him and wounded him, and pulled off his clothes, and went away, and left him half dead, till the Samaritan came, and took pity on him, dressed him, and poured oil into his wounds, and brought him into the inn: This is a manifest and lively representation of the corruption of man in paradise, and also of the corruption of the earth in the curse of God, when paradise departed from it.\n\n36. Now wilt thou be a magus? Then thou must become the Samaritan, otherwise thou canst not heal the wounded and decayed; for the body which thou must heal is half dead, and sorely wounded; also its right garment is torn off, so that it is very hard for thee to know the man whom thou wilt heal, unless thou hast the eyes and will of the Samaritan, and seekest nothing else thereby but to restore the loss of the wounded.\n\n37. Now consider! The eternal word manifested itself in Adam with divine living essentiality, with the heavenly Mercury, but when the soul's-fire in Adam, by the infection of the devil, poisoned the will's spirit in Adam, and introduced it through the property of the serpent into earthly deadly lust, then the heavenly Mercury of the heavenly essence withdrew, that is, the soul's will departed from it with its desire, and introduced its hunger into the earthly mortal essence, viz. into the property of the cold Mercury, which had made stones and earth. Adam's spirit would prove this [Mercury], and have the knowledge in evil and good, and so this Mercury of the four elements immediately drew him into its poison, and effectually wrought in him, and robbed him of the divine property, stung, and wounded him with heat and cold, and made him half dead, and stripped him of his angelical rayment, viz. the garment in the pure element, where the heavenly source penetrates the four elements, and tinctured them in Adam's body: Then he needed no other garment, for heat and cold were as it were swallowed up in him; as the day holds the night swallowed up in itself, and yet the night dwells in the day, but it is not manifest: Thus it went with man when the property and source of the night seized on him, then it domineered in him; and thus it went also with the earth when God cursed it.\n\n38. Now wilt thou be a magus? Then thou must understand how to change the night again into the day; for the source of the night, viz. of the darkness, is the anguish-source of death; and the source of the day, viz. of the light, is the life, and the lustre in the life; now Christ has again enkindled this shining in the humanity, and quickened man again in himself: Now if thou wilt tincture, then thou must change that which is shut up, and closed in the death of the night again into the day, for the day is the tincture, and yet the day and night lie in each other as one essence.\n\n39. Now says reason, How may I begin to do it?121 Look upon the process, how God began with the humanity, when he would tincture the same.\n\n40. Christ came into this world in the shut-up human form, and brought into the enclosed fortress of death the tincture of life, viz. the Deity; he came into the world as a pilgrim in our poor form; he became ours, that he might tincture us in himself: But what did he do? Did he live in joy? Did he behave and carry himself as a lord? No; he entered into death, and died, and put away the night's-source in him through us: But how did he do it? He assumed the essence of our soul and body unto the divine essence, and quickened our essence with the divine, that our essence entered again with its will and desire into the divine essence, and then the heavenly fiat was moved again in the humanity; for the humanity inclined itself again into the liberty, viz. into the free lubet of the Deity.\n\n41. This being done, the man Christ was tempted forty days, so Iona as the first Adam was alone in paradise, and was tempted: Then the outward earthly food was taken from him, and the humanity must eat with its desire of God's essence; there was represented unto him all whatever the first Adam had amused himself in, and whereinto he imagined, and wherein he was captivated, as in the death of the night. This the devil, being a prince of this world, now represented unto him in the property of death, as he had represented it to Adam through the serpent, whereon Adam and his wife did amuse themselves, and entered thereinto with the imagination.\n\n42. Now behold! What did Christ do when he was to undergo the combat of this trial, when the human essence was to enter again with its desire into the Deity, and eat of God's bread, that is, of the divine essentiality? He went to Jordan, and was baptized of John. With what? With the water in Jordan, and with the water in the word of life, viz. the divine essence, which must tincture our mortal essence in the outward humanity of Christ, from whence the divine hunger arose in the human essence, that he desired to eat of God's bread: Therefore the Spirit of God took him and carried him into the wilderness, and there the Father's property in the wrath did oppose him through the prince in the wrath; and there God's bread, and also the bread of God's anger according to the death's desire, was tendered to him; now it was tried, whether the soul, which was generated and created out of the Father's property, would after this tincturation of baptism enter again into the love-desire, viz. into the nothing out of all source.\n\n43. What is hereby intimated to the magus? A mystery is hinted to him: If .he will do wonders with Christ, and tincture the corrupt body to the new-birth, he must first be baptized, and then he gets an hunger after God's bread, and this hunger has in it the verbum fiat, viz. the *archeus**122* to the new generation, that is, the Mercury: But I do not speak here of a priest's baptism; the artist must understand it magically; God and man must first come together ere thou baptizest, as it came to pass in Christ: The Deity first entered into the humanity, but the humanity could not presently comprehend it, till it was quickened through baptism, and the hunger, viz. the dead Mercury in the human essence, was again stirred up in the heavenly part.\n\n44. And here began again the human eating; viz. the Mercury received again divine property and will; and then the inward Mercury (understand man's property) did eat in the taste of the divine word of God's essence: And the four elemental properties did eat of the night's property so long, till the human Mercury sublimed its life, and changed the four elements into one: And the life tinctured death, which was done on the cross: Then the four elements departed from him; that is, he died to time, viz. to the night, that is, to the four elements, and arose in the pure element, and lived to eternity.\n\n45. The magus must keep and observe this process also with his alchymy. Dost thou ask how? I will not put it into thy mouth by reason of the wicked, who is not worthy of it: Observe only the baptism, that thou baptizest the dead Mercury, which lies in the heavenly essentiality, enclosed and shut up in impotency with its own baptism, [and mark] of what essence he is in a thing;123 but thou must have this divine water, and also the earthly; for the earthly Mercury cannot else receive the divine [Being] except the divine Mercury receives of its power, whereupon it stirs and hungers: Then the heavenly [Mercury] seeks, but yet finds not divine essence about it for its food; thereupon it brings its will through the desire of death into itself, viz. into the verbum fiat, which has made and produced it, and sets its hunger upon the same; whereupon the divine essence inclines itself to it, and will become joyfulness in him; even then arises the beginning of the new body out of the divine essentiality, which the desire nourishes and brings up; and when the new life is born, viz. the day, then the four elements die: And then the new body is shut up in the dark death, and on the third day it rises again from death; for the night is swallowed up in the grave, and the morning rises.\n\n46. If thou didst understand this, then hadst thou the pearl: But my intent and purpose is otherwise; I will shew thee Christ along with it, and also this pearl; therefore none shall find it but he that loves Christ.\n\n47. Thou sayest, Tell me the baptism? and I have already told it thee. Every hunger is a desire after its property; now if thou givest again the property of death to the hunger of death, then death encreases; but if thou givest him heavenly property, then death receives it not, for hell is against heaven; therefore thou must give death and the anger of God to death, and in this anger give him heavenly essence, viz. the baptism, and so the baptism will swallow up the death into itself, and then the anger dies in the death through the baptism, but not presently; thou must first keep the process of Christ, and suffer the baptized to preach, that is, appear in his divine form and colours; exceedingly persecute and plague him, and give him no rest; for so the right Mercury becomes working and active; and when he has shewn all his wonders through the old Adam, then thou must cast the old and new man into God's great anger, and slay the old man, ventilate him, and hang him naked124 on the cross, and again take him thence, and lay him into the putrefaction, viz. into the grave.\n\n48. And then Christ will arise from death, and appear; but only his own know him: He walks about in heavenly form, and sometimes in his own [form which he had here] until the Feast of Pentecost, for now here is tried in him the highest perfection, whether he will persist in the angel's form, and eat only of the divine essence; and then comes the Holy Ghost, and proceeds with his power out of the whole corpus, viz. out of the body and soul, which then tinctures the dead and broken being; as it may be seen in the Day of Pentecost, where Saint Peter tinctured three thousand souls at once with his heavenly Mercury, and delivered them out of death.\n\n49. Dear seekers, herein lies the pearl; had you the universal, then you could also tincture as Saint Peter did, but your covetous death withholds you and shuts you up; for you seek only covetousness and temporal honour in the pleasure of the flesh, to generate yourselves in the night's property; therefore the pearl hides itself from you; yet the day shall again appear when the wrathful anger of God is fulfilled, satisfied and appeased in the blood of the saints, and turned to a love-life; and the time is near.\n\nPROCESS\n\n50. Every creature keeps in its generation and propagation to its own kind; the male to the female, and the female to the male: Now God said to Adam and Eve after the Fall, \"The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head;\" he said not [the seed] of the man: Herein lies the baptism of nature: The male has the fire-spirit, and the female the water-spirit to the tincture; now the Mercury is a fire-life, and makes himself a body according to his hunger and desire; now the chief of the work is in the beginning to give the fire-hunger a love-virgin out of its kind for its consort, that so his wrathful hunger may be changed into a love, and then they sleep together in their own marriage bed: Now the devil is an enemy of this wedlock, who soon comes with a strange desire, and tempts these married people, but dares not lay an hand of violence on them, but only afflicts and plagues them with a false strange desire; now if they yield their desire to his will, and his desire overcomes them, then they become enemies to one another, and bring forth a false child; for Christ said, \"An evil tree bringeth forth evil fruits, and a good tree good fruits.\"\n\n51. Therefore the artist must beware, and keep himself from such anger, and yet must prepare a cross for this married couple; for he is their foe and friend, that so they both in their marriage bed of love might lift up their desire to God, and so with their desire God's essence may be pregnant in their desire, and then in their copulation they shall beget such a child, which they125 (understand the mother, viz. the female) shall nourish in their belly, till it be ripe.\n\n52. In the meantime let the mother take heed she bear no love to any other besides her consort, and also not imagine after strange things, else she will imprint a spot or mark on the child; she must continue simply in one love, till the child be perfect as to its body, which comes to pass in the fourth month; yet according as the parents are of one or other property, so strife and contrariety will arise in the essence in the child, when the child is to receive its soul's life.\n\n53. But when the essence is in its wresting combat, the artist must assist the soulish, viz. the fiery property, till the soul's spirit attains its life, then he appears in the woman's form and lustre: Now the artist supposes that he has the child that is born, but there belongs a further time to it, till the soul grows strong, and then it appears and shews itself in its red and white coat.\n\n54. But there is yet a wonderful process behind; when the soul's life is born, then the new soul casts away the vegetable life of the parents (which is propagated and inherited to the body from the parents' *vegitta*, wherein the body of the child congealed126 and grew till the time of the soul), and the life of the four elements dies, and the life in the one element arises; the child is hidden in the dark death, and the artist supposes it to be dead, but he must have patience till the child be born.\n\nTHE PECULIAR PROCESS IN THE SHAPING OF THE MAGICAL CHILD\n\n55. The course of Christ upon the earth is a real type how the new child is nourished in the mother's womb after its conception, as is before mentioned, and attains a vegetable life, and grows up to the time of its right soul's and spirit's life; and how the child arises from the parents' essence; and how in the enkindling of its right, viz. of its own life, it casts away the parents' vegitta and working; and how a new plant, viz. a new peculiar operation, does now arise according to the new enkindled spirit's property, whereby the child is more noble than its parents, understand as to its outward life.\n\n56. But perhaps some rude clownish sophister might meet with this treatise, and draw a strange understanding from it, in that I write of a soul in the vegetative life; but let him know that we do not understand the image of God, which was formed into a likeness according to God [to be] in metals, stones, and herbs; but we understand the magical soul, how the eternity, viz. the Deity, imprints and pourtrays itself into its likeness, according to the model of its wisdom in all things, and how God fills all in all; we understand the *summum bonum*, the good treasure which lies hidden in the outward world's essence as a paradise.\n\n57. When Christ in his childhood grew up in human and divine property till he was twelve years old, he went with his mother Mary to the feast at Jerusalem, and went into the Temple among the Scribes, asked them, and hearkened to them, and gave answer to the questions of the teachers; but when his parents returned home, supposing him to be among the company, he remained purposely behind among the doctors, and followed not the intent of his parents, but the divine will, till they came back again, and sought him; and then his mother said to him, \"My son, why hast thou dealt so with us? Lo! thy father and I have been seeking thee sorrowing. Then he said unto them, How is it that you have sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? And he went home with them, and was subject unto them.\"\n\n58. In this figure we have the type of the wills of the inward and outward world, how they are in one another, and against one another, and yet are but one: Even as in Christ there were two kingdoms manifest; one which was wrought unto God's will, and broke the outward world's will of its parents, in that Christ tarried behind contrary to the will of his parents, at which they were troubled, which the divine will in Christ knew well enough; and the other kingdom, viz. of his parents' will, broke the divine will, that he went home with them, and was obedient to them according to their will.\n\n59. This figure shews the magus, that he shall find two wills in his purpose, which he thinks to carry on; one will not be obedient and subject unto him, viz. the divine will; and yet if its own peculiar external will shall rightly apply itself thereunto, and only seek the dear child Jesus with Mary, with desire and earnest sorrow, and not earthly pleasure of the flesh, then the divine will will be obedient to him, and go home with him, and be used according to his good pleasure.\n\n60. Secondly, it shews him the twofold working and will in all things; and if he will be a magus, and according to his will turn the will and essence of the good property out of the inward into the outward, then he must be first capable of the inward, viz. of the divine will, otherwise he cannot change the inward will into the outward; as Christ was not obedient to the external will of his mother till she sought him with grief and sorrow of heart, and turned her will into God's will, and wrestled in his compassion with God's will, as Jacob the whole night, till the Lord blessed him, and God said unto him, Thou hast wrestled with God and man, and hast overcome, or got the victory.\n\n61. Also let the magus know, that he need not go about to implant the right will to perfection from without into his purpose; it is already in all things; only he must introduce a divine desirous will according to the thing's property into that thing which he takes in hand, which wrestles with the divine will as Jacob, and blesses the will introduced to God's will, that the divine will yields itself freely into the hunger, or inclines itself to the desire, and makes the imperfect will (which earnestly presses into his compassion) perfect, and then it is rightly said, Thou hast wrestled with God, and hast overcome; then thy purpose obtains a transformed body, which is heavenly and earthly.\n\n62. Observe it! It is the first beginning to baptism, and so you are fit and prepared to the baptism, and not otherwise, else you baptize only with the water of the outward world; but the true magus baptizes with the outward and inward water: If he has a right divine desire in him, then God's will in his baptism is the first glimmering tinder in Mercury, so that the life enkindles death, viz. the Mercury shut up in death, and he gets divine desire; even then Mercury begins to hunger after divine essence, and does his first miracle, and turns the water into wine, as Christ did after his baptism: This is the first tincturation in the dead corpus in the power of baptism, that the vegitta, or working energetical life, obtains another property, viz. an hunger of love, wherewith she embraces her bridegroom, viz. the fire-source, that he is enkindled in her love, and changes his cold deadly wrath and will into a fiery love-will: Then the mortal water turns into wine (a sharpness of a fire and water-taste), out of which at last comes an oil to another baptism, after the manner and disposition of the artist, viz. according as he intends and begins; after the magus has joined the virgin and young man together, then Christ, viz. the bridegroom, is led with his bride into the desert, and tempted of the devil.\n\n63. Here is the trial whereby the artist is proved by God what he seeks with his baptism; for here is the proof in paradise to try whether the bridegroom be not too bad; for the virgin casts her love upon him, and invites him; if he receives it with desire, and gives his will thereinto, then she gives him her heart and will wholly: This is the heavenly tincture, which gives itself into the enkindled anger of God (viz. into the curse of the earth when God cursed it), that is, into the Mercury enclosed in death, which is the bridegroom, for the seed of the woman, viz. the heavenly tincture, must bruise the head of the serpent, viz. the poisonful Mercury, in the property of death, and change his poison into wine, and then the virgin receives the seed of the bridegroom, and not before.\n\n64. The desert is the earthly outward body, where Mercury is tempted; when the devil appears to Mercury, and plagues him, and assaults him in his fiery essence, then must the virgin come to help him, and give him her love: Now if the Mercury eats of the virgin-like love, that is, of God's bread, then he may stand before the devil; and at last the angels come to him, and serve him; the illuminated magus will well understand what is meant by the devil.\n\n65. Hereby let the magus in the temptation (seeing the whole marriage stands in the devil's temptation) have a careful eye upon his purpose; and if the angels do not appear in forty days' space, then is his purpose in vain; therefore let him look, that he suffer not too fierce a devil to tempt, and also not too weak, lest Mercury become light, and desire to continue in his own poisonful death's property, and devour the baptism as a wolf, and the old one remains.\n\n66. As soon as he espies the forms of angels, let him bring Christ out of the desert, and let the bridegroom eat again his own food, and dismiss the devil, that he may no longer plague him, and then Christ will do many wonders and signs, at which the artist will wonder and rejoice: Then he has nothing to do, the bride is in the bridegroom, they are already married,127 he need only make their bed ready, they will warm it well enough themselves; the bridegroom embraces the bride, and the bride the bridegroom; and this is their food and pastime till they beget a child.\n\n67. But if the artist will needs be so diligent as to warm the married couple's bed, then let him have a care he do not anger and enrage them in their love; what he begins he must go on with; only the bridegroom is wonderful: He has continually two wills, viz. an earthly hunger after God's anger, and an hunger after his bride; therefore he must always have his own earthly food given him, but not into his belly, but magically, that so he may satisfy only his own will's-hunger; his food is his mother that begets him, as it is before mentioned.\n\n68. In brief, the whole work which men speak so much and wonderfully of consists in two things, in an heavenly and in an earthly; the heavenly must make the earthly in it to an heavenly: The eternity must make time in it to eternity: The artist seeks paradise; if he finds it, he has the great treasure upon the earth: But one dead man does not raise another; the artist must be living, if he will say to the mountain, Arise, and cast thyself into the sea.\n\n69. When the incarnation of the child begins, then first of all Saturn takes it, and then it is dark and disesteemed, and is contemned and derided, that such a mystery should lie hid in such a mean form; there Christ walks in a poor simple form upon the earth, as a pilgrim, and has not so much room and propriety in Saturn as to lay his head: He goes as a stranger, as if he were not there at home.\n\n70. After this the moon takes it, and then the heavenly and earthly properties are mixed,128 and the vegetative life arises, and then the artist rejoices; but he is yet in danger.\n\n71. After the moon Jupiter takes it, who makes an understanding in Mercury, viz. a pleasant habitation, and gives him its good will; and in Jupiter his enclosed life, viz. Mercury is quickened, who takes it with its orb, and forces it into the highest anguish: And then Mars apprehends it, and gives the fire-soul to Mercury; and in the flagrat of Mars the highest life enkindles itself, and separates itself into two essences, viz. out of the love into a body, and out of the fire into a spirit; then the life of love in the fiery flagrat sinks downwards, and appears beautiful, but it is Venus, a woman: Then the artist supposes that he has the treasure, but the hungry Mercury devours Venus, and the child turns to a black raven; then Mars afflicts Mercury in himself, till he grows faint, and yields himself to death: Then the four elements depart from him, and the sun receives the child into its property, and sets it forth in a virgin-like body in the pure element; for in the property of Mars the light is enkindled, and the right life is born, and stands in the pure element; no anger nor death can destroy it.\n\n72. It seems strange in the eyes of reason, that God has kept such a process with the restoring of man in Christ, that he appeared in such a poor disesteemed form in the human property, and was reviled, mocked, scorned, scourged, crucified and slain; and that he was buried, and rose again out of the grave, and walked forty days upon the earth before he entered into his invisible kingdom. Reason is so blind, that it understands nothing of the eternal birth, it knows nothing of paradise, how Adam was in paradise, and how he fell, and what the curse of the earth is: If it understood this, the whole process were manifest to it: As the eternal birth is in itself, so is also the process with the restoration after the Fall, and so likewise is the process of the wise men with their philosopher's stone, there is not the least tittle of difference betwixt them; for all things originally arise out of the eternal birth, and all must have one restoration in one and the same manner.\n\n73. Therefore if the magus will seek paradise in the curse of the earth, and find it, then must he first walk in the person of Christ; God must be manifest in him, understand in the internal man, that he may have the magical sight: He must deal with his purpose as the world did with Christ, and then he may find paradise, wherein is no death.\n\n74. But if he be not in this birth of restoration, and walks not himself in the way wherein Christ walked upon the earth, if he steps not forth into the will and spirit of Christ, then let him give over and leave off his seeking; he finds nothing but death, and the curse of God. I tell him plainly and faithfully, for the pearl of which I write is paradisical, which God does not cast before swine, but gives it to his children for their play and delight.\n\n75. And though much might be mentioned here, that even reason might obtain open eyes, yet it is not to be done; for the wicked would grow worse, and more full of pride; therefore seeing he is not worthy of paradise, and also cannot enter thereinto, no heavenly jewel shall be given him: And therefore God hides it, and permits him to whom he reveals it, to speak of it no otherwise than magically; therefore no one attains it, unless he himself be a magus in Christ, unless paradise be manifest in his internal man; and then he may find, if he be born to it, and chosen by God.\n \n## Chapter 8. Of The Fiery Sulphureous Seething Of The Earth, And How The Growth Is In The Earth...\n\nOF THE FIERY SULPHUREOUS SEETHING OF THE EARTH, AND HOW THE GROWTH IS IN THE EARTH; ALSO OF THE SEPARATION OF THE SEVERAL KINDS OF CREATURES: AN OPEN GATE FOR THE WISE SEEKERS\n\n1. Let the reader but consider what before is written concerning the centre of the generation of all essences, and then he may easily proceed here: All whatever is corporeal, let it be either spirit or body, consists in a sulphureous property; the spirit in such a spiritual property, and the body out of the spirit in such a corporeal property.\n\n2. For all things are risen from the eternal spirit, as a likeness of the eternal; the invisible essence, which is God and the eternity, has in its own desire introduced itself into a visible essence, and manifested itself in a time, so that he is as a life in the time, and the time is in him as it were dead;129 as a master that makes his work with an instrument, and the instrument is mute to the master, and yet it is the making, the master only guides it; even so are all things confined into limit, measure, and weight, according to the eternal generation; and they run on in their operation and generation according to the right and property of eternity.\n\n3. And God has appointed over this great work only one master and protector, which can alone manage the work, which is his officer,130 viz. the soul of the great world, wherein all things lie; [and] he has appointed a type of its likeness as the reason over this officer, which represents to the officer what he is to do and make; and this is the understanding, viz. God's own dominion wherewith he rules the officer: Now the understanding shews to the officer what the property of each thing is, how the separation and degrees proceed from each other; for all things are contained131 in the sulphureous body, and Mercury is Sulphur's life, and the salt is the impression, that preserves the body132 from falling to ashes, so that the spirit is known in a palpable essence.\n\n4. The property of Mercury is in Sulphur, as the boiling of a water; Sulphur is the water wherein Mercury seethes, and produces continually two forms out of the water; viz. one oleous, living, from the liberty of the divine power's property; and one mortal from the dissolution in the fire in the salnitral flagrat.\n\n5. The oily is in stones and metals, herbs, trees, beasts, and men; and the mortal [property] is in the earth, in the water, in the fire and air; likewise the oleous property is in these four forms (viz. in the earth, water, fire, and air) as a spirit or life, and these four properties are as a dead body, in which the oil is a light or life, from whence the desire, viz. the growth, arises as a springing out of the dead property, which is the vegetative life, a springing, budding, and growing out of death.\n\n6. But now the oily property could not be a life, if it were not in the anguish of death; the anguish makes it to pullulate or move, in that its will is to fly from, and press out of the anguish, and forces itself eagerly forwards, from whence the growth arises: Thus must death be a cause of the life, that the life may be stirring [or active], and therefore Mercury is the true moving life.\n\n7. In the mortal property he is evil, and is called the life of death, of hell, and the anger of God; and in the oily property he is good, from the efficacy of the meekness and liberty of God; and he is the officer's faber, whereby the officer distinguishes the degrees in the vegetative life, [separating] the living [being] from the mortal, the heavenly essentiality from the dead or earthly, and appoints it into two kingdoms; viz. the good in the oleous [property] into a heavenly [being], viz. into a light, and the mortal [part] into the darkness.\n\n8. These two kingdoms are in continual combat one with another, and there is an incessant wrestling in them; as water boiling on the fire; each boils in its property, viz. the oily in joy and meekness, and the mortal in the anguish of darkness, and yet one is the cause of the other: The light is the death, and deadly destruction of the darkness, viz. of the anguish; for in the light the anguish has no strength, but it changes it into the exultation of joyfulness, and the cause of joy, else there would be no joy; for the meekness is like a stillness, but the source of anguish sublimes it, and turns into a pleasant laughter: So also the anguish, viz. the darkness, is the death and destruction of the oily property; for if it gets the upper hand in the oleous property, it takes possession of the corpus,133 and turns the oil into a poisonful source, viz. into a dark spirit, or body wholly earthly, as Adam was when he imagined into the evil.\n\n9. And yet we do not acknowledge that the oleous property takes any poison-source into itself; but Mercury, viz. the fire-life, insinuates itself into the anguish, and poisons the essence of time, which the outward Mercury itself makes in its own desire, that is, he departs from the inward oleous essence, and then the internal [being] remains immoveable in itself, and the essence and spirit of time do separate from the essence and spirit of eternity, and yet there is no parting [or dividing], but both principles remain in one essence; whereas there are two essences, but the one comprehends not the other, as eternity does not comprehend time: For thus also Adam and Eve died; the soul's Mercury departed with its imagination from the essence of eternity into the essence of time, viz. into the anguish-source, and then the essence of eternity lost its leader, which Christ restored again by the divine word, or Mercury; so that the essence of eternity, which in Adam was forsaken by the soul's Mercury, obtained the life again.\n\n10. And thus we know that the essence of eternity lies hid in the anxious Mercury, as in the fortress of death; and our writing and teaching are to chew how a man may bring the poisonful Mercury with its desire so far, as to enter with its desire again into the essence of eternity, viz. into the enclosed, and reassume the essence of eternity for a body, and with the same tincture the essence of time, and reconcile them in one, that the whole corpus of the inward and outward world may be only one, that so there may be only one will in the spirit, viz. a love-hunger; and this hunger does then make to itself only one essence, and then every spirit eats of its [own] essence or body, so that afterwards no evil will can arise any more therein.\n\n11. Thus we understand, that joy and sorrow, love and enmity, do originally arise through imagination and longing; for in the inclination [or earnest desire] towards God, viz. the free love, the kingdom of joy arises in the midst of the anguish of death; and if the desire departs out of the free love into the anguish of death, viz. into the source of darkness, then is the desire filled with the source of death, and so Mercury works effectually in the source of death.\n\n12. Thus we declare with a true ground, that there is nothing so bad, but there lies a good therein, but the badness is not capable of the good; also there lies in the most poisonful Mercury, the greatest pearl and jewel; if his poisonful will may be introduced into the same,134 then he himself manifests the pearl; for he changes himself; as is to be seen in the earth, where Mercury seeks its pearl, and turns it in the ore135 to gold, and to other metals, according as the Sulphur is in each place.\n\n13. For there is a continual combat136 in the earth; the eternity travels with longing through time to be free from vanity, and in its longing it gives itself to Mercury, as to its life and faber; and when Mercury obtains it in his hunger, he becomes joyful, and makes this free lubet corporeal in him, and there arises gold and silver, together with other metals and good herbs, all according to the powerful efficacy of each place; As the boiling137 is in each place, so likewise is the metal, all according to the property of the seven forms of nature; that form which is chief in a place, according to the same property grows a metal, also herbs and trees.\n\n14. Here the physicians must observe, that they learn distinctly to know what kind of property is the strongest in each thing with which they would cure; if they do not know it, they will oftentimes give their patients death: Also they must know, that they are to understand, and very exactly know the property of the patient, which of the properties among the seven forms of nature is the Mercury in Sulphur; for such a salt he also makes: Now if the physician gives him a contrary salt, Mercury is only thereby the more vehemently enraged, and made more venomous; but if he may obtain his own salt according to his own property (after which he hungers) then he138 rejoices, and readily quits the poison-source in the fire of Mars. But the right physician has another cure, he first brings his Mercury with which he will cure out of death's anguish into the liberty: He may well cure,139 the other is dangerous and uncertain; if he happens to cure, it is by chance, and very inconstant, and cannot cure any disease fundamentally; for the outward Mercury is shut up, it can reach no further than into the four elements, into the mortal essence; it is able to do nothing in the sidereal body: But if it be turned and introduced into the love, as is before mentioned, then it touches140 the very root and ground, and renews it even to the divine power in the second principle.\n\n15. We have an excellent resemblance of this in the blooming earth on the herbs; for in the earth Mercury is earthly and venomous; but when the sun tinctures him., then he reaches after the sun's power, after its light, and brings it into his hungry fiery Mars-desire, into his salt, viz. into his corporeal essence, viz. into Sulphur, which is his mother, and wheels it about with its rotation in the essence, as if he also boiled; and then the liberty, viz. the highest power, reaches after its property, viz. after the solar property, and apprehends Mercury also along with it.\n\n16. Now when Mercury tastes the heavenly Being in itself, it grows exceeding desirous after the power of love, and draws the same into its desire, whereupon it changes itself, and its salt, so also its mother, the Sulphur, into a pleasant source; and now if the liberty be so introduced into a moving life with Mercury, then it is very full of joy, and springs up in its joy, as a light from the fire, and puts forth through the Sulphur-spirit in the salt: Thus is the growing of the root, and from thence the root gets such a pleasant smell and taste; for in the original the salt's sharpness in the first impression from Saturn is a sharpness of death's anguish, and here it is turned to a pleasant power; for all taste in herbs is salt.\n\n17. Thus understand us further about the root in the earth; when the inward power of the liberty in Mercury's property, which now is changed, does thus force itself forth to the manifestation of the Deity, then the sun's power does eagerly press towards the divine power, and inclines itself with great desire to the highest heavenly tincture, and draws it with its desire to it; viz. out of the earthly body into a solar: Thus the sun draws the power out of the root in the earth, and the joyful Mercury ascends up along with it, and continually draws the sun's power from above into itself, and from beneath it draws its mother viz. the Sulphur, to itself: And here all the seven forms of nature arise in joyfulness in the combat, each will be uppermost; for so it is in the taste, viz. in the generation of nature; and what form in nature gets to be the chiefest, according to the same taste is the salt in Sulphur, and such an herb grows out of the earth, let it be what it will; though now everything springs from its mother, yet all things have so taken their original, and do still take it; for just so is the right of eternity.\n\n18. Now we are to consider of the stalk: When the herb or sprig looks out of the earth, it comes up at first below with a white form, then further more upwards with a brownish [colour], and above with a green colour: This is now its signature, [shewing] what kind of form is internally in the essence, in the source; the white colour of the branch141 is from the liberty of the love-lubet, and the brown is the earthly [property] from Saturn's impression, and from the wrath of Mars; and the green, which opens itself above, is Mercury's in the form of Jupiter and Venus.\n\n19. For Jupiter is power, and Venus is love-desire, which hasten towards the sun, as towards their likeness; and the heaven, which is created out of the midst of the water, puts upon them its blue and green-coloured garment according to the stars' might; for the spirit of the stars receives the new child also, and gives him its spirit and body, and rejoices therein: Now the forms are in contest,142 and Mercury is the faber and separator; Saturn impresses, and Jupiter is the pleasant power in sulphur; Mars is the fire-source, viz. the might in sulphur; Venus is the water, viz. the sweet desire; Mercury is the life, Luna the body, and Sol the heart, viz. the centre to which all forms tend and press.\n\n20. Thus the outward sun presses into the sun in the herb; and the inward sun presses into the outward, and there is a mere pleasing relish and delight of one essence in another; Saturn makes four, Jupiter makes a pleasant taste, Mars makes bitter, by reason of his anxious nature, Venus makes sweet, Mercury distinguishes the taste, Luna takes it into her sack and hatches it; for she is of an earthly and heavenly property, and she gives it the menstruum wherein the tincture lies.\n\n21. Thus there is an instigation in the taste; each form hastens to the sweet water and the sun; Jupiter is pleasant, and ascends up aloft with the love-desire in the sweet source-water, wherein Mars rages, and thinks himself to be master in the house, seeing that he rules the fire-spirit in sulphur, at which Mercury is dismayed, that Mars does so disquiet him, and Saturn makes the flagrat corporeal according to his austere impression, and these are the knots upon the stalk; and the flagrat is salnitral, according to the third form of nature in the first impression to the spirit-life, viz. in the anguish-form, from whence the sulphur takes its original, and in the flagrat Mercury goes up in the salniter on the sides, and takes Venus also into it, viz. the love-desire, from whence grow twigs and branches on the stalk, trunk, or body, be they either herbs, trees, or shrubs; and each branch [or sprig] is then like to the whole plant.143 \n\n22. But the sun continually by little and little deprives Mars of his force, whereupon the salniter extinguishes, and Mars loses his bitter property; then Jupiter and Venus wholly yield themselves to the sun in the moon's cabinet,144 and the outward sun takes full possession of the inward; understand the inward sun is a Sulphur in Mercury, and is of the divine power's property, from the liberty of God, which imprints itself on all things, and gives life and power to all things. Now when that is done, that Jupiter and Venus have given themselves to the power of the sun, then Jupiter forces no more upwards, but Mars and Mercury do continually more and more wind up the stalk from the earth on high; Jupiter stays still above in the inward and outward sun's power, and there is the pleasant conjunction with time and eternity, there the eternity beholds itself in an image145 in the time.\n\n23. And paradise springs up [or opens], for the Sulphur and the salt in the Sulphur are here transmuted in the paradise, and the paradisical joy puts itself forth in the smell and taste. This is now the head or knob of the blossoms, wherein the corn grows; the lovely smell is in one part paradisical, viz. from the divine power, from the liberty; and on the other part earthly, according to the outward sun, and the outward world.\n\n24. The heavenly property sets forth its signature with fair colours of the leaves on the blossoms; and the earthly [represents its signature] by the green leaves [or sprigs] about the blossom; but seeing this kingdom of the outward world is only a time (in which the curse is), and Adam could not stand in paradise, the paradisical property soon passes away with its signature, and changes itself into the corn which grows in the blossom; therein the property of the inward and outward sun, viz. of the inward and outward power, is couched, each property in its principle; for God has cursed the earth, and therefore let none think that the outward is divine, only the divine power penetrates and tinctures the outward [being]; for God said, \"The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head:\" This is now effected after the curse in all things which approach near the Deity, wherein Mercury is a poison; there God bruises its head with the inward and outward sun, and takes away the poisonful might in the anger.\n\n25. O that you would but learn to understand, dear sirs and brethren, wherewith you are to cure; not with the angry Mercury, which in many an herb is an evil poison-source, but with the inward Mercury: If you would be called doctors and masters, then you ought also to know how you may change the outward Mercury in the Sulphur into love, that he may be delivered from the anguish-source, and brought into a joyfulness, viz. that the earthly [being] be turned into an heavenly, the death into life; this is your doctorship in the right meaning, and not by the officer of reason only.\n\n26. God has placed man above the officer, and ordained him in the understanding to his own dominion: He has ability to change nature, and to turn the evil into good, provided that first he has changed himself, otherwise he cannot; so long as he is dead in the understanding, so long he is the servant and slave of the officer; but when he is made alive in God, then the officer is his servant.\n\n27. Ye haughty caps, let it be told you; pride, and your own honour, and the earthly lust of the flesh, lies in your way, so that you are not masters in the mysteries, but blind children; you will not lay your hands upon the coals, but you take money from the poor and distressed, and give that to many an one which had been far better he had never bought, for which you must give a severe and strict account.\n\n28. Thus it is likewise with the sulphurean seething in the earth with the metals, the power146 is stronger in metals than in the herbs, the tincture is more heavenly than earthly, if the artist affords it his help, then it changes itself, viz. the earthly into an heavenly, which notwithstanding comes to pass in many places without the artist's ingenuity; as we see, how Mercury in sulphur apprehends the heavenly tincture in its boiling, whereby he changes his made essence (which he makes in the sulphur) into gold and silver by the power and efficacy of the tincture, understand, by that part of the heavenly property; for out of the earth, or out of the mortified property in the salniter, no gold can be made, for there is no fixedness therein.\n\n29. Now we are thus to consider of this process of the boiling in the Sulphur in the earth: Where the earth is in any place sulphureous in the saturnine property, wherein the sun bears chief rule, there is such a boiling; the outward sun hungers after the inward, which dwells in its own principle in the centre in sulphur, and sets its desire upon time; for the time, viz. the creature, longs after eternity, viz. after the liberty, to be freed from vanity; as the Scripture says, that \"all creatures do earnestly long with us to be freed from vanity.\"\n\n30. Even here the liberty gives itself into the solar property into the time, and when Mercury tastes it, he becomes joyful, and turns his wheel in the joy; then Saturn impresses the meekness; and Mars, which arises in the mercurial wheel in the impression, gives the fire-soul thereinto, so that there is a driving forth and growth; for the liberty puts itself forth in Mercury's property, and Mercury continually separates Saturn and Mars from it; for he will have a fair and pure child to his joy; he suffers Venus to remain on the child, for she is in property akin to the child: copper is nighest to gold by reason of the materia, it wants only the tincture; Mars holds him too hard in possession; if he may be got out, then it is gold, which the artist does well understand.\n\n31. After Venus Mars is akin to gold; for he has swallowed up Venus in his wrath, and uses her for his body, else in his own peculiar property he has no corporeal essence, for he is only wrath, which consumes: He makes him a body out of the water of Venus, which he devours, and Saturn makes it corporeal to him; therefore he does so defile his iron with rust, and that is his property, viz. to be a devourer of his body; but Venus is pleasant, and makes a growing in him, he devours again whatever Venus's property makes in him; for Venus is the food of Mars in the saturnine property; therefore the artist is to consider what lies in Mars; if he has only the solar tincture, he needs nothing else thereto, that he may but deprive Mars of his force, for Mars has his toughness from Venus.\n\n32. Mars in his own peculiar property is only spalt, and causes hardness. as the fire does; but Saturn is the impressure of all things; Venus needs only the tincture, and then she is perfect; but the artist must rightly understand where the possibility lies, viz. in Sulphur, where Saturn has the Sulphur in his belly, and Mercury shews its colour, there he is in the will,147 but cannot, for Saturn holds him too fast imprisoned; but if the artist gives him his helping hand, that he may but advance his wheel, and give him his mother's food, which she has hid in the centre, then he grows strong, and casts Saturn away, and manifests the child: For so it is also in the earth, where Mercury is quick in his mother, viz. in the Sulphur, that he is not withheld, that he may only reach Venus in his hunger for food, the sun will soon shine forth, for she beams forth in Venus's meekness: He dresses [or seethes] his food with his own fire, he needs no artist thereto; which the artist must well observe, for he has his Mars in himself.\n\n33. Now as the boiling is in the earth, so also it is above the earth; when the fruit grows out of the earth, it is first sharp [astringent] and bitter, also sour and unpleasant, as the apple upon the tree is so; for Saturn has at first the dominion, he attracts it together, and Mercury forms it, and Mars gives the fire to Mercury, which Saturn receives into his cold property, Venus gives the sap, and Luna takes all into her body, for she is mother, and receives the seed of all the planets into her menstruum, and hatches it; Jupiter gives power thereinto, and Sol is king therein, but at the first Sol is weak; for the materia is too earthly and cold. Now the whole essence in its boiling lies in the body148 of Sulphur; and in the Sulphur the salnitral flagrat makes a salt in Mars's wheel according to each property; for the Sulphur turns into salt, that is, into taste; and in the same taste there is an oil hid in the centre in the sulphureous property, which [oil] arises from the free love-lubet, viz. out of eternity, and manifests itself with an external essence in the time, which is the manifestation of God.\n\n34. Now in this same oil is the hunger or love-desire after the essence of time, viz. after the manifestation of the Deity; this desire reaches in the essence of time after its property, viz. after the sun, and the sun's property reaches after the oil in the centre of the fruit, and fervently longs after it, and gives itself freely into the fruit, and sucks the virtue into itself, and gives it forth in its joy into the austere property of the fruit, and meekens and sweetens all with the love, which it receives in the centre in the oil of the liberty: Thus a fruit, which at first is sour and sharp, becomes very pleasant and sweet, that a man may eat it; and even thus is the ripening of all fruits.\n\n35. Now by the signature in the external you may see the inward form; for the forms in the salt, viz. in the power, shew themselves externally.\n\n36. There are commonly four colours, as white, yellow, red, and green: Now according to what colour the fruit (as an apple) is most signed, accordingly is the taste also in the salt; as white with a clear thin skin somewhat inclining to dark gives sweetness, which is of Venus property; if the sweet taste be strong and powerful, then Jupiter is potent therein; but if it be weak and fulsom, then the moon is strong therein; but if it be hard, and of a brownish colour, then Mars is strong therein; but if the white colour be of a grayish-brown, then Saturn is strong therein: Venus makes149 a white colour, Mars red, and bitter in the taste; Mars makes Venus's colour light, Mercury gives a mixt colour, and opens the green in Mars; Jupiter inclines to blue, Saturn to black, almost gray; the sun makes the yellow colour, and gives the right sweetness in the salt, and casts forth the pleasant smell, which takes its rise from Sulphur; Saturn makes astringent [sharp] and sour; and each property represents itself externally, as it is internally in the dominion, so also by the form [or signature] of the leaf, or branches.\n\n37. Every root, as it is in the earth, may be known by the signature for what it is good or profitable, even such a form also has the earth, and it is discerned in the leaves and stalks which planet is lord in the property, much more in the flower; for of what taste the herb and root is, even such an hunger is in it, and such a cure lies therein, for it has such a salt. The physician must know what kind of sickness is risen in the body, and in what salt the loathing is risen in Mercury, that so he may not administer a further loathing [and nausea] to his patient; for if he gives him the herb, in whose property Mercury has before received a loathing, then he ministers poison to him; so that the poison in the loathing of the body does exceedingly inflame itself in Mercury, unless he burns that herb to ashes, and gives it him; then the poison of the loathing loses its might; for these ashes are a death to the poison of the living Mercury.\n\n38. This we find very effectually in the magic; this also the physician must know, that all sicknesses arise from the loathing in the form of nature: As when one form in the life is superior, if then a contrary thing quite opposite to its property be by force introduced into it, let it be either from the stars, or from the elements, or from the seven forms of life, then it deprives this superior [or chiefest] form (which is the leader and ruler of the life) of its strength and power in its salt; then the Mercury of this superior form begins effectually to work, that is, to hunger and loath; and if he gets not his own peculiar property, understand the bodily form, which is chief in the body among the seven properties or forms, then he enkindles himself in his own poison-source according to his vital150 property, and does so forcibly strive so long, till he becomes fiery, and then he awakes his own Mars, and his own Saturn, which impress him, and consume the flesh of the body in the poison-fire, and wholly consume the oil of light; even then the life's light goes out, and it is past recovery.\n\n39. But if the form of life, wherein151 Mercury is inflamed in the loathing152 in the anguish and poison-source, may obtain that property into its hunger, of which the spirit and body is chief, then he obtains his own natural food, of which he lives, and does again rejoice, and puts away the nauseate,153 and then the nauseate dissipates [or dissolves] and is spewed out; but the physician must have a care, whether or no that thing which he will administer to his patient be in its property strong also in the same essence, from whence the nauseate is risen in the body.\n\n40. As for example; A jovial man receives a nauseate [or loathing] from the lunar property; now if the physician knew that he had so gotten his nauseate, and prepared him a jovial cure according to the hunger of his own spirit or mercury, this now would be right; but if the moon's property be strong in the salt which he would administer for the nauseate, then he gives him a nauseate; but if the jovial cure be free from the moon, then the jovial Mercury receives its own food with great desire, and quits the nauseate: And thus it is likewise with diseases which arise in the salniter, viz. from fear or frightening; thereto belongs also such a flagrat as the first was, and then there is a present cure, or such an herb, wherein the salniter lies in such a property as it lies in that man.\n\n41. I know, and it is shewn me, that the sophister will cavil at me, because I write, that the divine power is in the fruit, that God's power does appropriate154 itself into the generation of nature: But hear, my dear friend, become seeing, I ask thee, How was paradise in this world? Was it also manifest in nature? Was it also in the fruit? Was it in the world, or without the world? Did paradise stand in God's power, or in the elements? Was the power of God manifest in the world, or hidden? Or what is the curse of the earth, and the putting of Adam and Eve out of paradise? Then tell me, Does not God dwell also in time? Is not God all in all? It is written, \"Am not I he who filleth all things?\" Also, \"Thine is the kingdom, the power, and glory, from eternity to eternity.\"\n\n42. Here consider thyself, and leave me uncensured: I do not say, that the nature is God, much less the fruit proceeding from the earth; but I say, God gives power to every life, be it good or bad, to each thing according to its desire, for he himself is All; and yet he is not called God according to every being, but according to the light wherewith he dwells in himself and shines with his power through all his beings; He gives in his power to all his beings and works, and each thing receives his power according to its property; one takes darkness, the other light; each hunger desires its property, and yet the whole essence [or being] is all God's, be it evil or good, for from him and through him are all things, what is not of his love, that is of his anger. Paradise is yet in the world, but man is not therein, unless he be born again of God; then as to that new regeneration he is therein, and not with the Adam of the four elements. O that we would but once learn to know ourselves, and even understand it by the created essence [or being].\n\n43. Lo! in Saturn there lies gold shut up in a very disesteemed and contemptible form and manner, which indeed resembles no metal; and though it be cast into the fire and melted, yet a man shall have nothing, but a contemptible matter void of any form of virtue, till the artist takes it in hand, and uses the right process about it, and then it is manifest what was therein.\n\n44. So likewise God dwells in all things, and the thing knows nothing of God; he likewise is not manifest to the thing, and yet it receives power from him, but it receives the power according to its property from him, either from his love, or from his wrath; and from which it receives, so it has its signature155 externally; and the good is also in it, but as it were wholly shut up [or hidden] to the iniquity [or evil]; an example of which you have in bushes, and other thorny and pricking briars, out of which notwithstanding a fair well-smelling blossom grows; and there lie two properties therein, viz. a pleasant and unpleasant; which overcomes, that shapes [forms or marks] the fruit.\n\n45. Thus also it is with man; he was created a fair blossom and fruit of paradise, but the devil raised up in him his thorny property by the serpent, understand the centre, the property of the wrathful nature, which in his paradisical source was not manifest in him; but when his hunger entered into the thorny false property of the serpent, viz. into death, then the property of death, and the false serpent in the devil's desire, pressed into his hunger, and filled soul and body, so that the hunger of the false serpent began effectually to work in him, and death awaked in him, and then paradise hid itself in him: For paradise entered into itself, and the poison of the serpent in death's property dwelt also in itself; here was now the enmity; then said God to him, \"The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head, and thou shalt sting the heel with death's poison.\"\n\n46. Understand the paradisical image which is shut up, and captivated in the wrathful death, in which the word of the Deity, viz. the divine Mercury, ruled and wrought, did disappear; as the gold is disappeared in Saturn, so that nothing is seen but a contemptible matter, till the right artist sets upon it, and again awakens the Mercury in the inclosed gold, and then the dead inclosed body of the gold does again revive in Saturn; for Mercury is its life, who must be introduced into it again, and then the dead body of the gold appears,156 and overcomes the gross Saturn, wherein it lay shut up, and changes its mean contemptible old body into a fair glorious golden body.\n\n47. Thus likewise it is with man; he lies now shut up after his fall in a gross, deformed, bestial dead image; he is not like an angel, much less like unto paradise; he is as the gross ore in Saturn, wherein the gold is couched and shut up; his paradisical image is in him as if it were not, and it is also not manifest, the outward body is a stinking carcass, while it yet lives in the poison: He is a bad thorny bush, from whence notwithstanding fair rose-buds may bloom forth, and grow out of the thorns, and manifest that which lies hidden, and shut up in the wrathful poisonful Mercury, till the artist who has made him takes him in hand, and brings the living Mercury into his gold or paradisical image disappeared and shut up in death; so that the inclosed image, which was created out of the divine meekness and love-essentiality, may again bud and spring forth in the divine Mercury, viz. in the word of the Deity, which entered into the humanity shut up [and closed in the death and curse].\n\n48. And then the divine mercury changes the wrathful Mercury into its property, and Christ is born, who bruises the head of the serpent, viz. of the poison and death in the anger of God, understand the might of wrathful death; and a new man arises in holiness and righteousness, which lives before God, [and his divine image] appears and puts forth its lustre as the hidden gold out of the earthly property: And hereby it is clearly signified to the artist chosen of God how he shall seek; no otherwise than as he has sought and found himself in the property of the pure gold; and so likewise is this process, and not a whit otherwise; for man and the earth with its secrets lie shut up in the like [or same] curse and death, and need one and the same restitution.\n\n49. But we tell the seeker, and sincerely and faithfully warn him as he loves his temporal and eternal welfare, that he do not first set upon this way to try the earth, and restore that which is shut up [in death], unless he himself be before born again through the divine mercury out of the curse and death, and has the full knowledge of the divine regeneration,157 else all that he does is to no purpose, no learning [or studying] avails; for that which he seeks lies shut in the curse, in death, in the anger of God: If he will make it alive, and bring it into its first life, then that life must be before manifest in him, and then he may say to the mountain, \"Get thee hence, and be cast into the sea;\" and to the fig-tree, \"No fruit grow on thee henceforth;\" and it shall come to pass; for if the divine mercury lives, and is manifest in the spirit, then when the spirit of the soul's will imagines into anything, Mercury also goes along with it in the imagination, and enkindles the Mercury fast apprehended in death, viz. the similitude of God, or the manifestation, with which the living God has made himself manifest.\n\n50. I know and see, that the mocker in the devil's vizard will yet bring my writing into a misapprehension, and make me more dark and doubtful, because I write of the inward and outward Mercury, and understand by the inward the word of God, or the divine voice, viz. the manifestation of the eternity of the abyss; and by the outward [mercury] I understand the officer in nature, viz. the instrument, which the inward, living, powerful word, or divine voice uses, wherewith it forms158 and works. Now the sophister will falsely interpret it, and say, that I mix them both together, making no difference, and hold159 nature for God, as Babel has already done to me: But I bid him view my words well, and learn to understand them right; for I speak sometimes from the heavenly Mercury, and see that only, and then presently I name the instrument of the heavenly, therefore let him have regard to the sense: I write not heathenishly, but theosophically, from a higher ground than the outward faber160 is, and then also from the same.\n \n## Chapter 9. Of The Signature, Shewing How The Internal Signs The External\n\nOF THE SIGNATURE, SHEWING HOW THE INTERNAL SIGNS THE EXTERNAL\n\n1. The whole outward visible world with all its being is a signature, or figure of the inward spiritual world; whatever is internally, and however its operation is, so likewise it has its character externally; like as the spirit of each creature sets forth and manifests the internal form of its birth by its body, so does the Eternal Being also.\n\n2. The Being of all beings is a wrestling power; for the kingdom of God consists in power, and also the outward world, and it stands especially in seven properties or forms, where the one causes and makes the other, and none of them is the first or last, but it is the eternal band; therefore God has appointed six days for man to work, and the seventh day is the perfection wherein the six do rest; it is the centre to which the desire of the six days tend; therefore God calls it the Sabbath or resting-day, for therein the six forms of the working power rest: It is the divine sound161 in the power, or the kingdom of joy, wherein all the other forms are manifest; for it is the formed world, or divine corporality, by which all things are generated and come forth to a being.162 \n\n3. This formed world has manifested itself with the motion of all forms with this visible world, as with a visible likeness, so that the spiritual being might be manifest in a corporeal comprehensive essence; as the desire of the inward forms has made itself external, and the internal being is in the external; the internal holds the external before it as a glass, wherein it beholds itself in the property of the generation of all forms; the external is its signature.\n\n4. Thus everything which is generated out of the internal has its signature; the superior form, which is chief in the spirit of the working in the power, does most especially sign the body, and the other forms hang to it; as it is to be seen in all living creatures, in the shape and form of the body, and in the behaviour and deportment, also in the sound, voice, and speech; and likewise in trees and herbs, in stones and metals; all according as the wrestling is in the power of the spirit, so is the figure of the body represented, and so likewise is its will, so long as it so boils in the life-spirit.\n\n5. But if the artist takes it in hand with the true Mercury, then he may turn the weakest form to be uppermost, and the strongest undermost, and then the spirit obtains another will, according to the most superior form; that which before must be servant becomes now lord and master in the seven forms; as Christ said to the sick, \"Arise, thy faith hath made thee whole,\" and they arose: And thus likewise it is here, each form hungers after the centre, and the centre is the voice of life, viz. the Mercury, the same is the faber or former of the power; if this voice gives itself into the hunger of the meanest form in the strong combat163 then it lifts up its property (understand the property of that form), and thus its desire or faith has saved it; for in the desire Mercury lifts up [or sublimes] itself; and thus it was in Christ's patients.\n\n6. Sickness had taken possession of them, and the poison of death had gotten the upper hand in Mercury; but now the form of life in the centre did set its hunger as a famished and mean property after the liberty to be freed from the abomination; but seeing the Mercury was revived in Christ the divine property, therefore the weak hunger entered into Christ's strong hunger after the salvation of man, and so the weak hunger received the strong in the power; and then the divine voice in Christ said, \"Arise, lift up thyself, thy faith\" (that is, thy desire which thou hast introduced into me) \"hath saved thee.\"\n\n7. Thus the life prevails over the death, the good over evil; and on the contrary, the evil over the good, as came to pass in Lucifer and Adam, and still daily comes to pass: And thus everything is signed; that form which is chief receives the taste, and also the sound in Mercury, and figures164 the body after its property; the other forms hang to it as co-helpers, and also give their signature thereto, but very weakly.\n\n8. There are especially seven forms in nature, both in the eternal and external nature; for the external proceed from the eternal: The ancient philosophers have given names to the seven planets according to the seven forms of nature; but they have understood thereby another thing, not only the seven stars, but the sevenfold properties in the generation of all essences: There is not anything in the Being of all beings, but it has the seven properties in it; for they are the wheel of the centre, the cause of Sulphur, in which Mercury makes the boiling in the anguish-source.\n\n9. The seven forms are these; viz. the desire of the impression is called Saturn, into which the free lubet of eternity gives itself; this in the impression is called Jupiter, by reason of its pleasant commendable virtue; for the saturnine power encloses and makes hard, cold, and dark, and causes the Sulphur, viz. the vital spirit, understand the moving vital spirit, viz. the natural; and the free lubet makes the impression to long to be freed from the dark astringent hardness, and it is very rightly called Jupiter, being a desire of the understanding165 which opens the darkness, and manifests another will therein.\n\n10. In these two properties is pourtrayed and exactly deciphered God's kingdom, viz. the original, and also the kingdom of God's anger, viz. the dark abyss, which is a cause of the motion in Saturn, viz. in the impression; the impression, viz. Saturn, makes the nothing, viz. the free lubet movable and sensible, and also opposite, for it causes it to be essence; and Jupiter is the sensible power proceeding from the free lubet to manifestation out of the nothing into something, in the impression of Saturn; and they are two properties in the manifestation of God according to love and anger, viz. a model of the eternal form, and are as a wrestling combat, viz. an opposite desire against each other; one makes good, the other evil, and yet it is all good; only if we will speak of the anguish-source, and then also of the joyful source, then we must distinguish, that the cause of each source may be understood.\n\n11. The third form is called Mars, which is the fiery property in the impression of Saturn, where the impression introduces itself into great anguish, viz. into a great hunger; it is the painfulness, or the cause of feeling, also the cause of the fire and consuming, also of enmity and malignity; but in Jupiter, viz. in the free lubet, in the nothing, it causes the fiery love-desire, that the liberty, viz. the nothing, is desirous, and introduces itself into sensibility, viz. into the kingdom of joy: In the darkness it is a devil, viz. God's wrath, and in the light it is an angel of joy, understand such a property; for when this source became dark in Lucifer, he was called a devil, but while he was in the light he was an angel; and thus also it is to be understood in man.\n\n12. The fourth property or form is called Sol, viz. the light of nature, which has its original in the liberty, viz. in the nothing, but without splendour, and gives itself in with the lubet into the desire of the impression of Saturn, even to the wrathful or fiery property of Mars; and there the free lubet, which has sharpened itself in the impression, in the property of Mars, in the consuming anguish, and in the hardness of Saturn, displays, or powerfully puts itself forth in Jupiter, as a sharpness of the liberty, and an original of the nothing, and also of the sense;166 and the effluence167 from the heat and anguish of Mars, and from Saturn's hardness is the shining of the light in nature, which gives the understanding in Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, viz. a spirit, which knows what itself is in its properties, which hinders or prevails against the wrath, and brings it out of the anguish, out of the property of Mars, into Jupiter's, viz. out of the anguish into a love-desire.\n\n13. In these four forms the spirit's birth consists, viz. the true spirit both in the inward and outward being, viz. the spirit of power in the essence; and the essence or corporality of this spirit is Sulphur.\n\n14. Ye rabbies and masters! that you could but understand, how faithfully that is given and revealed to you, which your predecessors have intended and aimed at, wherein you have been a long time blind, the cause of which is your pride: This God, the most high understanding, sets before you by mean, and heretofore ungrounded instruments, which he himself has grounded, if you would yet once see, and escape the tormenting source.\n\n15. The fifth form is Venus, the beginning of all corporality, viz. of the water, which arises in the desire of Jupiter and Mars, viz. in the love-desire, out of the liberty, and out of nature, viz. out of the impression's desire in Saturn, in Mars, in the great anguish, to be freed from the anguish: And it carries two forms in the desire of its property, viz. a fiery from Mars, and a watery [property] from Jupiter, understand an heavenly and earthly desire; the heavenly arises from the heavenly impression of the union [or free effluence] of the Deity in nature to its own manifestation; and the earthly arises from the impression of the darkness in Mars, viz. in the wrathful fire's property; therefore the essence of this desire consists in two things, viz. in the water, from the original of the liberty, and in Sulphur from the original of nature according to the impression.\n\n16. The outward similitude of the heavenly [Being] is water and oil; understand, according to the sun it is water, and according to Jupiter it is oil, and according to the hard impression of Saturn after the heavenly Being according to Mars, it is copper, and according to Sol gold, and according to the earthly impression, according to the property of the darkness, it is in Sulphur grit, gravel and sand; according to the property of Mars a cause of all stones; for all stones are Sulphur from the powerful predominance of Saturn and Mars in the property of Venus according to the dark impression, understand according to the earthly part.\n\n17. O ye dear wise men! if you did but know what lies in Venus, you would not so sumptuously adorn your roofs: The potentate often loses his life for the servant's sake, and he puts the master upon his roof, therefore he is blind; this his false Venus-desire causes in him, that he forms it in Saturn and Mars, and brings it forth in Sol; if he formed his Venus-desire in Jupiter, then he might rule over the fiery Mars which lies in Venus, and has put his coat upon Venus in Sulphur.\n\n18. Thus Mars clothes all his servants which love him and Saturn with his garment, that they only find the copper of Venus, and not its gold in the copper; the spirit of the seeker enters into Sol, viz. into pride, and supposes that he has Venus, but he has Saturn, viz. covetousness; if he went forth in the water, viz. in the resigned humility of Venus, the stone of the wise men would be revealed to him.\n\n19. The sixth form is Mercury, viz. the life and separation, or the form in the love, and in the anguish: In Saturn and Mars, on the one part he is earthly according to the hard impression, where his motion and hunger is a pricking, adverse, and (according to the fire) a bitter pain and woe; and according to the water in the earthly Sulphur, viz. in the mortification, a poison-source.\n\n20. And according to the other part, according to the lubet of the liberty, he is the pleasant property of joy in Jupiter and Venus, also of springing and growing; and according to the impression of the heavenly Saturn, and according to Mars in the love-desire, he is the sound in the spirit, understand, the separator of the sound, viz. of the tone; also of all pronunciations of speeches, and all the several cries and notes; all whatever sounds is distinguished by his might; Venus and Saturn carry his lute, and he is the lutanist, he strikes168 upon Venus and Saturn, and Mars gives him the sound from the fire; and thus Jupiter rejoices in Sol.\n\n21. Here lies the pearl, dear brethren: Mercury makes the understanding in Jupiter, for he separates the thoughts,169 and makes them act and move; he takes the infinity of the thoughts into his desire, and makes them essential; this he does in Sulphur, and his essence is the manifold power of the smell and taste, and Saturn gives his sharpness thereinto, so that it is salt.\n\n22. But I understand here the virtual salt in the vegetable life: Saturn makes the common salt in the water: He 170 is an heavenly and an earthly labourer, and labours in each form according to the property of the form; as it is written, \"With the holy thou art holy, and with the perverse thou art perverse.\" In the holy angels the heavenly Mercury is holy and divine, and in the devils he is the poison and wrath of the eternal nature according to the dark impression's property, and so on through all things, as the property of each thing is, so is its Mercury, viz. its life; in the angels he is the hymn of God's praise, and in the devils he is the cursing and awakening of the opposite will of the bitter poisonful enmity.\n\n23. Thus likewise it is to be understood in men and all creatures, in all whatever lives and moves; for the outward Mercury is the outward word in the outward world: He171 is the outward verbum, and Saturn with the impression is his fiat, which makes his word corporeal; and in the inward kingdom of the divine power he is the eternal word of the Father, whereby he has made all things in the outward [principle], understand, with the instrument of the outward Mercury.\n\n24. The outward Mercury is the temporal word, the expressed word; and the inward [Mercury] is the eternal word, the speaking word; the inward word dwells in the outward, and makes through the outward all outward things; and with the inward, inward things: The inward Mercury is the life of the Deity, and all divine creatures; and the outward Mercury is the life of the outward world, and all external corporality in men and beasts, in vegetables and animals, and makes a peculiar principle, viz. a likeness of the divine world; and this is the manifestation of the divine wisdom.\n\n25. The seventh form is called Luna, the amassed essence: What Mercury has comprised in Sulphur, that is a corporeal or substantial hunger of all forms; the property of all the six forms lies therein, and it is as a corporeal being of all the rest; this property is as a wife of all the other forms; for the other forms do all cast their desire through Sol into Luna; for in Sol they are spiritual, and in Luna corporeal: Therefore the moon assumes to it the sunshine, and shines from the sun; whatever the sun is, and makes in the spirit-life in itself, the same Luna is, and makes corporeal in itself.\n\n26. It is heavenly and earthly, and rules the vegetative life; it has the menstruum, viz. the matrix of Venus in it; all whatever is corporeal does congeal172 in its property; Saturn is its fiat, and Mercury is its husband, which impregnates it, and Mars is its vegetable soul, and the sun is its centre in the hunger, and yet not wholly in the property; for it receives only the white colour from the sun, not the yellow, or the red, viz. the majestic; therefore in its property lies silver in metals, and in the property of Sol gold; but seeing Sol is a spirit without essence, thereupon Saturn holds the sun's corporeal essence in himself to lodge in; for he is the fiat of the sun; he keeps it shut up in his dark cabinet, and does only preserve and keep it; for it is not his own essence, till the sun sends him his faber Mercury, to whom he gives it, and to none else.\n\n27. Observe this, ye wise men! It is no fiction or fallacy; let the artist but understand us right; he must bring the jewel shut up in Saturn into the mother of generation, viz. into Sulphur, and take the faber, and divide all forms, and separate the variety of hungers, which the faber himself does, when the artist brings the work into the first mother, viz. into Sulphur: But he must first baptize the froward child with the philosophical baptism, lest he makes a bastard of Sol; and then let him lead him into the desert, and try whether Mercury will eat manna in the desert after the baptism; or whether he will make bread of stones; or whether he will aspire aloft as an haughty spirit, and precipitate himself from the Temple; or whether he will worship Saturn, in whom the devil sits hidden: This the artist must observe; whether Mercury, the wicked poisonful child, receives the baptism; whether he can feed of God's bread or no.\n\n28. If he now does eat, and stands out in the temptation, then will the angels appear to him after forty days, and then let him go out of the desert, and eat his own food; and so the artist is ready and fit for his work; if not, then let him by all means leave it, and as yet account himself unworthy of it.\n\n29. He must have the understanding of the generation of nature; else all his labour and pains are to no purpose, except the grace of the Most High has bestowed upon him some particular, that so he is able to tincture Venus and Mars, which is the shortest [and most ready way], if God chews him such an herb wherein the tincture lies.\n\n30. The lunar body of metals lies in the seething of the earth, in Sulphur and Mercury, covered internally with the coat of Venus, and clothed externally with the cloak of Saturn, as we see plainly, and is a degree more external than the solar body: Next after Luna, Jupiter's body is also a degree more external; but Venus is a sly bird, she has also the inward solar body; she takes the coat of Mars upon her, and hides herself in Saturn's cabinet; but she is manifest, and not hidden.\n\n31. Next Venus Mars is likewise a degree more external, and nearer to earthliness; and next Mars Mercury's body is a *particula* of all the rest; on one part most nigh to the earthly corporality, and on the other part nearest the heavenly; and next Mercury Luna is on the earthly part wholly earthly, and on the heavenly part wholly heavenly; it carries an earthly and heavenly face towards all things;173 to the evil it is evil, and to the good it is good; to a pleasant creature it gives its best in the taste, and to a bad creature it gives the curse of the corrupted earth.\n\n32. Now in all this, as the property of each thing is internally, so it has externally its signature, both in animals and vegetables; and this you shall see in an herb, so likewise in trees and beasts, and in men also.\n\n33. If the saturnine property be predominant, and chief in a thing, then it is of a black, greyish colour, hard and spare, sharp, sour, or salt in taste; it gets a long lean body,174 grey in the eyes,175  of a dark blue, of a very slender body, but of a hard touch, though the property of Saturn is very seldom alone master in a thing; for he soon awakens Mars with his hard impression, who makes his property bending and crooked, full of knots, and hinders the body from growing high, but is full of branches and rugged, as is to be seen in oak-shrubs, and the like trees.\n\n34. But if Venus be next to Saturn176 in any place in the sude or seething of the earth, then the sude in the Sulphur of Saturn causes a tall strong body; for it gives its sweetness into Saturn's impression, whereby Saturn becomes strong and lusty, and if Venus be not hindered by Mars, it grows a great, tall, slender tree, herb, beast, or man, or whatever it be.\n\n35. But if Jupiter be next to him in the property of Venus, so that Jupiter is stronger in Saturn than Venus, and Mars under Venus, then it falls out to be a very excellent fair body, full of virtue and power, also of a good taste; its eyes are blue, and somewhat whitish, of a meek property, but very potent: If it falls out that Mercury is between Venus and Jupiter, and Mars undermost, then is this property in Saturn graduated in the highest degree with all power and virtue, in words and works, with great understanding.\n\n36. If it be in herbs, then they are long, of a middle-sized stature or stalk, of a very curious form, fair blossoms, white, or blue; but if the sun also casts the influence of his property into it, then does its colour by reason of the sun incline to yellow; and if Mars hinders not, then is the universal very sovereign in the thing, be it either a man, or other creature, or an herb of the earth: This let the magus well observe, it withstands all malignity, and false influences and assaults from the spirits, whatever they be, so far as a man himself is not false and wicked, and inclines not his desire to the devil, as Adam did, in whom also the universal was wholly complete.\n\n37. With these herbs a man may cure, and heal without any art of the artist; but they are rarely and seldom found, yea not one among many sees them, for they are nigh to paradise: The curse of God hides the eyesight of the wicked, that it does not see, although they should stand before his eyes: Yet in such a conjunction of the planets they are manifest, and may not be hidden; therefore there lies a great secret in many an herb and beast, if the artist knew it, and had the true skill to use it; the whole magia lies therein: But I am bidden to be silent by reason of the wicked, who is not worthy of it, and is justly plagued with the plague with which he plagues other honest people, and tumbles himself in the mire.\n\n38. But if Mars in his property be next Saturn, and Mercury casts an opposite aspect, and the power of Venus be under Mars, and Jupiter under the property of Venus, then out of this property all is corrupted and poisoned; a poisonful herb, tree, beast, or whatever it be; if it falls into the corrupt human property, then it is fitted and prone to evil, but if the moon brings its powerful influence thereinto, then is the false magia ready in the lunar menstruum, and witchcraft is manifest, of which I must here also be silent, and will only shew the signature.\n\n39. In an herb, if the blossom be somewhat reddish, and wreathed, or streaked, and inclined to white by the red, then is the power of Venus there, which makes resistance therein; but if it be only reddish, and of dark wriths or streaks, with a rough peel or skin on the stalk, branch, and leaf, then does the basilisk lodge there.\n\n40. For Mars makes it rugged, and Mercury is poisonful therein, which gives a streaked colour, and Mars the red, and Saturn the dark, which is a pestilence in the lunar menstruum; but to the artist it is an herb against the pestilence, if he takes the poison from Mercury, and gives him Venus and Jupiter for food, then Mars brings forth the vegetable soul in Sol, and turns his wrathful fire into a love-fire, which the artist must know, if he will be called a doctor.\n\n41. This property likewise signs the living creatures both in their voice and visage; it gives a gross, dull sound, somewhat inclining to a shrill voice by reason of Mars, soothing, flattering, and very false, lying, commonly red pimples [or streams] in the eyes, or blinking, and rolling unsteady eyes: In herbs this property likewise yields a taste very loathsome, from whence in man's life, viz. in Mercury, if it takes it down, a stirring boiling poison arises, which darkens and obscures the life.\n\n42. The physician must have a care of the herbs of this property; they are not to be taken into the body, but they are poisonful, of what name soever they be; for there often happens such a conjunction of the planets, which sometimes so prepares an herb, which is good if it be subject to Saturn and Mars: So likewise it falls out sometimes, that an evil herb, by reason of a good conjunction, if in its beginning it stands in the menstruum, may be freed from the malignity, which is to be known by the signature; therefore the physician, who understands the signature, may best of all gather the herbs himself.\n\n43. But if Mars be next Saturn, and Mercury very weak, and Jupiter also under Mars in the property, and Venus casts an opposite aspect or dissent with its desire, then it is good; for Jupiter and Venus change the wrath of Mars into joy, which produces hot wholesome sovereign herbs, which are to be used in all hot diseases and hurts; the herb is rough, and somewhat prickly the leaves on the branches; so likewise the stalk is fine and thin, according to the nature of Venus, but the virtue and power is of Mars and Jupiter, well mixed and tempered, commonly with brownish blossoms forcing forth in the property, and that because Mars is strong therein with his wrath; but seeing his wrath is changed by Jupiter and Venus into a pleasant property, the wrath becomes a desire of joy.\n\n44. The physician must not give Saturn without Mars in hot diseases, not cold without heat, else he enkindles Mars in the wrath, and stirs177 up Mercury in the hard impression in the property of death; Mars belongs to the cure of every Mars-like sickness, which is of heat, and pricking pangs: But let the physician know, that he must first correct and qualify Mars, which he intends to administer, with Jupiter and Venus, that the wrath of Mars may be changed into joy, and then he will also change the sickness in the body into joy; cold is quite contrary to it.\n\n45. If the physician administers Saturn only and by itself to a martial disease or hurt, then Mars is dismayed with death, and falls down with his force and strength into death's property; and now seeing he is the fire in the body, the life's fire becomes thereupon deadly in the elemental property; for he soon awakens Mercury in the property of cold: But yet the physician must have a care that he administers not in an hot disease the raw undigested hot Mars, in which Mercury is wholly inflamed and burning; for he enkindles the fire more vehemently in the body; he must first mollify Mars and Mercury, and put them into joy,178 and then it is right and good.\n\n46. The hotter an herb is, the better it is hereunto; yet its wrathful fire must be changed into love, and then he can also change the wrath in the body into joy; all according as the property of the disease is, that the disease be able to bear it; for to a weak fire in the body, which is tired and languished by reason of the heat, and rather inclines to cold, viz. to the poison of Mercury, where the life is in danger, there belongs a cure with a fine subtle heat, wherein Venus is strong, and Mars very tender and mild by reason of the power of Venus; Jupiter need not be strong there, lest he make Mars and Mercury too strong, so that the weak life, before it is quickened and refreshed, is overwhelmed, and brought into the mercurial poison.\n\n47. An herb in this aforesaid property grows not high, it is somewhat rough in the touch; the rougher it is, the stronger is Mars therein; it is better to be used outwardly to wounds and sores, than inwardly: The fine and subtle part is to be taken into the body, and is expulsive; the more subtle it is, the nigher it is to the life in the body, which the physician may very well know by its salt; for no rough wild property is to be taken into the body, unless the body be inflamed with a sudden poison, where the life also is fresh and strong, then a vehement resistance must be used; yet Mercury and Mars must not be administered in the wrath, but in their strongest power, Mars in the greatest heat, but before changed into joy; and then he also changes Mercury according to himself: Jupiter belongs to the transmutation of wrathful Mars, but he must be first introduced into Sol's property, and then he is rightly fit for it.\n\n48. Every living creature, according to its kind in the foregoing property, is friendly and pleasant, if you deal friendly and gently with it; but if it be dealt roughly with, then Mercury is stirred up in the poison-property, for Mars soon boils up, and gets aloft in the bitter property, and then the anger springs forth; for the ground of all malignity lies therein; but if it be not stirred up, then it is not manifest; as a great sickness which lies in the body, but while the same is hid, and not enkindled, it is not manifest and apparent.\n\n49. But if Mercury be next Saturn in the property, and next him the moon, and Venus and Jupiter beneath, and also weak, then let Mars stand where he will, yet all is earthly; for Mercury is held in the austere impression in the cold property, viz. in death's form, and his Sulphur is earthly; if Mars comes near to it, then it is poisonful also, but if Venus makes an opposition therein, then the poison is resisted, yet it is but earthly; it gives a greenish colour from the power of Venus.\n\n50. But if Venus be next Saturn in the property, and the moon not opposed by Mars, and Jupiter likewise goes in his own power, then all is pleasant [and lovely under that property or constellation]; the herbs are slender, single, and soft in touch, of white blossoms, unless Mercury brings in a mixt colour from the power of the sun, viz. from Mars half red, and from Jupiter bluish, and it is weak in the property, and of little use in physic, yet not hurtful: In the creature it gives a pleasant, courteous, humble life, with no deep reason [reach or capacity], but if Mars comes thereunto, the creature is small, or thin, of a white, weak, and effeminate nature.\n\n5i. There are three special salts which may be used to cure, which belong to the vegetable life, viz. Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury; these are the working life, in which the sun is the right spirit which makes these salts operative.179 \n\n52. The salt or power of Jupiter is of a pleasant good smell and taste from the inward original [of the property] of the liberty of the divine essence, and from the external [principle or original] of the property of the sun and Venus, but yet it is not alone of itself of sufficient power in nature; for the outward nature consists in fire and anguish, viz. in poison, and Jupiter's power180 is opposed to the fiery poison life, which makes a temperature in the poisonful nature, viz. a desire of meekness out of the enmity.\n\n53. the salt of Mars is fiery, bitter, and austere, and the mercurial salt is anxious and raging, like a poison, inclined both to heat and cold; for it is the life in Sulphur, and unites [or assimilates] itself, according to each thing's property; for if it comes into Jupiter's salt, it causes joy and great power; but if it comes into Mars's salt, it makes bitter pangs, stitches, achings, and woe; but if it comes into Saturn's earthly salt, it makes swellings, anguish, and death, if it be not hindered by Jupiter and Venus: Venus and Jupiter are opposite to Mars and Mercury, that so they might temper them both; and without the power of Mars and Mercury there would be no life in Jupiter, Venus, and Sol, but only a stillness; \"therefore the worst is as profitable as the best,\" and the one is the cause of the other.\n\n54. But the physician is to heed and mind what he takes in hand, lest he inflame the mercurial poison more and more in his patient, or introduce it into another adverse source: He ought indeed to use the martial and mercurial salt for his cure, but he must first reconcile Mars and Mercury with Venus and Jupiter, that so both these angry adversaries may resign their will into Jupiter's will, so that Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury may all three obtain one will in the power, and then the cure is right, and the sun of life will again enkindle itself in this union and agreement, and also temper the nauseate of the disease in the contrariety in the salt of the disease, and turn Mercury's poison, and the bitter fire of Mars into a pleasant Jupiter.\n\n55. This is now to be understood only concerning the vegetable soul, viz. concerning the outward man, which lives in the four elements, and concerning the sensible and feeling property.\n\n56. Reason likewise is to be cured with its likeness; for as reason may be brought by words into a sensible sickness and disease, so that reason may vex, fret, and torment itself, and at last fall into an heavy sad sickness and death; so also it may be cured with the application of the same thing [with its own assimilate].\n\n57. As for example: An honest man falls into great debts, care, trouble and distress, which does even afflict him nigh to death; but if a good friend comes and pays his debt for him, then is the cure soon effected with its likeness: Even thus it is in all things; from whence the disease is risen, even such a like cure is requisite for the restoring its health; and thus it is likewise in the mental soul.\n\n58. The soul of the poor sinner is poisoned in the anger of God, and the Mercury (understand the eternal Mercury in the eternal nature) is inflamed in the soul's property in the fiery Mars of God's anger, which does now burn in the eternal Saturn, viz. in the horrible impression of darkness, and feels the sting of the poisonful angry Mars; his Venus is imprisoned in the house of misery, his water is dried up, his Jupiter of understanding is brought into the greatest folly, his sun is quenched, and his moon turned to dark night.\n\n59. Now he cannot be cured and remedied any other way, but with the likeness; he must again appease the mental Mercury; he must take Venus, understand the love of God, and introduce it into his poisonful Mercury and Mars, and tincture the Mercury in the soul again with love, and then his sun will again shine in the soul, and his Jupiter will rejoice.\n\n60. Now if thou sayest that thou canst not, and that thou art too strongly captivated; I say also, that I cannot; for it lies not in my willing, running, and toiling, but it lies in the compassion of God; for I cannot by my own strength and ability overcome the wrathful anger of God which is enkindled in me; but seeing his dear heart has freely given itself again out of love, and in love, into the humanity, viz. into the poisonful enkindled Mercury in the soul, and tinctured the soul, viz. the poison-source of the eternal nature in the eternal Father's nature's property; therefore I will cast my will into his tincture, and I will go with my will out of the enkindled poison-source, out of the evil Mercury in God's anger into his death, and with my corrupted will I will die with him in his death, and become a nothing in him, and then he must be my life.\n\n61. For if my will is a nothing, then he is in me what he pleases, and then I know not myself any more, but him; and if he will that I shall be something, then let him effect it; but if he wills it not, then I am dead in him, and he lives in me as he pleases, and so then if I be a nothing, then I am at the end, in the essence out of which my father Adam was created; for out of nothing God has created all things.\n\n62. The nothing is the highest good, for there is no *turba* therein, and so nothing can touch [or annoy] my soul; for I am a nothing to myself, but I am God's, who knows what I am; I know it not, neither shall [or ought] I to know it. 63. And thus is the cure of my soul's sickness; he that will adventure it with me shall find by experience what God will make of him: As for example; I here write, and I also do not do it; for I, as I, know nothing, and have also not learned or studied it; so then I do it not, but God does it in me as he pleases.\n\n64. I am not known to myself, but I know to him what and how he pleases: Thus I live not to myself, but to him; and thus we are in Christ only one, as a tree in many boughs and branches, and he begets and brings forth the fruit in every branch as he pleases, and thus I have brought his life into mine, so that I am atoned with him in his love; for his will in Christ is entered into the humanity in me, and now my will in me enters into his humanity; and thus his living Mercury, that is, his word, viz. the speaking Mercury, tinctures my wrathful evil Mercury, and transforms it into his. And thus my Mars is become a love-fire of God, and his Mercury speaks through mine, as through his instrument, what he pleases; and thus my Jupiter lives in the divine joy, and I know it not; the true sun shines to me, and I see it not; for I live not to myself, I see not to myself, and I know not to myself: I am a thing, and I know not what; for God knows what I am; and so now I tend and run to and fro as a thing, in which the spirit drives [or actuates] me as he pleases; and thus I live according to my inward will, which yet is not mine.\n\n65. But yet I find in me another life, which I am, not according to the resignation [or self-denial], but according to the creature of this world, viz. according to the similitude of eternity; this life does yet stand in poison and strife, and shall yet be turned to nothing, and then I am wholly perfect: Now in this same life, wherein yet I find my selfhood, is sin and death, and these likewise shall be brought to nothing: In that life, which God is in me, I hate181 sin and death; and according to that life which yet is in my selfhood, I hate the nothing, viz. the Deity: Thus one life fights against the other, and there is a continual contest in me; but seeing Christ is born again in me, and lives in my nothingness, therefore Christ will, according to his promise made in paradise, bruise the head of the serpent, viz. of my selfhood, and mortify the evil man in myself, so that he himself may truly live [in me].\n\n66. But what shall Christ do with the evil man? Shall he cast him away? No. For he is in heaven, and does thereby accomplish and effect his wonders in this world, which stands in the curse: Now each labours in its own [vineyard]; the outward man labours in the cursed world, which is evil and good in the wonders of God, viz. in the mirror of glory, which yet shall be revealed in him; and the inward man is not its own, but God's instrument, with whom God makes what he pleases, till the outward with its wonders in the mirror shall also be manifest in God; and even then is God all in all, and he alone in his wisdom and deeds of wonder and nothing else besides; and this is the beginning and the end, eternity and time.\n\n67. Now understand it right; to the outward man there belongs a cure from the outward, viz. from the outward will of God, who has made himself external with this visible world; and for the inward man there is a cure from the inward world, in which God is all in all; only one, not many, one in all, and all in one: But if the inward penetrates the outward, and illustrates it with its sunshine, and the outward receives the sunshine of the inward, then it is tinctured, cured, and healed by the inward, and the inward illustrates it, as the sun shines through the water, or as the fire sets the iron quite through of a light glee; here now needs no other cure.\n\n68. But seeing the devil in the wrath of the eternal nature opposes the soul, as an enemy of the soul, and continually casts his poisonful imagination at the soul to tempt and try it, and the anger or wrath of the eternal nature is manifest in the outward man, which Adam awakened and stirred up; thereupon this wrath is oftentimes stirred up by the devil and his servants, that it effectually works and burns in the outward body, and even then the inward love-fire goes out in the outward man, as a red-hot iron is quenched in the water; yet not so soon in the internal, but in the external [man], unless the outward man continues lying in the mire182 of sin; so that the soul, which had given itself into the nothing, viz. into the liberty, into the life of God, does enter again with its desire into the outward sinful man, then it loses the inward sun; for it goes again out of the nothing into the something, viz. into the source.\n\n69. Thus the outward body must then have an outward cure; and though the inward man yet lives in God, yet whereas the soul has imagined into the outward wrath, so that the divine tincturation is no longer in the outward man, the outward Mercury, viz. the expressed183 word, must have a tincturation from the outward expressed love and light, unless the will-spirit of the soul does wholly re-enter into the inward hidden man, and be again transmuted;184 and then the cure may be again introduced into the outward man, being the thorough-shining love of God in the light,185 which is exceeding precious.\n\n70. But now this herb is rarely to be found upon the earth; for men eat only of the forbidden tree; therefore the poison of the serpent does so spring up in them in the wrath of the eternal and external nature, so that they must also have an external cure for their serpent's poison in the outward Mercury.\n\n71. It is indeed possible for a man to live without sickness, but he must bring the divine tincturation from the inward man through the outward, which is very difficult [to do] in the world; for the outward man lives among the thorns of God's wrath, which gall and sting him on every side, and blow up the wrath of God, so that it burns in the outward man, and then the tincturation of God's love may not continue there: It is indeed inhere, but not in the outward enkindled abominations, but it dwells in itself, like as the light dwells in the darkness, and the darkness comprehends it not, also knows nothing of it; but when the light is manifest in the darkness, then is the night changed into day.\n\n72. Thus it is likewise with man; of what light man lives, of that also comes his cure; if he lives in the outward world, then the outward goodness and love, viz. the outward Jupiter and Venus with the sun must be his cure, or he remains in the angry Mars, and in the poisonful Mercury, in the earthly moon captivated in the impression of Saturn, viz. in the earthly Sulphur; which however is made manifest, and awakened in the outward man by Adam, for whose sake the outward man must die, putrify, and so enter again into the nothing, viz. into the end, or as I might better say and signify it, into the beginning of the creation, into the essence, out of which it went and departed with Adam.\n \n## Chapter 10. Of The Inward And Outward Cure Of Man\n\nOF THE INWARD AND OUTWARD CURE OF MAN\n\n1. Let the lover of God understand us right; we do not go upon an historical heathenish conjecture, nor only upon the light of the outward nature; both suns shine to us. Understand us right, and see how God has cured man when the poison of the serpent and devil held him imprisoned in death, and how he yet still cures the poor soul captivated in God's anger; the like process also must the physician keep in curing the outward body.\n\n2. The divine light and love were extinguished in Adam, because he imagined into the serpent's property, viz. into evil and good, so that the poison of death began effectually to work in Mercury, and the source of anger was inflamed in the eternal Mars, and the dark impression of the eternal nature's property took possession of him: His body became earth in the dark impression in the poison of the enkindled Mercury, and was an enmity against God: he was utterly undone, and there was no remedy for him by any creature, neither in heaven, nor in this world; the wrathful death captivated him in soul and body.\n\n3. Now how did God do to cure him and tincture him again? Did he take a strange thing thereunto? No, he took the likeness, and cured him with that which was corrupted in him, viz. with the divine Mercury, and with the divine Venus, and with the divine Jupiter; understand; in man was the expressed word, which I call the eternal Mercury in man; for it is the true ruling acting life; it was inspired or in-spoken into man's image (which God created out of his essence into an image according to God) as into a creaturely image, which was the soul with the property of all the three worlds, viz. with the world of light and understanding, which is God; and with the fire-world, which is the eternal nature of the Father of all beings; and with the light, love-world, which is heavenly corporality; for in the love-desire is the essence, viz. the corporality.\n\n4. The desire of love is spirit, and is the heart of God, viz. the right divine understanding: In the love-essence Mercury is God's word, and in the fiery nature he is the wrath of God, the original of all mobility and enmity, also of strength and omnipotence; the fiery property makes the light, viz. the liberty, desirous; so that the nothing is a desire, and this desire is the love of God, which Adam extinguished in him: For he imagined after evil and good, that is, after earthliness; the earthliness came forth into a being both out of the wrath, and out of the love-being, and that through God's motion, that the wonders of the abyss and byss might be made manifest, that good and evil might be made known and manifest: And this Adam, being the image of God, should not do, for God had created him to his image: He should have tinctured the fire-world and outward world with the word of love, that so none of them should be manifest in him, like as the day holds the night swallowed up in itself.\n\n5. But by false imagination he has awakened and manifested the dark and poisonful mercurial fire-world in him, so that his bodily essence of the dark impression is fallen to the evil part in the poisonful mercurial property, and the soul is become manifest in the eternal nature in the Father's fire-property, viz. in the poisonful hateful Mercury; according to which God calls him an \"angry and zealous God,\" and \"a consuming fire.\"\n\n6. Now to help and restore this again, viz. the image of God, God must take the right cure, and even the same which man was in his innocence: But how did he effect it? Behold, O man, behold and see, open thy understanding; thou art called.\n\n7. He introduced the holy Mercury in the flame, viz. in the fiery love with the desire of the divine essentiality, or after the divine essentiality again (which desire makes divine corporality in itself) into the expressed word, viz. into the mercurial fire-soul (understand, into the soul's essence in the womb of Mary), and became again that same image of God: He tinctured the poison, viz. the wrath of the Father of all essences, with the love-fire: He took only that same Mercury which he had breathed into Adam for an image, and formed into a creature: He took only that same property, yet not in the fire's property, but in the burning love: He did with the love introduce again the light of the eternal sun into the human property, that he might tincture the wrath of the enkindled Mercury in the human property, and inflame it with love, that the human Jupiter, viz. the divine understanding, might again appear and be manifest.\n\n8. Ye physicians, if you here understand nothing, then you are captivated in the poison of the devil: Behold, I pray, the right cure, with which the enkindled Mercury in man's life is to be remedied; it must be a Mercury again, but first enkindled in Venus and Jupiter; it must have the sun's property, which it attains to by Jupiter and Venus: As God deals with us poor men, so must the outward poisonful sick Mercury be tinctured with such an external cure; not with the dark impression of Saturn, with cold (unless it be first sweetly appeased and qualified with Jupiter and Venus, that the sun does again shine in Saturn), but with meek love; this is his right physic, whereby the death is changed into life; yet this is only a common manual cure, which the vulgar may learn.\n\n9. But it behoves the doctor, if he will be called a doctor, to study the whole process, how God has restored the universal in man; which is fully clear and manifest in the person of Christ, from his entrance into the humanity, even to his ascension, and sending of the Holy Ghost.\n\n10. Let him follow this entire process, and then he may find the universal, provided he be born again of God; but the selfish pleasure, worldly glory, covetousness and pride lie in the way. Dear doctors, I must tell you, the coals are too black, you defile your white hands therewith; the true unfeigned self-denying humility before God and man does not relish with you; therefore you are blind: I do not tell you this, but the spirit of wonders in its manifestation.\n\n11. But we will give direction to the desirous seeker, who would fain see if he knew the way fitly to attain his intent; for the time is at hand, where Moses is called from the sheep to be a shepherd of the Lord, which shall shortly be manifest, notwithstanding all the raging and raving of the devil: Let not the dear and worthy Christendom think, seeing now it seems as if she should go to wrack and ruin, that it is utterly undone; No: the Spirit of the Lord of hosts has out of his love planted a new branch in the human property, which shall root out the thorns of the devil, and make known his child Jesus to all nations, tongues and speeches, and that in the morning of the eternal day.\n\n12. Dear brethren, behold, I pray, the right cure: What did God with us when we lay sick in death? Did he quite cast away the created image, understand the outward part, viz. the outward corrupt man, and make wholly another new man? No: He did it not: For though he introduced divine property into our humanity, yet he did not therefore cast away our humanity, but brought it into the way or process to the new-birth.\n\n13. What did he? He suffered the outward humanity, viz. the outward water, understand the essentiality of Venus, which was shut up in the wrath of death, to be baptized with the water of the eternal essence, and with the Holy Ghost, that the incentive of the outward essentiality shut up in death might again glow, as a fire that falls into tinder: Afterwards he withdrew his outward food from the outward body, and brought it into the desert, and let it hunger, and then the spark enkindled from the fire of God must imagine into God,186 and eat manna of divine essentiality forty days, of which Israel was a type in the wilderness of Sinai with their manna: The essence of eternity must overcome the essence of time, therefore it is called a temptation of the devil; for the devil as a prince in the wrath of God did there tempt the outward humanity, and represented all that to it wherein Adam fell, and became disobedient to God.\n\n14. There now it was tried whether the image of God would stand, seeing internally there was God's love-fire, and externally the baptism of the water of eternal life: Here the soul was tempted, whether it would be a king, and an angelical throne instead of the fallen angel, and possess the elected throne of God in the royal office, from which Lucifer was taken, and thrust into the darkness, viz. into the throne of poison and death; but seeing he stood (in that the soul did resign and submit its will alone into God's love-fire, and desired no earthly food, nor the earthly kingdom good and evil for outward dominion) the process to the universal, viz. to the restoration of all that which Adam had lost, did further proceed and go on: He turned water into wine.\n\n15. Ye physicians, observe this, it concerns you in your process, you must also go the same way to work: He healed the sick; so you must likewise make the form in your poisonful Mercury whole and sound by the power of the philosophical baptism: He made the dead alive again, the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and cleansed the lepers; all this must go before, that all the forms in Mercury may be pure, sound, and living, which Mercury himself does make after the baptism and temptation; as the living speaking Mercury did this in the person of Christ; the artist cannot do it, only there must be faith; for Christ also testifies, that he could not do many wonders at Capernaum, only heal a few diseased; for the faith of those at Capernaum would not enter into the divine Mercury of Christ.\n\n16. So that we see there, that the person of Christ, viz. the creature, could not work the wonders in its own power, but the Mercury, viz. the living, speaking word in him; for the person did cry and call into God, viz. into the speaking word, and set its desire thereinto; as we may see in the Mount of Olives where he prayed, that he sweat drops of blood; and by Lazarus, when he would raise him up, he said, \"Father, hear me; but I know that thou always hearest me; yet because of those that stand by, I say it, that they may believe that thou workest by me.\"\n\n17. Thus the artist must not arrogate anything to himself, the Mercury does itself, after the philosophical baptism, work these wonders before it manifests the universal; for all the seven forms of nature must be crystallised and purified, if the universal shall be revealed; and each form carries a peculiar process when it is to be brought out of the property of the wrath, and entered into the pure and clear life; and it must transmute itself into the crystalline sea which stands before the throne of the ancient in the Revelation, and change itself into paradise; for the universal is paradisical; and Christ also came for that reason into our humanity, that he might again open or make manifest the universal, viz. the paradise, again in man: The speaking word in Christ wrought wonders through all the seven properties or forms, through the expressed word in the humanity, before the whole universal was manifest in the body of the human property, and the body glorified.\n\n18. Even thus it is in the philosophical work, when the Mercury shut up in death receives into it the baptism of its refreshment in love, then all the seven forms manifest themselves in this property, as it came to pass in the process of Christ in his miracles, but as yet they are not perfect in the operation of the manifestation of their properties.\n\n19. The universal is not yet there, till all seven give their will into one, and forsake their property in the wrath, and depart from it with their will, and take into them the love's property: They must take in the will of the nothing, that their will be a nothing, and then it can subsist in the wrath of the fire, and there is no further turba therein; for so long as the desire of the wrath is in the form, it is adverse and opposite to the second form,187 and inflames the second form with its wrathful property, that is, it strikes the signature of the second, and awakens it in the wrath, and then the voice or sound of the second enkindles the first form's property in Mercury, and so no form can attain to any perfection, that it might enter into love.\n\n20. Therefore the artist can effect nothing, unless he gives a meat to the forms, which they all desire, and love to eat, wherein there is no turba: Now the properties cannot eat, seeing their mouth is frozen up in the impression of Saturn; the artist must first open their mouth, and make them alive in their zeal, that all the forms may be hungry, and then if there be manna, they all eat together of it, and so the precious grain of mustard-seed is sown.\n\n21. Now when Mercury does thus awake from the death of the impression of Saturn, and gets manna into the mouth of his property of the poisonful death's source, then arises the flagrat of the kingdom of joy, for it is as a light which is enkindled in the darkness, for the joy or love springs up in the midst of the anger: Now if Mercury apprehends the glimpse or aspect of the love in Mars, then the love dismays the wrath, and it is as a transmutation, but it is not fixed and steadfast; and as soon as this comes to pass, the angelical properties appear in view.\n\nThe Process in the Temptation\n\n22. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and the devil came to him, and tempted him. When the soul of Christ did hunger, the devil said to Jesus, Open the centre in the stones, that is, the impressed Mercury, and make thee bread, eat the substance of the soul's property: What, wilt thou eat of nothing, viz. of the speaking word? Eat of the expressed word, viz. of the property of good and evil, and then thou art lord in both; this also was Adam's bit, wherein he did eat death: Then said Christ Jesus, \"Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth from the mouth of God.\"\n\n23. Mark! Whence had the person of Christ the will, that he would not eat with the soul's hunger of the bread which could have been made of stones, which he could well have performed? Or how had it been, if the hunger of the human property had after the unction of baptism eaten in the temptation of the Mercury in the impression of death, viz. of the Sulphur of the expressed word, in which was the anger, and from whence the love was fled, as it is so in the earthly property?\n\n24. Observe! The will and desire to eat of the speaking word came into the soul's property from the motion of the Deity: When the same had moved itself in the soulish essence, shut up in death in Mary his mother in her essence or seed, and introduced the aspect of the eye of God in the love into the dead soul's essence, and had manifested the love in death, then one divine property desired the other; and the desire of the bodily hunger to eat of God's bread or essence came from the baptism: When the water of the body, which in the impression of the substance was enclosed in death, did taste the water of eternal life in the Holy Spirit, viz. the Holy Spirit's corporality or essentiality in the baptism, then the incentive of the divine hunger of the ardent desire after God's essence did arise in the flesh, as a divine hunger, a glimmering or shining incentive of divine property.\n\n25. Now the man Christ must hereupon be tempted in body and soul, of which he would eat; on one part the expressed word of love and anger was represented before body and soul, in which the devil would be lord and master, and rule therein omnipotently; and on the other part the speaking word in the love-property was only represented to the soul and body.\n\n26. Here now began the combat which Adam should have undergone in paradise; for on one side God's love-desire, which had manifested itself in the soul, did eagerly attempt the soulish and bodily property, and introduced its desire into the soul's property, that the soul should eat of it, and give the body manna thereof; and on the other side the devil in God's wrathful property did assault in the soul's property, and brought his imagination into the property of the first principle, viz. into the centre of the dark world, which is the soul's fire-life.\n\n27. Here was the contest about the image of God, whether it would live in God's love or anger, in the fire or light; for the property of the soul, as to its fire-life, was the Father's according to the fire-world; and seeing the soul in Adam had quenched the light-world, the light-world was again incorporated with the name Jesus, which came to pass in the conception of Mary.\n\n28. Now it was here tried in the temptation of which property man would live; whether of the Father's in the fire, or of the Son's in the light of love: Here the whole property of Christ's person was tempted: The devil said, as he had also said to Adam, Eat of the evil and good: Hast thou not bread? Then make bread of stones: Why dost thou hunger so long in thy own property? Then said the divine desire, \"Man liveth not of bread alone, but of every word of God.\"\n\n29. Thus the property of the fiery soul resigned itself with its desire into the love, viz. into the speaking word's property, and the fiery desire did eat manna in the love-desire. O ye philosophers! observe it well; when this was done, the love transmuted the fiery property into its love-property; here the Father gave the fire-soul to the Son, understand the fiery property of the expressed Mercury to the speaking Mercury in the light; for Christ also said so afterwards, \"Father, the men were thine, and thou hast given them me, and I give unto them eternal life.\"\n\n30. Here God's love gave the eternal love-life to the corrupted humanity; the love did wholly give itself in unto the fire-wrath, and transmuted the wrath of the soul into a triumphant joyful love; but if the soul's and body's property had obeyed the devil in God's wrath, and made bread of the enclosed Mercury, and eaten thereof, then had the will entered again into its selfhood, and could not have been transmuted.\n\n31. But seeing it entered into resignation, into the speaking word of God, and was willing to be and do whatever that pleased, then the will went from its selfhood, through the wrathful death of God's anger, viz. from the expressed word, which the devil had poisoned with his imagination, quite through the property of the wrath, and sprang forth afresh with a new love-desire in God; here the will was paradise, viz. a divine love budding in death.\n\n32. Thus now the love-will being set in opposition to the poisonful Mercury of the soul's property in the anger of God, then came the devil, and said, Thou art the king, who hast overcome, come and shew thyself in thy miracles and deeds of wonder; and he brought him upon the pinnacle of the Temple, and said, \"Fall down, that men may see it; for it is written, He hath given his angels charge over thee, that they should bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.\" Here the devil would fain that he should use again the fire's might, viz. the soul's selfhood in its own fiery property, and depart out of the resignation into an arrogation of self in its own fire-will, as he had done, and also Adam, when he went with the desire in his own might into evil and good, and would have his eyes open in evil and good, as Moses writes thereof, that the serpent did persuade them to it.\n\n33. Here came the fine adorned beast again, and tempted the second Adam also; for God gave him leave, seeing he said the fire's matrix had drawn him, he could not stand: Here now that should be tried; for he was an angel also, as well as the human soul, which he had seduced: But the human property in body and soul in the person of Christ had once cast itself into the resignation out of its selfhood into God's mercy, and stood still in the resignation, viz. in the divine will, and would not cast himself down, or do anything but what God alone did by it, and said to the devil, \"It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God;\" which is as much as if he had said, A creature of God shall will nor do nothing but what God wills and does by it: There must be no other god besides the only one to rule and will, the creature must go and do as the will-spirit of God leads it; it must be God's instrument, with which he works, and does only what he pleases.\n\n34. In this proof Adam did not stand; for he went from the resignation into an arrogation of self, into an own self-will, and would try evil and good, love and anger, and prove how evil and good tasted. Here, dear man, was the trying state before the tree of temptation in paradise, and that was fulfilled which the first Adam could not, and would not do in divine obedience in resignation.\n\n35. When the devil saw that in this also he had no success, that the humanity would not give way to depart out of the resignation, out of God's will, he carried the humanity upon a high mountain, and shewed it all the riches of the world, all whatever does live and move in the expressed word, all the dominions and might in the outward nature, over which he calls himself a prince, but has only the one part in the wrath of death in possession, and said to it (understand to the human property), \"If thou fallest down and worshippest me, I will give thee all this.\"\n\n36. The humanity should again depart out of resignation into a desire of propriety, and desire to possess something of its own in arrogation of self in the cursed property, evil and good; this had been a dainty dish and delight to the devil; then had he remained king, and his lies had been truth: In this Adam also was corrupted, and entered into selfish propriety, and desired worldly dominion and covetousness (which may be seen in Cain), which is the heart of the poisonful Mercury, viz. its hunger's desire, which makes itself essence according to the property of its hunger, not manna, but earth; as we may see in the wild earth, what he has made in the enkindling, or motion of the Father in his fire's property, in which inflammation (viz. in the poisonful wrath of the expressed Mercury) the devil thought to be a prince, and is so in the same property in the wicked, and also in the government of the world in the wrath; but God holds him captive with the water and light of the third principle, so that he is not prince in the dominion of the expressed word, but the judge's executioner; he must look where *turba magna* is enkindled in the wrath, and there he is busy as far as *turba magna* goes in the wrath, further his courage is cooled.\n\n37. He would give the humanity of Christ this whole dominion to rule in, and above all in the essence of all things, as a mighty god, which notwithstanding he only possesses in the part of the turba in the wrath of God, and has it not in his full dominion: He should but set his desire thereinto, and introduce his will into him, and he would bring his Mercury of the creature into the greatest omnipotence, that he should be a lord over good and evil, and have all things at command, to do therewith as he pleased, for so Adam had fooled it.\n\n38. His Mercury went with the desire into the impression, whence cold and heat arise, and imagined thereinto, and so the property of the cold and hot fire did presently boil up in the Mercury of the creature; and so also the outward heat and cold did soon pierce into the enkindled Mercury of the human property, so that the body now suffers pain from the heat and cold, which property before (when it stood in the free-will of God in the resignation) was not manifest; and thus evil and good did rule and domineer in Adam.\n\n39. For the centre of wrath, viz. the dark world's property, was manifest in him, in a poisonful death's property, as the Mercury in man is yet to this day so poisonful, and of a venomous source; whereas indeed he is changed in the vital188 light into a solar property, but yet the poison and property of death hangs to it, and it is his root; as we plainly see, that as soon as the ready instrument of his martial fiery property's signature or form is a little struck or played upon, that his evil poisonful fiery property comes forth, and shews itself, and inflames the body, that it even trembles and shakes for the very poison of wrath, and will ever enter into the enkindled poison-source in him who has awakened and enkindled the same, and assimilate in his malice with the malignant fomenter's malice, and wrestle in the poisonful property's right; and then must the body set to its strength as a servant, and accomplish the poison's will, and wrangle and contest with his adversary, and beat him, or be beaten by him; let it be either by hand-blows, or words; it is all in this property and desire of this poisonful Mercury.\n\n40. From hence arises all war and contention, namely, from the dominion of God's anger in the corrupt and enkindled Mercury of the expressed word, which does so act its delight and sport in the poisonful wrath's and dark world's property in man.\n\n41. Therefore the warrior is a servant of God's anger: He is the axe wherewith the angry husbandman cuts up his thorns and briars from off his ground: He is the chief worker and accomplisher of the wrathful anger of God: God's anger according to his fire's property will have it so, and not his love; and he that suffers himself to be made use of thereunto, he serves the anger of God according to the dark and fire-world's desire and property, which in the heavy fall of Adam has manifested itself in the human property, and brought man, viz. the angelical image, into an half-devilish vizard and likeness; in which property and image of his will in the expressed creaturely Mercury or vital word he cannot inherit God's kingdom, but must be born anew in his Mercury and will, with and in Christ, in God's love, viz. in the holy speaking Mercury and word of life, that a new obedient will wholly resigned into God's love may proceed from his creaturely Mercury, which neither wills or acts anything but what the will of the speaking divine Mercury wills, who in his selfhood, and selfish arrogation in his own will, is as dead, that he may be the instrument of the great God, whereby he should act, work, and do how and what he pleases: And then is God all in all in him, his will and deed, and he is a branch in the great tree which draws sap, power, and life from the tree of God, and grows and lives in him, and brings forth his fruit; then is the Mercury of the human life a procreated or expressed fruit, which grows upon the paradise-tree of God, and gives forth its note and sound, and strikes the signature in the speaking word of God, viz. God's harp and lute, in his praise, for which end man is created, not that he should necessarily play upon the instrument of anger and death according to the devil's will.\n\n42. The devil has given himself to be such a lutanist who contrives and helps to act and drive on the play in the wrath, viz. in the darkness: He is the instrument and actor in the wrath of the eternal nature, which has its effects and achievements with him and in him,189 as its instrument: The like also must the wicked man do, as Saint Paul speaks thereof; \"The holy man is unto God a sweet savour unto life, and the wicked a sweet savour unto death.\" All whatever does live and move must enter190 into the glory of God; one works in his love, the other in his anger: All is generated and created in the infinite being to the manifestation of the infinite great God; out of all the properties of evil and good, creatures were brought forth by the will of the speaking word; for the property of the darkness and the fire was as well in the speaking as the property of the light; and therefore there are evil and good creatures.\n\n43. But the angels and men were spoken forth in the image of God's love; they ought not to speak and incline their will into the fire and dark world, and introduce their desire thereinto; also not at all will to be their own, but continue steadfast in the resignation in the speaking will of God, as a form of the speaking will, and bear no inclination to anything, but only to the *speaking; *in which figure they stand as an image or platform of the expressing, as a spoken word, wherewith the speaking word beholds itself in its own likeness, whereby it there manifests the eternal knowledge of the eternal mind, and sets the Spirit's will into a form,191 and plays therewith.\n\n44. As a limner that pourtrays his own image, and does thereby behold what he is, and how his form and features are; or as a musician composes a curious lesson or song, and so plays and melodises with his life, and will of life, viz. with the sound of his own life's Mercury, in the tune of the song, or upon some musical instrument, as it is agreeable to his life's Mercury, wherewith his vital Mercury does rejoice and delight itself.\n\n45. Thus likewise God created us to his love-consort192 to his joy and glory, whereby he exalts his speaking eternal word, or plays in the same with us as with his instrument.\n\n46. Therefore, when this melodious instrument was broken in its sound by the wrathful might of his anger, that is, when man's image would play in its own might both in evil and good, in love and anger, viz. in its own self-will, and would not yield itself to be used to what the speaking word had created it, and departed out of resignation into an arrogation of self, and would play as itself pleased, now good, then bad, then this instrument was against the love of God, in which no voice, breath, or smallest degree of anger is manifest or can be, as in the light of the fire no pain of the fire is manifest.\n\n47. For the will of the human Mercury went out from the will of the divine speaking word into its own self-will: Thus it fell into the centre of the pregnatress of all essences, viz. into the anguish, poison, and death, where God's anger, viz. the speaking in the wrath, took possession of it.\n\nHere now was our distress, we were forlorn,  \nOpprest in wrathful death, and woeful scorn;  \nIf God had not restored us again,  \nWe should have still been rowling in death's plain.\n\n48. Thus, dear reader, it is clearly set before you wherein Christ was tempted; namely, whether the soul, and the whole man, viz. the image of the speaking word (after that God had introduced the spark of his love again into the human property, and freely given itself again with the love into it), would now again enter into its first place, and be God's melodious instrument in his love, or not; or whether it would be a selfish arrogator in its own will, and do what its own speaking would bring forth in the enkindled Mercury of its life; whether it would suffer God's will to strike the signature upon its instrument, or the anger of God to strike it, as before came to pass [viz. in the first Adam].\n\n49. Here it was tried: Therefore said the devil, viz. the organist in God's anger, to Christ, that he should fall down and worship him, and then he would give him all dominion, power, and glory; he should and might do what he pleased, he should live and delight in his own self-will; he should only give the devil his will, and forego resignation, and depart out of God's mercy and love-will: And if this had come to pass, then had the fair instrument been once again broken, and the human melody in God's love and deeds of wonder had ended; but Christ said, \"Get thee hence, Satan: It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and serve him only. Then the devil left him, and the angels came and ministered unto him.\"\n\nThe Magical Process\n\n50. Herein (as it is already mentioned at large) the magus must well consider his purpose and intent; not desiring with the covetousness of the devil to possess the earthly kingdom, also not to fly [or cast himself down] from the Temple, much less to work out his intent from the stones; he must think that he is God's minister and servant, not a selfish lord, of whom becomes a fool: If he will help the poor captive shut up in the anger of God out of the bands of darkness, wherein he is swallowed up in the curse of the earth, and deliver him from the anger of God, then he must think and well observe how God with his entrance [viz. into the humanity] hath redeemed him; he must very exactly and intimately consider the temptation of Christ, not blindly grope after it with outward manual art, and think with himself, I have a dead stone before me; it neither knows or feels anything, I must by force set upon it, that I may compel it, and take its jewel, which it has hidden in it.\n\n51. He that does so is a fool, and goes on in his own self-will, and is altogether unfit for the work; let him not meddle with it; we desire faithfully to admonish him, that if he will seek aright, then let him consider the process of Christ, how God has again regenerated the universal shut up in death in the human property.\n\n52. For God did not take man as he lay closed up in death, and cast him into a furnace, and melted him in the wrath, as the false magus does; but he gave his love first into his human essence, and baptized the humanity; afterwards he brought him into the wilderness, and set the devil opposite to him, not into him; he let him first fast and hunger forty days, and gave no outward food to the humanity: He must eat of his life's Mercury, that God might see whether the humanity would bring its desire into God; and when the humanity introduced its desire into the Deity, and received the manna, then he let the devil set upon the humanity, who introduced all his subtlety and desires into the humanity, and tempted him: Dost thou not understand anything here? What shall I say more to thee? If thou art a beast, then I give thee not my pearl; it belongs to God's children.\n\n53. God must become man, man must become God; heaven must become one thing with the earth, the earth must be turned to heaven: If you will make heaven out of the earth, then give the earth the heaven's food, that the earth may obtain the will of heaven, that the will of the wrathful Mercury may give itself in unto the will of the heavenly Mercury.\n\n54. But what wilt thou do? Wilt thou introduce the poisonful Mercury (which has only a death's will in itself) into the temptation, as the false magus does? Will you send one devil to another, and make an angel of him? In deed and in truth I must needs laugh at such folly: If thou wilt keep a corrupt black devil, how dost thou think to turn the earth by the devil to heaven? Is not God the creator of all beings? Thou must eat of God's bread, if thou wilt transmute193 thy body out of the earthly property into the heavenly.\n\n55. Christ said, \"He that eateth not the flesh of the Son of Man hath no part in him: \"And he says further, \"He that shall drink of the water that I shall give, it shall spring up in him to a fountain of eternal life.\" Here lies the pearl of the new-birth: It is not enough to play the sophister; the grain of wheat brings forth no fruit, unless it falls into the earth; all whatever will bring forth fruit must enter into its mother from whence it came first to be.\n\n56. The mother of all beings is Sulphur, Mercury is her life, Mars her sense, Venus her love, Jupiter her understanding, Luna her corporeal essence, Saturn her husband: You must reconcile or lovingly betroth the man with the woman; for the man is angry, yet give him his dear spouse into his arms; but see that the spouse be a virgin, wholly chaste and pure; for \"the woman's seed shall break the serpent's head,\" viz. the man's anger: The virgin must be in real love, without any falsehood or unfaithfulness, a virgin which never touched any man in anger according to his manhood; for the pure Deity does so espouse itself in clear love with the humanity, even as Mary said, \"Be it unto me as thou hast spoken, for I am the Lord's handmaid;\" and so the humanity assumed the Deity, and also the Deity the humanity.\n\n57. The chaste virgin signifies in the philosophic work the clear Deity, the humanity is Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt, both heavenly and earthly; the heavenly property is disappeared, and as a nothing; the deadly property in the wrath is stirred up, and lives to the anger, and in the properties of the anger; the humanity, both in Adam and in Christ, was tempted. Dost thou ask, wherewith? With the like opposite in the wrath, even with such a devil as had all these properties in him, as a potent prince [in all the properties of the anger].\n\n58. The properties in Sulphur were tempted with the likeness of the Sulphur; in the Sulphur, or from the sulphureous property, the temptation did come and arise, and its forms are194 three, as one in the impression, which the philosophers call Saturn, which the human spirit or will should open in the property of Venus, and therewith satiate or feed its hunger, viz. the fire; the other property was, that he should live in his own awakened and opened Venus out of Saturn's property, and aspire in self-will.\n\n59. The third property was, he should introduce his will through the awakened love-desire again into the centre, viz. into the sulphurean mother, which arises in the impression in the anguish: And this he would not do, but the first Adam did it; and therefore God when he would help him tempted him in the Sulphur, viz. in the first mother to the humanity, and suffered a wrathful devil, which was enkindled in the Sulphur, to tempt him with his enkindled malignity and malice in the Sulphur: Dost thou not understand this? What then shall I say more to thee?\n\n60. Sulphur is the womb whereinto we must enter, if we would be new born. Nicodemus said well; \"How can one being old enter into his mother's womb, and be born again?\" But Christ said, \"Except you be converted, and become as children, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven.\" The self-will must enter again into the first mother which brought it forth, viz. into the Sulphur, by the will understand Mercury.\n\n6i. But now who will persuade it to do so? For it is become a selfish thing, and must enter again into the mother, and become nothing; this seemed a strange and wonderful thing to Nicodemus, but the Lord said to him, \"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but thou knowest not from whence it cometh, or whither it goeth; even so is every one that is born of God.\" Behold, who persuaded the will of Christ in his humanity, to enter again with the will into the filiation or adoption, as it were in the mother's womb, and eat nothing forty days, and would also [eat] nothing, but remained in full steadfast resignation in the mother? Did not the Deity do it, which was entered into the humanity?\n\n62. Thus likewise it goes in the philosophic work, therefore let the artist well observe, and rightly understand us: He must seek the evil stubborn child (which is fled from the mother, and entered into the centre, and would be a selfish thing) in Saturn; for the wrath of God has shut him up with its impression in the chamber of death.\n\n63. Not that he has made him to Saturn, but he holds him shut up in the saturnine death; the same he must again take and bring into the mother's womb, and then send the angel with a message to Mary, and tell her, \"She shall bring forth a son, whose name shall be called Jesus: \"And if the mother shall yield her consent thereunto, and receive the name Jesus, then the new humanity shall begin in the mother, with the new child in the old apostate captivated in the anger of God, and the name Jesus will first give in itself to the dead child which lay captivated in Saturn, and eagerly draw the will of the evil dead child to itself: This is the fair bride, which shews her crown of pearl to her apostate bridegroom; he should but again receive her, and she would again give him her love. Now if the apostate youth shut up in death does again receive her, then is the artist well prepared, and counted worthy by God to finish his purpose: Now will the bride love the bridegroom, and a virgin bring forth a son, at which all the world will wonder; the virgin shall embrace the man; but he is a man, and not a woman, and has the virgin's heart.\n\n64. Now he must be tempted, whether or no he will live in virgin-like chastity, and in full resignation of his will to God, for he must be a valiant champion, and destroy the devil's fortress195 of prey (which he has in his mother) in seven kingdoms; then let the devil set his mother's house on fire with his wrath, and tempt him, he will now well enough defend himself with Christ against the devil.\n\n65. This being done, the young man with his virgin-like heart will wholly give himself up to the mother, when the tempter comes and assaults him, and the mother will wholly swallow him up into herself through the devil's wrath: He gives himself forth wholly out of his own will into the nothing. Now, thinks the artist with himself, I have lost all; for he thinks that he has lost heaven; for he seeks nothing, and does not consider that a virgin has now brought forth: But let him have patience; that which is impossible to the artist, that is possible to nature; after the night it is day; when the tempter has finished all his temptations, then comes the sign [or appearance] of the angels; then the devil which has tempted him must depart.\n\n66. Let the artist well observe this, and pack away the devil, and suffer the young man with his virgin-like heart to lie in his bed, and eat his former food, for he is now become a physician of his sisters196 in his mother's house; he will do great wonders in all the seven kingdoms of his mother (which are the seven forms of life) as Christ has done.\n\n67. In Saturn he will raise the dead, understand, he will awaken the dead essence which held him captive in his former prison; for he shall turn [or make] the earth to heaven: Even as the virgin has raised up his will out of the anger in the love, and made him a wonder-worker; so must he also awaken with his will, which is united to the virgin's heart, the form or signature in his mother's womb, whence she has brought forth him and all her children, and enkindle it with the virgin's and his love-desire: This is effected and done in the Sulphur of Saturn in the young man's own personal197 property, and in his mother; for before the espousing of the virgin the heavenly essence of the young man lies shut up in death: For when God cursed the earth, then the heavenly paradisical body disappeared, and the impression of Saturn took it in possession, till the restitution, where God shall restore that which is hidden, that paradise does again spring forth afresh in the expressed word, or that the artist does open the same in a part198 by God's permission.\n\n68. In the second kingdom of the mother, viz. in Luna, he shall also do wonders; for Jesus fed with five barley loaves five thousand people; this is the working in the essentiality or corporality. He turned water to wine: These and the like do all belong to the lunar property, where the champion with his virgin opens paradise, and feeds the body, where nothing is, where the outward Mercury has not laboured and wrought: Thus the forms199 in the lunar property open themselves as if they are paradisical, even then the artist thinks I am nigh unto it; but he is yet far off from the end.\n\n69. In the third kingdom of the mother, viz. in Jupiter, Christ did make the babes and ignorant, of a very weak and mean capacity, knowing and understanding, viz. of poor fishermen, carpenters, and the like mechanics, he made apostles, and the most understanding men of all; and also of poor, disrespected, vilified people, as of women, and simple ones, he made faithful, devout, dear, godly children, who apprehended in themselves the universal without any art.\n\n70. Thus likewise it goes in the philosophic work; the essentiality which lies disappeared in death, where the Mercury is wholly earthly, cold, and impotent, does now arise in power, as if the whole being and essence were become a new life, at which the artist wonders, and marvels what it is, or how it happens, and yet does also exceedingly rejoice that he sees the divine power to spring forth before his eyes in a half dead essence, and that in the curse of God: He sees all the four elements, each apart, and sees how the wisdom of God represents200 itself therein, as an harmony of joy, and sees all colours, and the rainbow upon which Christ sits in judgment in the expressed Mercury.\n\n71. The nature of this splendour arises out of the impression of Saturn; the good Jupiter gives himself forth to be seen in such a manner, as God will change the world, and transform it again into paradise; for this is the understanding in the expressed word, even as Christ has made the foolish, rude, ignorant people truly wise and knowing in divine, real, heavenly jovial understanding and knowledge.\n\n72. In the fourth kingdom of the mother of all beings, which is the mercurial in the wheel201 of the nature of life, Christ made \"the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and cleansed the lepers\" from the poison of Mercury: All apoplexies, the French or poisonful pox and sores arise from the saturnine water in Mercury, which [water] is called *phlegma*, all which Christ healed in the form or signature of the young man and virgin; for the eternal virginity had espoused itself with the young man, viz. with the humanity.\n\n73. This comes to pass also in the philosophic work: The artist will see how the heaven separates itself from the earth, and how the heaven does again sink into the earth, and changes the earth into a heavenly colour; he will see how Mercury purifies the matter, and how the purified colours will appear in antimony in their property, and how the wonder proceeds.\n\n74. In the fifth kingdom of the mother of all beings, Christ expelled the devils out of the possessed, and healed the deaf in this form and property.\n\n75. This likewise the artist will see in the philosophic work, how Jupiter in Mercury will drive up a black twinkling fiery vapour out of the matter, which sticks on like soot; for it is a hunger of the poison in Mercury, and is very rightly compared to the devil, for it is of his property.\n\n76. In the sixth kingdom of the mother of all beings, viz. in the wheel of life, called Venus, Christ loved his brethren and sisters according to the humanity, and washed his disciples' feet, and loved them even to the deepest exinanition, and gave his life into the wrath's property even to death for them, and manifested himself among them that he was Christ: And when they perceived that the king was come that should deprive self-will of its might and dominion, and destroy the devil's kingdom; then they cried out, and said, \"We have no king but Cæsar;\" they took him in the dark night into their power, bound him, and brought him before their council,202 mocked him, whipped him, and beat him, stripped him of clothes, and hung him on the cross.\n\n77. This also the artist will see very powerfully in the philosophic work; for as soon as the dark fiery stream, viz. the material devil goes from the matter, then virgin Venus appears in her virginity very glorious and beautiful; for it betokens Christ's love, who did so humble himself, and manifested his love in our humanity; then the artist thinks that he has the philosophic child, then he has now the fine morsel: But he dances with the Jews, who thought, when they had taken Christ, Now we have him, we will keep him well enough. Thus he also thinks, it is finished, and receives the child; and when he beholds it in the trial, then he has Venus, a woman, and not the virgin with the tincture of the fire and light, and is deceived by the woman.203 \n\n78. Now observe right, What do the properties, viz. Saturn, Mars, and Mercury, when they see the child, viz. the champion in royal colour, and find that he manages no external dominion and royalty with power and authority as they do, but will only rule with love in their poisonful fire-might? They will not suffer him.\n\n79. For Saturn signifies the worldly dominion, and Mercury the spiritual dominion, viz. the Pharisees,204 and Mars signifies the devil; these three would not endure Christ among them; for he said that he was a king of love, and the Son of God, and was come to deliver his people from sin: Then thought the devil, sure this rhimes not well, thou wilt lose thy kingdom: And the worldly magistrate thought, Is this a king, and God's Son? Then he will take away our might; this does not at all like us: And the mercurial priests thought; This man is too mean for us, we will have a Messiah who may bring us to worldly dominion, and make us to be high and rich in the world, that we may alone possess the honour of the world; we will not receive him, he is too poor for us; we might so lose the favour and respect of the worldly magistrate, and should be much damaged; we will rather abide in our power, respect, and authority, and abandon this beggarly king with his love-kingdom: In like manner as yet to this day they are so minded, and serve his messengers so whom he sends.\n\n80. Thus likewise it goes in the philosophic work, when Venus manifests herself with love, viz. in her own property in the three wrathful forms, viz. in Saturn, Mars, and Mercury; they can by no means endure it, for it is wholly against their austere, dark, fiery might, but especially against the poison of Mercury, they flash and lighten against Venus, and shoot their rays, viz. the mercurial poisonful rays upon her, as the Pharisees did upon Christ. In the meanwhile, Jupiter and Luna hold with Venus, and give their power to Venus; for Venus does here stand forth in the power of Jupiter; at this the Pharisees laugh, and think with themselves, We are wise enough already, what need we knowledge and understanding? We will have might and honour; and Luna signifies the multitude of laymen who stuck to Christ, while it went well with him; so does Luna in the philosophic work to Venus in her lustre, so long as Saturn, Mercury, and Mars do not meddle with and assault her; but when the power of wrath comes, then Luna changes her will, viz. the colour, and looks, arises, and cries also with the rest the crucifige: This the artist will see, if he be chosen and accounted worthy of God for the work.\n \n## Chapter 11. Of The Process Of Christ In His Suffering, Death, And Resurrection: Of The Wonder Of The Sixth Kingdom...\n\nOF THE PROCESS OF CHRIST IN HIS SUFFERING, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION: OF THE WONDER OF THE SIXTH KINGDOM IN THE MOTHER OF ALL BEINGS: HOW THE \"CONSUMMATUM EST\" WAS FINISHED, AND HOW LIKEWISE IT IS SYMBOLICALLY ACCOMPLISHED IN THE PHILOSOPHIC WORK\n\n1. This now is thus to be considered; We are to know, that the essence of this world, together with man, consists in two properties, viz. in fire and light, that is, in love and anger: Now the fire is twofold, and the light is also twofold, viz. a cold fire from the impression, and an hot fire from the power of Mercury in Sulphur; and so likewise there is a cold light from the cold fire, and a warming light from the hot fire; the cold light is false, and the hot light is good; not that it is false in its property, only in the impression, in the cold Sulphur; in the sharpness of the wrath it turns to a false desire, viz. to a false love, which is contrary to the meekness; for its desire is Saturn and Mars.\n\n2. It puts forth its sun (understand its lustre of life) in Mars, and the warming light (which also receives its fiery sharpness in the impression in Sulphur from Mars) brings its desire again into the liberty, viz. through the dying in the fire, through the anguish: It wholly and freely gives itself forth in the dying of the fire,205 and forsakes the property of the wrath.\n\n3. And so it becomes a general joy, and not its own only, even like the sun that gives forth its shining lustre universally: The sunshine is neither hot nor cold; only Mercury in the spirit of the great world makes in Mars and Saturn's property a heat therein; for the sun enkindles their desire, upon which they grow so very hungry, eager, desirous, and operative, that even a fire is found to be in the light, which heat is not of the light's own property, but of the soul of the great world, which does so sharpen the pleasant light in its splendor, that it is unsufferable to the eye.\n\n4. And we are highly to consider and know, that if another fire-desire, which is not like to the outward life in Mercury, would rule in the austere wrath of the outward nature, that then it would be an enmity contrary to the austere, cold, bitter, and fiery dominion and life, and that they would exalt [or exasperate] their wrath, eagerly desiring to be rid of it: Even as it so came to pass when the divine love-desire did manifest itself with its great meekness to the false, cold, proud, and austere fire-desire of the Saturnalians, Martialists, and especially of the false Mercurialites: It was a great opposition and enmity to them, that love should rule in the death of poison, and dwell therein, this they could not, nor would not endure; for heaven was come into hell, and would overcome the hell with love, and take away its might; as it is to be seen in the person of Christ; he loved them, and did them all manner of good, and healed their plagues [or diseases], but in that he was not arisen from their wrathful might, and that he said he was descended from above, and was God's Son; this was unsavoury to the cold, hot fire's might, that he should rule with love over them.\n\n5. Even thus it goes in the philosophic work; when the wrathful forms of the earthliness, viz. the outward Saturn, Mars, and Mercury, see the heavenly champion with the virgin's property among them, and perceive that he has far another desire than they, then they are angry in themselves; for the love-desire, when it casts a glimpse on the fire-flagrat, awakes their fire-flagrat, and then the wrath proceeds forth from the anxiety into love; from whence arises a death's flagrat in the love; but seeing there can be no death therein, the love condescends in the fire-flagrat, and gives forth [or diffuses] itself into their desire, and leaves its essence; so that in their desire they reach after its property in the death's flagrat; this is a poison to death, and a pestilence to hell; and in this property206 death was deprived of its power in the humanity; for Christ, when he shed his heavenly blood in the flagrat of death, and left it in death, the wrath of God was driven to retain the heavenly love-essence in itself: Even there the fire-desire in the enkindled humanity was changed into a love-desire, and out of the anguish of death proceeded207 a joy and strength of divine power.\n\n6. But I will hereby give the well-wisher fundamentally to understand how it went with Christ, and how in like manner it goes with his philosophic work; both have wholly one process. Christ overcame the wrath of death in the human property, and changed the anger of the Father into love in the human property; the philosopher likewise has even such a will, he wills to turn the wrathful earth to heaven, and change the poisonful Mercury into love; therefore observe us here right; we will not write here parabolically, but wholly clear as the sunshine.\n\n7. God would change the humanity (after it was become earthly, and had awakened the poisonful Mercury in the love-property, which [poisonful Mercury] had devoured the love, and changed it into itself) again into the divine heavenly property, and make heaven of the human earth, of the four elements only one in *one* desire, and change the wrath of God in the human property into love.\n\n8. Now his anger was a might of the fire and wrath, and was inflamed in man, and therefore there must be right earnestness to withstand the same, and change it again into love: The love must enter into the anger, and wholly give itself in unto the wrath; it would not be enough that God should remain in heaven, and only look upon the humanity with love; it could not be, that the anger and wrath should thereby yield up its might and strength, and freely give itself unto the love: As the fire is not made better by the light, it still holds its wrath notwithstanding in itself; but when a meek essence (as water) comes into the fire, then the fire goes out.\n\n9. Even so heavenly divine essentiality (understand heavenly water, which the tincture of the fire and light changes into blood) must enter into the wrathful fire of God, and become the fire's food, so that the fire of God might burn from another essence; for water could not have done it; the fire does not burn in the water, but the meek oleous property of the fire and light in the essence of divine meekness in the love-desire, that did effect it.\n\n10. The human fire-life consists in the blood, and therein rules the wrath of God; now another blood, which was born out of God's love-essence, must enter into the angry human blood; they must go both together into the death of the wrath, and the wrath of God must be drowned in the divine blood, and therefore the outward humanity in Christ must die, that it might not any more live in the wrath's property, but that the heavenly blood's Mercury, viz. the speaking word, might alone live in the outward humanity, and solely rule in peculiar divine power in the outward and inward humanity; that the self might cease in the humanity, and God's Spirit might be all in all, and the self only his instrument, whereby he makes what he pleases; that (I say) the self-hood might be solely God's instrument, and wholly in resignation; for God has not created man to be his own lord, but his servant: He will have angels under obedience, and not devils in their own fire-might.\n\n11. Now when his love would give itself into death, and deprive death of its might, then the two worlds, viz. the Father's fire-world, with the outward visible world, and also the divine love-world with the divine heavenly essentiality, that is, with heavenly flesh and blood, and also with corrupted flesh and blood, were formed into one person. God became man, and made man to God: The seed of the woman, viz. of the heavenly virginity, which disappeared in Adam, and also the corrupted man's seed in the anger, viz. Mary's seed, were formed into one person, which was Christ; and the seed of the woman, viz. of the virgin of God, understand the heavenly essentiality, should bruise the head of the serpent, understand, the wrath of God in the corrupted man; the head is the might of God's anger; the divine man, understand the divine property, should change the earthly into itself, and turn the earth to heaven.\n\n12. Now when the person was born, heaven stood in the earth of man. Now the incarnation could not have done it alone, there must be yet after this another earnestness; for as long as Christ walked on the earth, the humanity which was from Mary's property was not almighty, but the humanity from God [was omnipotent], they were set opposite one against the other in two principles, yet not shut up, but both manifest in each other, the love against the anger, and the anger against the love.\n\n13. Here now was the trial of the combat one with another, from whence also proceeded the temptation of Christ; and when the divine world overcame, then the great wonders broke forth through the outward human world; but all this could not accomplish it, there must yet be a greater earnestness, the human property, viz. the expressed word, was yet stirring in the inflameable anger: The human Sulphur must be changed into the heavenly, viz. into the heavenly part; and thereupon the human self, viz. the expressed Mercury was astonished, when upon the Mount of Olives the heavenly world in the love wrestles with the anger in the human world, viz. with the self-hood, so that the person of Christ did sweat bloody sweat; even there the one was dismayed at the other, the love at the horrible death, whereinto it should and must wholly yield and give in itself with the divine essentiality, and be swallowed up by the anger; and the anger [was dismayed] at its death, in that it must lose its might in the love.\n\n14. Hence the whole person of Christ said, \"Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but thy will be done.\" The love-world in Christ said, \"Can it not be but that I must drink down the cup of thy anger? Then thy will be done.\" And the anger said, \"If it be possible, let this cup of love pass from me,\" that I may revenge myself, and rage in the wrath of man for the sake of his disobedience; as God said to Moses, who stood in the spirit of Christ as a type of Christ before God, \"Let me alone that I may devour this disobedient people:\" But the name Jesus, which had incorporated itself in paradise with the promise of the woman's seed in the aim of the human and divine covenant, would not suffer him; for the humility of the name Jesus has always interposed against the wrath of the Father, against his fire's property, that his fire might not enkindle the half-poisonful Mercury in man, except only sometimes when Israel walked wholly in the wrath and disobedience; as is to be seen by Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, and by Elias.\n\n15. So it was here on the Mount of Olives, the anger would live in the fire's might in man, and the name Jesus put itself into the anger; and here there was no other remedy, but that the name Jesus in divine love and heavenly essentiality must wholly resign up itself to be devoured by the anger: The Son must be, and was obedient to the angry Father, even to \"the death of the cross;\" as the Scripture says.\n\n16. The dear love-humility and meekness suffered itself to be \"scorned, mocked, spit upon,\" and judged by the anger; that is, the Jews must execute the justice of God; for by man's self-action sin was committed, and by man's self-action death and sin must be blotted out. Adam had introduced his will into the poison of the outward Mercury; so must Christ, viz. the love, freely give up its will also into the same poisonful Mercury. Adam did eat of the evil tree, Christ must eat of God's anger; and as it went inwardly in the spirit, so likewise outwardly in the flesh; and so also it goes in the philosophic work.\n\n17. Mercury in the philosophic work denotes the Pharisees, he will not endure the love-child: When he sees it, he gives it trembling and anguish, and Venus also stands dismayed at the poison of the angry Mercury; they are in one another as if sweat did drop from them, as the artist shall see.\n\n18. Mars says, I am the lord of fire in the body, Saturn is my strength, and Mercury is my life, I will have none of this love, I will devour it in my wrath; this denotes the devil in the anger of God; and seeing he cannot do it, he raises up Saturn, viz. the impression, which signifies the worldly magistracy, and reaches therewith after Venus, and yet cannot get her into him, for she is to him a poison to death: This Mercury also can much less endure, for the love took away his dominion; as the high priests thought that Christ would take away their government, because he said that he was God's Son.\n\n19. Thus Mercury is vexed at the child Venus, for Venus has wholly discovered herself, and freely given up herself; they may do now what they please, she will go even into the dragon's mouth, he shall only but open his jaws; and this Mars in Mercury does not understand, but they take the fair child, and shoot their venomous darts against it, and bind it with Saturn's might in their wicked bands, as the artist will sec how they surround the colour of Venus.\n\n20. Mars brings it first to Mercury, seeing he is the life, as before the high priest, who must examine and prove the fair child; but he hates it, he cannot reach into the heart after its love-will, he only judges it externally, because it is not of his property, that it stands forth with such a form as the Mercury himself, and yet has another power, virtue and will.\n\n21. But seeing there is another Mercury which lives in its love in the child Venus, therefore he cannot kill it, but brings it to Saturn, as the Jews brought Christ from Caiaphas to Pilate, who signifies Saturn, who also takes the child: But seeing he is a lord of the impression, viz. of the darkness, therefore he cares not at all for the property of the child, but for the dominion only; he seizes on the child with the dark impression, and strips it of its fair Venus garment; and when Luna with the white splendour of the sun sees this, then she hides herself; as the disciples of Christ fled, and the enraged [rude] multitude also, who did highly presume to stand by him in the cross and persecution, but in the earnestness208 they fly; for Luna is inconstant, she has not Sol's heart in the love-flame; and Saturn with his thorny impression puts the Sulphur upon the child, viz. the mother of all beings with the purple-coloured raiment of her own peculiar property, in which the wrath of Mars is contained and harboured.\n\n22. When Mars, viz. the devil's crew, and Mercury also, viz. the self-pride of life, see that Venus has her royal garment on, understand the purple robe of Saturn and Mercury in Sol's colour mingled with fiery Mars, and adorned in Mercury's sulphur-colour in the open blaze as a shining lustre, for so is the materia according to the colour of the venereal property, which the artist must well observe, he then will clearly see as it is mentioned.\n\n23. When Mars, Mercury, and Luna also see this, then they cry *Crucifige*, away with him, he is a false king in our garment; he is a man as we are, and will be God, that is, they cast their poisonful desire through the purple garment upon the child, and so the artist will see that the child will appear in his own form, as if it were full of streaks from the poisonful rays of Mercury and Mars, which they lay upon the child through the impression of Saturn; as Pilate whipped Jesus: The artist will see the prickly crown of thorns standing very sharp with its point upon the property of the child; also he will see that Venus does not at all move herself, but stands still, and suffers herself to be so done unto.\n\n24. Further we are to understand, how that Adam had taken on him a cold false love, and therewith so shewed himself before God as if he were in peculiar dominion and will, and moreover God's child, whereas he did but mock God therewith; for so the love-desire appears when it is captivated in the impression of death.\n\n25. Thus must the second Adam Christ take all this upon him, and enter into the same ignominy and scorn, and be clothed with a purple garment as a king of this world, and be mocked therein; for Adam had put on the purple garment of the outward world's self-might in the splendour of the property of self; and here it was made open shew of before the anger of God: And the white garment which Herod put upon Christ to mock him in signifies, and is the cold false love as a cloak of falsehood, wherein man pranks up as if he were an angel, and so puts upon himself Christ's purple mantle with his white robe, and covers himself with Christ's pure snow-white garment, viz. with his suffering and death, and yet holds and harbours the man of falsehood, viz. the false love under a vail.\n\n26. Now Christ must set forth this figure, and it was represented on his body; for he should overcome and stay the man of falsehood which lay in the human property, and so it was fully presented before God. Christ must be termed and reviled for such an one as Adam was; the innocent must take the blame upon him.\n\n27. And thus it goes in the philosophic work, when the curse of God's anger which is in the earth is to be changed into love; for seeing Mercury sets the child of love before Saturn, and Saturn cannot, and may not try it, therefore he puts upon it the purple-coloured garment with stripes underneath, and sends it before Sol's splendor, which glimmers in Mars, and the sun puts upon it its white colour, viz. the lunar, and then the purple colour vanishes, and the child stands in the lunar white simple colour, very despicable without lustre: The sun would fain see this child shew forth its golden colour, for it perceives there is a solar virtue in the child, therefore it gives it the white colour from the property of the eternal liberty; the child should but give the power of the fire's centre thereunto, viz. the divine might, and then it would be like the sun, and would be a lord over the Sulphur of Mars and Mercury, yet only a lord over the outward world's essence, a governor in the wrath, as Sol is the like.\n\n28. But Christ said to Pilate, \"My kingdom is not of this world,\" and would not answer Herod anything in this white raiment when he put it on him, nor in the purple robe; for the purple robe and the white raiment also were both false, and were put upon him to disgrace and mock him, because Adam had put them on, and proudly pranked up therein with falsehood; Christ might not do any sign therein before Herod, though he desired it. Hereby the shame of man, who was an image of God, and yet had made himself a false king, was represented before God's face; as the poor sinner confesses, and sets forth his abominations before God, when he sets upon abstinence and repentance.\n\n29. Thus Christ represented to his Father the abominations [or sins] of man in this false garment, and stood before him as an ignominy, and confessed the sins of man to his Father in the stead and place of all men: And when his Father beheld him through his imagination in this garment, he would have none of this robe; therefore Pilate must pull it off from him again, and set him before the Jews in his own form; but they cry, \"Away, away with him, he must be put to death;\" for so his Father would, that he should give himself up to death in his wrath, and drown the same.\n\n30. And Pilate condemned him to death, for he would not acknowledge him for a king: So it also goes in the philosophic work, Saturn will not receive the child, for it is not of his property; and Mars and Mercury likewise will not have it in its property: But what do they do? The child is among them, they would fain be rid of it, but yet cannot: They grow angry and enraged, as the Jews against Jesus, and take the child into their arms,209 viz. into their false poisonful angry desire, and will murther it, and quite sting and pierce through the materia of the child with their sharp, fiery, and poisonful rays, viz. with three sharp nails.\n\n31. One whereof is Saturn, viz. the impression of the dark world, denoting the wrath of the dark world. The other is Mars, which signifies the devil, viz. the serpent's property in the anger of God. The third is Mercury, which signifies the false life, viz. how the wrath of God is enkindled in the expressed word in the human property.\n\n32. These three nails pierce through the property of the child. Thus Venus, viz. the essence of love wholly yields itself to the three murtherers, and wholly foregoes its jovial life as if it died; and the mercurial life of the human property, understand the child's power, falls also to the three murtherers in its mother's house, viz. into the corporeal essence, wherein the young man received his virgin, wherein God became man.\n\n33. Now when the heavenly body, and also the earthly, do thus yield unto these three murtherers, then appears the image of John and Mary by the cross as a type; for the young man's life, and also the virgin's in the young man, has freely surrendered, and given forth itself: And now the two properties, viz. the divine and human, divide themselves in the form of each power, which the artist may see if he has the eyes and understanding thereunto.\n\n34. And here, when Saturn with his impression and dark sharpness, and Mars with his wrath, and Mercury with his poison-life do powerfully enter into the property of Venus, then the wrath forces itself into the love, and the love into the wrath essentially mixed, as assimilating one with the other: Here the wrathful death is dismayed at the love, so that in dying he falls into impotence [or a swoon], for it loses the might of the wrath; and the love is, and stands also in the source of the wrath in death's flagrat as impotent [or in a swoon], and gives itself forth wholly into the flagrat [or stroke] of death, and even then the heavenly essence, viz. the heavenly blood flows forth from it into the property of the third principle, viz. of the young man. Here the virgin gives her pearl to the young man for a propriety, and God and man become one.\n\n35. For the virgin's blood out of the divine essentiality does here now drown with its love-essence the young man's blood, viz. the self-hood, and the three murtherers surrender their life in the blood of the virgin, and then the red glee from the fire, and also the white from the life of the champion arise up together, viz. from the wrath the life, and from the love the meekness: and both, viz. the life of the anger, and the life of the love, ascend together as one only life; for in death they become one: The death dies away in the love, and becomes in the love the life of the divine kingdom of joy; for it is not a dying, but a free surrendering of its power, might, and will, a transmutation; the virgin's blood changes the human, dead as to God, into an heavenly [blood], the life of the young man dies, and the life of the Deity remains fixed and steadfast, for it stands in its property in the nothing.\n\n36. And here, thou dear seeker, when thou seest the crimson-coloured blood of the young man arise out of death with the virgin's white blood, then know that thou hast the arcanum of the whole world, and a treasure in this valley of misery, which surpasses the value of gold; take it and esteem it more excellent and sovereign than that which shall again arise from death: If thou beest born of God, then thou wilt understand what I mean.\n\n37. For this is the type of Christ, [spewing] how Christ has drowned sin, and the enkindled anger of God in the human property; it is not only an offering, for then Moses had accomplished it; it is not a bare verbal forgiveness, as Babel teaches: No. The human will must from all its powers enter into this death, into this blood, viz. into the highest tincture.\n\n38. The purple robe which Christ wore could not do it; the white hypocritical pharisaical priest's coat could also not effect it, no flattery or demure hypocrisy avails here; no comfortings, soothings, or giving God good words are effectual here; the crafty malignant man must be mortified in Christ's blood, he must be drowned in the virgin's blood: The seed of the woman must bruise the head of the serpent; the will must wholly disclaim and depart from its selfish property, and become as an ignorant child, and wholly enter into God's mercy, into the virgin-like blood of Christ, that sin and the poisoned Mercury may be drowned in its Mars, that the white lion may arise; for the lion which now appears in the white colour, in crimson red, is the Mercury of life, viz. the expressed word, viz. the soul, which before was a wrathful devil in its self-hood, ruling and domineering in the anger of God in the three forms of the poison-source, viz. in Saturn, Mars, and Mercury: Now it is the white scarlet-coloured lion from the house of David and Israel, fulfilled in the covenant of promise.\n\n39. N.B.—But that we may give satisfaction to the well-wisher, we will further shew him the whole ground even to the resurrection of Christ: When the Jews had hung Jesus upon the cross, and he had shed his human and heavenly divine blood, and drowned the turba in the human [blood], then Jesus said, \"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.\"\n\n40. When Jesus had broken death in the humanity, and took away self, he did not then wholly cast away the human property, wherein death and the anger of God were, but then he did first truly assume it; understand, he even then did truly take the outward kingdom into the inward; for the outward kingdom was begotten as a wonder out of the eternal wisdom in the speaking word, and spoken forth into a form, as a manifestation of the Deity in love and anger, in good and evil: So that Jesus would not that the outward type of the wonders in the likeness of God should perish [or quite vanish], but the wrath which had overpowered the love in man should be forgiven, that is, it should be given into the nothing, viz. into the liberty, that it might not be manifest in its own self-property; it must be servant, and only a cause of the fiery love and divine joyfulness; nothing should perish [or be lost] in man, for God had created him to his image.\n\n41. Thus let the philosopher observe, that when the three murtherers, viz. Saturn, Mars, and Mercury, sink210 in the crimson-coloured blood of the lion, they do not perish; but they are pardoned, that is, their wrath is changed into a love-desire, viz. out of Venus into Sol; for when the fiery desire enters into the watery desire, then a shining, viz. a glorious splendour, arises from and in the fire; for Venus is white, and the fire-desire is red.\n\n42. Here now it is changed into one colour, which is yellow, that is, white and red both in one colour, which is the majestical [lustre]; for when Mercury is changed into the power of joy, then arises the multiplication; he changes his mother, wherein he lay shut up in death, into Sol; he makes the earthly heavenly in one property, as the virgin was: For here the virgin loses her name, for she has given her love and pearl to the champion, who is now called here the white lion, as the Scripture speaks of the lion of the house of Israel and David, who should demolish the devil's kingdom, and destroy hell, that is, break the anger of God, and change it into love.\n\n43. This champion or lion is no man or woman, but he is both; the tincture of the fire and light must come into one, viz. of the essence which is Venus, and of the spirit which is Mars in Mercury; the Father's love and anger must become one thing, and then this one thing is called the kingdom of joy; so long as it is separated, there is in the thing only anguish and torment, and mere desire; but when it burns in one will, it is a joyful proceeding forth from itself: And this egressive property is called the Holy Ghost, viz. the life of the Deity.\n\n44. Therefore know that the virgin's and young man's blood must be both shed together, that the fire-lion might die; which was manifest in the human property, that the love of the virgin might change his wrath in her dear love-blood into her property, and obtain the soul from the young man; for in Adam the virgin disappeared, for the soul departed out of its love-will out of the resignation into its own, and became disobedient to God.\n\n45. Here the virgin does again take the soul into herself, and gives it her crown of pearl, as to a noble champion, and calls him in his own name the white lion or champion. O ye children of men, observe it, I beseech you; open the gates of the world in your heart; Open them wide that the King of Glory may come in, even the great champion in battle, who hath deprived death of its might, and destroyed the hell in God's anger, and made of the world paradise.\n\n46. O ye wise seekers, how does the Lord open his windows! Why do you sleep in the desire of much increase [in your covetousness], which is multiplied in the wrath? Do but enter only into the divine resignation; you may partake of that which the powers of heaven are able to afford: If you do but forsake your selfishness, then the earth shall become heaven to you, says the spirit of wonders; but you shall not obtain it in your wicked ways and covetous doings.\n\n47. And when Jesus through the shedding of his blood had given the wrath of God in man to the love, that the Father had received the love in the human property into the wrath; then the kingdom of the devil in the wrath, and the kingdom of love did immediately part asunder; they were divided: And this figure did hang with Christ on the cross, viz. the wicked mocker at the left hand, who reviled Jesus, and was not capable of his blood-shedding; and the other at the right hand, who was converted from his sins to Jesus, and said, \"Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom;\" to whom Jesus answered, \"Verily, to-day thou shalt be with me in paradise.\"\n\n48. Thus we are rightly to consider, that when the wrath of God is drowned in the blood of Christ, so that it changes its might into love, that even then paradise is again open; for when Jesus had tinctured the human blood which was corrupted in sin with the virgin's blood in the love, then the virgin received the manhood, viz. the self-hood, into her virgin's love. This was the paradise, and an habitation of God, with and in man, where God dwells in the humanity, and is all in all in it.\n\n49. Thus it falls out also in the philosophic work, when Mars and Mercury die according to the property of the dark impression of Saturn, then Venus takes them into her love-blood, and Venus gives her love into the poisonful fire-desire: She wholly gives herself in unto the fire of Mars in Mercury, and she yields herself fully to be their own; but seeing Mars and Mercury become impotent (as to the might of the fire and poison) in the love, the love and anger thereupon change themselves into one essence, into one desire; and here, when the fire, viz. the fire-desire, gives in its desire to the love; then saith the love, \"To-day thou shalt be with me out of thy fire-anguish in paradise,\" viz. in joy, that is, thou shalt be changed in me: And here Venus gets the soul in the philosophic work, so that Mars and Mercury become her soul, and the strife ceases; for the enmity is appeased and quelled: And thus the child subsists in the fire immoveably without any change; for Mars does not at all annoy it, and so likewise Mercury and Saturn hurt it not, for they are in the child at the end of nature, where there is no turba any more.\n\n50. Mercury is pure in Saturn, he has no more poison, whereby to make soil [or rust] in the water, viz. in the salt of Saturn: And let the philosopher and divine also well observe this, that in paradise there is a perfect life without any shadow of change, also without any false evil desire, and a continual day, where the paradisical man is clear as a transparent glass, in whom the divine sun shines through and through, as gold that is thoroughly bright and pure, without any spot or foulness.\n\n51. \"And when Jesus knew that all was finished, he seeth his mother and John his disciple standing by under the cross, and saith unto his mother, Woman, to! this is thy son; and to the disciple, Behold thy mother, and forthwith the disciple took her unto his own home.\"\n\n52. This is an excellent type, how Christ has forsaken this world, viz. the human self-hood, and is again gone to the Father; for he saw his mother according to this world, and his disciple, viz. his uncle, according to the outward humanity from his mother's side, and yet said to his mother, \"Woman, behold, there is thy son,\" I am no more thy son according to my outward humanity; it is changed into God's Son, and is no longer of the world, but it lives to God; But seeing thou art to be yet in the world, take John, who is not yet changed, to be thy guardian; and thou John take thy mother; and he presently took her to himself.\n\n53. This is the type of the Christian Church upon earth: For we the poor children of Eve are not presently wholly changed according to the outward man; but we must also pass into death, and putrify, that the wrath also in the flesh may rot and putrify, and the spirit might rest in the death of Christ till the general resurrection and transmutation of the outward man; in which the earth of man shall be transformed into heaven, and the mirror [or type] of the wonders shall appear therein.\n\n54. Thus he commanded his disciple to take care of his mother: His mother is the Christian Church upon earth, wherein the children of God are begotten according to the spirit, whom he should take care for, and guide and lead them, till the number of the humanity out of the flesh shall be accomplished, and then the spiritual body shall arise, and shall be proved in Christ's death, in his entrance into the anger, where he changed the anger into love; and the kingdom with the source of darkness shall be separated from it.\n\n55. But in this life-time, though the spirit be changed211 in the divine power, and the spirit be baptized with the virgin's baptism, and puts on the image of Christ internally, viz. Venus's body in the love; yet Adam is not capable of it till he also enters into the transmutation of Christ, which comes to pass in death [or in the dying to this mortal life].\n\n56. But in the meanwhile, John, as the teacher of Christ in Christ's stead, must provide for the outward mother according to the outward man, and feed and teach the lambs of Christ with Christ's spirit: And it exactly shews us how the outward man is not God's mother; for Christ separates himself from his outward mother, and gives her to John; he has put on212 the eternal mother, viz. the Father of the eternal birth, and therefore they do very ill that honour and worship the outward mother of Christ for God's mother.\n\n57. The whole true Christendom is Christ's mother, which bears Christ in her: And John, viz. the servants of Christ are her nurses, which take care for the mother of Christ as John did; he presently received the mother of Christ and provided for her, as her son, and not as her lord; for Christ said to him, \"Behold, she is thy mother: \"So should all the disciples and teachers of Christ do, and take care of the poor Christendom, as sons, with great humility towards the mother, provide for, and cherish her with diligence and circumspection, and serve her with all discreet modesty, courtesy, and humility; feed and comfort her with the spirit of Christ, not as the priests in Babel do, who ride over her as wealthy, rich, domineering masters, and will be lords over the mother, and only seek honours, and to fatten their bellies in pleasure, and live in strife and contention: These, one with the other, of what name or title soever they be, are not all Johannites, but they are the poisonful mercurial Pharisees, in whom there is nothing but mere anguish, vexation, pain, and torment, where one property does continually torment, envy, and hate the other, and hold it out for false; and yet they are all only out of one root, and have all only one will, except that one colour does not glister as the other.\n\n58. For Saturn is not as Jupiter; Jupiter is not as Mars; Mars, viz. the fire-spirit, is not as the light of the sun; and the sun is not as Venus with her meek water-source; and Venus is not as Mercury with his sound; for she is meek and still, and Mercury sounds and sets up his note; and Mercury also is not as Luna, which as a simple body does give body to all the rest for manifestation; one is far otherwise than another, and has not one property and will; and yet they are in the centre of the essence, viz. in Luna and Saturn, in the property f the soul and body, all of them one and the same lump. Thus the partial sectarian Mercurialites, and Baal's servants, are divided in these properties; they are the Pharisees which judge and condemn Jesus in his members.\n\n59. They wrangle and contend only about the church, and yet none will take care of the poor forsaken mother of Christ: They are mad in their martial and mercurial contest,213 and are not Johannites, they enter not in Christ's spirit at the door of Christ into the sheepfold; they are wolves, lions, and bears, yea foxes and fearful hares, who fly from and forsake the mother; their rise and original is out of Babel, where they continually contend, wrangle, grin, and bite one another for the letter. Every one will be lord and master over the letter, and transpose and place it as he pleases, only for the honour, applause, and pleasure of this world: They consider not that the mother is a widow, and that Christ has left and ordained them that they should be such curates for her as John.\n\n60. O thou dear mother of Christendom, let these wolves, bears, and lions go, and shelter themselves where they please, regard no longer these evil beasts; take the John, the disciple of Christ, who teaches the love and humility.\n\n61. O thou dear and worthy mother, art thou not only one? Why dost thou suffer the lions to rend and tear thee in pieces? Christ is thy husband, all these are strangers and hirelings, unless they walk in thy filial love, and humble themselves towards the mother, and provide for her as ministers, else they be all wolves, bears, and tearing lions; though there were many thousands of them, yet one is not at all better than another, unless he comes forth in the line of John, and takes care of Christ's mother, and provides for the mother with earnestness in Christ's spirit: Which if he has not, he is not then called of Christ to be a guardian or curate to the mother; but he is a Mercurialite, a Pharisee, such as Christ called the seed of serpents, and generation of vipers, who crucify Jesus in his members.\n\n62. And thus the philosopher must consider of, and well observe Christ's mother, whom he recommended to John to take care of: He must likewise be a John, and know that his business is about the mother, and that his work in this world is not wholly214 heavenly: He will not so manifest paradise, that God will appear, and be manifest face to face in his work: No, he remains in the mother, yet he obtains the universal in the mother; for the mother of Christ obtained it also, for it was said to her, \"Thou art the blessed among all women.\"\n\n63. So likewise the philosopher reaches to the blessing in this valley of misery, that he is able to bless his corrupt body, that is, tincture it and free it from sickness, even to the limit of the highest constellation according to Saturn; and therefore let him take heed of covetousness, for so he introduces the turba.\n\n64. By the type of John and the mother of Christ, he is to know, that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world are two in his work, and that God's kingdom lies shut up in the mother, viz. in his work, of which he must take care; and be a minister thereunto, and not a lord of the mother, but an almsgiver, and not a gatherer of treasure and wealth, not a covetous muck-worm; also none shall attain to it, or understand our meaning, that will not be a guardian of the mother: The Most High has laid a bar before the foolish understanding,215 that it is blind, till it be weary with seeking; I speak in the ground of truth.\n\n65. And when Jesus had commended his mother to John, he again turned his desire into the mother of the human property, and said, \"I thirst;\" he thirsted after the members of human property, and desired the salvation of mankind, viz. the health of his members, understand of his children, which should be begotten in him; and the Jews gave his humanity gall and vinegar to drink; and when he tasted it, he would not drink it.\n\n66. Here is again the outward type, shewing how it went inwardly: The name Jesus, viz. the love of God which was entered into the humanity, and had espoused itself thereunto, did thirst in the love-desire after the corrupt humanity, and would fain taste the pure water of the humanity in itself; but the wrathful anger of God, which was enkindled in the human property, gave itself in with the human property to the thirst of the love-desire: And when the love-desire tasted of it, it would not drink it, but sunk down into it as wholly resigned, or freely yielded up, and did unite and very essentially incline itself into the anger of God as a full and perfect obedience, and as fully and freely given over as a peculiar propriety thereinto.\n\n67. This was now the flagrat of the wrath, that the love should so come into it; whereupon the earth trembled, and the rocks clave asunder; for so the death was dismayed at the life: And here the awakened wrath's property did separate itself into the centre, viz. into the. first principle, into the fire-root; and now from the centre there proceeded forth the hunger to the new-birth in the human property; of the hunger unto death was made a hunger to life; for the love tinctured the anger, that the fire-desire to the dark impression became a desire of life.\n\n68. Understand it here right; God the Father, who gave his dear heart into the humanity to help mankind, did now thirst after the humanity, viz. after his heart or word of power; and the Deity in the humanity, viz. the heart of the Father, did thirst after the Father; and the love or the essence of the light did thirst after the fire's essence: For the fire's, or soul's essence in Adam was departed out of the love-essentiality (wherein the paradise did consist) into a selfishness, and was become disobedient to God; and thereupon the essence, life, and being of the light and love died in its growing, that is, it withered as to the vegetative life, or heavenly growth, blooming, and sense of the paradisical source, and awaked and arose to the earthly world.\n\n69. Here the Father brought the soul, which was entered into his wrath, and had manifested itself in his anger, again into the love, viz. into the disappeared paradisical image: And here the dark world was dismayed in death's flagrat at the fire-flagrat, which arose up in love in the death as a joyful flagrat; which joy-flagrat entered into the dead bodies of those who had hope in Israel (who did hope upon the Messiah) as a sound of the power of God, and awakened them from death.\n\n70. This flagrat rent in twain the veil in the Temple, viz. the veil of Moses, which hung before the clear face of God, so that man could not see God, and therefore he must serve him with an offering, and type of this final discovery, in which God did manifest himself again in the humanity: This flagrat broke the type in the offerings and sacrifices, and manifested the clear face of God, and united the human time with eternity.\n\n71. All whatever the Jews did outwardly to Christ, the same was a type of the inward, viz. how it went between God and the humanity, viz. between the eternity and time: The Jews gave Jesus gall and vinegar in his thirst, both these properties are a Mercury in the Sulphur of Saturn, viz. in the impression; this is even the type and full resemblance of the soul's property, as it is in itself alone void of the other love-properties.\n\n72. God gave this property of the soul again into his love, the death into the life, the disappeared love-essence (which the word of God had assumed to itself in the essence and seed of Mary, and quickened to life) into the anger's property, into the soul's essence, viz. into the centre of the fire and dark world; whereupon the soul-like fire and dark world became an exceeding triumphant joyful paradisical life: And here the champion upbraided death and hell, viz. the dark world in the soul, and said, \"Death! where is thy sting \" now in man?\" Hell! where is now thy victory\" in the wrath of the poison-source in the expressed word or Mercury? All is now dead: O death, I am to thee a death; Hell! I am to thee a conqueror; thou must serve me for the kingdom of joy: Thou shalt be my servant and minister to the kingdom of joy; thou shalt enkindle the flames of love with thy wrath, and be a cause of the spring in paradise.\n\n73. Thus we give the philosopher to understand our sense and deep ground in nature, who desires to seek and open the disappeared essence of the earth, which lies shut up in death, viz. in the curse of God: The veil of Moses hangs also before him, and a very right earnestness is requisite to rend the veil in twain, that he may be able to see the face of nature, otherwise he is not fitted for it.\n\n74. And as it went in the humanity of Christ, betwixt God's love and anger, and both were transformed into one; so likewise it is in his work of nature, the poisonful Mercury in the Sulphur of Mars and Saturn gives its lunar menstruum, viz. the greatest poison of the dark source into Venus's property; when Venus thirsts after the fire of love, then Mercury gives his poison into the thirst of Venus, and Venus's thirst gives itself wholly to the poison, as if it died; it wholly yields up its desiring life, whereupon arises the great darkness in the philosophic work: For the materia becomes as black as a raven, for Venus has resigned its life, from whence the glance [or splendour] arises, as it is to be seen by Christ, that the sun lost its light, and there was a great darkness contrary to the common course of nature.\n\n75. For when the inward sun gave in itself unto the anger, viz. into the darkness of God; then the outward sun, which receives its power and lustre from the inward, as a glass or resemblance of the inward, could not shine; for its root from whence it shines was entered into the darkness in the place of this world, and would turn the darkness in the curse of God into light, viz. it would make the place of this world again paradise.\n\n76. Thus likewise the sun of the outward world, which is a figure of the inward all-essential sun, must stand still with its splendour in the darkness, from the sixth hour unto the ninth, which is even the time of Adam's sleep when he entered with the desire into the centre of the eternal nature, viz. into the birth, where the love and anger part themselves into two centres, and would prove the cold and hot fire, which took him, and did powerfully work in him. Here are three hours according to the ternary,216 and in the grave three days according to the time, viz. according to the humanity.\n\n77. When Adam was in the image of God, and was neither man nor woman, but both; he stood forty days in paradise without wavering, and when he fell he stood even till the third day, viz. forty hours in the sleep, even till God did make or build the woman out of him. Thus Israel must be tempted forty days on Mount Sinai, whether they would live in the obedience of God under the wonders and mighty acts; and when it could not be, God gave them the law of his covenant as a mirror of that which was promised in the covenant; therefore the temptation of the body was upon them forty years, that the body must eat manna to try whether man could be remedied: And when the body [or outward person] could not stand, then Joshua brought them through the water with the covenant of the type,217 where Israel must serve with sacrifices in the covenant in the type of the final accomplishment, till the time of restitution came in: And then the valiant champion in battle stood forty days in the wilderness in the temptation, and stood out the first trial of Adam in paradise; and the three hours of darkness on the cross are the three hours of temptation of Christ, when the devil tempted him: And again the forty hours of Christ in the grave are the forty days of Adam in paradise, and the forty days of Moses upon the Mount; and the forty years in the wilderness, and the forty days after the resurrection before the ascension, are even one and the same: And now when the champion had stood out Adam's trial, the soul was tempted forty days in the human property, whether it would eat of God's word, and live in full resigned obedience in the will of God, and be a true image, likeness, and similitude of the divine power in the unsearchable eternity, according to the Trinity of the Deity.\n\n78. In the like manner let the philosopher observe, that the essence of time does also stand in such a property, for man was created out of the essence of time into an image, as an extract of all essences, a complete image and likeness according to time and eternity, ruling and standing in the time and in the eternity as an instrument of the great infinite God, with whom, by and with his Spirit, he would make and do what he pleased.\n\n79. Now man is the instrument of God, with [or by] whom he manifests his hiddenness both in his own human property, viz. in the essence and image of God; and then also through man, as with the instrument in the mother of all beings, as in the grand mystery, viz. in the soul of the great world.\n\n80. Man has power so far as he goes, as an instrument of God in divine obedience, as his Spirit guides and leads him, that he can introduce the earth which stands in the curse of God into the benediction, and make of death's-anguish the highest triumphant joy in the outward pregnant mother; but he himself does it not, only his will labours with the understanding therein, and conjoins the compacta,218 which belong together, as life and death which stand opposite to one another: These he must join together, and bring them into one by such an art as time and eternity are united by and in the man Christ, and by him all those which give their will thereinto.\n\n81. He will see in his work all whatever God did in the humanity; when he brought it again into the universal, viz. into paradise, he will see how the wrath devours and swallows up the fair Venus into his pricking thorny essence, and how Venus does fully yield in herself; and how the wrath also dies away in Venus, and becomes wholly dark and black as a coal; for death and life lie together both in death, viz. in the obedience of God: They both hold still to him, and suffer the Spirit of God to make of and with them what it pleases, who introduces them again into the eternal will of God to which he at first created them: And thus the essence stands again in the beginning in the order as God created it: It must only stand in its impression, in the verbum fiat, viz. in the divine making, till the day of God's separation, when God will change the time again into the eternity.\n\n82. And when Jesus had drank the cup and tasted the vinegar mixed with gall in the outward [man], and inwardly in the love-property, viz. in the virgin, the wrathful anger of God; then said the whole man Christ, \"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?\" For God's speaking word stood still now in the human property, and the new-born essentiality which was dead in Adam, and was again quickened in Christ, cried with the same, \"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?\" For the anger of God was by the soul's property entered into the image of the divine essentiality, and had devoured the image of God.\n\n83. Here now the image in the creature of the soul cried, \"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?\" For the human image which disappeared in Adam, and was again revived in Christ's incarnation, should bruise the head of God's anger in the fire-soul, and change its fire-might into Sol:219 And now the speaking word of God did here forsake it, and it fell into the soul's wrath, where it felt God's anger; for the speaking word did so bring it through the anger into death, and out of the death again into the solar life, understand into the eternal sun.\n\n84. Like as the candle dies in the fire, and out of that death the light and power proceed, viz. the great painless life; so out of Christ's dying and death the eternal divine sun should and must arise in the human property; but the selfishness of the human property, viz. the soul's own self-will to live in the fire's might must here die and be drowned in the image of love, and the image of love must also resign and give itself in unto the wrath of death, that so all might fall down into death, and arise in God's will and mercy through death in the paradisial source in the resignation, that God's Spirit might be all in all. Hell's eye must see through the love, as the light shines out of the fire, and the fire from the darkness, and the darkness takes its original from the eternal desire.\n\n85. And as Adam changed the likeness of God into the dark death's form, so God did again change the likeness through his fire-wrath out of death into the light; he drew forth the likeness again out of death, as a blossom grows from the harsh220 earth.\n\n86. Thus it goes likewise in the philosophic work; Venus is forsaken when she receives the three wrathful properties into herself in wrath; their wrath, viz. the death devours her life, whereupon she loses the colour, and yet becomes a death to the three forms in the wrath, for she drowns death with love. Thus the life is made a death to death, viz. to the wrath, and now they both lie in the will of the eternal nature, viz. in the verbum fiat, which proceeds221 with them the divine way, in manner as it proceeded forth into essence in the beginning of the creation: For in the beginning paradise, viz. the universal was manifest, and the love shined through the death or anger. Even so it must be again, Venus must become the eye or sight in the wrath, and then of Saturn, Mars, and Mercury there will be a Jupiter: Mars becomes sun, and Saturn moon, and so Mars shines with the sun out of Saturn in Luna from Venus's eye, and all seven are only one: Thus the strife has an end, and all is accomplished till the resurrection of the body.\n\n87. And when Jesus had drank the cup, and said, \"My God, why hast thou forsaken me?\" then he said, \"All is finished,\" understand the work of man's redemption; and he said further, \"Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit, and bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.\" Here the whole life of Christ resigned itself into the Father's desire, viz. into the will of the eternal nature, and fully gave in the will of his self-hood, viz. his creaturely will again into the centre, viz. into the first mother, from whence the soul-like creature was produced, that is, into the grand mystery of eternity: The self-will must again enter into nature's end, so that the selfishness may wholly die, that God's eternal will and spirit may be and do only all in all in the humanity, and that the creature might afterwards be alone his instrument, wherein he might do and work according to his good pleasure: And thus God the Father has in Christ's death and entrance into our humanity again received our self-hood into his will; and that this might be, he first tinctured the humanity with the Deity, that the humanity might be a pleasant sweet savour and offering to him in his power, for before death lay before it.\n\n88. Here the love destroyed death, and opened the fast seal, that the will might again enter into that which it was before [it was] the creature; and so we all must follow him upon the path which he has made open for us; none can see God, unless God become first man in him, which is brought to pass in faith's desire, and even then the corrupt will (which is apprehended in the death and anger of God, and which blooms in the earthly essence, and brings forth fruit unto death) be wholly mortified, and fall into the free resignation, into the will and mercy of God: And then the own will is with and in Christ at nature's end in the grand mystery of God, viz. in God's hands. God's hands are the eternal desire, or the eternal will, which is unchangeable; thus the creaturely self-will dies; it enters wholly into the nothing, that it might no more live to itself, but to God.\n\n89. Thus it falls out also in the philosophic work; when the artist has first seen great wonders, which the creaturely and natural will has wrought in the power [of] Venus, insomuch that he supposes that he is nigh thereunto; even then nature does first die in his work, and becomes a dark night unto him; the property and power of all the forms must give forth themselves from their centre, and fall upon nature's end; all do freely yield over themselves as one dead essence, and there is no longer any effectual working therein, all is divided in the crown into the thousandth number, and then it is again in the mystery as nature's end as it was before it came into the creaturely being; understand, the essential desire, viz. the expressed Mercury, must again come unto the end of its selfishness, and resign itself into the speaking word.\n\n90. The corporal essence remains in the centre of the four elements till the judgment of God, which now at death stands in the centre of Sol, viz. in the compaction of Venus and Mercury, which compaction at death falls wholly into one [thing], viz. into one power of Jupiter,222 that is, into the centre of the liberty; for here the desire to cold and heat goes out, all earthly will and desire of the properties dies, and there is no more any hunger after the earthly, or death's property.\n \n## Chapter 12. Of The Seventh Form In The Kingdom Of The Mother; How The Seventh Kingdom...\n\nOF THE SEVENTH FORM IN THE KINGDOM OF THE MOTHER; HOW THE SEVENTH KINGDOM, VIZ. THE KINGDOM OF THE SUN, IS AGAIN OPENED AND MADE ALIVE; SET FORTH IN PARABLE, OR BY WAY OF SIMILITUDE OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION\n\n1. We are not to think that when Christ died the natural death in the human property, that he died as to his creaturely soul,223 much less as to the Deity; also he did not disappear or die in the heavenly essentiality and in the heavenly tincture: This cannot be; only the will and dominion of self, viz. of the outward world, which domineered in man unto the own will and own powers of the selfish creature (wherein man was disobedient to God), he gave that wholly into the Father's hands, viz. into the end of nature, into the Father's great mystery; not that it should be dead, but that God's Spirit might alone be the life thereof, that the divine dominion might be in Christ's person, that the Eternal Father might rule and reign with his Eternal Spirit in his image; and therefore God has determined to keep the last judgment by this Jesus.\n\n2. Now the creature of Christ does it not alone, but God in his image through the creature in the dominion of his Eternal Spirit of all the three principles, which is the life and dominion of every being, in each thing according to its property.\n\n3. And understand us right, when Christ died on the cross, the name Jesus did not also die, which destroyed death, and tinctured the expressed word, viz. the form of the Deity (or the formed word), viz. the soul with love: No, it cannot be, the eternity does not die, only the spoken word, which stands again in the desire of the speaking, viz. in the fiat, which changes itself in its own speaking, viz. in the self-desire, and brings its own sound into another form and source than the speaking word had spoken it, and set it forth with the verbum fiat into a form, signature, and will; as Lucifer with his royal throne, and Adam also did, when they both departed out of resignation into selfhood; the instrument would be master.\n\n4. The outward working sensitive life wherein the anger of God was set on fire did wholly die away, not that it should be a nothing, but it fell into the nothing, viz. into God's will, into God's working and feeling, quite from the will of the outward world, which is evil and good, so that it might no longer live to the world, viz. to the astrum in the walm, the boiling or seething power of the four elements; but to the Eternal Father's nature in the walm of the pure divine element the life of the outward world died.\n\n5. Thus the true human life fell immediately again into that place from whence Adam had brought it, viz. into paradise, upon which Christ said to the thief, \"To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise;\" it fell into Adam's death, whereby he died to paradise, and sprang up in Adam's death as a new creature out of the old, like as the branch springs from the corn: And this it did from the might and power of the speaking word, which of grace was entered with living essentiality into the disappeared heavenly essentiality of man, and had freely given itself into the centre of the soul-like nature, and also into the wrath of the anger and death in the flesh, and changed the anger into love, and tinctured the corrupt blood in the anger with the love.\n\n6. The divine tincture tinctured the human; the divine sun entered into the human; the divine sun entered into Adam's night, viz. into Adam's sleep; God's sun with the name Jesus entered with Adam's soul and humanity in Christ's person into death, understand into Adam's sleep.\n\n7. When Christ died, then Adam died also to his self-hood in Christ's death; the name Jesus was in Christ the serpent-destroyer in Adam's humanity; Christ entered into the image of the first Adam, so that the first Adam in the humanity of Christ became the same Christ, and serpent-destroyer, indeed not in the same creature, but in the same soul's and body's property.\n\n8. The first Adam fell into sleep, viz. into the impotence of the divine world, and died in the death of death; the second Adam entered into the death of death; and took the death of death captive in himself, viz. in the humanity of Adam: He was a death to death, and brought forth the life out of death into the eternal liberty: He arose in the divine omnipotence in the essence of the first Adam: God's Spirit in the speaking eternal word brought forth Adam out of death in Christ's humanity. Adam arose in Christ's humanity, and all the children of Adam, which are partakers of Christ's kingdom, arise in Christ; all in Christ's flesh and blood, soul and spirit, but every one in his creature which he has had here, and mortified in Christ's death.\n\n9. Every one is a particular twig; but there is only one tree, which is Christ in Adam, and Adam in Christ, only one, not two; only one Christ in all Christians; so that I may say, \"If I be dead in Christ to the world, I am the same Christ, viz. a branch on the same tree.\"\n\n10. But seeing that I in the outward man do yet live in my self-hood, therefore I must also die with the outward man in Christ's death, and arise and live in him. Now therefore I live with the will of faith in the mind in Christ, and am a Christian in the will of the mind in the desire of faith, and receive Christ with his humanity into my will, and cast my will into his death; and thus my inward man is also dead in Christ's death, and lives no longer to self-hood; but I am resigned in him, and lie buried in his death: But seeing he is risen in God's will, I also live in his resurrection in him; but my earthliness in its selfish property lives to the earthly world, until it also dies quite to self-hood, and enters into the resignation and putrefaction, and then Christ will awaken it through my inward man, which now lives in him.\n\n11. Like as he is risen from the dead, even so shall I, who shall die to the earthliness in him, viz. in my first father Adam, in the name Jesus as a Christian in Christ; my twig, withered in sin on the tree, shall obtain strength and sap in the name Jesus to life. I shall and must spring forth afresh with my humanity in him as in my stem who is become a heart and power in my father Adam, and bring forth fruit to the praise of God.\n\n12. My will-spirit, which now is in Christ's humanity, and lives in Christ's Spirit, that shall in Christ's power give sap to the dry tree, that it shall again arise at the last day in the sound of the trumpet of the divine breath in Christ's voice, which also is my voice in his breath, and spring afresh in the tree Christ, viz. in paradise: The paradise shall be in me; all whatever God has and is shall appear in me as a form and image of the divine world's being; all colours, powers, and virtues of his eternal wisdom shall be manifest in me, and on me, as on his likeness: I shall be the manifestation of the spiritual divine world, and an instrument of God's Spirit, wherein he makes melody with himself, with this voice, which I myself am, as with his signature: I shall be his instrument, and organ of his expressed word and voice; and not only I, but all my fellow-members in the glorious tuned instrument of God: We are all strings in his joyful consort; the spirit of his mouth strikes the tune and note on our strings.\n\n13. And therefore God became man, that he might again repair his glorious instrument which he had made for his praise, which perished as to him, and would not sound according to the desire of his joy and love, and introduce again the true love-sound into the strings: He has introduced the voice which sounds in his presence again into us, viz. into his instrument, he is become that which I am, and has made me that which he is, so that I may say, that I am in my resignation in him his trumpet, and the sound of his instrument and divine voice,224 at which now I rejoice in all my fellow-strings and voices, which with me are tuned and set as an eternal work, to the praise and glory of God.\n\n14. Thus know ye now my fellow-voices in the praise of God, that I sound with my string played upon in the spirit upon and in your note, and thus sing I to you; that whatever Jesus has done through the Christ, viz. through his and my humanity, the same he does yet to-day in me and in all my fellow-members. He died to my self-hood in his death, and I also die to my self-hood in his death: He is given up to his resignation in God his Father, and God his Father has raised him up with the spirit of his mouth in him, and set him forth for the royal image according to the Holy Trinity, through and with whom God will judge all things in the place of this world.\n\n15. Thus God also has awakened in him my spirit and soul through his spirit in the great name Jesus in Christ, so that I in my resignation in him need not to die, for he died in me and for me; his death, in that he is risen from death, is become my eternal life, so that now I live in his death, as one dying; and yet there is no more any death in him, but thus I die to myself and sin in him, seeing that my desire and will presses forth from my self-hood into it, so that I die daily to myself, till once I shall obtain the limit of my self-hood, and my self-hood with the earthly will and desire does wholly die to its selfishness; then shall my self-hood, and all whatever is in me which seeks and loves itself, fall into the death of Christ, viz. into the first mother, from whence God created me, and my self-hood shall become a nothing; and even then my self-hood lies in Christ's death in the resignation as an instrument of God, who then will make it his instrument as he pleases.\n\n16. But seeing now my soul and spirit lives in his resurrection, and his voice [air or breath] is in me, according to the resignation in him, as St. Paul says, \"Our conversation is in heaven, from whence we wait for the Saviour Jesus Christ;\" therefore also his voice, which is in me in that I am [or live] no longer to my self-hood, but he alone [is and lives in me], shall raise up my dead body, which I resign to him, and bring it into his first image, to which he created it.\n\n17. Thus now I live in God, and my self-hood does not know it, for it lives not in God, but in itself (God is indeed in it, but it does not apprehend him), and hides the pearl which I am in Christ; not I, but he in his humanity in my creature in himself: And thus I speak and write of the great mystery of all beings, not that I have apprehended it in my self-hood, but he strikes my signature in my desire, which presses into him, as he pleases.\n\n18. I am known to myself, but not in my self-hood, but in his mirror which of grace he has put into me, thereby to allure my self-hood to him, viz. into the resignation; and so likewise, dear brethren, it shall again be represented to you out of his glass,225 which he has set forth through my capacity in him, as his instrument.\n\n19. Thus it goes also in the philosophic work; Sulphur, Mercury, and Sal are entered by the curse of God into their self-hood, viz. into a self-working and living; all does now work in the curse and anger of God according to the property of the first principle; if God had not placed the sun as a nature-god of the outward visible world therein, which tinctures every working life, even everything which grows and moves, all would be in the dark death's impression, viz. in the abyss of hell.\n\n20. Now if anything shall be freed from this self-hood, viz. from the wrathful death, and be again brought into the universal, viz. into the highest perfection, then it must die wholly to its self-hood, and enter into the stillness, viz. into the death of the resignation at nature's end: Mars must wholly lose the might of the fire and wrath, and Mercury also his poison-life; Saturn must be a death to himself, insomuch that the artist sees nothing but the great darkness, and even then the light appears in the resignation; for St. John says, \"The light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not;\" that is, in its self-hood, viz. in its own will and working it cannot apprehend it; but in the resignation the nothing, viz. the liberty of God shines in it.\n\n21. For the nothing manifests itself in its lubet out of the liberty in the darkness of death; for the nothing will not be a nothing, and also cannot be a nothing, and likewise it cannot otherwise manifest itself, but according to the property of the free lubet, which is now fixed [or steadfast], and in it also as a nothing, for there is no turba therein; the self-will and hunger is dead, and in the nothing, and the lubet of the eternal liberty is its life: Now seeing that the highest being has once moved itself, and come into a visible comprehensible essence, it does again figure [or form] that same essence, which departs from its self-hood, and enters into the nothing, into such a being [or essence] as it was before the times of the world: But seeing the verbum fiat stands yet to this day creating of the corporal essence, it does again make a fixed perfect essence; as the like is brought to pass in the philosophic work, where a new life arises out of death, as God does raise us up in himself in Christ, if we die to self-hood, and wholly resign up ourselves to him.\n\n22. And thus when the expressed Mercury in the Sulphur of Saturn resigns its self-hood into Venus, then the verbum fiat changes it again into such an essence according to the lubet of the liberty; the death arises in a new body out of the darkness of death, in a white fair colour, but as an hidden lustre, wherein the colour is not rightly and distinctly known, till it dissolves itself, and the materia becomes desiring; then the sun arises in the centre, and Saturn in the property of Jupiter and Venus in all the seven forms (that is in the verbum fiat) as a new creation, and the desire of all the seven forms tend to Sol's lustre, viz. to the white and red colour from the fire and light, which is the majestical [colour, lustre, or glory].\n\n23. Christ after his resurrection walked226 forty days in the mystery of all the three principles at once, in the property of the first Adam after his creation before his sleep, and before his Eve was formed, and appeared to his disciples in his property which he had here from the outward world, and did eat with them, and shewed them his assumed humanity, and that he had in no wise wholly put it off.\n\n24. Even so let the artist understand us, that in the philosophic work the first matter does not wholly pass away or vanish, but it enters into the death of the life of its wrathful property, and dies in the curse of God, but rises again in its former being, which it had before the curse of God: The curse only is destroyed therein, and the first life does again rise up therein, and therefore it is fixed, and subsists in the fire, for it is dead to the dominion of the four elements, and lives in the fifth essence; not that it has that same life, but it stands still therein; yet the spirit of the new-born essence is a vegetative life with its growing therein; its lustre stands therein, it shews the first Adam in innocence, who stood likewise in such perfection.\n\n25. And as Christ tinctured our corrupt humanity, in which Mercury was turned to poison, with the heavenly blood of the eternal divine virginity and essentiality, whereby the human self-hood died in the poison, and the resigned life did again arise; so the poisonful mercurial, martial, and saturnine will and desire die in the blood of Venus in the philosophic work, and both enter together into death, and arise both together in one love, in one will.\n\n26. Therefore let the artist observe the tincture; it is more noble and precious for man's use in this valley of misery than the body which arises in the tincture; for the spirit is the life; the body is only a figure of the life, and the blood is a mansion of the spirit.\n\n27. The artist must well observe this; in the blood of the young man, when his pearl227 gives itself to the three murtherers, that it also sheds its blood in and with the young man's, then the champion stands in hell, and disclaims the human self-hood: Then the white lion appears upon his crimson-coloured beast; even there lies the cure of sickness, and the death of death.\n\n28. The body is dissolved in the blood of love in the death out of the earthly into an heavenly [property]. The tincture gives itself into the new body; and afterwards, when the body rises in Sol's splendour, it also forsakes its will; it resigns itself wholly into the body's essence, and becomes its beauty, splendour, and colour, which the artist can never separate; for they are together in the fifth essence, viz. in the mystery of the verbum fiat, and belong to God's motion of the final day of separation; in this time to his own manifestation unto his honour, and deeds of wonder; but after this time to the crystalline world in the glassy sea before the ancient in the Apocalypse.\n\nA Brief Summary of the Philosophic Work\n\n29. Our meaning might seem very difficult to the reader, in that we go so far about and shew Christ all along therein; at which let no man wonder, we do not seek gold, or any temporal goods thereby, and drive man into vain curiosities; we speak only with the children whom God has chosen thereunto; for the time is born, where that which is lost shall be again found; yea not only the universal for the body of this world, but also for the soul.\n\n30. The process is very short in both, and it is only of one property which is thus: The tree, understand the life, is divided into seven forms; now the curse of God is come into the seven forms, so that they are in strife and enmity, and one form annoys the other, and can never agree unless they all seven enter into death, and die to the self-will. Now this cannot be, unless a death comes into them, which breaks all their will, and be a death to them; as the deity in Christ was a death to the human self-hood, and the seven forms in the human life; thus it is here also: The human will was changed in Christ into the eternal sun, viz. into the resignation in God; so must all the forms in the philosophic work be changed into one, viz. into Sol: Seven must become one, and yet remain in seven, but in one desire, where each form desires the other in love, and then there is no more any strife and contest.\n\n31. Therefore let the artist but consider how he may give death to the death with the pure life, and how he may awaken the dead and disappeared life, which is heavenly, and lies hidden and captivated in the curse, so that it may again receive the fire-soul; and if he does but bring it so far, it works of itself.228  \n\n32. When the virgin again receives her bridegroom, who has been faithless, then he is prepared and fitted to the work; otherwise he is no way at all fitted; but all is in vain and to no purpose [which he attempts]. There is not any possibility for the heavenly image according to God's likeness in man to be otherwise helped and restored after that the fire-soul had entered into its self-hood, unless the Spirit of God introduced itself into the disappeared image, viz. into the heavenly essentiality, and gave itself in with the image awakened in it into the soul's fire, viz. into the wrath of death, and be a death to death, viz. to the wrathful anger of God, that it might be drowned in the love, in the blood of the heavenly essentiality; and though there could be no parting nor dying, yet there was a dying of the wrath, so that the wrath was changed into a joy and love.\n\n33. Thus the artist's work is exactly and throughout no otherwise: For man was created out of all beings, out of the heaven and earth; but when he became wholly earthly, and the curse seized on him, the curse also came over the earthly being, from whence man was made: Thus the heaven was shut up from man, and the heaven also was shut up in the earth, as metals, trees, and herbs, in the food of man, and whatever belonged to his ornament and delight.\n\n34. The soul of the earth, viz. the property of the fire of the first principle is entered into its self-hood, viz. into God's anger; now the heaven is hidden in it; therefore the artist must in his work reduce the soul in the curse and the heaven again into one: He must introduce the soul again into heaven, or else there is no possibility: Now he cannot bring the soul in its iniquity into heaven, for it will not, and therefore he must bring the heaven into the soul, and wholly give in the heaven to the soul, that the soul may eat of heaven, whether she will or no; the heaven must be as death229 in the soul, so that the soul cannot get rid of it, how angry soever she be, and vehemently rages against it, till she be overcome in her wrath, and enters with the desire into heaven, viz. into the disappeared essence, and wills to murther it, as the Jews did Christ; and if she so enters into the heavenly essence, then the image of the heavenly essence falls into the jaws of the murtherer.\n\n35. Thus when the heavenly essence gives its desire to the murtherer, the murtherer is dismayed at the dear love-life, and arises in the flagrat in the heavenly essentiality; thus the disappeared essence does again receive the fire flagrat into itself, and wholly unites itself with the fire-life; and so the fire must burn in love and meekness, and forego230 its right in the centre, as the light which shines from the fire; thus and no otherwise the heavenly essence obtains its life; and as a fire does thoroughly heat an iron that it appears as if it were mere fire, and it is so, but the iron does still retain its substance; so the disappeared essence, viz. the heaven is manifest in the poisonful mercurial and martial fire-soul, and makes of seven wills only one, and yet seven remain, but the enmity ceases.\n\n36. This is an universal, which also changes the enmity231 or malignity of all diseases in the human body into one will [into unity]; so that the raging and raving, viz. the seven forms of life in their enmity become unanimous; and then the hunger of the disease ceases, and the process to the universal is as has been already mentioned. It is not my intention to mention a clear declaration thereof; it is clear enough; he that will not seek thereby a new man born in God, and apply himself diligently thereto, let him not meddle with my writings.\n\n37. I have not written anything for such a seeker, and also he shall not be able to apprehend our meaning fundamentally, though he strives never so much about it, unless he enters into the resignation in Christ; there he may apprehend the spirit of the universal, otherwise all is to no purpose; and we faithfully warn the curious critic not to amuse himself, for he will not effect anything in this way, unless he himself enters thereinto, and then it will be shewn him without much seeking; for the way is child-like [plain and easy].\n \n## Chapter 13. Of The Enmity Of The Spirit And Of The Body, And Of Their Cure And Remedy\n\nOF THE ENMITY232 OF THE SPIRIT AND OF THE BODY, AND OF THEIR CURE AND REMEDY\n\n1. Everything is in itself a senseless, and as a dead thing or being; it is only a manifestation of the spirit, which is in the body: The spirit is signed with the body;233 whatever the spirit is in itself in an incomprehensible [imperceptible] operation, the same is the body in the comprehensible and visible working. There is one form of the seven forms of nature superior and chief; the other hang to it, and give their signs also, according as each of them is strong in the essence; and as the forms stand in their order in each thing, so they sign the body of every thing and creature in its generation [or kind]: This is the manifestation of the divine wisdom in the expressed word of love and anger.\n\n2. There is not anything but it has its soul in it according to its property, and the soul is a kernel to another body: Whatever lives and grows has its seed in it; God has comprehended all things in his word, and spoken them forth into a form, as the will had formed234 itself in the desire, the expressed word is a platform of the speaking, and has again the speaking in it; this same speaking is a seed to another image according to the first, for both work, viz. the speaking, and the spoken [word].\n\n3. The speaking works in itself, viz. in the eternity, and the spoken also in itself, viz. in the time; the speaking is the master, and the spoken is the instrument; the speaking makes the nature of eternity, and the spoken makes the nature of time; each makes in its comprehension two properties, viz. light and darkness, wherein the element of all beings consists, which in the expressed word operates itself into four elements, but in the speaking word there is but one: The element in itself is neither hot nor cold, also neither dry nor moist; but it is a lubet, viz. a desiring will, wherein the divine wisdom makes the different235  and various colours; all according to the desire's property, in which236 there is neither number nor end: But in the four elements there is number and end; for with the expressing (in that they are become self-full) they have taken a beginning, and have formed themselves into a model or platform of a time, which runneth as a watch-work; it forms, frames, and destroys.\n\n4. This watch-work consists of seven forms, or properties (as is before mentioned), which make in themselves a threefold spirit, viz. a vegetative, sensitive, and rational: The vegetative consists in the four elements; the sensitive in the seven forms of nature, and the reasoning power in the constellation; but the understanding proceeds only from God, for it rises out of the eternal nature; all life whatever, which has its limit in the expressed word, consists in Sal, Sulphur, and Mercury; for therein consist the seven properties of every life of this world; and also the spirit of vegetation, sensation, and reason.\n\n5. Sulphur is the mother of all spirituality and corporality; Mercury manages the dominion therein; and Sal is the house of its habitation, which Mercury itself makes in Sulphur: Reason arises in the oil of the Sulphur, whereinto the constellation gives its desire, viz. the essence of its property, from whence immediately the senses and thoughts arise; but the understanding proceeds from the oil of the element, viz. in the free lubet in the speaking Mercury.\n\n6. Now then, seeing it is very necessary for us poor children of Eve to know from whence the disease and enmity of our life arise, and what that is in us which makes us our own enemies,. and vex, perplex, and plague us in ourselves; much more necessary it is to know the cure, whereby we may cure ourselves in our self-hood, and bring ourselves into the limit of rest.237 \n\n7. This we will delineate and declare, if there be any one that has a mind to enter upon it, and truly prove and try it; and we will set forth from whence evil and good arise originally, and how they arise, and give occasion to the understanding searcher to seek: And we will shew how the will to evil and good arises, and how the evil is the death of the good, and on the contrary the good the death of the evil.\n\n8. When we consider what the mercurial life is, then we find that it consists in Sulphur; for Sulphur is a dry hunger after matter, which makes an austere impression, and in its austere impression it has the fire, and also in its impression the oil, from whence the life burns. Now the impression makes coldness, and its compunction or attraction makes heat, so that238 now there is a cold fire and an hot fire in one thing; the cold makes in itself hardness and darkness, and the heat makes in itself the light, and yet there could be no light, if the oil in the Sulphur did not die in hot anguish, as the candle in the fire.\n\n9. Now there is a twofold dying in Sulphur, from whence also a twofold life is generated; First, the impression or desire does draw in, contract, enclose, make hard, cold, thick; and the hardness, viz. the enclosed, causes a death in the enclosed being, and yet in that spirit there is no death, but a pricking, raging, and anxious cold fire-life, which is generated with the impression, and is the life of the darkness.\n\n10. Secondly, in the same anguish, in the austere desire, the hot fire is generated, which consumes the substance, which the coldness, viz. the impression of the desire to nature makes: Thus there remains in the fire the contention betwixt the cold and heat; the cold will have its life according to its property, and in that it strives for life, it enkindles the heat in its impression, and immediately the heat deprives the cold of its might, and consumes the cold substance, and then also the fire-spirit cannot subsist; for unless it has substance it goes out, therefore it must continually, and without intermission, die in itself in the fiery anxious desire: So long as it has the cold's substance to live upon, its life arises, and yet it is nothing but a constant dying and consuming, and in its devouring is the greatest hunger after substance; this same [hunger] passes forth through and with the devouring out of the dying of the fire, and dwells in the nothing, yet it may not be a nothing, and also it cannot be a nothing, therefore it draws the fire again into itself; for its own desire is bent towards its mother: But seeing it is once dead to the fire-source, it cannot die any more in the fire of the heat or cold, but it continually proceeds forth from the fire, and the fire draws it again continually into itself, and so it is the life of the fire; and this is the air, which in the fire is rightly called wind, by reason of the strength and force; and in that which is proceeded forth239 it is properly called air, by reason of its life of meekness.\n\n11. And in the dying of the fire we are to understand the oil, whence the fire receives its shining light, in which the true life is understood; for that which proceeds forth in the fire-death with the desire to be delivered and freed from the fire-source, that is a desire of meekness, and takes its original in the first will to nature, in which the eternal nothing brings itself with its lubet into a desire.\n\n12. This lubet brings forth itself through the cold and hot death (through both the dyings) again into the liberty, viz. into the Nothing; and so it is manifested in the austere impression through the fire, and brought into a principle, and yet it is not either of the fire or of the cold, but so is its manifestation.\n\n13. But seeing the eternal lubet to nature introduces itself with nature into a desire; thereupon this desire cannot die either in the cold or heat, for it takes its origin neither in the heat or cold, but in the nothing; and so it is, after it proceeds from the dying in the fire, again desiring, namely of its own property, and impresses itself, for in the fire it has taken the impression.\n\n14. Now it cannot conceive anything in its impression but an essence according to its desire, which is now water; understand according to the dark impression's property it is water, and according to the fire it is oil; and that which in the cold impression is wholly enclosed in the hardness, as a conception according to the wrath's property, is earth.\n\n15. Thus the wrathful fiery desire draws continually the same air, water, and oil into itself, and devours it, and so the fire-wrath is changed in the air, and oil, and water, into a shining light; for the nothing desires nothing else but power and lustre, and so it makes itself manifest, and brings itself into essence: And the spirit which proceeds forth out of the fire burning in the oil, viz. in the light from the fire and light, gives reason and understanding; for it has originally taken its rise in the nothing, and was the desire to nature; and has brought itself through all the properties of nature, through heat and cold, through the dying in the fire through the light, and dwells again in the nothing.\n\n16. It is a prover and knower of all the properties, for it is generated through all, and proceeded forth from all; it is as a Nothing, and yet has all things, and passes through heat and cold, and yet none of them apprehend it; as we see that the life of the creature dwells in heat and cold, and yet the right life is neither hot nor cold.\n\n17. Now therefore understand us right: This birth in the eternity is spiritual, but in the time it is material; for I cannot say of God that he is darkness and fire, much less air, water, or earth; but in his eternal desire he has so formed himself with the time in the place of this world into such an essence, which he formed in the speaking Mercury according to the properties of the will, and brought with the expressed word into such a formation according to the properties of the desire in the eternal nature, viz. in the verbum fiat.\n\n18. Now the expressed word, viz. the eternal nature's property is understood in Sulphur, for therein is the sevenfold wheel of the birth, which in the spirit, viz. in the first conception to nature, is a constellation, and divides itself out of the constellation in its own peculiar birth into seven properties, and out of the seven properties into four elements.\n\n19. This constellation is a chaos, wherein all things lie, but hidden; and it is the first body, but spiritual; and the sevenfold wheel is the first explication [or working forth] of the chaos, and makes the second body, viz. the reason; the second manifests the first, and it is also a spiritual body; the third body is elementary, a cabinet of both the first, and is a visible tangible body.\n\n20. The first body, viz. the chaos, or the first constellation, seeing it is spiritual, is the word expressed out of the eternal conception; the same has again its speaking in itself, which is the mercurial wheel in the Sulphur with the seven forms, which speaks forth again from itself the four elements.\n\n21. Thus the one proceeds forth from the other; the first before the chaos is the lubet of eternity in the abyss, which takes in itself a will to its own manifestation; this is all God; and the will conceives in itself a desire in the lubet; this is the chaos, or first astrum,240 wherein consists the eternal nature, which with the desire to nature introduces itself into seven forms, as is before mentioned, and so manifests the chaos, viz. the eternal hidden wisdom of God; and with the desire in the mercurial wheel the element is formed, being a spiritual body of the mercurial life.\n\n22. Now all this is twofold, viz. the desire makes in itself in its impression the darkness, wherein is the strong might of the enkindling of nature, and it is painful; and the free lubet to the desire makes in itself through the enkindling of the desire light and pleasing motion; the light is the power and lustre, and the element is its body, or essence; whereas yet it is only spiritual: Thus the fire-desire is a joyfulness in the free lubet, and in the darkness it is an aching painful source.\n\n23. Out of this whole essence man was created to the image of God, and understand us right, he stood after and in the creation in the dominion of the element; the mercurial wheel241 in Sulphur stood in the light, and in the free lubet of eternity; but he departed further with his desire into the four elements, viz. into the centre of darkness, from whence heat and cold arise.\n\n24. His desire in the beginning was bent [inclined] into the liberty of God, viz. into the element, where he was resigned in God; and then God's love-will ruled him with the free lubet's property, but he departed out of the free lubet of God, out of the resignation into a self-will, which he forged in the centre to nature, from whence the pain and torture arise, viz. heat and cold, so also astringency, sour bitterness, and all the properties of the dark impression.\n\n25. Even there he fell into the eternal death, viz. into the dying source, in which the mercurial life in the Sulphur rules in the poison, where one form in the mercurial sphere does envy, hate, annoy, and destroy the other, where there is meer anguish, aching, tormenting, and enmity; for the free lubet was quenched in him, wherein the holy element, viz. the divine body consists, and there arose in the same pure element the four elements of the outward source; there the image of God was cursed, which is nothing else but that God's love-will, which ruled in the image of his likeness, withdrew from man, and so man fell into the dominion of nature: And seeing the four elements have a temporal beginning and end, and must again enter into the end, therefore also the human body, which is now become wholly earthly in the four elements, must fall again into the four elements, and be destroyed therein: And therefore now we are to consider of his cure and restoration, how he may again be delivered from death, and be again introduced with the body into the pure element, and with the spirit into the dominion of God's will.\n\n26. Now there is no other remedy but that he with the spirit which arises in the chaos, and was inspired by God's will-spirit into the created image, does again depart out of his self-hood, viz. out of his natural will, and resign himself up fully and freely into the first will, which in the beginning formed him into an image: He must wholly die to his self-hood in himself in the death of the dark impression (as far as he lives therein to his own will in the self-desire of the outward life of the four elements) and cast himself with total resignation into God's will, viz. into God's mercy, that he may no longer live and will to himself, but to God, viz. to the first will of God, which created him in its image, whereby God manifested himself in an image; and so he is with the first astrum, viz. with the chaos of the soul, again in the same comprehension wherein God created him to his image.\n\n27. But seeing the self-hood, viz. the self-will, strives against this, and will in no wise die to its self-hood (understand the will of the outward world, which is from the outward stars and four elements), therefore God's food must be given to the inward will of the spirit to eat of, that it may live without need and hunger as to the outward being, that it may continually mortify and break the will of the earthly self-hood, till the earthliness, viz. the earthly body, does freely unloose or dissolve itself in death, and also enter again into the mother, from whence it was created, and forsake its self-hood, that the pure body of the element (in which the true life in God's will-spirit does again enkindle the soul in the resigned will242) and the disappeared body from the pure element may become a mansion of the soul, viz. a paradisical budding [or bloomy renovation in the eternal spring-time of paradise].\n\n28. And that the own will of the soul might be able to do this, viz. that it might break itself off from its self-hood, and willingly enter into the death of its self-hood, and become a nothing in its self-hood, the free will of God, viz. the eternal lubet to the chaos of the soul, which is the eternal Mercury in the power of the majesty, is again entered into the disappeared image of God proceeded from the pure element, viz. into the virgin-like life, and draws the will of the soul to itself, and gives it again out of love and grace the heavenly corporality of the pure element for food, and the water in that element in the tincture of the fire and light, viz. of the eternal life, for drink: And it has incorporated itself in the humanity, and freely tenders itself to all souls with full desire: That soul which dies to its self-hood, and brings its hunger again into God's mercy, may enjoy this food, whereby it again becomes the first creature in God's love.243 \n\n29. Now we are to consider how the poor soul captivated in God's anger, being void of the heavenly food, lives in mere anguish, and distress, and restless pain; as the outward earthly body in its properties lives in its hunger in mere anguish, distress, and oppressing pain, unless the soul with the pure element does so overpower and keep it under, that it does not fully domineer in its own dominion of the outward astrum and four elements in the poisonful mercurial wheel, according to the dark impression, by reason of the influence of the element: If the universal does withstand it, then it may stand in quiet rest, but yet no longer than the inward penetrates the outward [body], and tinctures it: There is in the four elements no perfection, till the body is changed again into the pure element; therefore it must enter again into that from whence the four elements arise.\n\n30. Now in this time of the four elements there is mere pain and vexation;244 the soul amuses itself on the outward astrum, which forces into it, from whence its false imagination arises, and the body stirs up the poisonful mercurial wheel, from whence sickness and pains befall it; therefore the soul must be cured with the inward perfection, viz. by the speaking word, wherein it stands in God's hand, which alone is able to tincture the soul, and bring it into rest: The outward body must be tinctured and healed with the expressed Mercury; and if the outward Mercury does also stand in the curse as a poison-wheel, then he must be tinctured with his own light in his mother in the body [or womb] of Sulphur: Mercury's own will and hunger must be broken, that the envious odious hunger may become a love desire.\n\n31. And now to know how this may be brought to pass, we must consider the generation in Sulphur, from whence joy and sorrow do arise; for the poisonful Mercury may not otherwise be resisted, and also nothing can resist it, but its own mother which brings it forth, in whose womb it is couched: As nothing can resist the cold but the heat only, and yet the heat is the cold's son; so also the poisonful Mercury must be resisted with its own child, which he himself generates in his mother's womb out of heat and cold out of himself.\n\n32. As the love proceeding from the heart of the Father, which is his Son, withstands the anger of the Father, whereby the Father is merciful; so likewise it is in the expressed word or Mercury.\n\n33. Now understand it thus: I do not mean that the cold poison of Mercury should be, or could be resisted with the enkindled heat; no, but if the cold poison be enkindled, then the remedy must be from the same likeness; but it must be first freed from the coldness, viz. from the enflamed cold wrath, and brought into meekness, and then it does also still and appease the hunger of the cold's desire in the disease of the body: For if enkindled heat be administered to the enkindled cold, then the cold is dismayed at the heat, and falls into a swound, viz. into death's property; and so the heat becomes in this death's property a poison-life, viz. an anxious sting; and the mercurial wheel runs into sadness, viz. into sickness, or a crazy dotage, wherein all joy is forgotten.\n\n34. For if the life shall subsist in its own right, then the heat and cold must stand in equality,245 that so they may accord one with another, and no enmity or disaffection246 be at all in any of them; the one must not exceed or over-top the other, but they must stand in one will; for the enkindled cold desires no heat, but only likeness: Every hunger desires only likeness for its food, but if the hunger be too strongly enkindled in the cold, such a cure is not to be given it which is so enkindled; indeed it must be in as high a degree in the cold; but the violent force must be first taken away from it; so that it may be only as the mother which generates it, not according to the enkindled poison-source, but according to the mother's joy; and so the sickness, viz. the poison in the anguish, will be likewise changed into such a joy, and so the life receives again its first property.\n\n35. The raw opposite body does not belong to the cure, but its oil, which must be mollified with its own love, understand with a meek essence, which also belongs to the same property; for the seven forms of nature are only one in the centre: Therefore that oil must be brought so far in the wheel, till it enters into its highest love-desire, and then it is rightly fit for cure; for there is nothing so evil but it has a good in it, and that very good resists its evil [or poisonful malignity].\n\n36. Thus also in the same sickness it may withstand the enkindled wrath in the body; for if the cold poison be enkindled in the body, then its good falls into faintness;247 and if it cannot obtain the likeness of its essence for its help, it remains in faintness; and then the enkindled wrath also does immediately consume itself, and falls also into faintness; and so the natural death is in both, and the moving life in the body ceases; but if it attains the likeness,248 then it gathers strength again, and the enkindled hunger of the disease must cease.\n\n37. In like manner also we are to consider of the heat, which needs no cold property, but the likeness; yet it must be first freed from the wrath of the same likeness, and brought into its own highest joy and good, so that this likeness does not effectually249 operate either in heat or cold, but in its own love-desire, viz. in its best relish, and so it will bring the heat in the body into such a desire: All corruptions in the body proceed from the cold; if the brimstone be too vehemently enkindled by the heat, then the right and property of the cold dies, and enters into sorrow.\n\n38. Mercury is the moving250 life in all, and his mother is Sulphur; now the life and death lie in Sulphur, viz. in the wrestling mercurial wheel. In the Sulphur there is fire, light, and darkness; the impression causes darkness, coldness, and hardness, and also great anguish: and from the impression of the attraction Mercury takes his rise, and he is the sting of the attraction, viz. the motion or disquietude, and arises in the great anguish of the impression, where coldness, viz. a dark cold fire, by reason of the hardness, arises in the impression; and in the sting of anguish, viz. in the disquietude, an hot fire arises.\n\n39. Now Mercury is the wheel of motion, and a stirring up of the cold and heat; and in this placeit is only a painful aching source in heat and cold, viz. a cold and hot fiery poison-anguish, and forces forward as a wheel, and yet it is a cause of joy, and all life and motion; but if it shall be freed from the anguish, and introduced into the joy, then it must be brought forth through death.\n\n40. Now every sickness and malady is a death's property; for Mercury has too much enkindled and enflamed himself either in heat or cold, whereby the essence or flesh, which he has attracted to himself in his desire, viz. in his mother in the Sulphur, is burnt, whereby the earthliness arises both in the water and flesh: Even as the matter of the earth and stones, viz. the grossness of the same, is nothing else but a burnt Sulphur, and water in Mercury is his property, where the salniter in the flagrat of the mercurial wheel, from whence the manifold salts arise, is burnt [or too vehemently enflamed], from whence come the stink and evil taste.\n\n41. Otherwise if the Mercury did so effectually operate therein in the oil of Sulphur, that he might be brought through the death of the impression from the heat and cold, then the earth would be again in paradise, and the joy-desire would again spring [or bloom afresh] through the anguish of the cold's impression: And this is the cause that God laid the curse upon the earth; for the mercurial wheel was deprived of its good (viz. the love-desire, which arises in the eternal liberty, and manifests itself with this mercurial wheel through cold and heat, and proceeds forth through the fire, and makes a shining of the light) and the curse was brought thereinto, which is a withdrawing of the love-desire.\n\n42. Now this Mercury, being a life in the Sulphur of its mother, stands in the curse, viz. in the anguish of heat and cold, and makes in his flagrat, or salnitral walm, continually salts, according to such property as he is in each place, and as he is enkindled in each body; these salts are only the taste in the seven properties.\n\n43. Now if the Mercury be too vehemently enkindled in the cold, then he makes in the salnitral flagrat in his mother in the Sulphur a cold hard impressive salt, from whence melancholy, darkness, and sadness arise in the life of Sulphur; for observe what salt is in each thing, such a lustre of the fire, and such a vital shining from the fire is also therein; but if Mercury be enkindled in immoderate heat, he then burns up the cold essence, and makes raging pains and achings according to the impression, and according to the sting's property, from whence arises in the Sulphur great heat and inflammation; he dries up and consumes the water, so that the desire's hunger or sting has then no food to satisfy its wrathful hunger, upon which he rages and tears in the salt, as it is the poison's property [so to do], from whence the painful distemper in the flesh arises.\n\n44. But if he obtains the likeness again in the property as he stands in the centre of his mother, viz. in the Sulphur, understand as she has generated him in the beginning, viz. as he at first came forth to the natural life in both tinctures of man and woman, understand in the child where his life did enkindle, then he is freed from all anguish, and enters again into the likeness of the heat and cold; and though the strife arises in many even from the very womb, yet the combat is first raised up after the beginning of the life: In the life's beginning the life enters into its highest joy; for the gates of the three principles are opened in equal accord; but the strife soon begins about the conquest between the darkness and light.\n\n45. But now we are to consider what is to be done to Mercury, if he be enkindled251 either in heat or cold, whereby he raises up sickness and pains: Now it were very good that men had the right cure; but alas! it will remain hidden and covered by reason of the curse of the earth, and the abominations and sins of men, because they awaken this poison in Mercury with their immoderate bestiality.252 \n\n46. Yet the poor captive has need of deliverance; and though men have not the high universal, which reaches the centre, and brings the wheel of life into its first property, yet men must take from the mercurial walm253 of the earth its fruits thereunto, seeing the body is also become earthly: A man must accord (or assimulate) one likeness with another, one salt with another, according as the inflammation is in the salt of the body: For observe, in what property the brimstone is enkindled, either in heat or cold, in melancholy or falling sickness (whether the brimstone be burnt too in the body and putrified, or whether it be yet fresh and burning), even such an herb, such a brimstone belongs to the cure, lest the heat or cold be terrified in the salniter, where the salt arises, by a strange might which comes into it, and generates a mort254 salt, and sets open more and more the house of sadness: But it is not sufficient and powerful enough in its wild nature and property as it grows out of the walm255 of the earth; it is not able to master the root of the enkindled Mercury in the brimstone, but it does more vehemently enkindle it in such a source and property.\n\n47. That which thou desirest should happen to the body, the same must first happen to that which shall cure the body: To the cure of a foul sickness there belongs a foul brimstone, and so to a cold or hot sickness the like is to be understood; for look in what degree of the fire or cold Mercury is enkindled, and in what form among the seven properties of nature; that is, what salt soever among the seven salts is enkindled, such a salt belongs to the cure: For sickness is nothing else but an hunger; now the hunger desires nothing else but its likeness; but now the property of that life, which in its beginning of its rise stood in joy, is the root; and the sickness is its immoderate enkindling, whereby the order [or temperature] is broken and divided: Thus the root desires in its hunger the likeness, but the inflammation has taken it away; now the inflammation is stronger than the root, therefore the hunger of the inflammation must be appeased, and that which itself is must be administered to it.\n\n48. But as God cured us with his love, and restored to us the salvation of the soul, when we had enkindled the same in the poisonful Mercury of his anger; in like manner also this likeness must be first cured and circulated in the mercurial wheel, and freed from the heat and cold; indeed not taken away from them (this cannot be, and it were also unprofitable), but it must be brought into his highest joy, and then it will make such a property in the body in the Mercury of the brimstone and salt; for the root of life does again quicken itself therein, and lifts up the first desire, so that now the hunger vanishes in the fall of the inflammation.\n\n49. Now it behoves the physician to know how he may deal with the medicaments in the likeness, so that he does not enrage them, and bring them into another property; for in their property they are even as a man's life is: He must take care that they remain in their degree, as they are originally brought forth in their mother; for nothing can come higher than it is in the centre of its original according to the hiddenness; but if it shall come higher, then it must assume another property to itself; and so it is not in its own degree, and has not its proper virtue, but an improper one; which indeed may very well be, but it has lost its nature-right, wherein it stands in joy, and is not able to effect any proper operation in the assimulate of its own nature.\n\n50. Therefore there is nothing better than to let everything remain in its innate genuine virtue; only its wrath must be changed into its own joy, that so its own virtue according to the good part may be advanced into its dominion, and then in the likeness it is powerful enough in all sicknesses without any other mixture: For the original in the life desires no other multiplicity, but only its likeness, that it may stand, live, and burn in its own power and property.\n\n51. The power of the Most High has given to all things (to every one according to its property) a fixed perfection; for \"all was very good,\" as Moses says, but with the curse the turba is introduced, so that the properties stand in the strife of Mercury; yet in each property, in every herb, or whatever is, in whatever grows or arises out of the walm256 of the four elements, there is a fixity hidden; for all things which are in the four elements are originally sprung forth out of the eternal element, in which there is no strife, neither heat nor cold, but all things were in equal weight of all the properties in a love-play, as it is so now in paradise; and the same [paradise] sprung forth in the beginning of this world before the curse through the earth: Thus it is also yet hidden in all things, and may be opened by understanding and art, so that the first virtue may overcome the enflamed malignity.\n\n52. Though we men have not full power to do it in self-might, yet it may be done in God's permission, who has again turned his mercy towards us,257 and again opened paradise and its comprehension in man: Hath God given us power to become his children, and to rule over the world? Why then not over the curse of the earth? Let none hold it for impossible; there is required only a divine understanding and knowledge thereunto, which shall blossom in the time of the lily, and not in Babel, for whom we also have not written.\n \n## Chapter 14. Of The Wheel Of Sulphur, Mercury, And Salt; Of The Generation Of Good And Evil...\n\nOF THE WHEEL OF SULPHUR, MERCURY, AND SALT; OF THE GENERATION OF GOOD AND EVIL; SHEWING HOW THE ONE IS CHANGED INTO THE OTHER, AND HOW ONE MANIFESTS ITS PROPERTY IN THE OTHER, AND YET BOTH REMAIN IN THE FIRST CREATION IN THE WONDER OF GOD TO HIS OWN MANIFESTATION AND GLORY\n\n1. This is an open gate of the foregoing description: Every one says, \"Shew me the way to the manifestation of the good.\" Hear and observe well, dear reason; thou must thyself be the way, the understanding must be born in thee, otherwise I cannot shew it thee; thou must enter into it, so that the understanding of the work in its practic art, wherein I deal not, may be opened to thee; I write only in the spirit of contemplation; how the generation of good and evil is, and open the fountain: He shall draw the water whom God has appointed thereunto; I will here only describe the wheel of life as it is258 in itself.\n\n2. When I speak of Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt, I speak of one only thing, be it either spiritual or corporeal; all created things are that one thing, but the properties in the generation of this only thing make a difference [or give various gradual distinctions]; for when I name a man, or lion, bear, wolf, hare, or any other beast; yea also a root, herb, tree, or whatever may be named, it is the same only thing.\n\n3. All whatever is corporeal is the same being; the herbs and trees, and also the animals, but each thing in its difference of the first beginning: According as the property in the verbum fiat has imprinted itself in each thing, so is that kind in its propagation, and all things stand in the seed and procreation; and there is not anything but has a fixity in it, be it either hidden or manifest, for all shall stand to the glory of God.\n\n4. Whatever is risen from the eternal fixity, as angels and the souls of men, remains indestructible in its fixt being; but whatever is risen in the unfixt being, viz. with the motion of time, that does again enter into the first motion from whence it has taken its original, and is a map of its form which it had here, like a picture, or as an image in a glass without life; for so it was from eternity before the times of this world, which the Most High has introduced into an image, into the comprehensible natural life in time, to behold the great wonders of his wisdom in a creaturely being, as we plainly see.\n\n5. Now we are to consider the only mother, how the same is in her property, from whence the innumerable multiplicity arises, and has continually risen; and how she generates life and death, evil and good; and how all things may be brought into their first [*ens*], viz. into the place where they originally arise, to which the death, or the dying, is the greatest mystery.\n\n6. For nothing, which is departed out of its first order, as the mother brought it forth, can go back again, and enter with its assumed order into its root, unless it dies again with its assumed order in its mother; and even then it is again in the end, and in the place whence it was created, and so it stands again in the verbum fiat, viz. in the bound of its order in the expressed word, and may enter again into that which it was in the beginning before it was corporeal; and there it is good, for it stands again in that from whence it proceeded.\n\n7. Now therefore we are to consider the beginnings of all things, for we cannot say that this world was made out of something, it was only and barely a desire out of the free lubet, that the abyss, viz. the highest good or being, viz. the eternal will, would behold itself in the lubet as in a glass; therefore the eternal will has conceived the lubet, and brought it into a desire, which has impressed itself, and figurised, and corporised itself both to a body and spirit according to the same impression's property, according as the impression has introduced itself into forms, whereby the possibilities [or powers] are risen in the impression as a nature.\n\n8. This impression is the only mother of the manifestation of the mystery, and it is called nature and essence, for it manifests what has been from eternity in the eternal will; yet we are to conceive that there was in eternity a nature in the eternal will, as an eternal mind in the will; but it was only a spirit in the will, and the essence of its ability was not made manifest, but only in the looking-glass259 of the will, which is the eternal wisdom, wherein all things which are in this world were known in two centres, viz. according to the fire and light, and then according to the darkness and essence; all which came with the motion of the eternal will through the desire in the will into a manifest mystery, and so introduced itself into a manifest possibility.\n\n9. This is now the essence expressed or made manifest out of eternity into a time, and consists in the fore-mentioned forms in Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt, where the one is not divided or parted asunder from the other: It is one eternal essence, and shapes260 itself into the properties of the desire according to the possibility of the manifestation; and we are to understand that one property is not, nor cannot be without the other; they are altogether the same only possibility: And now we will speak of their differences, viz. how this only possibility introduces itself into good and evil, viz. into still peace and constant unquietness.\n\n10. We find seven especial properties in nature, whereby this only mother works all things, which are these, viz. First, the desire, which is astringent, cold, hard, and dark. Secondly, bitter, which is the sting of the astringent hard enclosure;261 this is the cause of all motion and life. Thirdly, the anguish, by reason of the raging in the impression, where the impressed hardness falls into a tearing anguish and pain by reason of the sting.\n\n11. Fourthly, the fire, where the eternal will in this anxious desire introduces itself into an anxious darting flash [or twinkling lightening], viz. into strength and devouring of the darkness, with which the hardness is again consumed, and introduced into a corporeal moving spirit.\n\n12. Fifthly, the egress262 of the free will out of the darkness and out of the fire, and dwelling in itself, where the free will has received the lustre, so that it enlightens and shines as a light out of the fire, and the potent desire of the free will, which it has sharpened in the fire (in that it is dead in the fire to the essence of the darkness of the first form, and consumed) does now in the light's desire draw into itself the essence from the dying of the fire, according to its hunger, which is now water; and in the lustre it is a tincture from the fire and light, viz. a love-desire, or a beauty of colours;263 and here all colours arise; as we have fully set it down in our other books, but especially in the *Threefold Life of Man*.\n\n13. Sixthly, the voice or sound, which in the first form is only a noise from the hardness, and is dead or mortified as to that [hardness] in the fire, and yet in the fifth form, in the love-desire, viz. in the pleasant property, it is again received as a clear sound out of the dying of the fire in the lustre of the light in the tincture, wherein all the five senses, viz. Hearing, Seeing, Feeling, Smelling, and Tasting, arise in the tincture of the light from the fire.\n\n14. Seventhly, the menstruum, or the seed of all these forms which the desire impresses into a comprehensive body or essence wherein all lies; whatever the six forms are spiritually, that the seventh is essentially.\n\n15. Thus these are the seven forms of the mother of all beings, from whence all whatever is in this world is generated; and moreover the Most High has, according to this mother,. introduced and created such properties as this mother is in her wrestling forms (understand, as she brings herself with the wrestling into properties) into a wheel,264 which is as a mind of the mother, from whence she continually creates and works; and these are the stars with the planetary orb according to the platform of the eternal astrum, which is only a spirit, and the eternal mind in the wisdom of God, viz. the eternal nature, from whence the eternal spirits are proceeded and entered into a creaturely being.\n\n16. And moreover the Most High has introduced the property of this wheel in the motion, as a life into the four officers, which manage the dominion in the pregnant mother; and these are the four elements to which the wheel of the mind, viz. the astrum affords will and desire; so that this whole being is but one only thing, and yet is so proportioned [or composed] as a mind of a man: Even as he is in soul and body, so also is this only essence; for it265 was created out of this whole essence into an image according to eternity and time; out of eternity according to the soul, and out of time according to the outward essence, as a similitude and image of eternity and time, both according to the eternal will and mind and its essence, and also according to the mind of time and its essence: And therefore now we are rightly to consider of the sulphurean wheel of all essences, how the properties introduce themselves into good and evil, and again bring themselves out of good and evil.\n\n17. The impression or desire, viz. the first form to nature, which is called, and is also the fiat, receives the desire's property according to the property of all the seven forms into itself, and impresses them, so that out of the nothing proceeds forth an essence according to the properties of the will: Now its own property, seeing it is only a desire, and impresses itself, is dark, and causes hardness, viz. a strong pulsation,266 which is a cause of the tone or sound, which becomes yet more hard in the fire, viz. in the fourth form, where then the grossness dies away, and it is received again in the fifth form, viz. in the love-desire; and again it proceeds forth in its own property in the love-desire, and makes the sixth form, viz. the sound, voice, or tone out of the fire and water.\n\n18. Now this tone or sound, which is called Mercury, arises in the first form, viz. in the impression, by reason of the will and attractive desire; for the attraction makes the motions and the compunction in the hardness, which we distinguish, and call the second form, but it is a son of the first, and in the first.\n\n19. This second form or property is the raging, stinging, and bitter pain; for the first is astringent, and the second is drawing, viz. the desire into an essence; this same essence is the property of the first,267 and the attraction makes therein the second property, viz. a bitter stinging which the hardness cannot endure; for it would be still, and thereupon it does more vehemently impress itself to withhold the sting, and yet the sting does thereby only grow the greater: Now the hardness, viz. the astringency draws inwards, and the sting from the hardness268 upwards: Hence arises the first enmity and opposition; for the two forms, which yet are but one, make themselves their own enemies; and yet if this were not, there would not be any essence, neither body nor spirit, also no manifestation of the eternity of the abyss.\n\n20. But now seeing the bitter sting cannot ascend, and the hardness also cannot hold or enclose it, they fall into a turning or breaking through like a wheel, which runs into itself as an horrible essence, where both properties are known only as one, and yet each remains in itself unaltered, and produce the third property between both, viz. the great anguish; out of which the will, understand the fixt will to nature, desires to go forth again into the liberty, viz. into the nothing, into the eternal rest; for here it has thus found itself, and manifested itself, and yet there is no separating or departing: and this anxious form is the mother of Sulphur, for the sting makes it269 painful, and the hardness impresses it, that it is as a dying source, and yet it is the true original to life.\n\n21. It has two properties in itself, viz. according to the impression or desire it is dark and hard; and according to the desire of the will, which wills to be free from the anguish, and enters again into the liberty, it is spiritual and light; and the sting breaks in pieces its conceived essence which the astringent desire conceives in itself, so that its essence is hard and spalt, and wholly darting as a flash of lightning from the darkness, and from the desire of the light, understand to the liberty.\n\n22. Now these three forms are in one essence as a raging spirit; and the desire impresses these properties, so that an essence is made according to their property, viz. according to the astringent dark desire, viz. according to the first original: There is an earthly essence, out of which in the beginning of the great motion the earth was made, and according to the bitter raging spirit there is the instigation in the essence, viz. a poison, and it also imprints [or impresses] itself in the essence, from whence the earthliness is so wholly loathsome and bitter; and the third form, viz. the anguish gives a fiery property thereinto; and yet here there cannot be as yet any essence, but it is only a spiritual essence, and the mother to the essence.270 \n\n23. The fourth form in this essence is the fire, which as to one part takes its original out of the dark hard impression, viz. from the hardness, and from the raging sting in the anguish, which is the cold black fire, and the pain of the great anguish; and as to the other part it takes its original in the will's spirit to nature, which goes again out of this hard dark coldness into itself, viz. into the liberty without the nature of the austere motion, and enkindles the liberty, viz. the eternal lubet to the desire of nature, with its sharpness, which it has conceived in the impression, whereby it is a moving and stirring lustre: For the liberty is neither dark nor light; but by reason of the motion it is light, for its lubet brings itself into the desire to light, that it may be manifest in the light and lustre; and yet it cannot be otherwise brought to pass but through darkness, so that the light might be made known and manifest, and the eternal mind might find and manifest itself; for a will is only one thing and essence, but through the multiplicity its form is made manifest, that it is infinite, and a mere wonder, of which we speak with a babe's tongue, being only as a little spark out of these great infinite wonders.\n\n24. Now understand us thus; the liberty is, and stands in the darkness (and inclining to the dark desire after the desire of the light271), it attains with the eternal will the darkness; and the darkness reaches after the light of the liberty, and cannot attain it; for it encloses itself with the desire in itself, and makes itself darkness in itself; and out of both these, viz. out of the dark impression, and out of the desire of the light or liberty towards the impression, there is a twinkling [or darting] flash in the impression, viz. the original of the fire; for the liberty shines in the impression, but the impression in the anguish comprehends it into itself, and so it is now as a flash: But seeing the liberty is incomprehensible, and as a nothing, and moreover without and before the impression, and abyssal,272 therefore the impression cannot conceive or hold it; but it gives itself into the liberty, and the liberty devours its dark property and essence, and rules with the assumed mobility in the darkness, unapprehensible to the darkness.\n\n25. Thus understand us right: There is in the fire a devouring; the sharpness of the fire is from the austere impression of the coldness and bitterness, from the anguish; and the devouring is from the liberty, which makes out of the something again a nothing according to its property.\n\n26. And understand us very exactly and well: The liberty will not be a nothing, for therefore the lubet of the liberty introduces itself into nature and essence, that it might be manifest in power, wonder, and being; it likewise assumes to itself through the sharpness in the cold and dark impression the properties, that it might manifest the power of the liberty: For it consumes the dark essence in the fire, and proceeds forth out of the fire, out of the anguish of the impression, with the spiritual properties in the light; as you see, that the outward light so shines forth out of the fire, and has not the source and pain of the fire in it, but only the property; the light manifests the properties of the darkness, and that only in itself; the darkness remains in itself dark, and the light continues in itself light.\n\n27. The liberty (which is called God) is the cause of the light; and the impression of the desire is the cause of the darkness and painful source: Now herein understand two eternal beginnings, viz. two principles, one in the liberty in the light, the other in the impression in the pain and source of the darkness, each dwelling in itself.\n\n28. And understand us farther concerning their opening essence and will, how nature is introduced into seven properties; for we speak not of a beginning, for there is none in eternity; but thus the eternal generation is from eternity to eternity in itself; and this same eternal generation has according to the property of eternity through its own desire and motion introduced itself with this visible world (as with a likeness of the eternal spirit into such a creaturely being which is a type or platform of the eternal being) into a time, of which we will speak afterwards, and shew what the creature is, namely a similitude of the operation of eternity, and how it has also this same working temporally in itself.\n\n29. Now concerning the fire understand us thus: The fire is the principle of every life; to the darkness it gives essence and source, else there would be no sensibility in the darkness, also no spirit, but mere hardness, a hard, sharp, bitter, galling sting, as it is really so in the eternal darkness; but so far as the hot fire may be obtained,273 the dark compunctive property stands in the aspiring covetous greediness like to a horrible madness, that it may be known what wisdom and folly is.\n\n30. Now the fire gives also desire, source, and properties to the light, viz. to the liberty; yet know this, the liberty, viz. the nothing, has no essence in itself, but the impression of the austere desire makes the first essence, which the will-spirit of the liberty (which has manifested itself through the nature of the desire) receives into itself, and brings it forth through the fire, where the grossness, viz. the rawness, does then die in the fire.\n\n31. Understand it thus: When the flash of fire reaches the dark essentiality, then it becomes a great flagrat, where the cold fire is dismayed, and does as it were die, falls into a swoon,274  and sinks down: And this flagrat is effected in the enkindling of the fire in the essence of the anguish, which has two properties in it; viz. the one goes downwards into the death's property, being a mortification of the cold fire, from whence the water arises, and according to the grossness275 the earth is risen; and the other part ascends in the will of the liberty, in the lubet, as a flagrat of joyfulness; and this same essence is also mortified in the flagrat in the fire, understand the cold fire's property, and gives also a water-source, understand such a property.\n\n32. Now the flash, when it is enkindled by the liberty, and by the cold fire, makes in its rising a cross with the comprehension of all properties; for here arises the spirit in the essence, and it stands thus: \n\nIf thou hast here re understanding, thou needest ask no more; it is eternity and time, God in love and anger, moreover heaven and hell.\n\n33. The lower part, which is thus marked , is the first principle, and is the eternal nature in the anger, viz. the kingdom of darkness dwelling in itself; and the upper part, with this figure is the salniter: The upper cross above the circle is the kingdom of glory, which proceeds forth in the flagrat of joy, in the will of the free lubet in itself out of the fire in the lustre of the light into the power of the liberty; and this spiritual water, which also arises in the flagrat of joy, is the corporality, or essentiality, in which the lustre from the fire and light makes a tincture, viz. a budding and growing, and a manifestation of colours from the fire and light.\n\n34. And this form of separation between the living and the dead essentiality is the fifth form, and is called the love-desire; its original is from the liberty, which in the fire has introduced itself into a desire, viz. out of the lubet of the liberty into the fair and fiery elevation of joy, being a flame of love, which also imprints in its love-desire the property of that which it has conceived in the will of the eternal mind, which brings itself through the fire's sharpness again into itself, viz. into the first properties, which arise in the first impression, viz. from the motion and stirring; and the joyfulness arises out of the anguish: For this is joy, that the will to nature is delivered and freed from the dark anguish, for else there would be no knowledge of what joy was, if there was not a painful source; and in its love-desire it conceives the first properties in the first impression, which divide themselves in this desire into five forms; viz. from the fire-flash into seeing, for the water of love reaches the lustre of the tincture,wherein the sight consists; and from the hardness, viz. from the penetration of the sting in the hardness, into hearing, so that in this same nothing, viz. in the liberty, there is a sound, which the tincture catches, and brings it forth in the water of the desire: and from the raging sting into feeling, so that one property feels another; for if all properties were only one, there would be no seeing, hearing, or feeling, also no understanding: And from the assimulation, that one property arises in the other, but with another property, comes the taste; and from the egressive spirit of the properties (in that the egress of each property enters into the other) arises the smell.\n\n35. Now these five forms do all of them together make in the love-desire, viz. in the fifth form, the sixth, that is, the sound or voice, as a manifestation of all the forms in the spirit's property, which the fiery light's desire encloses with the spiritual water as one only essence, which is now the fiery will's own essence, which has brought itself forth in the light, wherein it works and makes the seventh form, as an habitation of the sixth, from whence the essence and dominion of this world were generated, and introduced into a form according to the right276 of the eternal birth.\n\n36. Now understand us right; we do not hereby understand a beginning of the Deity, but the manifestation of the Deity: The Deity is herein known and manifested in Trinity; the Deity is the eternal liberty without all nature, viz. the eternal abyss; but thus it brings itself into byss for its own manifestation, eternal wisdom, and deeds of wonder.\n\n37. The Eternal Father is manifested in the fire, and the Son in the light of the fire, and the Holy Spirit in the power of the life and motion proceeding from the fire in the light of the kingdom of joy, being the egressive power in the love-flame; we speak only by parts of the universal as a creature.277 \n\n38. The Deity is wholly everywhere all in all; but he is only called God according to the light of love, and according to the proceeding spirit of joy; but according to the dark impression he is called God's anger and the dark world; and according to the eternal fire-spirit he is called a consuming fire.\n\n39. We give you only to understand the Being of all beings, whose original in itself is only one eternal essence; but with its own manifestation it comes into many beings, to its own honour and glory; and now we will shew you what the creature's life and dominion is in this all-essential Being.\n\n40. Now therefore understand us right what we mean by these three words, Sulphur, Mercury, and Sal: In the eternity all is spirit; but when God moved himself with the eternal nature, wherein his own manifestation consists, he produced out of the spiritual essence a palpable and manifest essence, and introduced it into a creaturely being according to the eternal properties, which also consists of spirit and essence, according to the right278 [or law] of eternity.\n\n41. And now I will speak of the outward kingdom, viz. of the third principle or beginning; for in this world there is also light and darkness in each other as in the eternity: God has given this world a sun, as a nature-god of the outward powers, but he rules therein as Lord; the outward [kingdom] is only his prepared work, which he rules and makes with the assimulate, as a master makes his work with an instrument.\n\n42. Sulphur is in the outward world, viz. in the mystery of the great God's manifestation, the first mother of the creatures; for it arises out of darkness, fire, and light; it is on one part, according to the dark impression, astringent, bitter, and anxious; and on the other part, towards the Deity, as a similitude of the Deity, it is fire, light, and water, which in the fire separates itself into two forms, viz. according to the mortification into water, and according to the life into oil, in which the true life of all the creatures of the outward world consists.\n\n43. Mercury is the wheel of motion in the Sulphur; he is on one part according to the dark impression the stinging rager, and the great unquietness, and separates itself also in the fire in its mother, viz. in the Sulphur, into two properties, viz. into a twofold water; for in the mortification of the fire all is turned to water, understand into a living pleasant water according to the light, which produces silver in the brimstone, viz. in the seventh property of nature, which is the powerful body, and in the fire its water is quicksilver, and in the astringency, viz. in the anguish of the darkness, it is a rust or smoke; therefore if its outward water-body be cast into the fire, understand [that body] which it receives in Sulphur from the watery property, then it does evaporate,279  for in the fire every property separates itself again into the first essence, from whence it came originally, where all things were only a spirit.\n\n44. And then secondly it separates itself according to the water of the dark impression into a poison-source, which yet cannot be understood to be a water, but only a corporeal essence of the spirit; for as the spirit's property is, so is also its water; and even so it is in the fire-flagrat.\n\n45. Further understand us in the fiery flagrat concerning the salniter, from whence the manifold salts and powers arise; for all the properties of the spirit are become corporeal in the great motion of the essence of all essences, and entered into a visible and comprehensible being: This flagrat is effected in the enkindling of the fire; and in the mortification of the fire it impresses into itself from the water's original a water, according to the property of the flagrat, which yet is rather fire than water, but its mortal essence is water according to the property of the flagrat; it is the comprisal of all properties, it brings forth in its comprehension, viz. in the fiery flagrat all properties in itself, and apprehends the property of the light in its powers, and also the property of the dark impression in its powers, and makes all fiery; one part according to the coldness, and one part according to the heat; but the most part according to the endless Mercury, which is the life of all essences in evil and good, in light and darkness.\n\n46. This salniter is the mother of all salts in vegetables and animals, viz. in herbs and trees and everything; he is in all things, which give a taste and smell, the first root according to each thing's property; in the good (which grow in the love-desire in the oil of brimstone) he is good, powerful, and pleasant; and in the evil he is evil in the anguish of brimstone; and in the darkness he is the eternal horror and despair, continually desiring in the flagrat to aspire above the gates in the fire, from whence arises the will of all devils, and of all pride, to ascend above the humility of the love-desire; and in the fire is the trial of his essence, as we see how he clashes and consumes himself in the flash as a sudden thought.\n\n47. For its essence arises not in the essence of eternity, also it cannot inherit it, but in the enkindling of the temporal fire, yet it is perceived in the eternal spirit by reason of the elevation of the joy; but according to the essence of mortification, viz. according to the salt of the fire it subsists in the fire: For this property arises out of the first desire, viz. in the essence of the first impression, which property the philosophers call Saturn, therefore the salt is manifold: All sharpness in the taste is salt, the good taste arises out of the oleous salt, and so also the smell, which is the egressive spirit in which the tincture appears as a lustre [or fair complexion] of colours.\n\n48. Thus understand us right; the salniter in the fire-flagrat is the separation of the properties, where death and life separate themselves, viz. the life which enters with the love-desire into an essence and dominion; and then the life which in the flagrat of death, according to the property of the cold, sinks down in the mortification of the flagrat as an impotency, and gives weight; and according to the subtility it gives water, and according to the grossness of the austereness earth; and according to Sulphur and Mercury, sand and stones; and according to the subtility in Sulphur and Mercury, understand according to the water of the same, it makes flesh, and according to the anxious darkness a smoke or rust; but according to the oleous property, viz. according to the love-desire, a sweet spiritual essence; and according to the spirit a pleasant smell; and according to the moving of the fire and light the [one] element; and from the lustre in the fire-flagrat with aspect of the light the precious tincture, which tinctures all oily salts, from whence the pleasant taste and smell arise.\n\n49. The salnitral flagrat is the sude280 in the essence, from whence the growth and pullulation arise, that there is a growing in the impression of the essence; the salt is the preservation, or upholding of the essence, so that a thing subsists in a body or comprehension; it holds the Sulphur and Mercury, else they would part from each other in the fire-flagrat.\n\n50. All things consist of Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt: In the salnitral flagrat the element separates itself into four properties, viz. into Fire, Air, Water, and Earth, which in itself is none of these, but only a moving and gentle walming,281 not as the air, but as a moving of the will in the body, a cause of life in the essence; for as the eternal Spirit of God proceeds from the Father, who is a spirit from the fire and light, and is the motion and life of the eternity; so likewise the air proceeds forth continually out of all the properties in the salnitral flagrat in the fire, from the anguish in Sulphur in the forcing mercurial wheel, as an impetuous aspiring motion; it is a son of all the properties, and also the life of the same; the fire of all the forms affords it, and also receives it again for its life; the water is its body, wherein it makes the seething in the salniter, and the earth is its power, wherein it enkindles its strength and fire-soul.\n\n51. There is but one only element, and that unfolds itself in the salnitral flagrat into four parts, viz. with the enkindling it gives a consuming fire of the darkness, and its essence; and in the flagrat of the dying of the cold and the darkness it parts itself into essences, viz. according to the subtility into water, and according to the grossness into earth; and then according to the motion in the flagrat's walming into air, which does most resemble the element, but not wholly essentially; for the [one] element is neither hot nor cold, also not forcing or compulsive, but gently moving.\n\nOf the Desire of the Properties\n\n52. Every property keeps its own desire; for a property is nothing else but an hunger, and the hunger forms itself into such an essence as itself is, and in the salnitral sude it gives such a spirit into the four elements; for the original of the sude is in the element, from whence four elements proceed in this flagrat.\n\n53. Each body stands in the inward motion282 in the element, and in the growth and life in the four elements; but every creature has not the true life of the element, but only the high spirits, as angels and souls of men, which stand in the first principle; in them the element is incitable: In the life of the third principle it stands still, and is as a hand of God, where he holds and governs the four elements as an exit, or instrument with which he works and builds.\n\n54. Now every property of nature does in its hunger take its food out of the four elements; as the hunger is, so it takes a property out of the elements; for the four elements are the body of the properties, and each spirit eats of its own body.\n\n55. First, there are the sulphurean properties according to the first and second impression, viz. according to the dark, astringent, and anxious impression; and then according to the love-impression in the light, viz. according to evil and good.\n\n56. The dark hunger desires essence according to its property, viz. earthly things, all whatever resembles the earth; and the bitter hunger desires bitter raging, stinging, and pain; it receives into itself such an essence (as the poison-source) out of the elements: And the hunger of anguish desires anxious hunger, viz. the anguish in the brimstone; also the melancholy [takes] the desire to die, and continual sadness; and the fire-flash receives into it anger, aspiring, ambition, pride, a desiring to destroy all, and make it subject to it, a desire to domineer in and above all, to consume all, and to be peculiar; and it takes the bitterness from whence the flash arises to envy and hatred, and the astringency to covetousness, and the fire to anger and indignation.\n\n57. Here is the true desire of God's anger and all devils, and of all whatever is against God and love; and this hunger draws such an essence into self; as it is to be known and searched out in the creatures, and also in the herbs.\n\n58. Now the fire-flash is the end of the first desire, viz. of the dark nature, and in the fire the dying of the first hunger and will begins; for the fire consumes all grossness of the first forms, and casts them into death; and here is the separation of both wills, viz. the one which enters back again into the property of death, and is a will in the life of the dark desire; as the devils have done, who would domineer in the fire-flash in the salnitral sude over time and eternity; but they were driven back by the Spirit of God, and spewed forth out of the love-desire as an abomination: And thus also it happens here to the wicked soul of man, upon which the election follows. Here is the [aim] or scope of the election of grace, of which the Scripture speaks, that God knows his; and here the eternal lubet of God's liberty apprehends the will-spirit, which is arisen in the dark centre, and brings it through the dying in the fire into the element.\n\n59. In the salnitral flagrat lies the possibility backwards and forwards; if the will of the desire goes back, then it is as to the kingdom of this world [earthly], and as to the kingdom of the eternal world it is in God's anger, and cannot see God unless it be converted, and enters into the dying in the fire, and wholly dies to its selfness, and enters into the resignation of the eternal will in the salnitral flagrat into the element, viz. into the heavenly essentiality and corporality, so that the hunger may eat of the pure element; and then it has further no other desire; for it is in the fire dead to the austere dark hunger, which is evil; thus from the dying in the fire arises the light, for here the liberty is enkindled, that it becomes also an hunger, and a desire; this is now a love-desire, a love-hunger.\n\n60. In the outward world it is the light of the sun in the four elements; and it is the bestial love-desire, viz. after the sulphurean body and essence, from whence the copulation and multiplication arise, viz. the vegetative life; and from the Mercury in the salniter (in which the sensible life is) therein the astrum gives the reason in the animals from the properties of the salniter.\n\n61. For the whole astrum is nothing else but a salniter in the verbum fiat in the motion of the Being of all beings in the fiery flagrat, comprehended in the properties of the salts, wherein all the powers of the element stand as an external birth, which continually boil283 in the four elements as a salnitral salt, and introduce their property in their desire in the four elements into the essence of bodies, as is to be seen in trees, herbs, grass, and all growing things.\n\n62. Thus understand us farther concerning the second centre, which is manifest in the dying of the fire in the light, whereby the abyss of God's liberty introduces itself into the byss of nature, both with the inward world in the kingdom of heaven in the eternity; and then also with the outward kingdom in the time.\n\n63. Now all this has also the properties of the desire, and takes its original from the first principle, viz. from the first centre, and there is yet no right dying in the fire; the dark essence only dies, and the will-spirit goes forth with the eternal will to nature again out of the fiery death in the light; it is only a transmutation of the spirit, so that an hunger arises out of the liberty, and this hunger is a love-desire; as to the soul of man it draws essence from the element of God, viz. in the divine salniter it [takes] the divine salts or powers into itself; and as to the outward world's desire it draws the oil out of the Sulphur into itself, in which [oil] the outward life burns; and so it is likewise in the vegetables and metals, and other things.\n\n64. The sun makes the outward transmutation, and the divine light in the soul's property makes the inward; according as each thing stands in its degree, so does its hunger reach a property: those which are in the time [receive a property] from the time, and those in eternity likewise out of eternity: The hunger which proceeds from eternity eats of the eternity, and that which is of the time eats of the time. The true life of all creatures eats of the spiritual Mercury, viz. of the sixth form, where all salts are essentially; the spirit cats of the five senses, for they are the spirit's corporality; and the body, viz. the vegetable life, eats of the essence of the Sulphur and Salt; for Christ says in like manner, \"Man liveth not by bread only, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.\"\n\n65. Now the sixth form of nature is the expressed spiritual word; and the speaking word therein is the eternal word: In the first impression in the darkness it is the word of God's anger; and in the outward world it is the poisonful Mercury, viz. a cause of all life and stirring, of all tones and sounds; now every property eats of its likeness in its degree; the hunger of time [eats] of time, and the hunger of eternity [eats] of eternity, both the spirit of Mercury and the spirit of Sulphur; whereas yet there are not two [spirits] but only two properties; all whatever does only take its original in one principle, as the creatures of the outward world, they have only one region, but a twofold inclination from the good and evil; but whatever takes its original out of two principles, as man, he has also a twofold food and dominion, viz. from the dark centre, and from the outward centre; but if he dies to his self-hood, and brings his hunger into God's kingdom, then he may eat of the divine Mercury, viz. of the five divine senses with the soul, and of the element in the divine essence; and yet the outward man apprehends not in this life-time the divine essence corporeally, but only through the imagination, where the inward body penetrates the outward; as the sun shines through the water, and yet the water continues still water, for here lies our fall in Adam.\n\n66. The element did wholly penetrate the four elements, and it was wholly one in man, but in the curse the element separated from the soul, so that the poor soul now lives only in the vessel of the four elements, unless it again enters in the death of its earthly will into the divine desire, and springs forth in the element.\n\n67. Thus also the outward body is in the curse, and eats of the cursed earth's property, viz. only of the earthly salniter, where one hunger of the earthly properties continually opposes another; for the curse is a loathsome abominate in all salts, and from thence it comes that a constant contrariety arises in the outward body; for one hunger of the properties receives [or catches] from the other the abominate:284 Now to help the body that it may be freed from the abominate, it must take the assimulate of the lothing abominate, which is risen in the body as a sude or seething, and introduce it into the dying of the fire, and bring it out in the love-desire from the curse of the vanity; now this is no otherwise effected, but as the true life dies to the dark vanity.\n\n68. The abominate of the outward life arises from a property of the salt which is contrary to the oil of the life: Thus the abominate does forthwith enkindle itself in the four elements, and begins to seethe in the salniter as a strange life: This strange life does at last darken and destroy the first true life, if it be not resisted; and it can have no better help than with the assimulate of the introduced abominate, which the life has taken into itself; *therefore that must be done to the cure*, which is to be done to the life, that it might be freed from the abominate.\n\n69. The cure must be freed from the same abominate, which it has received in the four elements from the like false insinuation [influence, or impression], it must be brought into the death of the four elements, and its spirit must also be tinctured in the fifth form with the Venus desire, viz. with a pleasant essence, that the spiritual Mercury may arise in Jupiter's property; understand, the cure must first die to its sickness in all the four elements; it must be introduced into the putrefaction of all the four elements; in the fire it dies to its earthliness, and in the putrefaction to the water's earthliness, and in the air's putrefaction to the abominate and earthliness of the air; and then it must be brought into Venus, and from Venus into Jupiter, and then the sun will arise in the love-desire, and with this the abominate in the body may be resisted.\n\n70. All other cures, which are administered raw and undigested285 (as when one takes cold, and will resist heat, and so likewise heat to resist cold), are only an opposite fiery flagrat, whereby indeed the enkindled fire ceases from its powerful working, but the flagrat enters into death's anguish, and the root of the abominate becomes a poisonful Mercury unless the heat and cold are before tempered with Venus and Jupiter, and then indeed it is an appeasing of the abominate in the salnitral sude; but the root of the abominate remains still, unless the life be strong, and mightily brings forth its desire out of the abominate. This the physicians must well observe, that the raw herbs do not reach the root, where the abominate is arisen in the centre in the property of the life's form; they reach only the four elements, and give some easement, but the abominate remains still in the root as an hidden sickness.\n\n71. The like is also to be understood concerning the astrum, which has its sude in the outward body as a peculiar body in the four elements; if the cure may be freed from the abominate of the four elements, then the astrum falls also into the good part, and introduces its desire thereinto, and so the body is also freed from the abominate of the astrum; for the Scripture says, that \" the whole creature286 longeth together with us to be freed from the vanity: \"Now the curse of the earth, wherein the astrum injects its desire, is the vanity; and if it tastes a pure life in itself, then it also rejoices therein, and casts forth the abominate.\n\n72. Every abominate287 of the oily life arises from the inward Mercury in the inward Sulphur; for sin also does hence take its original, that the poisonful Mercury (which is a cause of the life) does in the fire-flash in the original of the salniter, in retiring backwards, introduce itself again into self-hood, for even there is the original of the poison-life.\n\n73. Every life which will be without spot,288 must die in the will-spirit to nature in the fire of the abominate to the first impression of the wrath, and must give itself forth, in the will-spirit to nature, as a resigned will through the mortification in the light of love: Let it be either heavenly or earthly it must hold that process, or else it comes not to the highest perfection in its degree; for man could not be helped unless the love-centre of the love-desire did enter again into the humanity, and bring forth the own life, viz. the human self, through the mortification into itself: This is an exact type or resemblance, that whatsoever will be freed from the abominate, viz. from the curse, the same must die to the four elements in the abominate, and bring forth its degree through the mortification of the fire in the light.\n\n74. Thus likewise is the salnitral sude in the earth, from whence metals, good herbs and trees grow; each property is desirous of the assimulate; and if it can reach the assimulate in Sulphur, and Mercury in the love, then it brings forth itself higher than it is in its degree; as the eternal liberty with its lubet introduces the eternal nature through the mortification into desire, and thereby brings itself forth higher, viz. in power and majesty; the like is to be considered in all things; for all things arise out of one only being; the same is a mystery of all beings, and a manifestation of the abyss in byss.\n\n75. All things are generated out of the grand mystery, and proceed out of one degree into another: Now whatever goes forwards in its degree, the same receives no abominate, let it be either in vegetables or animals; but whatever enters in itself into its self-hood, viz. into its own lubet, the same receives, in passing through the degrees, the abominate; for each form of nature out of289  the mystery receives of its property in its hunger, and therein it is not annoyed or molested, for it is of their property.\n\n76. But if the will enters back again into the birth of the other properties, then it receives the lust, and the lust makes an hunger, and the hunger receives strange essence into itself: Here now is the abominate and turba born; for this will is entered contrary to the course of nature into a strange essence, which is not of its property; this strange essence domineers now in the strange will, and overcomes the will; now the will must either cast it out,290 or else it will itself be cast out by the strange essence; and seeing this also cannot be, thereupon arises anger and enmity.\n\n77. For the properties run to their centre of the first impression, and seek the strength and might of the fire, from whence arises the heat and cold in the body, and they are in one another as enemies, whereby the first mother is stirred up in her most wrathful malice and malignity according to the austere impression, and then begins the contest for the conquest, and that property which maintains and keeps its power and prevalence, casts the other into death's property, viz. into the devoration, into the house of misery.\n \n## Chapter 15. Concerning The Will Of The Great Mystery In Good And Evil, Shewing From Whence A Good And Evil Will Arises...\n\nCONCERNING THE WILL OF THE GREAT MYSTERY IN GOOD AND EVIL, SHEWING FROM WHENCE A GOOD AND EVIL WILL ARISES, AND HOW ONE INTRODUCES ITSELF INTO THE OTHER\n\n1. Every property takes its original from the first, viz. from the first impression or desire to nature, viz. out of the grand mystery, and brings forth itself out of itself, as the air proceeds out of the fire, and all whatever proceeds forward in one will is uncontrollable, for it gives itself to no property; it dwells even from the first original only in itself, and goes forth in one will; and this is the true way of eternity, wherein there is no corruptibility if a thing remains in its own peculiar property, for the great mystery is from eternity: Now if the form of the same proceeds forth, and manifests itself out of itself, then this form stands with the root in the mystery of eternity; but if the form brings itself forth into another lust, so that two properties must dwell in one, then from thence arises the enmity and abominate; for there has been from eternity only the one element in motion,291 and the free lubet of eternity, which proceeded forth with its motion from the great mystery of eternity as a spirit, which spirit is God's.\n\n2. But when the great mystery did once move itself, and introduced the free lubet into the desire of the essence, then in the desire the strife began; for there arose in the desire out of the element, which bears only one will, four elements, viz. manifold desires and wills, which rule in one only body, where now there is contrariety and strife; as heat against cold, fire against water, air against earth, each is the death and destruction of the other; so that the creature which stands in this dominion is nothing else but a continual dying and a strife; it is an enmity and contrary will in itself, and cannot be remedied unless it enters again into one will, which also cannot be brought to pass, unless the multiplicity of the wills be destroyed, and wholly die to the desire, from whence the four elements arise; so that the will does again become that which it was from eternity: Herein we men do know what we are in the dominion of the four elements, nothing else but a strife and a contrary will, a self-envying,292 a desire of the abominate, a lust of death.\n\n3. For the lust which arises out of the desire must die; if the will (which proceeded out of the great mystery of eternity, which the Spirit of God breathed into the image of man, viz. into the likeness) will be freed from the abominate and contrary will, then the desire of the four elements must die, and the will must enter again into the one only element, it must again receive the right of eternity, and act and go forth in one element, in manner also as God created him, whom he himself has opposed, and brought himself into the dominion of the four elements, in which he has inherited death, and also the strife in the forms of life, from whence arises his sickness, loathing, and enmity: For all whatever lives in God's will, that is not risen in the self-will, or if it be risen therein, it is again dead to the own [or selfish] desire.\n\n4. Every will which enters into its self-hood, and seeks the ground of its life's form, the same breaks itself off from the great mystery, and enters into a self-fulness, it will be its own [or of its own selfish jurisdiction], and so it is contrary to the first mystery, for the same is alone all: And this child is accounted evil, for it strives in disobedience against its own mother which has brought it forth; but if the child does again introduce its will and desire into that, from whence it is generated and risen originally, then it is wholly one with the same, and cannot be annoyed by anything; for it enters into the nothing, viz. into the essence, from whence it proceeded.\n\n5. Thus, O man! understand what thou art to do; behold thyself in thyself, what thou art, whether or no thou standest in the resignation of thy mother (out of which thou wert generated and created in the beginning), whether thou art inclined with the same will; if not, then know that thou art a rebellious, stubborn, disobedient child, and hast made thyself thine own enemy, in that thou art entered into self-desire and will, and hast made thyself thy own self-ful possession, so that thou canst not dwell in the first mother, but in thyself: For thy will is entered into self-hood; and all that does vex, plague, and annoy thee, is only thy self-hood; thou makest thyself thy own enemy, and bringest thyself into self-destruction or death.\n\n6. Now if thou wilt get again out of death, then thou must wholly forsake thy own self-desire, which has introduced itself into strange essence, and become in self-hood, and the self-desire, as a nothing, so that thou dost no longer will or desire to thyself, but wholly and fully introduce thy desire again with the resignation into the eternal, viz. into God's will, that the same will may be thy will and desire.\n\n7. Without this there is nothing but misery and death, a continual dying and perishing; for hence arises the election of grace. If the human will (which is departed out of the unity of eternity, and entered into a self-fulness, viz. into a selfish lust and desire) does again break itself off from self-hood, and enter into the mortification of self-will, and introduce its desire again only into the first mother, then the first mother does again choose it to be its child, and makes it again one with the only will of eternity: But that [will or person] which continues in self-hood, he continues in the eternal dying, viz. in an eternal selfish enmity; and this also is only called sin, because that it is an enmity against God, in that the creature will be at its self-ful command and government.\n\n8. Thus in its self-hood, viz. in a dominion full of contention and strife, it cannot either will or do anything that is good; and as it does impose, awaken, and powerfully stir up to its self nothing else but the dying and death, so likewise it can do nothing else to its fellow-members; for hence also arises the falsehood [or lyes], that the creature denies the union with [or in] the will of God, and sets his self-hood in the place; so that it goes forth from the unity into desires and self-lusts: If it did but truly know that all beings were its mothers, which brought it forth, and did not hold the mother's substance for its own, but for common, then the covetousness, envy, strife, and contrary will and enmity would not arise; from which the anger, viz. the fire of destruction does arise.\n\n9. All sins arise from self; for the self-hood forces itself with the desire into its self-fulness; it makes itself covetousness and envy, it draws in its own desire strange essence into itself, and makes the possessor of the strange essence also an enemy against itself, so that sin is wrought with sin, vileness with vileness, and all run confusedly in and among one another, as a mere abomination before the eternal mother.\n\n10. In like manner also we are to consider of the regenerate will, which goes out of its selfishness or self-hood again into the resignation; the same becomes also an enemy and an abominate to self-hood; as sickness is an enemy to health, and on the contrary, health an enemy to sickness: Thus the resigned will, and also the self-will are a continual enmity, and an incessant lasting war and combat. 11. Self-will seeks only what serves to its self-hood; and the resigned will is not at all careful, but brings its desire only into its eternal mother, that it might be one with her: It will be a nothing, that the mother might be alone all in it. Self-will says to the resigned will, Thou art foolish, in that thou givest thyself to death, and yet mightest well live gloriously in me; but the resigned will says, Thou art my abomination, pain, and enmity, and bringest me out of eternity into a time only into perplexity and misery; thou plaguest me a while, and then thou givest my body to the earth, and the soul to hell.\n\n12. True real resignation is the mortification of the abominate against God; he that wholly forsakes his self-hood, and gives himself up with mind and desire, senses and will, into God's mercy, into the dying of Jesus Christ, he is dead to the earthly world with the will, and is a twofold man; where the abominate works only in itself to death, bait the resigned will lives in Christ's death, and rises up continually in Christ's resurrection in God: And though the self-desire sins, which indeed can do nothing else but sin, yet the resigned will lives not in sin, for it is mortified to the desire of sin, and lives through Christ in God in the land of the living; but self-hood lives in the land of death, viz. in the continual dying, in the continual enmity against God.\n\n13. The earthly man is the curse of God, and is an abominate before God's holiness; he can do nothing else but seek his selfhood, for he is in the wrath of God: And though he does some thing that is good, yet he does it not from his own self-will, but the will resigned in God compels him that he must do what his self would not willingly do: And now if he does it, he does it as an instrument of the resigned will, not from his own desire, but from God's will, which guides the resigned will in the desire as an instrument.\n\n14. Therefore now whoever will see the kingdom of God, and attain thereunto, he must educe [or bring forth] his soul out of self-hood, out of the earthly desire, as the physician brings forth the cure of the disease from the painful [tormenting] desire, and introduces it into a love-desire; and then the cure also brings forth the sickness in the body out of the painful desire, and sets it into a love-desire: Sickness becomes the servant of the physic; and so likewise the evil earthly will, when the soul's will is cured, is the resigned will's servant.\n\n15. The elemental and siderial man must only be the instrument wherewith man's soul labours in the resigned will; for thereto God has also created it; but the soul has made and set up itself in Adam for lord and master, and is entered into his prison, and given its will thereinto; but if it will be acknowledged for God's child, then it must again die to the same, and be wholly mortified to the earthly self-hood and desire in God's will in Christ's death, and be wholly regenerated anew in God's will, and deprive the earthly will in self-hood of its power, and rule over it, and guide it in subjection and command, as a master does his instrument, and then self-hood loses the power and prevalence, and the lust of self-hood arises as a continual longing; self-hood does then continually long after the forms of its own life, viz. after self-glory, and after earthly abundance, also after envy and anger, whether it may be able to attain that abundance; and also after the cunning lyes of falsehood: These are the vital forms of the earthly self-hood.\n\n16. But the resigned will does as a potent champion continually bruise the head of this serpent, and says, \"Thou art arisen from the devil, and God's anger, I will have none of thee, thou art an abomination before God.\" And though the resigned will is sometimes captivated with false lust, when it overwhelms and overpowers it with the devil's desire and insinuation of its imagination, yet the resigned will does forthwith cry to the word293 of God, that God's will does again bring it out of the abomination of death.\n\n17. The resigned will has no rest here in this cottage, but must always be in combat, for it is lodged in a false house: It is indeed in itself in God's hand; but, without itself it is in the jaws and throat of the abyss of God's anger in the kingdom of devils, which continually pass up and down with it, and desire to try and tempt the soul, viz. the centre.\n\n18. In like manner also the good angels stand by him in the resigned will, viz. in the divine desire, and defend him from the poisonful imagination of the devil; they keep off the fiery darts of the wicked one, as St. Peter says.\n\n19. For all do work and desire in man, God's love and anger: He stands while he is in this tabernacle in the gate either to go out or in: Both eternal principles are stirring in him; to which the soul's will gives itself, of that it is received, and thereto it is chosen; he is drawn of both, and if the will of the soul remains in self-hood, then he is m the hand of God's anger.\n\n20. But if he departs out of his self-hood, and forsakes his own damnation, and continually casts himself only into God's mercy, viz. into the suffering and death of Christ, and into his resurrection and restoration, and wills nothing of himself, but what God wills in him, and by him, then the will is dead to the life and desire of God's anger; for it has no own life, but lies in the death of self-hood and the desire of the devil; and the anger of God cannot reach him; for he is as a nothing, and yet is in God, and lives in the divine essence wholly, but not to himself, but to his first mother of eternity: He is again in the limit or place where he was before he was a creature, and in the will wherein God created him, and is an instrument in the voice of God, upon which only the will-spirit of God does strike, to its honour and deeds of wonder.\n\n21. All self-ful seeking and searching in self-hood is a vain thing; self-will apprehends nothing of God, for it is not in God, but without God in its self-hood; but the resigned will apprehends it; for it does not do it, but the spirit in whom it stands still, whose instrument it is, he manifests himself in the divine voice in it as much as he pleases: And though it may apprehend much in self-hood by searching and learning (which is not wholly to no purpose), yet its apprehension is only without in the expressed word, viz. in a form of the letter; and it understands nothing of the form of the expressed word, how the same is in its ground; for it is only born in the form from without, and not in the power of the universal pregnatress, whose ground has neither beginning, comprehension, or end.\n\n22. Now that he is born from within out of the speaking voice of God in God's will-spirit, he goes in the byss and abyss everywhere free, and is bound to no form; for he goes not in self-hood, but the eternal will guides him as its instrument, according as it pleases God: but he that is born only in the letter, he is born in the form of the expressed word, and goes on in self-hood, and is a self-ful voice; for he seeks what he pleases, and contends about the form, and leaves the spirit which has made the form.\n\n23. Such a doctor Babel is; it contends, wrangles, and rages about the form of the word, and continually introduces the self-ful spirit and understanding in the form, and cries out, Here is the Church of Christ; and it is only a self-ful voice, understanding nothing of the spirit of the form which is incomprehensible, and strikes upon its prepared instrument without limit and measure as it pleases. For conjecture, opinion, or the self-ful own imagination, which arises in the expressed voice [or literal outward word], is not God's word; but that which arises in God's Spirit in the wholly resigned will in divine power in the eternal speaking word, that takes its original out of God's voice, and makes the form in the heart, viz. a divine desire, whereby the soul's will is drawn into God.\n\n24. He is a shepherd, and teacher of Christ, who enters in through the door of Christ, that is, who speaks and teaches by Christ's spirit; without this there is only the form, viz. the history294  that was once brought to pass, and that a man need only accept of it, and comfort himself therewith: but this will remains without, for it will be a child of an assumed grace, and not wholly die to its self-hood in the grace, and become a child of grace in the resigned will.\n\n25. All whatever teaches of Christ's satisfaction, and comforting oneself with Christ's suffering, if it teaches not also the true ground how a man must wholly die to self-hood in the death, and give himself up in the resigned will wholly into the obedience of God, as a new child of a new will, the same is without, and not in the speaking voice of God, viz. in Christ's door.\n\n26. No flattering or comforting avails anything, but to die to the false will and desire in Christ's death, and to arise in the wholly resigned will in Christ's resurrection in him, and continually mortify the earthly self-hood, and quench the evil which the earthly will introduces into the imagination, as an evil fire which would fain continually burn.\n\n27. Comforting and setting the suffering of Christ in the forefront is not the true faith; no, no, it is only without, and not within: But a converted will, which enters into sorrow for its earthly iniquity, and will have none of it any more; and yet finds that it is kept back by the self-ful earthly lust, and with his converted will departs sincerely out of this abomination and false desire into God's mercy, and casts himself with great anxious [earnest] desire into Christ's obedience, suffering, and death, and in the converted will wholly dies to the earthly lust in Christ's death, which will not depart out of Christ's death, and continually cries Abba, loving Father! take thy dear Son's obedience for me; let me only in his death live in his obedience in thee; let me die in him, that I may be nothing in myself, but live and be in his will, in his humanity in thee; receive me, but wholly in his resurrection, and not in my unworthiness; but receive me in him; let me be dead in him, and give me his life, that I may be thy obedient son in him, that his suffering and death may be mine, that I may be before the same Christ in him who has deprived death of its might, viz. a branch or twig of his life.\n\n28. Thus, and no otherwise, is the true Christian faith; it is not only a comforting, but an incessant desire; the desire obtains the suffering of Christ, which [desire] would continually fain be obedient, if it knew but how it should behave itself before him, which continually does fall down before him, and dives itself into the deepest humility before him; it suffers and does all things readily, only that it might but receive grace; it is willing to take the cross of Christ upon itself, and regards not all the scorn of all the world in its self-hood, but continually presses forward into Christ's love-desire: This desire does only grow out of Christ's death, and out of his resurrection in God, and brings forth fruit in patience which is hidden in God, of which the earthly man knows nothing, for it finds itself in its selfhood.\n\n29. A true Christian is a continual champion, and walks wholly in the will and desire in Christ's person, as he hath walked up and down upon the earth. Christ, when he was upon the earth, desired to overcome death, and bring the human self-hood in true resignation into divine obedience: And this likewise a right Christian desires to do; he desires continually to die to the iniquity of death and wrath, and give himself up to obedience, and to arise and live in Christ's obedience in God.\n\n30. Therefore, dear brethren, take heed of putting on Christ's purple mantle without a resigned will; the poor sinner without sorrow for his sins, and conversion of his will, does only take it in scorn to Christ: Keep you from that doctrine which teaches of self-ful abilities, and of the works of justification.\n\n31. A true Christian is himself the great and anxious work which continually desires to work295 in God's will, and forces against the self-ful lusts of self-hood, and wills continually so to do, and yet is many times hindered by self-hood: He breaks self-hood, as a vessel, wherein he lies captive, and buds forth continually in God's will-spirit, with his desire resigned in God (as a fair blossom springs out of the earth), and works in and with God, what God pleases.\n\n32. Therefore let the true Christendom know, and deeply lay to heart, what is now told and spoken to her, viz. that she depart from the false conjecture [or opinion] of comforting, without conversion of the will; it is only an outward [expressed] form of the new-birth; a Christian must be one spirit with Christ, and have296 Christ's will and life in him; the form does not renew him, neither comforting, or giving good words does at all help or avail, but a mortifying of the evil inbred will, which is God's child, and born out of Christ's death, no other will attains Christ's inheritance; my much knowing doth not also do it; the herdsman in the field is as near to it as the doctor; no wit or subtle art in disputation about the way of God does help or avail anything thereto, it is only a let and hinderance; the true will enters into the love of God and his children; it seeks no form, but falls down before its creator, and desires the death of its false self-hood; it seeks the work of love towards all men; it will not flourish in the world's scorn, but in its God; its whole life is a mere repentance, and a continual sorrow for the evil which cleaves to it: It seeks no glory or applause to shew itself, but lives in humility: It acknowledges itself always as unworthy and simple; its true Christianity is always hidden in its self-hood. He says, \"I am in my self-hood an unprofitable servant, and have not as yet begun to do or work repentance right.\" He is always in the beginning to work repentance, and would always fain reach the gates of the sweet grace; he labours for that purpose as a woman in travail labours to bring forth, and knows not how it fares with him; the Lord hides his face from him, that his working may be great towards him: He sows in anguish and tears, and knows not his fruit, for it is hidden in God; as a painful traveller goes a long way, aiming at his wished-for journey's end, so also he runs after the far mark of his rest, and finds it not; unless his pearl does appear to him in its beauty, and embraces him in its love: If it again departs from his self-hood, then arises sighing and sorrowing again with continual desire; and one day calls another, the day the night, and the night the morning; and yet there is no place of rest in the earthly self-hood, but only in the fair solar lustre of his precious pearl; when the sun arises to him in the darkness, then the night departs, and all sorrow and anguish fly away.\n\n33. Therefore, dear brethren, learn to take heed and beware of contention, where men contend about the literal form: A true Christian has nothing to contend for, for he dies to his reason's desire; he desires only God's knowledge in his love and grace, and lets all go which contends and strives about the form, for Christ's spirit must make the form in himself; the outward form is only a guide: God must become man, or else man becomes not God.\n\n34. Therefore a Christian is the most simple [or plainest] man upon the earth, as Isaiah says, \"Who is so simple as my servant?\" All heathens desire self-hood, and tear and devour one another for the authority and honours: But a true Christian desires to die to them; he seeks not his own, but Christ's honour. All whatever contends about self-hood, viz. about the self-ful honour and pleasure of this life, the same is heathenish, and far worse than heathenish; yea like the devil, who departed from God into self-fulness: Let it cover itself with Christ's mantle as much as ever it will, yet the man of false self-hood is lodged under it; if he will be a Christian, then he must quite die to self-hood, that the same may only hang to him from without as a garment of this world, wherein he is a stranger and pilgrim, and always consider and think that he is but a servant in his high office, and serves God therein as a servant, and not be his own lord and master.\n\n35. All whatever does lord itself without God's call and appointment, the same is from the devil, and serves the devil in his own power and form: Defend and flatter thyself as much as thou wilt, it does not avail before God; thy own heart accuses thee that thou art a false branch; thy nobility and highness do not at all avail or help thee in the sight of God, if thou dost not thereby drive in God's order; thy office is not thine, but God's; if thou walkest falsely therein, then thy own judgement is upon thee, and condemns thee to death; thou art a servant; and though thou art a king, yet thou servest, and must enter with the poorest into the new birth, or else thou shalt not see God.\n\n36. All self-ful assumed [or arrogated] laws and authority, wherewith the poor are vexed and oppressed, do all come from self-hood, whose original is in the expressed form, which has with the form introduced itself into a self-hood, and brought itself out quite from God: Whatever does not serve in a servant's office before God, the same is all false, let it be either high or low, learned or unlearned: We are altogether servants of the great God; nothing brings itself into a self-fulness, unless it be born in God's anger in the impression of nature: And though a Christian possesses an own-hood, which is not false, yet he is only but a servant therein, viz. a distributer for his Master, a steward and overseer of his Master's work: He deals for his Master therein, and not for his self-hood only; all whatever he plots and devises to bring into self-hood, and brings it, that he brings into the anxious cabinet of covetousness, envy, and self-ful pleasure of the flesh, viz. into a vessel that is separated from God, viz. into the impression of nature, and steals from his Lord and Master who has set him up for a steward; he is a sacrilegious person,297 let him excuse himself, and pretend what he pleases.\n\n37. A true Christian acknowledges himself for a servant of God, to whom it is given in charge to deal right with God's works. He is not his own, for he is also not at home in this earthly work of this tabernacle: Let him seek, search, plant and build, traffic and trade; and whatever else he does, he must always know that he does it to God, and shall give an account thereof, and that he is a stranger and servant in this work, and serves his Master; and not at all look upon the course of his forefathers who have walked therein in the pleasure of the earthly life; whoever does so is far from the kingdom of God, and can with no conscience and ground call himself [or think himself to be] a Christian; for he stands only in the form of Christianity, and not in the spirit of Christ; the form shall be destroyed, and cease with time, but the spirit remains steadfast for ever.\n\n38. A true Christian is in the spirit a Christian, and in continual exercise to bring forth its own form, not only with words in sound and shew, but in the power of the work, as a visible palpable form, not weening, conjecturing, and giving good words out of the self-ful self-hood, and yet remaining in self-hood; but a dying to self-hood, and a growing forth in the will of God in the love-self-hood as a servant of God in God's deeds of wonder; a helping to strike his instrument in God's will, and be a true sounding string in God's harmonious concert; a continual making word in God's voice, viz. in the verbum fiat, which makes and works in and with God what God makes, forms, and works, as an instrument of God.\n\n39. Therefore, O thou dear Christendom, behold thyself, whether thou workest in the working word of God in his will, or whether thou standest only in the form of Christendom, and workest thy own self-fulness in falsehood: Thou wilt find, how thou art become an abomination before the Most High, and thy casting forth298 from the Most High out of this form (which thou in thy self-hood hast introduced into his expressed form) shall presently follow; and that because thou coverest thyself with the true form, and art a false child therein: Therefore thou art sought, and found with a false veil [or covering] in thy own form.\n\n40. And as thou hast brought thyself into a false self-ful form under the true form, so thou shalt also destroy thyself, whereto the heaven helps thee, which thou hast a long time served in obedience, and from this there is no withholding; thy work is found to be in the turba, which shall well satisfy and satiate itself in destroying, as thou hast built up thyself in thy apostate falsehood in thy own form under the name of the true form, and hast played the hypocrite before God with the shew and ostentation of holiness, and only served the earthly man: But the servant of the Lord shall be sought and found; the Lord feeds his lambs in his own form, and brings them into his pasture; all the haughty and wealthy of the world shall find by experience what judgment the Lord will bring upon the face of all the earth, and all wicked hope shall be destroyed; for the day of the harvest draws near: \"A terror from the Lord shaketh the earth, and his voice soundeth in all the ends of the earth;\" and the star of his wonders arises, no one hinders it, for it is concluded of in the counsel of the watchmen in the gates of the deep.\n\n41. Therefore let every one seek and find himself; for the time of visitation is at hand, that he may be found in his love; for the turba has found all false lust in it, and the Most High worker of all essences manifests the turba; and then all false lust or imagination becomes manifest, and each thing enters into its eternal keeper, for all things are generated out of imagination: So also it shall receive its property in the imagination, and every imagination299 reaps its own work which it has wrought; for to that end all things have appeared, that the eternity might be manifest in a time: With deeds of wonder it brought itself into the form of time, and with deeds of wonder it carries itself forth again out of the time into its first place.\n\n42. All things enter again into that from whence they proceeded; but they keep their own form and model, as they have introduced themselves in the expressed word; and everything shall also be received of its likeness, and the end is always;300 and as all things generate themselves in the expressed word, so also they are signed in their inward form, which also signs the outward.\n\n43. The self-ful will makes a form according to its innate nature; but a form is made in the resigned will according to the platform or model of eternity, as it was known in the glass.\n\nof God's eternal wisdom before the times of this world; so the eternal will figures and forms it into a model of its likeness to the honour and wonderful acts of God; for all whatever goes on in its self-hood, the same forms itself; but what resigns itself freely, that is formed of the free will: Now no self-ful form with its own self-will can inherit the only Eternal Being; for where there are two wills in one, there is enmity.\n\n44. Seeing then God is one only God, then all whatever will live in him must be like his will and word: As a concert of music must be tuned into one harmony, though there be many strings, and manifold voices and sounds therein; so must the true human harmony be tuned with all voices into a love melody, and that will-spirit which is not tuned unto the only concert in the divine voice, the same is cast forth out of this tune, and brought into its self-ful tune, viz. into its true fellow-voices of its own likeness; for every likeness shall receive its own.\n\n45. Has any been here an evil spirit? Then he shall be introduced into the root of his likeness; for every hunger receives its like into itself; now the whole manifestation of eternity with this time is nothing else but an hunger and generation; as the hunger is, so is also the essence of its satiating; for with the hunger the creature took its beginning, and with the hunger it enters into its eternal [being].\n\n46. In the hunger the spirit with the body is generated, and in the same hunger it goes into its eternal being, unless it breaks its first hunger, and brings itself into another by mortification, else all is at its end as soon as it is born; but death is the only means whereby the spirit may enter into another source and form: If it dies to its self-hood, and breaks its will in death, then a new twig springs forth out of the same, but not according to the first will, but according to the eternal will; for if a thing enters into its nothing, then it falls again to the creator, who makes that thing as it was known in the eternal will, before it was created to a creature; there it is in the right aim or limit of eternity, and has no turba, for it is in nature's end.\n\n47. Whatever runs on in nature torments itself, but that which attains nature's end, the same is in rest without source, and yet works, but only in one desire: All whatever makes anguish and strife in nature, that makes mere joy in God; for the whole host of heaven is set and tuned into one harmony; each angelical kingdom into a peculiar instrument, but all mutually composed together into one music, viz. into the only love-voice of God: Every string of this melody exalts and rejoices the other; and it is only a mere ravishing lovely and delightful hearing, tasting, feeling, smelling, and seeing: Whatever God is in himself, that the creature is also in its desire in him; a God-angel, and a God-man, God all in all, and without him nothing else. As it was before the times of this world in his eternal harmony [or voice], so also it continues in the creaturely voice in him in his eternity; and this is the beginning and the end of all things.\n \n## Chapter 16. Concerning The Eternal Signature And Heavenly Joy; Why All Things Were Brought Into Evil And Good\n\nCONCERNING THE ETERNAL SIGNATURE AND HEAVENLY JOY; WHY ALL THINGS WERE BROUGHT INTO EVIL AND GOOD\n\n1. The creation of the whole creation is nothing else but a manifestation of the all-essential, unsearchable God; all whatever he is in his eternal unbeginning generation and dominion, of that is also the creation, but not in the omnipotence and power, but like an apple which grows upon the tree, which is not the tree itself, but grows from the power of the tree: Even so all things are sprung forth out of the divine desire, and created into an essence, where in the beginning there was no such essence present, but only that same mystery of the eternal generation, in which there has been an eternal perfection.\n\n2. For God has not brought forth the creation, that he should be thereby perfect, but for his own manifestation, viz. for the great joy and glory; not that this joy first began with the creation, no, for it was from eternity in the great mystery, yet only as a spiritual melody and sport in itself.\n\n3; The creation is the same sport out of himself, viz. a platform or instrument of the Eternal Spirit, with which he melodises: and it is even as a great harmony of manifold instruments which are all tuned into one harmony; for the eternal word, or divine sound or voice, which is a spirit, has introduced itself with the generation of the great mystery into formings, viz. into an expressed word or sound: And as the joyful melody is in itself in the spirit of the eternal generation, so likewise is the instrument, viz. the expressed form in itself, which the living eternal voice guides, and strikes with his own eternal will-spirit, that it sounds and melodises; as an organ of divers and various sounds or notes is moved with one only air, so that each note, yea every pipe has its peculiar tune, and yet there is but one manner of air or breath in all notes, which sounds in each note or pipe according as the instrument or organ is made.\n\n4. Thus in the eternity there is only one spirit in the whole work of the divine manifestation, which is the manifestator in the expressed voice and also in the speaking voice of God, which is the life of the grand mystery, and of all that is generated from thence; he is the manifestator of all the works of God.\n\n5. All the angelical kingdoms are as a prepared work, viz. a manifestation of the eternal sound of the voice of God, and are as a particularity out of the great mystery, and yet are only one in the divine eternal speaking word, sound, or voice of God; for one only spirit rules them; each angelical prince is a property out of the voice of God, and bears the great name of God; as we have a type and figure of it in the stars of the firmament, and in the kingdoms and dominions upon the earth among all generations, where every lord bears his high title, respective name and office: So likewise do the stars in the firmament, which are altogether one only dominion in power under them, where the great stars bear the name and the office of the forms in the mystery of the seven properties, and the other after them, as a particularity of houses or divisions, where every one is a peculiar harmony or operation, like a kingdom, and yet all proceeds in one harmony; like a clock-work, which is entirely composed in itself, and all the pieces work mutually together in one; and yet the great fixed stars keep their peculiar property in the essence of operation, especially the seven planets according to the seven properties of nature, as an under pregnatress of the eternal mystery, or as an instrument of the spirit out of the eternal mystery.\n\n6. This birth of the astrum begets in the four elements, viz. in its body or essence, joy and sorrow, and all is very good in itself; only the alteration of the creature proceeds from the lustful imagination, whereby the creature elevates the wrath of the fire in the properties, and brings them forth out of the likeness of their accord: Nothing is evil which remains in the equal accord; for that which the worst causes and makes with its coming forth out of the accord, that likewise the best makes in the equal accord; that which there makes sorrow, that makes also in the likeness joy; therefore no creature can blame its creator, as if he made it evil; all was very exceeding good; but with its own elevation and departure out of the likeness it becomes evil, and brings itself out of the form [or property] of the love and joy, into a painful tormenting form and property.\n\n7. King Lucifer stood in the beginning of his creation in highest joyfulness, but he departed from the likeness, and put himself forth out of the accord [or heavenly concert] into the cold, dark, fiery generation, out of which the hot fiery generation arises; he forsook his order, and went out of the harmony, wherein God created him; he would be lord over all, and so he entered into the austere fire's domination, and is now an instrument in the austere fire's might, upon which also the all-essential spirit strikes and sounds upon his instrument, but it sounds only according to the wrathful fire's property: as the harmony, viz. the life's-form is in each thing, so is also the sound or tone of the eternal voice therein; in the holy [it is] holy, in the perverse it is perverse: All things must praise the Creator of all beings; the devils praise him in the might of wrath, and the angels and men praise him in the might of love.\n\n8. The Being of all beings is but one only Being, but in its generation it separates itself into two principles, viz. into light and darkness, into joy and sorrow, into evil and good, into love and anger, into fire and light, and out of these two eternal beginnings [or principles] into the third beginning, viz. into the creation, to its own love-play and melody, according to the property of both eternal desires.\n\n9. Thus each thing goes into its harmony, and is guided [or driven] by one only spirit, which is in each thing according to the property of the thing; and this is the clock [or watch-work] of the great mystery of eternity in each principle according to the property of the principle, and then according to the innate form of the composed instrument of the same creatures, even in all these beginnings [or principles].\n\n10. Death is the bound-mark of all whatever is temporal, whereby the evil may be destroyed; but that which arises out of the eternal beginnings, and in its harmony and life's-form enters into another figure, that departs out of God's harmony, out of the true order wherein God created it, and is cast out of the same harmony into its likeness, as a dissonant discording melody or sound in the great excellent well-tuned harmony; for it is an opposite contrary thing, and bears another tone, sound, and will, and so it is introduced into its likeness; and therefore hell is given to the devil for his house and habitation, because he introduced his life's-form into the anger of God, and into the fiery wrath of the eternal nature, so that now he is the instrument in the eternal fire of God, and the anger-spirit strikes his instrument, and yet it must stand to the honour and admiration of God, and be the sport and play in the desire and property of the wrathful anger.\n\n11. The anger and wrath of God are now his joy, not as if he feared, sorrowed, and lived in impotency; no, but in great strength and fiery might, as a potent king and lord, yet only in the same property of which he himself is, viz. in the first principle in the dark world.\n\n12. The like also we are to know concerning the angelical world, viz. the second principle, where God's light and glorious beauty shine in every being [or thing], and the divine voice or sound rises up in all creatures in great joyfulness; where the spirit proceeding from the divine voice makes a joyfulness, and an incessant continual love-desire in those creatures, and in all the divine angelical beings: As there is an anguish-source and trembling in the painful fire, so in like manner there is a trembling joyfulness in the light and love-fire, viz. a great elevation of the voice of God, which makes in the angels and in the like creatures, as the souls of men, a great manifestation of the divine joyfulness.\n\n13. The voice [or breath] of God continually and eternally brings forth its joy through the creature, as through an instrument; the creature is the manifestation of the voice of God: What God is in the eternal generation of his eternal word out of the great mystery of the Father's property, that the creature is in the image as a joyful harmony, wherewith the Eternal Spirit plays or melodises.\n\n14. All properties of the great eternal mystery of the pregnatress of all beings are manifest in the holy angelical and humane creatures; and we are not to think thereof, as if the creatures only stood still and rejoiced at the glory of God, and admired only in joy; not, but it is as the Eternal Spirit of God works from eternity to eternity in the great mystery of the divine generation, and continually manifests the infinite and numberless wisdom of God; even as the earth brings forth always fair blossoms, herbs, and trees, so also metals and all manner of beings, and puts them forth sometimes more sovereign, powerful, and fair, than at other times; and as one arises in the essence, another falls down, and there is an incessant lasting enjoyment. and labour.\n\n15. Thus likewise is the eternal generation of the holy mystery in great power and reprocreation [or paradisical pullulation] where one divine fruit of the great love-desire stands with another in the divine essence; and all is as a continual love-combat or wrestling delight; a blooming of fair colours, and a pleasant ravishing smell of the divine Mercury, according to the divine nature's property, a continual good taste of love from the divine desire.\n\n16. Of all whatever this world is an earthly type and resemblance, that is in the divine kingdom in great perfection in the spiritual essence; not only spirit, as a will, or thought, but essence, corporeal essence, sap and power; but as incomprehensible in reference to the outward world: For this visible world was generated and created out of the same spiritual essence in which the pure element is; and also out of the dark essence in the mystery of the wrath (being the original of the eternal manifest essence from whence the properties arise) as an out-spoken breath out of the Being of all beings: Not that it was made of the eternal essence, but out of the breathing forth or [expression] of the eternal essence; out of love and anger, out of evil and good, as a peculiar generation of a peculiar principle in the hand of the Eternal Spirit.\n\n17. Therefore all whatever is in this world is a type and figure of the angelical world: not that the evil, which is alike manifest with the good in this world, is also manifest in heaven; no, they are separated into two principles; in heaven all is good which is evil in hell; whatever is anguish and torment in hell, that is good and a joy in heaven; for there all stands in the light's source; and in hell all stands in the wrath in the dark source.\n\n18. Hell, viz. the dark world has also its generation of fruits; and there is even such an essence and dominion in them as in heaven, but in nature and manner of the wrathful property; for the fiery property makes all evil in the darkness, and in the light it makes all things good; and in sum, all is wholly one in both eternal worlds; but light and darkness separates them, so that they stand as an eternal enmity opposite one to another, to the end that it may be known what is evil or good, joy or sorrow, love or anger: There is only a distinction between the love-desire of the light, and the anger-desire of the darkness.\n\n19. In the original of the eternal nature, in the Father's property in the great mystery of all beings, it is wholly one: for the same only fire is even in the angelical world, but in another source, viz. a love-fire, which is a poison, and a fire of anger to the devils, and to hell; for the love-fire is a death, mortification, and an enmity of the anger-fire; it deprives the wrath of its might, and this the wrath wills not, and it also cannot be; for if there were no wrath, there would be no fire, and also no light: If the eternal wrath were not, the eternal joy also would not be; in the light the wrath is changed into joy; the wrathful fire's essence is mortified as to the darkness in the wrathful fire, and out of the same dying the light and love-fire arise; as the light burns forth from the candle, and yet in the candle the fire and light are but one thing.\n\n20. Thus also the great mystery of all beings is in the eternity in itself only one thing, but in its explication and manifestation it goes from eternity to eternity into two essences, viz. into evil and good; what is evil to one thing, that is good to another. Hell is evil to the angels, for they were not created thereunto; but it is good to the hellish creatures: So also heaven is evil to the hellish creatures, for it is their poison and death, an eternal dying, and an eternal captivity.\n\n21. Therefore there is an eternal enmity, and God is only called God according to the light of his love; he is indeed himself all, but according to the darkness he saith, \"I am an angry jealous God, and a consuming fire.\"\n\n22. Every creature must remain in its place wherein it was apprehended in its creation and formed into an image, and not depart out of that same harmony, or else it becomes an enemy of the Being of all beings.\n\n23. And thus hell is even an enemy of the devil, for he is a strange guest therein, viz. a perjured fiend cast out of heaven: he will be lord in that wherein he was not created; the whole creation accuses him for a false perjured apostate spirit, which is departed from his order; yea even the nature in the wrath is his enemy though he be of the same property; yet he is a stranger, and will be lord, though he has lost his kingdom, and is only an inmate in the wrath of God; he that was too rich, is now become too poor; he had all when he stood in humility, and now he has nothing, and is moreover captivated in the gulf: this is his shame, that he is a king, and yet has fooled away his kingdom in pride; the royal creature remains, but the dominion is taken away; of a king he is become an executioner; what God's anger apprehends, there he is a judge, viz. an officer of God's anger, yet he must do what his Lord and Master wills.\n\n24. This reason most ignorantly gainsays, and says, \"God is omnipotent, and omniscient, he has made it: Even he hath done with his work as he hath pleased, who will contend with the Most High?\" Yes, dear reason, now thou thinkest thou hittest it right; but first learn the A B C in the great mystery: All whatever is risen out of the eternal will, viz. out of the great eternal mystery of all beings (as angels and the souls of men are), stands in equal weight301 in evil and good in the free will as God himself; that desire which powerfully and predominantly works in the creature, and quite overtops the other, of that property the creature is. As a candle puts forth out of itself a fire, and out of the fire the wind, which wind the fire draws again into itself, and yet gives it forth again; and when this spirit is gone forth from the fire and light, then it is free from the fire and light; what property it again receives, of that it is: The first mystery wherein the creature consists is the all-essential mystery, and the other in the forth-going spirit is its propriety, and a self-ful will. Has not every angel its own peculiar spirit, which is generated out of its own mystery, which has its original out of eternity? Why will this spirit be a tempter of God, and tempt the mystery, which immediately captivates it in the wrath, as happened to Lucifer? It has the drawing to God's wrath and to God's love in it; why does not the spirit (which is generated out of both) which is the similitude of the Spirit of God, continue in its place in obedience, as a child before the mother in humility?\n\n25. Thou sayst it cannot; It is not so:302 Every spirit stands in the place where it was created in equal weight, and has its free will; it is a spirit with the all-essential Eternal Spirit, and may take to itself a lubet in the all-essential Eternal Spirit as it wills, either in God's love or anger; whereinto it introduces its longing imagination, the essence and property of that it receives in the great mystery of all beings.\n\n26. In God the birth is manifest in love and anger; why not also in the creature which is created out of God's essence and will, out of his voice and breath into an image? What property [or note] of the voice the creature awakes in itself, the same sounds in, and rules the creature: God's will to the creature was only one, viz. a general manifestation of the spirit, as each [creature] was apprehended in the property of the eternal mystery; yet, Lucifer was apprehended in the good angelical property, which plainly testifies that he was an angel in heaven; but his own incorporised will-spirit forced itself into the wrathful mother, to awaken the same in it, and thereby to be a lord over every created being. Now the will-spirit is free, it is the eternal original, let it do what it will.\n\n27. Therefore we are to know this, and it is no otherwise, that the will-spirit which takes its original out of love and anger, out of both eternal principles, has given itself into the wrath, whereby the wrath has powerfully got the upper hand and dominion, and put itself out of the equal harmony into a dissonance or discord, and so he must be driven into his likeness; this is his fall, and so it is also the fall of all evil men.\n\n28. Now self-reason alledges the Scripture, where it is written, \"Many are called, but few are chosen: \"Also, \"I have loved Jacob and hated Esau;\" also, \"Hath not a potter power to make of one lump [of earth] what he pleaseth?\" I say the same also, \"That many are called, but few are chosen;\" for they will not; they give their free will into God's anger, where they are even apprehended, and so are chosen to be \"children of wrath;\" whereas they were all called in Adam into paradise, and in Christ into the regeneration; but they would not, the free will would not, it exalted itself into the wrath of God which apprehended it, and so they were not chosen children; for God's love chooses only its likeness, and so likewise God's anger; yet the gate of the regeneration stands open to the wicked, whom the anger of God has apprehended. Man has the death in him, whereby he may die to the evil; but the devil has not, for he was created to the highest perfection.\n\n29. Thus it is also with Jacob and Esau: In Jacob the line of Christ got the upper hand in the wrestling wheel; and in Esau the fall of Adam; now Christ was therefore promised into the humanity, that he might heal the fall of Adam, and redeem Esau, which was captivated in the wrath, from the wrath; Jacob denotes Christ; and Esau Adam; now Christ is to redeem Adam from death and wrath, wherein he was captivated: But did Esau continue303 in sin? That I know not; the Scripture also does not declare it; the blessing belonged to Esau, that is, to Adam, but he fooled it away in the Fall, and so the blessing fell upon Jacob, that is upon Christ, who should bless Adam and Esau, so that the kingdom and blessing might be given of free grace again to Adam and Esau; though he was apprehended in the curse, yet the door of grace stood open in Jacob, that is, in Christ; therefore Jacob said afterward, that is Christ, when he was entered into Adam's soul and flesh, \"Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden with your sins, and I will refresh you: \"Also, \"I am come to call the sinner to repentance;\" not Jacob, who needs it not, but Esau, who needs it; and when he (viz. Esau) is come, then says Christ, \"There is more joy in heaven for him, than for ninety-nine righteous ones, which need no repentance;\" [viz. for one Esau that repents] there is more joy than for ninety-nine Jacobs, who in the centre of the life's original are apprehended in the line of Christ: There is more joy for one poor sinner, whom the anger has apprehended in the centre of God's wrath in the life's original, and chosen to condemnation, if he brings the sins of death again into the mortification or death of sin, than for ninety-nine righteous ones that need no repentance.\n\n30. But who are the righteous, for we are all become sinners in Adam? Answer, They are those whom the line of Christ in the humanity apprehends in the life's rise [or at the first point of opening of life in them], not that they cannot fall as Adam, but that they are apprehended in Christ's will-spirit in the wrestling wheel, where love and anger are counterpoised, and chosen to life; as happened to Jacob, so also to Isaac, and Abel: But this line should be the preacher and teacher of Cain, Ishmael, and Esau, and exhort them to repentance, and to turn out of the anger: And this line did give itself into the anger which was enkindled in Adam, Cain, Ishmael, and destroyed the devil's sting with love, that Cain, Ishmael, and Esau had an open gate to grace; if they would but turn and die in Jacob, that is, if they would enter into Christ's death, and die to sin in Abel, Isaac, and Jacob, and Christ, then they should be received into the election of grace.\n\n31. Jacob took Esau's place in the blessing: Why did that come to pass? In Jacob was the promised seed of Abraham and Adam; from this line the blessing should come upon the sinful Adam and Esau; Jacob must be filled with God's blessing, that he might bless the first-born of angry Adam and Esau; for the blessing, that is, Christ must be born in our flesh and soul, that the seed of the woman might bruise the head of the serpent.\n\n32. The anger must be drowned and appeased in the humanity; an offering did not do it, but this resigning into the wrath, that the love might drown the wrath. Jacob in Christ must drown Esau in the love-power in his blood, that Esau might also become a Jacob in Christ: But Esau was not willing to receive his brother Jacob, and contended about the first birth;304 that is, Adam in sin will not, cannot receive [or accept of] Christ, he shall and must die to the sinful flesh and will.\n\n33. Therefore Esau has ever fought against Jacob; for Jacob should drown him in Christ in his blood; this the evil Adam in Esau would not have, he would live in his self-hood, therefore he strove with the earthly Adam against Jacob; but when Jacob met him with his gifts, that is, when Christ came with his free love-gift into the humanity, then Esau fell upon his brother Jacob's neck and wept; for when Christ entered into the humanity, Adam wept in Esau, and repented him of his sins and evil intent, that he would kill Jacob: For when God's love in the humanity entered into God's anger, the angry Father bewailed our sins and misery, and Jacob with his humility drove forth mournful tears out of his brother Esau; that is, the love in the humanity brought forth the great compassion out of and through the angry Father; so that the angry Father in the midst of his enkindled wrath in the humanity did set open a gate of mercy for Adam and all his children; for his love broke the anger, which [love] put itself into death, and made an open gate for poor sinners in the death to his grace.\n\n34. Now it is commanded the poor sinner, whom the anger has chosen to the condemnation of eternal death, that he enter into this same death, and die in Christ's death to sin, and then Christ drowns it in his blood, and chuses him again to be God's child.\n\n35. Here is the calling: Christ calls us into his death, into his dying; this the sinner will not have: Here is now strife in the sinner between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent; which now overcomes, that conceives the child: Now the free will may reach to which it pleases; both gates stand open to him. Many who are in Christ's line are also brought through imagination and lust, as Adam was, into iniquity; they are indeed called, but they persevere not in the election, for the election is set upon him who departs from sin; he is elected that dies to sin in Christ's death, and rises in Christ's resurrection, who receives God in Christ, not only in the mouth, but in divine desire in the will and new-birth, as a new fiery generation: Knowledge apprehends it not, only the earnest desire and breaking of the sinful will, that apprehends it.\n\n36. Thus there is no sufficient ground in the election of grace as reason holds it forth: Adam is chosen in Christ; but that many a twig withers on the tree, is not the tree's fault, for it withdraws its sap from no twig, only the twig gives forth itself too eagerly with the desire; it runs on in self-will, viz. it is taken by the inflammation of the sun and the fire, before it can draw sap again in its mother, and refresh itself.\n\n37. Thus also man perishes among the evil company in evil vain ways: God offers him his grace that he should repent; but evil company and the devil lead him in wicked ways, till he be even too hard captivated in the anger; and then it goes very hardly with him; he indeed was called, but he is evil; God chuses only children: Seeing he is evil, the choice passes over him; but if he again reforms and amends, the eternal choice [or election] does again receive him.\n\n38. Thus says the Scripture, \"Many are called;\" but when the choice in Christ's suffering and death comes upon them, then they are not capable of the same, by reason of the self-ful evil will which they had before embraced, and so they are not the elected, but evil children; and here it is then rightly said, \"We have piped unto you, but you have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented unto us:305 O Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not: \"It is not said, \"thou *couldest* not,\" but \" thou *wouldest* not;\" and while they remain in the iniquity of sin, they also cannot: God will not cast his pearl before swine; but to the children which draw near to him he gives the pearl and his bread.\n\n39. Therefore whoever blames God, despises his mercy, which he has introduced into the humanity, and brings the judgement headlong upon his body and soul.\n\n40. Thus I have truly warned the reader, and set before his eyes what the Lord of all beings has given me: He may behold himself in this looking-glass both within and without, and find what and who he is: Every reader shall find his profit therein, be he either good or evil: It is a very clear gate of the mystery of all beings. With glosses and self-wit none shall apprehend it in its own ground; but it may well embrace the real seeker, and create him much profit and joy, and even be helpful to him in all natural things, provided he applies himself right, and seeks it in the fear of God, seeing it is now a time of seeking; for a lily blossoms upon the mountains and valleys in all the ends of the earth: He that seeketh findeth. Amen.\n\nHALLELUJAH\n \n## Postscript By The Translator\n\nTHE preceding book is a brief signature, or character of natural and divine knowledge. But it will seem strange and simple to the proud self-conceited sophisters, the wiselings of pedantic reason, who will carp and cavil at anything but what dances to their pipe, or agrees with their conceits. But their censures are not to be valued; and their letter-learned mock productions of science are to be pitied, being only the courted shadows of their own amused fancy. Such as these being captivated in the mystery of Babel, wonder only after their beast Mammon, upon which they ride in pride, and scorn anything but what pleases and flatters them in their admired works of covetous iniquity, gilded over with seeming holiness. But the Babylonish structure of their turba-magna-performances will fall, when it has attained the highest limit of its constellation, and no wit of man shall be able to prop it up. In the meantime the Antichrist in Babel will rage and tyrannise, and execute the sentence of wrath, or his own dismal doom, upon himself.\n\nBut not to transgress by too large a digression from the intent of this postscript; the principal design of it is to explain some words which are used in the translation, as\n\nFLAGRAT, LUBET, SOURCE, SUDE\n\nFLAGRAT\n\nThe word in the German is *Schra'ck*, which signifies properly a fright, sudden astonishment, or dismay. In the other books it is translated terror, or crack, but I have put it *flagrat*, from the Latin word *flagro*, though I mean not by it only a burning, but even the powerful opening of the life or death of the enkindling of the fire in nature. For the fire is the dividing bound-mark, in which the life of both principles is opened and separated; the life of the first is the dying death in the darkness, and the life of the second is the living life in the light. You may perceive a resemblance of this flagrat in thunder and lightening, as also in gunpowder, and the like. Take for instance divers sulphureous salnitral minerals exactly mixed, now their powers are as I may say contracted, or shut up in the astringent dark desire or death; but touch them rightly with the true fire, and you will see how they will soon open, disclose, and flash forth, and will even display and stream themselves forth into divers properties, colours, and virtues. It is even the bursting forth of the ardent desire in nature. It is, as I may term it, the magical fire-breath, whereby the powers either of light or darkness are dismayed. In short, it is the pregnant echo of the sound of eternity everywhere speaking, working, and opening itself in love or anger, in each thing according to its will and desire: In some it is the horrible flagrat to death; and in others it is the pleasant triumphant flagrat to life.\n\nLUBET\n\nThe word in the Dutch is *lust*, which signifies a longing desire or will to a thing; also a delight, or contented joy; sometimes imagination and lust. But because our word lust is commonly used in the worst sense (a longing after evil and vanity) and would not properly agree to, or fully express the German word lust in all places, I have generally translated it *lubet*, from the Latin word *lubitum*, whereby is meant the divine *beneplacitum*, or good pleasure. By it is understood the origin to a desire in the eternal nothing, or pregnant magic, God's free well-liking to the desire of the manifestation of nature and creature, without which all had been an eternal stillness in the nothing. This lubet in man is the moving will to good or evil, light or darkness, love or anger.\n\nSOURCE\n\nBy this are meant the first original qualities or properties of both the inward principles, as they break forth in the sude of the fire in the flagrat of love or anger in nature or creature. For in the darkness the love-*ens*, or paradisical light, is shut up in death, and causes an austere dark source, pain, horror, torment, or disquietude; and so it is the radical property of the contentious elements and stars in the curse of God: And in the light the life of love breaks forth, and swallows up this wrathful source of darkness and death, and turns it into joy or a divine source. So that by *source* is understood the original quality, property, or qualification of evil, darkness, anger, sorrow, cursing, damnation, death, hell; or the contrary to these in their divine source, or essential working property; both according to time and eternity.\n\nSUDE\n\nThe word *sude* is German, and signifies a boiling or seething. It is the stirring of the seven properties in nature, arising from the assimulation or essential co-influence of the outward and inward Sol in Sulphur, from whence the blooming vegetation of the earth proceeds; also the generation of metals and minerals lies therein.\n\nThese are some uncommon words which are used in rendering this book into English. Words are *vehicula rerum*, they are formed to express things, not bare sounds, or empty airs. Now he who rightly understands the ground of the *cabala* and *magia*, and knows how the language of nature speaks in every tongue, might well translate this author. But the bare letter of his writings, though ever so exactly translated, will not give the understanding of them, but the spirit of regeneration in Christ, in whom the fulness of the Deity dwells corporeally.\n\nN.B.—There is One Character by which God has characterised both himself, and all the creatures, and shewn that his presence is in all things; yet so that each creature has its wonder, either of the heavenly or of the earthly mystery. This peculiar mark, shape, and figure, that it may appear as a peculiar is the in the sphere and mercurial wheel of nature, which goes through all the three principles, and in the third through all the kingdoms of minerals, vegetables, and animals, through heaven and earth; the wonderful depth of which is shewn in this book to the enquirer after the divine mysteries.\n \n## THE SUPERSENSUAL LIFE\n\nA DIALOGUE\n\nBETWEEN\n\nA SCHOLAR AND HIS MASTER\n\nCONCERNING\n\nTHE SUPERSENSUAL LIFE\n\nSHEWING\n\nHow the Soul may attain to Divine Hearing and Vision, and what its Childship in the Natural and Supernatural Life is; and how it passeth out of Nature into God, and out of God into Nature and Self again; also what its Salvation and Perdition are.\n\nI Cor. ii. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.\n\n\"We speak the hidden mystical wisdom of God, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: For they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth, or discerneth all things.\"\n\nOF THE SUPERSENSUAL LIFE\n\nOR\n\nTHE LIFE WHICH IS ABOVE SENSE\n\nIN\n\nA Dialogue between a Scholar or Disciple and his Master\n\n## Dialogue 1. Disciple. Master\n\nThe disciple said to his master: Sir, how may I come to the supersensual life, so that I may see God, and may hear God speak?\n\nThe master answered and said: Son, when thou canst throw thyself into That, where no creature dwelleth, though it be but for a moment, then thou hearest what God speaketh.\n\n*Disciple*. Is that where no creature dwelleth near at hand; or is it afar off?\n\n*Master*. It is in thee. And if thou canst, my son, for a while but cease from all thy thinking and willing, then thou shalt hear the unspeakable words of God.\n\n*Disciple*. How can I hear him speak, when I stand still from thinking and willing?\n\n*Master*. When thou standest still from the thinking of self, and the willing of self; \"When both thy intellect and will are quiet, and passive to the impressions of the Eternal Word and Spirit; and when thy soul is winged up, and above that which is temporal, the outward senses, and the imagination being locked up by holy abstraction,\" then the eternal hearing, seeing, and speaking will be revealed in thee; and so God heareth \"and seeth through thee,\" being now the organ of *his* Spirit; and so God speaketh in thee, and whispereth to thy spirit, and thy spirit heareth his voice. Blessed art thou therefore if that thou canst stand still from self-thinking and self-willing, and canst stop the wheel of thy imagination and senses; forasmuch as hereby thou mayest arrive at length to see the great salvation of God, being made capable of all manner of divine sensations and heavenly communications. Since it is nought indeed but thine own hearing and willing that do hinder thee, so that thou dost not see and hear God.\n\n*Disciple*. But wherewith shall I hear and see God, forasmuch as he is above nature and creature?\n\n*Master*. Son, when thou art quiet and silent, then art thou as God was before nature and creature; thou art that which God then was; thou art that whereof he made thy nature and creature: Then thou hearest and seest even with that wherewith God himself saw and heard in thee, before ever thine own willing or thine own seeing began.\n\n*Disciple*. What now hinders or keeps me back, so that I cannot come to that, wherewith God is to be seen and heard?\n\n*Master*. Nothing truly but thine own willing, hearing, and seeing do keep thee back from it, and do hinder thee from coming to this supersensual state. And it is because thou strivest so against that, out of which thou thyself art descended and derived, that thou thus breakest thyself off, with thine own willing, from God's willing, and with thine own seeing from God's seeing. In as much as in thine own seeing thou dost see in thine own willing only, and with thine own understanding thou dost understand but in and according to this thine own willing, as the same stands divided from the divine will. This thy willing moreover stops thy hearing, and maketh thee deaf towards God, through thy own thinking upon terrestrial things, and thy attending to that which is without thee; and so it brings thee into a ground, where thou art laid hold on and captivated in nature. And having brought thee hither, it overshadows thee with that which thou wiliest; it binds thee with thine own chains, and it keeps thee in thine own dark prison which thou makest for thyself; so that thou canst not go out thence, or come to that state which is supernatural and super-sensual.\n\n*Disciple*. But being I am in nature, and thus bound, as with my own chains, and by my own natural will; pray be so kind, sir, as to tell me, how I may come through nature into the supersensual and supernatural ground, without the destroying of nature?\n\n*Master*. Three things are requisite in order to this. The first is, Thou must resign up thy will to God; and must sink thyself down to the dust in his mercy. The second is, Thou must hate thy own will, and forbear from doing that to which thy own will Both drive thee. The third is, Thou must bow thy soul under the cross, heartily submitting thyself to it, that thou mayest be able to bear the temptations of nature and creature. And if thou dost thus, know that God will speak into thee, and will bring thy resigned will into himself, in the supernatural ground; and then thou shalt hear, my son, what the Lord speaketh in thee.\n\n*Disciple*. This is a hard saying, master; for I must forsake the world, and my life too, if I should do thus.\n\n*Master*. Be not discouraged hereat. If thou forsakest the world, then thou comest into that out of which the world is made; and if thou losest thy life, then thy life is in that for whose sake thou forsakest it. Thy life is in God, from whence it came into the body; and as thou comest to have thine own power faint and weak and dying, the power of God will then work in thee and through thee.\n\n*Disciple*. Nevertheless as God hath created man in and for the natural life, to rule over all creatures on earth, and to be a lord over all things in this world, it seems not to be at all unreasonable, that man should therefore possess this world and the things therein for his own.\n\n*Master*. If thou rulest over all creatures but outwardly, there cannot be much in that. But if thou hast a mind to possess all things, and to be a lord indeed over all things in this world, there is quite another method to be taken by thee.\n\n*Disciple*. Pray, how is that? And what method must I take, whereby to arrive at this sovereignty?\n\n*Master*. Thou must learn to distinguish well betwixt the thing, and that which only is an image thereof; betwixt that sovereignty which is substantial, and in the inward ground or nature, and that which is imaginary, and in an outward form, or semblance; betwixt that which is properly angelical, and that which is no more than bestial. If thou rulest now over the creatures externally only, and not from the right internal ground of thy renewed nature; then thy will and ruling is verily in a bestial kind or manner, and thine at best is but a sort of imaginary and transitory government, being void of that which is substantial and permanent, the which only thou art to desire and press after. Thus by thy outwardly lording it over the creatures, it is most easy for thee to lose the substance and the reality, while thou hast nought remaining but the image or shadow only of thy first and original lordship; wherein thou art made capable to be again invested, if thou beest but wise, and takest thy investiture from the supreme lord in the right course and manner. Whereas by thy willing and ruling thus after a bestial manner, thou bringest also thy desire into a bestial essence, by which means thou becomest infected and captivated therein, and gettest therewith a bestial nature and condition of life. But if thou shalt have put off the bestial and ferine nature, and if thou hast left the imaginary life, and quitted the low imaged condition of it; then art thou come into the super-imaginariness, and into the intellectual life, which is a state of living above images, figures, and shadows: and so thou rulest over all creatures, being re-united with thine original, in that very ground or source, out of which they were and are created; and henceforth nothing on earth can hurt thee. For thou art like all things; and nothing is unlike thee.\n\n*Disciple*. O loving master, pray teach me how I may come the shortest way to be like unto all things.\n\n*Master*. With all my heart. Do but think on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he said, \"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.\" There is no shorter way than this; neither can there be a better way found. Verily, Jesus saith unto thee, Unless thou turn and become as a child, hanging upon him for all things, thou shalt not see the kingdom of God. This do, and nothing shall hurt thee; for thou shalt be at friendship with all the things that are, as thou dependest on the author and fountain of them, and becomest like him, by such dependence, and by the union of thy will with his will. But mark what I have further to say; and be not thou startled at it, though it may seem hard for thee at first to conceive. If thou wilt be like all things, thou must forsake all things; thou must turn thy desire away from them all, and not desire or hanker after any of them; thou must not extend thy will to possess that for thy own, or as thine own, which is something, whatsoever that something be. For as soon as ever thou takest something into thy desire, and receivest it into thee for thine own, or in propriety, then this very something (of what nature soever it is) is the same with thyself; and this worketh with thee in thy will, and thou art thence bound to protect it, and to take care of it, even as of thy own being. But if thou dost receive nothing into thy desire, then thou art free from all things, and rulest over all things at once, as a prince of God. For thou hast received nothing for thine own, and art nothing to all things; and all things are as nothing to thee. Thou art as a child, which understands not what a thing is; and though thou dost perhaps understand it, yet thou understandest it without mixing with it, and without sensibly affecting or touching thy perception, even in that manner wherein God doth rule and see all things; he comprehending all, and yet nothing comprehending him.\n\n*Disciple*. Ah! how shall I arrive at this heavenly understanding, at this sight of all things in God, at this pure and naked knowledge which is abstracted from the senses; at this light above nature and creature; and at this participation of the divine wisdom which oversees all things, and governs through all intellectual beings? For, alas, I am touched every moment by the things which are about me; and overshadowed by the clouds and fumes which rise up out of the earth. I desire therefore to be taught, if possible, how I may attain such a state and condition as no creature may be able to touch me to hurt me; and how my mind, being purged from sensible objects and things, may be prepared for the entrance and habitation of the divine wisdom in me?\n\n*Master*. Thou desirest that I would teach thee how thou art to attain it; and I will direct thee to our master, from whom I have been taught it, that thou mayest learn it thyself from him, who alone teacheth the heart. Hear thou him. Wouldest thou arrive at this; wouldest thou remain untouched by sensibles; wouldest thou behold light in the very light of God, and see all things thereby; then consider the words of Christ, who is that light, and who is the truth. O consider now his words, who said, \"Without me ye can do nothing \" (John xix. 5), and defer not to apply thyself unto him, who is the strength of thy salvation, and the power of thy life; and with whom thou canst do all things, by the faith which he worketh in thee. But unless thou wholly givest thyself up to the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, and resignest thy will wholly to him, and desirest nothing and willest nothing without him, thou shalt never come to such a rest as no creature can disturb. Think what thou pleasest, and be never so much delighted in the activity of thine own reason, thou shalt find that in thine own power, and without such a total surrender to God, and to the life of God, thou canst never arrive at such a rest as this, or the true quiet of the soul, wherein no creature can molest thee, or so much as touch thee. Which when thou shalt, by grace, have attained to, then with thy body thou art in the world, as in the properties of outward nature; and with thy reason, under the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; but with thy will thou walkest in heaven, and art at the end from whence all creatures are proceeded forth, and to which they return again. And then thou canst in this End, which is the same with the Beginning, behold all things outwardly with reason, and inwardly with the mind; and so mayest thou rule in all things and over all things, with Christ; unto whom all power is given both in heaven and on earth.\n\n*Disciple*. O master, the creatures which live in me do withhold me, that I cannot so wholly yield and give up myself as I willingly would. What am I to do in this case?\n\n*Master*. Let not this trouble thee. Doth thy will go forth from the creatures? Then the creatures are forsaken in thee. They are in the world; and thy body, which is in the world, is with the creatures. But spiritually thou walkest with God, and conversest in heaven; being in thy mind redeemed from earth, and separated from creatures, to live the life of God. And if thy will thus leaveth the creatures, and goeth forth from them, even as the spirit goeth forth from the body at death; then are the creatures dead in it, and do live only in the body in the world. Since if thy will do not bring itself into them, they cannot bring themselves into it, neither can they by any means touch the soul. And hence St. Paul saith, \"Our conversation is in heaven;\" and also, \"Ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.\" So then true Christians are the very temples of the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in them; that is, the Holy Ghost dwelleth in the will, and the creature dwelleth in the body.\n\n*Disciple*. If now the Holy Spirit doth dwell in the will of the mind, how ought I to keep myself so that he depart not from me again?\n\n*Master*. Mark, my son, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ; \"If ye abide in my words, then my words abide in you.\" If thou abidest with thy will in the words of Christ; then his word and spirit abideth in thee, and all shall be done for thee that thou canst ask of him. But if thy will goeth into the creature, then thou hast broken off thereby thyself from him: And then thou canst not any otherwise keep thyself but by abiding continually in the most resigned humility, and by entering into a constant course of penitence, wherein thou wilt be always grieved at thine own creaturely will, and that creatures do live still in thee, that is, in thy bodily appetite. If thou dost thus, thou standest in a daily dying from the creatures, and in a daily ascending into heaven in thy will; which will is also the will of thy Heavenly Father.\n\n*Disciple*. O my loving master, pray teach me how I may come to such a constant course of holy penitence, and to such a daily dying from all creaturely objects; for how can I abide continually in repentance?\n\n*Master*. When thou leavest that which loveth thee, and lovest that which hateth thee; then thou mayest abide continually in repentance.\n\n*Disciple*. What is it that I must thus leave?\n\n*Master*. All things that love and entertain thee, because thy will loves and entertains them: All things that please and feed thee, because thy will feeds and cherishes them: All creatures in flesh and blood; in a word, all visibles and sensibles, by which either the imagination or sensitive appetite in men are delighted and refreshed. These the will of thy mind, or thy supreme part must leave and forsake; and must even account them all its enemies. This is the leaving of what loves thee. And the loving of what hates thee, is the embracing the reproach of the world. Thou must learn then to love the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and for his sake to be pleased with the reproach of the world which hates thee and derides thee; and let this be thy daily exercise of penitence to be crucified to the world, and the world to thee. And so thou shalt have continual cause to hate thyself in the creature, and to seek the eternal rest which is in Christ. To which rest thou having thus attained, thy will may therein safely rest and repose itself, according as thy Lord Christ hath said: In me ye may have rest, but in the world ye shall have anxiety: In me ye may have peace, but in the world ye shall have tribulation.\n\n*Disciple*. How shall I be now able to subsist in this anxiety and tribulation arising from the world, so as not to lose the eternal peace, or not enter into this rest? And how may I recover myself in such a temptation as this is, by not sinking under the world, but rising above it by a life that is truly heavenly and supersensual?\n\n*Master*. If thou dost once every hour throw thyself by faith beyond all creatures, beyond and above all sensual perception and apprehension, yea, above discourse and reasoning, into the abyssal mercy of God, into the sufferings of our Lord, and into the fellowship of his interceding, and yieldest thyself fully and absolutely thereinto; then thou shalt receive power from above to rule over death, and the devil, and to subdue hell and the world under thee: And then thou mayest subsist in all temptations, and be the brighter for them.\n\n*Disciple*. Blessed is the man that arriveth to such a state as this. But, alas! poor man that I am, how is this possible as to me? And what, O my master, would become of me, if I should ever attain with my mind to that, where no creature is? Must I not cry out, \"I am undone!\"\n\n*Master*. Son, why art thou so dispirited? Be of good heart still; for thou mayest certainly yet attain to it. Do but believe, and all things are made possible to thee. If it were that thy will, O thou of little courage, could break off itself for one hour, or even but for one half hour, from all creatures, and plunge itself into that where no creature is, or can be; presently it would be penetrated and clothed upon with the supreme splendour of the divine glory, would taste in itself the most sweet love of Jesus, the sweetness whereof no tongue can express, and would find in itself the unspeakable words of our Lord concerning his great mercy. Thy spirit would then feel in itself the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ to be very pleasing to it; and would thereupon love the cross more than the honours and goods of the world.\n\n*Disciple*. This for the soul would be exceeding well indeed: But what would then become of the body, seeing that it must of necessity live in the creature?\n\n*Master*. The body would by this means be put into the imitation of our Lord Christ, and of his body: It would stand in the communion of that most blessed body, which was the true temple of the Deity; and in the participation of all its gracious effects, virtues, and influences. It would live in the creature not of choice, but only as it is \"made subject unto vanity,\" and in the world, as it is placed therein by the ordination of the Creator, for its cultivation and higher advancement; and as groaning to be delivered out of it in God's time and manner, for its perfection and resuscitation in eternal liberty and glory, like unto the glorified body of our Lord and his risen saints.\n\n*Disciple*. But the body being in its present constitution, so \"made subject to vanity,\" and living in a vain image and creaturely shadow, according to the life of the undergraduated creatures or brutes, whose breath goeth downwards to the earth; I am still very much afraid thereof, lest it should continue to depress the mind which is lifted up to God, by hanging as a dead weight thereto; and go on to amuse and perplex the same, as formerly, with dreams and trifles, by letting in the objects from without, in order to draw me down into the world and the hurry thereof; whereas I would fain maintain my conversation in heaven, even while I am living in the world. What therefore must I do with this body, that I may be able to keep up so desirable a conversation; and not to be under any subjection to it any longer?\n\n*Master*. There is no other way for thee that I know, but to present the body whereof thou complainest (which is the beast to be sacrificed) \"a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God:\" And this shall be thy \"rational service,\" whereby this thy body will be put, as thou desirest, into the imitation of Jesus Christ, who said, his kingdom was not of this world. Be not thou then conformed to it, but be transformed by the renewing of thy mind; which renewed mind is to have dominion over the body, that so thou mayest prove, both in body and mind, what is the perfect will of God, and accordingly perform the same with and by his grace operating in thee. Whereupon the body, or the animal life would, being thus offered up, begin to die, both from without and from within. From without, that is, from the vanity and evil customs and fashions of the world: It would be an utter enemy to all the pomps thereof, and to all the gaudery, pageantry, pride, ambition, and haughtiness therein. From within, it would die as to all the lusts and appetites of the flesh, and would get a mind and will wholly new, for its government and management; being now made subject to the spirit, which would continually be directed to God, and so consequently that which is subject to it. And thus thy very body is become the temple of God and of his Spirit, in imitation of thy Lord's body.\n\n*Disciple*. But the world would hate it and despise it for so doing; seeing it must hereby contradict the world, and must live and act quite otherwise than the world doth. This is most certain. And how can this then be taken?\n\n*Master*. It would not take that as any harm done to it, but would rather rejoice that it is become worthy to be like unto the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, being transformed from that of the world: And it would be most willing to bear that cross after our Lord; merely that our Lord might bestow upon it the influence of his sweet and precious love.\n\n*Disciple*. I do not doubt but in some this may be even so. Nevertheless for my own part, I am in a straight betwixt two, not feeling yet enough of that blessed influence upon me. O how willingly should my body bear that, could this be safely depended upon by me, according to what is urged! Wherefore pardon me, loving sir, in this one thing, if my impatience doth still further demand \"what would become of it, if the anger of God from within, and the wicked world also from without, should at once assault it, as the same really happened to our Lord Christ?\"\n\n*Master*. Be that unto it, even as unto our Lord Christ, when he was reproached, reviled, and crucified by the world; and when the anger of God so fiercely assaulted him for our sake. Now what did he under this most terrible assault both from without and from within? Why: He commended his soul into the hands of his Father, and so departed from the anguish of this world into the eternal joy. Do thou likewise; and his death shall be thy life.\n\n*Disciple*. Be it unto me as unto the Lord Christ; and unto my body as unto his; which into his hands I have commended, and for the sake of his name do offer up, according to his revealed will. Nevertheless I am desirous to know what would become of my body in its pressing forth from the anguish of this miserable world into the power of the heavenly kingdom.\n\n*Master*. It would get forth from the reproach and contradiction of the world, by a conformity to the passion of Jesus Christ; and from the sorrows and pains in the flesh, which are only the effects of some sensible impression of things without, by a quiet introversion of the spirit, and secret communion with the Deity manifesting itself for that end. It would penetrate into itself; it would sink into the great love of God; it would be sustained and refreshed by the most sweet name Jesus; and it would see and find within itself a new world springing forth as through the anger of God, into the love and joy eternal. And then should a man wrap his soul in this, even in the great love of God, and clothe himself therewith as with a garment; and should account thence all things alike; because in the creature he finds nothing that can give him without God the least satisfaction; and because also nothing of harm can touch him more, while he remains in this love, the which indeed is stronger than all things, and makes a man hence invulnerable both from within and without, by taking out the sting and poison of the creatures, and destroying the power of death. And whether the body be in hell or on earth, all is alike to him; for whether it be there or here, his mind is still in the greatest love of God; which is no less than to say, that he is in heaven.\n\n*Disciple*. But how would a man's body be maintained in the world; or how would he be able to maintain those that are his, if he should by such a conversation incur the displeasure of all the world?\n\n*Master*. Such a man gets greater favours than the world is able to bestow upon him. He hath God for his friend; he hath all his angels for his friends: In all dangers and necessities these protect and relieve him; so that he need fear no manner of evil; no creature can hurt him. God is his helper; and that is sufficient. Also God is his blessing in everything: And though sometimes it may seem as if God would not bless him, yet is this but for a trial to him, and for the attraction of the divine love; to the end he may more fervently pray to God, and commit all his ways unto him.\n\n*Disciple*. He loses, however, by this all his good friends; and there will be none to help him in his necessity..\n\n*Master*. Nay, but he gets the hearts of all his good friends into his possession, and loses none but his enemies, who before loved his vanity and wickedness.\n\n*Disciple*. How is it that he can get his good friends into his possession?\n\n*Master*. He gets the very hearts and souls of all those that belong to our Lord Jesus to be his brethren, and the members of his own very life. For all the children of God are but One in Christ, which one is Christ in all: And therefore he gets them all to be his fellow members in the body of Christ, whence they have all the same heavenly goods in common; and all live in one and the same love of God, as the branches of a tree in one and the same root, and spring all from one and the same source of life in them. So that he can have no want of spiritual friends and relations, who are all rooted with him together in the love which is from above; who are all of the same blood and kindred in Christ Jesus; and who are cherished all by the same quickening sap and spirit diffusing itself through them universally from the one true vine, which is the tree of life and love. These are friends worth having; and though here they may be unknown to him, will abide his friends beyond death, to all eternity. But neither can he want even outward natural friends, as our Lord Christ when on earth did not want such also. For though indeed the high-priests and potentates of the world could not have a love to him, because they belonged not to him, neither stood in any kind of relation to him, as being not of this world; yet those loved him who were capable of his love, and receptive of his words. So in like manner, those who love truth and righteousness will love that man, and will associate themselves unto him, yea, though they may perhaps be outwardly at some distance or seeming disagreement, from the situation of their worldly affairs, or out of some certain respects; yet in their hearts they cannot but cleave to him. For though they be not yet actually incorporated into one body with him, yet they cannot resist being of one mind with him, and being united in affection, for the great regard they bear to the truth, which shines forth in his words and in his life. By which they are made either his declared or his secret friends; and he doth so get their hearts, as they will be delighted above all things in his company, for the sake thereof, and will court his friendship, and will come unto him by stealth, if openly they dare not, for the benefit of his conversation and advice; even as Nicodemus did unto Christ, who came to him by night, and in his heart loved Jesus for the truth's sake, though outwardly he feared the world. And thus thou shalt have many friends that are not known to thee; and some known to thee, who may not appear so before the world.\n\n*Disciple*. Nevertheless it is very grievous to be generally despised of the world, and to be trampled upon by men as the very offscouring thereof.\n\n*Master*. That which now seems so hard and heavy to thee, thou wilt yet hereafter be most of all in love with.\n\n*Disciple*. How can it be that I should ever love that which hates me?\n\n*Master*. Though thou lovest the earthly wisdom now, yet when thou shalt be clothed upon with the heavenly wisdom, then thou wilt see that all the wisdom of the world is folly; and wilt see also that the world hates not so much thee, as thine enemy, which is the mortal life. And when thou thyself shalt come to hate the will thereof, by means of an habitual separation of thy mind from the world, then thou also wilt begin to love that despising of the mortal life, and the reproach of the world for Christ's sake. And so shalt thou be able to stand under every temptation, and to hold out to the end by the means hereof in a course of life above the world, and above sense. In this course thou wilt hate thyself; and thou wilt also love thyself; I say, love thyself, and that even more than ever thou didst yet.\n\n*Disciple*. But how can these two subsist together, that a person should both love and hate himself?\n\n*Master*. In loving thyself, thou lovest not thyself as thine own; but as given thee from the love of God thou lovest the divine ground in thee: By which and in which thou lovest the divine wisdom, the divine goodness, the divine beauty; thou lovest also by it God's works of wonders; and in this ground thou lovest likewise thy brethren. But in hating thyself, thou hatest only that which is thine own, and wherein the evil sticks close to thee. And this thou dost, that so thou mayest wholly destroy that which thou callest thine; as when thou sayest I or Myself do this, or do that. All which is wrong, and a downright mistake in thee; for nothing canst thou properly call thine but the evil self, neither canst thou do anything of thyself that is to be accounted of. This self therefore thou must labour wholly to destroy in thee, that so thou mayest become a ground wholly divine. There is, there can be no selfishness in love; they are opposite to each other. Love, that is, divine love (of which only we are now discoursing), hates all Egoity, hates all that which we call I, or Ihood; hates all such restrictions and confinements, even all that springs from a contracted spirit, or this evil self-hood, because it is an hateful and deadly thing. And it is impossible that these two should stand together, or subsist in one person; the one driving out the other by a necessity of nature. For love possesses heaven, and dwells in itself, which is dwelling in heaven; but that which is called I, this vile self-hood possesses the world and worldly things; and dwells also in itself, which is dwelling in hell, because this is the very root of hell itself. And therefore as heaven rules the world, and as eternity rules time, even so ought love to rule the natural temporal life; for no other method is there, neither can there be of attaining to that life which is supernatural and eternal, and which thou so much desirest to be led into.\n\n*Disciple*. Loving master, I am well content that this love should rule in me over the natural life, that so I may attain to that which is supernatural and supersensual; but pray tell me now, why must love and hatred, friend and foe thus be together? Would not love alone be better? Wherefore, I say, are love and trouble thus joined?\n\n*Master*. If love dwelt not in trouble, it could have nothing to love: But its substance which it loves, namely, the poor soul, being in trouble and pain, it hath thence cause to love its own substance, and to deliver it from pain; that so itself may by it be again beloved. Neither could any one know what love is, if there were no hatred; or what friendship is, if there were no foe to contend with: Or in one word, if love had not something which it might love, and manifest the virtue and power of love, by working out deliverance to the beloved from all pain and trouble.\n\n*Disciple*. Pray what is the virtue, the power, the height and the greatness of love?\n\n*Master*. The virtue of love is Nothing and All, or that nothing visible out of which all things proceed; its power is through all things; its height is as high as God; its greatness is as great as God. Its virtue is the principle of all principles; its power supports the heavens and upholds the earth; its height is higher than the highest heavens; and its greatness is even greater than the very manifestation of the Godhead in the glorious light of the divine essence, as being infinitely capable of greater and greater manifestations in all eternity. What can I say more? Love is higher than the highest. Love is greater than the greatest. Yea, it is in a certain sense greater than God; while yet in the highest sense of all, God is Love, and love is God. Love being the highest principle, is the virtue of all virtues; from whence they flow forth. Love being the greatest majesty, is the power of all powers, from whence they severally operate: And it is the holy magical root, or ghostly power from whence all the wonders of God have been wrought by the hands of his elect servants, in all their generations successively. Whosoever finds it, finds nothing and all things.\n\n*Disciple*. Dear master, pray tell me but how I may understand this.\n\n*Master*. First then, in that I said, \"its virtue is nothing,\" or that nothing which is the beginning of all things, thou must understand it thus: When thou art gone forth wholly from the creature, and from that which is visible, and art become nothing to all that is nature and creature, then thou art in that Eternal One, which is God himself: And then thou shalt perceive and feel in thy interiour, the highest virtue of love. But in that I said, \"Its power is through all things,\" this is that which thou perceivest and findest in thy own soul and body experimentally, whenever this great love is enkindled within thee; seeing that it will burn more than the fire can do, as it did in the prophets of old, and afterwards in the apostles, when God conversed with them bodily, and when his Spirit descended upon them in the oratory of Zion. Thou shalt then see also in all the works of God, how love hath poured forth itself into all things, and penetrateth all things, and is the most inward and most outward ground in all things: Inwardly in the virtue and power of everything; and outwardly in the figure and form thereof.\n\nAnd in that I said, \"Its height is as high as God;\" thou mayest understand this in thyself; forasmuch as it brings thee to be as high as God himself is, by being united to God: As may be seen by our beloved Lord Christ in our humanity. Which humanity love hath brought up into the highest throne, above all angelical principalities and powers, into the very power of the Deity itself.\n\nBut in that I also said, \"Its greatness is as great as God,\" thou art hereby to understand that there is a certain greatness and latitude of heart in love, which is inexpressible; for it enlarges the soul as wide as the whole creation of God. And this shall be truly experienced by thee, beyond all words, when the throne of love shall be set up in thy heart.\n\nMoreover in that I said, \"Its virtue is the principle of all principles,\" hereby it is given thee to understand, that love is the principiating cause of all created beings, both spiritual and corporeal, by virtue whereof the second causes do move and act occasionally according to certain eternal laws from the beginning implanted in the very constitution of things thus originated. This virtue which is in love, is the very life and energy of all the principles of nature, superiour and inferiour: It reaches to all worlds, and to all manner of beings in them contained, they being the workmanship of divine love; and is the first mover, and first moveable both in heaven above and in the earth beneath, and in the water under the earth. And hence there is given to it the name of the Lucid Aleph, or Alpha; by which is expressed the beginning of the alphabet of nature, and of the book of creation and providence, or the divine archetypal book, in which is the light of wisdom, and the source of all lights and forms.\n\nAnd in that I said, \"Its power supports the heavens;\" by this thou wilt come to understand that as the heavens, visible and invisible, are originated from this great principle, so are they likewise necessarily sustained by it; and that therefore if this should be but never so little withdrawn, all the lights, glories, beauties, and forms of the heavenly worlds, would presently sink into darkness and chaos.\n\nAnd whereas I further said, \"that it upholds the earth; this will appear to thee no less evident than the former, and thou shalt perceive it in thyself by daily and hourly experience; forasmuch as the earth without it, even thy own earth also (that is, thy body), would certainly be without form and void. By the power thereof the earth hath been thus long upheld, notwithstanding a foreign usurped power introduced by the folly of sin: And should this but once fail or recede, there could no longer be either vegetation or animation upon it; yea, the very pillars of it be overthrown quite, and the band of union, which is that of attraction or magnetism, called the centripetal power, being broken and dissolved, all must thence run into the utmost disorder, and falling away as into shivers, would be dispersed as loose dust before the wind.\n\nBut in that I said, \"Its height is higher than the highest heavens;\" this thou mayest also understand within thyself: For shouldest thou ascend in spirit through all the orders of angels and heavenly powers, yet the power of love still is undeniably superiour to them all. And as the throne of God, who sits upon the heaven of heavens, is higher than the highest of them, even so must love also be, which fills them all, and comprehends them all.\n\nAnd whereas I said of the greatness of love, that it is \"greater than the very manifestation of the Godhead in the light of the divine essence;\" that is also true: For love enters even into that where the Godhead is not manifested in this glorious light, and where God may be said not to dwell. And entering thereinto, love begins to manifest to the soul the light of the Godhead; and thus is the darkness broken through, and the wonders of the new creation successively manifested.\n\nThus shalt thou be brought to understand really and fundamentally, what is the virtue and power of love, and what the height and greatness thereof is; how that it is indeed the \"virtue of all virtues,\" though it be invisible, and as a nothing in appearance, inasmuch as it is the worker of all things, and a powerful vital energy passing through all virtues and powers natural and supernatural; and the power of all powers, nothing being able to let or obstruct the omnipotence of love, or to resist its invincible penetrating might, which passes through the whole creation of God, inspecting and governing all things.\n\nAnd in that I said, \"It is higher than the highest, and greater than the greatest;\" thou mayest hereby perceive as in a glimpse, the supreme height and greatness of omnipotent love, which infinitely transcends all that human sense and reason can reach to. The highest archangels and the greatest powers of heaven, are in comparison of it but as dwarfs. Nothing can be conceived higher and greater in God himself, by the very highest and greatest of his creatures. There is such an infinity in it, as comprehends and surpasses all the divine attributes.\n\nBut in that it was also said, \"Its greatness is greater than God;\" that likewise is very true in the sense wherein it was spoken: For love, as I before observed, can there enter where God dwelleth not, since the Most High God dwelleth not in darkness, but in the light; the hellish darkness being put under his feet. Thus for instance, when our beloved Lord Christ was in hell, hell was not the mansion of God or of Christ; hell was not God, neither was it with God, nor could it be at all with him; hell stood in the darkness and anxiety of nature, and no light of the divine majesty did there enter: God was not there; for he is not in the darkness, or in the anguish; but love was there; and love destroyed death and conquered hell. So also when thou art in anguish or trouble, which is hell within, God is not the anguish or trouble; neither is he in the anguish or trouble; but his love is there, and brings thee out of the anguish and trouble into God, leading thee into the light and joy of his presence. When God hides himself in thee, love is still there, and makes him manifest in thee. Such is the inconceiveable greatness and largeness of love; which will hence appear to thee as great as God above nature, and greater than God in nature, or as considered in his manifestative glory.\n\nLastly, whereas I also said, \"Whosoever finds it, finds nothing and all things;\" that is also certain and true. But how finds he nothing? Why, I will tell thee how. He that findeth it, findeth a supernatural supersensual abyss, which hath no ground or byss to stand on, and where there is no place to dwell in; and he findeth also nothing is like unto it, and therefore it may fitly be compared to nothing; for it is deeper than anything, and is as nothing with respect to all things, forasmuch as it is not comprehensible by any of them. And because it is nothing respectively, it is therefore free from all things; and is that only good, which a man cannot express or utter what it is; there being nothing to which it may be compared, to express it by.\n\nBut in that I lastly said, \"Whosoever finds it, finds all things;\" there is nothing can be more true than this assertion. It hath been the beginning of all things; and it ruleth all things. It is also the end of all things; and will thence comprehend all things within its circle. All things are from it, and in it, and by it. If thou findest it, thou comest into that ground from whence all things are proceeded, and wherein they subsist; and thou art in it a King over all the works of God.\n\nHere the disciple was exceedingly ravished with what his master had so wonderfully and surprisingly declared, and returned his most humble and hearty thanks for that light, which he had been an instrument of conveying to him. But being desirous to hear further concerning these high matters, and to know somewhat more particularly, he requested him, that he would give him leave to wait on him the next day again; and that he would then be pleased to shew him how and where he might find this which was so much beyond all price and value, and whereabout the seat and abode of it might be in human nature; with the entire process of the discovery and bringing it forth to light.\n\nThe master said to him: This then we will discourse about at our next conference, as God shall reveal the same to us by his Spirit, which is a searcher of all things. And if thou dost remember well what I answered thee in the beginning, thou shalt soon come thereby to understand that hidden mystical wisdom of God, which none of the wise men of the world know; and where the Mine thereof is to be found in thee, shall be given thee from above to discern. Be silent therefore in thy spirit, and watch unto prayer; that when we meet again to-morrow in the love of Christ, thy mind may be disposed for finding that noble pearl, which to the world appears nothing, but which to the children of wisdom is all things.\n \n## Dialogue 2. Argument\n\nHerein is described and set forth the manner of passing the gulf which divides betwixt the two principles or states of heaven and hell: And it is particularly shewn how this transaction is carried on in the soul; what the partition wall therein is, which separates from God.\n\nWhat the breaking down of this partition wall, and how effected; what the centre of light is, and the pressing into that centre is; what the light of God and the light of nature are; how they are operative in their several spheres, and how to be kept from interfering with each other; with some account of the two wills and their contraposition in the fallen state; of the magical wheel of the will, and how the motion thereof may be regulated; of the eye in the midst thereof, what the right eye is to the soul, and what the left is, but especially what the *single eye* is, and in what manner it is to be obtained; of purification from the contagion of matter; of the destruction of evil, and of the very annihilation of it, by the subsidence of the will from its own something into nothing; of the naked and magical faith, and the attraction thereby of a certain divine substantiality and vestment; how all consists in the will, and proceeds but from *one point;* where that point is placed, and how it may be found out; and which is both the safest and nearest way to attain to the high supersensual state, and the internal kingdom of Christ, according to the true heavenly magia or wisdom.\n\nDISCIPLE.  MASTER.\n\nThe disciple being very earnest to be more fully instructed how he might arrive at the supersensual life; and how, having found all things, he might come to be a king over all God's works; came again to his master the next morning, having watched the night in prayer, that he might be disposed to receive and apprehend the instructions that should be given him by a divine irradiation upon his mind. And the disciple after a little space of silence, bowed himself, and thus brake forth:\n\n*Disciple*. O my master! my master! I have now endeavoured to recollect my soul in the presence of God, and to cast myself into that deep where no creature doth nor can dwell; that I might hear the voice of my Lord speaking in me; and be initiated into that high life, whereof I heard yesterday such great and amazing things pronounced. But, alas! I neither hear nor see as I should: There is still such a partition wall in me which beats back the heavenly sounds in their passage, and obstructs the entrance of that light by which alone divine objects are discoverable, as till this be broken down, I can have but small hopes, yea, even none at all, of arriving at those glorious attainments which you pressed me to, or of entering into that where no creature dwells, and which you call nothing and all things. Wherefore be so kind as to inform me what is required on my part, that this partition which hinders may be broken or removed.\n\n*Master*. This partition is the creaturely will in thee: And this can be broken by nothing but by the grace of self-denial, which is the entrance into the true following of Christ; and totally removed by nothing but a perfect conformity with the divine will.\n\n*Disciple*. But how shall I be able to break this creaturely will which is in me, and is at enmity with the divine will? Or, what shall I do to follow Christ in so difficult a path, and not to faint in a continual course of self-denial and resignation to the will of God?\n\n*Master*. This is not to be done by thyself; but by the light and grace of God received into thy soul, which will, if thou gainsay not, break the darkness that is in thee, and melt down thine own will, which worketh in the darkness and corruption of nature, and bring it into the obedience of Christ, whereby the partition of the creaturely self is removed from betwixt God and thee.\n\n*Disciple*. I know that I cannot do it of myself: But I would fain learn, how I must receive this divine light and grace into me, which is to do it for me, if I hinder it not my own self. What is then required of me in order to admit this breaker of the partition, and to promote the attainment of the ends of such admission?\n\n*Master*. There is nothing more required of thee at first, than not to resist this grace, which is manifested in thee; and nothing in the whole process of thy work, but to be obedient and passive to the light of God shining through the darkness of thy creaturely being, which comprehendeth it not, as reaching no higher than the light of nature.\n\n*Disciple*. But is it not for me to attain, if I can, both the light of God, and the light of the outward nature too: And to make use of them both for the ordering my life wisely and prudently?\n\n*Master*. It is right, I confess, so to do. And it is indeed a treasure above all earthly treasures, to be possessed of the light of God and nature, operating in their spheres; and to have both the eye of time and eternity at once open together, and yet not to interfere with each other.\n\n*Disciple*. This is a great satisfaction to me to hear; having been very uneasy about it for some time. But how this can be without interfering with each other, there is the difficulty: Wherefore fain would I know, if it were lawful, the boundaries of the one and the other; and how both the divine and the natural light may in their several spheres respectively act and operate, for the manifestation of the mysteries of God and nature, and for the conduct of my outward and inward life?\n\n*Master*. That each of these may be preserved distinct in their several spheres, without confounding things heavenly and things earthly, or breaking the golden chain of wisdom, it will be necessary, my child, in the first place to wait for and attend the supernatural and divine light, as that superiour light appointed to govern the day, rising in the true east, which is the centre of paradise; and in great might breaking forth as out of the darkness within thee, through a pillar of fire and thunder-clouds, and thereby also reflecting upon the inferiour light of nature a sort of image of itself, whereby only it can be kept in its due subordination; that which is below being made subservient to that which is above; and that which is without to that which is within. Thus there will be no danger of interfering; but all will go right, and everything abide in its proper sphere.\n\n*Disciple*. Therefore without reason or the light of nature be sanctified in my soul, and illuminated by this superiour light, as from the central east of the holy light-world, by the eternal and intellectual sun; I perceive there will be always some confusion, and I shall never be able to manage aright either what concerneth time or eternity: But I must always be at a loss, or break the links of wisdom's chain.\n\n*Master*. It is even so as thou hast said. All is confusion, if thou hast no more but the dim light of nature, or unsanctified and unregenerated reason to guide thee by; and if only the eye of time be opened in thee, which cannot pierce beyond its own limit. Wherefore seek the fountain of light, waiting in the deep ground of thy soul for the rising there of the sun of righteousness, whereby the light of nature in thee, with the properties thereof, will be made to shine seven times brighter than ordinary. For it shall receive the stamp, image, and impression of the super-sensual and supernatural; so that the sensual and rational life will hence be brought into the most perfect order and harmony.\n\n*Disciple*. But how am I to wait for the rising of this glorious sun, and how am I to seek in the centre, this fountain of light, which may enlighten me throughout, and bring all my properties into perfect harmony? I am in nature, as I said before; and which way shall I pass through nature, and the light thereof, so that I may come into that supernatural and supersensual ground, whence this true light, which is the light of minds, doth arise; and this, without the destruction of my nature, or quenching the light of it, which is my—reason?\n\n*Master*. Cease but from thine own activity, steadfastly fixing thine eye upon one point, and with a strong purpose relying upon the promised grace of God in Christ, to bring thee out of thy darkness into his marvellous light. For this end gather in all thy thoughts, and by faith press into the centre, laying hold upon the word of God, which is infallible, and which hath called thee. Be thou then obedient to this call; and be silent before the Lord, sitting alone with him in thy inmost and most hidden cell, thy mind being centrally united in itself, and attending his will in the patience of hope. So shall thy light break forth as the morning; and after the redness thereof is passed, the sun himself, which thou waitest for, shall arise unto thee, and under his most healing wings thou shalt greatly rejoice; ascending and descending in his bright and salutiferous beams. Behold this is the true supersensual ground of life.\n\n*Disciple*. I believe it indeed to be even so. But will not this destroy nature? Will not the light of nature in me be extinguished by this greater light? Or, must not the outward life hence perish, with the earthly body which I carry?\n\n*Master*. By no means at all. It is true, the evil nature will be destroyed by it; but by the destruction thereof you can be no loser, but very much a gainer. The eternal band of nature is the same afterward as before; and the properties are the same. So that nature hereby is only advanced and meliorated; and the light thereof, or human reason, by being kept within its due bounds, and regulated by a superiour light, is only made useful.\n\n*Disciple*. Pray therefore let me know how this inferiour light ought to be used by me; how it is to be kept within its due bounds; and after what manner the superiour light doth regulate it and ennoble it.\n\n*Master*. Know then, my beloved son, that if thou wilt keep the light of nature within its own proper bounds, and make use thereof in just subordination to the light of God; thou must consider that there are in thy soul two wills, an inferiour will, which is for driving thee to things without and below; and a superiour will, which is for drawing to things within and above. These two wills are now set together, as it were back to back, and in a direct contrariety to each other; but in the beginning it was not so. For this contraposition of the soul in these two is no more than the effect of the fallen state; since before that they were placed one under the other, that is, the superiour will above, as the lord, and the inferiour below, as the subject. And thus it ought to have continued. Thou must also further consider, that answering to these two wills there are likewise two eyes in the soul, whereby they are severally directed; forasmuch as these eyes are not united in one single view, but look quite contrary ways at once. They are in a like manner set one against the other, without a common medium to join them. And hence, so long as this double-sightedness doth remain, it is impossible there should be any agreement in the determination of this or that will. This is very plain: And it sheweth the necessity that this malady, arising from the disunion of the rays of vision, be some way remedied and redressed, in order to a true discernment in the mind. Both these eyes therefore must be made to unite by a concentration of rays; there being nothing more dangerous than for the mind to abide thus in the duplicity, and not to seek to arrive at the unity. Thou perceivest, I know, that thou hast two wills in thee, one set against the other, the superiour and the inferiour; and that thou hast also two eyes within, one against another; whereof the one eye may be called the right eye, and the other the left eye. Thou perceivest, too, doubtless, that it is according to the right eye that the wheel of the superiour will is moved; and that it is according to the motion of the left eye that the contrary wheel in the lower is turned about.\n\n*Disciple*. I perceive this, sir, to be very true; and this it is which causeth a continual combat in me, and createth to me greater anxiety than I am able to express. Nor am I unacquainted with the disease of my own soul, which you have so clearly declared. Alas! I perceive and lament this malady, which so miserably disturbeth my sight; whence I feel such irregular and convulsive motions drawing me on this side and that side. The spirit seeth not as the flesh seeth; neither doth, or can the flesh see, as the spirit seeth. Hence the spirit willeth against the flesh; and the flesh willeth against the spirit in me. This hath been my hard case. And how shall it be remedied? O how may I arrive at the unity of will, and how come into the unity of vision!\n\n*Master*. Mark now what I say: The right eye looketh forward in thee into eternity. The left eye looketh backward in thee into time. If now thou sufferest thyself to be always looking into nature, and the things of time, and to be leading the will, and to be seeking somewhat for itself in the desire, it will be impossible for thee ever to arrive at the unity, which thou wishest for. Remember this; and be upon thy watch. Give not thy mind leave to enter into, nor to fill itself with, that which is without thee; neither look thou backward upon thyself; but quit thyself, and look forward upon Christ. Let not thy left eye deceive thee, by making continually one representation after another, and stirring up thereby an earnest longing in the self-propriety; but let thy right eye command back this left, and attract it to thee, so that it may not gad abroad into the wonders and delights of nature. Yea, it is better to pluck it quite out, and to cast it from thee, than to suffer it to proceed forth without restraint into nature, and to follow its own lusts: However, there is for this no necessity, since both eyes may become very useful, if ordered aright; and both the divine and natural light may in the soul subsist together, and be of mutual service to each other. But never shalt thou arrive at the unity of vision or uniformity of will, but by entering fully into the will of our Saviour Christ, and therein bringing the eye of time into the eye of eternity; and then descending by means of this united through the light of God into the light of nature.\n\n*Disciple*. So then if I can but enter into the will of my Lord, and abide therein, I am safe, and may both attain to the light of God in the spirit of my soul, and see with the eye of God, that is, the eye of eternity in the eternal ground of my will; and may also at the same time enjoy the light of this world nevertheless; not degrading, but adorning the light of nature; and beholding as with the eye of eternity things eternal, so with the eye of nature things natural, and both contemplating therein the wonders of God, and sustaining also thereby the life of my outward vehicle or body.\n\n*Master*. It is very right. Thou hast well understood; and thou desirest now to enter into the will of God, and to abide therein as in the supersensual ground of light and life, where thou mayest in his light behold both time and eternity, and bring all the wonders created of God for the exteriour into the interiour life, and so eternally rejoice in them to the glory of Christ; the partition of thy creaturely will being broken down, and the eye of thy spirit simplified in and through the eye of God manifesting itself in the centre of thy life. Let this be so now; for it is God's will.\n\n*Disciple*. But it is very hard to be always looking forwards into eternity; and consequently to attain to this single eye, and simplicity of divine vision. The entrance of a soul naked into the will of God, shutting out all imaginations and desires, and breaking down the strong partition which you mention, is indeed somewhat very terrible and shocking to human nature, as in its present state. O what shall I do, that I may reach this which I so much long for?\n\n*Master*. My son, let not the eye of nature with the will of the wonders depart from that eye which is introverted into the divine liberty, and into the eternal light of the holy majesty: But let it draw to thee those wonders by union with that heavenly internal eye, which are externally wrought out and manifested in visible nature. For while thou art in the world, and hast an honest employment, thou art certainly by the order of providence obliged to labour in it, and to finish the work given thee, according to thy best ability, without repining in the least; seeking out and manifesting for God's glory, the wonders of nature and art. Since let the nature be what it will, it is all the work and art of God: And let the art also be what it will, it is still God's work; and his art, rather than any art or cunning of man. And all both in art and nature serveth but abundantly to manifest the wonderful works of God; that he for all, and in all, may be glorified. Yea, all serveth, if thou knowest rightly how to use them, but to recollect thee more inwards, and to draw thy spirit into that majestic light, wherein the original patterns and forms of things visible are to be seen. Keep therefore in the centre, and stir not out from the presence of God revealed within thy soul; let the world and the devil make never so great a noise and bustle to draw thee out, mind them not; they cannot hurt thee. It is permitted to the eye of thy reason to seek food, and to thy hands, by their labour, to get food for the terrestrial body: But then this eye ought not with its desire to enter into the food prepared, which would be covetousness; but must in resignation simply bring it before the eye of God in thy spirit, and then thou must seek to place it close to this very eye, without letting it go. Mark this lesson well.\n\nLet the hands or the head be at labour, thy heart ought nevertheless to rest in God. God is a Spirit; dwell in the Spirit, work in the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, and do everything in the Spirit; for remember thou also art a spirit, and thereby created in the image of God: Therefore see thou attract not in thy desire matter unto thee, but as much as possible abstract thyself from all matter whatever; and so, standing in the centre, present thyself as a naked spirit before God, in simplicity and purity; and be sure thy spirit draw in nothing but spirit.\n\nThou wilt yet be greatly enticed to draw matter, and to gather that which the world calls substance, thereby to have somewhat visible to trust to: But by no means consent to the tempter, nor yield to the lustings of thy flesh against the spirit. For in so doing thou wilt infallibly obscure the divine light in thee; thy spirit will stick in the dark covetous root, and from the fiery source of thy soul will it blaze out in pride and anger; thy will shall be chained in earthliness, and shall sink through the anguish into darkness and materiality; and never shalt thou be able to reach the still liberty, or to stand before the majesty of God. Since this is opening a door for him who reigneth in the corruption of matter, possibly the devil may roar at thee for this refusal; because nothing can vex him worse than such a silent abstraction of the soul, and introversion thereof to the point of rest from all that is worldly and circumferential: But regard him not; neither admit the least dust of that matter into thee which he may pretend any claim to. It will be all darkness to thee, as much matter as is drawn in by the desire of thy will: It will darken God's majesty to thee; and will close the seeing eye, by hiding from thee the light of his beloved countenance. This the serpent longeth to do; but in vain, except thou permittest thy imagination, upon his suggestion, to receive in the alluring matter; else he can never get in. Behold then, if thou desirest to see God's light in thy soul, and be divinely illuminated and conducted, this is the short way that thou art to take; not to let the eye of thy spirit enter into matter, or fill itself with anything whatever, either in heaven or earth; but to let it enter by a naked faith into the light of the majesty; and so receive by pure love the light of God, and attract the divine power into itself, putting on the divine body, and growing up in it to the full maturity of the humanity of Christ.\n\n*Disciple*. As I said before, so I say again, this is very hard. I conceive indeed well enough that my spirit ought to be free from the contagion of matter, and wholly empty, that it may admit into it the Spirit of God. Also, that this Spirit will not enter, but where the will entereth into nothing, and resigneth itself up in the nakedness of faith, and in the purity of love, to its conduct; feeding magically upon the word of God, and clothing itself thereby with a divine substantiality. But, alas, how hard is it for the will to sink into nothing, to attract nothing, to imagine nothing!\n\n*Master*. Let it be granted that it is so. Is it not surely worth thy while, and all that thou canst ever do?\n\n*Disciple*. It is so, I must needs confess.\n\n*Master*. But perhaps it may not be so hard as at first it appeareth to be; make but the trial, and be in earnest. What is there required of thee but to stand still, and see the salvation of thy God? And couldst thou desire anything less? Where is the hardship in this? Thou hast nothing to care for, nothing to desire in this life, nothing to imagine or attract: Thou needest only cast thy care upon God, who careth for thee, and leave him to dispose of thee according to his good will and pleasure, even as if thou hadst no will at all in thee. For he knoweth what is best; and if thou canst but trust him, he will most certainly do better for thee, than if thou wert left to thine own choice.\n\n*Disciple*. This I most firmly believe.\n\n*Master*. If thou believest, then go and do accordingly. All is in the will, as I have shewn thee. When the will imagineth after somewhat, then entereth it into that somewhat, and this somewhat taketh presently the will into itself, and overcloudeth it, so as it can have no light, but must dwell in darkness, unless it return back out of that somewhat into nothing. But when the will imagineth or lusteth after nothing, then it entereth into nothing, where it receiveth the will of God into itself, and so dwelleth in light, and worketh all its works in it.\n\n*Disciple*. I am now satisfied that the main cause of any one's spiritual blindness, is his letting his will into somewhat, or into that which he hath wrought, of what nature soever it be, good or evil, and his setting his heart and affections upon the work of his own hands or brain; and that when the earthly body perisheth, then the soul must be imprisoned in that very thing which it shall have received and let in; and if the light of God be not in it, being deprived of the light of this world, it cannot but be found in a dark prison.\n\n*Master*. This is a very precious gate of knowledge; I am glad thou takest it into such consideration. The understanding of the whole Scripture is contained in it; and all that hath been written from the beginning of the world to this day, may be found herein, by him that having entered with his will into nothing, hath there found all things, by finding God; from whom, and to whom, and in whom are all things. By this means thou shalt come to hear and see God; and after this earthly life is ended, to see with the eye of eternity all the wonders of God and of nature, and more particularly those which shall be wrought by thee in the flesh, or all that the Spirit of God shall have given thee to labour out for thyself and thy neighbour, or all that the eye of reason enlightened from above, may at any time have manifested to thee. Delay not therefore to enter in by this gate, which if thou seest in the spirit, as some highly favoured souls have seen it, thou seest in the supersensual ground all that God is, and can do; thou seest also therewith, as one hath said who was taken thereinto, through heaven, hell, and earth; and through the essence of all essences. Whosoever findeth it, hath found all that he can desire. Here is the virtue, and power of the love of God displayed. Here is the height and depth; here is the breadth and length thereof manifested, as fully as ever the capacity of thy soul can contain. By this thou shalt come into that ground out of which all things are originated, and in which they subsist; and in it thou shalt reign over all God's works, as a prince of God.\n\n*Disciple*. Pray tell me, dear master, where dwelleth it in man?\n\n*Master*. Where man dwelleth not; there hath it its seat in man.\n\n*Disciple*. Where is that in a man, where man dwelleth not in himself?\n\n*Master*. It is the resigned ground of a soul, to which nothing cleaveth.\n\n*Disciple*. Where is the ground in any soul, to which there will nothing stick? Or, where is that which abideth and dwelleth not in something?\n\n*Master*. It is the centre of rest and motion in the resigned will of a truly contrite spirit, which is crucified to the world. This centre of the will is impenetrable consequently to the world, the devil, and hell: Nothing in all the world can enter into it, or adhere to it, though never so many devils should be in the confederacy against it; because the will is dead with Christ unto the world, but quickened with him in the centre thereof, after his blessed image. Here it is where man dwelleth not; and where no self abideth, or can abide.\n\n*Disciple*. O where is this naked ground of the soul void of all self? And how shall I come at the hidden centre where God dwelleth, and not man? Tell me plainly, loving sir, where it is, and how it is to be found of me, and entered into?\n\n*Master*. There where the soul hath slain its own will, and willeth no more anything as from itself, but only as God willeth, and as his Spirit moveth upon the soul, shall this appear: Where the love of self is banished, there dwelleth the love of God. For so much of the soul's own will as is dead unto itself, even so much room hath the will of God, which is his love, taken up in that soul. The reason whereof is this: Where its own will did before sit, there is now nothing; and where nothing is, there it is that the love of God worketh alone.\n\n*Disciple*. But how shall I comprehend it?\n\n*Master*. If thou goest about to comprehend it, then it will fly away from thee; but if thou dost surrender thyself wholly up to it, then it will abide with thee, and become the life of thy life, and be natural to thee.\n\n*Disciple*. And how can this be without dying, or the whole destruction of my will?\n\n*Master*. Upon this entire surrender and yielding up of thy will, the love of God in thee becometh the life of thy nature; it killeth thee not, but quickeneth thee, who art now dead to thyself in thine own will, according to its proper life, even the life of God. And then thou livest, yet not to thy own will; but thou livest to its will; forasmuch as thy will is henceforth become its will. So then it is no longer thy will, but the will of God; no longer the love of thyself, but the love of God, which moveth and operateth in thee; and then, being thus comprehended in it, thou art dead indeed as to thyself, but art alive unto God. So being dead thou livest, or rather God liveth in thee by his Spirit; and his love is made to thee life from the dead. Never couldst thou, with all thy seeking, have comprehended it; but it hath apprehended thee. Much less couldst thou have comprehended it: But now it hath comprehended thee; and so the treasure of treasures is found.\n\n*Disciple*. How is it that so few souls do find it, when yet all would be glad enough to have it?\n\n*Master*. They all seek it in somewhat, and so they find it not: For where there is somewhat for the soul to adhere to, there the soul findeth but that somewhat only, and taketh up its rest therein, until she seeth that it is to be found in nothing, and goeth out of the somewhat into nothing, even into that nothing out of which all things may be made. The soul here saith, \"I have nothing, for I am utterly naked and stripped of everything: I can do nothing; for I have no manner of power, but am as water poured out: I am nothing; for all that I am is no more than an image of being, and only God is to me I am; and so sitting down in my own nothingness, I give glory to the Eternal Being, and will nothing of myself, that so God may will all in me, being unto me my God and all things.\" Herein now it is that so very few find this most precious treasure in the soul, though every one would so fain have it; and might also have it, were it not for this somewhat in every one which letteth.\n\n*Disciple*. But if the love should proffer itself to a soul, could not that soul find it, nor lay hold on it, without going for it into nothing?\n\n*Master*. No verily. Men seek and find not, because they seek it not in the naked ground where it lieth; but in something or other where it never will be, neither can be. They seek it in their own will, and they find it not, They seek it in their self-desire, and they meet not with it. They look for it in an image, or in an opinion, or in affection, or a natural devotion and fervour, and they lose the substance by thus hunting after a shadow. They search for it in something sensible or imaginary, in somewhat which they may have a more peculiar natural inclination for, and adhesion to; and so they miss of what they seek, for want of diving into the supersensual and supernatural ground where the treasure is hid. Now, should the love graciously condescend to proffer itself to such as these, and even to present itself evidently before the eye of their spirit, yet would it find no place in them at all, neither could it be held by them, or remain with them.\n\n*Disciple*. Why not, if the love should be willing and ready to offer itself, and to stay with them.\n\n*Master*. Because the imaginariness which is in their own will hath set up itself in the place thereof: And so this imaginariness would have the love in it; but the love fleeth away, for it is its prison. The love may offer itself; but it cannot abide where the self-desire attracteth or imagineth. That will which attracteth nothing, and to which nothing adhereth, is only capable of receiving it; for it dwelleth only in nothing, as I said, and therefore they find it not.\n\n*Disciple*. If it dwell only in nothing, what is now the office of it in nothing?\n\n*Master*. The office of the love here is to penetrate incessantly into something; and if it penetrate into, and find a place in something which is standing still and at rest, then its business is to take possession thereof. And when it hath there taken possession, then it rejoiceth therein with its flaming love-fire, even as the sun doth in the visible world. And then the office of it is without intermission to enkindle a fire in this something, which may burn it up; and then with the flames thereof exceedingly to enflame itself, and raise the heat of the love-fire by it, even seven degrees higher.\n\n*Disciple*. O loving master, how shall I understand this?\n\n*Master*. If it but once kindle a fire within thee, my son, thou shalt then certainly feel how it consumeth all that which it toucheth; thou shalt feel it in the burning up thyself, and swiftly devouring all egoity, or that which thou callest I and Me, as standing in a separate root, and divided from the Deity, the fountain of thy being. And when this enkindling is made in thee, then the love doth so exceedingly rejoice in thy fire, as thou wouldst not for all the world be out of it; yea, wouldst rather suffer thyself to be killed, than to enter into thy something again. This fire now must grow hotter and hotter, till it shall have perfected its office with respect to thee, and therefore wilt not give over, till it come to the seventh degree. Its flame hence also will be so very great, that it will never leave thee, though it should even cost thee thy temporal life; but it would go with thee in its sweet loving fire into death; and if thou wentest also into hell, it would break hell in pieces also for thy sake. Nothing is more certain than this; for it is stronger than death and hell.\n\n*Disciple*. Enough, my dearest master, I can no longer endure that anything should divert me from it. But how shall I find the nearest way to it?\n\n*Master*. Where the way is hardest, there go thou; and what the world casteth away, that take thou up. What the world doth, that do thou not; but in all things walk thou contrary to the world. So thou comest the nearest way to that which thou art seeking.\n\n*Disciple*. If I should in all things walk contrary to other people, I must needs be in a very unquiet and sad state; and the world would not fail to account me for a madman.\n\n*Master*. I bid thee not, child, to do harm to any one, thereby to create to thyself any misery or unquietness. This is not what I mean by walking contrary in everything to the world. But because the world, as the world, loveth only deceit and vanity, and walketh in false and treacherous ways; thence, if thou hast a mind to act a clean contrary part to the ways thereof, without any exception or reserve whatsoever, walk thou only in the right way, which is called the way of light, as that of the world is properly the way of darkness. For the right way, even the path of light, is contrary to all the ways of the world.\n\nBut whereas thou art afraid of creating to thyself hereby trouble and inquietude, that indeed will be so according to the flesh. In the world thou must have trouble; and thy flesh will not fail to be unquiet, and to give thee occasion of continual repentance. Nevertheless in this very anxiety of soul, arising either from the world or the flesh, the love Both most willingly enkindle itself, and its cheering and conquering fire is but made to blaze forth with greater strength for the destruction of that evil. And whereas thou dost also say, that the world will for this esteem thee mad; it is true the world will be apt enough to censure thee for a madman in walking contrary to it: And thou art not to be surprised if the children thereof laugh at thee, calling thee silly fool. For the way to the love of God is folly to the world, but is wisdom to the children of God. Hence, whenever the world perceiveth this holy fire of love in God's children, it concludeth immediately that they are turned fools, and are besides themselves. But to the children of God, that which is despised of the world is the greatest treasure; yea, so great a treasure it is, as no life can express, nor tongue so much as name what this enflaming, all-conquering love of God is. it is brighter than the sun; it is sweeter than anything that is called sweet; it is stronger than all strength; it is more nutrimental than food; more cheering to the heart than wine, and more pleasant than all the joy and pleasantness of this world. Whosoever obtaineth it, is richer than any monarch on earth; and he who getteth it, is nobler than any emperor can be, and more potent and absolute than all power and authority.\n\n## Dialogue 3. Of Heaven And Hell. A Dialogue Between Junius A Scholar And Theophorus His Master\n\nThe scholar asked his master, saying; Whither goeth the soul when the body dieth?\n\nHis master answered him; There is no necessity for it to go any whither.\n\nWhat not! said the inquisitive Junius: Must not the soul leave the body at death, and go either to heaven or hell?\n\nIt needs no going forth, replyed the venerable Theophorus: Only the outward mortal life with the body shall separate themselves from the soul. The soul hath heaven and hell within itself before, according as it is written, \"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say, Lo here! or Lo there! For behold the kingdom of God is within you.\" And which soever of the two, that is, either heaven or hell is manifested in it, in that the soul standeth.\n\nHere Junius said to his master; This is hard to understand. Doth it not enter into heaven or hell, as a man entereth into an house; or as one goeth through an hole or casement, into an unknown place; so goeth it not into another world?\n\nThe master spake and said; No. There is verily no such kind of entering in; forasmuch as heaven and hell are everywhere, being universally co-extended.\n\nHow is that possible? said the scholar. What, can heaven and hell be here present, where we are now sitting? And if one of them might, can you make me believe that ever both should be here together?\n\nThen spoke the master in this manner: I have said that heaven is everywhere present; and it is true. For God is in heaven; and God is everywhere. I have said also, that hell must be in like manner everywhere; and that is also true. For the wicked one, who is the devil, is in hell; and the whole world, as the apostle hath taught us, lieth in the wicked one, or the evil one; which is as much as to say, not only that the devil is in the world, but also that the world is in the devil; and if in the devil, then in hell too, because he is there. So hell therefore is everywhere, as well as heaven; which is the thing that was to be proved.\n\nThe scholar, startled hereat, said, Pray make me to understand this.\n\nTo whom the master: Understand then what heaven is: it is but the turning in of the will into the love of God. Wheresoever thou findest God manifesting himself in love, there thou findest heaven, without travelling for it so much as one foot. And by this understand also what hell is, and where it is. I say unto thee, it is but the turning in of the will into the wrath of God. Wheresoever the anger of God doth more or less manifest itself, there certainly is more or less of hell, in whatsoever place it be. So that it is but the turning in of thy will either into his love, or into his anger; and thou art accordingly either in heaven or in hell. Mark it well. And this now cometh to pass in this present life, whereof St. Paul speaking, saith, \"Our conversation is in heaven.\" And the Lord Christ saith also; \"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them the eternal life; and none shall pluck them out of my hand.\" Observe, he saith not, I *will* give them, after this life is ended; but I *give* them, that is, now in the time of this life. And what else is this gift of Christ to his followers but an eternity of life; which for certain, can be nowhere but in heaven. And also if Christ be certainly in heaven, and they who follow him in the regeneration are in his hand, then are they where he is, and so cannot be out of heaven: Yea, moreover none shall be able to pluck them out of heaven, because it is he who holdeth them there, and they are in his hand which nothing can resist. All therefore doth consist in the turning in, or entering of the will into heaven, by hearing the voice of Christ, and both knowing him, and following him. And so on the contrary it is also: Understandest thou this?\n\nHis scholar said to him; I think, in part, I do. But how cometh this entering of the will into heaven to pass?\n\nThe master answered him; This then I will endeavour to satisfy thee in; but thou must be very attentive to what I shall say unto thee. Know then, my son, that when the ground of the will yieldeth up itself to God, then it sinketh out of its own self, and out of and beyond all ground and place, that is or can be imagined, into a certain unknown deep, where God only is manifest, and where he only worketh and willeth. And then it becometh nothing to itself, as to its own working and willing; and so God worketh and willeth in it. And God dwells in this resigned will; by which the soul is sanctified, and so fitted to come into divine rest. Now in this case when the body breaketh, the soul is so thoroughly penetrated all over with the divine love, and so thoroughly illuminated with the divine light, even as a glowing hot iron is by the fire, by which being penetrated throughout, it loseth its darkness, and becometh bright and shining. Now this is the hand of Christ, where God's love thoroughly inhabiteth the soul, and is in it a shining light, and a new glorious life. And then the soul is in heaven, and is a temple of the Holy Ghost, and is itself the very heaven of God, wherein he dwelleth. Lo, this is the entering of the will into heaven; and thus it cometh to pass.\n\nBe pleased, sir, to proceed, said the scholar, and let me know how it fareth on the other side.\n\nThe master said: The godly soul, you see, is in the hand of Christ, that is in heaven, as he himself hath told us; and in what manner this cometh to be so, you have also heard. But the ungodly soul is not willing in this life-time to come into the divine resignation of its will, or to enter into the will of God; but goeth on still in its own lust and desire, in vanity and falsehood, and so entereth into the will of the devil. It receiveth thereupon into itself nothing but wickedness; nothing but lying, pride, covetousness, envy, and wrath; and thereinto it giveth up its will and whole desire. This is the vanity of the will; and this same vanity or vain shadow must also in like manner be manifested in the soul, which hath yielded up itself to be its servant; and must work therein, even as the love of God worketh in the regenerated will, and penetrate it all over, as fire doth iron.\n\nAnd it is not possible for this soul to come into the rest of God; because God's anger is manifested in it, and worketh in it. Now when the body is parted from this soul, then beginneth the eternal melancholy and despair; because it now findeth that it is become altogether vanity, even a vanity most vexatious to itself, and a distracting fury, and a self-tormenting abomination. Now it perceiveth itself disappointed of everything which it had before fancied, and blind, and naked, and wounded, and hungry, and thirsty; without the least prospect of being ever relieved, or obtaining so much as one drop of the water of eternal life. And it feeleth itself to be a mere devil to itself, and its own vile executioner and tormentor; and is affrighted at its own ugly dark form, appearing as a most hideous and monstrous worm, and fain would flee from itself, if it could, but it cannot, being fast bound with the chains of the dark nature, whereinto it had sunk itself when in the flesh. And so not having learned nor accustomed itself to sink down into the divine grace, and being also strongly possessed with the idea of God, as an angry and jealous God, the poor soul is both afraid and ashamed to bring its will into God, by which deliverance might possibly come to it. The soul is afraid to do it, as fearing to be consumed by so doing, under the apprehension of the Deity as a mere devouring fire. The soul is also ashamed to do it, as being confounded at its own nakedness and monstrosity; and therefore would, if it were possible, hide itself from the majesty of God, and cover its abominable form from his most holy eye, though by casting itself still deeper into the darkness, wherefore then it will not enter into God; nay, it cannot enter with its false will; yea, though it should strive to enter, yet can it not enter into the love, because of the will which hath reigned in it. For such a soul is thereby captivated in the wrath; yea, is itself but mere wrath, having by its false desire, which it had awakened in itself, comprehended and shut up itself therewith, and so transformed itself into the nature and property thereof.\n\nAnd since also the light of God Both not shine in it, nor the love of God incline it, the soul is moreover a great darkness, and is withal an anxious fire-source, carrying about an hell within itself, and not being able to discern the least glimpse of the light of God, or to feel the least spark of his love. Thus it dwelleth in itself as in hell, and needeth no entering into hell at all, or being carried thither; for in what place soever it may be, so long as it is in itself, it is in the hell. And though it should travel far, and cast itself many hundred thousand leagues from its present place, to be out of hell; yet still would it remain in the hellish source and darkness.\n\nIf this be so, how then cometh it, said the scholar to Theophorus, that an heavenly soul doth not in the time of this life perfectly perceive the heavenly light and joy; and the soul which is without God in the world, doth not also here feel hell, as well as hereafter? Why should they not both be perceived and felt as well in this life as in the next, seeing that both of them are in man, and one of them (as you have shewed) worketh in every man?\n\nTo whom Theophorus presently returneth this answer: The kingdom of heaven is in the saints operative and manifestative of itself by faith. They who carry God within them, and live by his Spirit, find the kingdom of God in their faith; and they feel the love of God in their faith, by which the will hath given up itself into God, and is made Godlike. In a word, all is transacted within them by faith, which is to them the evidence of the eternal invisibles, and a great manifestation in their spirit of this divine kingdom, which is within them. But their natural life is nevertheless encompassed with flesh and blood; and this standing in a contrariety thereto, and being placed through the Fall in the principle of God's anger, and environed about with the world, which by no means can be reconciled to faith, these faithful souls cannot but be very much exposed to attacks from this world, wherein they are sojourners; neither can they be insensible of their being thus compassed about with flesh and blood, and with this world's vain lust, which ceaseth not continually to penetrate the outward mortal life, and to tempt them manifold ways, even as it did Christ. Whence the world on one side, and the devil on the other, not without the curse of God's anger in flesh and blood, do thoroughly penetrate and sift the life; whereby it cometh to pass that the soul is often in anxiety when these three are all set upon it together, and when hell thus assaulteth the life, and would manifest itself in the soul. But the soul hereupon sinketh down into the hope of the grace of God, and standeth like a beautiful rose in the midst of thorns, until the kingdom of this world shall fall from it in the death of the body: And then the soul first becometh truly manifest in the love of God, and in his kingdom, which is the kingdom of love; having henceforth nothing more to hinder it. But during this life she must walk with Christ in this world; and then Christ delivereth her out of her own hell, by penetrating her with his love throughout, and standing by her in hell, and even changing her hell into heaven.\n\nBut in that thou moreover sayest, why do not the souls which are without God feel hell in this world? I answer: They bear it about with them in their wicked consciences, but they know it not; because the world hath put out their eyes, and its deadly cup hath cast them likewise into a sleep, a most fatal sleep. Notwithstanding which it must be owned that the wicked do frequently feel hell within them during the time of this mortal life, though they may not apprehend that it is hell, because of the earthly vanity which cleaveth unto them from without, and the sensible pleasures and amusements wherewith they are intoxicated. And moreover it is to be noted, that the outward life in every such one hath yet the light of the outward nature, which ruleth in that life; and so the pain of hell cannot, so long as that hath the rule, be revealed. But when the body dieth or breaketh away, so as the soul cannot any longer enjoy such temporal pleasure and delight, nor the light of this outward world, which is wholly thereupon extinguished as to it; then the soul stands in an eternal hunger and thirst after such vanities as it was here in love withal, but yet can reach nothing but that false will, which it had impressed in itself while in the body; and wherein it had abounded to its great loss. And now whereas it had too much of its will in this life, and yet was not contented therewith, it hath after this separation by death, as little of it; which createth in it an everlasting thirst after that which it can henceforth never obtain more, and causeth it to be in a perpetual anxious lust after vanity, according to its former impression, and in a continual rage of hunger after those sorts of wickedness and lewdness whereinto it was immersed, being in the flesh. Fain would it do more evil still, but that it hath not either wherein or wherewith to effect the same, left it; and therefore it doth perform this only in itself. All is now internally transacted, as if it were outward; and so the ungodly is tormented by those furies which are in his own mind, and begotten upon himself by himself. For he is verily become his own devil and tormentor; and that by which he sinned here, when the shadow of this world is passed away, abideth still with him in the impression, and is made his prison and his hell. But this hellish hunger and thirst cannot be fully manifested in the soul, till the body which ministered to the soul what it lusted after, and with which the soul was so bewitched, as to doat thereupon, and pursue all its cravings, be stripped off from it.\n\nI perceive then, said Junius to his master, that the soul having played the wanton with the body in all voluptuousness, and served the lusts thereof during this life, retaineth still the very same inclinations and affections which it had before, then when it hath no opportunity nor capacity to satisfy them longer; and that when this cannot be, there is then hell opened in that soul, which had been shut up in it before, by means of the outward life in the body, and of the light of this world. Do I rightly understand?\n\nTheophorus said, It is very rightly understood by you. Go on.\n\nOn the other hand (said he) I clearly perceive by what I have heard, that heaven cannot but be in a loving soul, which is possessed of God, and bath subdued thereby the body to the obedience of the spirit in all things, and perfectly immersed itself into the will and love of God. And when the body dieth, and this soul is hence redeemed from the earth, it is now evident to me, that the life of God which was hidden in it, will display itself gloriously, and heaven consequently be then manifested. But notwithstanding, if there be not also a local heaven besides, and a local hell, I am still at a loss where to place no small part of the creation, if not the greatest, For where must all the intellectual inhabitants of it abide?\n\nIn their own principle, answered the master, whether it be of light or of darkness. For every created intellectual being remaineth in its deeds and essences, in its wonders and properties, in its life and image; and therein it beholdeth and feeleth God, as who is everywhere, whether it be in the love, or in the wrath.\n\nIf it be in the love of God, then beholdeth it God accordingly, and feeleth him as he is love. But if it bath captivated itself in the wrath of God, then it cannot behold God otherwise than in the wrathful nature, nor perceive him otherwise than as an incensed and vindictive spirit. All places are alike to it, if it be in God's love; and if it be not there, every place is hell alike. What place can bound a thought? Or what needeth any understanding spirit to be kept here or there, in order to its happiness or misery? Verily, wheresoever it is, it is in the abyssal world, where there is neither end nor limit. And whither, I pray, should it go? since though it should go a thousand miles off, or a thousand time ten thousand miles, and this ten thousand times over, beyond the bounds of the universe, and into the imaginary spaces above the stars, yet it were then still in the very same point from whence it went out. For God is the place of spirit; if it may be lawful to attribute to him such a name, to the which body hath a relation: And in God there is no limit; both near and afar off is here all one; and be it in his love, or be it in his anger, the abyssal will of the spirit is altogether unconfined. It is swift as thought, passing through all things; it is magical, and nothing corporeal or from without can let it; it dwelleth in its wonders, and they are its house.\n\nThus it is with every intellectual, whether of the order of angels, or of human souls; and you need not fear but there will be room enough for them all, be they ever so many; and such also as shall best suit them, even according to their election and determination; and which may thence very well be called his own place.\n\nAt which, said the scholar; I remember, indeed, that it is written concerning the great traitor, that he went after death to his own place.\n\nThe master here said: The same is true of every soul, when it departeth this mortal life: And it is true in like manner of every angel, or spirit whatsoever; which is necessarily determined by its own choice. As God is everywhere, so also the angels are everywhere; but each one in its own principle, and in its own property, or (if you had rather) in its own place. The same essence of God, which is as a place to spirits, is confessed to be everywhere; but the appropriation, or participation hereof is different to every one, according as each hath attracted magically in the earnestness of the will. The same divine essence which is with the angels of God above, is with us also below: And the same divine nature which is with us, is likewise with them; but after different manners and in different degrees, communicated and participated.\n\nAnd what I have said here of the divine, is no less to be considered by you in the participation of the diabolical essence and nature, which is the power of darkness, as to the manifold modes, degrees, and appropriations thereof in the false will. In this world there is strife between them: But when this world hath reached in any one the limit, then the principle catcheth that which is its own; and so the soul receiveth companions accordingly, that is, either angels or devils.\n\nTo whom the scholar again: Heaven and hell then being in us at strife in the time of this life, and God himself being also thus near unto us, where can angels and devils dwell?\n\nAnd the master answered him thus: Where thou dost not dwell as to thy self-hood, and to thine own will, there the holy angels dwell with thee, and everywhere all over round about thee. Remember this well. On the contrary, where thou dwellest as to thyself, in self-seeking, and self-will, there to be sure the devils will he with thee, and will take up their abode with thee, and dwell all over thee, and round about thee everywhere. Which God in his mercy prevent.\n\nI understand not this, said the scholar, so perfectly well as I could wish. Be pleased to make it a little more clear to me.\n\nThe master then spake: Mark well what I am going to say. Where the will of God in anything willeth, there is God manifested; and in this very manifestation of God, the angels do dwell. But where God in any creature willeth not with the will of that creature, there God is not manifested to it, neither earl he be; but dwelleth in himself, without the co-operation thereof, and subjection to him in humility. There God is an unmanifested God to the creature: So the angels dwell not with such an one; for wherever they dwell, there is the glory of God; and they make his glory. What then dwelleth in such a creature as this? God dwelleth not therein; the angels dwell not therein; God willeth not therein, the angels also will not therein. The case is evidently this, in that soul or creature its own will is without God's will, and there the devil dwelleth; and with him all whatever is without God, and without Christ. This is the truth; lay it to heart.\n\n*The Scholar*. It is possible I may ask several impertinent questions; but I beseech you, good sir, to have patience with me, and to pity my ignorance, if I ask what may appear to you perhaps ridiculous, or may not be at all fit for me to expect an answer to. For I have several questions still to propound to you; but I am ashamed of my own thoughts in this matter.\n\n*The Master*. Be plain with me, and propose whatever is upon your mind; yea, be not ashamed even to appear ridiculous, so that by querying you may but become wiser.\n\nThe scholar thanked his master for this liberty, and said: How far then are heaven and hell asunder?\n\nTo whom he answered thus: As far as day and night; or as far as something and nothing. They are in one another, and yet they are at the greatest distance one from the other. Nay, the one of them is as nothing to the other; and yet notwithstanding they cause joy and grief to one another. Heaven is throughout the whole world, and it is also without the world over all, even everywhere that is, or that can be but so much as imagined. It filleth all, it is within all, it is without all, it encompasseth all; without division, without place; working by a divine manifestation, and flowing forth universally, but not going in the least out of itself. For only in itself it worketh, and is revealed, being one, and undivided in all. It appeareth only through the manifestation of God; and never but in itself only: And in that being which cometh into it, or in that wherein it is manifested; there also it is that God is manifested. Because heaven is nothing else but a manifestation or revelation of the Eternal One, wherein all the working and willing is in quiet love,\n\nSo in like manner hell also is through the whole world, and dwelleth and worketh but in itself, and in that wherein the foundation of hell is manifested, namely, in self-hood, and in the false will. The visible world hath both in it; and there is no place but heaven and hell may he found or revealed inc it. Now man as to his temporal life, is only of the visible world; and therefore during the time of this life, he seeth not the spiritual world. For the outward world with its substance, is a cover to the spiritual world, even as the body is to the soul. But when the outward man dieth, then the spiritual world, as to the soul, which hath now its covering taken away, is manifested either in the eternal light with the holy angels, or in the eternal darkness, with the devils.\n\nThe scholar further queried: What is an angel, or a human soul, that they can be thus manifested either in God's love or anger, either in light or darkness?\n\nTo whom Theophorus answered: They come from one and the self-same original: They are little branches of the divine wisdom, of the divine will, sprung from the divine word, and made objects of the divine love. They are out of the ground of eternity, whence light and darkness do spring: Darkness, which consisteth in the receiving of self-desire; and light, which consisteth in willing the same thing with God. For in the conformity of the will with God's will, is heaven; and wheresoever there is this willing with God, there the love of God is undoubtedly in the working, and his light will not fail to manifest itself. But in the self-attraction of the soul's desire, or in the reception of self into the willing of any spirit, angelical or human, the will of God worketh difficultly, and is to that soul or spirit nought but darkness; out of which, notwithstanding, the light may be manifested. And this darkness is the hell of that spirit wherein it is. For heaven and hell are nought else but a manifestation of the divine will either in light or darkness, according to the properties of the spiritual world.306 \n\nWHAT THE BODY OF MAN IS; AND WHY THE SOUL IS CAPABLE OF RECEIVING GOOD AND EVIL\n\n*Scholar*. What then is the body of man?\n\n*Master*. It is the visible world; an image and quintessence, or compound of all that the world is; and the visible world is a manifestation of the inward spiritual world, come out of the eternal light, and out of the eternal darkness, out of the spiritual compaction or connection; and it is also an image or figure of eternity, whereby eternity hath made itself visible; where self-will and resigned will, viz. evil and good, work one with the other.\n\nSuch a substance is the outward man. For God created man of the outward world, and breathed into him the inward spiritual world for a soul and an intelligent life; and therefore in the things of the outward world man can receive and work evil and good.\n\nOF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD; OF MAN'S BODY, IN AND AFTER THE RESURRECTION; WHERE HEAVEN AND HELL SHALL BE; OF THE LAST JUDGEMENT; AND WHEREFORE THE STRIFE IN THE CREATURE MUST BE\n\n*Scholar*. What shall be after this world, when all things perish and come to an end?\n\n*Master*. The material substance only ceaseth; viz. the four elements, the sun, moon, and stars. And then the inward world will be wholly visible and manifest. But whatsoever hath been wrought by the will or spirit of man in this world's time, whether evil or good. T say, every such work shall there separate itself in a spiritual manner, either into the eternal light, or into the eternal darkness. For that which is born from each will penetrateth and passeth again into that which is like itself. And there the darkness is called hell, and is an eternal forgetting of all good; and the light is called the kingdom of God, and is an eternal joy in and to the saints, who continually glorify and praise God, for having delivered them from the torment of evil.\n\nThe last judgement is a kindling of the fire both of God's love and anger, in which the matter of every substance perisheth, and each fire shall attract into itself its own, that is, the substance that is like itself: Thus God's fire of love will draw into it whatsoever is born in the love of God, or love-principle, in which also it shall burn after the manner of love, and yield itself into that substance. But the torment will draw into itself what is wrought in the anger of God in darkness, and consume the false substance; and then there will remain only the painful aching will in its own proper nature, image, and figure.\n\n*Scholar*. With what matter and form shall the human body rise?\n\n*Master*. It is sown a natural gross and elementary body, which in this life-time is like the outward elements; yet in this gross body there is a subtle power and virtue. As in the earth also there is a subtle good virtue, which is like the sun, and is one and the same with the sun; which also in the beginning of time did spring and proceed out of the divine power and virtue, from whence all the good virtue of the body is likewise derived. This good virtue of the mortal body shall come again and live for ever in a kind of transparent chrystalline material property, in spiritual flesh and blood; as shall return also the good virtue of the earth, for the earth likewise shall become chrystalline, and the divine light shine in everything that hath a being, essence, or substance. And as the gross earth shall perish and never return, so also the gross flesh of man shall perish and not live for ever. But all things must appear before the judgement, and in the judgement be separated by the fire; yea, both the earth, and also the ashes of the human body. For when God shall once move the spiritual world, every spirit shall attract its spiritual substance to itself. A good spirit and soul shall draw to itself its good substance, and an evil one its evil substance. But we must here understand by substance, such a material power and virtue, the essence of which is mere virtue, like a material tincture (such a thing as hath all figures, colours, and virtues in it, and is at the same time transparent), the grossness whereof is perished in all things.\n\n*Scholar*. Shall we not rise again with our visible bodies, and live in them for ever? See *The Forty Questions of the Soul*, quest. xxi. ver. 12.\n\n*Master*. When the visible world perisheth, then all that hath come out of it, and hath been external, shall perish with it. There shall remain of the world only the heavenly chrystalline nature and form, and of man also only the spiritual earth; for man shall be then wholly like the spiritual world, which as yet is hidden.\n\n*Scholar*. Shall there be husband and wife, or children or kindred, in the heavenly life, or shall one associate with another, as they do in this life?\n\n*Master*. Why art thou so fleshly-minded? There will be neither husband nor wife, but all will be like the angels of God, viz. masculine virgins. There will be neither son nor daughter, brother nor sister, but all of one stock and kindred. For all are but one in Christ, as a tree and its branches are one, though distinct as creatures; but God is all in all. Indeed, there will be spiritual knowledge of what every one hath been, and done, but no possessing or enjoying, or desire of possessing earthly things, or enjoying fleshly relations any more.\n\n*Scholar*. Shall they all have that eternal joy and glorification alike?\n\n*Master*. The Scripture saith, \"Such as the people is, such is their God.\" And in another place, \"With the holy thou art holy, and with the perverse thou art perverse.\" And St. Paul saith, \"In the resurrection one shall differ from another in glory, as do the sun, moon, and stars.\" Therefore know, that the blessed shall indeed all enjoy the divine working in and upon them; but their virtue, and illumination or glory, shall be very different, according as they have been endued in this life with different measures and degrees of power and virtue in their painful working. For the painful working of the creature in this life-time is the opening and begetting of divine power, by which that power is made moveable and operative. Now those who have wrought with Christ in this life-time, and not in the lust of the flesh, shall have great power and transcendent glorification in and upon them. But others, who have only expected, and relied upon, an imputed satisfaction, and in the meanwhile have served their belly-god, and yet at last have turned, and obtained grace; those, I say, shall not attain to so high a degree of power and illumination. So that there will be as great a difference of degrees between them, as is between the sun, moon, and stars; or between the flowers of the field in their varieties of beauty, power, and virtue.\n\n*Scholar*. How shall the world be judged, and by whom?\n\n*Master*. Jesus Christ, that \"word of God which became man,\" shall by the power of his divine stirring or motion separate from himself all that belongeth not to him, and shall wholly manifest his kingdom in the place or space where this world now is; for the separating motion worketh all over the universe, through all at once.\n\n*Scholar*. Whither shall the devils and all the damned be thrown, when the place of this world is become the kingdom of Christ, and such as shall be glorified? Shall they be cast out of the place of this world? Or shall Christ have, and manifest his dominion, out of the sphere or place of this world?\n\n*Master*. Hell shall remain in the place or sphere of this world everywhere, but hidden to the kingdom of heaven, as the night is hidden in and to the day. \"The light shall shine for ever in the darkness, but the darkness can never comprehend, or reach it.\" And the light is the kingdom of Christ; but the darkness is hell, wherein the devils and the wicked dwell; and thus they shall be suppressed by the kingdom of Christ, and made his footstool, viz. a reproach.\n\n*Scholar*. How shall all people and nations be brought to judgement?\n\n*Master*. The eternal word of God, out of which every spiritual creaturely life hath proceeded, will move itself at that hour, according to love and anger, in every life which is come out of the eternity, and will draw every creature before the judgement of Christ, to be sentenced by this motion of the world. The life will then be manifested in all its works, and every soul shall see and feel its judgement and sentence in itself. For the judgement is, indeed, immediately at the departure of the body, manifested in and to every soul: And the last judgement is but a return of the spiritual body, and a separation of the world, when the evil shall be separated from the good, in the substance of the world, and of the human body, and everything enter into its eternal receptacle. And thus is it a manifestation of the mystery of God in every substance and life.\n\n*Scholar*. How will the sentence be pronounced?\n\n*Master*. Here consider the words of Christ. \"He will say to those on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me. I was sick, and ye visited me, in prison, and ye carne unto me.\n\n\"Then shall they answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, or in prison, and ministered thus unto thee?\n\n\"Then shall the King answer and say unto them; Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.\n\n\"And unto the wicked on his left hand he will say, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, and in prison, and ye ministered not unto me.\n\n\"And they shall also answer him, and say, When did we sec thee thus, and ministered not unto thee?\n\n\"And he will answer them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have not done it unto one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.\n\n\"And these shall depart into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.\"\n\n*Scholar*. Loving master, pray tell me why Christ saith, \"What you have done to the least of these, you have done to me; and what you have not done to them, neither have you done it to me.\" And how doth a man this so, as that he doth it to Christ himself!\n\n*Master*. Christ dwelleth really and essentially in the faith of those that wholly yield up themselves to him, and giveth them his flesh for food, and his blood for drink; and thus possesseth the ground of their faith, according to the interior or inward man. And a Christian is called a branch of the vine Christ, and a Christian, because Christ dwelleth spiritually in him; therefore whatsoever good any shall do to such a Christian in his bodily necessities, it is done to Christ himself, who dwelleth in him. For such a Christian is not his own, but is wholly resigned to Christ, and become his peculiar possession, and consequently the good deed is done to Christ himself. Therefore also, whosoever shall withhold their help from such a needy Christian, and forbear to serve him in his necessity, they thrust Christ away from themselves, and despise him in his members. When a poor person that belongeth thus to Christ, asketh anything of thee, and thou deniest it him in his necessity, thou deniest it to Christ himself. And whatsoever hurt any shall do to such a Christian, they do it to Christ himself. When any mock, scorn, revile, reject, or thrust away such a one, they do all that to Christ; but he that receiveth him, giveth him meat and drink, or apparel, and assisteth him in his necessities, doth it likewise to Christ, and to a fellow-member of his own body. Nay, he doth it to himself if he be a Christian; for we are all one in Christ, as a tree and its branches are.\n\n*Scholar*. How then will those subsist in the day of that fierce judgement, who afflict and vex the poor and distressed, and deprive them of their very sweat; necessitating and constraining them by force to submit to their wills, and trampling upon them as their footstools, only that they themselves may live in pomp and power, and spend the fruits of this poor people's sweat and labour in voluptuousness, pride, and vanity?\n\n*Master*. Christ suffereth in the persecution of his members. Therefore all the wrong that such hard exactors do to the poor wretches under their control, is done to Christ himself; and falleth under his severe sentence and judgement: And besides that, they help the devil to augment his kingdom; for by such oppression of the poor they draw them off from Christ, and make them seek unlawful ways to fill their bellies. Nay, they work for, and with the devil himself, doing the very same thing which he doth; who, without intermission, opposeth the kingdom of Christ, which consisteth only in love. All these oppressors, if they do not turn with their whole hearts to Christ, and minister to, or serve him, must go into hell-fire, which is fed and kept alive by nothing else but such mere self, as that which they have exercised over the poor here.\n\n*Scholar*. But how will it fare with those, and how will they be able to stand that severe trial, who in this time do so fiercely contend about the kingdom of Christ, and slander, revile, and persecute one another for their religion, as they do?\n\n*Master*. All such have not yet known Christ; and they are but as a type or figure of heaven and hell, striving with each other for the victory.\n\nAll rising, swelling pride, which contendeth about opinions, is an image of self. And whosoever hath not faith and humility, nor liveth in the spirit of Christ, which is love, is only armed with the anger of God, and helpeth forward the victory of the imaginary self, that is, the kingdom of darkness, and the anger of God. For at the day of judgement all self shall be given to the darkness, as shall also all the unprofitable contentions of men; in which they seek not after love, but merely after their imaginary self, that they may exalt themselves by exalting and establishing their opinions; stirring up princes to wars for the sake of the same, and by that means occasioning the desolation of whole countries of people. All such things belong to the judgement, which will separate the false from the true; and then all images or opinions shall cease, and all the children of God shall dwell for ever in the love of Christ, and that in them.\n\nAll whosoever in this time of strife, namely, from the Fall to the Resurrection, are not zealous in the spirit of Christ, and desirous to promote peace and love, but seek and strive for themselves only, are of the devil, and belong to the pit of darkness, and must consequently be separated from Christ. For in heaven all serve God their Creator in humble love.\n\n*Scholar*. Wherefore then doth God suffer such strife and contention to be in this time?\n\n*Master*. The life itself standeth in strife, that it may be made manifest, sensible, and palpable, and that the wisdom may be made separable and known.\n\nThe strife also constituteth the eternal joy of the victory. For there will arise great praise and thanksgiving in the saints from the experimental sense and knowledge that Christ in them hath overcome darkness, and all the self of nature, and that they are at length totally delivered from the strife; at which they shall rejoice eternally, when they shall know how the wicked are recompenced. And therefore God suffereth all souls to stand in a free-will, that the eternal dominion both of love and anger, of light and of darkness, may be made manifest and\n\nI known; and that every life might cause and find its own sentence in itself. For that which is now a strife and pain to the saints in their wretched warfare here, shall in the end be turned into great joy to them; and that which hath been a joy and pleasure to ungodly persons in this world, shall afterwards be turned into eternal torment and shame to them. Therefore the joy of the saints must arise to them out of death, as the light ariseth out of a candle by the destruction and consumption of it in its fire; that so the life may be freed from the painfulness of nature, and possess another world.\n\nAnd as the light hath quite another property than the fire hath, for it giveth and yieldeth itself forth; whereas the fire draweth in and consumeth itself; so the holy life of meekness springeth forth through the death of self-will, and then God's will of love only ruleth, and doth all in all. For thus the Eternal One hath attained feeling and separability, and brought itself forth again with the feeling, through death in great joyfulness; that there might be an eternal delight in the infinite unity, and an eternal cause of joy; and therefore that which was before painfulness, must now be the ground and cause of this motion or stirring to the manifestation of all things. And herein lieth the mystery of the hidden wisdom of God.\n\n\"Every one that asketh receiveth, every one that seeketh findeth; and to every one that knocketh it shall be opened. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with us all. Amen.\"\n\nHeb. xii. 22, 23, 24.\n\n\"Thank ye the Lord, for ye are now come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the innumerable company of angels, and to the general assembly and church of the first born, who are written in heaven. \"\n\nAnd to God the Judge of all; and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.\n\n\"And to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Amen.\n\n\"Praise, glory, and thanksgiving; honour, wisdom and power, be unto him that sitteth on the throne, to our God, and the Lamb for ever and ever. Amen.\"\n \n## Dialogue 4. The Way From Darkness To True Illumination\n\nThere was a poor soul that had wandered out of paradise, and come into the kingdom of this world; where the devil met with it, and said to it, \"Whither dost thou go, thou soul that art half blind?\"\n\n*The Soul said:* I would see and speculate into the creatures of the world, which the Creator hath made.\n\n*The Devil said:* How wilt thou see and speculate into them, when thou canst not know their essence and property? Thou wilt look upon their outside only, as upon a graven image, and canst not know them throughly.\n\n*The Soul said:* How may I come to know their essence and property?\n\n*The Devil said:* Thine eyes would be opened to see them throughly, if thou didst but eat of that from whence the creatures themselves are come to be good and evil. Thou wouldst then be as God himself is, and know what the creature is.\n\n*The Soul said:* I am now a noble and holy creature; but if I should do so, the Creator hath said, that I should die.\n\n*The Devil said:* No, thou shouldst not die at all; but thy eyes would be opened, and thou wouldst be as God himself, and be master of good and evil. Also, thou shouldst be mighty, powerful, and very great, as I am; all the subtilty that is in the creatures would be made known to thee.\n\n*The Soul said:* If I had the knowledge of nature and of the creatures, I would then rule the whole world as I listed.\n\n*The Devil said:* The whole ground of that knowledge lieth in thee. Do but turn thy will and desire from God or goodness into nature and the creatures, and then there will arise in thee a lust to taste; and so thou mayest eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and by that means come to know all things.\n\n*The Soul said:* Well then, I will eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, that I may rule all things by my own power; and be of myself a lord on earth, and do what I will, as God himself doth.\n\n*The Devil said:* I am the prince of this world; and if thou wouldst rule on earth, thou must turn thy lust towards my image, or desire to be like me, that thou mayest get the cunning, wit, reason, and subtilty, that my image hath.\n\nThus did the devil present to the soul the Vulcan in the Mercury (the power that is in the fiery root of the creature), that is, the fiery wheel of essence or substance, in the form of a serpent. Upon which,\n\n*The Soul said:* Behold, this is the power which can do all things.—What must I do to get it?\n\n*The Devil said:* Thou thyself art also such a fiery Mercury. If thou dost break thy will off from God, and bring it into this power and skill, then thy hidden ground will be manifested in thee, and thou mayest work in the same manner. But thou must eat of that fruit, wherein each of the four elements in itself ruleth over the other, and is in strife; the heat striving against the cold, and the cold against the heat; and so all the properties of nature work feelingly. And then thou wilt instantly be as the fiery wheel is, and so bring all things into thine own power, and possess them as thine own.\n\nThe Soul did so, and what happened thereupon\n\nNow when the soul broke its will thus off from God, and brought it into the Mercury, or the fiery will (which is the root of life and power), there presently arose in it a lust to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; and the soul did eat thereof. Which as soon as it had done, Vulcan (or the artificer in the fire) instantly kindled the fiery wheel of its substance, and thereupon all the properties of nature awoke in the soul and exercised each its own lust and desire.\n\nFirst arose the lust of pride; a desire to be great, mighty, and powerful; to bring all things under subjection to it, and so to be lord itself without control; despising all humility and equality, as esteeming itself the only prudent, witty, and cunning one, and accounting everything folly that is not according to its own humour and liking.\n\nSecondly arose the lust of covetousness; a desire of getting, which would draw all things to itself, into its own possession. For when the lust of pride had turned away the will from God, then the life of the soul would not trust God any further, but would take care for itself; and therefore brought its desire into the creatures, viz. into the earth, metals, trees, and other creatures. Thus the kindled fiery life became hungry and covetous, when it had broken itself off from the unity, love, and meekness of God, and attracted to itself the four elements and their essence, and brought itself into the condition of the beasts; and so the life became dark, empty, and wrathful; and the heavenly virtues and'colours went out, like a candle extinguished.\n\nThirdly, there awoke in this fiery life the stinging thorny lust of envy; a hellish poison, a property which all devils have, and a torment which makes the life a mere enmity to God, and to all creatures. Which envy raged 'furiously in the desire of covetousness, as a venomous sting doth in the body. Envy cannot endure, but hateth and would hurt or destroy that which covetousness cannot draw to itself, by which hellish passion the noble love of the soul is smothered.\n\nFourthly, there awoke in this fiery life a torment like fire, viz. anger; which would murther and remove out of the way all who would not be subject to pride. Thus the ground and foundation of hell, which is called the anger of God, was wholly manifested in this soul. Whereby it lost the fair paradise of God and the kingdom of heaven, and became such a worm as the fiery serpent was, which the devil presented to it in his own image and likeness. And so the soul began to rule on earth in a bestial manner, and did all things according to the will of the devil; living in mere pride, covetousness, envy, and anger, having no longer any true love towards God. But there arose in the stead thereof an evil bestial love of filthy lechery, wantonness, and vanity, and there was no purity left in the heart; for the soul had forsaken paradise, and taken the earth into its possession. Its mind was wholly bent upon cunning knowledge, subtilty, and getting together a multitude of earthly things. No righteousness nor virtue remained in it at all; but whatsoever evil and wrong it committed, it covered all cunningly and subtilly under the cloak of its power and authority by law, and called it by the name of right and justice, and accounted it good.\n\nThe Devil came to the Soul\n\nUpon this the devil drew near to the soul, and brought it on from one vice to another, for he had taken it captive in his essence, and set joy and pleasure before it therein, saying thus to it: Behold, now thou art powerful, mighty, and noble, endeavour to be greater, richer, and more powerful still. Display thy knowledge, wit, and subtilty, that every one may fear thee, and stand in awe of thee, and that thou mayest be respected, and get a great name in the world.\n\nThe Soul did so\n\nThe soul did as the devil counselled it, and yet knew not that its counsellor was the devil; but thought it was guided by its own knowledge, wit, and understanding, and that it did very well and right all the while.\n\nJesus Christ met with the Soul\n\nThe soul going on in this course of life, our dear and loving Lord Jesus Christ, who was come into this world with the love and wrath of God, to destroy the works of the devil, and to execute judgement upon all ungodly deeds, on a time met with it, and spake by a strong power, viz. by his passion and death, into it, and destroyed the works of the devil in it, and discovered to it the way to his grace, and shone upon it with his mercy, calling it to return and repent; and promising that he would then deliver it from that monstrous deformed shape or image which it had gotten, and bring it into paradise again.\n\nHow Christ wrought in the Soul\n\nNow when the spark of the love of God, or the divine light, was accordingly manifested in the soul, it presently saw itself with its will and works to be in hell, in the wrath of God, and found that it was a misshapen ugly monster in the divine presence and the kingdom of heaven; at which it was so affrighted, that it fell into the greatest anguish possible, for the judgement of God was manifested in it.\n\nWhat Christ said\n\nUpon this the Lord Christ spake into it with the voice of his grace, and said, \"Repent and forsake vanity, and thou shalt attain my grace.\"\n\nWhat the Soul said\n\nThen the soul in its ugly misshapen image, with the defiled coat of vanity, went before God, and entreated for grace and the pardon of its sins, and came to be strongly persuaded in itself, that the satisfaction and atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ did belong to it. But the evil properties of the serpent, formed in the astral spirit, or reason of the outward man, would not suffer the will of the soul to come before God, but brought their lusts and inclinations thereinto. For those evil properties would not die to their own lusts, nor leave the world, for they were come out of the world, and therefore they feared the reproach of it, in case they should forsake their worldly honour and glory.\n\nBut the poor soul turned its countenance towards God, and desired grace from him, even that he would bestow his love upon it.\n\nThe Devil came to it again\n\nBut when the devil saw that the soul thus prayed to God, and would enter into repentance, he drew near to it, and thrust the inclinations of the earthly properties into its prayers, and disturbed its good thoughts and desires which pressed forward towards God, and drew them back again to earthly things that they might have no access to him.\n\nThe Soul sighed\n\nThe central will of the soul indeed sighed after God, but the thoughts arising in the mind, that it should penetrate into him, were distracted, scattered, and destroyed, so that they could not reach the power of God. At which the poor soul was still more affrighted, and began to pray more earnestly. But the devil with his desire took hold of the mercurial kindled fiery wheel of life, and awakened the evil properties, so that evil or false inclinations arose in the soul, and went into that thing wherein they had taken most pleasure and delight before.\n\nThe poor soul would very fain go forward to God with its will, and therefore used all its endeavours; but its thoughts continually fled away from God into earthly things, and would not go to him.\n\nUpon this the soul sighed and bewailed itself to God; but was as if it were quite forsaken by him, and cast out from his presence. It could not get so much as one look of grace, but was in mere anguish, fear, and terror, and dreaded every moment that the wrath and severe judgement of God would be manifested in it, and that the devil would take hold of it and have it. And thereupon fell into such great heaviness and sorrow, that it became weary of all the temporal things, which before were its chief joy and happiness.\n\nThe earthly natural will indeed desired those things still, but the soul would willingly leave them altogether, and desired to die to all temporal lust and joy whatsoever, and longed only after its first native country, from whence it originally came. But found itself to be far from thence, in great distress and want, and knew not what to do, yet resolved to enter into itself, and try to pray more earnestly.\n\nThe Devil's Opposition\n\nBut the devil opposed it, and withheld it so that it could not bring itself into any greater fervency of repentance.\n\nHe awakened the earthly lusts in its heart, that they might still keep their evil nature and false right therein, and set them at variance with the new-born will and desire of the soul. For they would not die to their own will and light, but would still maintain their temporal pleasures, and so kept the poor soul captive in their evil desires, that it could not stir, though it sighed and longed never so much after the grace of God. For whensoever it prayed, or offered to press forward towards God, then the lusts of the flesh swallowed up the rays and ejaculations that went forth from it, and brought them away from God into earthly thoughts, that it might not partake of divine strength. Which caused the poor soul to think itself forsaken of God, not knowing that he was so near it, and did thus attract it. Also the devil got access to it, and entered into the fiery Mercury, or fiery wheel of its life, and mingled his desires with the earthly lusts of the flesh, and tempted the poor soul; saying to it in the earthly thoughts, \"Why dost thou pray? Dost thou think that God knoweth thee or regardeth thee? Consider but what thoughts thou hast in his presence; are they not altogether evil? Thou hast no faith or belief in God at all; how then should he hear thee? He heareth thee not, leave off; why wilt thou needlessly torment and vex thyself? Thou hast time enough to repent at leisure. Wilt thou be mad? Do but look upon the world, I pray thee, a little; doth it not live in jollity and mirth? yet it will be saved well enough for all that. Hath not Christ paid the ransom and satisfied for all men? Thou needest only persuade and comfort thyself that it is done for thee, and then thou shalt be saved. Thou canst not possibly in this world come to any feeling of God; therefore leave off, and take care for thy body, and look after temporal glory. What dost thou suppose will become of thee, if thou turn to be so stupid and melancholy? Thou wilt be the scorn of everybody, and they will laugh at thy folly; and so thou wilt spend thy days in mere sorrow and heaviness, which is pleasing neither to God nor nature. I pray thee, look upon the beauty of the world; for God hath created and placed thee in it, to be a lord over all creatures, and to rule them. Gather store of temporal goods beforehand, that thou mayest not be beholden to the world, or stand in need hereafter. And when old age cometh, or that thou growest near thy end, then prepare thyself for repentance. God will save thee, and receive thee into the heavenly mansions then. There is no need of such ado in vexing, bewailing, and stirring up thyself, as thou makest.\"\n\nThe Condition of the Soul\n\nIn these and the like thoughts the soul was ensnared by the devil, and brought into the lusts of the flesh, and earthly desires; and so bound as it were with fetters and strong chains, that it did not know what to do. It looked back a little into the world and the pleasures thereof, but still felt in itself a hunger after divine grace, and would always rather enter into repentance, and favour with God. For the hand of God had touched and bruised it, and therefore it could rest nowhere; but always sighed in itself after sorrow for the sins it had committed, and would fain be rid of them. Yet could not get true repentance, or even the knowledge of sin, though it had a mighty hunger and longing desire after such penitential sorrow.\n\nThe soul being thus heavy and sad, and finding no remedy or rest, began to cast about where it might find a fit place to perform true repentance in, where it might be free from business, cares, and the hinderances of the world; and also by what means it might win the favour of God. And at length purposed to betake itself to some private solitary place, and give over all worldly employments and temporal things; and hoped, that by being bountiful and pitiful to the poor, it should obtain God's mercy. Thus did it devise all kinds of ways to get rest, and gain the love, favour, and grace of God again. But all would not do; for its worldly business still followed it in the lusts of the flesh, and it was ensnared in the net of the devil now, as well as before, arid could not attain rest. And though for a little while it was somewhat cheered with earthly things, yet presently it fell to be as sad and heavy again, as it was before. The truth was, it felt the awakened wrath of God in itself, but knew not how that came to pass, nor what it ailed. For many times great trouble and terror fell upon it, which made it comfortless, sick, and faint with very fear; so mightily did the first bruising it with the ray or influence of the stirring of grace work upon it. And yet it knew not that Christ was in the wrath and severe justice of God, and fought therein with Satan that spirit of error, which was incorporated in soul and body; nor understood that the hunger and desire to turn and repent came from Christ himself, by which it was drawn in this manner; neither did it know what hindered that it could not yet attain to divine feeling. It knew not that itself was a monster, and did bear the image of the serpent, in which the devil had such power and access to it, and had confounded all its good desires, thoughts, and motions, and brought them away from God and goodness; concerning which Christ himself said, \"The devil snatcheth the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.\"\n\nAn enlightened and regenerate Soul met the distressed Soul\n\nBy the providence of God, an enlightened and regenerate soul met this poor afflicted and distressed soul, and said, \"What ailest thou, thou distressed soul, that thou art so restless and troubled?\"\n\nThe distressed Soul answered\n\nThe Creator hath hid his countenance from me, so that I cannot come to his rest; therefore I am thus troubled, and know not what I shall do to get his loving-kindness again. For great cliffs and rocks lie in my way to his grace, so that I cannot come to him. Though I sigh and long after him never so much, yet I am kept back, that I cannot partake of his power, virtue, and strength.\n\nThe enlightened Soul said\n\nThou bearest the monstrous shape of the devil, and art clothed therewith; in which, being his own property or principle, he hath access or power of entrance into thee, and thereby keepeth thy will from penetrating into God. For if thy will might penetrate into God, it would be anointed with the highest power and strength of God, in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that unction would break in pieces the monster which thou carriest about thee; and thy first image of paradise would revive in the centre; which would destroy the devil's power therein, and thou wouldst become an angel again. And because the devil envieth thee this happiness, he holdeth thee captive in his desire in the lusts of the flesh; from which if thou art not delivered, thou wilt be separated from God, and canst never enter into our society.\n\nThe distressed Soul terrified\n\nAt this speech the poor distressed soul was so terrified and amazed, that it could not speak one word more. When it found that it stood in the form and condition of the serpent, which separated it from God; and that the devil was so nigh it in that condition, who injected evil thoughts into the will of the soul, and had so much power over it thereby, that it was near damnation, and sticking fast in the abyss or bottomless pit of hell, in the anger of God; it would have even despaired of divine mercy; but that the power, virtue, and strength of the first stirring of the grace of God, which had before bruised the soul, upheld and preserved it from total despair. But still it wrestled in itself between hope and doubt; whatsoever hope built up, that doubt threw down again. And thus was it agitated with such continual disquiet, that at last the world and all the glory thereof became loathsome to it, neither would it enjoy worldly pleasures any more; and yet for all this, could it not come to rest.\n\nThe enlightened Soul came again, and spoke to the troubled Soul\n\nOn a time the enlightened soul came again to this soul, and finding it still in so great trouble, anguish, and grief of mind, said to it:\n\nWhat dost thou? Wilt thou destroy thyself in thy anguish and sorrow? Why dost torment thyself in thy own power and will, who art but a worm, seeing thy torment increaseth thereby more and more? Yea, if thou shouldst sink thyself down to the bottom of the sea, or couldst fly to the uttermost coasts of the morning, or raise thyself above the stars, yet thou wouldst not be released. For the more thou grievest, tormentest, and troublest thyself, the more painful thy nature will be; and yet thou wilt not be able to come to rest. For thy power is quite lost; and as a dry stick burnt to a coal cannot grow green and spring afresh by its own power, nor get sap to flourish again with other trees and plants; so neither canst thou reach the place of God by thy own power and strength, and transform thyself into that angelical image which thou hadst at first. For in respect to God thou art withered and dry, like a dead plant that hath lost its sap and strength, and so art become a dry tormenting hunger. Thy properties are like heat and cold, which continually strive one against the other, and can never unite.\n\nThe distressed Soul said\n\nWhat then shall I do to bud forth again, and recover the first life, wherein I was at rest before I became an image?\n\nThe enlightened Soul said\n\nThou shalt do nothing at all but forsake thy own will, viz. that which thou callest I, or thyself. By which means all thy evil properties will grow weak, faint, and ready to die; and then thou wilt sink down again into that one thing, from which thou art originally sprung. For now thou liest captive in the creatures; but if thy will forsaketh them, the creatures, with their evil inclinations, will die in thee, which at present stay and hinder thee, that thou canst not come to God. But if thou takest this course, thy God will meet thee with his infinite love, which he path manifested in Christ Jesus in the humanity, or human nature. And that will impart sap, life, and vigour to thee; whereby thou mayest bud, spring, flourish again, and rejoice in the living God, as a branch growing on his true vine. And so thou wilt at length recover the image of God, and be delivered from the image or condition of the serpent: Then shalt thou come to be my brother, and have fellowship with the angels.\n\nThe poor Soul said\n\nHow can I forsake my will, so that the creatures which lodge therein may die, seeing I must be in the world, and also have need of it as long as I live?\n\nThe enlightened Soul said\n\nNow thou hast worldly power and riches, which thou possessest as thy own, to do what thou wilt with, and regardest not how thou gettest or usest the same; employing them in the service and indulgence of thy carnal and vain desires. Nay, though thou seest the poor and needy wretch, who wanteth thy help, and is thy brother, yet thou helpest him not, but layest heavy burdens upon him, by requiring more of him than his abilities will bear, or his necessities afford; and oppressest him, by forcing him to spend his labour and sweat for thee, and the gratification of thy voluptuous will. Thou art moreover proud, and insultest over him, and behavest roughly and sternly to him, exalting thyself above him, and making small account of him in respect of thyself. Then that poor oppressed brother of thine cometh, and complaineth with sighs towards God, that he cannot reap the benefit of his labour and pains, but is forced by thee to live in misery. By which sighings and groanings of his he raiseth up the wrath of God in thee; which maketh thy flame and unquietness still the greater. These are the creatures which thou art in love with, and hast broken thyself off from God for their sakes, and brought thy love into them, or them into thy love, so that they live therein. Thou nourishest and keepest them by continually receiving them into thy desire, for they live in and by thy receiving them into thy mind; because thou thereby bringest the lust of thy life into them. They are but unclean, filthy, and evil births, and issues of the bestial nature, which yet, by thy receiving them in thy lust or desire, have gotten an image, and formed themselves in thee. And that image is a beast with four heads: First, Pride. Secondly, Covetousness. Thirdly, Envy. Fourthly, Anger. And in these four properties the foundation of hell consisteth, which thou carriest in thee and about thee. It is imprinted and engraven in thee, and thou art wholly taken captive thereby. For these properties live in thy natural life; and thereby thou art severed from God, neither canst thou ever come to him, unless thou so forsake these evil creatures that they may die in thee.\n\nBut since thou desirest me to tell thee how to forsake thy own perverse creaturely will, that the creatures might die, and that yet thou mightest live with them in the world. I must assure thee that there is but one way to do it, which is narrow and straight, and will be very hard and irksome to thee at the beginning, but afterwards thou wilt walk in it cheerfully.\n\nThou must seriously consider, that in the course of this worldly life thou walkest in the anger of God and in the foundation of hell; and that this is not thy true native country; but that a Christian should, and must live in Christ, and in his walking truely follow him; and that he cannot be a Christian, unless the spirit and power of Christ so live in him, that he becometh wholly subject to it. Now seeing the kingdom of Christ is not of this world, but in heaven, therefore thou must always be in a continual ascension towards heaven, if thou wilt follow Christ; though thy body must dwell among the creatures and use them.\n\nThe narrow way to which perpetual ascension into heaven and imitation of Christ is this: Thou must despair of all thy own power and strength, for in and by thy own power thou canst not reach the gates of God; and firmly purpose and resolve wholly to give thyself up to the mercy of God, and to sink down with thy whole mind and reason into the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, always desiring to persevere in the same, and to die from all thy creatures therein. Also thou must resolve to watch and guard thy mind, thoughts, and inclinations that they admit no evil into them, neither must thou suffer thyself to be held fast by temporal honour or profit. Thou must resolve likewise to put away from thee all unrighteousness, and whatsoever else may hinder the freedom of thy motion and progress. Thy will must be wholly pure, and fixed in a firm resolution never to return to its old idols any more, but that thou wilt that very instant leave them, and separate thy mind from them, and enter into the sincere way of truth and righteousness, according to the plain and full doctrine of Christ. And as thou dost thus purpose to forsake the enemies of thine own inward nature, so thou must also forgive all thy outward enemies, and resolve to meet them with thy love; that there may be left no creature, person, or thing at all able to take hold of thy will and captivate it; but that it may be sincere, and purged from all creatures. Nay further; if it should be required, thou must be willing and ready to forsake all thy temporal honour and profit for Christ's sake, and regard nothing that is earthly so as to set thy heart and affections upon it; but esteem thyself in whatsoever state, degree, and condition thou art, as to worldly rank or riches, to be but a servant of God and of thy fellow-Christians; or as a steward in the office wherein thy Lord hath placed thee. All arrogance and self-exaltation must be humbled, brought low, and so annihilated that nothing of thine own or of any other creature may stay in thy will to bring thy thoughts or imagination to be set upon it.\n\nThou must also firmly impress it on thy mind, that thou shalt certainly partake of the promised grace in the merit of Jesus Christ, viz. of his outflowing love, which indeed is already in thee, and which will deliver thee from thy creatures, and enlighten thy will, and kindle it with the flame of love, whereby thou shalt have victory over the devil. Not as if thou couldst will or do anything in thine own strength, but only enter into the suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and take them to thyself, and with them assault and break in pieces the kingdom of the devil in thee, and mortify thy creatures. Thou must resolve to enter into this way this very hour, and never to depart from it, but willingly to submit thyself to God in all thy endeavours and doings, that he may do with thee what he pleaseth.\n\nWhen thy will is thus prepared and resolved, it hath then broken through its own creatures, and is sincere in the presence of God, and clothed with the merits of Jesus Christ. It may then freely go to the Father with the Prodigal Son, and fall down in his presence and pour forth its prayers; and putting forth all its strength in this divine work, confess its sins and disobedience; and how far it hath departed from God. This must be done not with bare words, but with all its strength, which indeed amounteth only to a strong purpose and resolution; for the soul of itself hath no strength or power to effect any good work.\n\nNow when thou art thus ready, and that thy Heavenly Father shall see thy coming and returning to him in such repentance and humility, he will inwardly speak to thee, and say in thee, \"Behold, this is my son which I had lost, he was dead and is alive again.\" And he will come to meet thee in thy mind with the grace and love of Jesus Christ, and embrace thee with the beams of his love, and kiss thee with his Spirit and strength; and then thou shalt receive grace to pour out thy confession before him, and to pray powerfully. This indeed is the right place where thou must wrestle in the light of his countenance. And if thou standest resolutely here, and shrinkest not back, thou shalt see or feel great wonders. For thou shalt find Christ in thee assaulting hell, and crushing thy beasts in pieces, and that a great tumult and misery will arise in thee; also thy secret undiscovered sins will then first awake, and labour to separate thee from God, and to keep thee back. Thus shalt thou truely find and feel how death and life fight one against the other, and shalt understand by what passeth within thyself, what heaven and hell are. At all which be not moved, but stand firm and shrink not; for at length all thy creatures will grow faint, weak, and ready to die; and then thy will shall wax stronger, and be able to subdue and keep down the evil inclinations. So shall thy will and mind ascend into heaven every day, and thy creatures gradually die away. Thou wilt get a mind wholly new, and begin to be a new creature, and getting rid of the bestial deformity, recover the divine image. Thus shalt thou be delivered from thy present anguish, and return to thy original rest.\n\nThe poor Soul's Practice\n\nThen the poor soul began to practise this course with such earnestness, that it conceived it should get the victory presently; but it found that the gates of heaven were shut against it in its own strength and power, and it was, as it were, rejected and forsaken by God, and received not so much as one look or glimpse of grace from him. Upon which it said to itself, \"Surely thou hast not sincerely submitted thyself to God. Desire nothing at all of him, but only submit thyself to his judgement and condemnation, that he may kill thy evil inclinations. Sink down into him beyond the limits of nature and creature, and submit thyself to him, that he may do with thee what he will, for thou art not worthy to speak to him.\" Accordingly the soul took a resolution to sink down, and to forsake its own will; and when it had done so, there fell upon it presently the greatest repentance that could be for the sins it had committed; and it bewailed bitterly its ugly shape, and was truely and deeply sorry that the evil creatures did dwell in it. And because of its sorrow it could not speak one word more in the presence of God, but in its repentance did consider the bitter passion and death of Jesus Christ, viz. what great anguish and torment he had suffered for its sake, in order to deliver it out of its anguish, and change it into the image of God. In which consideration it wholly sunk down, and did nothing but complain of its ignorance and negligence, and that it had not been thankful to its Redeemer, nor once considered the great love he had shewn to it, but had idly spent its time, and not at all regarded how it might come to partake of his purchased and proffered grace; but instead thereof had formed in itself the images and figures of earthly things, with the vain lusts and pleasures of the world. Whereby it had gotten such bestial inclinations, that now it must lie captive in great misery, and for very shame dared not lift up its eyes to God, who hid the light of his countenance from it, and would not so much as look upon it. And as it was thus sighing and crying, it was drawn into the abyss or pit of horror, and laid it as it were at the gates of hell, there to perish. Upon which the poor troubled soul was, as it were, bereft of sense, and wholly forsaken, so that it in a manner forgot all its doings, and would willingly yield itself to death, and cease to be a creature. Accordingly it did yield itself to death, and desired nothing else but to die and perish in the death of its Redeemer Jesus Christ, who had suffered such torments and death for its sake. And in this perishing it began to sigh and pray in itself very inwardly to the divine goodness, and to sink down into the mere mercy of God.\n\nUpon this there suddenly appeared unto it the amiable countenance of the love of God, which penetrated through it as a great light, and made it exceedingly joyful. It then began to pray aright, and to thank the Most High for such grace, and to rejoice abundantly, that it was delivered from the death and anguish of hell. Now it tasted of the sweetness of God, and of his promised truth; and now all the evil spirits which had harassed it before, and kept it back from the grace, love, and inward presence of God, were forced to depart from it. The \"wedding of the Lamb\" was now kept and solemnised, that is, the noble Sophia espoused or betrothed herself to the soul; and the seal-ring of Christ's victory was impressed into its essence, and it was received to be a child and heir of God again.\n\nWhen this was done, the soul became very joyful, and began to work in this new power, and to celebrate with praise the wonders of God, and thought thenceforth to walk continually in the same light, strength, and joy. But it was soon assaulted; from without, by the shame and reproach of the world, and from within, by great temptation, so that it began to doubt whether its ground was truely from God, and whether it had really partaken of his grace. For the accuser Satan went to it, and would fain lead it out of this course, and make it doubtful whether it was the true way; whispering thus to it inwardly, \"This happy change in thy spirit is not from God, but only from thine own imagination.\" Also the divine light retired in the soul, and shone but in the inward ground, as fire raked up in embers, so that reason was perplexed, and thought itself forsaken, and the soul knew not what had happened to itself, nor whether it had really and truely tasted of the heavenly gift or not. Yet it could not leave off struggling; for the burning fire of love was sown in it, which had raised in it a vehement and continual hunger and thirst after the divine sweetness. So at length it began to pray aright, and to humble itself in the presence of God, and to examine and try its evil inclinations and thoughts, and to put them away. By which means the will of reason was broken, and the evil inclinations inherent in it were killed, and extirpated more and more. This process was very severe and painful to the nature of the body, for it made it faint and weak, as if it had been very sick; and yet it was no natural sickness that it had, but only the melancholy of its earthly nature, feeling and lamenting the destruction of its evil lusts. Now when the earthly reason found itself thus forsaken, and the poor soul saw that it was despised outwardly, and derided by the world, because it would walk no longer in the way of wickedness and vanity; and also that it was inwardly assaulted by the accuser Satan, who mocked it, and continually set before it the beauty, riches, and glory of the world, and called it a fool for not embracing them; it began to think and say thus within itself: \"O eternal God! What shall I now do to come to rest?\"\n\nThe enlightened Soul met it again, and spoke to it\n\nWhile it was in this consideration, the enlightened soul met with it again, and said, \"What ailest thou, my brother, that thou art so heavy and sad?\"\n\nThe distressed Soul said\n\nI have followed thy counsel, and thereby attained a ray, or emanation of the divine sweetness, but it is gone from me again, and I am now deserted. Moreover I have outwardly very great trials and afflictions in the world; for all my good friends forsake and scorn me; and am also inwardly assaulted with anguish, and doubt, and know not what to do.\n\nThe enlightened Soul said\n\nNow I like thee very well; for now our beloved Lord Jesus Christ is performing that pilgrimage or process on earth with thee and in thee, which he did himself when he was in this world, who was continually reviled, despised, and evil spoken of, and had nothing of his own in it; and now thou bearest his mark or badge. But do not wonder at it, or think it strange; for it must be so, in order that thou mayest be tried, refined, and purified. In this anguish and distress thou wilt necessarily hunger and cry after deliverance; and by such hunger and prayer thou wilt attract grace to thee both from within and from without. For thou must grow from above and from beneath to be the image of God again. Just as a young plant is agitated by the wind, and must stand its ground in heat and cold, drawing strength and virtue to it from above and from beneath by that agitation, and must endure many a tempest, and undergo much danger before it can come to be a tree, and bring forth fruit. For through that agitation the virtue of the sun moveth in the plant, whereby its wild properties come to be penetrated and tinctured with the solar virtue, and grow thereby.\n\nAnd this is the time wherein thou must play the part of a valiant soldier in the spirit of Christ, and co-operate thyself therewith. For now the Eternal Father by his fiery power begetteth his son in thee, who changeth the fire of the Father, namely, the first principle, or wrathful property of the soul, into the flame of love, so that out of fire and light (viz. wrath and love) there cometh to be one essence, being, or substance, which is the true temple of God. And now thou shalt bud forth out of the vine Christ, in the vineyard of God, and bring forth fruit in thy life, and by assisting and instructing others, shew forth thy love in abundance, as a good tree. For paradise must thus spring up again in thee, through the wrath of God, and hell he changed into heaven in thee. Therefore be not dismayed at the temptations of the devil, who seeketh and striveth for the kingdom which he once had in thee; but, having now lost it, must be confounded, and depart from thee. And he covereth thee outwardly with the shame and reproach of the world, that his own shame may not be known, and that thou mayest be hidden to the world. For with thy new birth or regenerated nature thou art in the divine harmony in heaven. Be patient, therefore, and wait upon the Lord; and whatsoever shall befall thee, take it all from his hands, as intended by him for thy highest good. And so the enlightened soul departed from it.\n\nThe distressed Soul's Course\n\nThe distressed soul began its course now under the patient suffering of Christ, and depending solely upon the strength and power of God in it, entered into hope. \n\nThenceforth it grew stronger every day, and its evil inclinations died more and more in it. So that it arrived at length to a high state or degree of grace; and the gates of the divine revelation, and the kingdom of heaven, were opened to, and manifested in it. And thus the soul through repentance, faith, and prayer, returned to its original and true rest, and became a right and beloved child of God again; to which may he of his infinite mercy help us all. Amen.\n\n## Notes\n[←1]\nCor. ii. 10.\n\n[←2]\nLuke ix. 23.\n\n[←3]\n1 Cor. iii. 13.\n\n[←4]\nMirror\n\n[←5]\nBeing of all beings.\n\n[←6]\nOr, formed itself; or originally put forth itself.\n\n[←7]\nproceeds from the mouth.\n\n[←8]\nOr conception.\n\n[←9]\nHis look, or physiognomy.\n\n[←10]\nVegetables\n\n[←11]\nMade sick.\n\n[←12]\nOr sting.\n\n[←13]\nContraction, or constringency.\n\n[←14]\nLove and anger, father and son.\n\n[←15]\nThought or sparkle of the will.\n\n[←16]\nOr voices.\n\n[←17]\nOr God.\n\n[←18]\nNature\n\n[←19]\nWorld\n\n[←20]\nOr sting of instigation.\n\n[←21]\nRaiser, enkindler, or inflamer.\n\n[←22]\nOr out of itself.\n\n[←23]\nMysterium\n\n[←24]\nSimilitude, likeness, or signature.\n\n[←25]\nPalpable\n\n[←26]\nOr apprehends, or conceives.\n\n[←27]\nOr stands.\n\n[←28]\nOr to the nature of the pregnatrix.\n\n[←29]\nStars\n\n[←30]\nOr substance.\n\n[←31]\nBoiling\n\n[←32]\nOr separates itself in itself.\n\n[←33]\nReport, clash.\n\n[←34]\nSinks\n\n[←35]\nCorpus\n\n[←36]\nCorpus\n\n[←37]\nGives, or affords\n\n[←38]\nOr propriety\n\n[←39]\nOr until\n\n[←40]\nOr the highest or chiefest of the metals\n\n[←41]\nBody\n\n[←42]\nLiquid\n\n[←43]\nCorpus\n\n[←44]\nBoiling, growing, and waxing.\n\n[←45]\nLoco\n\n[←46]\nOutgoing, breathing\n\n[←47]\nOr in a sevenfold form.\n\n[←48]\nOr sting\n\n[←49]\nStirring up, or moving\n\n[←50]\nThe one is not the other.\n\n[←51]\nBoiling, or decoction\n\n[←52]\nOr fashions\n\n[←53]\nOr faber\n\n[←54]\nIn a strange fire, and yet not strange; when the cloak is laid aside, it needs only its own fire\n\n[←55]\nHere must be its own fire only from within and from without\n\n[←56]\nAnd it is the tincture which tinctures the body\n\n[←57]\nOr rotation\n\n[←58]\nDraws it to itself.\n\n[←59]\nWheel, or sphere\n\n[←60]\nAttenuates, destroys\n\n[←61]\nWoman, wife.\n\n[←62]\nLust\n\n[←63]\nOr immobility\n\n[←64]\nOr he should die\n\n[←65]\nSalvation\n\n[←66]\nAn upright, full, and unfeigned desire\n\n[←67]\nOr therein\n\n[←68]\nLeader\n\n[←69]\nIn one\n\n[←70]\nBegin\n\n[←71]\nOr in the divine love\n\n[←72]\nOr upon the love of God\n\n[←73]\nDepart\n\n[←74]\nLabour\n\n[←75]\nOf or belonging to nature.\n\n[←76]\nBeing, materia, or food.\n\n[←77]\nUnderstand the free will\n\n[←78]\nAffords, produces, or makes.\n\n[←79]\nOr raging sting\n\n[←80]\nOr when\n\n[←81]\nOr furious wheel.\n\n[←82]\nAccording to, or after.\n\n[←83]\nDumb.\n\n[←84]\nCan but get\n\n[←85]\nSting\n\n[←86]\nOr taken from him\n\n[←87]\nOr loathsomeness\n\n[←88]\nOr led\n\n[←89]\nOr through.\n\n[←90]\nOr the riddle.\n\n[←91]\nSpoiled, undone\n\n[←92]\nOr outwards.\n\n[←93]\nOr set his desire upon the anger.\n\n[←94]\nText, into himself.\n\n[←95]\nOut of itself.\n\n[←96]\nOr wit, or subtlety.\n\n[←97]\nQuickest, keenest.\n\n[←98]\nOr begets itself.\n\n[←99]\nOr form, or immass.\n\n[←100]\nAffords, yields, produces\n\n[←101]\nBring, turn, or sublime.\n\n[←102]\nOr joyfulness.\n\n[←103]\nOr receives that which it hungers after.\n\n[←104]\nCrept\n\n[←105]\nOr is a banishing.\n\n[←106]\nPart or property.\n\n[←107]\nOpen, or exclude.\n\n[←108]\nOr took his part.\n\n[←109]\nShine through, irradiate.\n\n[←110]\nOr works and effects.\n\n[←111]\nHere and for ever.\n\n[←112]\nOr noble stone of the wise men.\n\n[←113]\nOne that breaks through irresistibly.\n\n[←114]\nOr void of all source.\n\n[←115]\nOr becomes.\n\n[←116]\nCorpus\n\n[←117]\nOr awakening, or stirring itself up.\n\n[←118]\nOr victoriously triumphed over.\n\n[←119]\nOr the blooming spring of the paradisical new-birth in man.\n\n[←120]\nOr pleasant spring.\n\n[←121]\nOr what shall I first do to effect it?\n\n[←122]\nWork-master, or faber.\n\n[←123]\nOr whose essence is in everything.\n\n[←124]\nOr openly. Text, in the air.\n\n[←125]\nOr she shall.\n\n[←126]\nCurdled\n\n[←127]\nOr in wedlock.\n\n[←128]\nBlended\n\n[←129]\nDumb, senseless, mute.\n\n[←130]\nGovernor\n\n[←131]\nLie\n\n[←132]\nCorpus\n\n[←133]\nOr body\n\n[←134]\nOr if his poison-will be brought into the moving spirit of love.\n\n[←135]\nGross stone\n\n[←136]\nWrestling\n\n[←137]\nOr seething\n\n[←138]\nThe Mercury\n\n[←139]\nOr such a physician has true skill to cure\n\n[←140]\nOr seizes on.\n\n[←141]\nShoot, or twig.\n\n[←142]\nOr in their wrestling combat.\n\n[←143]\nOr growth.\n\n[←144]\nBag, or sack.\n\n[←145]\nType, or resemblance.\n\n[←146]\nVirtue, or efficacy.\n\n[←147]\nOr mind.\n\n[←148]\nOr womb.\n\n[←149]\nGives, or yields.\n\n[←150]\nOr life's.\n\n[←151]\nOr whereby.\n\n[←152]\nOr nausea.\n\n[←153]\nOr loathing.\n\n[←154]\nUnite, or give in.\n\n[←155]\nOr so it is signed, or marked.\n\n[←156]\nOr puts itself forth. Text, glances forth.\n\n[←157]\nOr has the new-birth in perfect knowledge.\n\n[←158]\nOr makes.\n\n[←159]\nOr take.\n\n[←160]\nArcheus, or separator.\n\n[←161]\nVoice, or harmony.\n\n[←162]\nOr essence.\n\n[←163]\nText, wrestling power.\n\n[←164]\nOr shapes.\n\n[←165]\nOr original.\n\n[←166]\nPerception, or sensation.\n\n[←167]\nOr breathing forth.\n\n[←168]\nOr plays.\n\n[←169]\nOr distinguishes the senses.\n\n[←170]\nViz. the Mercury.\n\n[←171]\nViz. Mercury.\n\n[←172]\nThicken, or curdle.\n\n[←173]\nIt gives a cursing or a blessing aspect.\n\n[←174]\nStalk, or blossom.\n\n[←175]\nOr of whitish buds in vegetables.\n\n[←176]\nIn conjunction with Saturn.\n\n[←177]\nText, that he stirs.\n\n[←178]\nSublime them.\n\n[←179]\nWorking, powerful, or virtual.\n\n[←180]\nThe jovial virtue.\n\n[←181]\nOr I am an enemy to.\n\n[←182]\nOr water.\n\n[←183]\nOutspoken\n\n[←184]\nTransformed\n\n[←185]\nThe transforming light of God in the dark soul, such as shined in Enoch, Elijah, Paul, etc.\n\n[←186]\nPut its desire, hunger, and imagination into the nothing, the highest good or omnipotence, and eat of God's bread.\n\n[←187]\nOr other forms.\n\n[←188]\nOr life's light.\n\n[←189]\nAnd all his legions of evil spirits.\n\n[←190]\nAgree, or make for.\n\n[←191]\nImage, or likeness.\n\n[←192]\nMelody, harmony, delight, or play.\n\n[←193]\nOr change.\n\n[←194]\nOr were.\n\n[←195]\nRoyal fort, fort rampant.\n\n[←196]\nOr kindred.\n\n[←197]\nText, bodily.\n\n[←198]\nBy degrees.\n\n[←199]\nOr signatures.\n\n[←200]\nSpeculates, or beholds.\n\n[←201]\nOrb, rotation, or course.\n\n[←202]\nOr judgment-seat.\n\n[←203]\nOr lets the woman deceive him.\n\n[←204]\nOr priests who call themselves the ministers of Christ, but are not.\n\n[←205]\nIt freely loses itself in the nothing.\n\n[←206]\nManner, or condition.\n\n[←207]\nWas born, or begotten.\n\n[←208]\nIn the heat of his trial.\n\n[←209]\nText, hold.\n\n[←210]\nAre drowned.\n\n[←211]\nTransformed\n\n[←212]\nTaken, or received.\n\n[←213]\nIn war for their proud unrighteous mammon, and in bitter strife about their outward worship of Christ.\n\n[←214]\nAltogether\n\n[←215]\nUnderstanding of folly.\n\n[←216]\nOr number three.\n\n[←217]\nMirror, resemblance.\n\n[←218]\nThings to be compacted.\n\n[←219]\nText, the sun.\n\n[←220]\nOr wild.\n\n[←221]\nGoes out.\n\n[←222]\nInto the sole power and virtue of Jupiter.\n\n[←223]\nSoulish creature.\n\n[←224]\nBreath, air, tune\n\n[←225]\nMirror\n\n[←226]\nOr conversed\n\n[←227]\nOr virgin\n\n[←228]\nIt makes itself, or it has its own faber in itself.\n\n[←229]\nOr as dead.\n\n[←230]\nOr leave\n\n[←231]\nContrariety\n\n[←232]\nContrary will, contrariety.\n\n[←233]\nOr signs and marks itself in the body.\n\n[←234]\nOr comprehended, or conceived.\n\n[←235]\nColours of distinction.\n\n[←236]\nElement\n\n[←237]\nInto the desired end or perfection of rest.\n\n[←238]\nThus now\n\n[←239]\nIn the outward principle in the expressed formed word\n\n[←240]\nConstellation\n\n[←241]\nSphere\n\n[←242]\nOr in which the soul in the resigned will does again enkindle by its desire the true life in God's will-spirit, viz. in the eternal light or liberty.\n\n[←243]\nSuch a creature as it was at first, before it fell\n\n[←244]\nSource\n\n[←245]\nEqual essence\n\n[←246]\nOr departure\n\n[←247]\nInto a swoon, or impotency\n\n[←248]\nOr assimulate.\n\n[←249]\nOr vehemently, by force.\n\n[←250]\nStirring, active.\n\n[←251]\nEnraged\n\n[←252]\nWith their bestial lustful excess or disorder\n\n[←253]\nSeething\n\n[←254]\nMortifying\n\n[←255]\nSeething\n\n[←256]\nSeething\n\n[←257]\nOr put his mercy into us\n\n[←258]\nOr what it is\n\n[←259]\nMirror\n\n[←260]\nOr figures\n\n[←261]\nOr attraction\n\n[←262]\nThe flowing, or proceeding forth\n\n[←263]\nOr fair complexion.\n\n[←264]\nOrb, or rotation.\n\n[←265]\nOr he\n\n[←266]\nOr noise.\n\n[←267]\nOr the first property\n\n[←268]\nOr the sting in the hardness, viz. the hardness itself.\n\n[←269]\nUnderstand the mother of Sulphur\n\n[←270]\nPrima materia.\n\n[←271]\nOr opposite to the dark desire, or dark impression, which is after the light's desire\n\n[←272]\nOr without any ground\n\n[←273]\nOr reached.\n\n[←274]\nBecomes impotent.\n\n[←275]\nThe *caput mortuum*.\n\n[←276]\nLaw, or appointment.\n\n[←277]\nOr in a creaturely manner.\n\n[←278]\nOr in a creaturely manner.\n\n[←279]\nOr fly from thence as a smoke.\n\n[←280]\nSeething\n\n[←281]\nSeething\n\n[←282]\nOr as to its inward motion\n\n[←283]\nOr seethe\n\n[←284]\nNauseate, abomination.\n\n[←285]\nUnregenerated\n\n[←286]\nOr all creatures\n\n[←287]\nNauseate, or loathsomeness.\n\n[←288]\nEntire\n\n[←289]\nOr proceeding from\n\n[←290]\nText, spew out.\n\n[←291]\nOr working property.\n\n[←292]\nOur own enemies.\n\n[←293]\nVoice or breath\n\n[←294]\nThat Christ once died and suffered for us, etc.\n\n[←295]\nOr works desire.\n\n[←296]\nBear, or carry\n\n[←297]\nText, a pilferer from God and his substance\n\n[←298]\nSpewing out.\n\n[←299]\nLubet or longing desire.\n\n[←300]\nOr, this is always the end.\n\n[←301]\nCounterpoised\n\n[←302]\nOr, This is spoken without any ground or foundation\n\n[←303]\nOr die.\n\n[←304]\nOr birthright.\n\n[←305]\nText, comforted us\n\n[←306]\nFrom the beginning of the Supersensual Life to the reference of this note, was found among the papers of the later editor, in the handwriting of the truely pious and learned Mr. Law, who has so enlarged and elucidated it (as the reader may see by comparing it with the original) that probably he intended it for a separate publication.\n"}
+{"text": "# Dialogues on the Supersensual Life\n\n## PREFACE\n\nThe Works of Jacob Behmen, the \"Teutonic Theosopher,\" translated into English, were first printed in England in the seventeenth century, between 1644 and 1662. In the following century a complete edition in four large volumes was produced by some of the disciples of William Law. This edition, completed in the year 1781, was compiled in part from the older English edition, and in part from later fragmentary translations by Law and others. It is not easily accessible to the general reader, and, moreover, the greater part of Behmen's Works could not be recommended save to those who had the time and power to plunge into that deep sea in search of the many noble pearls which it contains.\n\nBehmen's language and way of thought are remote and strange, and in reading his thought one has often to pass it through a process of intellectual translation. This is chiefly true of his earlier work, the \"Aurora\" or \"Morning Redness.\" But among those works which he wrote during the last five years of his life there are some written in a thought-language less difficult to be understood, yet containing the essential teaching of this humble Master of Divine Science. From these I have selected some which may, in a small volume, be useful. It seemed that for this purpose it would be best to take the \"Dialogues of the Supersensual Life,\" including as one of them the beautiful, really separate, Dialogue, called in the Complete Works, \"The way from darkness to true illumination.\" In the case of neither of these works is the translation used that of the seventeenth century. The first three dialogues are a translation made by William Law, one of the greatest masters of the English language, and found in MS. after his death. This translation from the original German is not exactly literal, but rather a liberal version, or paraphrase, the thought of Behmen being expanded and elucidated, though in nowise departed from. The dialogue called \"The way from darkness to true illumination\" was taken by the eighteenth century editors from a book containing translations of certain smaller treatises of Behmen then lately printed at Bristol and made, as they say, \"in a style better adapted to the taste and more accommodated to the apprehension of modern readers.\" I do not know who was the translator, but the work seems to be excellently well done.\n\nIt will be well to say a few words first as to the life, then as to the leading ideas of Jacob Behmen. This name is more correctly written Jacob Bœhme, but I prefer to retain the more easily pronounced spelling of Behmen, adopted by the Editors of both the complete English editions.\n\nJacob Behmen's outward life was simplicity itself. He was born in the year 1575 at Alt Seidenberg, a village among pastoral hills, near Görlitz in Lusatia, a son of poor peasants. As a boy he watched the herds in the fields, and was then apprenticed to a shoemaker, being not enough robust for rural work. One day, when the master and his wife were out, and he was alone in the house, a stranger entered the shop and asked for a pair of shoes. Jacob had no authority to conclude a bargain and asked a high price for the shoes in the hope that the stranger would not buy. But the man paid the price, and when he had gone out into the street, called out \"Jacob, come forth.\" Jacob obeyed the call, and now the stranger looked at him with a kindly, earnest, deep, soul-piercing gaze, and said, \"Jacob, thou art as yet but little, but the time will come when thou shalt be great, and become another man, and the world shall marvel at thee. Therefore be pious, fear God, and reverence his Word; especially read diligently the Holy Scriptures, where thou hast comfort and instruction; for thou must endure much misery and poverty, and suffer persecution. But be courageous and persevere, for God loves, and is gracious unto thee.\" So saying, the stranger clasped his hand, and disappeared.\n\nAfter this Jacob became even more pensive and serious, and would admonish the other journeymen on the work-bench when they spoke lightly of sacred things. His master disliked this and dismissed him, saying that he would have no \"house-prophet\" to bring trouble into his house. Thus Jacob was forced to go forth into the world as a travelling journeyman, and, as he wandered about in that time of fierce religious discord, the world appeared to him to be a \"Babel.\" He was himself afflicted by troubles and doubts, but clave to prayer and to Scripture, and especially to the words in Luke xi.; \"How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.\" And once, when he was again engaged for a time by a master, he was lifted into a state of blessed peace, a Sabbath of the Soul, that lasted for seven days, during which he was, as it were, inwardly surrounded by a Divine Light. \"The triumph that was then in my soul I can neither tell nor describe. I can only liken it to a resurrection from the dead.\"\n\nJacob returned in 1594 to Görlitz, became a master shoemaker in 1599, married a tradesman's daughter, and had four children. In the year 1600 \"sitting one day in his room, his eye fell upon a burnished pewter dish which reflected the sunshine with such marvellous splendour that he fell into a deep inward ecstasy and it seemed to him as if he could now look into the principles and deepest foundations of things. He believed that it was only a fancy, and in order to banish it from his mind he went out upon the green. But here he remarked that he gazed into the very heart of things; the very herbs and grass, and that Nature harmonised with what he had inwardly seen. He said nothing about this to any one, but praised and thanked God in silence. He continued in the honest practice of his craft, was attentive to his domestic affairs, and was on terms of goodwill with all men.\"[A]\n\nAt the age of thirty-five, in the year 1610, Jacob Behmen suddenly perceived that all which he had seen in a fragmentary way was forming itself into a coherent whole, and felt a \"fire-like\" impulse, a yearning to write it down, as a \"Memorial,\" not for publication, but lest he should forget it himself. He wrote it early in the morning before work, and late in the evening after work. This was his \"Morning Redness\" or \"Aurora.\"\n\nA nobleman of the country, called Carl von Endern, happened to see the MS. at the shoemaker's house, was struck by it, and had some copies made. One of these fell into the hands of the Lutheran Clergyman of Görlitz, Pastor Primarius Gregorius Richter, who thenceforth became a bitter opponent of Behmen. He assailed him in sermons, in language of savage invective, as a heretic of the most dangerous kind, until Jacob was summoned before the Magistrates, and forbidden to write anything in future. He was told that as a shoemaker he must confine himself to his own trade. But the affair, as is usually the case, had an effect the reverse of that intended by persecutors. It made him known to various persons more learned than himself who were interested in the subject, and from his converse with them he learned a better style, and some Latin technical terms, which he afterwards found useful for expressing his thoughts.\n\nJacob obeyed for some years the magisterial command to write nothing, but it was very grievous to him, and he often reflected with dismay on the parable of the talents and how \"that one talent which 'tis death to hide\" was lodged with him useless. At length he would keep silence no more. He says himself: \"I had resolved to do nothing in future, but to be quiet before God in obedience, and to let the devil, with all his host, sweep over me. But it was with me as when a seed is hidden in the earth. It grows up in storm and rough weather against all reason. For in winter time all is dead, and reason says: 'It is all over with it.' But the precious seed within me sprouted and grew green, oblivious of all storms, and, amid disgrace and ridicule, it has blossomed forth into a lily.\"\n\nBetween the year 1619 and his death in 1624, at the age of forty-nine, he poured forth his stored up thoughts, writing a number of Works, including those in the present volume, which were among his very latest. He had the more time to write because his shoemaking business had fallen off, by reason, perhaps, of the question as to his orthodoxy, but some friends supplied him with the necessaries of life. He was now exposed to fresh attacks from Gregorius Richter and was forced this time to go into exile. At this period he went to the Electoral Court at Dresden where the Prince was curious about him, and a conference took place between him and John Gerhard and other eminent theologians. At the close of this Dr Gerhard said: \"I would not take the whole world and help to condemn this man.\" And his colleague Meissner said, \"My good brother, neither would I. Who knows what stands behind this man? How can we judge what we have not understood? May God convert this man if he is in error. He is a man of marvellously high mental gifts who at present can neither be condemned nor approved.\"\n\nSoon afterwards, while Jacob was staying at the house of one of his noble friends in Silesia he fell into a fever. At his own request he was carried back to Görlitz, and there awaited his end. On Sunday, November 21st 1624, in the early hours he called his son Tobias and asked him if he did not hear that sweet melodious music. As Tobias heard nothing, Jacob asked him to set wide the door so that he might the better hear it; then he asked what was the hour, and when he was told that it had just struck two he said, \"My time is not yet; three hours hence is my time.\" After some silence he exclaimed, \"Oh thou strong God of Sabaoth, deliver me according to thy Will,\" and immediately afterwards \"Thou Crucified Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me and take me to thyself into thy Kingdom.\" At six in the morning he suddenly bade them farewell with a smile, and said, \"Now I go hence into Paradise,\" and yielded up his Spirit.\n\nFrankenberg writes of him: \"His bodily appearance was somewhat mean; he was small of stature, had a low forehead but prominent temples, a rather aquiline nose, a scanty beard, grey eyes, sparkling into heavenly blue, a feeble but genial voice. He was modest in his bearing, unassuming in conversation, lowly in conduct, patient in suffering, and gentle-hearted.\"\n\nAs the shoemaker of Görlitz had in his life-time some disciples among highly educated men, so has he always had a few since his departure from this life. Men so diversely situated as the non-juror William Law in England; St Martin, the \"philosophe inconnu\" of the French Revolution; the sincere Catholic, Franz Baader, in Germany; Martensen, the Protestant Bishop in Denmark, have found in him their Teacher.\n\nThe selections contained in the present book belong rather to the practical or ethical side of Jacob Behmen's teaching than to his Cosmogony, or *Vision*, as one may best call it, of the nature of all things. I think that any old cottager, who had read nothing but his Bible, but had lived his life, would well understand the general teaching of most that is contained in these Dialogues, and would find all Behmen's words most beautiful and comforting. It is not, therefore, necessary for the present purpose to attempt fully to set forth the whole Vision of Behmen, nor, in any 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.\n\nThe 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.\"\n\nThe 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.\n\nBehmen 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 stirring joy.... The Fire is painful and consuming, but the Light is yielding, friendly, powerful and delightful, a sweet and amiable Joy.\"\n\nPure delight, with no trace of doubt or fear, hope or regret, is the sign of the presence of Love or Light. So again Behmen says: \"The Fire in the Light is a fire of Love, but the Fire in the Darkness is a fire of Anguish, and is painful, irksome, and full of contrariety.\" The end to which all things tend is the final separation of light from darkness; the \"last day\" means this; but the present world is a perpetual mixture of light and darkness, good and evil, joy and anguish. So, the Cross of Jesus is at once the highest embodiment of Love and Hate.\n\nIt is remarkable that in this doctrine of light and darkness Behmen was nearly followed by one who had not, I suppose, ever heard of him, reading as he did little of anything but the Bible, who worked on the Scriptures with his own powerful and earnest insight, the Christian hero, Charles Gordon. In his little book called \"Reflections in Palestine\" written in that one year, 1883, of unbroken repose from action spent in the Holy Land, just before his final service at Khartoom, Gordon dwells upon the repetition, as he calls it, *both in the individual soul, and in the world's history* of four processes constantly recurring, - a state of darkness, a light breaking forth through darkness, a division of light from darkness or gathering together of light, a re-dispersion of light into darkness, and then a renewal of the four processes, ever upon an ascending level of good, directed towards the final elimination of all light from the darkness.\n\nFire must have fuel, something on which to feed. It must feed or perish. But the magic Fire-spirit, the Soul, cannot perish because it is an eternal Essence. Therefore it must either feed; or *hunger*. It desires spiritual essence or \"virtue\" to allay its raging hunger. But, during the space that it is embodied in this nature, it can feed *either* on the Divine Spirit, or upon the Spirit of this World. \"Hence,\" says Behmen, \"we may understand the cause of that infinite variety which is in the Wills and Actions of Men.\" For of whatsoever the Soul eateth, and wherewith its Fire-life becometh kindled; \"according to that the Soul's life is led and governed.\" You become like to that which you eat. If the Soul breaks forth out of its Nature-self and enters into \"God's Love-fire,\" it eats of the Divine Essence (the substance or flesh of Christ) and it is to this that Jesus Christ referred when he spoke of feeding upon his body, and when he spoke of the true bread from heaven \"which giveth life to the World\" (John vi. 33), of which he that eateth shall \"live for ever\" (John vi. 58), or the \"living water,\" whereof whosoever drinketh \"shall never thirst,\" but it shall be to him \"a well of water springing up into everlasting life\" (John iv. 13, 14). This feeding is in no way metaphorical but as real and actual as physical feeding.\n\nBehmen says, \"The Essence of that Life eateth the Flesh of Christ and drinketh His Blood.... Now if the Soul eat of this sweet, holy and heavenly food, then it kindleth itself with the great Love in the name and power of Jesus, whence its fire of anguish becometh a great triumph of joy and glory.\"[B]\n\nBehmen held that man lives at once in three worlds, firstly in the outward visible elementary world of space and time (where man \"*is* the Time and *in* the Time;\") secondly, the \"Eternal Dark World, Hell, the centre of Eternal Nature, whence is *generated* the Soul-fire, that source of anguish, and thirdly, in the Eternal Light World, Heaven - the Divine habitation.\" The same processes of feeding and life take place in the three Worlds, so that physical feeding is a kind of outside sheath of spiritual feeding.\n\nIf the Soul accustoms itself to feed in this life upon the heavenly food (that *panem de coelo omne delectamentum in se habentem*) it gradually itself becomes of quite heavenly substance, purged from darkness, and, when the natural life falls off at death, stands in heaven, where indeed it already is. But, if the Soul feeds upon the Spirit and Things of this World, then, when by reason of death, it can no longer feed upon them, it is left in the condition of mere \"aching Desire,\" or eternal unsatisfied Hunger, working in a void, in perpetual anguish. Thus Heaven and Hell are not places, but conditions of the Soul. So Milton, who had no doubt studied the translation of Behmen made in his own time, writes:\n\n\"The mind is its own place, and in itself\nCan make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.\"\n\nThey are in this life everywhere commingled, but when this life falls away, the Soul remains in that of the two states into which it has in this life brought itself. The Soul, after death, remains *either* as a satisfied Desire, that is, a Desire no longer but a Joy, *or* as an aching Desire. The Persian says: -\n\nHeaven is the vision of fulfilled Desire\nAnd Hell the shadow of a Soul on fire.\n\nBehmen says, Heaven *is* fulfilled desire; Hell *is* a Soul on fire, no mere vision or shadow.\n\nHeaven and Hell are within us, since our souls are portions of the universe of things, in every part of which Heaven and Hell are commingled. The gates of Heaven within us were shut in Adam, but the Power of God, Christ in Jesus, broke open by his passion \"the closed gates of Paradise,\" that is, the gates of our \"inward heavenly humanity,\" and now the wayfarer can, if he will, pass through. We do not spiritually live by a reasoning process, or acceptance of doctrines by the understanding, but by the action of the Desire in feeding upon the Spirit of Love, a process of laying hold, drawing in, and assimilating. True prayer is like feeding, or still more, perhaps, like the unconscious drawing in of the air: it should be as constant. By it is introduced the heavenly life from without to nourish the like heavenly life contained in the seed within. If a man thus rightly feeds, then, in him, the hellish life and passions, portions of the powers of darkness, \"our creatures\" as Behmen says, will be killed by starvation, wanting their appropriate food. On the other hand, a man can feed these also from without with their appropriate food by misdirected desire, thereby starving the heavenly life in the Soul.\n\nThus the essence of Behmen's teaching as to the Soul incarnate in Man and revealed by his body, is that it is an eternal Being, and that it is a source of joy or anguish according as it is, or is not, purified or tranquillised by communion with the Centre of Light, or the Fountain of Life. He does not contemplate, as some Eastern teachers perhaps do, the annihilation of the Will of the Soul by a kind of higher spiritual suicide; its existence is to him the very condition of good no less than of evil; he contemplates its liberation from the dark, contracted, self-prison, its purification, and entrance into the full heaven-life. This magical soul-fire, like visible fire, can rage and destroy, or it can serve as the means and ground of all good. Here is the foundation both of good and evil, in man as in all things.\n\nTo understand this better, one must consider the cosmic teaching lying behind the rich profusion of images, often inconsistent and clashing, in which Jacob Behmen embodies his Vision.\n\nMan has fallen into Nature. But Nature itself, apart from and unfilled by the Divine Light, is a self-torment, a mere Want, a Desire, a Hunger. The true distinction between God and Nature is that God is an Universal All, while Nature is an Universal Want, viz: to be filled by God. Physical attraction is nothing but the outer sheath of this universal desire. Nature filled by God is Heaven or fulfilled Desire.[C] Without God it is Hell, mere Desire. Heaven is the Presence of God: Hell his Absence. It is as true to say that Heaven is in God, as to say that God is in Heaven.\n\nApart from the existence of God there could be neither Presence nor Absence, neither Heaven nor Hell. If the Soul of Man were wholly divided and separated from the Divine Life, it would, as a part of Nature, be a mere hungering, restless, conscious Desire. In so far as it is so separated it partakes of this pain. For \"through all the Universe of Things nothing is uneasy, unsatisfied, or restless, but because it is not governed by Love, or because its Nature has not reached or attained the full birth of the Spirit of Love. For when that is done, every hunger is satisfied, and all complaining, murmuring, accusing, resenting, revenging and striving are as totally suppressed and overcome as coldness, thickness and horror of darkness are suppressed and overcome by the breaking forth of the light. If you ask why the Spirit of Love cannot be displeased, cannot be disappointed, cannot complain, accuse, resent or murmur, it is because the Spirit of Love desires nothing but itself, it is its own Good, for Love is God, and he that dwelleth in God dwelleth in Love.\"[D]\n\nBehmen's idea of the \"fallen Angels\" is that they are entirely and hopelessly divided from the Life of God. They are mere embodied, hopeless, self-tormenting Desires. They have fallen into the hell within themselves, they *cannot but* be hating, bitter, envious, proud, wrathful, restless; and therefore tormentors of others. They have lost that which man, however far astray, always possesses, the faculty of return or regeneration through submission to and union with God. The spark of the Life and Spirit of God which is in Men is not in the fallen Angels. Let us hope that Beings so utterly lost do not exist.\n\nGod is outside of Nature and yet in a sense inside also, because there is a divine life or virtue in Nature which, longing to re-unite itself with its source, is a cause of anguish while divided, and of joy when united. So, in the outer world, the seed buried in earth contains a power kindred to the virtue of the sun. It is this which breaks forth from the seed, forces itself up through the dark, imprisoning, and yet nourishing and necessary earth, and at last, if it can win its way through obstacles, cheerfully expands in the light of the sun and feeds upon his warmth. That, in man's inner nature, which answers to this power or life in the seed, is called by Behmen the Life or Spirit of Jesus Christ. Egoism or *Ihood*, the old contracting, narrowing cell, is destroyed as this expansive and expanding force grows and breaks forth. Behmen says: \"As the Sun in the visible world ruleth over Evil and Good, and, with its light and power, and all whatsoever itself is, is present everywhere, and penetrates into every Being, and wholly giveth itself to every Being, and yet ever remaineth whole, and nothing of its being goeth away therewith. Thus also it is to be understood concerning Christ's person and office which ruleth in the inward spiritual world, and penetrateth into the faithful man's soul, spirit and heart. As the Sun worketh through a herb, so that the herb becometh filled with the virtue of the Sun, and, as it were, so converted by the Sun that it becometh wholly of the nature of the Sun, so Christ ruleth in the resigned will or Soul and Body, over all evil inclinations and generateth the man to be a new heavenly creature.\" The same teaching is finely set forth in a passage of William Law.[E] He says:\n\n\"Man has a spark of the Light and Spirit of God, as a supernatural gift of God given into the birth of his Soul to bring forth by degrees a new birth of that life which was lost in Paradise. This holy spark of the Divine Nature within him has a natural, strong, and almost infinite tendency or reaching after that eternal Light and Spirit of God, from whence it came forth. It came forth from God, it came *out* of God, it partaketh of the Divine Nature, and therefore it is always in a state of tendency and return to God. All this is called the breathing, the moving, the quickening of the Holy Spirit within us, which are so many operations of this spark of life tending towards God. On the other hand the Deity as considered in itself, and without the Soul of man, has an infinite unchangeable tendency of love and desire towards the Soul of man, to unite and communicate its own riches and glories to it, just as the Spirit of the air *without* Man unites and communicates its riches and virtues to the Spirit of the air that is *within* Man. This love or desire of God toward the soul of Man is so great that he gave his only-begotten Son, the brightness of his glory, to take the human nature upon him, in its fallen state, that by this mysterious union of God and Man, all the enemies of the Soul of Man might be overcome, and every human creature might have a power of being born again according to that Image of God in which he was first created. The gospel is the history of this Love of God to Man. *Inwardly* he has a seed of the Divine Life given into the birth of his Soul, a seed that has all the riches of eternity in it, and is always wanting to come to the birth in him, and be alive in God. *Outwardly* he has Jesus Christ, who as a Sun of Righteousness, is always casting forth his enlivening beams on this inward seed, to kindle and call it forth to the birth, doing that to this Seed of Heaven in Man, which the sun in the firmament is always doing to the vegetable seeds in the earth.\n\n\"Consider this matter in the following similitude. A grain of wheat has the air and light of this world enclosed or incorporated in it. This is the mystery of its life, this is its power of growing, by this it has a strong continual tendency of uniting again with that ocean of light and air from whence it came forth. On the other hand that great ocean of light and air, having its own offspring hidden in the heart of the grain has a perpetual strong tendency to unite and communicate with it again. From this *desire of union on both sides*, the vegetable life arises and all the virtues and powers contained in it. But let it be well observed that this desire on both sides cannot have its effect till the husk and gross part of the grain falls into a state of corruption and death; till this begins, the mystery of life hidden in it cannot come forth.\"\n\nThe sun only acts by stirring up in each thing, and calling into activity, its own imprisoned, dormant, heat or life. Save by the same nature-process, working in an inner sphere, there cannot come to pass the flower and fruit of the Soul. The Sun, true emblem of the Redeeming Spirit, helps each vital force to break forth from its state of death - even though, like the grains of wheat found in Egyptian graves and then new-planted, it has been immured there thousands of years - and to enter into its highest possible state of life. Indeed, in this school of wisdom, the natural visible light, of which the Sun is the dispensing medium to our solar system, and other suns to other circles of planets, is actually an outer manifestation of the inner supernatural light, and warmth, not a mere emblem at all. We speak more truly than we know, when we speak of a \"heavenly day.\" All Nature is a series of \"out-births\" of the Deity. \"The outward world,\" says Behmen, \"is sprung out of the inward spiritual world, viz., out of Light and Darkness.\" And his English interpreter says: \"Whatever is delightful and ravishing, sublime and glorious in spirits, minds, or bodies, either in heaven, or on earth, is from the power of the Supernatural Light opening its endless wonders in them. Hell has no misery, horror or distraction, but because it has no communication with the supernatural Light. And did not the supernatural Light stream forth its blessings into this world, through the materiality of the Sun, all outward Nature would be full of the horror of Hell.\" And elsewhere, \"There is no meekness, benevolence or goodness in Angel, Man, *or any other Creature*, but where Light is the Lord of its life. Life itself begins no sooner, rises no higher, has no other glory, than as the Light begins it, and leads it on. Sounds have no softness, flowers and germs no sweetness, plants and fruits have no growth, but as the Mystery of Light opens itself in them.\"[F] And so Behmen himself says: \"There is nothing that is created or born in Nature but it also manifests its internal form externally; for the internal continually labours or works itself forth to manifestation. We know in the power and form of this World, how the only Essence has manifested itself with the external birth in the desire of the similitude; how it has manifested itself in so many forms and shapes, which we see and know in the stars and elements, likewise in the living creatures, and also in the trees and herbs.\" Thus there is a real communion between all beauty, sweetness, and glory, within and without the Soul of man.\n\nIt is this truth, not of the analogy between the essential life of Man and Nature, but of the unity in all things, that is now opening itself out in many ways. Wordsworth, a true seer, has given to it its highest expression in English Poetry. Modern science all tends to confirmation of this unity.\n\nGod, then, must become Man, there must be a birth of the Life of God in the Soul, in order that the Soul may live its highest life. Only in this way can the wild properties of Nature be subordinated and turned to their proper use, their restless hunger pacified. Goodness and happiness can be expected from nothing else but from the Divine Life united to and dwelling in the Nature Life. It is the \"ingrafted Word\" of St James' Epistle.\n\nThe plant cannot but grow towards the sun. If it is too deep in earth, or prevented by a strong soil, or withered by dryness, so that it cannot attain to its end, the fault is not with it. But, in the spiritual inner world (in which the plant dwells not) the Soul of man has this freedom - that it can consciously turn towards God, whose Spirit and Life will then come forth to meet it, or can turn towards the Things of this World. Upon this freedom of choice is founded Behmen's moral teaching. The Soul is like a woman (and all nations have testified in their languages and parables to their sense of this) who can freely choose to submit and surrender her body to this Lover, or to that. When she has chosen her free power ends. As she has chosen, so her life-faculty will be fertilised by good or evil; so will be the new life that arises within her, and so will be her future joy or sorrow.\n\nIn a deep sense, the desire of the spark of Life in the Soul to return to its Original Source is part of the longing desire of the universal Life for its own heart or centre. Of this longing the universal attraction, striving against resistance, towards an universal centre, proved to govern the phenomenal or physical world, is but the outer sheath and visible working. It has been said that Sir Isaac Newton (who was a diligent reader of Behmen's Works) \"ploughed with Jacob Behmen's heifer.\" There is in truth but one Religion, that founded upon the eternal, immutable, universal processes of the actual Nature of things, and of this Christianity, rightly apprehended, is the supreme Revelation. This will be seen better by all as the Religion unfolds itself. Rightly speaking there is no such thing as *supernatural* religion; there is but one Religion, that of Nature. It is the work of visible religion to teach by signs and parables, embodying the mystery in symbols, and clothing it with adoration.\n\nJacob Behmen's mode of expression is all his own, and there is much in the fabric of his thought which men of our time, if they take a superficial view, would not find it easy to accept. The doctrine of Evolution now profoundly influences every corner of the field of thought. We now incline to think rather of the rise of Man out of Nature than of his fall into it, though, perhaps, there can no more be a rise without a precedent fall, than there can be a return without a precedent out-going. Evolution may be the time-form of Attraction. But all this affects the outside form, not the essence of the doctrine. Behmen is concerned with the real nature of things, apart from time and space, with their apparent, but so misleading, facts. He appeals to each Soul's knowledge of itself, and, on the principle that *all is in everything*, draws from the nature of Man, that little Universe (and we can no otherwise learn things as they are in themselves), his teaching as to Universal Nature. \"In Man (he says) lies all whatsoever the Sun shines upon, or Heaven contains, as also Hell and all the Deeps.\" His Iliad is the struggle between light and darkness, life and death, expansion and contraction, the centripetal and centrifugal force, heat and cold, love and hatred, peace and wrath, humility and pride, self-sacrifice and self-seeking, joy and anguish, repose and restlessness, in the whole of Nature and in the Soul of Man. Does not every man, who has lived his full life, know the truth and reality of all this? It is known more especially and actually by those ardent and adventurous spirits who have sailed in far seas of thought or action, not merely coasting along the shores of tradition, authority and established rule. Sinners know some things more vividly than those who ever and easily have been good. Only the man who has been sick knows the difference between sickness and health. The prodigal who had wandered in a far country and had lived as he would, understood the meaning of peace and love better than the brother who had always stayed at home.\n\nThese wanderers, if they return in time, know best, taught by the heart-rending lessons of experience, the difference between the Heaven and Hell within them; the Hell of wrath, self-torment, fear, anxiety, envy, malice, evil-will, pride, cruelty, sensual passion, longing to domineer, and the Heaven of love, benevolence, meekness, humility, compassion, peace, joy, long-suffering.\n\nThey know that Heaven and Hell can alike be revealed in the Soul. From youth they have felt something in them striving, often feebly enough, against passionate desires for wealth, honour, success, and for mastery over the minds, affections, and bodies of others. Behind all this turmoil and ever unsatisfied anguish of seeking that which satisfies not, they have been aware of a diviner life slowly growing towards heaven, ever and again thwarted and driven back by the renewed assaults of the Spirit of the World, yet never quite destroyed. At the moments of fiercest fight against rebel passions they have felt the divine assisting strength flow into them, if only they powerfully invoked it, turning towards its source as a babe towards its mother's breast. They have heard the \"Peace be still\" amid the wildest spiritual storms. They know that if they have been saved, it is not by their own strength nor by reasoning, but by this power from without.\n\nThey know the impotence, in action, of the merely reflective or spectator faculty. In this sense of the word \"reason,\" they would agree with him who wrote \"Your Heart is the best and greatest gift of God to you; it is the highest, greatest, strongest, and noblest Power of your Nature; it forms your whole Life, be it what it will; all Evil and all Good comes from it; your Heart alone has the key of Life and Death; it does all that it will; Reason is but its plaything; and whether in Time or Eternity, can only be a mere Beholder of the wonders of happiness, or forms of misery, which the right or wrong working of the Heart is entered into.\"[G]\n\nWilliam Law remarks that Jesus Christ, though he had all wisdom, yet gives but a small number of doctrines to mankind \"whilst every moral teacher writes volumes upon every single virtue.\" It is, he adds, because our Lord \"knew what they know not, that our whole malady lies in this, that the Will of our Mind is turned into this World, and that nothing can relieve us, or set us right, but the *turning* of the Will of our Mind and the Desire of our Hearts to God. And hence it is that he calls us to nothing but a total denial of ourselves and the Life of this World and to faith in him as the Worker of a new birth and life in us.\" On this one root of the whole matter Jacob Behmen insisted, expressing one truth in a thousand ways and through images, which to him are not images but the same process working in other spheres. His whole practical, moral teaching enforces the right direction of Desire. *Mali mores sunt mali amores*, said one who also truly *saw*; the profound Augustine. The hunger of the Soul must be turned to the source of eternal joy. All that is good and beautiful in nature or in the heart of man flows from that fountain. Desire *is* everything in Nature; *does* everything. Heaven is Nature filled with divine Life attracted by Desire.\n\n### FOOTNOTES\n\n[A] From the Danish Bishop Martensen's book \"Jacob Boehme\"; an excellent study well translated from Danish into English by Mr T. Rhys Evans, (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1885). An account of Behmen's life is given in the preface to the first volume of the last century English edition of the Works.\n\n[B] It should be noted that Jacob Behmen held strongly to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the actual bread and wine as a \"permissive medium\" of the real feeding, in order that there may be \"a visible sign of what is done in the inward ground.\" But he says \"We should not *depend* on this means or medium *alone*, and think that Christ's Flesh and Blood is *only* and alone participated in this use of bread and wine, as Reason in this present time miserably erreth therein. No, that is not so. Faith, when it hungereth after God's love and grace, always eateth and drinketh of Christ's Flesh and Blood. Christ hath not bound himself to bread and wine *alone*, but hath bound himself to the *faith*, that he will be in men.\" Works, vol. iv. p. 208. Charles Gordon took the same view of the visible \"eating,\" as being a great assistance to the spiritual feeding, but not indispensable to it. (Gordon's \"Letters to his Sister.\")\n\n[C] Dante's \"ricchezza senza brama.\"\n\n[D] Law's Works, vol. viii., p. 177.\n\n[E] Works, vol. vii., p. 65, ed. 1765.\n\n[F] Law's Works, vol. viii., p. 189.\n\n[G] Law's Works, vol. vii., p. 162.\n\n* * *\n\n## PRELIMINARY NOTE\n\nBefore entering upon the Dialogues I have thought it well to insert some sentences taken from a treatise of Behmen's called \"Regeneration,\" together with some taken from another treatise of his on \"Christ's Testament\" because they show well the spirit in which he thought and wrote. The freedom of thought and expression which he claims is, happily, far more readily accorded now than it was in his own day.\n\nI have only one thing to add. In the eighteenth century English translation of Behmen's Works, all the substantives, as was then the frequent custom, are printed with capital letters. There is a philosophic basis for this practice, because a substantive is an attempt to denote a \"thing in itself\" and is therefore of greater weight than an adjective, which only expresses qualities which we attribute to it. To Behmen's Works this mode of printing seems especially appropriate. In our now too literary language, many words have become so trite and carelessly used that they have almost ceased to have reference to real existing things. But Behmen never uses words in this merely literary way, being indeed in nowise a man of letters. It might have been said of him, as indeed his enemies did at the time say, that which was said by the Jews of our Lord, \"How knoweth this man letters having never learned?\" When he speaks of the \"*glory*\" of God, he means something as real as if he spoke of the \"*leaves* on that tree,\" and so with all his words. I was therefore somewhat inclined, in order to mark this, to adhere altogether to the old custom in this case, and though I have not done so, fearing it might annoy the eye of the unaccustomed reader, I have preserved the capital letters in many cases, where it is especially desirable to dwell on the expression of real existences by the words. It is of course an illogical compromise between two customs.\n\nThe title \"Supersensual Life\" is not altogether a good one, but it is that which is used in former editions of Behmen. The idea is rather of Life behind, than above, the life of sense.\n\n* * *\n\n## ***Sentences Selected from Jacob Behmen's Treatises \"Regeneration\" and \"Christ's Testaments\"***\n\n#### 1\n\nA true Christian, who is born anew of the Spirit of Christ, is in the simplicity of Christ, and hath no strife or contention with any man about religion.\n\n#### 2\n\nThe Christendom that is in Babel striveth about the manner how men ought to serve God and glorify him; also, how they are to know him, and what he is in his Essence and Will. And they preach positively that whosoever is not one and the same with them in every particular of knowledge and opinion, is no Christian, but a heretic.\n\n#### 3\n\nBut a Christian is of no sect. He can dwell in the midst of sects, and appear in their services, without being attached or bound to any. He hath but one knowledge, and that is, Christ in him. He seeketh but one way, which is the desire always to do and teach that which is right; and he putteth all his knowing and willing into the Life of Christ. He sigheth and wisheth continually that the Will of God might be done in him, and that his Kingdom might be manifested in him. His faith is a desire after God and Goodness, which he wrappeth up in a sure hope, trusting to the words of the promise, and liveth and dieth therein; though as to the *true man*, he never dieth.\n\n#### 4\n\nFor Christ saith: *Whosoever believeth in me shall never die, but hath pierced through from death to life*; and, *Rivers of living water shall flow from him*, *viz.* good doctrine and works.\n\n#### 5\n\nTherefore I say that whosoever fighteth and contendeth about the Letter, is all Babel. The Letters of the Word proceed from, and stand all in, one Root, which is the Spirit of God; as the various flowers stand all in the earth, and grow about one another. They fight not with each other about their difference of colour, smell, and taste, but suffer the earth, the sun, the rain, the wind, the heat, and cold, to do with them as they please; and yet every one of them groweth in its own peculiar essence and property.\n\n#### 6\n\nEven so it is with the Children of God; they have various gifts and degrees of knowledge, yet all form one Spirit. They all rejoice at the great Wonders of God, and give thanks to the Most High in his Wisdom. Why then should they contend about him in *Whom they live and have their being*, and of whose substance they themselves are?\n\n#### 7\n\nIt is the greatest folly that is in Babel for people to strive about religion, so that they contend vehemently about opinions of their own forging, *viz.* about the Letter. When the Kingdom of God consisteth of no Opinion, but in Power and Love.\n\n#### 8\n\nAs Christ said to his disciples, and left it with them at the last, saying: *Love one another as I have loved you: for thereby men shall know that ye are My disciples*. If men would as fervently seek after love and righteousness as they do after opinions, there would be no strife on earth, and we should be as children of one father, and should need no law or ordinance. For God is not served by any law, but only by obedience. Laws are for the wicked, who will not enhance love and righteousness; they are, and must be, compelled by laws.\n\n#### 9\n\nWe all have but one Order, Law, or Ordinance, which is to stand still to the Lord of all Beings, and resign our wills up to him, and suffer his Spirit to play what music he will. And thus we give to him again as his own fruits that which he worketh and manifesteth in us.\n\n#### 10\n\nNow if we did not contend about our different fruits, gifts, kinds, and degrees of knowledge, but did acknowledge them in one another, like Children of the Spirit of God, what could condemn us? For the Kingdom of God consisteth not in our knowing and supposing, but in Power.\n\n#### 11\n\nIf we did not know half so much, and were more like children, and had but a brotherly mind and goodwill towards one another, and lived like children of one mother, and as branches of one tree, taking our Sap all from one Root, we should be far more holy than we are.\n\n#### 12\n\nKnowledge serves only to this end, viz., to know that we have lost the Divine Power in Adam, and are now become inclined to sin; that we have evil properties in us, and that doing evil pleaseth not God; so that with our knowledge we learn to do right. Now if we have the Power of God in us, and desire with all our hearts to act and to live aright, then our knowledge is but our sport, or matter of pleasure, wherein we rejoice.\n\n#### 13\n\nFor true knowledge is the manifestation of the Spirit of God through the Eternal Wisdom. He knoweth what he will in his children; he sheweth his wisdom and wonders by his children, as the earth putteth forth her various flowers.\n\n#### 14\n\nNow if we dwell with one another, like humble children, in the Spirit of Christ, are rejoicing at the gift or knowledge of another, who would judge or condemn us? Who judgeth or condemneth the birds in the woods that praise the Lord of all Beings with various voices, every one in its own essence? Doth the Spirit of God reprove them for not bringing their voices into one harmony? Doth not the melody of them all proceed from his Power, and do they not sport before him?\n\n#### 15\n\nThose men therefore that strive and wrangle about the knowledge and will of God, and despise one another on that account, are more foolish than the birds in the woods, and the wild beasts that have no true understanding. They are more unprofitable in the sight of the holy God than the flowers of the field, which stand still in quiet submission to the Spirit of God, and suffer him to manifest the Divine Wisdom and Power through them.\n\n#### 16\n\nAll Christian Religion consisteth wholly on this, to learn *to know ourselves*; whence we came, and what we are; how we are gone forth from the Unity into dissension, wickedness, and unrighteousness; how we have awakened and stirred up these evils in us; and how we may be delivered from them again, and recover our original blessedness.\n\n#### 17\n\n*First*; How we were in the Unity, when we were the Children of God in Adam before he fell. *Secondly*; How we are now in dissension and disunion, in strife and contrariety. *Thirdly*; Whither we go when we pass out of this corruptible condition; whither with the unnatural, and whither with the natural part. And *lastly*; How we came forth from disunion and vanity, and enter into that one Tree, Christ in us, out of which we all sprung in Adam. In these four points all the necessary knowledge of a Christian consisteth.\n\n#### 18\n\nSo that we need not strive about any thing; we have no cause of contention with each other. Let every one only exercise himself in learning how he may enter again into the Love of God and his Brother.\n\n#### 19\n\nThe written Word is but an instrument whereby the Spirit leadeth us to itself within us. That Word which will teach must be living in the literal Word. The Spirit of God must be in the literal sound, or else none is a Teacher of God, but a mere Teacher of the Letter, a knower of the history, and not of the Spirit of God in Christ.\n\n#### 20\n\nAll that men will serve God with must be done in Faith, *viz.* in the Spirit. It is the Spirit that maketh the work perfect, and acceptable in the sight of God. All that a man undertaketh and doeth in Faith, he doth in the Spirit of God, which Spirit of God doth co-operate in the work, and then it is acceptable to God. For he hath done it himself, and his Power and Virtue is in it. It is holy.\n\n#### 21\n\nStrife and misunderstanding concerning Christ's Person, Office, and Being, or Substance, as also concerning his Testaments which he left behind him, wherein he worketh at present, ariseth from the deflected creaturely Reason, which runneth on only in an Image-like opinion, and reacheth not the ground of this mystery, and yet will be a mistress of all things or beings, and will judge all things. It doth but lose itself in such Image-likeness, and breaketh itself off from its Centre, and disperseth the thoughts, and runneth on in the multiplicity, whereby its ground is confused and the mind is disquieted, and knoweth not itself.\n\n#### 22\n\nNo Life can stand in certainty, except it continue in its Centre, out of which it is sprung.\n\n#### 23\n\nWhen the Soul that is sprung from God's Word and Will is entered into its own desire to will of itself, it will run in mere uncertainty till it return to its Original again.\n\n#### 24\n\nSeeing that human life is an outflowing of the Divine Power, Understanding and Skill, the same ought to continue in its Original, or else it loseth the Divine Knowledge, Power and Skill, and with self-speculation bringeth itself into centres of its own, and strange imaging, wherewith its Original becometh darkened and strange.\n\nTherefore say I, that this is the only cause that men dispute about God, his Word, Essence or Being, and Will, that the understanding of man hath broken itself off from its Original, and now runneth on in mere self-will, thoughts and images in its own lust to selfishness, wherein there is no true knowledge, nor can be, till the Life returneth to its Original, *viz.* into the Divine Outflowing and Will.\n\n#### 25\n\nIf this be done, then God's Will speaketh forth the Divine Power and Wonders again through the human willing. In which Divine Speaking, the Life may know and comprehend God's Will, and frame itself therein. Then there is true Divine Knowledge and Understanding in man's skill, when his skill is continually renewed with Divine Power.\n\n#### 26\n\nAs Christ hath taught us when he said, *Unless ye be converted and become as a Child, ye shall not come into the Kingdom of God*. That is, that the Life turn itself again unto God out of whom it is proceeded, and forsake all its own imaging and lust, and so come to the Divine Vision again.\n\n#### 27\n\nAll disputation concerning God's Being or Essence or Will is performed in the images of the senses or thoughts without God. For if any liveth in God, and willeth with God, what needeth he dispute about God, who, or what God is? That he disputeth about it is a sign that he hath never felt it at all in his mind or senses, and it is not given to him that God is in him, and willeth in him what he will. It is a certain sign that he exalts his own meaning and image above others, and desireth dominion.\n\n#### 28\n\nMen should friendly confer together, and offer one another their gifts and knowledge in love, and try things one with another, and hold that which is best, and not so stand in their own opinion as if they could not err. It lyeth in no man's person that men should suppose that the Divine Understanding must come only from such and such. For the Scripture says, *Try all things and hold that which is good*, 1 Thess. v. 21.\n\n#### 29\n\nThe touchstone to true knowledge is first, the Corner-stone, Christ; that men should see whether a thing enter out of love into love, or whether alone purely the love of God be sought and desired; whether it be done out of humility or pride; Secondly, whether it be according to the Holy Scripture; Thirdly, is it according to the human heart and soul, wherein the Book of the Life of God is incorporated, and may very well be read by the Children of God? Here the true mind hath its touchstone in itself, and can distinguish all things. If it be so that the Holy Ghost dwell in the ground of the mind, that man hath touchstone enough; that will lead him into all truth.\n\n#### 30\n\nAll strife concerning Christ's testaments cometh hence that men do not understand that Heaven wherein Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. They understand not that he is in this World, and that the World standeth in Heaven, and Heaven in the World, and are in one another, as Day and Night.\n\n1 Cor. ii. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.\n\n*We speak the hidden mystical wisdom of God; which God ordained before the world into our glory; which none of the Princes of this World knew. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But, as it is written, Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God. Now we have received, not the Spirit of the World, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which men's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth, or discerneth all things.*\n\n* * *\n\n## OF THE SUPERSENSUAL LIFE\n\n#### IN DIALOGUES\n\n### BETWEEN A SCHOLAR OR DISCIPLE AND HIS MASTER\n\n* * *\n\n## DIALOGUE I\n\nThe Disciple said to his Master: Sir, how may I come to the Supersensual Life, so that I may see God, and may hear God speak?\n\nThe Master answered and said: Son, when thou canst throw thyself into THAT, where no Creature dwelleth, though it be but for a moment, then thou hearest what God speaketh?\n\nDisciple\n\nIs that where no Creature dwelleth near at hand, or is it afar off?\n\nMaster\n\nIt is *in thee*. And if thou canst, my Son, for a while but cease from all thy thinking and willing, then thou shalt hear the unspeakable words of God.\n\nDisciple\n\nHow can I hear him speak, when I stand still from thinking and willing?\n\nMaster\n\nWhen thou standest still from the thinking of Self, and the willing of Self. When both thy intellect and will are quiet, and passive to the expressions of the Eternal Word and Spirit; and when thy soul is winged up and above that which is temporal, the outward senses and the imagination being locked up by holy abstraction, then the Eternal Hearing, Seeing and Speaking will be revealed in thee, and so God heareth and seeth through thee, being now the organ of *his* Spirit, and so God speaketh in *thee*, and whispereth to thy Spirit, and thy Spirit heareth his voice. Blessed art thou therefore if thou canst stand still from self-thinking and self-willing, and canst stop the wheel of thy imagination and senses; forasmuch as hereby thou mayest arrive at length to see the great Salvation of God, being made capable of all manner of divine sensations and heavenly communications. Since it is nought indeed but thine own hearing and willing that do hinder thee, so that thou dost not see and hear God.\n\nDisciple\n\nBut wherewith shall I hear and see God, forasmuch as he is above Nature and Creature?\n\nMaster\n\nSon, when thou art quiet and silent, then art thou as God was before Nature and Creature; thou art that which God then was; thou art that whereof he made thy nature and creature. Then thou hearest and seest even that wherewith God himself saw and heard in thee, before ever thine own willing or thine own seeing began.\n\nDisciple\n\nWhat now hinders or keeps me back, so that I cannot come to *that*, wherewith God is to be seen and heard?\n\nMaster\n\nNothing truly but thine own willing, hearing, and seeing do keep thee back from it, and do hinder thee from coming to this supersensual state. And it is because thou strivest so against that, out of which thou thyself art descended and derived, that thou thus breakest thyself off, with thine own willing, from God's willing, and with thine own seeing from God's seeing. In as much as in thine own seeing thou dost see in thine own willing only, and with thine own understanding thou dost understand but in and according to thine own willing, as the same stands divided from the Divine Will. This thy willing, moreover, stops thy hearing, and maketh thee deaf towards God, through thy own thinking upon terrestrial things, and thy attending to that which is without thee, and so it brings thee to a ground where thou art laid hold on and captivated in Nature. And having brought thee hither, it overshadows thee with that which thou willest, it binds thee with thine own chains, and it keeps thee in thine own dark prison which thou makest for thyself, so that thou canst not go out thence, or come to that state which is Supernatural and Supersensual.\n\nDisciple\n\nBut being I am in Nature, and thus bound as with my own chains, and by my own natural will, pray be so kind, Sir, as to tell me, how I may come *through* Nature into the Supersensual and Supernatural Ground, without the destroying of Nature?\n\nMaster\n\nThree things are requisite in order to this. The first is, Thou must resign up thy Will to God, and must sink thyself down to the dust in his mercy. The second is, Thou must hate thy own Will, and forbear from doing that to which thy own Will doth drive thee. The third is, Thou must bow thy soul under the Cross, heartily submitting thyself to it, that thou mayst be able to bear the temptations of Nature and Creature. And if thou dost this, know that God will speak unto thee, and will bring thy resigned Will into Himself, in the supernatural ground, and then thou shalt hear, my son, what the Lord speaketh in thee.\n\nDisciple\n\nThis is a hard saying, Master, for I must forsake the World and my life too, if I should do thus.\n\nMaster\n\nBe not discouraged hereat. If thou forsakest the World, then thou comest unto that out of which the World is made, and if thou losest thy life, then thy life is in that for whose sake thou forsakest it. Thy life is in God, from whence it came into the body, and as thou comest to have thine own power faint and weak and dying, the power of God will then work in thee and through thee.\n\nDisciple\n\nNevertheless, as God hath created man in and for the natural life, to rule over all creatures on earth, and to be a lord over all things in this world, it seems not to be at all unreasonable that God should therefore possess this world and the things therein for his own.\n\nMaster\n\nIf thou rulest over all creatures but outwardly there cannot be much in that. But if thou hast a mind to possess all things, and to be a lord indeed over all things in this world, there is quite another method to be taken by thee.\n\nDisciple\n\nPray, how is that? And what method must I take, whereby to arrive at this sovereignty?\n\nMaster\n\nThou must learn to distinguish between the Thing, and that which is only an image thereof; between that sovereignty which is substantial and in the inward ground of Nature, and that which is imaginary and in outward form of semblance; between that which is properly angelical and that which is no more than bestial. If thou rulest over the creatures externally only and not from the right internal ground of thy inward nature, then thy will and ruling is in a bestial kind or matter, and thine at best is but a sort of imaginary and transitory government, being void of that which is substantial and permanent, that which only thou art to desire and press after. Thus by thy outward lording it over the creatures it is most easy for thee to lose the substance and the reality, whilst thou hast naught remaining but the image and shadow only of thy first and original lordship wherein thou art made capable to be again invested, if thou art but wise, and takest thy investiture from the Supreme Lord in the right course and matter. Whereas by thy willing and ruling them in a bestial manner, thou bringest also thy desire into a bestial essence, by which means thou becomest infected and captivated therein, and gettest therewith a bestial nature and condition of life. But if thou shalt have put off the bestial nature, and left the imaginary life, and quitted the low-imaged condition of it, then art thou come into the super-imaginariness and into the intellectual life, which is a state of living above images, figures and shadows. And so thou rulest over all creatures, being re-united with thy Original, in that very ground or source, out of which they were and are created, and thenceforth nothing on earth can hurt thee. For thou art like All Things, and nothing is unlike thee.\n\nDisciple\n\nO loving Master, pray teach me how I may come the shortest way to be like unto *All Things*.\n\nMaster\n\nWith all my heart. Do but think on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when he said: \"Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.\" There is no shorter way than this, nor can a better way be found. Verily, Jesus saith unto thee, Unless thou turn and become as a child, hanging upon him for all things, thou shalt not see the Kingdom of God. This do and nothing shall hurt thee; for thou shalt be at friendship with all the things that are, as thou dependest upon the author and fountain of them, and becomest like him, by such dependence, and by the Union of thy Will with his Will. But mark what I have further to say, and be not thou startled at it, though it may seem hard for thee at first to conceive. If thou wilt be like All Things thou must forsake all things; thou must not extend thy will to possess that for thine own, or as thine own, which is *Something*, whatever that Something be. For as soon as ever thou takest *Something* into thy desire, and receivest it into thee for thine own, or in propriety, then this very Something (of what nature soever it is) is the *same* with thyself; and this worketh with thee in thy will, and thou art thence bound to protect it, and take care of it, even as of thy own being. But if thou dost receive *no thing* into thy desire then thou art free from all things, and rulest over all things at once, as a Prince of God. For thou hast received nothing for thine own, and art nothing to all things, and all things are as nothing unto thee. Thou art as a child, which understands not what a thing is; and though thou dost perhaps understand it, yet thou understandest it without mixing with it, and without it sensibly affecting or touching thy perception, even in that matter wherein God doth rule and see all things, he comprehending All, and yet nothing comprehending him.\n\nDisciple\n\nAh! how shall I arrive at this heavenly understanding, at this pure and naked knowledge, which is abstracted from the senses, at this light above Nature and Creature, and at this participation of the Divine Wisdom which oversees all things, and governs through all intellectual beings? For, alas, I am touched every moment by the things which are about me, and overshadowed by the clouds and perfumes which rise up out of the earth. I desire, therefore, to be taught, if possible, how I may attain such a state and condition as that no creature may be able to touch me to hurt me; and how my mind, being purged from sensible objects and things, may be prepared for the entrance and habitation of the Divine Wisdom in me.\n\nMaster\n\nThou desirest that I would teach thee how thou art to attain it; and I will direct thee to our Master, from whom I have been taught it, that thou mayest learn it thyself from him, who alone teacheth the heart. Hear thou him. Wouldst thou arrive at this; wouldst thou remain untouched by sensibles; wouldst thou behold light in the very Light of God, and see all things thereby; then consider the words of Christ, who is the Light and who is the Truth. O consider now his words, who said, *Without me ye can do nothing* (John xix. 5) and defer not to apply thyself unto him, who is the strength of thy salvation, and the *power* of thy life; and *with whom thou canst do all things*, by the faith which he waketh in thee. But unless thou wholly givest thyself up to the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, and resignest thy Will wholly to him, and desirest nothing and willest nothing without him, thou shalt never come to such a rest as no creature can disturb. Think what thou pleasest, and be never so much delighted in the activity of thine own reason, thou shalt find that, in thine own power and without such a total surrender to God and to the life of God, thou canst never arrive at such a rest as this, or the true Quiet of the Soul, wherein no creature can molest thee, or even so much as touch thee. Which when thou shalt, with Grace, have attained to, then with thy Body thou art in the World, as in the properties of outward Nature; and, with thy Reason, under the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; but with thy *Will* thou walkest in heaven, and art at the end from whence all creatures are proceeded forth, and *to* which they return again. And then thou canst in this End, which is the same with the *Beginning*, behold all things outwardly with *reason* and liberally with the *mind*; and so mayest thou rule in all things and over all things, with Christ; unto whom all power is given both in heaven and on earth.\n\nDisciple\n\nO, Master, the creatures which live in me do withhold me, so that I cannot so wholly yield and give up myself as I willingly would. What am I to do in this case?\n\nMaster\n\nLet not this trouble thee. Doth thy Will go forth from the creatures? Then the creatures are forsaken in thee. They are in the world, and thy body, which is in the world, is with the creatures. But spiritually thou walkest with God, and conversest in heaven; being in thy mind redeemed from earth, and separated from creatures, to live the life of God. And if thy Will thus leaveth the creatures, and goeth forth from them, even as the spirit goeth forth from the body at death; then are the creatures dead in it, and do live only in the body in the world. Since if thy Will do not bring itself into them, they cannot bring themselves into it, neither can they by any means touch the soul. And hence St Paul saith, *Our conversation is in heaven; and also, Ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you*. So, then, true Christians are the very temples of the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in them; that is, the Holy Ghost dwelleth in the Will, and the Creature dwelleth in the Body.\n\nDisciple\n\nIf now the Holy Spirit doth dwell in the Will of the Mind, how ought I to keep myself so that he depart not from me again.\n\nMaster\n\nMark, my son, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: *If ye abide in my words*, then my words abide in you. If thou abidest with thy Will in the Words of Christ; then his Word and Spirit abideth in thee, and all shall be done for thee that thou canst ask of him. But if thy Will goeth into the creature, then thou hast broken off thyself thereby from him. And then thou canst not any otherwise keep thyself but by abiding continually with that resigned humility, and by entering into a constant course of penitence, wherein thou wilt always be grieved at thine own creaturely Will, and that creatures do still live in thee, that is, in thy bodily appetite. If thou dost thus, thou standest in a daily dying from the creatures, and in a daily ascending into heaven in thy will, which will is also the Will of thy Heavenly Father.\n\nDisciple\n\nO my loving Master, pray teach me how I may come to such a constant course of holy penitence, and to such a daily dying from all creaturely objects, for how can I abide continually in repentance?\n\nMaster\n\nWhen thou leavest that which loveth thee, and lovest that which hateth thee; then thou mayest continually abide in repentance.\n\nDisciple\n\nWhat is it that I must thus leave?\n\nMaster\n\nAll things that love and entertain thee, because thy Will loves and entertains them. All things that please and feed thee, because thy Will feeds and cherishes them. All creatures in flesh and blood; in a word, all visibles and sensibles, by which either the imaginative or sensitive appetite in men are delighted and refreshed. These the Will of thy mind, or thy supreme part, must leave and forsake, and must even account them all its enemies. This is the leaving of what loves thee. And the loving of what hates thee is the embracing the reproach of the World. Thou must learn then to love the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and for his sake to be pleased with the reproach of the World which hates thee and derides thee; and let this be thy daily exercise of penitence to be crucified to the World, and the World to thee. And so thou shalt have continual cause to hate thyself *in the Creature*, and to seek the eternal rest which is *in Christ*. To which rest thou having thus attained, thy Will may therein safely rest and repose itself, according as thy Lord Christ hath said: In me ye may have rest, but in the World ye shall have anxiety: In me ye may have peace, but in the World ye shall have tribulation.\n\nDisciple\n\nHow now shall I be able to subsist in this anxiety and tribulation arising from the World so as not to lose the eternal peace, or not to enter into this rest? And how may I recover myself in such a temptation as this is, by not sinking under the World, but rising above it by a life which is truly heavenly and supersensual?\n\nMaster\n\nIf thou dost once every hour throw thyself by faith beyond all creatures, beyond and above all sensual perception and apprehension, yea, above discourse and reasoning into the abyssal mercy of God, into the sufferings of our Lord, and into the fellowship of his interceding, and yieldest thyself fully and absolutely thereinto; then thou shalt receive power from above to rule over Death and the Devil and to subdue Hell and the World unto thee. And then thou mayest subsist in all temptations, and be the brighter for them.\n\nDisciple\n\nBlessed is the man that arriveth to such a state as this. But, alas, poor man that I am, how is this possible as to me? And what, O my Master, would become of me, if I should ever attain with my mind to that where no creature is? Must I not cry out, *I am undone*?\n\nMaster\n\nSon, why art thou so dispirited? Be of good heart still; for thou mayest certainly yet attain to it. Do but believe, and all things are made possible to thee. If it were that thy Will, O thou of so little courage, could break off itself for an hour, or even but for a half hour, from all creatures, and plunge itself into that where no creature is, or can be; presently it would be penetrated and clothed upon with the supreme splendour of the Divine Glory, would taste in itself the most sweet Love of Jesus, the sweetness whereof no tongue can express, and would find in itself the unspeakable words of our Lord concerning his great mercy. Thy spirit would then feel in itself the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ to be very pleasing to it; and would thereupon love the Cross more than the honours and goods of the World.\n\nDisciple\n\nThis for the Soul would be exceeding well indeed. But what would then become of the Body, seeing that it must of necessity live in *Creature*?\n\nMaster\n\nThe body would by this means be put into the imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his body. It would stand in the communion of that most blessed Body, which is the true temple of the Deity, and in the participation of all its gracious effects, virtues, and influences. It would live in the Creature, not of choice, but only as it is made subject to vanity, and in the World, as it is placed therein by the ordination of the Creator, for its cultivation and higher advancement, and as groaning to be delivered out of it in God's time and manner, for its perfection and resuscitation in eternal liberty and glory, like unto the glorified body of our Lord and his risen Saints.\n\nDisciple\n\nBut the body, being in its present constitution, so made subject to vanity, and living in a vain image and creaturely shadows according to the life of the undergraduated creatures or brutes, whose breath goeth downward to the earth; I am still very much afraid thereof, lest it should continue to depress the mind which is lifted up to God, by hanging as a dead weight thereto; and go on to abuse and perplex the same, as formerly, with dreams and trifles, by letting in the objects from without, in order to draw me down into the World and the hurry thereof; whereas I would fain maintain by conversation in Heaven even while I am living in the World. What, therefore, must I do with this body, that I may be able to keep up so desirable a conversation, and not to be under subjection to it any longer?\n\nMaster\n\nThere is no other way for thee that I know but to present the body whereof thou complainest (which is the beast to be sacrificed) *a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God*. And this shall be thy rational service whereby this thy body will be put, as thou desirest, into the imitation of Jesus Christ, who said his Kingdom was not of this World. Be not thou then *conformed* to it, but be *transformed* by the renewing of thy mind; which renewed mind is to have dominion over the body, that so thou mayest prove, both in body and mind, what is the perfect Will of God, and accordingly perform the same with and by his grace operating in thee. Whereupon the body, or the *animal life* would, being thus offered up, begin to die, both from without and from within. From *without*, that is, from the vanity and evil customs and fashions of the World; it would be an utter change to all the parts thereof, and to all the pageantry, pride, ambition, and haughtiness therein. From *within* it would die as to all the lusts and appetites of the flesh, and would get a mind and will wholly new for its government and management; being now made subject to the Spirit, which would continually be directed to God. And thus thy very body is become the temple of God and of his Spirit, in imitation of thy Lord's Body.\n\nDisciple\n\nBut the World would hate it and despise it for so doing, seeing it must hereby contradict the World, and must live and act quite otherwise than the World doth. This is most certain. And how can this be taken?\n\nMaster\n\nIt would not take that as any harm done to it, but would rather rejoice that it is become worthy to be like unto the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, being transformed from that of the World. And it would be most willing to bear that cross after our Lord, merely that our Lord might bestow upon it the influence of his sweet and precious love.\n\nDisciple\n\nI do not doubt but in some this may be even so. Nevertheless, for my own part, I am in a strait between two, not feeling yet enough of that blessed influence upon me. Oh how willingly should my body bear *that*, could *this* be safely depended upon by me! Wherefore pardon me, loving Sir, in this one thing, if my impatience doth still further demand, \"What would become of it, if the anger of God from within, and the wicked World also from without, should at once assault it, as the same really happened to our Lord Christ?\"\n\nMaster\n\nBe that unto it, even as unto our Lord Christ, when he was reproached, reviled and crucified by the World, and when the anger of God so fiercely assaulted him for our sake. Now what did he under this most terrible assault both from without and within? Why; he commended his soul into the hands of his Father, and so departed from the anguish of this World into the eternal joy. Do thou likewise, and his death shall be thy life.\n\nDisciple\n\nBe it unto me as unto the Lord Christ, and unto my body as unto his, which into his hands I have commended, and for the sake of his name do offer up, according to his revealed Will. Nevertheless I am desirous to know what would become of my body in its pressing forth from the anguish of this miserable World into the power of the Heavenly Kingdom.\n\nMaster\n\nIt would get forth from the reproach and contradiction of the World by a conformity to the passion of Jesus Christ; and from the sorrows and pains in the flesh, which are only the effects of some sensible impression of things without, by a quiet introversion of the spirit and secret communion with the Deity manifesting itself for that end. It would penetrate into itself; it would sink into the great love of God; it would be sustained and refreshed by the most sweet name *Jesus*, and it would see and find within itself a new world springing forth, as through the anger of God, into the joy and love eternal. And then should a man wrap his soul in this, even in the great Love of God, and clothe himself therewith as with a garment; and should account thence all things alike; because in the Creature he finds nothing that can give him, without God, the least satisfaction, and because also nothing of harm can touch him more while he remains in this Love. For this Love is indeed stronger than all things, and makes a man invulnerable both from within and without, by taking out the sting and poison of the Creature, and destroying the power of death. And whether the body be in hell or on earth, all is alike to him; for whether it be there or here, his mind is still in the greatest Love of God; which is no less than to say that he is in heaven.\n\nDisciple\n\nBut how would a man's body be maintained in the World; or how would he be able to maintain those who are his, if he should by such a conversation incur the displeasure of all the World?\n\nMaster\n\nSuch a man gets greater favours than the world is able to bestow upon him: he hath God for his friend; he hath all the Angels for his friends. In all dangers and necessities these protect and relieve him; so that he need fear no manner of evil; no creature can hurt him. God is his helper, and that is sufficient. Also God is his blessing in everything. And though sometimes it may seem as if God would not bless him, yet is this but for a trial to him, and for the attraction of the Divine Love, to the end he may more fervently pray to God, and commit all his ways unto him.\n\nDisciple\n\nHe loses, however, by this all his good friends, and there will be none to help him in his necessity.\n\nMaster\n\nNay, but he gets the hearts of all his good friends into his possession, and loses none but his enemies, who before loved his vanity and wickedness.\n\nDisciple\n\nHow is it that he can get his good friends into his possession?\n\nMaster\n\nHe gets the very hearts and souls of all those that belong to our Lord Jesus to be his brethren, and the members of his own very life. For all the children of God are but one in Christ, which one is Christ *in All*. And therefore he gets them all to be his fellow-members in the Body of Christ, whence they have all the same heavenly goods in common and all live in one and the same Love of God, as the branches of a tree in one and the same root, and spring all from one and the same source of life in them. So that he can have no want of spiritual friends and relations, who are all rooted with him together in the Love which is from above, who are all of the same blood and kindred in Christ Jesus; and who are cherished all by the same quickening sap and spirit diffusing itself through them universally from the one true Vine, which is the tree of life and love. These are friends worth having; and though here they may be unknown to him, will abide his friends beyond doubt to all eternity. But neither can he want even outward natural friends, as our Lord Christ, when on earth, did not want such also. For though, indeed, the High-Priests and Potentates of the World could not have a love to him, because they belonged not to him, neither stood in any kind of relation to him, as being not of this world, yet those loved him who were capable of his love, and receptive of his words. So, in like manner, those who love truth and righteousness will love that man, and will associate themselves unto him, yea, though they may perhaps be outwardly at some distance or seeming disagreement, from the situation of their worldly affairs, or from other reasons, yet in their hearts they cannot but cleave to him. For though they be not actually incorporated into one body with him, yet they cannot resist being of one mind with him, and being united in affliction, for the great regard they bear to the truth, which shines forth in his words and in his life. By this they are made either his declared or his secret friends; and he doth so get their hearts that they will be delighted above all things in his company, for the sake thereof, and will court his friendship and will come unto him by stealth, if openly they dare not, for the benefit of his conversation and advice; even as Nicodemus did to Christ, who came to him by night, and in his heart loved Jesus for the truth's sake, though outwardly he feared the World. And thus thou shalt have many friends that are not known to thee; and some known to thee, who may not appear so before the World.\n\nDisciple\n\nNevertheless it is very grievous to be generally despised of the World, and to be trampled upon by men as the very offscouring thereof.\n\nMaster\n\nThat which now seems so hard and heavy to thee, thou wilt yet hereafter be most in love with.\n\nDisciple\n\nHow can it ever be that I should love that which hates me?\n\nMaster\n\nThough thou lovest the Earthly Wisdom now, yet when thou shalt be clothed upon with the Heavenly Wisdom, then wilt thou see that all the wisdom of the World is folly; and wilt see also that the World hates not so much thee, as thine enemy, which is this mortal life. And when thou thyself shalt come to hate the will thereof, by means of a habitual separation of thy mind from the World, then thou also wilt begin to love that despising of the mortal life, and the reproach of the World for Christ's sake. And so shalt thou be able to stand under every temptation, and to hold out to the end by the means hereof in a course of life above the World and above sense.\n\nIn this course thou wilt hate thyself, and thou wilt also love thyself, I say, love thyself, and that even more than thou ever didst yet.\n\nDisciple\n\nBut how can these two subsist together, that a person should both *love* and *hate* himself?\n\nMaster\n\n*In loving thyself*, thou lovest not thyself *as thine own*, but thou lovest the divine ground in thee, as given thee from the Love of God. By which, and in which, thou lovest the Divine Wisdom, the Divine Goodness, the Divine Beauty; thou lovest also by it God's works of wonders; and in this ground thou lovest also thy brethren. But *in hating thyself*, thou hatest only that which is *thine own*, and wherein the Evil sticks close to thee. And this thou dost, that so thou mayest wholly destroy that which thou callest *thine*, as when thou sayest I or MYSELF do this, or do that. All which is wrong and a downright mistake in thee; for nothing canst thou properly call *thine* but the evil Self, neither canst thou do anything of thyself that is to be accounted of. This *Self* therefore thou must labour wholly to destroy in thee, that so thou mayest become a ground wholly divine. There can be no *selfishness* in love; they are opposite to each other. Love, that is, Divine Love (of which only we are now discoursing), hates all Egoity, hates all that which we call I, or IHOOD, hates all such restrictions and confinements, even all that springs from a contracted spirit, or this evil *Self-hood*, because it is an hateful and deadly thing. And it is impossible that these two should stand together, or subsist in one person; the one driving out the other by a necessity of nature. For *Love* possesses Heaven, and dwells in itself, which is dwelling in Heaven; but that which is called I, this vile self-hood, possesses the world and worldly things; and dwells also in itself, which is dwelling *in Hell*, because this is the very root of Hell itself. And, therefore, as Heaven rules the World, and as Eternity rules Time, even so ought Love to rule the natural temporal Life; for no other method is there, neither can there be of attaining to that Life which is supernatural and eternal, and which thou so much desirest to be led into.\n\nDisciple\n\nLoving Master, I am well content that this Love should rule in me over the natural Life, that so I may attain to that which is supernatural and supersensual; but, pray tell me now, why must Love and Hatred, friend and foe, thus be together? Would not Love alone be better? Wherefore, I say, are Love and Trouble thus joined?\n\nMaster\n\nIf Love dwelt not in Trouble, it could have nothing to love. But its substance which it loves, namely the poor soul, being in trouble and pain, it hath thence cause to love this its own substance and to deliver it from pain, that so itself may by it be again beloved. Neither could any one know what Love is, if there were no Hatred; or what friendship is, if there were no foe to contend with. Or, in one word, if Love had not something which it might love, and manifest the virtue and power of love in working out deliverance to the Beloved from all pain and trouble.\n\nDisciple\n\nPray what is the virtue, the power, the height, and the greatness of Love?\n\nMaster\n\nThe virtue of Love is nothing and all, or that *Nothing visible* out of which All Things proceed. Its power is through All Things; its height is as high as God; its greatness is as great as God. Its virtue is the principle of all principles; its power supports the Heavens and upholds the Earth; its height is higher than the highest Heavens, and its greatness is even greater than the very Manifestation of the Godhead in the glorious light of the Divine Essence, as being infinitely capable of greater and greater manifestations in all Eternity. What can I say more? Love is higher than the Highest. Love is greater than the Greatest. Yea, it *is in a certain sense* greater than God; while yet, in the highest sense of all, God is Love, and Love is God. Love being the highest principle is the virtue of all virtues; from whence they flow forth. Love, being the greatest Majesty, is the Power of all Powers, from whence they severally operate. And it is the Holy Magical Root, a Ghostly Power from whence all the wonders of God have been wrought by the hands of his elect servants, in all their generations successively, Whosoever finds it, finds *Nothing and All Things*.\n\nDisciple\n\nDear Master, pray tell me how I may understand this?\n\nMaster\n\nFirst, then, in that I said, its *virtue is Nothing, or that Nothing* which is the beginning of All Things, thou must understand it thus; When thou art gone forth wholly from the Creature, and from that which is visible; and art become Nothing to all that is Nature and Creature, then thou art in that Eternal One, which is God himself; and then thou shalt perceive and feel within thee the highest virtue of Love. But in that I said, Its power is through All Things, this is that which thou perceivest and findest in thy own soul and body experimentally, whenever this great Love is enkindled within thee; seeing that it will burn more than the fire can do, as it did in the Prophets of old, and afterwards in the Apostles, when God conversed with them bodily, and when his Spirit descended upon them in the Oratory of Zion. Thou shalt then see also in all the works of God, how Love hath poured forth itself into all things, and penetrated all things, and is the most inward and most outward ground in all things. Inwardly in the virtue and power of every thing, and outwardly in the figure and form thereof.\n\nAnd in that I said, *Its height is as high as God*; thou mayest understand this in thyself: forasmuch as it brings thee to be as high as God himself is, by being united to God; as may be seen by our beloved Lord Jesus Christ in our humanity. Which humanity Love hath brought up into the highest throne, above all angelical principalities and powers, into the very Power of the Deity itself.\n\nBut in that I also said, *Its greatness is as great as God*, thou art hereby to understand that there is a certain greatness and latitude of heart in Love, which is unexpressible, for it enlarges the soul as wide as the whole Creation of God. And this shall be truly experienced by thee, beyond all words, when the throne of Love shall be set up in thy heart.\n\nMoreover in that I said, *Its virtue is the principle of all principles*; hereby it is given thee to understand that Love is the principal cause of all created beings, both spiritual and corporeal, by virtue whereof the second causes do move and act occasionally, according to certain Eternal Laws, from the beginning implanted in the very constitution of things thus originated. This virtue which is in Love is the very life and energy of all the principles of Nature, superior and inferior. It reaches to all Worlds, and to all manner of beings in them contained, they being the workmanship of Divine Love, and is the *first mover* and *first moveable*, both in heaven above, and in the earth beneath, and in the water under the earth. And hence there is given to it the name of the *Lucid Aleph* or *Alpha*; by which is expressed the beginning of the *Alphabet of Nature*, and of the Book of Creation and Providence or the *Divine Archetypal Book*, in which is the Light of Wisdom and the source of all lights and forms.\n\nAnd in that I said, *Its power supports the Heavens*; by this thou wilt come to understand that as the Heavens, visible and invisible, are originated from this great principle, so are they likewise necessarily sustained by it; and that therefore if this should be but never so little withdrawn, all the lights, glories, beauties and forms of the heavenly worlds would presently sink into darkness and chaos.\n\nAnd whereas I further said *that it upholds the Earth*; this will appear to thee no less evident than the former, and thou shalt perceive it in thyself by daily and hourly experience; forasmuch as the Earth *without it*, even thy *own earth* also (that is, thy body) would certainly be without form and void. By the power thereof the Earth hath been thus long upheld, notwithstanding a foreign usurped power introduced by the folly of sin. And should this but once fail or recede there could be no longer either vegetation or animation upon it; yea, the very pillars of it being overthrown quite, and the band of union, which is that of attraction or magnetism, called the centripetal power, being broken and dissolved, all must thence run into the utmost disorder, and falling away as into shivers, would be dispersed as loose dust before the wind.\n\nBut in that I said, *Its height is higher than the highest Heavens*; this thou mayest also understand within thyself. For shouldest thou ascend in spirit through all the orders of Angels and heavenly Powers, yet the Power of Love still is undeniably superior to them all. And as the Throne of God, who sits upon the Heaven of Heavens, is higher than the highest of them, even so must Love also be, which fills them all, and comprehends them all.\n\nAnd whereas I said of the *Greatness of Love that it is greater than the very Manifestation of Godhead in the light of the Divine Essence*; that is also true. For Love enters even into that where the Godhead is not manifested in this glorious light, and where God may be said not to dwell. And entering thereinto, Love begins to manifest to the soul the light of the Godhead; and thus is the darkness broken through, and the wonders of the new creation successively manifested.\n\nThus shalt thou be brought to understand really and fundamentally what is the virtue and the power of Love, and what the height and greatness thereof is; how that is indeed the *virtue of all virtues*, though it be invisible, and as a *Nothing* in appearance, inasmuch as it is the worker of all things, and a powerful *vital energy* passing through all virtues and powers natural and supernatural, and the *power of all powers*, nothing being able to let or obstruct the *Omnipotence* of Love, or to resist its invincible penetrating might, which passes through the whole Creation of God, inspecting and governing all things.\n\nAnd in that I said; *It is higher than the highest and greater than the greatest*; thou mayst hereby perceive as in a glimpse the supreme height and greatness of *Omnipotent Love* which infinitely transcends all that human sense and reason can reach to. The highest Archangel and greatest Powers of Heaven, are in comparison of it, but as dwarfs. Nothing can be conceived higher and greater in God himself, by the very highest and greatest of his creatures. There is such infinity in it as comprehends and surpasses all the divine attributes.\n\nBut in that it was also said, *Its greatness is greater than God*; that likewise is very true in the sense wherein it was spoken. For Love can there enter where God dwelleth not, since the most high God dwelleth not in darkness, but in the Light, the hellish darkness being put under his feet. Thus, for instance, when our beloved Lord Jesus Christ was in Hell, Hell was not the mansion of God or of Christ, Hell sees not God, neither was it with God, nor could it be at all with him; Hell stood in the darkness and anxiety of Nature, and no light of the Divine Majesty did there enter; God was not there, for he is not in the darkness nor in the anguish; but Love was there; and Love destroyed Death and conquered Hell. So also when thou art in anguish or trouble, which is *hell within*, God is not the anguish or trouble, neither is he in the anguish or trouble; but his Love is there, and brings thee out of the anguish and trouble into God, leading thee into the light and joy of his presence. When God hides himself in thee, Love is still there, and makes him manifest in thee. Such is the inconceivable greatness and largeness of Love, which will hence appear to thee as great as God *above Nature* and greater than God *in Nature*, or as considered in his manifestative glory.\n\nLastly, whereas I said, *Whosoever finds it finds Nothing and all Things*; that is also certain and true. But how finds he *Nothing*? Why, I will tell thee how. He that findeth it findeth a supernatural, supersensual Abyss, which hath no ground or Byss to stand on, and where there is no place to dwell in; and he findeth also nothing is like unto it and therefore it may fitly be compared to *Nothing*, for it is deeper than any *Thing*, and is as Nothing with respect to All Things, forasmuch as it is not comprehensible by any of them. And because it is Nothing respectively, it is therefore free from All Things, and is that only Good, which a man cannot express or utter what it is, there being Nothing to which it may be compared, to express it by.\n\nBut in that I lastly said; *Whosoever finds it finds All Things*; there is nothing can be more true than this assertion. It hath been the Beginning of All Things; and it ruleth All Things. It is also the End of All Things; and will thence comprehend All Things within its circle. All Things are from it, and in it, and by it. If thou findest it thou comest into that ground from whence All Things are proceeded, and wherein they subsist; and thou art in it a King over all the works of God.\n\nHere the Disciple was exceedingly ravished with what his Master had so wonderfully and surprisingly declared, and returned his most hearty and humble thanks for that light which he had been an instrument of conveying to him. But being desirous to hear further concerning these high matters, and to know somewhat more particularly, he requested him that he would give him leave to wait on him the next day again; and that he would then be pleased to show him *how* and *where* he might find this which was so much beyond all price and value, and whereabout the seat and abode of it might be in human nature, with the entire process of the discovery and bringing it forth to light.\n\nThe Master said to him: This then we will discourse about at our next conference, as God shall reveal the same to us by his Spirit, which is a searcher of All Things. And if thou dost remember well what I answered thee in the beginning, thou shalt soon come thereby to understand that hidden mystical wisdom of God; which none of the wise men of the world know; and where the Mine thereof is to be found in thee shall be given thee from above to discern. Be silent therefore in thy spirit, and watch unto prayer; that, when we meet again to-morrow in the love of Christ, thy mind may be disposed for finding that noble Pearl, which to the World appears *Nothing*, but to the Children of Wisdom is *All Things*.\n\n* * *\n\n## DIALOGUE II\n\nThe Disciple being very earnest to be more fully instructed how he might arrive at the supersensual life, and how, having found all things, he might come to be a king over all God's works, came again to his Master next morning, having watched the night in prayer, that he might be disposed to receive and apprehend the instructions that should be given him by a divine irradiation upon his mind. And the Disciple, after a little space of silence, bowed himself, and thus brake forth.\n\nDisciple\n\nO my Master, my Master! I have now endeavoured to recollect my soul in the presence of God, and to cast myself into the Deep where no creature doth nor can dwell; that I might hear the voice of my Lord speaking in me, and be initiated into that high life whereof I heard yesterday such great and amazing things. But alas I neither hear nor see as I should. There is still such a partition wall in me which beats back the heavenly sounds in their passage, and obstructs the entrance of that light whereby alone divine objects are discoverable, as till this be gone I can have but small hopes, yea, even none at all, of arriving at those glorious attainments which you pressed me to, or of entering into *that where no creature dwells*, and which you call *Nothing* and *All Things*. Wherefore be so kind as to inform me what is required on my part, that this partition which hinders may be broken or removed.\n\nMaster\n\nThis partition is the creaturely will in thee, and this can be broken by nothing but the Grace of self-denial, which is the entrance into the true following of Christ, and totally removed by nothing but a perfect conformity with the Divine Will.\n\nDisciple\n\nBut how shall I be able to *break* this creaturely will which is in me, and is at enmity with the Divine Will? Or what shall I do to follow Christ in so difficult a path, and not to faint in a continual course of self-denial or resignation to the Will of God.\n\nMaster\n\nThis is not to be done by thyself; but by the light and grace of God received into thy soul, which will, if thou gainsay not, break the darkness that is in thee, and melt down thy old will, which worketh in the darkness and corruption of Nature, and bring it into the obedience of Christ, whereby the partition of the creaturely self is removed from betwixt God and thee.\n\nDisciple\n\nI know that I cannot do it of myself. But I would fain learn how I must receive this Divine Light and Grace into me, which is to do it for me, if I hinder it not my own self. What is then required of me in order to admit this Breaker of the partition, and to promote the attainment of the ends of such admission?\n\nMaster\n\nThere is nothing more required of thee at first than not to resist this grace, which is manifested in thee; and nothing in the whole process of the work, but to be obedient and passive to the Light of God shining through the darkness of thy creaturely being, which comprehendeth it not, as reaching no higher than the *Light of Nature*.\n\nDisciple\n\nBut is it not for me to attain, if I can, both the Light of God, and the Light of the outward Nature too, and to make use of them both for the ordering of my life wisely and prudently?\n\nMaster\n\nIt is right so to do. And it is indeed a treasure above all earthly treasures to be possessed of the Light of God and Nature operating in their spheres, and to have both the Eye of Time and Eternity at once open together, and yet not to interfere with each other.\n\nDisciple\n\nThis is a great satisfaction to me to hear; having been very uneasy about it for some time. But how this can be without interfering with each other, there is the difficulty. Wherefore fain would I know, if it were lawful, the boundaries of the one and the other, and how both the Divine and the Natural Light may in their several spheres respectively act and operate for the Manifestation of the Mysteries of God and Nature, and for the conduct of my outward and inward life?\n\nMaster\n\nThat each of these may be preserved distinctly in their several spheres, without confounding Things Heavenly and Things Earthly, or breaking the golden Chain of Wisdom, it will be necessary, my child, in the first place to wait for and attend the Supernatural and Divine Light, as this superior Light appointed to govern the day, rising in the true East, which is the Centre of Paradise, and the great Light breaking forth as out of the darkness within thee, through a pillar of fire and thunder-clouds, and thereby reflecting also upon the inferior Light of Nature a sort of image of itself, whereby only it can be kept in its due subordination; that which is *below* being made subservient to that which is *above*, and that which is *without* to that which is *within*. Thus there will be no danger of interfering, but all will go right, and everything abide in its proper sphere.\n\nDisciple\n\nTherefore without Reason or the Light of Nature be sanctified in my soul, and illuminated by this superior Light, as from the central East of the holy Light-World, by the Eternal and Intellectual Sun, I perceive there will always be some confusion, and I shall never be able to manage aright either what concerneth Time or Eternity. But I must always be at a loss, or break the links of Wisdom's Chain.\n\nMaster\n\nIt is even so as thou hast said. All is confusion if thou hast no more than the dim Light of Nature, or unsanctified and unregenerated Reason to guide thee by, and if only the Eye of Time be opened in thee, which cannot pierce beyond its own limit. Wherefore seek the Fountain of Light, waiting in the deep ground of thy soul for the rising there of the Sun of Righteousness, whereby the Light of Nature in thee, with the properties thereof, will be made to shine seven times brighter than ordinary. For it shall receive the stamp, image and impression of the Supersensual and Supernatural, so that the sensual and rational life will hence be brought into the most perfect order and harmony.\n\nDisciple\n\nBut how am I to wait for the rising of this glorious Sun, and how am I to seek in the Centre this Fountain of Light, which may enlighten me throughout and bring my properties into perfect harmony? I am in Nature, as I said before, and which way shall I pass through Nature, and the light thereof, so that I may come into the Supernatural and Supersensual ground whence this true light, which is the Light of Minds, doth arise; and this without the destruction of my nature, or quenching the Light of it, which is my reason?\n\nMaster\n\nCease but from thine own activity, steadfastly fixing thine Eye upon *one Point*, and with a strong purpose relying upon the promised Grace of God in Christ, to bring thee out of thy Darkness into his marvellous Light. For this end gather in all thy thoughts, and by faith press into the Centre, laying hold upon the Word of God, which is infallible, and which hath called thee. Be thou then obedient to this call, and be silent before the Lord, sitting alone with him in thy inmost and most hidden cell, thy mind being centrally united in itself, and attending his Will in the patience of hope. So shall thy Light break forth as the Morning, and after the redness thereof is passed, the Sun himself which thou waitest for, shall arise unto thee, and under his most healing wings thou shalt greatly rejoice; ascending and descending in his bright and salutiferous beams. Behold this is the true Supersensual Ground of Life.\n\nDisciple\n\nI believe it indeed to be even so. But will not this destroy Nature? Will not the Light of Nature in me be extinguished by this greater Light? Or, must not the outward Life hence perish, with the earthly body which I carry?\n\nMaster\n\nBy no means at all. It is true, the evil Nature will be destroyed by it; but by the destruction thereof you can be no loser, but very much a gainer. The Eternal Bond of Nature is the same afterward as before; and the properties are the same. So that Nature hereby is only advanced and meliorated, and the Light thereof, or human Reason, by being kept within its due bounds, and regulated by a superior Light, is only made useful.\n\nDisciple\n\nPray, therefore, let me know how this inferior Light ought to be used by me; how it is to be kept within its due bounds; and after what manner the superior Light doth regulate it and ennoble it.\n\nMaster\n\nKnow then, my beloved son, that if thou wilt keep the Light of Nature within its own proper bounds, and make use thereof in just subordination to the Light of God, thou must consider that there are in thy soul two *Wills*, an *inferior* Will, which is for driving thee to Things without and below; and a *superior* Will, which is for drawing thee to Things within and above. These two Wills are now set together, as it were back to back, and in a direct contrariety to each other; but in the beginning it was not so. For this contraposition of the soul in these two is no more than the effect of the Fallen State; since before that they were placed one under the other, that is, the *superior* Will *above*, as the Lord, and the inferior *below*, as the subject. And thus it ought to have continued. Thou must also further consider that, answering to these two Wills, there are likewise two Eyes in the soul, whereby they are severally directed, forasmuch as these Eyes are not united in one single view, but look quite contrary ways at once. They are in a like manner set one against the other, without a common medium to join them. And hence, so long as this double-sightedness doth remain, it is impossible there should be any agreement in the determination of this or that Will. This is very plain. And it showeth the necessity that this malady, arising from the disunion of the rays of vision, be some way remedied and redressed, in order to a true discernment in the mind. Both these eyes therefore must be made to unite by a concentration of rays, there being nothing more dangerous than for the mind to abide thus in the Duplicity and not to seek to arrive at the Unity. Thou perceivest, I know, that thou hast two Wills in thee, one set against the other, the superior and the inferior, and that thou hast always two Eyes within, one against the other, whereof the one Eye may be called the Right Eye, and the other the Left Eye. Thou perceivest too, doubtless, that it is according to the Right Eye that the wheel of the superior Will is moved; and that it is according to the motion of the Left Eye that the contrary wheel in the lower is turned about.\n\nDisciple\n\nI perceive this, Sir, to be very true; and this it is which causeth a continual combat in me, and createth in me greater anxiety than I am able to express. Nor am I unacquainted with the disease of my own soul, which you have so clearly declared. Alas! I perceive and lament this malady, which so miserably disturbeth my sight; whence I feel such irregular and convulsive motions drawing me on this side and that side. The Spirit seeth not as the Flesh seeth, neither doth, nor can, the Flesh see as the Spirit seeth. Hence the Spirit willeth against the Flesh; and the Flesh willeth against the Spirit in me. This hath been my hard case. And how shall it be remedied? O how may I arrive at the Unity of Will, and how come into the Unity of Vision?\n\nMaster\n\nMark now what I say. The Right Eye looketh forward in thee into Eternity. The Left Eye looketh backward in thee into Time. If thou now sufferest thyself to be always looking into Nature, and the Things of Time, it will be impossible for thee ever to arrive at the Unity, which thou wishest for. Remember this, and be upon thy watch. Give not thy mind leave to enter into nor to fill itself with that which is without thee; neither look thou backward upon thyself; but quit thyself, and look forward to Christ. Let not thy Left Eye deceive thee by making continually one representation after another, and stirring up thereby an earnest longing in the self-propriety; but let thy right eye command this left, and attract it to thee. Yea it is better to pluck it quite out and to cast it from thee, than to suffer it to proceed forth without restraint into Nature, and to follow its own lusts. However there is for this no necessity, since both eyes may become very useful, if ordered aright, and both the Divine and Natural Light may in the soul subsist together, and be of mutual service to each other. But never shalt thou arrive at the Unity of Vision or Uniformity of Will, but by entering fully into the Will of our Saviour Christ, and therein bringing the Eye of Time into the Eye of Eternity, and then descending by means of these united through the Light of God into the Light of Nature.\n\nDisciple\n\nSo then if I can but enter into the Will of my Lord, and abide therein, I am safe, and may both attain to the Light of God in the Spirit of my soul and see with the Eye of God, that is, the Eye of Eternity in the Eternal Ground of my Will; and may also at the same time enjoy the Light of this World nevertheless, not degrading but adorning the Light of Nature, and beholding as with the Eye of Eternity things Eternal, so with the Eye of Nature, things Natural, and both contemplating therein the Wonders of God, and sustaining also thereby the life of my outward vehicle or body.\n\nMaster\n\nIt is very right. Thou hast well understood, and thou desirest now to enter into the Will of God, and to abide therein as in the Supersensual Ground of Light and Life, where thou mayst in his Light behold both Time and Eternity, and bring all the wonders created of God for the exterior into the interior life, and so eternally rejoice in them to the glory of Christ; the partition of thy Creaturely Will being broken down and the Eye of thy Spirit simplified in and through the Eye of God manifesting itself in the Centre of thy Life. Let this be so now, for it is God's Will.\n\nDisciple\n\nBut it is very hard to be always looking forwards into Eternity, and consequently to attain to the single eye, and simplicity of Divine Vision. The entrance of a soul naked into the Will of God, shutting out all imaginations and desires, and breaking down the strong partition which you mention, is indeed somehow very terrible and shocking to human nature in its present state. O what shall I do, that I may reach this which I so much long for?\n\nMaster\n\nMy Son, let not the Eye of Nature with the Will of the Wonders depart from that Eye which is introverted into the Divine Liberty, and into the Eternal Light of the Holy Majesty. But let it draw to thee by union with that heavenly internal Eye those wonders which are externally wrought out and manifested in visible Nature. For while thou art in the world, and hast an honest employment, thou art certainly by the Order of Providence obliged to labour in it, and to finish the work given thee, according to thy best ability, without repining in the least; seeking out and manifesting for God's glory the Wonders of Nature and Art. Since let the Nature be what it will it is all the Work and Art of God. And let the Art also be what it will, it is still God's Work and his Art, rather than any art or cunning of man. And all both in Art and Nature serveth but abundantly to manifest the wonderful Works of God, that he for all and in all may be glorified. Yea, all serveth, if thou knowest rightly how to use them, only to recollect thee more inwards, and to draw thy Spirit into that majestic Light wherein the original patterns and forms of things visible are to be seen. Keep, therefore, in the Centre, and stir not from the Presence of God revealed within thy Soul; let the world and the devil make never so great a noise and bustle to draw thee out, mind them not; they cannot hurt thee. It is permitted to the Eye of thy Reason to seek food, and to thy hands by their labour to get food for the terrestrial body. But then this Eye ought not with its desire to enter into the food prepared, which would be covetousness; but must in resignation simply bring it before the Eye of God in thy Spirit, and then thou must seek to place it close to this very Eye, without letting it go. Mark this lesson well.\n\nLet the hands or the head be at labour, thy Heart ought nevertheless to rest in God. God is a Spirit; dwell in the Spirit; work in the Spirit; pray in the Spirit; and do every thing in the Spirit; for remember thou also art a Spirit, and thereby created in the Image of God. Therefore see thou attract not in thy desire *Matter* unto thee, but as much as possible abstract thyself from all Matter whatever; and so, standing in the Centre, present thyself as a naked Spirit before God, in simplicity and purity; and be sure thy Spirit draw in nothing but Spirit.\n\nThou wilt yet be greatly enticed to draw Matter, and to gather that which the World calls *substance*; thereby to have somewhat visible to trust to. But by no means consent to the Tempter, nor yield to the lustings of thy Flesh against the Spirit. For in so doing thou wilt infallibly obscure the Divine Light in thee; thy Spirit will stick in the dark Covetous Root, and from the fiery Source of thy soul will it blaze out in pride and anger; thy Will shall be chained in Earthliness, and shall sink through the Anguish into Darkness and Materiality; and never shalt thou be able to reach the still Liberty, or to stand before the Majesty of God. It will be all darkness to thee, as much Matter as is drawn in by the Desire of thy Will. It will darken God's Majesty to thee, and will close the seeing Eye, by hiding from thee the light of his beloved countenance. This the Serpent longeth to do, but in vain, except thou permittest thy *Imagination*, upon his suggestion, to receive in the alluring Matter; else he can never get in. Behold then, if thou desirest to see God's Light in thy Soul, and be divinely illuminated and conducted, this is the short way that thou art to take; not to let the Eye of thy Spirit enter into Matter, or fill itself with any Thing whatever, either in Heaven or Earth, but to let it enter by a *naked faith* into the Light of the Majesty; and so receive by *pure love* the Light of God, and attract the Divine Power into itself, putting on the Divine Body, and growing up in it to the full maturity of the Humanity of Christ.\n\nDisciple\n\nAs I said before, so I say again, this is very hard. I conceive indeed well enough that my Spirit ought to be free from the contagion of Matter, and wholly empty, that it may admit into it the Spirit of God. Also, that this Spirit will not enter, but where the Will entereth into *Nothing*, and resigneth itself up in the *nakedness of faith*, and in the *purity of love*, to its conduct, feeding magically upon the Word of God, and clothing itself thereby with a *Divine Substantiality*. But, alas, how hard it is for the Will to sink into nothing, to attract nothing, to imagine nothing.\n\nMaster\n\nLet it be granted that it is so. Is it not surely worth thy while, and all that thou canst ever do?\n\nDisciple\n\nIt is so, I must needs confess.\n\nMaster\n\nBut perhaps it may not be so hard as at first it appeareth to be; make but the trial and be in earnest. What is there required of thee but to stand still and see the salvation of thy God? And couldst thou desire anything less? Where is the hardship in this? Thou hast nothing to care for, nothing to desire in this life, nothing to imagine or attract. Thou needest only cast thy care upon God, who careth for thee, and leave him to dispose of thee according to his good will and pleasure, even as if thou hadst no will at all in thee. For he knoweth what is best; and if thou canst but trust him, he will most certainly do better for thee, than if thou wert left to thine own choice.\n\nDisciple\n\nThis I most firmly believe.\n\nMaster\n\nIf thou believest, then go and do accordingly. *All* is in the *Will*, as I have shown thee. When the Will imagineth after *Somewhat*, then entereth it into that somewhat, and this somewhat taketh the Will into itself, and overcloudeth it, so as it can have no Light, but must dwell in Darkness, unless it return back out of that somewhat into *Nothing*. But when the Will imagineth or hasteth after nothing, then it entereth into *Nothing*, where it receiveth the Will of God into itself, and so dwelleth in Light, and worketh all its works in it.\n\nDisciple\n\nI am now satisfied that the main cause of any one's spiritual blindness, is his letting his Will into Somewhat, or into that which he hath wrought, of what nature soever it be, good or evil, and his setting his heart or affections upon the work of his own hand or brain, and that when the earthly body perisheth, then the Soul must be imprisoned in that very thing which it shall have received and let in; and if the Light of God be not in it, being deprived of the Light of this World, it cannot but be found in a dark prison.\n\nMaster\n\nThis is a very precious Gate of Knowledge; I am glad thou takest it into such consideration. The understanding of the whole Scripture is contained in it; and all that hath been written from the beginning of the World to this day may be found therein, by him that having entered with his Will into Nothing, hath there found All Things, by finding God, from Whom, and to Whom, and in Whom are All Things. By this means thou shalt come to hear and see God; and after this earthly life is ended to see with the Eye of Eternity all the Wonders of God and of Nature, and more particularly those which shall be wrought by thee in the flesh, or all that the Spirit of God shall have given thee to labour out for thyself and thy neighbour, or all that the Eye of Reason enlightened from above, may at any time have manifested to thee. Delay not therefore to enter in by this Gate, which if thou seest in the Spirit, as some highly favoured souls have seen it, thou seest in the Supersensual Ground *all that God is and can do*; thou seest also therewith, as one hath said who was taken thereinto, *through Heaven, Hell, and Earth; and through the Essence of all Essences*. Whosoever findeth it, hath found all that he can desire. Here is the Virtue and Power of the Love of God displayed. Here is the Height and Depth, here is the Breadth and Length thereof manifested, as ever the capacity of thy soul can contain. By this thou shalt come into that Ground out of which all Things are originated, and in which they subsist; and in it thou shalt reign over all God's Works, as a Prince of God.\n\nDisciple\n\nPray tell me, dear Master, where dwelleth it *in Man*?\n\nMaster\n\nWhere Man dwelleth not: there hath it its seat in Man.\n\nDisciple\n\nWhere is that in a Man, when Man dwelleth not in himself?\n\nMaster\n\nIt is the resigned Ground of a Soul to which nothing cleaveth.\n\nDisciple\n\nWhere is the Ground in any Soul, to which there will nothing stick? Or where is that which abideth and dwelleth not in something?\n\nMaster\n\nIt is the Centre of Rest and Motion in the resigned Will of a truly contrite Spirit, which is Crucified to the World. This Centre of the Will is impenetrable consequently to the World, the Devil, and Hell. Nothing in all the World can enter into it, or adhere to it, because the Will is dead with Christ unto the World, but quickened with him in the Centre thereof, after his blessed Image. Here it is where Man dwelleth not, and where no Self abideth or can abide.\n\nDisciple\n\nO where is this naked Ground of the Soul void of all Self? And how shall I come at the hidden Centre, where God dwelleth, and not Man? Tell me plainly, loving Sir, where it is, and how it is to be found of me, and entered into?\n\nMaster\n\nThere where the Soul hath slain its own Will, and willeth no more any Thing as from itself, but only as God willeth, and as his Spirit moveth upon the Soul shall this appear. Where the Love of Self is banished there dwelleth the Love of God. For so much of the Soul's own Will as is dead unto itself even so much room hath the Will of God, which is his Love, taken up in that Soul. The reason whereof is this: Where its own Will did before sit, there is now nothing; and where nothing is, there it is that the Love of God worketh alone.\n\nDisciple\n\nBut how shall I comprehend it?\n\nMaster\n\nIf thou goest about to comprehend it, then it will fly away from thee; but if thou dost surrender thyself wholly up to it, then it will abide with thee, and become the Life of thy Life, and be natural to thee.\n\nDisciple\n\nAnd how can this be without dying, or the whole destruction of my Will?\n\nMaster\n\nUpon this entire surrender and yielding up of thy Will, the Love of God in thee becometh the Life of thy Nature; it killeth thee not, but quickeneth thee, who art now dead to thyself in thine own Will, according to its proper Life, even the Life of God. And then thou livest, yet not to thy own Will, but thou livest to its Will; for as much as thy Will is henceforth become its Will. So then it is no longer thy Will, but the Will of God; no longer the Love of thyself, but the Love of God, which moveth and operateth in thee; and then, thou being thus comprehended in it, thou art dead indeed as to thyself, but art alive unto God. So being dead thou livest, or rather God liveth in thee by his Spirit; and his Love is made to thee Life from the Dead. Never couldst thou with all thy seeking have apprehended it, but it hath apprehended thee. Much less couldst thou have comprehended it, but it hath comprehended thee; and so the Treasure of Treasures is found.\n\nDisciple\n\nHow is it that so few Souls do find it, when yet all would be glad enough to have it?\n\nMaster\n\nThey all seek it in *somewhat*, and so they find it not. For where there is Somewhat for the Soul to adhere to, there the Soul findeth *that somewhat only*, and taketh up its rest therein, until she seeth that it is to be found in Nothing, and goeth out of the Somewhat into Nothing, even into that Nothing out of which all Things may be made. The Soul here saith \"*I have nothing*, for I am utterly stripped and naked of every Thing; *I can do nothing*, for I have no manner of power, but am as water poured out; *I am nothing*, for all that I am is no more than an Image of Being, and only God is to me I AM; and so, sitting down in my own Nothingness, I give glory to the Eternal Being, and *will nothing* of myself, that so God may *will all* in me, being unto me my God and All Things.\" Herein now it is that so very few find this most precious treasure in the Soul, though every one would so fain have it; and might also have it, were it not for this Somewhat in every one that letteth.\n\nDisciple\n\nBut if the Love should proffer itself to a Soul, could not that Soul find it, nor lay hold of it, without going for it into Nothing?\n\nMaster\n\nNo verily. Men seek and find not, because they seek it not in the naked Ground where it lieth; but in something or other where it never will be, nor can be. They seek it in their *own Will*, and they find it not. They seek it in their *Self-Desire*, and they meet not with it. They look for it in an *Image*, or in an *Opinion*, or in *Affection*, or a natural *Devotion* and *Fervour*, and they lose the substance by thus hunting after a shadow. They search for it in something sensible or imaginary, in somewhat which they may have a more peculiar natural inclination for, and adhesion to; and so they miss of what they seek, for want of diving into the Supernatural and Supersensual Ground, where the Treasure is hid. Now, should the Love graciously condescend to proffer itself to such as these, and even to present itself evidently before the Eye of their Spirit, yet could it find no place at all in them, neither could it be held by them, or remain with them.\n\nDisciple\n\nWhy not, if the Love should be willing and ready to offer itself, and to stay with them?\n\nMaster\n\nBecause the *Imaginariness* which is in their own Will hath set itself up in the place thereof. And so this Imaginariness would have the Love in it, but the Love fleeth away, for it is its prison. The Love may offer itself; but it cannot abide where the *Self-Desire* attracteth or imagineth. That Will which attracteth Nothing, and to which Nothing adhereth, is only capable of receiving it; for it dwelleth only in Nothing, as I said, and therefore they find it not.\n\nDisciple\n\nIf it dwell only in Nothing, what is now the office of it in Nothing?\n\nMaster\n\nThe office of the Love here is to penetrate incessantly into Something; and if it penetrate into, and find a place in Something which is standing still and at rest, then its business is to take possession thereof. And when it hath there taken possession, then it rejoiceth therein with its flaming Love-fire, even as the sun doth in the visible world. And then the office of it is without intermission to enkindle a fire in this Something which may burn it up; and then with the flames thereof exceedingly to enflame itself, and raise the heat of the Love-fire by it, even seven degrees higher.\n\nDisciple\n\nO, loving Master, how shall I understand this?\n\nMaster\n\nIf it but once kindle a fire within thee, my son, thou shalt then certainly feel how it consumeth all that which it toucheth, thou shalt feel it in the burning up thyself, and swiftly devouring all *Egoity* or that which thou callest *I and Me*, as standing in a separate Root, and divided from the Deity, the Fountain of thy Being. And when this enkindling is made in thee, then the Love doth so exceedingly rejoice in thy fire, as thou wouldest not for all the world be out of it; yea, wouldst rather suffer thyself to be killed, than to enter into *thy something* again. This fire must now grow hotter and hotter, till it shall have perfected its office with respect to thee. Its flame also will be so very great that it will never leave thee, though it should even cost thee thy temporal life, but it would go with thee with its sweet loving fire into death; and if thou wentest also into Hell, it would break Hell in pieces also for thy sake. Nothing is more certain than this, for it is stronger than Death and Hell.\n\nDisciple\n\nEnough, my dearest Master, I can no longer endure that any Thing should divert me from it. But how shall I find the nearest way to it?\n\nMaster\n\nWhere the way is hardest, there go thou; and what the World casteth away, that take thou up. What the World doth, that do thou not; but in all things walk thou contrary to the World. So thou comest the nearest way to that which thou art seeking.\n\nDisciple\n\nIf I should in all things walk contrary to other people, I must needs be in a very unquiet and sad state, and the World would not fail to account me for a madman.\n\nMaster\n\nI bid thee not, Child, to do harm to anyone, thereby to create to thyself any misery or unquietness. This is not what I mean by walking contrary in everything to the World. But because the World, as the World, loveth all deceit and vanity, and walketh in false and treacherous ways, thence, if thou hast a mind to act a clean contrary part to the ways thereof, without any exception or reserve whatsoever, walk thou only in the right way, which is called the *Way of Light*, as that of the World is properly the *Way of Darkness*. For the right way, even the Path of Light, is contrary to all the ways of the World.\n\nBut whereas thou art afraid of creating to thyself hereby trouble and inquietude, that indeed will be so according to the flesh. In the world thou must have trouble, and thy flesh will not fail to be unquiet, and to give thee occasion of continual repentance. Nevertheless in this very *anxiety of soul* arising from the world or the flesh, the Love doth most willingly enkindle itself, and its cheering and conquering fire is but made to blaze forth with greater strength for the destruction of that evil. And whereas thou dost also say, that the World will for this esteem thee mad; it is true the World will be apt enough to censure thee for a madman in walking contrary to it, and thou art not to be surprised if the children thereof laugh at thee, calling thee silly Fool. For the Way to the Love of God is Folly to the World, but is Wisdom to the Children of God. Hence, whenever the World perceiveth this holy Fire of Love in God's Children, it concludeth immediately that they are turned fools, and are beside themselves. But to the Children of God that which is despised of the World is the greatest Treasure, yea, so great a Treasure is it as no life can express, nor tongue so much as name what this enflaming, all-conquering Love of God is. It is brighter than the Sun; it is sweeter than anything that is called sweet; it is stronger than all strength; it is more nutrimental than food; more cheering to the heart than wine, and more pleasant than all the joy and pleasantness of this world. Whosoever obtaineth it is richer than any Monarch on earth; and he who getteth it, is nobler than any Emperor can be, and more potent and absolute than all Power and Authority.\n\n* * *\n\n## DIALOGUE III\n\n### BETWEEN JUNIUS, A SCHOLAR, AND THEOPHORUS, HIS MASTER, CONCERNING HEAVEN AND HELL\n\nThe Scholar asked his Master \"Whither goeth the Soul when the Body dieth?\"\n\nHis Master answered him: There is no necessity for it to go any whither.\n\nHow not, said the inquisitive Junius, must not the Soul leave the body at death and go either to Heaven or Hell?\n\nIt needs no going forth, replied the venerable Theophorus. Only the outward Mortal Life with the body shall separate themselves from the Soul. The Soul hath Heaven and Hell within itself before, according as it is written. *The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say Lo here! or Lo there! For behold the Kingdom of God is within you.* And which soever of the two, that is, either Heaven or Hell, is manifested in it, in that the Soul standeth.\n\nHere Junius said to his Master: This is hard to understand. Doth it not enter into Heaven or Hell, as a man entereth into a house; or as one goeth through a hole or casement into an unknown place; so goeth it not into another world?\n\nThe Master spoke and said: No, there is verily no such kind of entering in; forasmuch as Heaven and Hell are every where, being universally co-extended.\n\nHow is that possible? said the Scholar. What, can Heaven and Hell be here present, where we are now sitting? And if one of them might, can you ever make me believe that ever both should be here together?\n\nThen spoke the Master in this manner: I have said that Heaven is everywhere present and it is true. For God is in Heaven; and God is everywhere. I have said also that Hell must be in like manner everywhere. For the *Wicked One*, who is the Devil, is in Hell, and the whole World, as the Apostle hath taught us, lyeth in the *Wicked One*, or the *Evil One*; which is as much as to say, not only that the Devil is in the World, but that the World is in the Devil; and if in the Devil, then in Hell too, because he is there. So Hell therefore is everywhere, as well as Heaven; which is the thing that was to be proved.\n\nThe Scholar, startled hereat, said: Pray make me to understand this.\n\nTo whom the Master: Understand then what Heaven is. It is but the *turning in of the Will to the Love of God*. Wheresoever thou findest God manifesting himself in Love, there thou findest Heaven, without travelling for it so much as one foot. And by this understand also what Hell is and where it is. I say unto thee it is but the *turning in of the Will into the wrath of God*. Wheresoever the Anger of God doth more or less manifest itself, there certainly is more or less of Hell, in whatsoever place it be. So that it is but the turning in of thy will either into his Love, or into his Anger; and thou art accordingly either in Heaven or in Hell. Mark it well. And this now cometh to pass in this present life, whereof St Paul speaking saith, *Our conversation is in Heaven*. And the Lord Christ saith also, *My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them the Eternal Life, and none shall pluck them out of my hand*. Observe, he saith not, I *will give* them, after this life is ended, but I *give* them, that is, now in the time of this life. And what else is this gift of Christ to his followers, but an Eternity of Life, which for certain can be no where but in Heaven. Yea, moreover, none shall be able to pluck them out of Heaven, because it is he who holdeth them there, and they are in his hand which nothing can resist. All therefore doth consist in the turning in, or entering of the Will into Heaven, by hearing the the voice of Christ, and both *knowing* him, and *following* him. And so on the contrary it is also. Understandest thou this?\n\nHis Scholar said to him: I think, in part, I do. But how cometh this entering of the Will into Heaven to pass?\n\nThe Master answered him: This then will I endeavour to satisfy thee in; but thou must be very attentive to what I shall say unto thee. Know then, my son, that when the Ground of the Will yieldeth itself up to God, then it sinketh out of its own Self, and out of and beyond all ground and place, that is or can be imagined, into a certain unknown Deep, where God only is manifest, and where he only worketh and willeth. And then it becometh nothing to itself, as to its own working and willing, and so God worketh and willeth in it. And God dwells in this designed Will, by which the Soul is sanctified, and so fitted to come into Divine Rest. Now, in this case, when the body breaketh, the Soul is so thoroughly penetrated all over with the Divine Light, even as a glowing hot iron is by the fire, by which being penetrated throughout, it loseth its darkness, and becomes bright and shining. Now this is the *hand of Christ*, where God's Love thoroughly inhabits the Soul, and is in it a shining Light, and a new glorious Life. And then the Soul is in Heaven, and is a Temple of the Holy Ghost, and is itself the very Heaven of God, wherein he dwelleth. Lo, this is the entering of the Will into Heaven; and thus it cometh to pass.\n\nBe pleased, Sir, to proceed, said the Scholar, and let me know how it fareth on the other side.\n\nThe Master said: The godly Soul, you see, is in the *hand of Christ*, that is in Heaven, as he himself hath told us, and in what manner this cometh to be so, you have also heard. But the ungodly Soul is not willing in this life-time to come into the Divine Resignation of its Will, or to enter into the Will of God; but goeth on still in its own lust and desire, in vanity and falsehood, and so entereth into the Will of the Devil. It receiveth, thereupon, into itself nothing but wickedness; nothing but lying, pride, covetousness, envy and wrath; and thereunto it giveth up its Will and whole Desire. This is the Vanity of the Will; and this same Vanity or vain shadow must also in like manner be manifested in the Soul, which hath yielded itself up also to be its servant; and must work therein even as the Love of God worketh in the regenerated Will; and penetrate it all over, as fire doth iron.\n\nAnd it is not possible for this Soul to come into the Rest of God, because God's Anger is manifested in it, and worketh in it. Now when a body is parted from the Soul, then beginneth the Eternal Melancholy and Despair, because it now findeth that it is become altogether Vanity, even a Vanity most vexatious to itself, and a distracting Fury, and a self-tormenting Abomination. Now it perceiveth itself disappointed of every Thing which it had before fancied, and blind, and naked, and wounded, and hungry, and thirsty, without the least prospect of ever being relieved, or obtaining so much as one drop of the water of Eternal Life. And it feeleth itself to be its own vile executioner and tormentor; and is affrighted at its own ugly dark form, and fain would flee from itself if it could, but it cannot, being fast bound with the chains of the Dark Nature, whereinto it had sunk itself when in the flesh. And so, not having learned or accustomed itself to sink down into the Divine Grace, and being also strongly possessed with the Idea of God, as an angry and jealous God, the poor Soul is both afraid and ashamed to bring its Will into God, by which deliverance might possibly come to it. The Soul is afraid to do it, as fearing to be consumed by so doing, under the apprehension of the Deity as a mere devouring Fire. The Soul is also *ashamed* to do it, as being confounded at its own nakedness and monstrosity, and therefore would, if it were possible, hide itself from the Majesty of God, and cover its abominable form from his most holy eye, though by casting itself still deeper into the Darkness. Therefore it *will not* enter into God, nay, it *cannot* enter with its false Will; yea, though it should strive to enter, yet can it not enter into the Love, because of the Will which hath reigned in it. For such a Soul is thereby captivated in the Wrath, yea, is itself but *mere Wrath*, having by its false Desire, which it had awakened in itself, comprehended and shut itself up therewith, and so transformed itself into the nature and property thereof.\n\nAnd since also the Light of God doth not shine in it, nor the Love of God enclose it, the Soul is moreover a *great Darkness*, and is withal an anxious Fire-source, carrying about an Hell in itself, and not being able to discern the least glimpse of the Light of God, or to feel the least spark of his Love. Thus it dwelleth in itself as in Hell, and needeth no entering into Hell at all, or being carried thither, for in what place soever it may be, so long as it is in itself, it is in the Hell. And though it should travel far and cast itself many hundred thousand leagues from its present place, to be out of Hell; yet still would it remain in its hellish source and darkness.\n\nIf this be so, how then cometh it, said the Scholar to Theophorus, that an Heavenly Soul doth not in the time of this life perfectly perceive the Heavenly Light and Joy, and the Soul which is without God in the World, doth not also here feel Hell, as well as hereafter? Why should they not both be perceived and felt as well in this life as in the next, seeing that both of them are in Man, and one of them as you have shewed, worketh in every man?\n\nTo whom Theophorus presently returned this answer: The Kingdom of Heaven is in the Saints operative and manifestative of itself by *Faith*. They who carry God within them, and live by his Spirit, find the Kingdom of God in their Faith, and they feel the Love of God in their Faith, by which the Will hath given up itself unto God, and is made Godlike. All is transacted within them *by Faith*, which is to them the evidence of the Eternal Invisibles, and a great manifestation in their Spirit of this Divine Kingdom, which is within them. But their natural life is nevertheless encompassed with flesh and blood; and this standing in a contrariety thereto, and being placed through the Fall in the principle of God's Anger, and environed about with the World, which by no means can be reconciled to Faith, these faithful Souls cannot but be very much exposed to attacks from this World, wherein they are sojourners; neither can they be insensible of their being thus encompassed about with flesh and blood, and with the World's vain lust, which ceaseth not continually to penetrate the outward mortal life, and to tempt them manifold ways, even as it did Christ. Whence the World on one side and the Devil on the other, not without the curse of God's Anger in flesh and blood, do thoroughly sift and penetrate the Life, whereby it cometh to pass that the Soul is often in anxiety when these three are all set upon it together, and when Hell thus assaulteth the Life, and would manifest itself in the Soul. But the Soul hereupon sinketh down into the hope of the Grace of God, and standeth like a beautiful Rose in the midst of Thorns, until the Kingdom of this World shall fall from it in the death of the body. And then the Soul first becometh truly manifest in the Love of God, and of his Kingdom, which is the Kingdom of Love; having henceforth nothing more to hinder it. But during this life she must walk with Christ in this world, and then Christ delivereth her out of her own Hell, by penetrating her with his Love throughout, and standing by her in Hell, and even changing her Hell into Heaven.\n\nBut in that thou sayest, Why do not the Souls which are without God feel Hell in this World? I answer; They bear it about with them in their wicked consciences, but they know it not; because the World hath put out their eyes, and its deadly cup hath cast them likewise into a sleep, a most fatal sleep. Notwithstanding which it must be owned that the Wicked do frequently feel Hell within them during the time of this mortal life, though they may not apprehend that it is Hell, because of the earthly vanity which cleaveth to them from without, and the sensible pleasures and amusements wherewith they are intoxicated. And moreover it is to be noted that the outward Life in every such one hath yet the Light of the outward Nature, which ruleth in this Life, and so the Pain of Hell cannot, so long as that hath the rule, be revealed. But when the body dyeth or breaketh away, so as the Soul cannot any longer enjoy such temporal pleasure and delight, nor the Light of this outward World, which is wholly thereupon extinguished as to it, then the Soul stands in an eternal hunger and thirst after such vanities as it was here in love withal, but yet can reach nothing but that false Will, which it had impressed in itself while in the body; and wherein it had abounded to its great loss. And now whereas it had too much of its Will in this life, and yet was not contented therewith, it hath, after the separation by death, as little of it; which createth in it an everlasting thirst after that which it can henceforth never obtain more, and causeth it to be in a perpetual anxious lust after Vanity, according to its former impression, and in a continual rage of hunger after those sorts of wickedness and lewdness whereinto it was immersed, being in the flesh. Fain would it do more evil still, but that it hath not either wherein or wherewith to effect the same, and therefore it doth perform this only *in itself*. All is not literally transacted, as if it were outward; and so the ungodly is tormented by those Furies which are in his own mind, and begotten upon himself by himself. For he is verily become his own Devil and Tormentor; and that by which he sinned here, when the Shadow of this World is passed away, abideth still with him in the impression, and is made his prison and his Hell. But this hellish hunger and thirst cannot be fully manifested in the Soul, till the Body, which ministered to the Soul that it lusted after, and with which the Soul was so bewitched, as to doat thereupon, and pursue all its cravings, be stripped off from it.\n\nI perceive then, said *Junius* to his Master, that the Soul, having played the wanton with the Body in all voluptuousness, and served the lusts thereof during this life, retaineth still the very same inclinations and affections which it had before, then when it hath no opportunity or capacity to satisfy them longer; and that when this cannot be, there is then Hell opened in that Soul, which had been shut up in it before by means of the outward Life in the Body, and of the Light of this World. Do I rightly understand?\n\n*Theophorus* said: It is very rightly understood by you. Go on.\n\nOn the other hand (said he) I clearly perceive by what I have heard, that Heaven cannot but be in a loving Soul which is possessed of God, and hath subdued thereby the Body to the obedience of the Spirit in all things, and perfectly immersed itself into the Will and Love of God. And when the Body dyeth, and the Soul is hence redeemed from the Earth, it is now evident to me that the Life of God, which was hidden in it, will display itself gloriously, and Heaven consequently be then manifested. But, notwithstanding, if there be not a local Heaven besides and a local Hell, I am still at a loss where to place no small part of the Creation, if not the greatest. For where must all the intellectual inhabitants of it abide?\n\nIn their own Principle, answered the Master, whether it be of Light or of Darkness. For every created intellectual Being remaineth in its deeds and essences, in its wonders and properties, in its life and image; and therein it beholdeth and feeleth God, as who is everywhere, whether it be in the Love or in the Wrath.\n\nIf it be in the Love of God, then beholdeth it God accordingly, and feeleth him as he is, Love. But if it hath captivated itself in the Wrath of God, then it cannot behold God otherwise than in the Wrathful Nature, nor perceive him otherwise than as an incensed and vindictive Spirit. All places are alike to it, if it be in God's Love; and, if it be not there, every place is Hell alike. What Place can bound a Thought? Or what needeth any understanding Spirit to be kept here or there, in order to its happiness or misery? Verily, wheresoever it is, it is in the Abyssal World, where there is neither end nor limit. And whither, I pray, should it go? since though it should go a thousand miles off, or a thousand times ten thousand miles, and this ten thousand times over beyond the bounds of the Universe, and into the imagining spaces above the stars, yet it were then still in the very same point from whence it went out. For God is the *Place* of Spirit, if it may be lawful to attribute to him such a name to the which Body hath a relation. And in God there is no limit; both near and far off is here all one; and be it in his Love, or be it in his Anger, the abyssal Will of the Spirit is altogether unconfined. It is swift as thought, passing through all things; it is magical, and nothing corporeal or from without can let it; it dwelleth in its wonders, and they are its house.\n\nThus it is with every Intellectual, whether of the Order of Angels or of human Souls, and you need not fear but there will be room enough for them all, be they ever so many; and such also as shall best suit them, even according to their election and determination, and which may thence very well be called the \"*own place*\" of each.\n\nAt which said the Scholar, I remember, indeed, that it is written concerning the great traitor, that he went after death to his *own place*.\n\nThe Master said: The same is true of every Soul, when it departeth this mortal life. And it is true in like manner of every Angel and Spirit whatsoever, which is necessarily determined by its own choice. As God is everywhere, so also the Angels are everywhere; but each one in its own Principle, and in its own Property or (if you had rather) in its *own Place*. The same Essence of God, which is as a Place to Spirits, is confessed to be everywhere, but the appropriation or participation hereof is different to everyone, according as each hath attracted it magically in the earnestness of Will. The same Divine Essence which is with the Angels of God above, is with us also below. And the same Divine Nature which is with us is likewise with them; but after different manners and in different degrees communicated and participated.\n\nAnd what I have said here of the Divine, is no less to be considered by you in the participation of the Diabolical Essence and Nature, which is the Power of Darkness, as to the manifold modes, degrees, and appropriations thereof in the false Will. In this World there is strife between them, but when this World hath reached in anyone the Limit, then the Principle catcheth that which is its own, and so the Soul receiveth companions accordingly, that is, either Angels or Devils.\n\nTo whom the Scholar again: Heaven and Hell then being in us at strife in the time of this life, and God himself being also thus near to us, where can Angels and Devils dwell?\n\nAnd the Master answered him thus: Where thou dost not dwell as to thy *Self-hood* and to thine *own Will*, there the holy Angels dwell with thee, and every where all over round about thee. Remember this well. On the contrary, where thou dwellest as to thyself, or in Self-seeking, and Self-will, there to be sure the Devils will be with thee, and will take up their abode with thee, and dwell all over thee, and round about thee everywhere, which God in his mercy prevent.\n\nI understand not this, said the Scholar, so perfectly well as I could wish. Be pleased to make it a little more plain to me.\n\nThe Master then spake: Mark well what I am going to say. Where the Will of God in anything willeth, there is God manifested. And in this very manifestation of God the Angels do dwell. But where God in any Creature willeth not with the Will of that Creature, there God is not manifested to it, neither can he be; but dwelleth in himself, without the co-operation thereof, and subjection to him in humility. There God is an unmanifested God to the Creature. So the Angels dwell not with such an one; for wherever they dwell, there is the Glory of God; and they make his Glory. What then dwelleth in such a Creature as this? God dwelleth not therein; the Angels dwell not therein; God willeth not therein; the Angels also will not therein. The case is evidently this; in that Soul or Creature its own will is without God's Will; and there the Devil dwelleth; and with him all that is without God, and without Christ. This is the truth; lay it to heart.\n\nThe *Scholar* said: It is possible I may ask several impertinent questions; but I beseech you, good Sir, to have patience with me, and to pity my ignorance, if I ask what may appear to you perhaps ridiculous, or may not be at all fit for me to expect an answer to. For I have several questions still to propound to you; but I am ashamed of my own thoughts in this matter.\n\nThe *Master* said: Be plain with me, and propose whatever is upon your mind; yea, be not ashamed even to appear ridiculous, so that by querying you may but become wiser.\n\nThe *Scholar* thanked his Master for this liberty and said: How far then are Heaven and Hell asunder?\n\nTo whom he answered thus: As far as Day and Night; or as far as Something and Nothing. They are in one another and yet they are at the greater distance one from the other. Nay, the one of them is as nothing to the other; and yet notwithstanding they cause joy and grief to one another. Heaven is throughout the whole World, and it is also without the World over all, even everywhere that is, or that can be even so much as imagined. It filleth all, it is within all, it is without all, it encompasseth all; without division, without place; working by a Divine Manifestation, and flowing forth universally, but not going in the least out of itself. For only in itself it worketh and is revealed, being one and undivided in all. It appeareth only through the Manifestation of God; and never but in itself only. And in that Being which cometh into it, or in that wherein it is manifested; there also it is that God is manifested. Because Heaven is nothing else but a Manifestation or Revelation of the Eternal One, wherein all the working and willing is in quiet love.\n\nSo in like manner Hell also is through the whole World, and dwelleth and worketh but in itself, and in that wherein the Foundation of Hell is manifested, namely, in Self-hood and in the False Will. The visible World hath both in it; and there is no place but Heaven and Hell may be found or revealed in it. Now Man as to his temporal life is only of the visible World; and therefore during the time of his life he seeth not the spiritual World. For the Outward World with its substance is a cover to the Spiritual World, even as the Body is to the Soul. But when the outward Man dyeth, then the Spiritual World is manifested to the Soul, which hath now its covering taken away. And it is manifested either in the Eternal Light with the holy Angels, or in the Eternal Darkness, with the Devils.\n\nThe *Scholar* further queried: What is an Angel, or an human Soul, that they can be thus manifested either in God's Love or Anger, either in Light or Darkness?\n\nTo whom Theophorus answered: They come from one and the self-same Original. They are little branches of the Divine Wisdom, of the Divine Will, sprung from the Divine Word, and made objects of the Divine Love. They are out of the Ground of Eternity; whence Light and Darkness do spring; Darkness which consisteth in the receiving of Self-Desire; and Light which consisteth in willing the same thing with God. For the conformity of the Will with God's Will is Heaven; and wheresoever there is this willing with God, there the Love of God is undoubtedly in the working, and his Light will not fail to manifest itself. But in the Self-attraction of the Soul's desire, or in the reception of Self into the willing of any Spirit, angelical or human, the Will of God worketh with difficulty, and is to that Soul and Spirit nought but Darkness; out of which, notwithstanding, the Light may be manifested. And this Darkness is the Hell of that Spirit wherein it is. For *Heaven* and *Hell* are nought else but a *Manifestation of the Divine Will either in Light or Darkness, according to the Properties of the Spiritual World*.\n\nScholar\n\nWhat then is the Body of Man?\n\nMaster\n\nIt is the visible World, an Image and Quintessence, or Compound of all that the World is; and the visible World is a manifestation of the inward spiritual World, come out of the Eternal Light, and out of the Eternal Darkness, out of the spiritual compaction or connection; and it is also an Image or Figure of Eternity, whereby Eternity hath made itself visible; where Self-Will and resigned Will, viz., Evil and Good, work one with the other.\n\nSuch a substance is the outward Man. For God created Man out of the outward World, and breathed into him the inward spiritual World for a Soul and an intelligent Life, and therefore in the things of the outward World, Man can receive and work Evil and Good.\n\nScholar\n\nWhat shall be after this World, when all things perish and come to an end?\n\nMaster\n\nThe material substance only ceaseth; viz., the four Elements, the Sun, Moon and Stars. And then the inward world will be wholly visible and manifest. But whatsoever hath been wrought by the Will or Spirit of Man in this World's time, whether evil or good shall there separate itself in a spiritual matter, either into the Eternal Light or into the Eternal Darkness. For that which is born from each Will penetrateth and passeth again into that which is like itself. And there the Darkness is called Hell, and is an eternal forgetting of all Good, and the Light is called the Kingdom of God, and is an eternal joy in and to the Saints, who continually glorify and praise God, for having delivered them from the torment of evil.\n\nThe last Judgment is a kindling of the Fire both of God's Love and Anger, in which the matter of every substance perisheth, and each Fire shall attract into itself its own, that is, the substance which is like itself. Thus God's Fire of Love will draw into itself what is wrought in the Anger of God in Darkness, and consume the false substance; and then there will remain only the painful, aching Will in its own proper nature, image, and figure.\n\nScholar\n\nWith what matter and form shall the human Body rise?\n\nMaster\n\nIt is sown a natural gross and elementary Body; yet in this gross Body there is a subtle Power and Virtue. As in the Earth also there is a subtle good Virtue, which is like the Sun, and is one and the same with the Sun, which also did in the beginning of time spring and proceed out of the Divine Power and Virtue, whence all the good Virtue of the Body is likewise derived. This good Virtue of the mortal Body shall come again and live for ever in a kind of transparent crystalline material property, in spiritual flesh and blood; as shall return also the good Virtue of the Earth, for the Earth, likewise shall become crystalline, and the Divine Light shine in everything that hath a being, essence, or substance. And as the gross Earth shall perish and never return, so also the gross flesh of Man shall perish and not live for ever. But all Things must appear before the Judgment, and in the Judgment be separated by the Fire; yea, both the Earth, and also the ashes of the human Body. For when God shall once move the spiritual World, every Spirit shall attract its spiritual substance to itself. A good Spirit and Soul shall draw to itself its own substance, and an evil one its evil substance.\n\nScholar\n\nShall we not rise again with our visible bodies, and live in them for ever?\n\nMaster\n\nWhen the visible world perisheth, then all that hath come out of it, and hath been external, shall perish with it. There shall remain of the World only the crystalline Nature and Form, and of Man also only the spiritual Earth, for Man shall be then wholly like the crystalline World, which as yet is hidden.\n\nScholar\n\nShall all then have eternal joy and glorification alike?\n\nMaster\n\nSt Paul saith: In the Resurrection one shall differ from another in glory, as do the Sun, Moon and Stars. Therefore know that the Blessed shall indeed all enjoy the divine working in and upon them, but their virtue and illumination or glory shall be very different according as they have endured in this life with different measures and degrees of power and virtue in their painful workings.\n\nScholar\n\nHow shall all people and nations be brought to judgment?\n\nMaster\n\nThe Eternal Word of God, out of which every creaturely spiritual Life hath proceeded will move itself at that hour, according to Love and Anger, in every Life which is come out of the Eternity, and will draw every Creature before the Judgment of Christ, to be sentenced by this motion of the Word. The Life will then be manifested in all its works, and every Soul shall see and feel its judgment and sentence in itself. For the Judgment is, indeed, immediately at the departure of the Body manifested in and to every Soul. And the last Judgment is but a return of the spiritual Body, and a separation of the World, when the Evil shall be separated from the Good, in the substance of the World, and of the human Body, and everything enter into its eternal receptacle. And thus it is a manifestation of the Mystery of God in every substance and life.\n\nScholar\n\nHow will the sentence be pronounced?\n\nMaster\n\nHere consider the words of Christ. He will say to those on his right hand; *Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked and ye clothed me. I was sick and ye visited me, in prison and ye came unto me.*\n\n*Then shall they answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, or in prison, and ministered thus unto thee?*\n\nThen shall the King answer and say unto them; *Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.*\n\nAnd unto the wicked on his left hand he will say; *Depart from me, ye Cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels. For I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, and in prison, and ye ministered not unto me.*\n\nAnd they shall also answer him and say; *When did we see thee thus and ministered not unto thee?*\n\nAnd he will answer them, *Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have not done it unto one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.*\n\n*And these shall depart into everlasting punishment, but the Righteous into Life Eternal.*\n\nScholar\n\nLoving Master, pray tell me why Christ saith, *What you have done to the least of these you have done to me; and what you have not done to them, neither have you done it to me*? And how doth a Man this *so*, as that he doth it to Christ himself?\n\nMaster\n\nChrist dwelleth really and essentially in the faith of those that wholly yield up themselves to him, and giveth them his Flesh for food and his Blood for drink; and thus possesseth the ground of their faith, according to the interior or inward Man. And a Christian is called a Branch of the Vine Christ, and a Christian, because Christ dwelleth spiritually in him; therefore, whatsoever good any shall do to such a Christian in his bodily necessities, it is done to Christ himself, who dwelleth in him. For such a Christian is not his own, but is wholly resigned to Christ, and become his peculiar possession, and consequently the good deed is done to Christ *himself*. Therefore also whosoever shall withhold their help from such a needy Christian, and forbear to serve him in his necessity, they thrust Christ away from themselves, and despise him in his members. When a poor person that belongeth thus to Christ asketh anything of thee, and thou deniest it him in his necessity, thou deniest it to Christ himself. And whatsoever hurt any shall do to such a Christian, they do it to Christ himself. When any mock, scorn, revile, reject, or thrust away such an one they do all that to Christ, but he that receiveth him, giveth him meat, and drink, or apparel, and assisteth him in his necessities, doth it likewise to Christ, and to a fellow-member of his own Body. Nay he doth it to himself if it be a Christian; for we are all one in Christ, as a tree and its branches are.\n\nScholar\n\nHow then will those subsist in the day of the last Judgment, who afflict and vex the poor and distressed, and deprive them of their very sweat, necessitating and constraining them by force to submit to their wills, and trampling upon them as their footstools, only that they themselves may live in pomp and power, and spend the fruits of this poor people's sweat and labour in voluptuousness, pride, and vanity?\n\nMaster\n\nChrist suffereth in the persecution of his members. Therefore all the wrong that such hard executors do to the poor wretches under their control is done to Christ himself; and falleth under his severe sentence and judgment. And besides that by such oppression of the Poor they draw them off from Christ, and make them seek unlawful ways to fill their bellies. Nay, they work for and with the Devil himself, doing the very same thing which he doth: who, without intermission opposeth the Kingdom of Christ, which consisteth only in Love. All these oppressors, if they do not turn with their whole hearts unto Christ, and minister to or serve him, must go into Hell-fire, which is fed and kept alive by nothing else but such mere Self, which they have exercised over the Poor here.\n\nScholar\n\nBut how will it fare with those who in this time do so fiercely contend about the kingdom of Christ, and slander, revile and persecute one another for their religion?\n\nMaster\n\nAll such have not yet known Christ; and they are but as a type or figure of Heaven and Hell, striving for each other for the victory.\n\nAll rising, swelling pride, which contendeth about opinions, is an image of Self. And whosoever hath not faith and humility, nor liveth in the Spirit of Christ, which is Love, is only armed with the Anger of God, and helpeth forward the victory of the imaginary Self, that is, the Kingdom of Darkness, and the Anger of God. For at the day of Judgment all Self shall be given to the Darkness as shall also all the unprofitable contentions of men; in which they seek not after Love, but merely after their imaginary Self. All such things belong to the Judgment, which will separate the false from the true; and then all images or opinions shall cease, and all the Children of God shall dwell for ever in the Love of Christ, and *that* in them. For in Heaven all serve God their Creator in humble love.\n\nScholar\n\nWherefore then doth God suffer such strife and contention to be in this time?\n\nMaster\n\nThe Life itself standeth in strife, that it may be made manifest, sensible, and palpable, and that the wisdom may be made separable and known.\n\nThe Strife also constituteth the Eternal Joy of the victory. For there will arise great praise and thanksgiving in the Saints from the experimental sense and knowledge that Christ in them hath overcome Darkness, and all the Self of Nature, and that they are at length totally delivered from the Strife, at which they shall rejoice eternally. And therefore God suffereth all Souls to stand in a free-will, that the Eternal Dominion both of Love and Anger, of Light and of Darkness, may be made manifest and known; and that every Life might cause and find its own sentence in itself. For that which is now a strife and pain to the Saints in their wretched warfare here, shall in the end be turned into great joy to them; and that which hath been a joy and pleasure to ungodly persons in this world, shall afterwards be turned into eternal torment and shame to them. Therefore the joy of the Saints must arise to them out of death, as the light ariseth out of a candle by the destruction and consumption of it in its fire, that so the Life may be freed from the painfulness of Nature, and possess another World.\n\nAnd as the Light hath quite another property than the Fire has, for it giveth and yieldeth itself forth; whereas the Fire draweth in and consumeth itself, so the holy Life of Meekness springeth forth through the Death of Self-will, and then God's Will of Love only ruleth, and doth all in all. For thus the Eternal One hath attained Feeling and Separability, and brought itself forth again with the feeling, through Death, in great Joyfulness, that there might be an Eternal Delight in the Infinite Unity, and an Eternal Cause of Joy; and therefore that which was before Painfulness, must now be the Ground and Cause of this motion or stirring to the Manifestation of all Things. And herein lyeth the Mystery of the hidden Wisdom of God.\n\n*Every one that asketh receiveth, every one that seeketh findeth, and to every one that knocketh it shall be opened. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost, be with us all. Amen.*\n\n* * *\n\n## DIALOGUE IV\n\n### THE WAY FROM DARKNESS TO TRUE ILLUMINATION\n\nThere was a poor Soul that had wandered out of Paradise, and come into the kingdom of this World; where the Devil met it, and said to it: Whither dost thou go, thou Soul that art half blind?\n\nThe Soul said\n\nI would see and speculate into the Creatures of the World, which their Creator hath made.\n\nThe Devil said\n\nHow wilt thou see and speculate into them, when thou canst not know their essence and property? Thou wilt look upon their outside only, as upon a graven image, and canst not know them thoroughly.\n\nThe Soul said\n\nHow may I come to know their essence and property?\n\nThe Devil said\n\nThine eyes would be opened to see them thoroughly, if thou didst but eat of *that*, from whence the Creatures themselves are come to be *good* and *evil*. Thou wouldst then be as God himself is, and know what the Creature is.\n\nThe Soul said\n\nI am now a noble and holy Creature: but if I should do so, the Creator hath said that I should die.\n\nThe Devil said\n\nNo, thou shouldst not die at all; but thy eyes would be opened, and thou wouldst be as God himself, and be Master of Good and Evil. Also, thou wouldst be mighty, powerful and very great, as I am; all the subtlety that is in the Creatures would be made known to thee.\n\nThe Soul said\n\nIf I had the knowledge of Nature and of the Creatures, I would then rule the whole World as I listed.\n\nThe Devil said\n\nThe whole ground of their knowledge lieth in thee. Do but turn thy Will and Desire from God or Goodness into Nature and the Creatures, and then there will arise in thee a lust to taste; and so thou mayest eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and by that means come to know all things.\n\nThe Soul said\n\nWell then, I will eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, that I may rule all things by my own power, and be of myself a Lord on Earth, and do what I will, even as God himself doth.\n\nThe Devil said\n\nI am the Prince of this World; and if thou wouldst rule on earth thou must turn thy lust towards my Image, and desire to be like me, that thou mayst get the cunning, wit, reason, and subtlety that my Image hath.\n\nThus did the Devil present to the Soul the Power that is in the fiery root of the Creature, that is the fiery Wheel of Essence in the form of a Serpent. Upon which,\n\nThe Soul said\n\nBehold this is the Power which can do all things. What must I do to get it?\n\nThe Devil said\n\nIf thou dost break thy Will off from God, and bring it into this power and skill, then thy hidden Ground will be manifested in thee, and thou mayest work in the same manner. But thou must eat of that Fruit, wherein each of the four elements in itself ruleth over the other, and is in strife. And then thou wilt be instantly as the fiery Wheel is, and so bring all things into thine own power, and possess them as thine own.\n\nThe Soul did so and what happened thereupon\n\nNow when the Soul broke its will off thus from God, and brought it into the fiery Will (which is the Root of Life and Power), there presently arose in it a lust to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; and the Soul did eat thereof. Which as soon as it had done, instantly was kindled the fiery Wheel of its Essence, and thereupon all the properties of Nature awoke in the Soul, and exercised each its own desire.\n\nFirst arose the lust of Pride; a desire to be great, mighty, and powerful; to bring all things in subjection to it, and to be Lord itself without control, despising all humility and equality, as esteeming itself the only prudent, witty and cunning one, and accounting everything folly that is not according to its own humour and liking.\n\nSecondly, arose the lust of Covetousness, a desire of getting, which would draw all things to itself, into its own possession. For when the lust of Pride had turned away the Will from God, then the Life of the Soul would not trust God any further, but would take care for itself; and therefore brought its desire into the Creatures, viz., into the earth, metals, trees, and other Creatures. Thus the kindled fiery Life became hungry and covetous, when it had broken itself off from the Unity, Love, and Meekness of God, and attracted to itself the four Elements and New Essence, and brought itself into the Condition of the beasts, and so the Life became dark, empty, and wrathful; and the heavenly Virtues and Colours went out, like a candle extinguished.\n\nThirdly, there awoke in this fiery Life the stinging thorny lust of Envy: a hellish poison, and a torment which makes the Life a mere enmity to God and to all Creatures. Which Envy raged furiously in the sting of Covetousness, as a venomous sting doth in the body. Envy cannot endure, but hateth and would hurt or destroy that which Covetousness cannot draw to itself by which hellish passion the Noble Love of the Soul is smothered.\n\nFourthly, there awoke in this fiery Life a torment like fire, viz., Anger; which would murder and remove out of the way all who would not be subject to Pride. Thus the Ground and Foundation of Hell, which is called the Anger of God, was wholly manifested in this Soul. Whereby it lost the fair Paradise of God and the Kingdom of Heaven, and became such a worm as the fiery Serpent was, which the Devil presented to it in his own image and likeness. And so the Soul began to rule on earth in a bestial manner, and did all things according to the Will of the Devil, living in mere Pride, Covetousness, Envy, and Anger, having no longer any true love towards God. But there arose in the stead thereof an evil bestial love of Wantonness and Vanity, and there was no purity left in the heart, for the Soul had forsaken Paradise, and taken the Earth into its possession. Its mind was wholly bent upon cunning knowledge, subtility, and getting together a multitude of earthly things. No righteousness nor virtue remained in it at all; but whatsoever evil and wrong it committed, it covered all cunningly under the cloak of its power and authority by law, and called it by the name of Right and Justice, and accounted it good.\n\nThe Devil came to the Soul\n\nUpon this the Devil drew near the Soul, and brought it on from one vice to another, for he had taken it captive in his Essence, and set joy and pleasure before it, therein, saying thus to it: Behold now thou art powerful, mighty, and noble, endeavour to be greater, richer, and more powerful still. Display thy knowledge, wit and subtlety, that every one may fear thee, and stand in awe of thee, and that thou mayst be respected, and get a great name in the World.\n\nThe Soul did so\n\nThe Soul did as the Devil counselled it, and yet knew not that its counsellor was the Devil; but thought it was guided by its own knowledge, wit, and understanding, and that it did very well and right all the while.\n\nJesus Christ met with the Soul\n\nThe Soul going on in this course of life, our dear and loving Lord Jesus Christ, Who was come into this World with the Love and Wrath of God, to destroy the works of the Devil, and to execute judgment upon all ungodly deeds, on a time met with it, and spake by a strong power, viz., by his passion and death into it, and destroyed the works of the Devil in it, and discovered to it the way to his Grace, and shone upon it with his mercy, calling it to return and repent, and promising that he would then deliver it from that monstrous deformed shape and image which it had gotten, and bring it into Paradise again.\n\nHow Christ brought in the Soul\n\nNow when the Spark of the Love of God, or the Divine Light, was accordingly manifested in the Soul, it presently saw itself with its will and works to be in Hell, in the Wrath of God, and found it was an ugly, misshapen monster in the Divine Presence and the Kingdom of Heaven: at which it was so affrighted, that it fell into the greatest anguish possible, for the Judgment of God was manifested in it.\n\nWhat Christ said\n\nUpon this the Lord Christ spake unto it with the Voice of his Grace, and said: *Repent and forsake Vanity, and thou shalt attain My Grace*.\n\nWhat the Soul said\n\nThen the Soul with its ugly misshapen image went before God and entreated for Grace and the pardon of its sins, and came to be strongly persuaded in itself that the satisfaction and atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ did belong to it. But the evil properties of the Serpent, formed in the Astral Spirit, or Reason, of the outward Man, would not suffer the Will of the Soul to come before God, but brought their lusts and inclinations thereinto.\n\nBut the poor Soul turned its countenance towards God, and desired Grace from him, even that he would bestow his Love upon it.\n\nThe Devil came to it again\n\nBut when the Devil saw that the Soul thus prayed to God, and would enter into repentance, he drew near to it, and thrust the inclinations of the earthly properties into its prayers, and disturbed its good thoughts and desires which pressed forwards towards God, and drew them back again to earthly things that they might have no access to him.\n\nThe Soul sighed\n\nThe central Will of the Soul indeed sighed after God, but the thoughts arising in the mind that it should penetrate into him, were distracted, scattered and destroyed, so that they could not reach the Power of God. At which the poor Soul was still more affrighted and began to pray more earnestly. But the Devil with his desire took hold of the kindled, fiery Wheel of Life, and awakened the evil properties, so that evil or false inclinations arose in the Soul, and went into that thing wherein they had taken most pleasure and delight before.\n\nThe poor Soul would very fain go forward to God with its Will, and therefore used all its endeavours; but its thoughts continually fled away from God into earthly things, and would not go to him.\n\nUpon this the Soul sighed and bewailed itself to God; but was as if it were quite forsaken by him, and cast out from its Presence. It could not get so much as one look of Grace, but was in mere anguish, fear and terror, and dreaded every moment that the Wrath and severe Judgment of God would be manifested in it, and that the Devil would take hold of it and have it. And thereupon fell into such great heaviness and sorrow, that it became weary of all the temporal things, which were before its chief joy and happiness.\n\nThe earthly natural Will indeed desired those things still, but the Soul would willingly leave them altogether, and desired to die to all temporal lust and joy whatsoever, and longed only after its first native country, from whence it originally came. But it found itself to be far from thence in great distress and want, and knew not what to do, yet resolved to enter into itself, and try to pray more earnestly.\n\nThe Devil's Opposition\n\nBut the Devil opposed it, and withheld it so that it could not bring itself into any greater fervency of repentance.\n\nHe awakened the earthly lusts in its heart, that they might still keep their evil nature and false right therein, and set them at variance with the new-born Will and Desire of the Soul. For they would not die to their own Will and Light, but would still maintain their temporal pleasures, and so kept the poor Soul captive in their evil desires, that it could not stir, though it sighed and longed never so much after the Grace of God. For whensoever it prayed, or offered to press forward towards God, then the lusts of the flesh swallowed up the rays and ejaculations that went forth from it, and brought them away from God into earthly thoughts, that it might not partake of Divine Strength. Which caused the poor Soul to think itself forsaken of God, not knowing that he was so near it, and did thus attract it. Also the Devil tempted the poor Soul, saying to it in the earthly thoughts:\n\n\"Why dost thou pray? Dost thou think that God knoweth thee or regardeth thee? Consider but what thoughts thou hast in his presence; are they not altogether evil? Thou hast no faith or belief in God at all; how then should he hear thee? He heareth thee not, leave off; why wilt thou needlessly torment and vex thyself! Thou hast time enough to repent at leisure. Wilt thou be mad? Do but look upon the world I pray thee a little; doth it not live in jollity and mirth, yet it will be saved well enough for all that. Hath not Christ paid the ransom and satisfied for all men? Thou needest only persuade and comfort thyself that it is done for thee, and then thou shalt be saved. Thou canst not possibly in this world come to any feeling of God, therefore leave off, and take care for thy body, and look after temporal glory. What dost thou suppose will become of thee, if thou turn to be so stupid and melancholy? Thou wilt be the scorn of everybody, and they will laugh at thy folly; and so thou wilt pass thy days in mere sorrow and heaviness, which is pleasing neither to God nor Nature. I pray thee, look upon the beauty of the World, for God hath so erected and placed thee in it, to be a Lord over all Creatures and to rule them. Gather store of temporal goods beforehand, that thou mayest not be beholden to the World, or stand in need hereafter. And when old age cometh, or that thou growest near thy end, then prepare thyself for repentance. God will save thee, and receive thee into the heavenly mansions there. There is no need of such ado in vexing, bewailing, and stirring up thyself, as thou makest.\"\n\nThe Condition of the Soul\n\nIn these and the like thoughts the Soul was ensnared by the Devil, and brought into the lust of the flesh, and earthly desires; and so bound as it were with fetters and strong chains that it did not know what to do. It looked back a little into the World and the pleasures thereof, but still felt in itself a hunger after Divine Grace, and would rather enter into repentance and favour with God. For the Hand of God had touched and bruised it, and therefore it could rest nowhere; but always sighed in itself after sorrow for the sins it had committed, and would fain be rid of them. Yet could not get true repentance, or even the knowledge of sin, though it had a mighty hunger and longing desire after such penitential sorrow.\n\nThe Soul being thus heavy and sad, and finding no remedy or rest, began to cast about where it might find a fit place to perform true repentance in, where it might be free from business, cares, and the hinderances of the World; and also by what means it might win the favour of God. And at length purposed to betake itself to some private solitary place, and give over all worldly employments and temporal things, and hoped that by being bountiful and pitiful to the Poor, it should obtain God's mercy. Thus did it devise all kinds of ways to get rest, and to gain the love, favour, and grace of God again. But all would not do; for its worldly business still followed it in the lusts of the flesh, and it was ensnared in the net of the Devil now, as well as before, and could not attain rest. And though for a little while it was somewhat cheered with earthly things, yet presently it fell to be as sad and heavy again as it was before. The truth was it felt the awakened Wrath of God in itself, but knew not how that came to pass, nor what ailed it. For many times great trouble and terror fell upon it, which made it comfortless, sick, and faint with very fear; so mightily did the first bruising it with the ray or influence of the stirring of Grace work upon it. And yet it knew not that Christ was in the Wrath and severe Justice of God and fought therein with that Spirit of Error incorporated in Soul and Body, nor understood that the hunger and desire to turn and repent came from Christ Himself, neither did it know what hindered it that it could not yet attain to Divine Feeling. It knew not that itself was a monster, and did bear the Image of the Serpent.\n\nAn enlightened and regenerate Soul met the distressed Soul\n\nBy the Providence of God, an enlightened and regenerate Soul met the distressed Soul, and said: What ailest thou, thou distressed Soul, that thou art so restless and troubled!\n\nThe distressed Soul answered\n\nThe Creator hath hid his Countenance from me, so that I cannot come to his Rest; therefore I am thus troubled, and know not what I shall do to get his Loving-kindness again. For great cliffs and rocks lie in my way to his Grace, so that I cannot come to him. Though I sigh and long after him never so much, yet I am kept back, so that I cannot partake of his Power, Virtue, and Strength.\n\nThe enlightened Soul said\n\nThou bearest the monstrous shape of the Devil, and art clothed therewith; in which, being his own Property or Principle, he hath access or power of entrance into thee, and thereby keepeth thy Will from penetrating into God. For if thy Will might penetrate into God, it would be anointed with the highest Power and Strength of God, in the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that unction would break in pieces the monster which thou carriest about thee; and thy first Image of Paradise would revive in the Centre; which would destroy the Devil's Power therein, and thou wouldst become an Angel again. And because the Devil envieth thee this happiness, he holdeth thee captive in his Desire in the lusts of the flesh, from which if thou art not delivered, thou wilt be separated from God, and canst never enter into our Society.\n\nThe distressed Soul terrified\n\nAt this speech the poor distressed Soul was so terrified and amazed, that it could not speak one word more. When it found that it stood in the form and condition of the Serpent which separated it from God, and that the Devil was so nigh it in that condition, who injected evil thoughts into the Will of the Soul, and had so much power over it thereby that it was near damnation and sticking fast in the Abyss or bottomless pit of Hell in the Anger of God, it would have even despaired of Divine Mercy; but that the Power, Virtue and Strength of the first stirring of the Grace of God, which had before bruised the Soul, upheld and preserved it from total despair. But still it wrestled in itself between Hope and Doubt; whatsoever Hope built up, that Doubt threw down again. And thus was it agitated with such continued disquiet, that at last the World and all the glory thereof became loathsome to it, neither would it enjoy worldly pleasures any more; and yet for all this could it not come to Rest.\n\nThe enlightened Soul came again, and spoke to the troubled Soul\n\nOn a time the enlightened Soul came again to this Soul, and finding it still in so great trouble, anguish, and grief, said to it.\n\nWhat dost thou? Wilt thou destroy thyself in thy anguish and sorrow? Why dost thou torment thyself in thy own Power and Will, seeing thy torment increaseth thereby more and more? Yea, if thou shouldst sink thyself down to the bottom of the sea, or fly to the uttermost coasts of the morning, or raise thyself above the stars, yet thou wouldst not be released. For the more thou grievest, tormentest, and troublest thyself, the more painful thy nature will be; and yet thou wilt not be able to come to Rest. For thy Power is quite lost, and as a dry stick burnt to a coal cannot grow green and spring afresh by its own power, nor get sap to flourish again with other trees and plants; so neither canst thou reach the Place of God by thy own power and strength, and transform thyself into that Angelical Image which thou hadst at first. For in respect to God thou art withered and dry, like a dead plant that hath lost its sap and strength, and so art become a dry tormenting Hunger. Thy Properties are like Heat and Cold which continually strive one against the other, and can never unite.\n\nThe distressed Soul said\n\nWhat then shall I do to bud forth again, and recover the first Life, wherein I was at rest before I became an Image?\n\nThe enlightened Soul said\n\nThou shalt do nothing at all but forsake thy own Will, viz., that which thou callest *I*, or *thyself*. By which means all thy evil properties will grow weak, faint, and ready to die; and then thou wilt sink down again into that One Thing from which thou art originally sprung. For now thou liest captive in the Creatures; but if thy Will forsaketh them, they will die in thee, with their evil inclinations, which at present stay and hinder thee that thou canst not come to God. But if thou takest this course, thy God will meet thee with his infinite Love, which he hath manifested in Christ Jesus in the Humanity, or human Nature. And that will impart sap, life and vigour to thee, whereby thou mayst bud, spring, flourish again, and rejoice in the Living God, as a branch growing on his true Vine. And so thou wilt at length recover the Image of God, and be delivered from that of the Serpent. Then shalt thou come to be my brother and have fellowship with the Angels.\n\nThe poor Soul said\n\nHow can I forsake my Will, so that the Creatures which lodge therein may die, seeing I must be in the World, and also have need of it as long as I live?\n\nThe enlightened Soul said\n\nNow thou hast worldly power and riches, which thou possesses! as thy own, to do what thou wilt with, and regardest not how thou gettest or invest the same, employing them in the service or indulgence of thy carnal and vain desires. Nay though thou seest the poor and needy wretch who wanteth thy help, and is thy brother, yet thou helpest him not, but layest heavy burdens upon him, by requiring more of him than his abilities will bear, or his necessities afford, and oppressest him, by forcing him to spend his labour and sweat for thee and the gratification of thy voluptuous Will. Thou art moreover proud and exultest over him, and behavest roughly and sternly to him, exalting thyself above him, and making small account of him in respect of thyself. Then that poor oppressed brother of thine cometh, and complaineth with sighs towards God, that he cannot reap the benefit of his labours and pains, but is forced by thee to live in misery. By which sighings and groanings of his he raiseth up the wrath of God in thee, which maketh thy flame and unquietness still the greater.\n\nThese are the Creatures which thou art in love with, and hast broken thyself off from God for their sakes, and brought thy Love into them or them into thy Love, so that they live therein. Thou nourishest and keepest them by continually receiving them into thy desire, for they live in and by thy receiving them into thy mind, because thou thereby bringest the lust of thy Life into them. They are but unclean and evil births and issues of the Bestial Nature, which yet by thy receiving them in thy Desire, have gotten an Image and formed themselves in thee. And that Image is a beast with four heads. First, *Pride*. Secondly, *Covetousness*. Thirdly, *Envy*. Fourthly, *Anger*. And in these four properties the Foundation of Hell consisteth, which thou earnest in thee and about thee. It is imprinted and engraven in thee, and thou art wholly taken captive thereby. For these properties live in thy Natural Life; and thereby thou art severed from God, neither canst thou ever come to him, unless thou so forsake these evil Creatures that they may die in thee.\n\nBut since thou desirest me to tell thee how to forsake thy own, perverse creaturely Will, that the Creatures might die, and that yet thou mightest live with them in the World, I must assure thee that there is but one way to do it, which is *narrow* and *straight*, and will be very hard and irksome to thee in the beginning, but afterwards thou wilt walk in it cheerfully.\n\nThou must seriously consider that in the course of this worldly life thou walkest in the Anger of God and in the Foundation of Hell; and that this is not thy true native country; but that a Christian should and must live in Christ, and in his walking truly follow him; and that he cannot be a Christian unless the Spirit and Power of Christ so live in him that he becometh wholly subject to it. Now seeing the Kingdom of Christ is not of the world, but in Heaven, therefore thou must be always in a continual ascension towards Heaven, if thou wilt follow Christ; though thy body must dwell among the Creatures and use them.\n\nThe narrow way to which perpetual ascension into Heaven and imitation of Christ is this. Thou must despair of all thy own power and strength, for in and by thy own thou canst not reach the Gates of God, and firmly purpose and resolve wholly to give thyself up to the Mercy of God, and to sink down with thy whole mind and reason into the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ, always desiring to persevere in the same and to die from all thy Creatures therein. Also thou must resolve to watch and guard thy mind, thoughts, and inclinations that they admit no evil into them, neither must thou suffer thyself to be held fast by temporal honour or profit. Thou must resolve likewise to put away from thee all Unrighteousness and whatsoever else may hinder the freedom of thy motion and progress. Thy Will must be wholly pure and fixed in a firm resolution never to return to its old idols any more, but that thou wilt, that very instant leave them, and separate thy mind from them, and enter into the sincere way of truth and righteousness, according to the plain and full doctrine of Christ. And as thou dost thus purpose to forsake the enemies of thine own inward Nature, so thou must also forgive all thy outward enemies and resolve to meet them with thy Love, that there may be left no Creature, Person, or Thing at all able to take hold of thy Will and captivate it; but that it may be sincere and purged from all Creatures. Nay, further, if it should be required, thou must be willing and ready to forsake all thy temporal honour and profit for Christ's sake, and regard nothing that is earthly so as to set thy heart and affections upon it; but esteem thyself in whatsoever state, degree and condition thou art, as to worldly rank and riches, to be but a servant of God, and of thy fellow-Christians; or as a steward in the office wherein thy Lord hath placed thee. All arrogance and self-exaltation must be humbled, brought low, and so annihilated that nothing of thine own or of any other Creature may stay in thy Will to bring the thoughts or imagination to be set upon it.\n\nThou must also firmly impress it on thy mind that thou shalt certainly partake of the promised Grace in the Merit of Jesus Christ, viz., of his outflowing Love, which indeed is already in thee, and which will deliver thee from thy Creatures, and enlighten thy Will, and kindle it with the Flame of Love, whereby thou shalt have victory over the Devil. Not as if thou couldst will or do anything in thy own strength, but only enter into the suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and take them to thyself, and with them assault and break in pieces the kingdom of the Devil in thee. Thou must resolve to enter into this way this very hour, and never to depart from it, but willingly to submit thyself to God in all thy endeavours and doings, that he may do with thee what he pleaseth.\n\nWhen thy Will is thus prepared and resolved, it hath then broken through its own Creatures, and is sincere in the Presence of God, and clothed with the Merits of Jesus Christ. It may then freely go to the Father with the Prodigal Son, and fall down in his Presence and pour forth its prayers; and putting forth all its strength in this Divine Work, confess its sins and disobedience; and how far it hath departed from God. This must be done not with bare words, but with all its strength, which indeed amounteth only to a strong purpose and resolution; for the Soul of itself hath no strength or power to effect any good work.\n\nNow when thou art thus ready, and thy heavenly Father shall see thee coming and returning to him in such repentance and humility, he will inwardly speak to thee, and say in thee; *Behold, this is my son which I had lost, he was dead and is alive again.* And he will come to meet thee in thy mind with the Grace and Love of Jesus Christ, and embrace thee with the beams of his Love, and kiss thee with his Spirit and Strength, and then thou shalt receive Grace to pour out thy confession before him and to pray powerfully. This indeed is the right place where thou must wrestle in the Light of his Countenance. And if thou standest resolutely here and shrinkest not back, thou shalt see or feel great wonders. For thou shalt find Christ in thee assaulting Hell, and crushing thy Beasts in pieces, and that a great tumult and misery will arise in thee; also thy secret undiscovered sins will then first awake and labour to separate thee from God, and to keep thee back. Thus shalt thou truly find and feel how Death and Life fight one against the other, and shalt understand by what passeth within thyself what Heaven and Hell are. At all which be not moved, but stand firm and shrink not; for at length all thy Creatures will grow faint, weak, and ready to die; and then thy Will shall wax stronger, and be able to subdue and keep down the evil inclinations. So shall thy Will and Mind ascend into Heaven every day, and thy Creatures gradually die away. Thou wilt get a Mind wholly new, and begin to be a new Creature, and, getting rid of the Bestial Deformity, recover the Divine Image. Thus shalt thou be delivered from thy present Anguish, and return to thy original Rest.\n\nThe poor Soul's Practice\n\nThen the poor Soul began to practise this course with so much earnestness that it conceived it should get the victory presently, but it found that the Gates of Heaven were shut against it in its own strength and power, and it was, as it were, rejected and forsaken by God, and received not so much as one look or glimpse of Grace from him. Upon which it said to itself; *Surely thou hast not sincerely submitted thyself to God. Desire nothing at all of him, but only submit thyself to his judgment and condemnation, that he may kill thy evil inclinations. Sink down into him beyond the Limits of Nature and Creature, and submit thyself to him, that he may do with thee what he will, for thou art not worthy to speak to him.* Accordingly the Soul took a resolution to sink down, and to forsake its own will; and when it had done so there fell upon it presently the greatest repentance that could be for the sins it had committed; and it bewailed bitterly its ugly shape, and was truly and deeply sorry that the evil Creatures did dwell in it. And because of its sorrow it could not speak one word more in the Presence of God, but in this repentance did consider the bitter Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, viz., what great anguish and torment he had suffered for its sake, in order to deliver it out of its anguish, and change it into the Image of God. In which consideration it wholly sank down, and did nothing but complain of its ignorance and negligence, and that it had not been thankful to its Redeemer, nor once considered the great love he had shown to it, but had idly spent its time, and not at all regarded how it might come to partake of his purchased and proffered Grace; but instead thereof had formed in itself the images and figures of earthly things, with the vain lusts and pleasures of the World. Whereby it had gotten such bestial inclinations that now it must lie captive in great misery, and for very shame dared not lift up its eyes to God, Who hid the light of his countenance from it and would not so much as look upon it. And as it was thus sighing and crying it was drawn into the Abyss or Pit of Horror, and laid as it were at the Gates of Hell there to perish. Upon which the poor troubled Soul was, as it were, bereft of sense, and wholly forsaken, so that it in a manner forgot all its doings, and would willingly yield itself to Death, and cease to be a Creature. Accordingly it did yield itself to Death, and desired nothing else but to die and perish in the Death of its Redeemer Jesus Christ, who had suffered such torments and death for its sake. And in this perishing it began to sigh and pray in itself very inwardly to the Divine Goodness, and to sink down into the mere Mercy of God.\n\nUpon this there suddenly appeared unto it the Love of God, as a great Light which penetrated through it, and made it exceedingly joyful. It then began to pray aright, and to thank the Most High for such Grace, and to rejoice abundantly that it was delivered from the Death and Anguish of Hell. Now it tasted of the Sweetness of God, and of his promised Truth; and how all the evil Spirits which had harassed it before, and kept it back from the Grace, Love, and inward Presence of God, were forced to depart from it. The wedding of the Lamb was now kept and solemnised, that is, the Noble *Sophia* espoused or betrothed herself to the Soul, and the Seal-Ring of Christ's victory was impressed into its Essence, and it was received to be a Child and Heir of God again.\n\nWhen this was done the Soul became very joyful, and began to work in this new power, and to celebrate with praise the wonders of God, and thought thenceforth to walk continually in the same Light, Strength, and Joy. But it was soon assaulted: from *without* by the shame and reproach of the World, and from *within* by great temptation, so that it began to doubt whether its ground was truly from God, and whether it had really partaken of his Grace. For the accuser Satan went to it, and would fain lead it out of its course, and make it doubtful whether it was the true way, whispering thus to it inwardly; *This happy change in thy Spirit is not from God, but only from thy own imagination.* Also the Divine Light retired in the Soul, and shone but in the inward ground, as fire raked up in embers, so that Reason was perplexed, and thought itself forsaken, and the Soul knew not what had happened to itself, nor whether it had really and truly tasted of the heavenly gift or not. Yet it could not leave off struggling; for the burning Fire of Love was sown in it, which had raised in it a vehement and continual Hunger and Thirst after the Divine Sweetness. So at length it began to pray aright, and to humble itself in the Presence of God, and to examine and try its evil inclinations and thoughts, and to put them away. By which means the Will of Reason was broken, and the evil inclinations inherent in it were killed and extirpated more and more. This process was very severe and painful to the Nature of the Body, for it made it faint and weak as if it had been very sick; and yet it was no natural sickness that it had, but only the melancholy of its earthly Nature, feeling and lamenting the destruction of its evil lusts.\n\nNow when the earthly Reason found itself thus forsaken, and the poor Soul saw that it was despised outwardly and derided by the World, because it would walk no longer in the way of Wickedness and Vanity; and also that it was inwardly assaulted by the accuser Satan, who mocked it, and continually set before it the beauty, riches and glory of the World, and called it a fool for not embracing them; it began to think and say thus within itself: *O eternal God, what shall I now do to come to Rest?*\n\nThe enlightened Soul met it again and spoke to it\n\nWhile it was in this consideration, the enlightened Soul met with it again, and said: What ailest thou, my Brother, that thou art so heavy and sad!\n\nThe distressed Soul said\n\nI have followed thy counsel, and thereby attained a ray or emanation of the Divine Sweetness, but it is gone from me again, and I am now deserted. Moreover I have outwardly very great trials and afflictions in the World, for all my good friends forsake and scorn me; and am also inwardly assaulted with anguish and doubt, and know not what to do.\n\nThe enlightened Soul said\n\nNow I like thee very well; for now our beloved Lord Jesus Christ is performing that Pilgrimage or Process on Earth with thee and in thee, which he did himself when he was in this World, who was continually reviled, despised, and evil spoken of, and had nothing of his own in it; and now thou bearest his mark or badge. But do not wonder at it, or think it strange; for it must be so, in order that thou mayst be tried, refined, and purified. In this Anguish and Distress thou wilt necessarily hunger and cry after deliverance; and by such Hunger and Prayer thou wilt attract Grace to thee both from within and from without. For thou must grow from above and from beneath to be the Image of God again. Just as a young plant is agitated by the wind, and must stand its ground in heat and cold, drawing strength and virtue to it from above and from beneath by that agitation, and must endure many a tempest, and undergo much danger before it can come to be a tree and bring forth much fruit. For through that agitation the virtue of the sun moveth in the plant, whereby its wild properties  come to be penetrated and tinctured with the solar virtue, and grow thereby.\n\nAnd this is the time wherein thou must play the part of a valiant soldier in the Spirit of Christ, and co-operate thyself therewith. For now the Eternal Father by his fiery Power begetteth his Son in thee, who changeth the Fire of the Father, namely, the first Principle, or Wrathful Property of the Soul, into the Flame of Love, so that out of Fire and Light (viz. Wrath and Love) there cometh to be one Essence, Being, or Substance, which is the true Temple of God. And now thou shalt bud forth out of the Vine Christ, in the Vineyard of God, and bring forth fruit in thy life, and by assisting and instructing others, show forth thy Love in abundance, as a good tree. For Paradise must then spring up again in thee, through the Wrath of God, and Hell be changed into Heaven in thee. Therefore be not dismayed at the temptations of the Devil, who seeketh and striveth for the Kingdom which he once had in thee, but, having now lost it, must be confounded, and depart from thee. And he covereth thee outwardly with the shame and reproach of the World, that his own shame may not be known, and that thou mayst be hidden to the World. For with thy New Birth or regenerated Nature thou art in the Divine Harmony in Heaven.  Be patient, therefore, and wait upon the Lord, and whatsoever shall befall thee, take it all from his hands as intended by him for thy highest good. And so the enlightened Soul departed from it.\n\nThe distressed Soul's course\n\nThe distressed Soul began its course now under the patient Suffering of Christ, and depending solely upon the Strength and Power of God in it, entered into Hope. Thenceforth it grew stronger every day, and its evil inclinations died more and more in it. So that it arrived at length to a high state or degree of Grace; and the Gates of the Divine Revelation and the Kingdom of Heaven were opened to and manifested in it.\n\nAnd thus the Soul, through Repentance, Faith, and Prayer, returned to its true Rest, and became a right and beloved Child of God again; to which may He of his infinite Mercy help us all. Amen.\n"}
 {"text": "# THE CORPUS HERMETICUM\n\n## Contents\n\n- An Introduction To The Corpus Hermeticum\n- Poemandres, The Shepherd Of Men\n- To Asclepius\n- The Sacred Sermon\n- The Cup Or Monad\n- Though Unmanifest God Is Most Manifest\n- In God Alone Is Good And Elsewhere Nowhere\n- The Greatest Ill Among Men Is Ignorance Of God\n- That No One Of Existing Things Doth Perish, But Men In Error Speak Of Their Changes As Destructions And As Deaths\n- On Thought And Sense\n- The Key\n- Mind Unto Hermes\n- About The Common Mind\n- The Secret Sermon On The Mountain\n- A Letter Of Thrice-Greatest Hermes To Asclepius\n- The Definitions Of Asclepius Unto King Ammon\n- Of Asclepius To The King\n- The Encomium Of Kings\n- The Perfect Sermon Or The Asclepius\n\n## An Introduction To The Corpus Hermeticum\n\nThe fifteen tractates of the Corpus Hermeticum, along with the Perfect Sermon or Asclepius, are the foundation documents of the Hermetic tradition. Written by unknown authors in Egypt sometime before the end of the third century C.E., they were part of a once substantial literature attributed to the mythic figure of Hermes Trismegistus, a Hellenistic fusion of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth.\n\nThis literature came out of the same religious and philosophical ferment that produced Neoplatonism, Christianity, and the diverse collection of teachings usually lumped together under the label \"Gnosticism\": a ferment which had its roots in the impact of Platonic thought on the older traditions of the Hellenized East. There are obvious connections and common themes linking each of these traditions, although each had its own answer to the major questions of the time.\n\nThe treatises we now call the Corpus Hermeticum were collected into a single volume in Byzantine times, and a copy of this volume survived to come into the hands of Lorenzo de Medici's agents in the fifteenth century. Marsilio Ficino, the head of the Florentine Academy, was pulled off the task of translating the dialogues of Plato in order to put the Corpus Hermeticum into Latin first. His translation saw print in 1463, and was reprinted at least twenty-two times over the next century and a half.\n\nThe treatises divide up into several groups. The first (CH I), the \"Poemandres\", is the account of a revelation given to Hermes Trismegistus by the being Poemandres or \"Man-Shepherd\", an expression of the universal Mind. The next eight (CH II-IX), the \"General Sermons\", are short dialogues or lectures discussing various basic points of Hermetic philosophy. There follows the \"Key\" (CH X), a summary of the General Sermons, and after this a set of four tractates - \"Mind unto Hermes\", \"About the Common Mind\", \"The Secret Sermon on the Mountain\", and the \"Letter of Hermes to Asclepius\" (CH XI-XIV) - touching on the more mystical aspects of Hermeticism. The collection is rounded off by the \"Definitions of Asclepius unto King Ammon\" (CH XV), which may be composed of three fragments of longer works.\n\nThe Perfect Sermon\n\nThe Perfect Sermon or Asclepius, which is also included here, reached the Renaissance by a different route. It was translated into Latin in ancient times, reputedly by the same Lucius Apuleius of Madaura whose comic-serious masterpiece The Golden Ass provides some of the best surviving evidence on the worship of Isis in the Roman world. Augustine of Hippo quotes from the old Latin translation at length in his City of God, and copies remained in circulation in medieval Europe all the way up to the Renaissance. The original Greek version was lost, although quotations survive in several ancient sources.\n\nThe Perfect Sermon is substantially longer than any other surviving work of ancient Hermetic philosophy. It covers topics which also occur in the Corpus Hermeticum, but touches on several other issues as well - among them magical processes for the manufacture of gods and a long and gloomy prophecy of the decline of Hermetic wisdom and the end of the world.\n\nThe Significance of the Hermetic Writings\n\nThe Corpus Hermeticum landed like a well-aimed bomb amid the philosophical systems of late medieval Europe. Quotations from the Hermetic literature in the Church Fathers (who were never shy of leaning on pagan sources to prove a point) accepted a traditional chronology which dated \"Hermes Trismegistus,\" as a historical figure, to the time of Moses. As a result, the Hermetic tractates' borrowings from Jewish scripture and Platonic philosophy were seen, in the Renaissance, as evidence that the Corpus Hermeticum had anticipated and influenced both. The Hermetic philosophy was seen as a primordial wisdom tradition, identified with the \"Wisdom of the Egyptians\" mentioned in Exodus and lauded in Platonic dialogues such as the Timaeus. It thus served as a useful club in the hands of intellectual rebels who sought to break the stranglehold of Aristotelian scholasticism on the universities at this time.\n\nIt also provided one of the most important weapons to another major rebellion of the age - the attempt to reestablish magic as a socially acceptable spiritual path in the Christian West. Another body of literature attributed to Hermes Trismegistus was made up of astrological, alchemical and magical texts. If, as the scholars of the Renaissance believed, Hermes was a historical person who had written all these things, and if Church Fathers had quoted his philosophical works with approval, and if those same works could be shown to be wholly in keeping with some definitions of Christianity, then the whole structure of magical Hermeticism could be given a second-hand legitimacy in a Christian context.\n\nThis didn't work, of course; the radical redefinition of Western Christianity that took place in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation hardened doctrinal barriers to the point that people were being burned in the sixteenth century for practices that were considered evidences of devoutness in the fourteenth. The attempt, though, made the language and concepts of the Hermetic tractates central to much of post-medieval magic in the West.\n\nThe Translation\n\nThe translation of the Corpus Hermeticum and Perfect Sermon given here is that of G.R.S. Mead (1863-1933), originally published as Vol. 2 of his Thrice Greatest Hermes (London, 1906). Mead was a close associate of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the founder and moving spirit of the Theosophical Society, and most of his considerable scholarly output was brought out under Theosophical auspices. The result, predictably, was that most of that output has effectively been blacklisted in academic circles ever since.\n\nThis is unfortunate, for Mead's translations of the Hermetic literature were until quite recently the best available in English. (They are still the best in the public domain; thus their use here.) The Everard translation of 1650, which is still in print, reflects the state of scholarship at the time it was made - which is only a criticism because a few things have been learned since then! The Walter Scott translation - despite the cover blurb on the recent Shambhala reprint, this is not the Sir Walter Scott of Ivanhoe fame - while more recent than Mead's, is a product of the \"New Criticism\" of the first half of this century, and garbles the text severely; scholars of Hermeticism of the caliber of Dame Frances Yates have labeled the Scott translation worthless. By contrast, a comparison of Mead's version to the excellent modern translation by Brian Copenhaver, or to the translations of CH I (Poemandres) and VII (The Greatest Ill Among Men is Ignorance of God) given in Bentley Layton's The Gnostic Scriptures, shows Mead as a capable translator, with a usually solid grasp of the meaning of these sometimes obscure texts.\n\nThere is admittedly one problem with Mead's translation: the aesthetics of the English text. Mead hoped, as he mentioned at the beginning of Thrice Greatest Hermes, to \"render...these beautiful theosophic treatises into an English that might, perhaps, be thought in some small way worthy of the Greek originals.\" Unfortunately for this ambition, he was writing at a time when the last remnants of the florid and pompous Victorian style were fighting it out with the more straightforward colloquial prose that became the style of the new century. Caught in this tangle like so many writers of the time, Mead wanted to write in the grand style but apparently didn't know how. The result is a sometimes bizarre mishmash in which turn-of-the-century slang stands cheek by jowl with overblown phrases in King James Bible diction, and in which mishandled archaicisms, inverted word order, and poetic contractions render the text less than graceful - and occasionally less than readable. Seen from a late twentieth century sensibility, the result verges on unintentional self-parody in places: for example, where Mead uses the Scots contraction \"ta'en\" (for \"taken\"), apparently for sheer poetic color, calling up an image of Hermes Trismegistus in kilt and sporran.\n\nThe \"poetic\" word order is probably the most serious barrier to readability; it's a good rule, whenever the translation seems to descend into gibberish, to try shuffling the words of the sentence in question. It may also be worth noting that Mead consistently uses \"for that\" in place of \"because\" and \"aught\" in place of \"any\", and leaves out the word \"the\" more or less at random.\n\n## Poemandres, The Shepherd Of Men\n\n*Notes on the text: This is the most famous of the Hermetic documents, a revelation account describing a vision of the creation of the universe and the nature and fate of humanity. Authors from the Renaissance onward have been struck by the way in which its creation myth seems partly inspired by Genesis, partly reacting against it. The Fall has here become the descent of the Primal Man through the spheres of the planets to the world of Nature, a descent caused not by disobedience but by love, and done with the blessing of God.*\n\n*The seven rulers of fate discussed in sections 9, 14 and 25 are the archons of the seven planets, which also appear in Plato's Timaeus and in a number of the ancient writings usually lumped together as \"Gnostic\". Their role here is an oddly ambivalent one, powers of Harmony who are nonetheless the sources of humanity's tendencies to evil.*\n\n1. It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the things that are, my thought was raised to a great height, the senses of my body being held back - just as men who are weighed down with sleep after a fill of food, or from fatigue of body.\n\nMethought a Being more than vast, in size beyond all bounds, called out my name and saith: What wouldst thou hear and see, and what hast thou in mind to learn and know?\n\n2. And I do say: Who art thou?\n\nHe saith: I am Man-Shepherd (*Poemandres*), Mind of all-masterhood; I know what thou desirest and I am with thee everywhere.\n\n3. [And] I reply: I long to learn the things that are, and comprehend their nature, and know God. This is, I said, what I desire to hear.\n\nHe answered back to me: Hold in thy mind all thou wouldst know, and I will teach thee.\n\n4. Even with these words His aspect changed, and straightway, in the twinkling of an eye, all things were opened to me, and I see a Vision limitless, all things turned into Light - sweet, joyous [Light]. And I became transported as I gazed.\n\nBut in a little while Darkness came settling down on part [of it], awesome and gloomy, coiling in sinuous folds, so that methought it like unto a snake.\n\nAnd then the Darkness changed into some sort of a Moist Nature, tossed about beyond all power of words, belching out smoke as from a fire, and groaning forth a wailing sound that beggars all description.\n\n[And] after that an outcry inarticulate came forth from it, as though it were a Voice of Fire.\n\n5. [Thereon] out of the Light [...] a Holy Word (Logos) descended on that Nature. And upwards to the height from the Moist Nature leaped forth pure Fire; light was it, swift and active too.\n\nThe Air, too, being light, followed after the Fire; from out of the Earth-and-Water rising up to Fire so that it seemed to hang therefrom.\n\nBut Earth-and-Water stayed so mingled with each other, that Earth from Water no one could discern. Yet were they moved to hear by reason of the Spirit-Word (Logos) pervading them.\n\n6. Then saith to me Man-Shepherd: Didst understand this Vision what it means?\n\nNay; that shall I know, said I.\n\nThat Light, He said, am I, thy God, Mind, prior to Moist Nature which appeared from Darkness; the Light-Word (Logos) [that appeared] from Mind is Son of God.\n\nWhat then? - say I.\n\nKnow that what sees in thee and hears is the Lord's Word (Logos); but Mind is Father-God. Not separate are they the one from other; just in their union [rather] is it Life consists.\n\nThanks be to Thee, I said.\n\nSo, understand the Light [He answered], and make friends with it.\n\n7. And speaking thus He gazed for long into my eyes, so that I trembled at the look of him.\n\nBut when He raised His head, I see in Mind the Light, [but] now in Powers no man could number, and Cosmos grown beyond all bounds, and that the Fire was compassed round about by a most mighty Power, and [now] subdued had come unto a stand.\n\nAnd when I saw these things I understood by reason of Man-Shepherd's Word (Logos).\n\n8. But as I was in great astonishment, He saith to me again: Thou didst behold in Mind the Archetypal Form whose being is before beginning without end. Thus spake to me Man-Shepherd.\n\nAnd I say: Whence then have Nature's elements their being?\n\nTo this He answer gives: From Will of God. [Nature] received the Word (Logos), and gazing upon the Cosmos Beautiful did copy it, making herself into a cosmos, by means of her own elements and by the births of souls.\n\n9. And God-the-Mind, being male and female both, as Light and Life subsisting, brought forth another Mind to give things form, who, God as he was of Fire and Spirit, formed Seven Rulers who enclose the cosmos that the sense perceives. Men call their ruling Fate.\n\n10. Straightway from out the downward elements God's Reason (Logos) leaped up to Nature's pure formation, and was at-oned with the Formative Mind; for it was co-essential with it. And Nature's downward elements were thus left reason-less, so as to be pure matter.\n\n11. Then the Formative Mind ([at-oned] with Reason), he who surrounds the spheres and spins them with his whorl, set turning his formations, and let them turn from a beginning boundless unto an endless end. For that the circulation of these [spheres] begins where it doth end, as Mind doth will.\n\nAnd from the downward elements Nature brought forth lives reason-less; for He did not extend the Reason (Logos) [to them]. The Air brought forth things winged; the Water things that swim, and Earth-and-Water one from another parted, as Mind willed. And from her bosom Earth produced what lives she had, four-footed things and reptiles, beasts wild and tame.\n\n12. But All-Father Mind, being Life and Light, did bring forth Man co-equal to Himself, with whom He fell in love, as being His own child; for he was beautiful beyond compare, the Image of his Sire. In very truth, God fell in love with his own Form; and on him did bestow all of His own formations.\n\n13. And when he gazed upon what the Enformer had created in the Father, [Man] too wished to enform; and [so] assent was given him by the Father.\n\nChanging his state to the formative sphere, in that he was to have his whole authority, he gazed upon his Brother's creatures. They fell in love with him, and gave him each a share of his own ordering.\n\nAnd after that he had well learned their essence and had become a sharer in their nature, he had a mind to break right through the Boundary of their spheres, and to subdue the might of that which pressed upon the Fire.\n\n14. So he who hath the whole authority over [all] the mortals in the cosmos and over its lives irrational, bent his face downwards through the Harmony, breaking right through its strength, and showed to downward Nature God's fair form.\n\nAnd when she saw that Form of beauty which can never satiate, and him who [now] possessed within himself each single energy of [all seven] Rulers as well as God's own Form, she smiled with love; for it was as though she hadd seen the image of Man's fairest form upon her Water, his shadow on her Earth.\n\nHe in turn beholding the form like to himself, existing in her, in her Water, loved it and willed to live in it; and with the will came act, and [so] he vivified the form devoid of reason.\n\nAnd Nature took the object of her love and wound herself completely around him, and they were intermingled, for they were lovers.\n\n15. And this is why beyond all creatures on the earth man is twofold; mortal because of body, but because of the essential man immortal.\n\nThough deathless and possessed of sway over all, yet doth he suffer as a mortal doth, subject to Fate.\n\nThus though above the Harmony, within the Harmony he hath become a slave. Though male-female, as from a Father male-female, and though he is sleepless from a sleepless [Sire], yet is he overcome [by sleep].\n\n16. Thereon [I say: Teach on], O Mind of me, for I myself as well am amorous of the Word (Logos).\n\nThe Shepherd said: This is the mystery kept hid until this day.\n\nNature embraced by Man brought forth a wonder, oh so wonderful. For as he had the nature of the Concord of the Seven, who, as I said to thee, [were made] of Fire and Spirit - Nature delayed not, but immediately brought forth seven \"men\", in correspondence with the natures of the Seven, male-female and moving in the air.\n\nThereon [I said]: O Shepherd, ..., for now I am filled with great desire and long to hear; do not run off.\n\nThe Shepherd said: Keep silence, for not as yet have I unrolled for thee the first discourse (logoi).\n\nLo! I am still, I said.\n\n17. In such wise than, as I have said, the generation of these seven came to pass. Earth was as woman, her Water filled with longing; ripeness she took from Fire, spirit from Aether. Nature thus brought forth frames to suit the form of Man.\n\nAnd Man from Light and Life changed into soul and mind - from Life to soul, from Light to mind.\n\nAnd thus continued all the sense-world's parts until the period of their end and new beginnings.\n\n18. Now listen to the rest of the discourse (Logos) which thou dost long to hear.\n\nThe period being ended, the bond that bound them all was loosened by God's Will. For all the animals being male-female, at the same time with Man were loosed apart; some became partly male, some in like fashion [partly] female. And straightway God spake by His Holy Word (Logos):\n\n\"Increase ye in increasing, and multiply in multitude, ye creatures and creations all; and man that hath Mind in him, let him learn to know that he himself is deathless, and that the cause of death is love, though Love is all.\"\n\n19. When He said this, His Forethought did by means of Fate and Harmony effect their couplings and their generations founded. And so all things were multiplied according to their kind.\n\nAnd he who thus hath learned to know himself, hath reached that Good which doth transcend abundance; but he who through a love that leads astray, expends his love upon his body - he stays in Darkness wandering, and suffering through his senses things of Death.\n\n20. What is the so great fault, said I, the ignorant commit, that they should be deprived of deathlessness?\n\nThou seemest, He said, O thou, not to have given heed to what thou heardest. Did I not bid thee think?\n\nYea do I think, and I remember, and therefore give Thee thanks.\n\nIf thou didst think [thereon], [said He], tell me: Why do they merit death who are in Death?\n\nIt is because the gloomy Darkness is the root and base of the material frame; from it came the Moist Nature; from this the body in the sense-world was composed; and from this [body] Death doth the Water drain.\n\n21. Right was thy thought, O thou! But how doth \"he who knows himself, go unto Him\", as God's Word (Logos) hath declared?\n\nAnd I reply: the Father of the universals doth consist of Light and Life, from Him Man was born.\n\nThou sayest well, [thus] speaking. Light and Life is Father-God, and from Him Man was born.\n\nIf then thou learnest that thou art thyself of Life and Light, and that thou [happenest] to be out of them, thou shalt return again to Life. Thus did Man-Shepherd speak.\n\nBut tell me further, Mind of me, I cried, how shall I come to Life again...for God doth say: \"The man who hath Mind in him, let him learn to know that he himself [is deathless].\"\n\n22. Have not all men then Mind?\n\nThou sayest well, O thou, thus speaking. I, Mind, myself am present with holy men and good, the pure and merciful, men who live piously.\n\n[To such] my presence doth become an aid, and straightway they gain gnosis of all things, and win the Father's love by their pure lives, and give Him thanks, invoking on Him blessings, and chanting hymns, intent on Him with ardent love.\n\nAnd ere they give up the body unto its proper death, they turn them with disgust from its sensations, from knowledge of what things they operate. Nay, it is I, the Mind, that will not let the operations which befall the body, work to their [natural] end. For being door-keeper I will close up [all] the entrances, and cut the mental actions off which base and evil energies induce.\n\n23. But to the Mind-less ones, the wicked and depraved, the envious and covetous, and those who mured do and love impiety, I am far off, yielding my place to the Avenging Daimon, who sharpening the fire, tormenteth him and addeth fire to fire upon him, and rusheth upon him through his senses, thus rendering him readier for transgressions of the law, so that he meets with greater torment; nor doth he ever cease to have desire for appetites inordinate, insatiately striving in the dark.\n\n24. Well hast thou taught me all, as I desired, O Mind. And now, pray, tell me further of the nature of the Way Above as now it is [for me].\n\nTo this Man-Shepherd said: When the material body is to be dissolved, first thou surrenderest the body by itself unto the work of change, and thus the form thou hadst doth vanish, and thou surrenderest thy way of life, void of its energy, unto the Daimon. The body's senses next pass back into their sources, becoming separate, and resurrect as energies; and passion and desire withdraw unto that nature which is void of reason.\n\n25. And thus it is that man doth speed his way thereafter upwards through the Harmony.\n\nTo the first zone he gives the Energy of Growth and Waning; unto the second [zone], Device of Evils [now] de-energized; unto the third, the Guile of the Desires de-energized; unto the fourth, his Domineering Arrogance, [also] de-energized; unto the fifth, unholy Daring and the Rashness of Audacity, de-energized; unto the sixth, Striving for Wealth by evil means, deprived of its aggrandizement; and to the seventh zone, Ensnaring Falsehood, de-energized.\n\n26. And then, with all the energisings of the harmony stript from him, clothed in his proper Power, he cometh to that Nature which belongs unto the Eighth, and there with those-that-are hymneth the Father.\n\nThey who are there welcome his coming there with joy; and he, made like to them that sojourn there, doth further hear the Powers who are above the Nature that belongs unto the Eighth, singing their songs of praise to God in language of their own.\n\nAnd then they, in a band, go to the Father home; of their own selves they make surrender of themselves to Powers, and [thus] becoming Powers they are in God. This the good end for those who have gained Gnosis - to be made one with God.\n\nWhy shouldst thou then delay? Must it not be, since thou hast all received, that thou shouldst to the worthy point the way, in order that through thee the race of mortal kind may by [thy] God be saved?\n\n27. This when He had said, Man-Shepherd mingled with the Powers.\n\nBut I, with thanks and belssings unto the Father of the universal [Powers], was freed, full of the power he had poured into me, and full of what He had taught me of the nature of the All and of the loftiest Vision.\n\nAnd I began to preach unto men the Beauty of Devotion and of Gnosis:\n\nO ye people, earth-born folk, ye who have given yourselves to drunkenness and sleep and ignorance of God, be sober now, cease from your surfeit, cease to be glamoured by irrational sleep!\n\n28. And when they heard, they came with one accord. Whereon I say:\n\nYe earth-born folk, why have ye given yourselves up to Death, while yet ye have the power of sharing Deathlessness? Repent, O ye, who walk with Error arm in arm and make of Ignorance the sharer of your board; get ye out from the light of Darkness, and take your part in Deathlessness, forsake Destruction!\n\n29. And some of them with jests upon their lips departed [from me], abandoning themselves unto the Way of Death; others entreated to be taught, casting themselves before my feet.\n\nBut I made them arise, and I became a leader of the Race towards home, teaching the words (logoi), how and in what way they shall be saved. I sowed in them the words (logoi) of wisdom; of Deathless Water were they given to drink.\n\nAnd when even was come and all sun's beams began to set, I bade them all give thanks to God. And when they had brought to an end the giving of their thanks, each man returned to his own resting place.\n\n30. But I recorded in my heart Man-Shepherd's benefaction, and with my every hope fulfilled more than rejoiced. For body's sleep became the soul's awakening, and closing of the eyes - true vision, pregnant with Good my silence, and the utterance of my word (logos) begetting of good things.\n\nAll this befell me from my Mind, that is Man-Shepherd, Word (Logos) of all masterhood, by whom being God-inspired I came unto the Plain of Truth. Wherefore with all my soul and strength thanksgiving give I unto Father-God.\n\n31. Holy art Thou, O God, the universals' Father.\n\nHoly art Thou, O God, whose Will perfects itself by means of its own Powers.\n\nHoly art Thou, O God, who willeth to be known and art known by Thine own.\n\nHoly art Thou,who didst by Word (Logos) make to consist the things that are.\n\nHoly art Thou, of whom All-nature hath been made an image.\n\nHoly art Thou, whose Form Nature hath never made.\n\nHoly art Thou, more powerful than all power.\n\nHoly art Thou, transcending all pre-eminence.\n\nHoly Thou art, Thou better than all praise.\n\nAccept my reason's offerings pure, from soul and heart for aye stretched up to Thee, O Thou unutterable, unspeakable, Whose Name naught but the Silence can express.\n\n32. Give ear to me who pray that I may never of Gnosis fail, [Gnosis] which is our common being's nature; and fill me with Thy Power, and with this Grace [of Thine], that I may give the Light to those in ignorance of the Race, my Brethren, and Thy Sons.\n\nFor this cause I believe, and I bear witness; I go to Life and Light. Blessed art Thou, O Father. Thy Man would holy be as Thou art holy, even as Thou gave him Thy full authority [to be].\n\n## To Asclepius\n\n*Notes on the text: This dialogue sets forth the difference between the physical and metaphysical worlds in the context of Greek natural philosophy. Some of the language is fairly technical: the \"errant spheres\" of sections 6 and 7 are the celestial spheres carrying the planets, while the \"inerrant sphere\" is that of the fixed stars. It is useful to keep in mind, also, that \"air\" and \"spirit\" are interchangeable concepts in Greek thought, and that the concept of the Good has a range of implications which don't come across in the English word: one is that the good of any being, in Greek thought, was also that being's necessary goal.*\n\n1. *Hermes:* All that is moved, Asclepius, is it not moved in something and by something?\n\n*Asclepius:* Assuredly.\n\n*H:* And must not that in which it's moved be greater than the moved?\n\n*A:*It must.\n\n*H:* Mover, again, has greater power than moved?\n\n*A:*It has, of course.\n\n*H:* The nature, furthermore, of that in which it's moved must be quite other from the nature of the moved?\n\n*A:*It must completely.\n\n2. *H:* Is not, again, this cosmos vast, [so vast] that than it there exists no body greater?\n\n*A:*Assuredly.\n\n*H:* And massive, too, for it is crammed with multitudes of other mighty frames, nay, rather all the other bodies that there are?\n\n*A:*It is.\n\n*H:* And yet the cosmos is a body?\n\n*A:*It is a body.\n\n*H:* And one that's moved?\n\n3. *A:*Assuredly.\n\n*H:* Of what size, then, must be the space in which it's moved, and of what kind [must be] the nature [of that space]? Must it not be far vaster [than the cosmos], in order that it may be able to find room for its continued course, so that the moved may not be cramped for want of room and lose its motion?\n\n*A:*Something, Thrice-greatest one, it needs must be, immensely vast.\n\n4. *H:* And of what nature? Must it not be, Asclepius, of just the contrary? And is not contrary to body bodiless?\n\n*A:*Agreed.\n\n*H:* Space, then, is bodiless. But bodiless must either be some godlike thing or God [Himself]. And by \"some godlike thing\" I mean no more the generable [i.e., that which is generated] but the ingenerable.\n\n5. If, then, space be some godlike thing, it is substantial; but if 'tis God [Himself], it transcends substance. But it is to be thought of otherwise [than God], and in this way.\n\nGod is first \"thinkable\" <or \"intelligible\"> for us, not for Himself, for that the thing that's thought doth fall beneath the thinker's sense. God then cannot be \"thinkable\" unto Himself, in that He's thought of by Himself as being nothing else but what He thinks. But he is \"something else\" for us, and so He's thought of by us.\n\n6. If space is, therefore, to be thought, [it should] not, [then, be thought as] God, but space. If God is also to be thought, [He should] not [be conceived] as space, but as energy that can contain [all space].\n\nFurther, all that is moved is moved not in the moved but in the stable. And that which moves [another] is of course stationary, for 'tis impossible that it should move with it.\n\n*A:*How is it, then, that things down here, Thrice-greatest one, are moved with those that are [already] moved? For thou hast said the errant spheres were moved by the inerrant one.\n\n*H:* This is not, O Asclepius, a moving with, but one against; they are not moved with one another, but one against the other. It is this contrariety which turneth the resistance of their motion into rest. For that resistance is the rest of motion.\n\n7. Hence, too, the errant spheres, being moved contrarily to the inerrant one, are moved by one another by mutual contrariety, [and also] by the spable one through contrariety itself. And this can otherwise not be.\n\nThe Bears up there <i.e., Ursa Major and Minor>, which neither set nor rise, think'st thou they rest or move?\n\n*A:*They move, Thrice-greatest one.\n\n*H:* And what their motion, my Asclepius?\n\n*A:*Motion that turns for ever round the same.\n\n*H:* But revolution - motion around same - is fixed by rest. For \"round-the-same\" doth stop \"beyond-same\". \"Beyond-same\" then, being stopped, if it be steadied in \"round-same\" - the contrary stands firm, being rendered ever stable by its contrariety.\n\n8. Of this I'll give thee here on earth an instance, which the eye can see. Regard the animals down here - a man, for instance, swimming! The water moves, yet the resistance of his hands and feet give him stability, so that he is not borne along with it, nor sunk thereby.\n\n*A:*Thou hast, Thrice-greatest one, adduced a most clear instance.\n\n*H:* All motion, then, is caused in station and by station.\n\nThe motion, therefore, of the cosmos (and of every other hylic <i.e., material> animal) will not be caused by things exterior to the cosmos, but by things interior [outward] to the exterior - such [things] as soul, or spirit, or some such other thing incorporeal.\n\n'Tis not the body that doth move the living thing in it; nay, not even the whole [body of the universe a lesser] body e'en though there be no life in it.\n\n9. *A:*What meanest thou by this, Thrice-greatest one? Is it not bodies, then, that move the stock and stone and all the other things inanimate?\n\n*H:* By no means, O Asclepius. The something-in-the-body, the that-which-moves the thing inanimate, this surely's not a body, for that it moves the two of them - both body of the lifter and the lifted? So that a thing that's lifeless will not move a lifeless thing. That which doth move [another thing] is animate, in that it is the mover.\n\nThou seest, then, how heavy laden is the soul, for it alone doth lift two bodies. That things, moreover, moved are moved in something as well as moved by something is clear.\n\n10. *A:*Yea, O Thrice-greatest one, things moved must needs be moved in something void.\n\n*H:* Thou sayest well, O [my] Asclepius! For naught of things that are is void. Alone the \"is-not\" is void [and] stranger to subsistence. For that which is subsistent can never change to void.\n\n*A:*Are there, then, O Thrice-greatest one, no such things as an empty cask, for instance, and an empty jar, a cup and vat, and other things like unto them?\n\n*H:* Alack, Asclepius, for thy far-wandering from the truth! Think'st thou that things most full and most replete are void?\n\n11. *A:*How meanest thou, Thrice-greatest one?\n\n*H:* Is not air body?\n\n*A:*It is.\n\n*H:* And doth this body not pervade all things, and so, pervading, fill them? And \"body\"; doth body not consist from blending of the \"four\" <elements>? Full, then, of air are all thou callest void; and if of air, then of the \"four\".\n\nFurther, of this the converse follows, that all thou callest full are void - of air; for that they have their space filled out with other bodies, and, therefore, are not able to receive the air therein. These, then, which thou dost say are void, they should be hollow named, not void; for they not only are, but they are full of air and spirit.\n\n12. *A:*Thy argument (logos), Thrice-greatest one, is not to be gainsaid; air is a body. Further, it is this body which doth pervade all things, and so, pervading, fill them. What are we, then, to call that space in which the all doth move?\n\n*H:* The bodiless, Asclepius.\n\n*A:*What, then, is Bodiless?\n\n*H:* 'Tis Mind and Reason (logos), whole out of whole, all self-embracing, free from all body, from all error free, unsensible to body and untouchable, self stayed in self, containing all, preserving those that are, whose rays, to use a likeness, are Good, Truth, Light beyond light, the Archetype of soul.\n\n*A:*What, then, is God?\n\n13. *H:* Not any one of these is He; for He it is that causeth them to be, both all and each and every thing of all that are. Nor hath He left a thing beside that is-not; but they are all from things-that-are and not from things-that-are-not. For that the things-that-are-not have naturally no power of being anything, but naturally have the power of the inability-to-be. And, conversely, the things-that-are have not the nature of some time not-being.\n\n14. *A:*What say'st thou ever, then, God is?\n\n*H:* God, therefore, is not Mind, but Cause that the Mind is; God is not Spirit, but Cause that Spirit is; God is not Light, but Cause that the Light is. Hence one should honor God with these two names [the Good and Father] - names which pertain to Him alone and no one else.\n\nFor no one of the other so-called gods, no one of men, or daimones, can be in any measure Good, but God alone; and He is Good alone and nothing else. The rest of things are separable all from the Good's nature; for [all the rest] are soul and body, which have no place that can contain the Good.\n\n15. For that as mighty is the Greatness of the Good as is the Being of all things that are - both bodies and things bodiless, things sensible and intelligible things. Call thou not, therefore, aught else Good, for thou would'st imious be; nor anything at all at any time call God but Good alone, for so thou would'st again be impious.\n\n16. Though, then, the Good is spoken of by all, it is not understood by all, what thing it is. Not only, then, is God not understood by all, but both unto the gods and some of the men they out of ignorance do give the name of Good, though they can never either be or become Good. For they are very different from God, while Good can never be distinguished from Him, for that God is the same as Good.\n\nThe rest of the immortal ones are nonetheless honored with the name of God, and spoken of as gods; but God is Good not out of courtesy but out of nature. For that God's nature and the Good is one; one os the kind of both, from which all other kinds [proceed].\n\nThe Good is he who gives all things and naught receives. God, then, doth give all things and receive naught. God, then, is Good, and Good is God.\n\n17. The other name of God is Father, again because He is the that-which-maketh-all. The part of father is to make.\n\nWherefore child-making is a very great and a most pious thing in life for them who think aright, and to leave life on earth without a child a very great misfortune and impiety; and he who hath no child is punished by the daimones after death. And this is the punishment: that that man's soul who hath no child, shall be condemned unto a body with neither man's nor woman's nature, a thing accursed beneath the sun.\n\nWherefore, Asclepius, let not your sympathies be with the man who hath no child, but rather pity his mishap, knowing what punishment abides for him.\n\nLet all that has been said then, be to thee, Asclepius, an introduction to the gnosis of the nature of all things.\n\n## The Sacred Sermon\n\n*Notes on the text: This brief (and possibly somewhat garbled) text recounts the creation and nature of the world in terms much like those of the Poemandres. The major theme is the renewal of all things in a cyclic universe, with the seven planetary rulers again playing a major role.*\n\n1. The Glory of all things is God, Godhead and Godly Nature. Source of the things that are is God, who is both Mind and Nature - yea Matter, the Wisdom that reveals all things. Source [too] is Godhead - yea Nature, Energy, Necessity, and End, and Making-new-again.\n\nDarkness that knew no bounds was in Abyss, and Water [too] and subtle Breath intelligent; these were by Power of God in Chaos.\n\nThen Holy Light arose; and there collected 'neath Dry Space <literally: \"sand\"> from out Moist Essence Elements; and all the Gods do separate things out from fecund Nature.\n\n2. All things being undefined and yet unwrought, the light things were assigned unto the height, the heavy ones had their foundations laid down underneath the moist part of Dry Space, the universal things being bounded off by Fire and hanged in Breath to keep them up.\n\nAnd Heaven was seen in seven circles; its Gods were visible in forms of stars with all their signs; while Nature had her members made articulate together with the Gods in her. And [Heaven's] periphery revolved in cyclic course, borne on by Breath of God.\n\n3. And every God by his own proper power brought forth what was appointed him. Thus there arose four-footed beasts, and creeping things, and those that in the water dwell, and things with wings, and everything that beareth seed, and grass, and shoot of every flower, all having in themselves seed of again-becoming.\n\nAnd they selected out the births of men for gnosis of the works of God and attestation of the energy of Nature; the multitude of men for lordship over all beneath the heaven and gnosis of its blessings, that they might increase in increasing and multiply in multitude, and every soul infleshed by revolution of the Cyclic Gods, for observation of the marvels of Heaven and Heaven's Gods' revolution, and of the works of God and energy of Nature, for tokens of its blessings, for gnosis of the power of God, that they might know the fates that follow good and evil [deeds] and learn the cunning work of all good arts.\n\n4. [Thus] there begins their living and their growing wise, according to the fate appointed by the revolution of the Cyclic Gods, and their deceasing for this end.\n\nAnd there shall be memorials mighty of their handiworks upon the earth, leaving dim trace behind when cycles are renewed.\n\nFor every birth of flesh ensouled, and of the fruit of seed, and every handiwork, though it decay, shall of necessity renew itself, both by the renovation of the Gods and by the turning-round of Nature's rhythmic wheel.\n\nFor that whereas the Godhead is Nature's ever-making-new-again the cosmic mixture, Nature herself is also co-established in that Godhead.\n\n## The Cup Or Monad\n\n*Notes on the text: This short text gives an unusually lucid overview of the foundations of Hermetic thought. The stress on rejection of the body and its pleasures, and on the division of humanity into those with Mind and those without, are reminiscent of some of the so-called \"Gnostic\" writings of the same period. The idea that the division is a matter of choice, on the other hand, is a pleasant variation on the almost Calvinist flavor of writings such as the Apocalypse ofAdam.*\n\n*Mead speculates that the imagery of the Cup in this text may have a distant connection, by way of unorthodox ideas about Communion, with the legends of the Holy Grail.*\n\n1. Hermes: With Reason (Logos), not with hands, did the World-maker make the universal World; so that thou shouldst think of him as everywhere and ever-being, the Author of all things, and One and Only, who by His Will all beings hath created.\n\nThis Body of Him is a thing no man can touch, or see, or measure, a body inextensible, like to no other frame. 'Tis neither Fire nor Water, Air nor Breath; yet all of them come from it. Now being Good he willed to consecrate this [Body] to Himself alone, and set its Earth in order and adorn it.\n\n2. So down [to Earth] He sent the Cosmos of this Frame Divine - man, a life that cannot die, and yet a life that dies. And o'er [all other] lives and over Cosmos [too], did man excel by reason of the Reason (Logos) and the Mind. For contemplator of God's works did man become; he marvelled and did strive to know their Author.\n\n3. Reason (Logos) indeed, O Tat, among all men hath He distributed, but Mind not yet; not that He grudgeth any, for grudging cometh not from Him, but hath its place below, within the souls of men who have no Mind.\n\nTat: Why then did God, O father, not on all bestow a share of Mind?\n\nH: He willed, my son, to have it set up in the midst for souls, just as it were a prize.\n\n4. T: And where hath He set it up?\n\nH: He filled a mighty Cup with it, and sent it down, joining a Herald [to it], to whom He gave command to make this proclamation to the hearts of men:\n\nBaptize thyself with this Cup's baptism, what heart can do so, thou that hast faith thou canst ascend to him that hath sent down the Cup, thou that dost know for what thoudidst come into being!\n\nAs many then as understood the Herald's tidings and doused themselves in Mind, became partakers in the Gnosis; and when they had \"received the Mind\" they were made \"perfect men\".\n\nBut they who do not understand the tidings, these, since they possess the aid of Reason [only] and not Mind, are ignorant wherefor they have come into being and whereby.\n\n5. The senses of such men are like irrational creatures'; and as their [whole] make-up is in their feelings and their impulses, they fail in all appreciation of <lit.: \"they do not wonder at\"> those things which really are worth contemplation. These center all their thought upon the pleasures of the body and its appetites, in the belief that for its sake man hath come into being.\n\nBut they who have received some portion of God's gift, these, Tat, if we judge by their deeds, have from Death's bonds won their release; for they embrace in their own Mind all things, things on the earth, things in the heaven, and things above the heaven - if there be aught. And having raised themselves so far they sight the Good; and having sighted it, they look upon their sojourn here as a mischance; and in disdain of all, both things in body and the bodiless, they speed their way unto that One and Only One.\n\n6. This is, O Tat, the Gnosis of the Mind, Vision of things Divine; God-knowledge is it, for the Cup is God's.\n\nT: Father, I, too, would be baptized.\n\nH: Unless thou first shall hate thy Body, son, thou canst not love thy Self. But if thou lov'st thy Self thou shalt have Mind, and having Mind thou shalt share in the Gnosis.\n\nT: Father, what dost thou mean?\n\nH: It is not possible, my son, to give thyself to both - I mean to things that perish and to things divine. For seeing that existing things are twain, Body and Bodiless, in which the perishing and the divine are understood, the man who hath the will to choose is left the choice of one or the other; for it can never be the twain should meet. And in those souls to whom the choice is left, the waning of the one causes the other's growth to show itself.\n\n7. Now the choosing of the Better not only proves a lot most fair for him who makes the choice, seeing it makes the man a God, but also shows his piety to God. Whereas the [choosing] of the Worse, although it doth destroy the \"man\", it doth only disturb God's harmony to this extent, that as processions pass by in the middle of the way, without being able to do anything but take the road from others, so do such men move in procession through the world led by their bodies' pleasures.\n\n8. This being so, O Tat, what comes from God hath been and will be ours; but that which is dependent on ourselves, let this press onward and have no delay, for 'tis not God, 'tis we who are the cause of evil things, preferring them to good.\n\nThou see'st, son, how many are the bodies through which we have to pass, how many are the choirs of daimones, how vast the system of the star-courses [through which our Path doth lie], to hasten to the One and Only God.\n\nFor to the Good there is no other shore; It hath no bounds; It is without an end; and for Itself It is without beginning, too, though unto us it seemeth to have one - the Gnosis.\n\n9. Therefore to It Gnosis is no beginning; rather is it [that Gnosis doth afford] to us the first beginning of its being known.\n\nLet us lay hold, therefore, of the beginning. and quickly speed through all [we have to pass].\n\n'Tis very hard, to leave the things we have grown used to, which meet our gaze on every side, and turn ourselves back to the Old Old [Path].\n\nAppearances delight us, whereas things which appear not make their believing hard.\n\nNow evils are the more apparent things, whereas the Good can never show Itself unto the eyes, for It hath neither form nor figure.\n\nTherefore the Good is like Itself alone, and unlike all things else; or 'tis impossible that That which hath no body should make Itself apparent to a body.\n\n10. The \"Like's\" superiority to the \"Unlike\" and the \"Unlike's\" inferiority unto the \"Like\" consists in this:\n\nThe Oneness being Source and Root of all, is in all things as Root and Source. Without [this] Source is naught; whereas the Source [Itself] is from naught but itself, since it is Source of all the rest. It is Itself Its Source, since It may have no other Source.\n\nThe Oneness then being Source, containeth every number, but is contained by none; engendereth every number, but is engendered by no other one.\n\n11. Now all that is engendered is imperfect, it is divisible, to increase subject and to decrease; but with the Perfect [One] none of these things doth hold. Now that which is increasable increases from the Oneness, but succumbs through its own feebleness when it no longer can contain the One.\n\nAnd now, O Tat, God's Image hath been sketched for thee, as far as it can be; and if thou wilt attentively dwell on it and observe it with thine heart's eyes, believe me, son, thou'lt find the Path that leads above; nay, that Image shall become thy Guide itself, because the Sight [Divine] hath this peculiar [charm], it holdeth fast and draweth unto it those who succeed in opening their eyes, just as, they say, the magnet [draweth] iron.\n\n## Though Unmanifest God Is Most Manifest\n\n1. I will recount to thee this sermon (logos) too, O Tat, that thou may'st cease to be without the mysteries of the God beyond all name. And mark thou well how that which to the many seems unmanifest, will grow most manifest for thee.\n\nNow were it manifest, it would not be. For all that is made manifest is subject to becoming, for it hath been made manifest. But the Unmanifest for ever is, for It doth not desire to be made manifest. It ever is, and maketh manifest all other things.\n\nBeing Himself unmanifest, as ever being and ever making-manifest, Himself is not made manifest. God is not made Himself; by thinking-manifest <i.e., thinking into manifestation>, He thinketh all things manifest.\n\nNow \"thinking-manifest\" deals with things made alone, for thinking-manifest is nothing else than making.\n\n2. He, then, alone who is not made, 'tis clear, is both beyond all power of thinking-manifest, and is unmanifest.\n\nAnd as He thinketh all things manifest, He manifests through all things and in all, and most of all in whatsoever things He wills to manifest.\n\nDo thou, then, Tat, my son, pray first unto our Lord and Father, the One-and-Only One, from whom the One doth come, to show His mercy unto thee, in order that thou mayest have the power to catch a thought of this so mighty God, one single beam of Him to shine into thy thinking. For thought alone \"sees\" the Unmanifest, in that it is itself unmanifest.\n\nIf, then, thou hast the power, He will, Tat, manifest to thy mind's eyes. The Lord begrudgeth not Himself to anything, but manifests Himself through the whole world.\n\nThou hast the power of taking thought, of seeing it and grasping it in thy own \"hands\", and gazing face to face upon God's Image. But if what is within thee even is unmanifest to thee, how, then, shall He Himself who is within thy self be manifest for thee by means of [outer] eyes?\n\n3. But if thou wouldst \"see\" him, bethink thee of the sun, bethink thee of moon's course, bethink thee of the order of the stars. Who is the One who watcheth o'er that order? For every order hath its boundaries marked out by place and number.\n\nThe sun's the greatest god of gods in heaven; to whom all of the heavenly gods give place as unto king and master. And he, this so-great one, he greater than the earth and sea, endures to have above him circling smaller stars than him. Out of respect to Whom, or out of fear of Whom, my son, [doth he do this]?\n\nNor like nor equal is the course each of these stars describes in heaven. Who [then] is He who marketh out the manner of their course and its extent?\n\n4. The Bear up there that turneth round itself, and carries round the whole cosmos with it - Who is the owner of this instrument? Who He who hath set round the sea its bounds? Who He who hath set on its seat the earth?\n\nFor, Tat, there is someone who is the Maker and the Lord of all these things. It cound not be that number, place and measure could be kept without someone to make them. No order whatsoever could be made by that which lacketh place and lacketh measure; nay, even this is not without a lord, my son. For if the orderless lacks something, in that it is not lord of order's path, it also is beneath a lord - the one who hath not yet ordained it order.\n\n5. Would that it were possible for thee to get thee wings, and soar into the air, and, poised midway 'tween earth and heaven, behold the earth's solidity, the sea's fluidity (the flowings of its streams), the spaciousness of air, fire's swiftness, [and] the coursing of the stars, the swiftness of heaven's circuit round them [all]!\n\nMost blessed sight were it, my son, to see all these beneath one sway - the motionless in motion, and the unmanifest made manifest; whereby is made this order of the cosmos and the cosmos which we see of order.\n\n6. If thou would'st see Him too through things that suffer death, both on the earth and in the deep, think of a man's being fashioned in the womb, my son, and strictly scrutinize the art of Him who fashions him, and learn who fashioneth this fair and godly image of the Man.\n\nWho [then] is He who traceth out the circles of the eyes; who He who boreth out the nostrils and the ears; who He who openeth [the portal of] the mouth; who He who doth stretch out and tie the nerves; who He who channels out the veins; who He who hardeneth the bones; who He who covereth the flesh with skin; who He who separates the fingers and the joints; who He who widens out a treading for the feet; who He who diggeth out the ducts; who He who spreadeth out the spleen; who he who shapeth heart like to a pyramid; who He who setteth ribs together; who He who wideneth the liver out; who He who maketh lungs like to a sponge; who He who maketh belly stretch so much; who he who doth make prominent the parts most honorable, so that they may be seen, while hiding out of sight those of least honor?\n\n7. Behold how many arts [employed] on one material, how many labors on one single sketch; and all exceeding fair, and all in perfect measure, yet all diversified! Who made them all? What mother, or what sire, save God alone, unmanifest, who hath made all things by His Will?\n\n8. And no one saith a statue or a picture comes to be without a sculptor or [without] a painter; doth [then] such workmanship as this exist without a Worker? What depth of blindness, what deep impiety, what depth of ignorance! See, [then] thou ne'er, son Tat, deprivest works of Worker!\n\nNay, rather is He greater than all names, so great is He, the Father of them all. For verily He is the Only One, and this is His work, to be a father.\n\n9. So, if thou forcest me somewhat too bold, to speak, His being is conceiving of all things and making [them].\n\nAnd as without its maker its is impossible that anything should be, so ever is He not unless He ever makes all things, in heaven, in air, in earth, in deep, in all of cosmos, in every part that is and that is not of everything. For there is naught in all the world that is not He.\n\nHe is Himself, both things that are and things that are not. The things that are He hath made manifest, He keepeth things that are not in Himself.\n\n10. He is the God beyond all name; He the unmanifest, He the most manifest; He whom the mind [alone] can contemplate, He visible to the eyes [as well]; He is the one of no body, the one of many bodies, nay, rather He of every body.\n\nNaught is there which he is not. For all are He and He is all. And for this cause hath He all names, in that they are one Father's. And for this cause hath He Himself no nome, in that He's Father of [them] all.\n\nWho, then, may sing Thee praise of Thee, or [praise] to Thee?\n\nWhither, again, am I to turn my eyes to sing Thy praise; above, below, within, without?\n\nThere is no way, no place [is there] about Thee, nor any other thing of things that are.\n\nAll [are] in Thee; all [are] from Thee, O Thou who givest all and takest naught, for Thou hast all and naught is there Thou hast not.\n\n11. And when, O Father, shall I hymn Thee? For none can seize Thy hour or time.\n\nFor what, again, shall I sing hymn? For things that Thou hast made, or things Thou hast not? For things Thou hast made manifest, or things Thou hast concealed?\n\nHow, further, shall I hymn Thee? As being of myself? As having something of mine own? As being other?\n\nFor that Thou art whatever I may be; Thou art whatever I may do; Thou art whatever I may speak.\n\nFor Thou art all, and there is nothing else which Thou art not. Thou art all that which doth exist, and Thou art what doth not exist - Mind when Thou thinkest, and Father when Thou makest, and God when Thou dost energize, and Good and Maker of all things.\n\nFor that the subtler part of matter is the air, of air the soul, of soul the mind, and of mind God.\n\n## In God Alone Is Good And Elsewhere Nowhere\n\n*Notes on the text: This sermon on the nature of the Good, like *To Asclepius (CH II)*, relies on the technical language of classical Greek philosophy - a point which some of Mead's translations tend to obscure. \"The Good,\" in Greek thought, is also the self-caused and self-sufficient, and thus has little in common with later conceptions of \"goodness,\" just as the Latin word virtus and the modern Christian concept of \"virtue\" are very nearly opposites despite their etymological connection. The word \"passion\" here also needs to be understood in its older sense, as the opposite of \"action\" (cf. \"active\" and \"passive\").*\n\n*The negative attitude toward humanity and the cosmos which appears in this text contrasts sharply with the more positive assessment found, for example, in the *Poemandres (CH I)* or in the *Asclepius* - a reminder that these documents are relics of a diverse and not necessarily consistent school of thought*\n\n1. Good, O Asclepius, is in none else save in God alone; nay, rather, Good is God Himself eternally.\n\nIf it be so, [Good] must be essence, from every kind of motion and becoming free (though naught is free from It), possessed of stable energy around Itself, never too little, nor too much, an ever-full supply. [Though] one, yet [is It] source of all; for what supplieth all is Good. When I, moreover, say [supplieth] altogether [all], it is for ever Good. But this belongs to no one else save God alone.\n\nFor He stands not in need of any thing, so that desiring it He should be bad; nor can a single thing of things that are be lost to him, on losing which He should be pained; for pain is part of bad.\n\nNor is there aught superior to Him, that He should be subdued by it; nor any peer to Him to do Him wrong, or [so that] He should fall in love on its account; nor aught that gives no ear to Him, whereat He should grow angry; nor wiser aught, for Him to envy.\n\n2. Now as all these are non-existent in His being, what is there left but Good alone?\n\nFor just as naught of bad is to be found in such transcendent Being, so too in no one of the rest will Good be found.\n\nFor in them are all of the other things <i.e., those things which are not Good> - both in the little and the great, both in each severally and in this living one that's greater than them all and the mightiest [of them] <i.e., the cosmos>.\n\nFor things subject to birth abound in passions, birth in itself being passible. But where there's passion, nowhere is there Good; and where is Good, nowhere a single passion. For where is day, nowhere is night; and where is night, day is nowhere.\n\nWherefore in genesis the Good can never be, but only be in the ingenerate.\n\nBut seeing that the sharing in all things hath been bestowed on matter, so doth it share in Good.\n\nIn this way is the Cosmos Good; that, in so far as it doth make all things, as far as making goes it's Good, but in all other things it is not Good. For it's both passible and subject unto motion, and maker of things passible.\n\n3. Whereas in man by greater or less of bad is good determined. For what is not too bad down here, is good, and good down here is the least part of bad.\n\nIt cannot, therefore, be that good down here should be quite clean of bad, for down here good is fouled with bad; and being fouled, it stays no longer good, and staying not it changes into bad.\n\nIn God alone, is, therefore, Good, or rather Good is God Himself.\n\nSo then, Asclepius, the name alone of Good is found in men, the thing itself nowhere [in them], for this can never be.\n\nFor no material body doth contain It - a thing bound on all sides by bad, by labors, pains, desires and passions, by error and by foolish thoughts.\n\nAnd greatest ill of all, Asclepius, is that each of these things that have been said above, is thought down here to be the greatest good.\n\nAnd what is still an even greater ill, is belly-lust, the error that doth lead the band of all the other ills - the thing that makes us turn down here from Good.\n\n4. And I, for my part, give thanks to God, that He hath cast it in my mind about the Gnosis of the Good, that it can never be It should be in the world. For that the world is \"fullness\" of the bad, but God of Good, and Good of God.\n\nThe excellencies of the Beautiful are round the very essence [of the Good]; nay, they do seem too pure, too unalloyed; perchance 'tis they that are themselves Its essences.\n\nFor one may dare to say, Asclepius - if essence, sooth, He have - God's essence is the Beautiful; the Beautiful is further also Good.\n\nThere is no Good that can be got from objects in the world. For all the things that fall beneath the eye are image-things and pictures as it were; while those that do not meet [the eye are the realities], especially the [essence] of the Beautiful and Good.\n\nJust as the eye cannot see God, so can it not behold the Beautiful and Good. For that they are integral parts of God, wedded to Him alone, inseparate familiars, most beloved, with whom God is Himself in love, or they with God.\n\n5. If thou canst God conceive, thou shalt conceive the Beautiful and Good, transcending Light, made lighter than the Light by God. That Beauty is beyond compare, inimitate that Good, e'en as God is Himself.\n\nAs, then, thou dost conceive of God, conceive the Beautiful and Good. For they cannot be joined with aught of other things that live, since they can never be divorced from God.\n\nSeek'st thou for God, thou seekest for the Beautiful. One is the Path that leadeth unto It - Devotion joined with Gnosis.\n\n6. And thus it is that they who do not know and do not tread Devotion's Path, do dare to call man beautiful and good, though he have ne'er e'en in his visions seen a whit that's Good, but is enveloped with every kind of bad, and thinks the bad is good, and thus doth make unceasing use of it, and even feareth that it should be ta'en from him, so straining every nerve not only to preserve but even to increase it.\n\nSuch are the things that men call good and beautiful, Asclepius - things which we cannot flee or hate; for hardest thing of all is that we've need of them and cannot live without them.\n\n## The Greatest Ill Among Men Is Ignorance Of God\n\n1. Whither stumble ye, sots, who have sopped up the wine of ignorance and can so far not carry it that ye already even spew it forth?\n\nStay ye, be sober, gaze upwards with the [true] eyes of the heart! And if ye cannot all, yet ye at least who can!\n\nFor that the ill of ignorance doth pour o'er all the earth and overwhelm the soul that's battened down within the body, preventing it from fetching port within Salvation's harbors.\n\n2. Be ye then not carried off by the fierce flood, but using the shore-current <lit., \"back-current\" or \"up-current\">, ye who can, make for Salvation's port, and, harboring there, seek ye for one to take you by the hand and lead you unto Gnosis' gates.\n\nWhere shines clear Light, of every darkness clean; where not a single soul is drunk, but sober all they gaze with their hearts' eyes on Him who willeth to be seen.\n\nNo ear can hear Him, nor can eye see Him, nor tongue speak of Him, but [only] mind and heart.\n\nBut first thou must tear off from thee the cloak which thou dost wear - the web of ignorance, the ground of bad, corruption's chain, the carapace of darkness, the living death, sensation's corpse, the tomb thou carriest with thee, the robber in thy house, who through the things he loveth, hateth thee, and through the things he hateth, bears thee malice.\n\n3. Such is the hateful cloak thou wearest - that throttles thee [and holds thee] down to it, in order that thou may'st not gaze above, and having seen the Beauty of the Truth, and Good that dwells therein, detest the bad of it; having found out the plot that it hath schemed against thee, by making void of sense those seeming things which men think senses.\n\nFor that it hath with mass of matter blocked them up and crammed them full of loathsome lust, so that thou may'st not hear about the things that thou should'st hear, nor see the things thou should'st see.\n\n## That No One Of Existing Things Doth Perish, But Men In Error Speak Of Their Changes As Destructions And As Deaths\n\n*Notes on the text: The idea of cyclic change central to CH III, \"The Sacred Sermon\", also takes center stage here. A current of ancient speculation grounded in astrology held that as the planets returned after vast cycles of time to the same positions, so all events on earth would repeat themselves precisely into eternity in the future - and had done so from eternity in the past. The technical term for this recurrence, apocatastasis, is the word Mead translates as \"restoration\" in the beginning of section 4.*\n\n*Mead footnotes this tractate as \"obscure\" and \"faulty\" in places, and his translation of the beginning of section 3 is conjectural.*\n\n1. [Hermes:] Concerning Soul and Body, son, we now must speak; in what way Soul is deathless, and whence comes the activity in composing and dissolving Body.\n\nFor there's no death for aught of things [that are]; the thought this word conveys, is either void of fact, or [simply] by the knocking off a syllable what is called \"death\", doth stand for \"deathless\".\n\nFor death is of destruction, and nothing in the Cosmos is destroyed. For if Cosmos is second God, a life <or living creature> that cannot die, it cannot be that any part of this immortal life should die. All things in Cosmos are parts of Cosmos, and most of all is man, the rational animal.\n\n2. For truly first of all, eternal and transcending birth, is God the universals' Maker. Second is he \"after His image\", Cosmos, brought into being by Him, sustained and fed by Him, made deathless, as by his own Sire, living for aye, as ever free from death.\n\nNow that which ever-liveth, differs from the Eternal; for He hath not been brought to being by another, and even if He have been brought to being, He hath not been brought to being by Himself, but ever is brought into being.\n\nFor the Eternal, in that It is eternal, is the all. The Father is Himself eternal of Himself, but Cosmos hath become eternal and immortal by the Father.\n\n3. And of the matter stored beneath it <i.e., beneath the cosmos>, the Father made of it a universal body, and packing it together made it spherical - wrapping it round the life - [a sphere] which is immortal in itself, and that doth make materiality eternal.\n\nBut He, the Father, full-filled with His ideas, did sow the lives <or living creatures> into the sphere, and shut them in as in a cave, willing to order forth the life with every kind of living.\n\nSo He with deathlessness enclosed the universal body, that matter might not wish to separate itself from body's composition, and so dissolve into its own [original] unorder.\n\nFor matter, son, when it was yet incorporate <i.e., not yet formed into bodies>, was in unorder. And it doth still retain down here this [nature of unorder] enveloping the rest of the small lives <or living creatures> - that increase-and-decrease which men call death.\n\n4. It is round earthly lives that this unorder doth exist. For that the bodies of the heavenly ones preserve one order allotted to them by the Father as their rule; and it is by the restoration of each one [of them] this order is preserved indissolute.\n\nThe \"restoration\" of bodies on the earth is thus their composition, whereas their dissolution restores them to those bodies which can never be dissolved, that is to say, which know no death. Privation, thus, of sense is brought about, not loss of bodies.\n\n5. Now the third life - Man, after the image of the Cosmos made, [and] having mind, after the Father's will, beyond all earthly lives - not only doth have feeling with the second God <i.e., the Cosmos>, but also hath conception of the first; for of the one 'tis sensible as of a body, while of the other it conceives as bodiless and the Good Mind.\n\nTat: Doth then this life not perish?\n\nHermes: Hush, son! and understand what God, what Cosmos [is], what is a life that cannot die, and what a life subject to dissolution.\n\nYea, understand the Cosmos is by God and in God; but Man by Cosmos and in Cosmos.\n\nThe source and limit and the constitution of all things is God.\n\n## On Thought And Sense\n\n*Notes on the text: This somewhat diffuse essay covers a series of topics, starting with (and to some extent from) the concept that the set of perceptions we call \"thoughts\" and the set we call \"sensory perceptions\" are not significantly different from each other. The implications of this idea play a significant role in later Hermetic thought, particularly in the areas of magic and the Art of Memory; in this tractate, though, the issues involved are barely touched, and the argument wanders into moral dualisms and the equally important, but distinct, idea that the Cosmos is itself a divine creative power.*\n\n*Section 10, in which understanding is held up as the source and precondition of belief, should probably be seen as part of the same ancient debate on the roles of faith and reason that gave rise to Tertullian's famous credo quia absurdum (\"I believe because it is absurd\").*\n\n1. I gave the Perfect Sermon (Logos) yesterday, Asclepius; today I think it right, as sequel thereunto, to go through point by point the Sermon about Sense.\n\nNow sense and thought do seem to differ, in that the former has to do with matter, the latter has to do with substance. But unto me both seem to be at-one and not to differ - in men I mean. In other lives <or living creatures> sense is at-oned with Nature, but in men thought.\n\nNow mind doth differ just as much from thought as God doth from divinity. For that divinity by God doth come to be, and by mind thought, the sister of the word (logos) and instruments of one another. For neither doth the word (logos) find utterance without thought, nor is thought manifested without word.\n\n2. So sense and thought both flow together into man, as though they were entwined with one another. For neither without sensing can one think, nor without thinking sense.\n\nBut it is possible [they say] to think a thing apart from sense, as those who fancy sights in dreams. But unto me it seems that both of these activities occur in dream-sight, and sense doth pass out of the sleeping to the waking state.\n\nFor man is separated into soul and body, and only when the two sides of his sense agree together, does utterance of its thought conceived by mind take place.\n\n3. For it is mind that doth conceive all thoughts - good thoughts when it receives the seeds from God, their contraries when [it receiveth them] from the daimonials; no part of Cosmos being free of daimon, who stealthily doth creep into the daimon who's illumined by God's light <i.e., the human soul>, and sow in him the seed of its own energy.\n\nAnd mind conceives the seed thus sown, adultery, murder, parricide, [and] sacrilege, impiety, [and] strangling, casting down precipices, and all such other deeds as are the work of evil daimons.\n\n4. The seeds of God, 'tis true, are few, but vast and fair, and good - virtue and self-control, devotion. Devotion is God-gnosis; and he who knoweth God, being filled with all good things, thinks godly thoughts and not thoughts like the many [think].\n\nFor this cause they who Gnostic are, please not the many, nor the many them. They are thought mad and laughted at; they're hated and despised, and sometimes even put to death.\n\nFor we did say that bad must needs dwell on earth, where 'tis in its own place. Its place is earth, and not Cosmos, as some will sometimes say with impious tongue.\n\nBut he who is a devotee of God, will bear with all - once he has sensed the Gnosis. For such an one all things, e'en though they be for others bad, are for him good; deliberately he doth refer them all unto the Gnosis. And, thing most marvelous, 'tis he alone who maketh bad things good.\n\n5. But I return once more to the Discourse (Logos) on Sense. That sense doth share with thought in man, doth constitute him man. But 'tis not [every] man, as I have said, who benefits by thought; for this man is material, that other one substantial.\n\nFor the material man, as I have said, [consorting] with the bad, doth have his seed of thought from daimons; while the substantial men [consorting] with the Good, are saved by God.\n\nNow God is Maker of all things, and in His making, He maketh all [at last] like to Himself; but they, while they're becoming good by exercise of their activity, are unproductive things.\n\nIt is the working of the Cosmic Course that maketh their becomings what they are, befouling some of them with bad and others of them making clean with good.\n\nFor Cosmos, too, Asclepius, possesseth sense-and-thought peculiar to itself, not like that of man; 'tis not so manifold, but as it were a better and a simpler one.\n\n6. The single sense-and-thought of Cosmos is to make all things, and make them back into itself again, as Organ of the Will of God, so organized that it, receiving all the seeds into itself from God, and keeping them within itself, may make all manifest, and [then] dissolving them, make them all new again; and thus, like a Good Gardener of Life, things that have been dissolved, it taketh to itself, and giveth them renewal once again.\n\nThere is no thing to which it gives not life; but taking all unto itself it makes them live, and is at the same time the Place of Life and its Creator.\n\n7. Now bodies matter [-made] are in diversity. Some are of earth, of water some, some are of air, and some of fire.\n\nBut they are all composed; some are more [composite], and some are simpler. The heavier ones are more [composed], the lighter less so.\n\nIt is the speed of Cosmos' Course that works the manifoldness of the kinds of births. For being a most swift Breath, it doth bestow their qualities on bodies together with the One Pleroma - that of Life.\n\n8. God, then, is Sire of Cosmos; Cosmos, of all in Cosmos. And Cosmos is God's Son; but things in Cosmos are by Cosmos.\n\nAnd properly hath it been called Cosmos [Order]; for that it orders all with their diversity of birth, with its not leaving aught without its life, with the unweariedness of its activity, the speed of its necessity, the composition of its elements, and order of its creatures.\n\nThe same, then, of necessity and propriety should have the name of Order.\n\nThe sense-and-thought, then, of all lives doth come into them from without, inbreathed by what contains [them all]; whereas Cosmos receives them once for all together with its coming into being, and keeps them as a gift from God.\n\n9. But God is not, as some suppose, beyond the reach of sense-and-thought. It is through superstition men thus impiously speak.\n\nFor all the things that are, Asclepius, all are in God, are brought by God to be, and do depend on Him - both things that act through bodies, and things that through soul-substance make [other things] to move, and things that make things live by means of spirit, and things that take unto themselves the things that are worn out.\n\nAnd rightly so; nay, I would rather say, He doth not have these things; but I speak forth the truth, He is them all Himself. He doth not get them from without, but gives them out [from Him].\n\nThis is God's sense-and-thought, ever to move all things. And never time shall be when e'en a whit of things that are shall cease; and when I say \"a whit of things that are\", I mean a whit of God. For thigs that are, God hath; nor aught [is there] without Him, nor [is] He without aught.\n\n10. These things should seem to thee, Asclepius, if thou dost understand them, true; but if thou dost not understand, things not to be believed.\n\nTo understand is to believe, to not believe is not to understand.\n\nMy word (logos) doth go before [thee] to the truth. But mighty is the mind, and when it hath been led by word up to a certain point, it hath the power to come before [thee] to the truth.\n\nAnd having thought o'er all these things, and found them consonant with those which have already been translated by the reason, it hath [e'en now] believed, and found its rest in that Fair Faith.\n\nTo those, then, who by God['s good aid] do understand the things that have been said [by us] above, they're credible; but unto those who understand them not, incredible.\n\nLet so much, then, suffice on thought-and-sense.\n\n## The Key\n\n*Notes: This longer tractate presents itself explicitly as a summary or abridgement of the General Sermons (CH II-IX), and discusses the Hermetic view of knowledge and its role in the lives and afterlives of human beings. The attentive reader will notice certain contradictions between the afterlife-teachings of this and previous tractates.*\n\n*One of the central concepts of The Key, and of Hermetic thought generally, is the distinction between ordinary discursive knowledge which can be expressed in words (in Greek, episteme, which Mead translates somewhat clumsily as \"science\") and transcendent, unitive knowledge which cannot be communicated (in Greek, gnosis, which Mead simply and sensibly leaves untranslated). The same distinction can be found in many systems of mystical thought. Unlike most of these, though, the Hermetic teachings place value on both.*\n\n*Readers without much experience in the jargon of Classical philosophy will want to remember that \"hylic\" means \"material\", \"passible\" means \"subject to outside forces or to suffering\", and \"intelligible\" means \"belonging to the realm of the Mind\", and \"motion\" includes all kinds of change. The special implications of \"good\" in Greek thought - of self-sufficiency and desirability - should also be kept in mind.*\n\n*The delightful irony of the Zen moment early in section 9, when Hermes - in the middle of this very substantial lecture - defines the good and pious man as \"he who doth not say much or lend his ear to much\" and thus rules out both himself and his audience, seems to have been lost on subsequent commentators.*\n\n1. Hermes: My yesterday's discourse (logos) I did devote to thee, Asclepius, and so 'tis [only] right I should devote toafy's to Tat; and this the more because 'tis the abridgement of the General Sermons (Logoi) which he has had addressed to him.\n\n\"God, Father and the Good\", then, Tat, hath the same nature, or more exactly, energy.\n\nFor nature is a predicate of growth, and used of things that change, both mobile and immobile, that is to say, both human and divine, each one of which He willeth into being.\n\nBut energy consists in something else, as we have shown in treating of the rest, both things divine and human things; which thing we ought to have in mind when treating of the Good.\n\n2. God's energy is then His Will; further His essence is to will the being of all things. For what is \"God and Father and the Good\" but the \"to be\" of all that are not yet? Nay, subsistence self of everything that is; this, then, is God, this Father, this the Good; to Him is added naught of all the rest.\n\nAnd though the Cosmos, that is to say the Sun, is also sire himself to them that share in him; yet so far is he not the cause of good unto the lives, he is not even of their living.\n\nSo that e'en if he be a sire, he is entirely so by compulsion of the Good's Good-will, apart from which nor being nor becoming could e'er be.\n\n3. Again, the parent is the children's cause, both on the father's and the mother's side, only by sharing in the Good's desire [that doth pour] through the Sun. It is the Good which doeth the creating.\n\nAnd such a power can be possessed by no one else than Him alone who taketh naught, but wills all things to be; I will not, Tat, say \"makes\".\n\nFor that the maker is defective for long periods (in which he sometimes makes, and sometimes doth not make) both in the quality and in the quantity [of what he makes]; in that he sometimes maketh them so many and such like, and sometimes the reverse.\n\nBut \"God and Father and the Good\" is [cause] for all to be. So are at least these things for those who can see.\n\n4. For It doth will to be, and It is both Itself and most of all by reason of Itself. Indeed, all other things beside are just bacause of It; for the distinctive feature of the Good is \"that it should be known\". Such is the Good, O Tat.\n\nTat: Thou hast, O father, filled us so full of this so good and fairest sight, that thereby my mind's eye hath now become for me almost a thing to worship.\n\nFor that the vision of the Good doth not, like the sun's beam, firelike blaze on the eyes and make them close; nay, on the contrary, it shineth forth and maketh to increase the seeing of the eye, as far as e'er a man hath the capacity to hold the inflow of the radiance that the mind alone can see.\n\nNot only does it come more swiftly down to us, but it does us no harm, and is instinct with all immortal life.\n\n5. They who are able to drink in a somewhat more than others of this Sight, ofttimes from out the body fall asleep in this fairest Spectacle, as was the case with Uranus and Cronus, our forebears. may this be out lot too, O father mine!\n\nHermes: Yea, may it be, my son! But as it is, we are not yet strung to the Vision, and not as yet have we the power our mind's eye to unfold and gaze upon the Beauty of the Good - Beauty that naught can e'er corrupt or any comprehend.\n\nFor only then wilt thou upon It gaze when thou canst say no word concerning It. For Gnosis of the Good is holy silence and a giving holiday to every sense.\n\n6. For neither can he who perceiveth It, perceive aught else; nor he who gazeth on It, gaze on aught else; nor hear aught else, nor stir his body any way. Staying his body's every sense and every motion he stayeth still.\n\nAnd shining then all round his mond, It shines through his whole soul, and draws it out of body, transforming all of him to essence.\n\nFor it is possible, my son, that a man's soul should be made like to God, e'en while it still is in a body, if it doth contemplate the Beauty of the Good.\n\n7. Tat: Made like to God? What dost thou, father, mean?\n\nHermes: Of every soul apart are transformations, son.\n\nTat: What meanest thou? Apart?\n\nHermes: Didst thou not, in the General Sermons, hear that from one Soul - the All-soul - come all these souls which are made to revolve in all the cosmos, as though divided off?\n\nOf these souls, then, it is that there are many changes, some to a happier lot and some to [just] the contrary of this.\n\nThus some that were creeping things change into things that in the water dwell, the souls of water things change to earth-dwellers, those that live on earth change to things with wings, and souls that live in air change to men, while human souls reach the first step of deathlessness changed into daimones.\n\nAnd so they circle to the choir of the Inerrant Gods; for of the Gods there are two choirs, the one Inerrant, and the other Errant. And this is the most perfect glory of the soul.\n\n8. But if a soul on entering the body of a man persisteth in its vice, it neither tasteth deathlessness nor shareth in the Good; but speeding back again it turns into the path that leads to creeping things. This is the sentence of the vicious soul.\n\nAnd the soul's vice is ignorance. For that the soul who hath no knowledge of the things that are, or knowledge of their nature, or of Good, is blinded by the body's passions and tossed about.\n\nThis wretched soul, not knowing what she is, becomes the slave of bodies of strange form in sorry plight, bearing the body as a load; not as the ruler, but the ruled. This [ignorance] is the soul's vice.\n\n9. But on the other hand the virtue of the soul is Gnosis. For he who knows, he good and pious is, and still while on the earth divine.\n\nTat: But who is such an one, O father mine?\n\nHermes: He who doth not say much or lend his ear to much. For he who spendeth time in arguing and hearing arguments, doth shadow-fight. For \"God, the Father and the Good\", is not to be obtained by speech or hearing.\n\nAnd yet though this is so, there are in all the beings senses, in that they cannot without senses be.\n\nBut Gnosis is far different from sense. For sense is brought about by that which hath the mastery o'er us, while Gnosis is the end <i.e., goal> of science, and science is God's gift.\n\n10. All science is incorporeal, the instrument it uses being the mind, just as the mind employs the body.\n\nBoth then come into bodies, [I mean] both things that are cognizable by mond alone and things material. For all things must consist out of antithesis and contrariety; and this can otherwise not be.\n\nTat: Who then is this material God of whom thou speakest?\n\nHermes: Cosmos is beautiful, but is not good - for that it is material and freely passible; and though it is the first of all things passible, yet is it in the second rank of being and wanting in itself.\n\nAnd though it never hath itself its birth in time, but ever is, yet is its being in becoming, becoming for all time the genesis of qualities and quantities; for it is mobile and all material motion's genesis.\n\n11. It is intelligible rest that moves material motion in this way, since Cosmos is a sphere - that is to say, a head. And naught of head above's material, as naught of feet below's intelligible, but all material.\n\nAnd head itself is moved in a sphere-like way - that is to say, as head should move, is mind.\n\nAll then that are united to the \"tissue\" of this \"head\" (in which is soul) are in their nature free from death - just as when body hath been made in soul, are things that hath more soul than body.\n\nWhereas those things which are at greater distance from this \"tissue\" - there, where are things which have a greater share of body than of soul - are by their nature subject unto death.\n\nThe whole, however, is a life; so that the universe consists of both the hylic and of the intelligible.\n\n12. Again, the Cosmos is the first of living things, while man is second after it, though first of things subject to death.\n\nMan hath the same ensouling power in him as all the rest of living things; yet is he not only not good, but even evil, for that he's subject unto death.\n\nFor though the Cosmos also is not good in that it suffers motion, it is not evil, in that it is not subject to death. But man, in that he's subject both to motion and to death, is evil.\n\n13. Now then the principles of man are this-wise vehicled: mind in the reason (logos), the reason in the soul, soul in the spirit <or, rather, vital spirits>, and spirit in the body.\n\nSpirit pervading [body] by means of veins and arteries and blood, bestows upon the living creature motion, and as it were doth bear it in a way.\n\nFor this cause some do think the soul is blood, in that they do mistake its nature, not knowing that [at death] it is iteh spirit that must first withdraw into the soul, whereon the blood congeals and veins and arteries are emptied, and then the living creature <or life> is withdrawn; and this is body's death.\n\n14. Now from one Source all things depend; while Source [dependeth] from the One and Only [One]. Source is, moreover, moved to become Source again; whereas the One standeth perpetually and is not moved.\n\nThree then are they: \"God, the Father and the Good\", Cosmos and man.\n\nGod doth contain Cosmos; Cosmos [containeth] man. Cosmos is e'er God's Son, man as it were Cosmos' child.\n\n15. Not that, however, God ignoreth man; nay, right well doth He know him, and willeth to be known.\n\nThis is the sole salvation for a man - God's Gnosis. This is the Way Up to the Mount.\n\nBy Him alone the soul becometh good, not whiles is good, whiles evil, but [good] out of necessity.\n\nTat: What dost thou mean, Thrice-greatest one?\n\nHermes: Behold an infant's soul, my son, that is not yet cut off, because its body is still small and not as yet come unto its full bulk.\n\nTat: How?\n\nHermes: A thing of beauty altogether is [such a soul] to see, not yet befouled by body's passions, still all but hanging from the Cosmic Soul!\n\nBut when the body grows in bulk and draweth down the soul into its mass, then doth the soul cut off itself and bring upon itself forgetfulness, and no more shareth in the Beautiful and the Good. And this forgetfulness becometh vice.\n\n16. It is the same for them who go out from the body.\n\nFor when the soul withdraws into itself, the spirit doth contract itself within the blood, and the soul within the spirit. And then the mind, stripped of its wrappings, and naturally divine, taking unto itself a fiery body, doth traverse every space, after abandoning the soul unto its judgement and whatever chastisement it hath deserved.\n\nTat: What dost thou, father, mean by this? The mind is parted from soul and soul from spirit? Whereas thou said'st the soul was the mind's vesture, and the soul's the spirit.\n\n17. Hermes: The hearer, son, should think with him who speaks and breathe with him; nay, he should have a hearing subtler than the voice of him who speaks.\n\nIt is, son, in a body made of earth that this arrangement of the vestures comes to pass. For in a body made of earth it is impossible the mind should take its seat itself by its own self in nakedness.\n\nFor neither is it possible on the one hand the earthly body should contain so much immortality, nor on the other that so great a virtue should endure a body passible in such close contact with it. It taketh, then, the soul for as it were an envelope.\n\nAnd soul itself, being too and thing divine, doth use the spirit as its envelope, while spirit doth pervade the living creature.\n\n18. When then the mind doth free itself from the earth-body, it straightway putteth on its proper robe of fire, with which it could not dwell in an earth-body.\n\nFor earth doth not bear fire; for it is all set in a blaze even by a small spark. And for this cause is water poured around earth, to be a guard and wall, to keep the blazing of the fire away.\n\nBut mind, the swiftest thing of all divine outthinkings, and swifter than all elements, hath for its body fire.\n\nFor mind being builder doth use the fire as tool for the construction of all things - the Mind of all [for the construction] of all things, but that of man only for things on earth.\n\nStript of its fire the mind on earth cannot make things divine, for it is human in its dispensation.\n\n19. The soul in man, however - not every soul, but one that pious is - is a daimonic something and divine.\n\nAnd such a soul when from the body freed, if it have fought the fight of piety - the fight of piety is to know God and to do wrong to no man - such a soul becomes entirely mind.\n\nWhereas the impious soul remains in its own essence, chastised by its own self, and seeking for an earthly body where to enter, if only it be human.\n\nFor that no other body can contain a human soul; nor is it right that any human soul should fall into the body of a thing that doth possess no reason. For that the law of God is this: to guard the human soul from such tremendous outrage.\n\n20. Tat: How father, then, is a man's soul chastised?\n\nHermes: What greater chastisement of any human soul can there be, son, than lack of piety? What fire has so fierce a flame as lack of piety? What ravenous beast so mauls the body as lack of piety the very soul?\n\nDost thou not see what hosts of ills the impious soul doth bear?\n\nIt shrieks and screams: I burn; I am ablaze; I know not what to cry or do; ah, wretched me, I am devoured by all the ills that compass me about; alack, poor me, I neither see nor hear!\n\nSuch are the cries wrung from a soul chastised; not, as the many think, and thou, son, dost suppose, that a [man's] soul, passing from body, is changed into a beast.\n\nSuch is a very grave mistake, for that the way a soul doth suffer chastisement is this:\n\n21. When mind becomes a daimon, the law requires that it should take a fiery body to execute the services of God; and entering in the soul most impious it scourgeth it with whips made of its sins.\n\nAnd then the impious soul, scourged with its sins, is plunged in murders, outrage, blasphemy, in violence of all kinds, and all the other things whereby mankind is wronged.\n\nBut on the pious soul the mind doth mount and guide it to the Gnosis' Light. And such a soul doth never tire in songs of praise [to God] and pouring blessing on all men, and doing good in word and deed to all, in imitation of its Sire.\n\n22. Wherefore, my son, thou shouldst give praise to God and pray that thou mayst have thy mind Good Mind. It is, then, to a better state the soul doth pass; it cannot to a worse.\n\nFurther there is an intercourse of souls; those of the gods have intercourse with those of men, and those of men with souls of creatures which possess no reason.\n\nThe higher, further, have in charge the lower; the gods look after men, men after animals irrational, while God hath charge of all; for He is higher than them all and all are less than He.\n\nCosmos is subject, then, to God, man to the Cosmos, and irrationals to man. But God is o'er them all, and God contains them all.\n\nGod's rays, to use a figure, are His energies; the Cosmos's are natures, the arts and sciences are man's.\n\nThe energies act through the Cosmos, thence through the nature-rays of Cosmos upon man; the nature-rays [act] through the elements, man [acteth] through the sciences and arts.\n\n23. This is the dispensation of the universe, depending from the nature of the One, pervading [all things] through the Mind, than which is naught diviner nor of greater energy; and naught a greater means for the at-oning men to gods and gods to men.\n\nHe, [Mind,] is the Good Daimon. Blessed the soul that is most filled with Him, and wretched is the soul that's empty of the Mind.\n\nTat: Father, what dost thou mean, again?\n\nHermes: Dost think then, son, that every soul hath the Good [Mind]? For 'tis of Him we speak, not of the mind in service of which we were just speaking, the mind sent down for [the soul's] chastisement.\n\n24. For soul without the mind \"can neither speak nor act\". For oftentimes the mind doth leave the soul, and at that time the soul neither sees nor understands, but is just like a thing that hath no reason. Such is the power of mind.\n\nYet doth it not endure a sluggish soul, but leaveth such a soul tied to the body and bound tight down by it. Such soul, my son, doth not have Mind; and therefore such an one should not be called a man. For that man is a thing-of-life <or animal> divine; man is not measured with the rest of lives of things upon the earth, but with the lives above in heaven, who are called gods.\n\nNay more, if we must boldly speak the truth, the true \"man\" is e'en higher than the gods, or at the [very] least the gods and men are very whit in power each with the other equal.\n\n25. For no one of the gods in heaven shall come down to the earth, o'er-stepping heaven's limit; whereas man doth mount up to heaven and measure it; he knows what things of it are high, what things are low, and learns precisely all things else besides. And greater thing than all; without e'en quitting earth, he doth ascend above. So vast a sweep doth he possess of ecstasy.\n\nFor this cause can a man dare say that man on earth is god subject to death, while god in heaven is man from death immune.\n\nWherefore the dispensation of all things is brought about by means of there, the twain - Cosmos and Man - but by the One.\n\n## Mind Unto Hermes\n\n*Notes on the text: This complex text is written as a revelation from the divine Mind - the \"Man-Shepherd\" of CH I - to Hermes, concerning the nature of God and the universe. Difficult enough in its own right, it has been made more so by some of Mead's prose. I have tried to insert clarifications where these are most needed.*\n\n*Some notes on terminology may also be useful. The term Aeon here, as in many of the so-called \"Gnostic\" writings, refers to the timeless and spaceless realm of ideal being. The word cosmos means both \"order\" and \"beauty\" - the same root appears in the word \"cosmetic\". Additionally, the words genesis and becoming in the translation are the same word in the Greek original.*\n\n*Finally, the word \"inactive\" in square brackets near the beginning of section 13 is Mead's, intended to fill a lacuna in the text. The more usual conjecture, as he comments, is \"apart from God\"*\n\n1. Mind: Master this sermon (logos), then, Thrice-greatest Hermes, and bear in mind the spoken words; and as it hath come unto Me to speak, I will no more delay.\n\nHermes: As many men say many things, and these diverse, about the All and Good, I have not learned the truth. Make it, then, clear to me, O Master mine! For I can trust the explanation of these things, which comes from Thee alone.\n\n2. Mind: Hear [then], My son, how standeth God and All.\n\nGod; Aeon; Cosmos; Time; Becoming.\n\nGod maketh Aeon; Aeon, Cosmos; Cosmos, Time; and Time, Becoming <or Genesis>.\n\nThe Good - the Beautiful, Wisdom, Blessedness - is <the> essence, as it were, of God; of Aeon, <the essence is> Sameness; of Cosmos, Order; of Time, Change; and of Becoming, Life and Death.\n\nThe energies of God are Mind and Soul; of Aeon, lastingness and deathlessness; of Cosmos, restoration and the opposite thereof; of Time, increase and decrease; and of Becoming, quality.\n\nAeon is, then, in God; Cosmos, in Aeon; in Cosmos; Time; in Time, Becoming.\n\nAeon stands firm round God; Cosmos is moved in Aeon; Time hath its limits <or is accomplished> in the Cosmos; Becoming doth become in Time.\n\n3. The source, therfore, of all is God; their essence, Aeon; their matter, Cosmos.\n\nGod's power is Aeon; Aeon's work is Cosmos - which never hath become, yet ever doth become by Aeon.\n\nTherefore will Cosmos never be destroyed, for Aeon's indestructible; nor doth a whit of things in Cosmos perish, for Cosmos is enwrapped by Aeon round on every side.\n\nHermes: But God's Wisdom - what is that?\n\nMind: The Good and Beautiful, and Blessedness, and Virtue's all, and Aeon.\n\nAeon, then, ordereth [Cosmos], imparting deathlessness and lastingness to matter.\n\n4. For its beginning doth depend on Aeon, as Aeon doth on God.\n\nNow Genesis <or Becoming> and Time, in Heaven and upon the Earth, are of two natures.\n\nIn Heaven they are unchangeable and indestructible, but on the Earth they're subject unto change and to destruction.\n\nFurther, the Aeon's soul is God; the Cosmos' soul is Aeon; the Earth's soul, Heaven.\n\nAnd God <is> in Mind; and Mind, in Soul; and Soul, in Matter; and all of them through Aeon.\n\nBut all this Body, in which are all the bodies, is full of Soul; and Soul is full of Mind, and Mind of God.\n\nIt <i.e., Soul> fills it <i.e., the Body of the Cosmos> from within, and from without encircles it, making the All to live.\n\nWithout, this vast and perfect Life [encircles] Cosmos; within, it fills [it with] all lives; above, in Heaven, continuing in sameness; below, on Earth, changing becoming.\n\n5. And Aeon doth preserve this [Cosmos], or by Necessity, or by Foreknowledge, or by Nature, or by whatever else a man supposes or shall suppose. And all is this - God energizing.\n\nThe Energy of God is Power that naught can e'er surpass, a Power with which no one can make comparison of any human thing at all, or any thing divine.\n\nWherefore, O Hermes, never think that aught of things above or things below is like to God, for thou wilt fall from truth. For naught is like to That which hath no like, and is Alone and One.\n\nAnd do not ever think that any other can possibly possess His power; for what apart from Him is there of life, and deathlessness and change of quality? For what else should He make?\n\nGod's not inactive, since all things [then] would lack activity; for all are full of God.\n\nBut neither in the Cosmos anywhere, nor in aught else, is there inaction. For that \"inaction\" is a name that cannot be applied to either what doth make or what is made.\n\n6. But all things must be made; both ever made, and also in accordance with the influence of every space.\n\nFor He who makes, is in them all; not stablished in some one of them, nor making one thing only, but making all.\n\nFor being Power, He energizeth in the things He makes and is not independent of them - although the things He makes are subject to Him.\n\nNow gaze through Me upon the Cosmos that's now subject to thy sight; regard its Beauty carefully - Body in pure perfection, though one than which there's no more ancient one, ever in prime of life, and ever-young, nay, rather, in even fuller and yet fuller prime!\n\n7. Behold, again, the seven subject Worlds; ordered by Aeon's order, and with their varied course full-filling Aeon!\n\n[See how] all things [are] full of light, and nowhere [is there] fire; for 'tis the love and the blending of the contraries and the dissimilars that doth give birth to light down shining by the energy of God, the Father of all good, the Leader of all order, and Ruler of the seven world-orderings!\n\n[Behold] the Moon, forerunner of them all, the instrument of nature, and the transmuter of its lower matter!\n\n[Look at] the Earth set in the midst of All, foundation of the Cosmos Beautiful, feeder and nurse of things on Earth!\n\nAnd contemplate the multitude of deathless lives, how great it is, and that of lives subject to death; and midway, between both, immortal [lives] and mortal, [see thou] the circling Moon.\n\n8. And all are full of soul, and all are moved by it, each in its proper way; some round the Heaven, others around the Earth; [see] how the right [move] not unto the left, nor yet the left unto the right; nor the above below, nor the below above.\n\nAnd that all there are subject unto Genesis, My dearest Hermes, thou hast no longer need to learn of Me. For that they bodies are, have souls, and they are moved.\n\nBut 'tis impossible for them to come together into one without some one to bring them [all] together. It must, then, be that such a one as this must be some one who's wholly One.\n\n9. For as the many motions of them [all] are different, and as their bodies are not like, yet has one speed been ordered for them all, it is impossible that there should be two or more makers for them.\n\nFor that one single order is not kept among \"the many\"; but rivalry will follow of the weaker with the stronger, and they will strive.\n\nAnd if the maker of the lives that suffer change and death, should be another <from the maker of the immortals>, he would desire to make the deathless ones as well; just as the maker of the deathless ones, [to make the lives] that suffer death.\n\nBut come! if there be two - if matter's one, and Soul is one, in whose hands would there be the distribution for the making? Again, if both of them have some of it, in whose hands may be the greater part?\n\n10. But thus conceive it, then; that every living body doth consist of soul and matter, whether [that body be] of an immortal, or a mortal, or an irrational [life].\n\nFor that all living bodies are ensouled; whereas, upon the other hand, those that live not, are matter by itself.\n\nAnd, in like fashion, Soul when in its self is, after its own maker, cause of life; but the cause of all life is He who makes the things that cannot die.\n\nHermes: How, then, is it that, first, lives subject to death are other than the deathless ones? And, next, how is it that Life which knows no death, and maketh deathlessness, doth not make animals immortal?\n\n11. Mind: First, that there is some one who does these things, is clear; and, next, that He is also One, is very manifest. For, also, Soul is one, and Life is one, and Matter one.\n\nHermes: But who is He?\n\nMind: Who may it other be than the One God? Whom else should it beseem to put Soul into lives but God alone? One, then, is God.\n\nIt would indeed be most ridiculous, if when thou dost confess the Cosmos to be one, Sun one, Moon one, and Godhead one, thou shouldst wish God Himself to be some one or other of a number!\n\n12. All things, therefore, He makes, in many [ways]. And what great thing is it for God to make life, soul, and deathlessness, and change, when thou [thyself] dost do so many things?\n\nFor thou dost see, and speak, and hear, and smell, and taste, and touch, and walk, and think, and breathe. And it is not one man who smells, another one who walks, another one who thinks, and [yet] another one who breathes. But one is he who doth all these.\n\nAnd yet no one of these could be apart from God. For just as, should thou cease from these, thou wouldst no longer be a living thing, so also, should God cease from them (a thing not law to say), no longer is He God.\n\n13. For if it hath been shown that no thing can [inactive] be, how much less God? For if there's aught he doth not make (if it be law to say), He is imperfect. But if He is not only not inactive, but perfect [God], then He doth make all things.\n\nGive thou thyself to Me, My Hermes, for a little while, and thou shalt understand more easily how that God's work is one, in order that all things may be - that are being made, or once have been, or that are going to be made. And this is, My beloved, Life; this is the Beautiful; this is the Good; this, God.\n\n14. And if thou wouldst in practice understand [this work], behold what taketh place with thee desiring to beget. Yet this is not like unto that, for He doth not enjoy.\n\nFor that indeed He hath no other one to share in what He works, for working by Himself, He ever is at work, Himself being what He doth. For did He separate Himself from it, all things would [then] collapse, and all must die, Life ceasing.\n\nBut if all things are lives, and also Life is one; then, one is God. And, furthermore, if all are lives, both those in Heaven and those on Earth, and One Life in them all is made to be by God, and God is it <i.e., God is the One Life> - then, all are made by God.\n\nLife is the making-one of Mind and Soul; accordingly Death is not the destruction of those that are at-oned, but the dissolving of their union.\n\n15. Aeon, moreover, is God's image; Cosmos [is] Aeon's; the Sun, of Cosmos; and Man, [the image] of the Sun.\n\nThe people call change death, because the body is dissolved, and life, when it's dissolved, withdraws to the unmanifest. But in this sermon (logos), Hermes, My beloved, as thou dost hear, I say the Cosmos also suffers change - for that a part of it each day is made to be in the unmanifest - yet it is ne'er dissolved.\n\nThese are the passions of the Cosmos - revolvings and concealments; revolving is conversion and concealment renovation.\n\n16. The Cosmos is all-formed - not having forms external to itself, but changing them itself within itself. Since, then, Cosmos is made to be all-formed, what may its maker be? For that, on the one hand, He should not be void of all form; and, on the other hand, if He's all-formed, He will be like the Cosmos. Whereas, again, has He a single form, He will thereby be less than Cosmos.\n\nWhat, then, say we He is? - that we may not bring round our sermon (logos) into doubt; for naught that mind conceives of God is doubtful.\n\nHe, then, hath one idea, which is His own alone, which doth not fall beneath the sight, being bodiless, and [yet] by means of bodies manifesteth all [ideas]. And marvel not that there's a bodiless idea.\n\n17. For it is like the form of reason (logos) and mountain-tops in pictures. For they appear to stand out strongly from the rest, but really are quite smooth and flat.\n\nAnd now consider what is said more boldly, but more truly!\n\nJust as man cannot live apart from Life, so neither can God live without [His] doing good. For this is as it were the life and motion as it were of God - to move all things and make them live.\n\n18. Now some of the things said should bear a sense peculiar to themselves. So understand, for instance, what I'm going to say.\n\nAll are in God, [but] not as lying in a place. For place is both a body and immovable, and things that lie do not have motion.\n\nNow things lie one way in the bodiless, another way in being made manifest.\n\nThink, [then,] of Him who doth contain them all; and think, that than the bodiless naught is more comprehensive, or swifter, or more potent, but it is the most comprehensive, the swiftest, and most potent of them all.\n\n19. And, thus, think from thyself, and bid thy soul go unto any land, and there more quickly than thy bidding will it be. And bid it journey oceanwards; and there, again, immediately 'twill be, not as if passing on from place to place, but as if being there.\n\nAnd bid it also mount to heaven; and it will need no wings, not will aught hinder it, nor fire of sun, nor auther, nor vortex-swirl, nor bodies of the other stars; but, cutting through them all, it will soar up to the last Body [of them all]. And shouldst thou will to break through this as well, and contemplate what is beyond - if there be aught beyond the Cosmos; it is permitted thee.\n\n20. Behold what power, what swiftness, thou dost have! And canst thou do all of these things, and God not [do them]?\n\nThen, in this way know God; as having all things in Himself as thoughts, the whole Cosmos itself.\n\nIf, then, thou dost not make thyself like unto God, thou canst not know Him. For like is knowable unto like [alone].\n\nMake, [then,] thyself to grow to the same stature as the Greatness which transcends all measure; leap forth from every body; transcend all time; become Eternity <literally, Aeon>; and [thus] shalt thou know God.\n\nConceiving nothing is impossible unto thyself, think thyself deathless and able to know all - all arts, all sciences, the way of every life.\n\nBecome more lofty than all height, and lower than all depth. Collect into thyself all senses of [all] creatures - of fire, [and] water, dry and moist. Think that thou art at the same time in every place - in earth, in sea, in sky; not yet begotten, in the womb, young, old, [and] dead, in after-death conditions.\n\nAnd if thou knowest all these things at once - times, places, doings, qualities, and quantities; thou canst know God.\n\n21. But if thou lockest up thy soul within thy body, and dost debase it, saying: I nothing know; I nothing can; I fear the sea; I cannot scale the sky; I know not who I was, who I shall be - what is there [then] between [thy] God and thee?\n\nFor thou canst know naught of things beautiful and good so long as thou dost love thy body and art bad.\n\nThe greatest bad there is, is not to know God's Good; but to be able to know [Good], and will, and hope, is a Straight Way, the Good's own [Path], both leading there and easy.\n\nIf thou but settest thy foot thereon, 'twill meet thee everywhere, 'twill everywhere be seen, both where and when thou dost expect it not - waking, sleeping, sailing, journeying, by night, by day, speaking, [and] saying naught. For there is naught that is not image of the Good.\n\n22. Hermes: Is God unseen?\n\nMind: Hush! Who is more manifest than He? For this one reason hath He made all things, that through them all thou mayest see Him.\n\nThis is the Good of God, this [is] His Virtue - that He may be manifest through all.\n\nFor naught's unseen, even of things that are without a body. Mind sees itself in thinking, God in making.\n\nSo far these things have been made manifest to thee, Thrice-greatest one! Reflect on all the rest in the same way with thyself, and thou shalt not be led astray.\n\n## About The Common Mind\n\n*Notes on the text: The \"common mind\" discussed in this dialogue is the same Mind which appears as a divine power in other parts of the Hermetic literature. It is identical, as well, with the \"Good Daimon\" whose words are quoted at several points here and elsewhere.  \nThe Greek word logos - which means both \"word\" and \"reason\", among other things - is central to much of the argument, and it's unfortunate that English has no way to express the same complex of meanings. The praise of reason in parts 13-14 is also, and equally, a praise of human language, and this sort of double meaning plays a part elsewhere in this and other parts of the Hermetic literature.*\n\n1. Hermes: The Mind, O Tat, is of God's very essence - (if such a thing as essence of God there be) - and what that is, it and it only knows precisely.  \nThe Mind, then, is not separated off from God's essentiality, but is united to it, as light to sun.  \nThis Mind in men is God, and for this cause some of mankind are gods, and their humanity is nigh unto divinity.  \nFor the Good Daimon said: \"Gods are immortal men, and men are mortal gods.\"  \n\n2. But in irrational lives Mind is their nature. For where is Soul, there too is Mind; just as where Life, there is there also Soul.  \nBut in irrational lives their soul is life devoid of mind; for Mind is the in-worker of the souls of men for good - He works on them for their own good.  \nIn lives irrational He doth co-operate with each one's nature; but in the souls of men He counteracteth them.  \nFor every soul, when it becomes embodied, is instantly depraved by pleasure and by pain.  \nFor in a compound body, just like juices, pain and pleasure seethe, and into them the soul, on entering in, is plunged.  \n\n3. O'er whatsoever souls the Mind doth, then, preside, to these it showeth its own light, by acting counter to their prepossessions, just as a good physician doth upon the body prepossessed by sickness, pain inflict, burning or lancing it for sake of health.  \nIn just the selfsame way the Mind inflicteth pain on the soul, to rescue it from pleasure, whence comes its every ill.  \nThe great ill of the soul is godlessness; then followeth fancy for all evil things and nothing good.  \nSo, then, Mind counteracting it doth work good on the soul, as the physician health upon the body.  \n\n4. But whatsoever human souls have not the Mind as pilot, they share in the same fate as souls of lives irrational.  \nFor [Mind] becomes co-worker with them, giving full play to the desires toward which [such souls] are borne - [desires] that from the rush of lust strain after the irrational; [so that such human souls,] just like irrational animals, cease not irrationally to rage and lust, nor are they ever satiate of ills.  \nFor passions and irrational desires are ills exceeding great; and over these God hath set up the Mind to play the part of judge and executioner.  \n\n5. Tat: In that case, father mine, the teaching (logos) as to Fate, which previously thou didst explain to me, risks to be overset.\nFor that if it be absolutely fated for a man to fornicate, or commit sacrilege, or do some other evil deed, why is he punished - when he hath done the deed from Fate's necessity?  \n\nHermes: All works, my son, are Fate's; and without Fate naught of things corporal - or <i.e., either> good, or ill - can come to pass.  \nBut it is fated, too, that he who doeth ill, shall suffer. And for this cause he doth it - that he may suffer what he suffereth, because he did it.  \n\n6. But for the moment, [Tat,] let be the teaching as to vice and Fate, for we have spoken of these things in other [of our sermons]; but now our teaching (logos) is about the Mind: - what Mind can do, and how it is [so] different - in men being such and such, and in irrational lives [so] changed; and [then] again that in irrational lives it is not of a beneficial nature, while that in men it quencheth out the wrathful and the lustful elements.\nOf men, again, we must class some as led by reason, and others as unreasoning.  \n\n7. But all men are subject to Fate, and genesis and change, for these are the beginning and the end of Fate.  \nAnd though all men do suffer fated things, those led by reason (those whom we said Mind doth guide) do not endure <a> like suffering with the rest; but, since they've freed themselves from viciousness, not being bad, they do not suffer bad.  \n\nTat: How meanest thou again, my father? Is not the fornicator bad; the murderer bad; and [so with] all the rest?  \n\nHermes: [I meant not that;] but that the Mind-led man, my son, though not a fornicator, will suffer just as though he had committed fornication, and though he be no murderer, as though he had committed murder.  \nThe quality of change he can no more escape than that of genesis.\nBut it is possible for one who hath the Mind, to free himself from vice.  \n\n8. Wherefore I've ever heard, my son, Good Daimon also say - (and had He set it down in written words, He would have greatly helped the race of men; for He alone, my son, doth truly, as the Firstborn God, gazing on all things, give voice to words (logoi) divine) - yea, once I heard Him say:  \n\"All things are one, and most of all the bodies which the mind alone perceives. Our life is owing to [God's] Energy and Power and Aeon. His Mind is good, so is His Soul as well. And this being so, intelligible things know naught of separation. So, then, Mind, being Ruler of all things, and being Soul of God, can do whate'er it wills.\"  \n\n9. So do thou understand, and carry back this word (logos) unto the question thou didst ask before - I mean about Mind's Fate.\nFor if thou dost with accuracy, son, eliminate [all] captious arguments (logoi), thou wilt discover that of very truth the Mind, the Soul of God, doth rule o'er all - o'er Fate, and Law, and all things else; and nothing is impossible to it - neither o'er Fate to set a human soul, nor under Fate to set [a soul] neglectful of what comes to pass. Let this so far suffice from the Good Daimon's most good [words].  \n\nTat: Yea, [words] divinely spoken, father mine, truly and helpfully. But further still explain me this.  \n\n10. Thou said'st that Mind in lives irrational worked in them as [their] nature, co-working with their impulses.  \nBut impulses of lives irrational, as I do think, are passions.\nNow if the Mind co-worketh with [these] impulses, and if the impulses of [lives] irrational be passions, then is Mind also passion, taking its color from the passions.  \n\nHermes: Well put, my son! Thou questionest right nobly, and it is just that I as well should answer [nobly].  \n\n11. All things incorporeal when in a body are subject unto passion, and in the proper sense they are [themselves] all passions.  \nFor every thing that moves itself is incorporeal; while every thing that's moved is body.  \nIncorporeals are further moved by Mind, and movement's <i.e., movement is> passion.  \nBoth, then, are subject unto passion - both mover and the moved, the former being ruler and the latter ruled.  \nBut when a man hath freed himself from body, then is he also freed from passion.  \nBut, more precisely, son, naught is impassible, but all are passible.\nYet passion differeth from passibility; for that the one is active, while the other's passive.  \nIncorporeals moreover act upon themselves, for either they are motionless or they are moved; but whichsoe'er it be, it's passion.\nBut bodies are invaribly acted on, and therefore they are passible.\nDo not, then, let terms trouble thee; action and passion are both the selfsame thing. To use the fairer sounding term, however, does no harm.  \n\n12. Tat: Most clearly hast thou, father mine, set forth the teaching (logos).  \n\nHermes: Consider this as well, my son; that these two things God hath bestowed on man beyond all mortal lives - both mind and speech (logos) equal to immortality. He hath the mind for knowing God and uttered speech (logos) for eulogy of Him.  \nAnd if one useth these for what he ought, he'll differ not a whit from the immortals. Nay, rather, on departing from the body, he will be guided by the twain unto the Choir of Gods and Blessed Ones.  \n\n13. Tat: Why, father mine! - do not the other lives make use of speech (logos)?  \n\nHermes: Nay, son; but <i.e., only> use of voice; speech is far different from voice. For speech is general among all men, while voice doth differ in each class of living thing.  \n\nTat: But with men also, father mine, according to each race, speech differs.  \n\nHermes: Yea, son, but man is one; so also speech is one and is interpreted, and it is found the same in Egypt, and in Persia, and in Greece.  \nThou seemest, son, to be in ignorance of Reason's (Logos) worth and greatness. For that the Blessed God, Good Daimon, hath declared:\n\"Soul is in Body, Mind in Soul; but Reason (Logos) is in Mind, and Mind in God; and God is Father of [all] these.\"\n\n14. The Reason, then, is the Mind's image, and Mind God's [image]; while Body is [the image] of the Form; and Form [the image] of the Soul.  \nThe subtlest part of Matter is, then, Air <or vital spirit>; of Air, Soul; of Soul, Mind; and of Mind, God.  \nAnd God surroundeth all and permeateth all; while Mind Surroundeth Soul, Soul Air, Air Matter.  \nNecessity and Providence and Nature are instruments of Cosmos and of Matter's ordering; while of intelligible things each is Essence, and Sameness is their Essence.  \nBut of the bodies of the Cosmos each is many; for through possessiong Sameness, [these] composed bodies, though they do change from one into another of themselves, do natheless keep the incorruption of their Sameness.  \n\n15. Whereas in all the rest of composed bodies, of each there is a certain number; for without number structure cannot be, or composition, or decomposition.  \nNow it is units that give birth to number and increase it, and, being decomposed, are taken back again into themselves.  \nMatter is one; and this whole Cosmos - the mighty God and image of the mightier One, both with Him unified, and the conserver of the Will and Order of the Father - is filled full of Life.\nNaught is there in it throughout the whole of Aeon, the Father's [everlasting] Re-establishment - nor of the whole, nor of the parts - which doth not live.  \nFor not a single thing that's dead, hath been, or is, or shall be in [this] Cosmos.  \nFor that the Father willed it should have Life as long as it should be. Wherefore it needs must be a God.  \n\n16. How then, O son, could there be in the God, the image of the Father, in the plenitude of Life - dead things?  \nFor that death is corruption, and corruption destruction.  \nHow then could any part of that which knoweth no corruption be corrupted, or any whit of him the God destroyed?  \n\nTat: Do they not, then, my father, die - the lives in it, that are its parts?  \n\nHermes: Hush, son! - led into error by the term in use for what takes place.  \nThey do not die, my son, but are dissolved as compound bodies.\nNow dissolution is not death, but dissolution of a compound; it is dissolved not so that it may be destroyed, but that it may become renewed.  \nFor what is the activity of life? Is it not motion? What then in Cosmos is there that hath no motion? Naught is there, son!\n\n17. Tat: Doth not Earth even, father, seem to thee to have no motion?  \n\nHermes: Nay, son; but rather that she is the only thing which, though in very rapid motion, is also stable.  \nFor how would it not be a thing to laugh at, that the Nurse of all should have no motion, when she engenders and brings forth all things?  \nFor 'tis impossible that without motion one who doth engender, should do so.  \nThat thou should ask if the fourth part <or element> is not inert, is most ridiculous; for the body which doth have no motion, gives sign of nothing but inertia.  \n\n18. Know, therefore, generally, my son, that all that is in Cosmos is being moved for increase or for decrease.  \nNow that which is kept moving, also lives; but there is no necessity that that which lives, should be all same.  \nFor being simultaneous, the Cosmos, as a whole, is not subject to change, my son, but all its parts are subject unto it; yet naught [of it] is subject to corruption, or destroyed.  \nIt is the terms employed that confuse men. For 'tis not genesis that constituteth life, but 'tis sensation; it is not change that constituteth death, but 'tis forgetfulness.  \nSince, then, these things are so, they are immortal all - Matter, [and] Life, [and] Spirit, Mind [and] Soul, of which whatever liveth, is composed.  \n\n19. Whatever then doth live, oweth its immortality unto the Mind, and most of all doth man, he who is both recipient of God, and co-essential with Him.  \nFor with this life alone doth God consort; by visions in the night, by tokens in the day, and by all things doth He foretell the future unto him - by birds, by inward parts, by wind, by tree.  \nWherefore doth man lay claim to know things past, things present and to come.  \n\n20. Observe this too, my son; that each one of the other lives inhabiteth one portion of the Cosmos - aquatic creatures water, terrene earth, and aery creatures air; while man doth use all these - earth, water air [and] fire; he seeth Heaven, too, and doth contact it with [his] sense.  \nBut God surroundeth all, and permeateth all, for He is energy and power; and it is nothing difficult, my son, to conceive God.\n\n21. But if thou wouldst Him also contemplate, behold the ordering of the Cosmos, and [see] the orderly behavior of its ordering <this is a play on the word \"cosmos\", which means \"order, arrangement\">; behold thou the Necessity of things made manifest, and [see] the Providence of things become and things becoming; behold how Matter is all-full of Life; [behold] this so great God in movement, with all the good and noble [ones] - gods, daimones and men!  \n\nTat: But these are purely energies, O father mine!  \n\nHermes: If, then, they're purely energies, my son - by whom, then, are they energized except by God?  \nOr art thou ignorant, that just as Heaven, Earth, Water, Air, are parts of Cosmos, in just the selfsame way God's parts are Life and Immortality, [and] Energy, and Spirit, and Necessity, and Providence, and Nature, Soul, and Mind, and the Duration <that is, Aeon or Eternity> of all these that is called Good?  \nAnd there are naught of things that have become, or are becoming, in which God is not.  \n\n22. Tat: Is He in Matter, father, then?  \n\nHermes: Matter, my son, is separate from God, in order that thou may'st attribute to it the quality of space. But what thing else than mass think'st thou it is, if it's not energized? Whereas if it be energized, by whom is it made so? For energies, we said, are parts of God.  \nBy whom are, then, all lives enlivened? By whom are things immortal made immortal? By whom changed things made changeable?  \nAnd whether thou dost speak of Matter, of Body, or of Essence, know that these too are energies of God; and that materiality is Matter's energy, that corporeality is Bodies' energy, and that essentiality doth constituteth the energy of Essence; and this is God - the All.  \n\n23. And in the All is naught that is not God. Wherefore nor <i.e., neither> size, nor space, nor quality, nor form, nor time, surroundeth God; for He is All, and All surroundeth all, and permeateth all.  \nUnto this Reason (Logos), son, thy adoration and thy worship pay. There is one way alone to worship God; [it is] not to be bad.\n\n## The Secret Sermon On The Mountain\n\n*Notes on the text: This dialogue is in many ways the culmination of the whole Corpus, summing up the theory of the Hermetic system at the same time as it provides an intriguing glimpse at the practice. The focus of the dialogue is the experience of Rebirth, which involves the replacement of twelve Tormentors within the self by ten divine Powers, leading to the awakening of knowledge of the self and God.*\n\n*The \"Secret Hymnody\" (sections 17-20) is presented as a litany for worship, to be performed twice each day, at sunrise and sunset. It's interesting to note that while the sunrise worship is performed facing east, the sunset worship is done to the south; Egyptian tradition from Pharaonic times onward saw the west as the direction of death.*\n\n*The usual difficulties with the multiple meanings of the Greek word logos appear in the translation, compounded by Mead's awkward style. Additionally, one of Mead's few evasions can be found in section 12, where he relates the twelve Tormentors to the \"twelve types-of-life\". This should more simply, and more accurately, have been translated as \"the twelve signs of the Zodiac\". The Theosophical distaste for astrology may well have been involved here.*\n\n1. Tat: [Now] in the General Sermons, father, thou didst speak in riddles most unclear, conversing on Divinity; and when thou saidst no man could e'er be saved before Rebirth, thy meaning thou didst hide.\n\nFurther, when I became thy Suppliant, in Wending up the Mount, after thou hadst conversed with me, and when I longed to learn the Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth (for this beyond all other things is just the thing I know not), thou saidst, that thou wouldst give it me - \"when thou shalt have become a stranger to the world\".\n\nWherefore I got me ready and made the thought in me a stranger to the world-illusion.\n\nAnd now do thou fill up the things that fall short in me with what thou saidst would give me the tradition of Rebirth, setting it forth in speech or in the secret way.\n\nI know not, O Thrice-greatest one, from out what matter and what womb Man comes to birth, or of what seed.\n\n2. Hermes: Wisdom that understands in silence [such is the matter and the womb from out which Man is born], and the True Good the seed.\n\nTat: Who is the sower, father? For I am altogether at a loss.\n\nHermes: It is the Will of God, my son.\n\nTat: And of what kind is he that is begotten, father? For I have no share of that essence in me, which doth transcend the senses. The one that is begot will be another one from God, God's Son?\n\nHermes: All in all, out of all powers composed.\n\nTat: Thou tellest me a riddle, father, and dost not speak as father unto son.\n\nHermes: This Race, my son, is never taught; but when He willeth it, its memory is restored by God.\n\n3. Tat: Thou sayest things impossible, O father, things that are forced. Hence answers would I have direct unto these things. Am I a son strange to my father's race?\n\nKeep it not, father, back from me. I am a true-born son; explain to me the manner of Rebirth.\n\nHermes: What may I say, my son? I can but tell thee this. Whene'er I see within myself the Simple Vision brought to birth out of God's mercy, I have passed through myself into a Body that can never die. And now i am not as I was before; but I am born in Mind.\n\nThe way to do this is not taught, and it cannot be seen by the compounded element by means of which thou seest.\n\nYea, I have had my former composed form dismembered for me. I am no longer touched, but I have touch; I have dimension too; and [yet] am I a stranger to them now.\n\nThou seest me with eyes, my son; but what I am thou dost not understand [even] with fullest strain of body and of sight.\n\n4. Tat: Into fierce frenzy and mind-fury hast thou plunged me, father, for now no longer do I see myself.\n\nHermes: I would, my son, that thou hadst e'en passed right through thyself, as they who dream in sleep yet sleepless.\n\nTat: Tell me this too! Who is the author of Rebirth?\n\nHermes: The Son of God, the One Man, by God's Will.\n\n5. Tat: Now hast thou brought me, father, unto pure stupefaction. Arrested from the senses which I had before,...<lacuna in original text>; for [now] I see thy Greatness identical with thy distinctive form.\n\nHermes: Even in this thou art untrue; the mortal form doth change with every day. 'Tis turned by time to growth and waning, as being an untrue thing.\n\n6. Tat: What then is true, Thrice-greatest One?\n\nHermes: That which is never troubled, son, which cannot be defined; that which no color hath, nor any figure, which is not turned, which hath no garment, which giveth light; that which is comprehensible unto itself [alone], which doth not suffer change; that which no body can contain.\n\nTat: In very truth I lose my reason, father. Just when I thought to be made wise by thee, I find the senses of this mind of mine blocked up.\n\nHermes: Thus is it, son: That which is upward borne like fire, yet is borne down like earth, that which is moist like water, yet blows like air, how shalt thou this perceive with sense - the that which is not solid nor yet moist, which naught can bind or loose, of which in power and energy alone can man have any notion - and even then it wants a man who can perceive the Way of Birth in God?\n\n7. Tat: I am incapable of this, O father, then?\n\nHermes: Nay, God forbid, my son! Withdraw into thyself, and it will come; will, and it comes to pass; throw out of work the body's senses, and thy Divinity shall come to birth; purge from thyself the brutish torments - things of matter.\n\nTat: I have tormentors then in me, O father?\n\nHermes: Ay, no few, my son; nay, fearful ones and manifold.\n\nTat: I do not know them, father.\n\nHermes: Torment the first is this Not-knowing, son; the second one is Grief; the third, Intemperance; the fourth, Concupiscence; the fifth, Unrighteousness; the sixth is Avarice; the seventh, Error; the eighth is Envy; the ninth, Guile; the tenth is Anger; eleventh, Rashness; the twelfth is Malice.\n\nThese are in number twelve; but under them are many more, my son; and creeping through the prison of the body they force the man that's placed therein to suffer in his senses. But they depart (though not all at once) from him who hath been taken pity on by God; and this it is which constitutes the manner of Rebirth. And... <lacuna in the original text> the Reason (Logos).\n\n8. And now, my son, be still and solemn silence keep! Thus shall the mercy that flows on us from God not cease.\n\nHenceforth rejoice, O son, for by the Powers of God thou art being purified for the articulation of the Reason (Logos).\n\nGnosis of God hath come to us, and when this comes, my son, Not-knowing is cast out.\n\nGnosis of Joy hath come to us, and on its coming, son, Sorrow will flee away to them who give it room. The Power that follows Joy do I invoke, thy Self-control. O Power most sweet! Let us most gladly bid it welcome, son! How with its coming doth it chase Intemperance away!\n\n9. Now fourth, on Continence I call, the Power against Desire. <lacuna in the original text> This step, my son, is Righteousness' firm seat. For without judgement <other translators read this \"without effort\"> see how she hath chased Unrighteousness away. We are made righteous, son, by the departure of Unrighteousness.\n\nPower sixth I call to us - that against Avarice, Sharing-with-all.\n\nAnd now that Avarice is gone, I call on Truth. And Error flees, and Truth is with us.\n\nSee how [the measure of] the Good is full, my son, upon Truth's coming. For Envy is gone from us; and unto Truth is joined the Good as well, with Life and Light.\n\nAnd now no more doth any torment of the Darkness venture nigh, but vanquished [all] have fled with whirring wings.\n\n10. Thou knowest [now], my son, the manner of Rebirth. And when the Ten is come, my son, that driveth out the Twelve, the Birth in understanding <literally \"intellectual birth\", *noera genesis*> is complete, and by this birth we are made into Gods.\n\nWho then doth by His mercy gain this Birth in God, abandoning the body's senses, knows himself [to be of Light and Life] and that he doth consist of these, and [thus] is filled with bliss.\n\n11. Tat: By God made steadfast, father, no longer with the sight my eyes afford I look on things, but with the energy the Mind doth give me through the Powers.\n\nIn Heaven am I, in earth, in water, air; I am in animals, in plants; I'm in the womb, before the womb, after the womb; I'm everywhere!\n\nBut further tell me this: How are the torments of the Darkness, when they are twelve in number, driven out by the ten Powers? What is the way of it, Thrice-greatest one?\n\n12. Hermes: This dwelling-place through which we have just passed <i.e., the human body>, my son, is constituted from the circle of the twelve types-of-life, this being composed of elements, twelve in number, but of one nature, an omniform idea. For man's delusion there are disunions in them, son, while in their action they are one. Not only can we never part Rashness from Wrath; they cannot even be distinguished.\n\nAccording to right reason (logos), then, they <the Twelve> naturally withdraw once and for all, in as much as they are chased out by no less than ten powers, that is, the Ten.\n\nFor, son, the Ten is that which giveth birth to souls. And Life and Light are unified there, where the One hath being from the Spirit. According then to reason (logos) the One contains the Ten, the Ten the One.\n\n13. Tat: Father, I see the All, I see myself in Mind.\n\nHermes: This is, my son, Rebirth - no more to look on things from body's view-point (a thing three ways in space extended)... <lacuna in text>, though this Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth, on which I did not comment - in order that we may not be calumniators of the All unto the multitude, to whom indeed God Himself doth will we should not.\n\n14. Tat: Tell me, O father: This Body which is made up of the Powers, is it at any time dissolved?\n\nHermes: Hush, [son]! Speak not of things impossible, else wilt thou sin and thy Mind's eye be quenched.\n\nThe natural body which our sense perceives is far removed from this essential birth.\n\nThe first must be dissolved, the last can never be; the first must die, the last death cannot touch.\n\nDost thou not know thou hast been born a God, Son of the One, even as I myself?\n\n15. Tat: I would, O father, hear the Praise-giving with hymn which thou didst say thou heardest then when thou wert at the Eight [the Ogdoad] of Powers\n\nHermes: Just as the Shepherd did foretell [I should], my son, [when I came to] the Eight.\n\nWell dost thou haste to \"strike thy tent\" <i.e., be free from the physical body>, for thou hast been made pure.\n\nThe Shepherd, Mind of all masterhood, hath not passed on to me more than hath been written down, for full well did he know that I should of myself be able to learn all, and hear what I should wish, and see all things.\n\nHe left to me the making of fair things; wherefore the Powers within me. e'en as they are in all, break into song.\n\n16. Tat: Father, I wish to hear; I long to know these things.\n\nHermes: Be still, my son; hear the Praise-giving now that keeps [the soul] in tune, Hymn of Rebirth - a hymn I would not have thought fit so readily to tell, had'st thou not reached the end of all.\n\nWherefore this is not taught, but is kept hid in silence.\n\nThus then, my son, stand in a place uncovered to the sky, facing the southern wind, about the sinking of the setting sun, and make thy worship; so in like manner too when he doth rise, with face to the east wind.\n\nNow, son, be still!\n\nThe Secret Hymnody\n\n17. Let every nature of the World receive the utterance of my hymn!\n\nOpen thou Earth! Let every bolt of the Abyss be drawn for me. Stir not, ye Trees!\n\nI am about to hymn creation's Lord, both All and One.\n\nYe Heavens open and ye Winds stay still; [and] let God's deathless Sphere receive my word (logos)!\n\nFor I will sing the praise of Him who founded all; who fixed the Earth, and hung up Heaven, and gave command that Ocean should afford sweet water [to the Earth], to both those parts that are inhabited and those that are not, for the support and use of every man; who made the Fire to shine for gods and men for every act.\n\nLet us together all give praise to Him, sublime above the Heavens, of every nature Lord!\n\n'Tis He who is the Eye of Mind; may He accept the praise of these my Powers!\n\n18. Ye powers that are within me, hymn the One and All; sing with my Will, Powers all that are within me!\n\nO blessed Gnosis, by thee illumined, hymning through thee the Light that mond alone can see, I joy in Joy of Mind.\n\nSing with me praises all ye Powers!\n\nSing praise, my Self-control; sing thou through me, my Righteousness, the praises of the Righteous; sing thou, my Sharing-all, the praises of the All; through me sing, Truth, Truth's praises!\n\nSing thou, O Good, the Good! O Life and Light, from us to you our praises flow!\n\nFather, I give Thee thanks, to Thee Thou Energy of all my Powers; I give Thee thanks, O God, Thou Power of all my Energies!\n\n19. Thy Reason (Logos) sings through me Thy praises. Take back through me the All into [Thy] Reason - [my] reasonable oblation!\n\nThus cry the Powers in me. They sing Thy praise, Thou All; they do Thy Will.\n\nFrom Thee Thy Will; to Thee the All. Receive from all their reasonable oblation. The All that is in us, O Life, preserve; O Light<,> illumine it; O God<,> in-spirit it.\n\nIt it Thy Mind that plays the shepherd to Thy Word, O Thou Creator, Bestower of the Spirit [upon all].\n\n20. [For] Thou art God, Thy Man thus cries to Thee through Fire, through Air, through Earth, through Water, [and] through Spirit, through Thy creatures.\n\n'Tis from Thy Aeon I have found praise-giving; and in thy Will, the object of my search, have I found rest.\n\nTat: By thy good pleasure have I seen this praise-giving being sung, O father; I have set it in my Cosmos too.\n\nHermes: Say in the Cosmos that thy mind alone can see, my son.\n\nTat: Yea, father, in the Cosmos that the mind alone can see; for I have been made able by thy Hymn, and by thy Praise-giving my mind hath been illumined. But further I myself as well would from my natural mind send praise-giving to God.\n\n21. Hermes: But not unheedfully, my son.\n\nTat: Aye. What I behold in mind, that do I say.\n\nTo thee, thou Parent of my Bringing into Birth, as unto God I, Tat, send reasonable offerings. o God and Father, thou art the Lord, thou art the Mind. Receive from me oblations reasonable as thou would'st wish; for by thy Will all things have been perfected.\n\nHermes: Send thou oblation, son, acceptable to God, the Sire of all; but add, my son, too, \"through the Word\" (Logos).\n\nTat: I give thee, father, thanks for showing me to sing such hymns.\n\n22. Hermes: Happy am I, my son, that though hast brought the good fruits forth of Truth, products that cannot die.\n\nAnd now that thou hast learnt this lesson from me, make promise to keep silence on thy virtue, and to no soul, my son, make known the handing on to thee the manner of Rebirth, that we may not be thought to be calumniators.\n\nAnd now we both of us have given heed sufficiently, both I the speaker and the hearer thou.\n\nIn Mind hast thou become a Knower of thyself and our [common] Sire.\n\n## A Letter Of Thrice-Greatest Hermes To Asclepius\n\n**UNTO ASCLEPIUS GOOD HEALTH OF SOUL!**\n\n(Text: P. 128-134; Pat. 49, 50.)\n\n1. Since in thy absence my son Tat desired to learn the nature of the things that are, and would not let me hold it over, as [natural to] a younger son fresh come to gnosis of the [teachings] on each single point, - I was compelled to tell [him] more, in order that the contemplation [of them] might be the easier for him to follow.\n\nI would, then, choosing out the chiefest heads of what was said, write them in brief to thee, explaining them more mystic-ly, as unto one of greater age and one well versed in Nature.\n\n2. If all things manifest have been and are being made, and made things are not made by their own selves but by another; [if] made things are the *many*, - nay more, are *all* things manifest and all things different and not alike; and things that are being made are being made by other [than themselves]; - there is some one who makes these things; and He cannot be made, but is more ancient than the things that can.\n\nFor things that can be made, I say, are made by other [than themselves]; but of the things that owe their being to their being made, it is impossible that anything should be more ancient than them all, save only That which is not able to be made.\n\n3. So He is both Supreme, and One, and Only, the truly wise in all, as having naught more ancient [than Himself].\n\nFor He doth rule o'er both the number, size and difference of things that are being made, and o'er the continuity of their making [too].\n\nAgain, things makeable are seeable; but He cannot be seen.\n\nFor for this cause He maketh, - that He may not be able to be seen.\n\nHe, therefore, ever maketh; and therefore can He ne'er be seen.\n\nTo comprehend Him thus is meet; and comprehending, [it is meet] to marvel; and marvelling, to count oneself as blessed, as having learnt to know one's Sire.\n\n4. For what is sweeter than one's own true Sire? Who, then, is He; and how shall we learn how to know Him?\n\nIs it not right to dedicate to Him alone the name of God, or that of Maker, or of Father, or rather [all] the three; - God for His Power, and Maker for His Energy, and Father for His Good?\n\nNow Power doth differ from the things which are being made; while Energy consisteth in all things being made.\n\nWherefore we ought to put away verbosity and foolish talk, and understand these two - the made and Maker. For that of them there is no middle [term]; there is no third.\n\n5. Wherefore in all that thou conceivest, in all thou nearest, these two recall to mind; and think all things are they, reckoning as doubtful naught, nor of the things above, nor of the things below, neither of things divine, nor things that suffer change or things that are in obscuration.\n\nFor all things are [these] twain, Maker and made, and 'tis impossible that one should be without the other; for neither is it possible that \"Maker\" should exist without the \"made,\" for each of them is one and the same thing.\n\nWherefore 'tis no more possible for one from other to be parted, than self from self.\n\n6. Now if the Maker is naught else but That which makes, Alone, Simple, Uncompound, it needs must do this [making] to Itself, - to Which its Maker's making is \"its being made.\"\n\nAnd as to all that's being made, - it cannot be [so made] by being made by its own self; but it must needs be made by being made by other. Without the \"Maker\" \"made\" is neither made nor is; for that the one without the other doth lose its proper nature by deprivation of that other.\n\nIf, then, all things have been admitted to be two, - the \"that which is being made\" and \"that which makes,\" - [all then] are one in union of these, - the \"that which leadeth\" and the \"that which followeth.\"\n\nThe making God is \"that which leadeth\"; the \"that which is being made,\" whatever it be, the \"that which followeth.\"\n\n7. And do not thou be chary of things made because of their variety, from fear of attribution of a low estate and lack of glory unto God.\n\nFor that His Glory's one, - to make all things; and this is as it were God's Body, the making [of them].\n\nBut by the Maker's self naught is there thought or bad or base.\n\nThese things are passions which accompany the making process, as rust doth brass and filth doth body; but neither doth the brass-smith make the rust, nor the begetters of the body filth, nor God [make] evil.\n\nIt is continuance in the state of being made that makes them lose, as though it were, their bloom; and 'tis because of this God hath made change, as though it were the making clean of genesis.\n\n8. Is it, then, possible for one and the same painter man to make both heaven, and gods, and earth, and sea, and men, and all the animals, and lifeless things, and trees, and yet impossible for God to make all things?\n\nWhat monstraus lack of understanding; what want of knowledge as to God! 1\n\nFor such the strangest lot of all do suffer; for though they say they worship piously and sing the praise of God, yet by their not ascribing unto Him the making of all things, they know not God; and, added unto this not-knowing, they're guilty even of the worst impiety to Him - passions to Him attributing, or arrogance, or impotency.\n\nFor if He doth not make all things, from arrogance He doth not make, or not being able, - which is impiety [to think].\n\n9. One Passion hath God only - Good; and He who's Good, is neither arrogant nor impotent.\n\nFor this is God - the Good, which hath all power of making all.\n\nAnd all that can be made is made by God, - that is, by [Him who is] the Good and who can make all things.\n\nBut would'st thou learn how He doth make, and how things made are made, thou may'st do so.\n\n10. Behold a very fair and most resemblant image - a husbandman casting the seed into the ground; here wheat, there barley, and there [again] some other of the seeds!\n\nBehold one and the same man planting the vine, the apple, and [all] other trees!\n\nIn just the selfsame way doth God sow Immortality in Heaven, and Change on Earth, and Life and Motion in the universe.\n\nThese are not many, but few and easy to be numbered; for four in all are they, - and God Himself and Genesis, in whom are all that are.\n\n## The Definitions Of Asclepius Unto King Ammon\n\n1. Great is the sermon (*logos*) which I send to thee, O King - the summing up and digest, as it were, of all the rest.\n\nFor it is not composed to suit the many's prejudice, since it contains much that refuteth them.\n\nNay, it will seem to thee as well to contradict sometimes my sermons too.\n\nHermes, my master, in many a conversation, both when alone, and sometimes, too, when Tat was there, has said, that unto those who come across my books, their composition will seem most simple and [most] clear; but, on the contrary, as 'tis unclear, and has the [inner] meaning of its words concealed, it will be still unclearer, when, afterwards, the Greeks will want to turn our tongue into their own, - for this will be a very great distorting and obscuring of [even] what has been [already] written.\n\n2. Turned into our own native tongue, the sermon (*logos*) keepeth clear the meaning of the words (*logoi*) [at any rate].\n\nFor that its very quality of sound, the [very] power of the Egyptian names, have in themselves the bringing into act of what is said.\n\nAs far as, then, thou canst, O King - (and thou canst [do] all things) - keep [this] our sermon from translation; in order that such mighty mysteries may not come to the Greeks, and the disdainful speech of Greece, with [all] its looseness, and its surface beauty, so to speak, take all the strength out of the solemn and the strong - the energetic speech of Names.\n\nThe Greeks, O King, have novel words, energic of \"argumentation\" [only]; and thus is the philosophizing of the Greeks - the noise of words.\n\nBut we do not use words; but we use sounds full-filled with deeds.\n\n3. Thus, then, will I begin the sermon by invocation unto God, the universals' Lord and Maker, [their] Sire, and [their] Encompasser; who though being All is One, and though being One is All; for that the Fullness of all things is One, and [is] in One, this latter One not coming as a second [One], but both being One.\n\nAnd this is the idea that I would have thee keep, through the whole study of our sermon, Sire!\n\nFor should one try to separate what *seems* to be both All *and* One *and* Same from One, - he will be found to take his epithet of \"All\" from [the idea of] multitude, and not from [that of) fullness - which is impossible; for if he part All from the One, he will destroy the All.\n\nFor all things *must* be One - if they indeed *are* One. Yea, they are One; and they shall never cease being One - in order that the Fullness may not be destroyed.\n\n** ** *\n\n4. See then in Earth a host of founts of Water and of Fire forth-spirting in its midmost parts; in one and the same [space all] the three natures visible - of Fire, and Water, and of Earth, depending from one Root.\n\nWhence, too, it is believed to be the Treasury of every matter. It sendeth forth of its abundance, and in the place [of what it sendeth forth] receiveth the subsistence from above.\n\nFor thus the Demiurge - I mean the Sun - eternally doth order Heaven and Earth, pouring down Essence, and taking Matter up, drawing both round Himself and to Himself all things, and from Himself giving all things to all.\n\nFor He it is whose goodly energies extend not only through the Heaven and the Air, but also onto Earth, right down unto the lowest Depth and the Abyss.\n\n6. And if there be an Essence which the mind alone can grasp, this is his Substance, the reservoir of which would be His Light.\n\nBut whence this [Substance] doth arise, or floweth forth, He, [and He] only, knows.\n\n** ** *\n\nOr rather, in space and nature, He is near unto Himself . . . though as He is not seen by us, . . . understand [Him] by conjecture.\n\n7. The spectacle of Him, however, is not left unto conjecture; nay [for] His very rays, in greatest splendour, shine all round on all the Cosmos that doth lie above and lie below.\n\nFor He is stablished in the midst, wreathed with the Cosmos, and just as a good charioteer, He safely drives the cosmic team, and holds them in unto Himself,  lest they should run away in dire disorder.\n\nThe reins are Life, and Soul, and Spirit, Deathlessness, and Genesis.\n\nHe lets it, then, drive [round] not far off from Himself - nay, if the truth be said, together with Himself.\n\n8. And in this way He operates all things. To the immortals He distributeth perpetual permanence; and with the upper hemisphere of His own Light - all that he sends above from out His other side, [the side of him] which looks to Heaven - He nourisheth the deathless parts of Cosmos.\n\nBut with that side that sendeth down [its Light], and shineth round all of the hemisphere of Water, and of Earth, and Air, He vivifieth, and by births and changes keepeth in movement to and fro the animals in these [the lower] parts of Cosmos. . . .\n\n9. He changes them in spiral fashion, and doth transform them into one another, genus to genus, species into species, their mutual changes into one another being balanced - just as He does when He doth deal with the Great Bodies.\n\nFor in the case of every body, [its] permanence [consists in] transformation.\n\nIn case of an immortal one, there is no dissolution; but when it is a mortal one, it is accompanied with dissolution.\n\nAnd this is how the deathless body doth differ from the mortal, and how the mortal one doth differ from the deathless.\n\n10. Moreover, as His Light's continuous, so is His Power of giving Life to lives continuous, and not to be brought to an end in space or in abundance.\n\nFor there are many choirs of daimons round Him, like unto hosts of very various kinds; who though they dwell with mortals, yet are not far from the immortals; but having as their lot from here unto the spaces of the Gods, they watch o'er the affairs of men, and work out things appointed by the Gods - by means of storms, whirlwinds and hurricanes, by transmutations wrought by fire and shakings of the earth, with famines also and with wars requiting [man's] impiety, - for this is in man's case the greatest ill against the Gods.\n\n11. For that the duty of the Gods is to give benefits; the duty of mankind is to give worship; the duty of the daimons is to give requital.\n\nFor as to all the other things men do, through error, or foolhardiness, or by necessity, which they call Fate, or ignorance - these are not held requitable among the Gods; impiety alone is guilty at their bar.\n\n12. The Sun is the preserver and the nurse of every class.\n\nAnd just as the Intelligible World, holding the Sensible in its embrace, fills it [all] full, distending it with forms of every kind and every shape - so, too, the Sun distendeth all in Cosmos, affording births to all, and strengtheneth them.\n\nWhen they are weary or they fail, He takes them in His arms again.\n\n13. And under Him is ranged the choir of daimons - or, rather, choirs; for these are multitudinous and very varied, ranked underneath the groups of Stars, in equal number with each one of them.\n\nSo, marshalled in their ranks, they are the ministers of each one of the Stars, being in their natures good, and bad, that is, in their activities (for that a daimon's essence is activity); while some of them are [of] mixed [natures], good and bad.\n\n14. To all of these has been allotted the authority o'er things upon the Earth; and it is they who bring about the multifold confusion of the turmoils on the Earth - for states and nations generally, and for each individual separately.\n\nFor they do shape our souls like to themselves, and set them moving with them, - obsessing nerves, and marrow, veins and arteries, the brain itself, down to the very heart.\n\n15. For on each one of us being born and made alive, the daimons take hold on us - those [daimones] who are in service at that moment [of the wheel] of Genesis, who are ranged under each one of the Stars.\n\nFor that these change at every moment; they do not stay the same, but circle back again.\n\nThese, then, descending through the body to the two parts of the soul, set it awhirling, each one towards its own activity.\n\nBut the soul's rational part is set above the lordship of the daimons - designed to be receptacle of God.\n\n16. Who then doth have a Ray shining upon him through the Sun within his rational part - and these in all are few on them the daimons do not act; for no one of the daimons or of Gods has any power against one Ray of God.\n\nAs for the rest, they are all led and driven, soul and body, by the daimons - loving and hating the activities of these.\n\nThe reason (*logos*), [then,] is not the love that is deceived and that deceives.\n\nThe daimons, therefore, exercise the whole of this terrene economy,  using our bodies as [their] instruments.\n\nAnd this economy Hermes has called Heimarmenē.\n\n17. The World Intelligible, then, depends from God; the Sensible from the Intelligible [World].\n\nThe Sun, through the Intelligible and the Sensible Cosmos, pours forth abundantly the stream from God of Good, - that is, the demiurgic operation.\n\nAnd round the Sun are the Eight Spheres, dependent from Him - the [Sphere] of the Non-wandering Ones, the Six [Spheres] of the Wanderers, and one Circumterrene.\n\nAnd from the Spheres depend the daimones; and from these, men.\n\nAnd thus all things and all [of them] depend from God.\n\n18. Wherefore God is the Sire of all; the Sun's [their] Demiurge; the Cosmos is the instrument of demiurgic operation.\n\nIntelligible Essence regulateth Heaven; and Heaven, the Gods; the daimones, ranked underneath the Gods, regulate men.\n\nThis is the host of Gods and daimones.\n\nThrough these God makes all things for His own self.\n\nAnd all [of them] are parts of God; and if they all [are] parts - then, God is all.\n\nThus, making all, He makes Himself; nor ever can He cease [His making], for He Himself is ceaseless.\n\nJust, then, as God doth have no end and no beginning, so doth His making have no end and no beginning.\n\n## Of Asclepius To The King\n\n*Asclepius.* If thou dost think [of it], O King, even of bodies there are things bodiless.\n\n*The King.* What [are they]? - (asked the King.)\n\n*Asc.* The bodies that appear in mirrors - do they not seem then to have no body?\n\n*The King.* It is so, O Asclepius; thou thinkest like a God! - (the King replied.)\n\n*Asc.* There are things bodiless as well as these; for instance, forms - do not they seem to thee to have no body, but to appear in bodies not only of the things which are ensouled, but also of those which are not ensouled?\n\n*The King.* Thou sayest well, Asclepius.\n\n*Asc.* Thus, [then,] there are reflexions of things bodiless on bodies, and of bodies too upon things bodiless - that is to say, [reflexions] of the Sensible on the Intelligible World, and of the [World] Intelligible on the Sensible.\n\nWherefore, pay worship to the images, O King, since they too have their forms as from the World Intelligible.\n\n(Thereon His Majesty arose and said:)\n\n*The King.* It is the hour, O Prophet, to see about the comfort of our guests. To-morrow, [then,] will we resume our sacred converse.\n\n## The Encomium Of Kings\n\n**(ABOUT THE SOUL'S BEING HINDERED BY THE PASSION OF THE BODY)**\n\n1. [Now] in the case of those professing the harmonious art of muse-like melody - if, when the piece is played, the discord of the instruments doth hinder their intent, its rendering becomes ridiculous.\n\nFor when his instruments are quite too weak for what's required of them, the music-artist needs must be laughed at by the audience.\n\nFor He, with all good will, gives of His art unweariedly; they blame the [artist's] weakness.\n\nHe then who is the Natural Musician-God, not only in His making of the harmony of His [celestial] songs, but also in His sending forth the rhythm of the melody of His own song[s] right down unto the separate instruments,  is, as God, never wearied.\n\nFor that with God there is no growing weary.\n\n2. So, then, if ever a musician desires to enter into the highest contest of his art he can - when now the trumpeters have rendered the same phrase of the [composer's] skill, and afterwards the flautists played the sweet notes of the melody upon their instruments,  and they complete the music of the piece with pipe and plectrum - [if any thing goes wrong,] one does not lay the blame upon the inspiration of the music-maker.\n\nNay, [by no means,] - to him one renders the respect that is his due; one blames the falseness of the instrument, in that it has become a hindrance to those who are most excellent - embarrassing the maker of the music in [the execution of] his melody, and robbing those who listen of the sweetness of the song.\n\n3. In like way also, in our case, let no one of our audience for the weakness that inheres in body, blame impiously our Race.\n\nNay, let him know God is Unwearied Spirit - for ever in the self-same way possessed of His own science, unceasing in His joyous gifts, the self-same benefits bestowing everywhere.\n\n4. And if the Pheidias - the Demiurge - is not responded to, by lack of matter to perfect His skilfulness, although for His own part the Artist has done all he can, let us not lay the blame on Him.\n\nBut let us, [rather,] blame the weakness of the string, in that, because it is too slack or is too tight, it mars the rhythm of the harmony.\n\n5. So when it is that the mischance occurs by reason of the instrument, no one doth blame the Artist.\n\nNay, [more;] the worse the instrument doth chance to be, the more the Artist gains in reputation by the frequency with which his hand doth strike the proper note, and more the love the listeners pour upon that Music-maker, without the slightest thought of blaming him.\n\nSo will we too, most noble [Sirs], set our own lyre in tune again, within, with the Musician!\n\n6. Nay, I have seen one of the artist-folk - although he had no power of playing on the lyre - when once he had been trained for the right noble theme, make frequent use of his own self as instrument, and tune the service of his string by means of mysteries, so that the listeners were amazed at how he turned necessitude into magnificence.\n\nOf course you know the story of the harper who won the favour of the God who is the president of music-work.\n\n[One day,] when he was playing for a prize, and when the breaking of a string became a hindrance to him in the contest, the favour of the Better One supplied him with another string, and placed within his grasp the boon of fame.\n\nA grasshopper was made to settle on his lyre, through the foreknowledge of the Better One, and [so] fill in the melody in substitution of the [broken] string.\n\nAnd so by mending of his string the harper's grief was stayed, and fame of victory was won.\n\n7. And this I feel is my own case, most noble [Sirs]!\n\nFor but just now I seemed to make confession of my want of strength, and play the weakling for a little while; but now, by virtue of the strength of [that] Superior One, as though my song about the King had been perfected [by Him, I seem] to wake my muse.\n\nFor, you must know, the end of [this] our duty will be the glorious fame of Kings, and the good-will of our discourse (*logos*) [will occupy itself] about the triumphs which they win.\n\nCome then, let us make haste! For that the singer willeth it, and hath attuned his lyre for this; nay more, more sweetly will he play, more fitly will he sing, as he has for his song the greater subjects of his theme.\n\n8. Since, then, he has the [stringing] of his lyre tuned specially to Kings, and has the key of laudatory songs, and as his goal the Royal praises, let him first raise himself unto the highest King - the God of wholes.\n\nBeginning, [then,] his song from the above, he, [thus,] in second place, descends to those after His likeness who hold the sceptre's power; since Kings themselves, indeed, prefer the [topics] of the song should step by step descend from the above, and where they have their [gifts of] victory presided o'er for them, thence should their hopes be led in orderly succession.\n\n9. Let, then, the singer start with God, the greatest King of wholes, who is for ever free from death, both everlasting and possessed of [all] the might of everlastingness, the Glorious Victor, the very first, from whom all victories descend to those who in succession do succeed to victory.\n\n10. Our sermon (*logos*) then, doth hasten to descend to [Kingly] praises and to the Presidents of common weal and peace, the Kings - whose lordship in most ancient times was placed upon the highest pinnacle by God Supreme; for whom the prizes have already been prepared even before their prowess in the war; of whom the trophies have been raised even before the shock of conflict.\n\nFor whom it is appointed not only to be Kings but also to be best.\n\nAt whom, before they even stir, the foreign land doth quake.\n\n** ** *\n\n**(ABOUT THE BLESSING OF THE BETTER [ONE] AND PRAISING OF THE KING)**\n\n11. But now our theme (*logos*) doth hasten on to blend its end with its beginnings - with blessing of the Better [One]; and then to make a final end of its discourse (*logos*) on those divinest Kings who give us the [great] prize of peace.\n\nFor just as we began [by treating] of the Better [One] and of the Power Above, so let us make the end bend round again unto the same - the Better [One].\n\nJust as the Sun, the nurse of all the things that grow, on his first rising, gathers unto himself the first-fruits of their yield with his most mighty hands, using his rays as though it were for plucking off their fruits - yea, [for] his rays are [truly] hands for him who plucketh first the most ambrosial [essences] of plants - so, too, should we, beginning from the Better [One], and [thus] recipient of His wisdom's stream, and turning it upon the garden of our souls above the heavens, - we should [direct and] train these [streams] of blessing back again unto their source, [blessing] whose entire power of germination [in us] He hath Himself poured into us.\n\n12. 'Tis fit ten thousand tongues and voices should be used to send His blessings back again unto the all-pure God, who is the Father of our souls; and though we cannot utter what is fit - for we are [far] unequal to the task - [yet will we say what best we can].\n\nFor Babes just born have not the strength to sing their Father's glory as it should be sung; but they give proper thanks for them, according to their strength, and meet with pardon for their feebleness.\n\nNay, it is rather that God's glory doth consist in this [one] very thing - that He is greater than His children; and that the prelude and the source, the middle and the end, of blessings, is to confess the Father to be infinitely puissant and never knowing what a limit means.\n\n13. So is it, too, in the King's case.\n\nFor that we men, as though we were the children of the King, feel it our natural duty to give praise to him. Still must we ask for pardon [for our insufficiency], e'en though 'tis granted by our Sire before we [even] ask.\n\nAnd as it cannot be the Sire will turn from Babes new-born because they are so weak, but rather will rejoice when they begin to recognise [his love] - so also will the Gnosis of the all [rejoice], which doth distribute life to all, and power of giving blessing back to God, which He hath given [us].\n\n14. For God, being Good, and having in Himself eternally the limit of His own eternal fitness, and being deathless, and containing in Himself that lot of that inheritance that cannot come unto an end, and [thus] for ever ever-flowing from out that energy of His, He doth send tidings to this world down here [to urge us] to the rendering of praise that brings us home again.\n\nWith Him, therefore, is there no difference with one another; there is no partiality with Him.\n\nBut they are one in Thought. One is the Prescience of all. They have one Mind - their Father.\n\nOne is the Sense that's active through them -  their passion for each other. 'Tis Love Himself who worketh the one harmony of all.\n\n15. Thus, therefore, let us sing the praise of God.\n\nNay, rather, let us [first] descend to those who have received their sceptres from Him.\n\nFor that we ought to make beginning with our Kings, and so by practising ourselves on them, accustom us to songs of praise, and train ourselves in pious service to the Better [One].\n\n[We ought] to make the very first beginnings of our exercise of praise begin from him, and through him exercise the practice [of our praise], that so there may be in us both the exercising of our piety towards God, and of our praise to Kings.\n\n16. For that we ought to make return to them, in that they have extended the prosperity of such great peace to us.\n\nIt is the virtue of the King, nay, 'tis his name alone, that doth establish peace.\n\nHe has his name of King because he levelleth the summits of dissension with his smooth tread, and is the lord of reason (*logos*) that [makes] for peace.\n\nAnd in as much, in sooth, as he hath made himself the natural protector of the kingdom which is not his native land, his very name [is made] the sign of peace.\n\nFor that, indeed, you know, the appellation of the King has frequently at once restrained the foe.\n\nNay, more, the very statues of the King are peaceful harbours for those most tempest-tossed.\n\nThe likeness of the King alone has to appear to win the victory, and to assure to all the citizens freedom from hurt and fear.\n\n## The Perfect Sermon Or The Asclepius\n\n**I**\n\n1. [I. M.] [*Trismegistus.*] God, O Asclepius, hath brought thee unto us that thou mayest hear a Godly sermon, a sermon such as well may seem of all the previous ones we've [either] uttered, or with which we've been inspired by the Divine, more Godly than the piety of [ordinary] faith.\n\nIf thou with eye of intellect shalt *see* this Word thou shalt in thy whole mind be filled quite full of all things good.\n\nIf that, indeed, the \"many\" be the \"good,\" and not the \"one,\" in which are \"all.\" Indeed the difference between the two is found in their agreement, - \"All\" is of \"One\" or \"One\" is \"All.\" So closely bound is each to other, that neither can be parted from its mate.\n\nBut this with diligent attention shalt thou learn from out the sermon that shall follow [this].\n\nBut do thou, O Asclepius, go forth a moment and call in the one who is to hear.\n\n(And when he had come in, Asclepius proposed that Ammon too should be allowed to come. Thereon Thrice-greatest said:) [*Tris.*] There is no cause why Ammon should be kept away from us. For we remember how we have ourselves set down in writing many things to his address, as though unto a son most dear and most beloved, of physics many things, of ethics [too] as many as could be.\n\nIt is, however, with *thy* name I will inscribe this treatise.\n\nBut call, I prithee, no one else but Ammon, lest a most pious sermon on a so great theme be spoilt by the admission of the multitude.\n\nFor 'tis the mark of an unpious mind to publish to the knowledge of the crowd a tractate brimming o'er with the full Greatness of Divinity.\n\n(When Ammon too had come within the holy place, and when the sacred group of four was now complete with piety and with God's goodly presence - to them, sunk in fit silence reverently, their souls and minds pendent on Hermes' lips, thus Love Divine began to speak.) II\n\n1. [*Tris.*] The soul of every man, O [my] Asclepius, is deathless; yet not all in like fashion, but some in one way or [one] time, some in another.\n\n*Asc.* Is not, then, O Thrice-greatest one, each soul of one [and the same] quality?\n\n*Tris.* How quickly hast thou fallen, O Asclepius, from reason's true sobriety!\n\nDid not I say that \"All\" is \"One,\" and \"One\" is \"All,\" in as much as all things have been in the Creator before they were created. Nor is He called unfitly \"All,\" in that His members are the \"All.\"\n\nTherefore, in all this argument, see that thou keep in mind Him who is \"One\"-\"All,\" or who Himself is maker of the \"All.\"\n\n2. All things descend from Heaven to Earth, to Water and to Air.\n\n'Tis Fire alone, in that it is borne upwards, giveth life; that which [is carried] downwards [is] subservient to Fire.\n\nFurther, whatever doth descend from the above, begetteth; what floweth upwards, nourisheth.\n\n'Tis Earth alone, in that it resteth on itself, that is Receiver of all things, and [also] the Restorer of all genera that it receives.\n\nThis Whole, therefore, as thou rememberest, in that it is of all, - in other words, all things, embraced by nature under \"Soul\" and \"World,\" are in [perpetual] flux, so varied by the multiform equality of all their forms, that countless kinds of well-distinguished qualities may be discerned, yet with this bond of union, that all should seem as One, and from \"One\" \"All.\"\n\n**III**\n\n1. That, then, from which the whole Cosmos is formed, consisteth of Four Elements - Fire, Water, Earth, and Air; Cosmos [itself is] one, [its] Soul [is] one, and God is one.\n\nNow lend to me the whole of thee, - all that thou can'st in mind, all that thou skill'st in penetration.\n\nFor that the Reason of Divinity may not be known except by an intention of the senses like to it.\n\n'Tis likest to the torrent's flood, down-dashing headlong from above with all-devouring tide; so that it comes about, that by the swiftness of its speed it is too quick for our attention, not only for the hearers, but also for the very teachers.\n"}
 {"text": "# THE DIVINE PYMANDER OF HERMES MERCURIUS TRISMEGISTUS**\n\n## Contents\n\n- Preface\n- Hermes Trismegistus, His First Book\n- The Second Book, Called, Poemander\n- The Third Book, The Holy Sermon\n- The Fourth Book, Called The Key\n- The Fifth Book, That God Is Not Manifest, And Yet Most Manifest\n- The Sixth Book, That In God Alone Is Good\n- The Seventh Book, His Secret Sermon In The Mount Of Regeneration, And The Profession Of Silence\n- The Eighth Book, The Greatest Evil In Man Is The Not Knowing God\n- The Ninth Book, A Universal Sermon To Asclepius\n- The Tenth Book, The Mind To Hermes\n- The Eleventh Book Of The Common Mind, To Tat\n- The Twelfth Book, His Crater Or Monas\n- The Thirteenth Book, Of Sense And Understanding\n- The Fourteenth Book, Of Operation And Sense\n- The Fifteenth Book, Of Truth To His Son Tat\n- The Sixteenth Book, That None Of The Things That Are Can Perish\n- The Seventeenth Book, To Asclepius, To Be Truly Wise\n\n## Preface\n\nJUDICIOUS READER,\n\nThis Book may justly challenge the first place for antiquity, from all the Books in the World, being written some hundreds of years before Moses his time, as I shall endeavour to make good. The Original (as far as is known to us) is Arabic, and several Translations thereof have been published, as Greek, Latin, French, Dutch, etc., but never English before. It is pity the Learned Translator [Dr. Everard] had not lived, and received himself, the honour, and thanks due to him from the Englishmen for his good will to, and pains for them, in translating a Book of such infinite worth, out of the Original, into their Mother-tongue.\n\nConcerning the Author of the Book itself, Four things are considerable, viz., His Name, Learning, Country, and Time.\n\n1. The name by which he was commonly styled, is Hermes Trismegistus, i.e., Mercurius ter Maximus, or, The thrice greatest Intelligencer. And well might he be called Hermes, for he was the first Intelligencer in the World (as we read of) that communicated Knowledge to the sons of Men, by Writing, or Engraving. He was called Ter Maximus, for some Reasons, which I shall afterwards mention.\n\n2. His Learning will appear, as by his Works; so by the right understanding the Reason of his Name.\n\n3. For his Country, he was King of Egypt.\n\n4. For his Time, it is not without much Controversy, betwixt those that write of this Divine, ancient Author, what time he lived in. Some say he lived after Moses his time, giving this slender Reason for it, viz., Because he was named Ter Maximus: for being preferred [Franciscus Flussas] (according to the Egyptian Customs) being chief Philosopher, to be chief of the Priesthood: and from thence, to be chief in Government, or King. But if this be all their ground, you must excuse my dissent from then, and that for this reason, Because according to the most learned of his followers [Geber, Paracelsus: Henricus Nollius in Theoria Philosophia Hermeticae, tractatu priimo.], he was called Ter Maximus; for having perfect, and exact Knowledge of all things contained in the World; which things he divided into Three Kingdoms (as he calls them), viz., Mineral, Vegetable, Animal; which Three, he did excel in the right understanding of; also, because he attained to, and transmitted to Posterity (although in an Ænigmatical, and obscure style) the Knowledge of the Quintessence of the whole Universe (which Universe, as I said before, he divided into Three Parts) otherwise called, The great Elixir of the Philosophers; which is the Receptacle of all Celestial and Terrestrial Virtues; which Secret, many ignorantly deny, many have chargeably sought after, yet few, but some, yea, and the Englishmen have happily found [Ripley, Bacon, Norton, etc.]. The Description of this great Treasure, is said to be found engraved upon a Smaragdine Table, in the Valley of Ebron, after the Flood. So that the Reason before alleged to prove this Author to live after Moses, seem invalid: neither doth it any way appear, that he lived in Moses his time, although it be the opinion of some, as of John Functius, who saith in his Chronology, That he lived Twenty-one years before the Law was given by Moses in the Wilderness; But the Reasons that he, and others give, are far weaker than those that I shall give, for his living before Moses his time. My reasons for that are these: -\n\nFirst, Because it is received amongst the Ancients, that he was the first that invented the Art of communicating Knowledge to the World, by Writing or Engraving. Now if so, then in all probability he was before Moses; for it is said of Moses that he was from his childhood [Acts vii.22] skilled in all the Egyptian Learning, which could not well have been without the help of Literature, which we never read of any before that invented by Hermes [Chapter x.].\n\nSecondly, he is said by himself, to be the son of Saturn and by others to be the Scribe of Saturn. Now Saturn according to Historians, lived in the time of Sarug, Abraham's great Grand-Father [Sanchoniathon]. I shall but take in Suidas his judgment, and so rest satisfied, that he did not live only before, but long before Moses; His words are these, Credo Mercurium Trismegistum sapientem Egyptium floruisse ante Pharaonem [Suidas].\n\nIn this Book, though so very old, is contained more true knowledge of God and Nature, than in all the Books in the World besides, except only Sacred Writ; And they that shall judiciously read it, and rightly understand it, may well be excused from reading many Books; the Authors of which, pretend so much to the knowledge of the Creator, and Creation. If God ever appeared in any man, he appeared in him, as it appears by this Book.\n\nThat a man who had not the benefit of his Ancestors' knowledge, being as I said before, The first inventor of the Art of Communicating Knowledge to Posterity by writing, should be so high a Divine, and so deep a Philosopher, seems to be a thing more of God than of Man; and therefore it was the opinion of some That he came from Heaven, not born upon Earth [Goropius Becanus].\n\nThere is contained in this Book, that true Philosophy, without which, it is impossible ever to attain to the height, and exactness of Piety, and Religion.\n\nAccording to this Philosophy, I call him a Philosopher, that shall learn and study the things that are, and how they are ordered, and governed, and by whom, and for what cause, or to what end; and he that doth so, will acknowledge thanks to, and admire the Omnipotent Creator, Preserver, and Director of all these things. And he that shall be thus truly thankful, may truly be called Pious and Religious: and he that is Religious, shall more and more know where and what the Truth is: And learning that, he shall yet be more and more Religious.\n\nThe glory and splendour of Philosophy, is an endeavoring to understand the chief Good, as the Fountain of all Good: Now how can we come near to, or find out the Fountain, but by making use of the Streams as a conduct to it? The operations of Nature, are Streams running from the Fountain of Good, which is God.\n\nI am not of the ignorant, and foolish opinion of those that say, The greatest Philosophers are the greatest Atheists: as if to know the works of God, and to understand his goings forth in the Way of Nature, must necessitate a man to deny God. The [Job] Scripture disapproves of this as a sottish tenet, and experience contradicts it: For behold! Here is the greatest Philosopher, and therefore the greatest Divine.\n\nRead understandingly this ensuing Book (and for thy help thou mayest make use of that voluminous Commentary written upon it [Hanbal Offeli Alabar] ) then it will speak more for its Author, than can be spoken by any man, at least by me.\n\nThine in the love of Truth, J.F.\n\n## Hermes Trismegistus, His First Book\n\n1. O MY SON, write this First Book, both for Humanity's sake, and for Piety towards god.\n\n2. For there can be no Religion more true or just, than to know the things that are; and to acknowledge thanks for all things, to Him that made them, which thing I shall not cease continually to do.\n\n3. What then should a man do, O Father, to lead his life well; seeing there is nothing here true?\n\n4. Be Pious and Religious, O my Son; for he that doth so, is the best and highest Philosopher, and without Philosophy it is impossible ever to attain to the height and exactness of Piety and Religion.\n\n5. But he that shall learn and study the things that are, and how they are ordered and governed, and by whom, and for what cause, or to what end. Will acknowledge thanks to the *Workman*, as to a good *Father*, an excellent *Nurse*, and a faithful *Steward*, and he that gives thanks shall be Pious or Religious, and he that is Religious shall know both where the truth is, and what it is, and learning that he will be yet more and more Religious.\n\n6. For never, O my Son, shall, or can that soul, which, while it is in the body, lightens and lifts up itself to know and comprehend that which is good and true, slide back to the contrary. For it is infinitely enamoured thereof, and forgetteth all evils; and when it hath learned and known its *Father* and *Progenitor*, it can no more apostatize or depart from that good.\n\n7. And let this, O Son, be the end of Religion and Piety; whereunto thou art once arrived, thou shalt both live well and die blessedly, whilst thy soul is not ignorant wither it must return, and fly back again.\n\n8. For this only, O Son, is the way to *Truth*, which our *Progenitors* travelled in; and by which making their journey, they at length attained to the good. It is a venerable way and plain, but hard and difficult for the soul to go in that is in the body.\n\n9. For first must it war against its own self, and after much strife and dissention, it must be overcome of the part; for the contention is of one against two, whilst it flies away, and they strive to hold and detain it.\n\n10. But the victory of both is not like, for the one hasteth to that which is Good, but the other is a neighbour to the things that are Evil; and that which is Good desireth to be set at liberty, but the things that are Evil love bondage and Slavery.\n\n11. And if the two parts be overcome, they become quiet, and are content to accept of it as their *Ruler*; but if the one be overcome of the two, it is by them led and carried to be punished by its being and continuance here.\n\n12. This is, O Son, the Guide in the way that leads thither; for thou must first forsake the Body before thy end, and get the victory in this contention and strifeful life, and when thou hast overcome, return.\n\n13. But now, O my Son, I will by Heads run through the things that are. Understand thou what I say, and remember what thou hearest.\n\n14. All things that are moved, only that which is not is immoveable.\n\n15. Every body is changeable.\n\n16. Not every body is dissolveable.\n\n17. Some bodies are dissolveable.\n\n18. Every living being is not mortal.\n\n19. Nor every living thing is immortal.\n\n20. That which may be dissolved is also corruptible.\n\n21. That which abides always is unchangeable.\n\n22. That which is unchangeable is eternal.\n\n23. That which is always made is always corrupted.\n\n24. That which is made but once is never corrupted, neither becomes any other thing.\n\n25. Firstly, God; secondly, the World; thirdly, Man.\n\n26. The World for Man; Man for God.\n\n27. Of the Soul; that part which is sensible is mortal, but that part which is reasonable is immortal.\n\n28. Every Essence is immortal.\n\n29. Every Essence is unchangeable.\n\n30. Everything that is, is double.\n\n31. None of the things that are stand still.\n\n32. Not all things are moved by a soul, but everything that is, is moved by a soul.\n\n33. Everything that suffers is sensible; everything that is sensible, suffereth.\n\n34. Everything that is sad, rejoiceth also; and is a mortal living creature.\n\n35. Not everything that joyeth is also sad, but is an eternal living thing.\n\n36. Not every body is sick; every body that is sick is dissolveable.\n\n37. The mind in God.\n\n38. Reasoning (or disputing or discoursing) in Man.\n\n39. Reason in the Mind.\n\n40. The Mind is void of suffering.\n\n41. No thing in a body true.\n\n42. All that is incorporeal, is void of Lying.\n\n43. Everything that is made is corruptible.\n\n44. Nothing good upon Earth; nothing evil in Heaven.\n\n45. God is good; Man is evil.\n\n46. Good is voluntary, or of its own accord.\n\n47. Evil is involuntary, or against its will.\n\n48. The gods choose good things, as good things.\n\n49. Time is a Divine thing.\n\n50. Law is humane.\n\n51. Malice is the nourishment of the World.\n\n52. Time is the corruption of Man.\n\n53. Whatsoever is in Heaven is unalterable.\n\n54. All upon Earth is alterable.\n\n55. Nothing in Heaven is servanted; nothing upon Earth free.\n\n56. Nothing unknown in Heaven; nothing known upon Earth.\n\n57. The things upon Earth communicate not with those in Heaven.\n\n58. All things in Heaven are unblameable; all things upon Earth are subject to reprehension.\n\n59. That which is immortal is not mortal; that which is mortal is not immortal.\n\n60. That which is sown is not always begotten; but that which is begotten always is sown.\n\n61. Of a dissolveable body, there are two times; one for sowing to generation, one from generation to death.\n\n62. Of an everlasting Body, the time is only from the Generation.\n\n63. Dissolveable Bodies are increased and diminished.\n\n64. Dissolveable matter is altered into contraries; to wit, Corruption and Generation, but Eternal matter into itself, and its like.\n\n65. The Generation of Man is corruption; the Corruption of Man is the beginning of Generation.\n\n66. That which offsprings or begetteth another, is itself an offspring or begotten by another.\n\n67. Of things that are, some are in bodies, some in their IDEAS.\n\n68. Whasoever things belong to operation or working, are in a body.\n\n69. That which is immortal, partakes not of that which is mortal.\n\n70. That which is mortal cometh not into a Body immortal; but that which is immortal cometh into that which is mortal.\n\n71. Operation or Workings are not carried upwards, but descend downwards.\n\n72. Things upon Earth, do nothing advantage those in Heaven; but all things in Heaven do profit and advantage all things upon Earth.\n\n73. Heaven is capable, and a fit receptacle of everlasting Bodies; the Earth of corruptible Bodies.\n\n74. The Earth is brutish; the Heaven is reasonable or rational.\n\n75. Those things that are in Heaven are subjected or placed under it, but the things on earth are placed upon it.\n\n76. Heaven is the first element.\n\n77. Providence is Divine order.\n\n78. Necessity is the Minister or Servant of Providence.\n\n79. Fortune is the carriage or effect of that which is without order; the Idol of operation, a lying Fantasie or opinion.\n\n80. What is God? The immutable or unalterable good.\n\n81. What is man? An unchangeable evil.\n\n82. If thou perfectly remember these Heads, thou canst not forget those things which in more words I have largely expounded unto thee; for these are the contents or Abridgment of them.\n\n83. Avoid all conversation with the multitude or common people; for I would not have thee subject to Envy, much less to be ridiculous unto the many.\n\n84. For the like always takes to itself that which is like, but the unlike never agrees with the unlike. Such discourses as these have very few Auditors, and peradventure very few will have, but they have something peculiar unto themselves.\n\n85. They do rather sharpen and whet evil men to their maliciousness; therefore, it behoveth to avoid the multitude, and take heed of them as not understanding the virtue and power of the things that are said.\n\n86. How does thou mean, O Father?\n\n87. This O Son: the whole nature and Composition of those living things called Men, is very prone to Maliciousness, and is very familiar, and as it were nourished with it, and therefore is delighted with it; now this wight, if it shall come to learn or know that the world was once made, and all things are done according to Providence or Necessity, Destiny or Fate, bearing rule over all, will he not be much worse than himself, despising the whole, because it was made? *And if he may lay the cause of Evil upon Fate or Destiny*, he will never abstain from any evil work.\n\n88. Wherefore we must look warily to such kind of people, that being in ignorance they may be less evil for fear of that which is hidden and kept secret.\n\nThe End of THE FIRST BOOK OF HERMES....\n\n## The Second Book, Called, Poemander\n\nMY THOUGHTS being once seriously busied about things that are, and my Understanding lifted up, all my bodily Senses being exceedingly holden back, as it is with them that are heavy of sleep, by reason either of fulness of meat, or of bodily labour: Methought I saw one of an exceeding great stature, and of an infinite greatness, call me by my name, and say unto me, *What wouldst thou hear and see?* Or what wouldst thou understand to learn and know?\n\n2. Then said I, *Who are Thou?* I am, quoth he, *Poemander*, the mind of the great Lord, the most mighty and absolute *Emperor*: I know what thou wouldst have, and I am always present with thee.\n\n3. Then I said, *I would learn the things that are, and understand the nature of them, and know God.* How? said he. I answered that I would gladly hear. Then said he, Have me again in they mind, and whasoever though wouldst learn, I will teach thee.\n\n4. When he had thus said, he was changed in his *Idea* or *Form*, and straightway, in the twinkling of an eye, all things were opened unto me. And I saw an infinite sight, all things were become light, both sweet and exceeding pleasant; and I was wonderfully delighted in the beholding it.\n\n5. But after a little while, there was a darkness made in part, coming down obliquely, fearful and hideous, which seemed unto me to be changed *into a certain moist nature*, unspeakably troubled, which yielded a smoke as from Fire; and from whence proceeded a voice unutterable, and very mournful, but inarticulate, inasmuch as it seemed to have come from the Light.\n\n6. Then from that Light, a certain *holy Word joined itself unto Nature*, and outflew the pure and unmixed Fire from the moist nature upwards on high; it was exceeding *Light*, and *sharp*, and *operative* withal. And the *Air*, which was also light, followed the *Spirit* and mourned up to *Fire* (from the Earth and the Water), insomuch that it seemed to hang and depend upon it.\n\n7. And the Earth and the Water stayed by themselves so mingled together, that the Earth could not be seen for the Water, but they were moved because of the *Spiritual word* that was carried upon them.\n\n8. Then said Poemander unto me, Dost thou understand this vision, and what it meaneth? I shall know, said I. Then said he, I am that Light, the Mind, thy God, who am before that moist nature that appeared out of darkness; and that bright and lightful Word from the mind is the Son of God.\n\n9. How is that, quoth I? Thus, replied he, understand it: That which in thee seeth and heareth, the Word of the Lord, and the Mind the Father, God, differ not one from the other; and the union of these is Life.  \n*Trismeg.*--I thank thee.  \n*Pimand.*--But first conceive well the Light in they mind, and know it.\n\n10. When he had said thus, for a long time we looked steadfastly one upon the other, insomuch that I trembled at his *Idea*or *Form*.\n\n11. But when he nodded to me, I beheld in my mind the Light that is in innumerable, and the truly indefinite *ornament*or *world*; and that the *Fire* is comprehended or contained in, or by a great moist Power, and constrained to keep its station.\n\n12. These things I understood, seeing the word, or *Pimander*; and when I was mightily amazed, he said again unto me, Hast thou seen in thy mind that Archetypal Form which was before the interminated and infinite Beginning? Thus *Pimander* to me. But whence, quoth I, or whereof are the Elements of Nature made?  \n*Pimander.*--Of the Will and counsel of God; which taking the Word, and beholding the beautiful World (in the Archetype thereof) imitated it, and so made this World, by the principles and vital seeds or Soul-like productions of itself.\n\n13. For the *Mind* being God, *Male and Female, Life and Light*, brought forth by his *Word* another *Mind* or *Workman*; which being God of the *Fire*, and the *Spirit*, fashioned and formed seven other Governors, which in their circles contain the *Sensible World*, whose Government or disposition is called *Fate* or *Destiny*.\n\n14. *Straightway* leaped out, or exalted itself from the downward Elements of God,*The Word of God*, into the clean and pure Workmanship of Nature, and was united to the *Workman*, *Mind*, for it was *Consubstantial*; and so the downward born elements of Nature were left without Reason, that they might be the only Matter.\n\n15. But the *Workman*, *Mind*, together with the *Word*, containing the circles, and whirling them about, turned round as a wheel, his own Workmanships; and suffered them to be turned from an indefinite Beginning to an indeterminable end, for they always begin where they end.\n\n16. And the *Circulation*or running round of these, as the mind willeth, out of the lower or downward-born Elements, brought forth unreasonable or brutish Creatures, for they had no reason, the Air flying things, and the Water such as swim.\n\n17. And the Earth and the Water were separated, either from the other, as the *Mind* would; and the Earth brought forth from herself, such living creatures as she had, four-footed and creeping beasts, wild and tame.\n\n18. But the Father of all things, the *Mind* being *Life* and *Light*, brought forth *Man* like unto himself, whom he loved s his proper *Birth*; for he was all beauteous, having the image of his *Father*.\n\n19. For indeed God was exceedingly enamoured of his own form or shape, and delivered unto it all his own Workmanships. But he, seeing and understanding the *Creation* of the Workman in the whole, would needs also himself *fall to work*, and so was separated from the Father, being in the sphere of Generation or Operation.\n\n20. Having all Power, he considered the Operations or Workmanships of the *Seven*; but they loved him, and everyone made him partaker of his own order.\n\n21. And he learning diligently, and understanding their Essence, and partaking their Nature, resolved to pierce and break through the *Circumference* of the Circles, and to understand the power of him that sits upon the Fire.\n\n22. And having already all power of mortal things, of the Living, and of the unreasonable creatures of the World, stooped down and peeped through the *Harmony*, and breaking through the strength of the Circles, so showed and made manifest the downward-born Nature, the fair and beautiful Shape or Form of God.\n\n23. Which, when he saw, having in itself the unsatiable Beauty, and all the operations of the*Seven Governors*, and the Form or Shape of God, he *smiled* for love, as if he had seen the shape or likeness in the Water, or the shadow upon the Earth, of the fairest Human form.\n\n24. And seeing in the Water a Shape, a Shape like unto himself, in himself he loved it, and would cohabit with it, and immediately upon the resolution ensued the operation, and brought forth the unreasonable Image or Shape.\n\n25. Nature presently laying hold of what it so much loved, did wholly wrap herself about it, and they were mingled, for they loved one another.\n\n26. And from this cause *Man* above all things that live upon earth is double: *Mortal*, because of his body, and *Immortal*, because of the substantial Man. For being immortal, and having power of all things, he yet suffers mortal things, and such as are subject to Fate or Destiny.\n\n27. And therefore being above all *Harmony*, he is made and become a servant to *Harmony*, he is *Hermaphrodite*, or Male and Female, and watchful, he is governed by and subjected to a Father, that is both Male and Female, and watchful.\n\n28. After these things, I said, Thou art my mind, and I am in love with Reason.\n\n29. Then said *Pimander*, This is the *Mystery* that to this day is hidden and kept secret; for Nature being mingled with man, brought forth a Wonder most Wonderful; for he having the nature of the *Harmony* of the *Seven*, from him whom I told thee, the Fire and the Spirit, Nature continued not, but forthwith brought forth seven Men, all *Males*and *Females*, and sublime, or on high, according to the Natures of the seven Governors.\n\n30. And after these things, O *Pimander*, quoth I, I am now come into a great desire and longing to hear; do not digress or run out.\n\n31. But he said, Keep silence, for I have not yet finished the first speech.\n\n32. *Trism.*Behold, I am silent.\n\n33. *Pim.*The Generation therefore of these Seven was after this manner:--The *Air* being *Feminine* and the Water desirous of Copulation, took from the Fire its ripeness, and from the aether Spirit, and so Nature produced Bodies after the species and shape of men.\n\n34. And man was made of *Life*and *Light*, into *Soul* and *Mind*; of *Life* the soul, of *Light* the *Mind*.\n\n35. And so all the members of the *Sensible World*, continued unto the period of the end, bearing rule and generating.\n\n36. Hear now the rest of that speech thou so much desireth to hear.\n\n37. When that *period* was fulfilled, the bond of all things was loosed and untied by the will of God; for all living *Creatures* being Hermaphroditical, or *Male*and *Female*, were loosed and untied together with man; and so the Males were apart by themselves and the Females likewise.\n\n38. And straightways God said to the Holy Word, Increase in increasing and multiplying in multitude all you my Creatures and Workmanships. And let him that is endued with mind, know himself to be immortal; and that the cause of death is the love of the body, and let him learn all things that are.\n\n39. When he had thus said, *Providence by Fate of Harmony*, made the mixtures and established the Generations, and all things were multiplied according to their kind. And he that knew himself, came at length to the *Superstantial*of every way substantial good.\n\n40. But he that thro' the error of Love loved the *Body*, abideth wandering in darkness, sensible, suffering the things of death.\n\n41. *Trism.* But why do they that are ignorant, sin so much, that they should therefore be deprived of immortality?\n\n42. *Pim.*Thou seemest not to have understood what thou hast heard.\n\n43. *Trism.*Peradventure I seem so to thee; but I both understand and remember them.\n\n44. *Pim.*I am glad for thy sake if thou understoodest them.\n\n45. *Trism.*Tell me why are they worthy of death, that are in death?\n\n46. *Pim.*Because there goeth a sad and dismal darkness before its body; of which darkness is the moist nature, of which moist nature the Body consisteth in the sensible world, from whence death is derived. Has thou understood this aright?\n\n47. *Trism.*But why, or how doth he that understands himself, go or pass into God?\n\n48. *Pim.*That which the Word of God said, say I: Because the Father of all things consists of Life and Light, whereof man is made.\n\n49. *Trism.*Thou sayest very well.\n\n50. *Pim.*God and the Father is Light and Life, of which Man is made. If therefore thou learn and believe thyself to be of the Life and Light, thou shalt again pass into Life.\n\n51. *Trism.*But yet tell me more, O my Mind, how I shall go into Life.\n\n52. *Pim.*God saith, Let man, endued with a mind, mark, consider, and know himself well.\n\n53. *Trism.*Have not all men a mind?\n\n54. *Pim.*Take heed what thou sayest, for I the mind come unto men that are holy and good, pure and merciful, and that live piously and religiously; and my presence is a help unto them. And forthwith they know all things, and lovingly they supplicate and propitiate the Father; and blessing him, they give him thanks, and sing hymns unto him, being ordered and directed by filial Affection and natural Love. And before they give up their bodies to the death of them, they hate their senses, knowing their Works and Operations.\n\n55. Rather I that am the Mind itself, will not suffer the operations or Works, which happen or belong to the body, to be finished and brought to perfection in them; but being the *Porter* or *Doorkeeper*, I will shut up the entrances of Evil, and cut off the thoughtful desires of filthy works.\n\n56. But to the foolish, and evil, and wicked, and envious, and covetous, and murderous, and profane, I am far off, giving place to the revenging *Demon*, which applying unto him the sharpness of fire, tormenteth such a man sensible, and armeth him the more to all wickedness, that he may obtain the greater punishment.\n\n57. And such an one never ceaseth, having unfulfiled desires, and unsatisfiable concupiscences, and always fighting in darkness; for the *Demon*always afflicts and tormenteth him continually, and increaseth the fire upon him more and more.\n\n58. *Trism.*Thou hast, O Mind, most excellently taught me all things, as I desired; but tell me, moreover, after the return is made, what then?\n\n59. *Pim.*First of all, in the resolution of the material body, the Body itself is given up to alteration, and the form which it had becometh invisible; and the idle manners are permitted, and left to the *Demon*, and the senses of the body return into their Fountains, being parts, and again made up into Operations.\n\n60. And Anger, and concupiscence, go into the brutish or unreasonable nature; and the rest striveth upward by Harmony.\n\n61. And to the first *Zone*it giveth the power it had of increasing and diminishing.\n\n62. To the second, the machinations or plotting of evils, and one effectual deceit or craft.\n\n63. To the third, the idle deceit of Concupiscence.\n\n64. To the fourth, the desire of Rule, and unsatiable Ambition.\n\n65. To the fifth, profane Boldness, and the headlong rashness of confidence.\n\n66. To the sixth, Evil and ineffectual occasions of Riches.\n\n67. To the seventh *Zone*, subtle Falsehood, always lying in wait.\n\n68. And then being made naked of all the Operations of *Harmony*, it cometh to the Eighth Nature, having its proper power, and singeth praises to the father with the things that are, and all they that are present rejoice, and congratulate the coming of it; and being made like to them with whom it converseth, it heareth also the Powers that are above the Eighth Nature, singing Praise to God in a certain voice that is peculiar to them.\n\n69. And then in order they return unto the Father, and themselves deliver themselves to the Powers, and becoming Powers they are in God.\n\n70. This is the Good, and to them that know, to be desired.\n\n71. Furthermore, why sayest thou, What resteth, but that understanding all men thou become a guide, and way-leader to them that are worthy; that the kind of *Humanity*, or *Mankind*, may be saved by God?\n\n72. When *Pimander*had thus said unto me, he was mingled among the Powers.\n\n73. But I, giving thanks, and blessing the father of all things, rose up, being enabled by him, and taught the Nature of the Nature of the whole, and having seen the greatest sight or spectacle.\n\n74. And I began to Preach unto men, the beauty and fairness of Piety and Knowledge.\n\n75. O ye people, men, born and made of the earth, which have given yourselves over to drunkenness and sleep, and to the ignorance of God, be sober and cease your surfeit, whereunto you are allured and visited by brutish and unreasonable sleep.\n\n76. And they that heard me come willingly and with one accord; and then I said further:\n\n77. Why, O Men of the Offspring of Earth, why have you delivered yourselves over unto Death, having power to partake of Immortality? Repent and change your minds, you that have together walked in Error, and have been darkened in ignorance.\n\n78. Depart from that dark light, be partakers of Immortality, and leave or forsake corruption.\n\n79. And some of *them that heard me*, mocking and scorning went away, and delivered themselves up to the way of Death.\n\n80. But others casting themselves down before my feet, besought me that they might be taught; but I, causing them to rise up, became a guide of mankind, teaching them the reasons how, and by what means they may be saved. And I sowed in them the Words of Wisdom, and nourished them with *Ambrozian* Water of *Immortality*.\n\n81. And when it was evening and the brightness of the same began wholly to go down, I commanded them to go down, I commanded them to give thanks to God; and when they had finished their thanksgiving, everyone returned to his own lodging.\n\n82. But I wrote in myself the bounty and benevolence of *Pimander*; and being filled with what I most desired, I was exceedingly glad.\n\n83. For the sleep of the body was the sober watchfulness of the mind; and the shutting of my eyes the true sight, and my silence great with child and full of good; and the pronouncing of my words the blossoms and fruits of good things.\n\n84. And thus it came to pass or happened unto me, which I received from my mind, that is *Pimander*, the Lord of the Word; whereby I became inspired by God with the Truth.\n\n85. For which cause, with my soul and whole strength, I give praise and blessing unto God the Father.\n\n86. Holy is God, the Father of all things.\n\n87. Holy is God, whose will is performed and accomplished by his own powers.\n\n88. Holy is God, that determineth to be known, and is known by his own, or those that are his.\n\n89. Holy art thou, that by thy Word has established all things.\n\n90. Holy art thou, of whom all Nature is the Image.\n\n91. Holy art thou, whom Nature hath not formed.\n\n92. Holy art thou, that art stronger than all power.\n\n93. Holy art thou, that art stronger than all excellency.\n\n94. Holy art thou, that art better than all praise.\n\n95. Accept these reasonable sacrifices from a pure soul, and a heart that stretched out unto thee.\n\n96. O unspeakable, unutterable, to be praised with silence!\n\n97. I beseech thee, that I may never err from the knowledge of thee; look mercifully upon me, and enable me, and enlighten with this Grace those that are in Ignorance, the brothers of my kind, but thy Sons.\n\n98. Therefore I believe thee, and bear witness, and go into the Life and Light.\n\n99. Blessed art thou, O Father; thy man would be sanctified with thee, as thou hast given him all power.\n\nThe End of The Second Book, Called, POEMANDER....\n\n## The Third Book, The Holy Sermon\n\nTHE glory of all things, God, and that which is Divine, and the Divine Nature, the beginning of things that are.\n\n2. God, and the Mind, and Nature, and Matter, and Operation or Working, and Necessity, and Matter, and Operation or Working, and Necessity, and the End, and Renovation.\n\n3. For there were in the *Chaos* an infinite darkness in the Abyss or bottomless Depth, and Water, and a subtle in Spirit intelligible in Power; and there went out the Holy Light, and the Elements were coagulated from the Sand out of the moist substance.\n\n4. And all the Gods distinguished the Nature full of Seeds.\n\n5. And when all things were interminated and unmade up, the light things were divided on high. And the heavy things were founded upon the moist Sand, all things being Terminated or Divided by Fire, and being sustained or hung up by the Spirit, they were so carried, and the Heaven was seen in *Seven Circles*.\n\n6. And the Gods were seen in their *Ideas* of the Stars, with all their signs, and the Stars were numbered with the Gods in them. And the Sphere was all lined with *Air*, carried about in a circular motion by the Spirit of God.\n\n7. And every God, by his internal power, did that which was commanded him; and there were made four-footed things, and creeping things, and such as live in the water, and such as fly, and every fruitful seed, and Grass, and the Flowers of all Greens, all which had sowed in themselves the Seeds of Regeneration.\n\n8. As also the Generations of Men, to the Knowledge of the Divine Works, and a lively or working Testimony of Nature, and a multitude of men, and the dominion of all things under Heaven, and the Knowledge of good things, and to be increased in increasing, and multiplied in multitude.\n\n9. And every Soul in Flesh, by the wonderful working of the Gods in the Circles, to the beholding of Heaven, the Gods Divine Works, and the operations of Nature; and for signs of good things, and the Knowledge of the Divine Power, and to find out every cunning Workmanship of good things.\n\n10. So it beginneth to live in them, and to be wise according to the operation of the course of the circular Gods; and to be resolved into that which shall be great Monuments and Rememberances of the cunning Works done upon earth, leaving them to be read by the darkness of times.\n\n11. And every Generation of living Flesh, of Fruit, Seed, and all Handicrafts, though they be lost, must of necessity be renewed by the renovation of the Gods, and of the Nature of a Circle, moving in number; for it is a Divine thing that every worldly temperature should be renewed by Nature; for in that which is Divine is Nature also established.\n\nThe End of the Fragments of the Third Book, THE HOLY SERMON....\n\n## The Fourth Book, Called The Key\n\nYESTERDAY'S Speech, O *Asclepius*, I dedicated to thee; this day it is fit to dedicate to Tat, because it is an Epitome of those general Speeches which were spoken to him.\n\n2. God therefore, and the Father, and the Good, *O Tat*, have the same Nature, or rather also the same Act and operation.\n\n3. For there is one name or appellation of Nature or Increase, which concerneth things changeable, and another about things unchangeable, and about things unmoveable, that is to say, Things Divine and Humane; every one of that which himself will have so to be; but action or operation is of another thing, or elsewhere, as we have taught in other things, Divine and Humane, which must here also be understood.\n\n4. For his Operation or Act is his will, and his Essence, to will all things to be.\n\n5. For what is God, and the Father, and the Good, but the Being of all things that yet are not, and the existence itself of those things that are?\n\n6. This is God, this is the Father, this is the Good, whereunto no other thing is present or approacheth.\n\n7. For the *World*, and the *Sun*, which is also a *Father* by *Participation*, is not for all that equally the cause of Good, and of Life, to living creatures. And if this be so, he is altogether constrained by the Will of the Good, without which it is not possible either to be, or to be begotten or made.\n\n8. But the Father is the cause of his Children, who hath a will both to sow and nourish that which is good by the Sun.\n\n9. For Good is always active or busy in making; and this cannot be in any other but in him that taketh nothing, and yet willeth all things to be; for I will not say, O *Tat*, making them; for he that maketh is defective in much time, in which sometimes he maketh not, as also of quantity and quality; for sometimes he maketh those things that have quantity and quality, and sometimes the contrary.\n\n10. But God is the Father, and the Good, in being all things; for he both will be this and is it, and yet all this for himself (as is true) in him that can see it.\n\n11. For all things else are for this, it is the property of Good, to be known. This is the Good, O*Tat*.\n\n12. *Tat.*Thou hast filled us, O *Father*, with a sight both good and fair, and the eye of my mind is almost become more holy by the sight or Spectacle.\n\n13. *Trism. I wonder not at it*, for the *sight of Good* is not like the beam of the *Sun*, which being of a fiery shining brightness, maketh the eye blind by his excessive Light, that gazeth upon it; rather the contrary, for it enlighteneth, and so much increaseth the light of the eye, as any man is able to receive the influence of this intelligible clearness.\n\n14. For it is more swift and sharp to pierce, and innocent or harmless withal, and full of immortality; and they are capable, and can draw any store of this spectacle and sight, do many times fall asleep from the Body, into this most fair and beauteous Vision; which thing *Celius* and Saturn our Progenitors obtained unto.\n\n15. *Tat.*I would we also, O Father, could do so.\n\n16. *Trism.*I would we could, O Son; but for the present we are less intent to the Vision, and cannot yet open the eyes of our mind to behold the incorrputible and incomprehensible Beauty of that Good; but then we shall see it, when we have nothing at all to say of it.\n\n17. For the knowledge of it is a Divine Silence, and the rest of all the senses; for neither can he that understands that, understand anything else, nor he that sees that, see anything else, nor hear any other thing, nor in sum move the Body.\n\n18. For shining steadfastly upon and round the whole mind, it enlighteneth all the Soul; and loosing it from the Bodily senses and motions, it draweth it from the Body, and changeth it wholly into the Essence of God.\n\n19. For it is possible for the Soul, O Son, to be deified while yet it lodgeth in the Body of Man, if it contemplate the beauty of the Good.\n\n20. *Tat.*How does thou mean deifying, *Father*?\n\n21. *Trism.* There are differences, O Son, of every Soul.\n\n22. *Tat.*But how dost thou again divide the changes?\n\n23. *Trism.*Hast thou not heard in the general Speeches, that from one Soul of the universe are all those Souls which in the world are tossed up and down, as it were, and severally divided? Of these Souls there are many changes, some into a more fortunate estate, and some quite the contrary; for they which are of creeping things are changed into those of watery things; and those of things living in the water, to those of things living upon the Land; and Airy ones are changed into men, and human Souls, that lay hold of immortality, are changed into *Demons*.\n\n24. And so they go on into the Sphere or Region of the fixed Gods; for there are two choirs or companies of Gods, one of them that wander, and another of them that are fixed; And so this is the perfect glory of the Soul.\n\n25. But the Soul entering into the body of a Man, if it continue evil, shall neither taste of immortality, nor is partaker of the Good.\n\n26. But being drawn back the same way, it returneth into creeping things; And this is the condemnation of an Evil Soul.\n\n27. And the wickedness of a Soul is ignorance; for the Soul that knows nothing of the things that are, neither the Nature of them, nor that which is good, but is blinded, rusheth and dasheth against the bodily passions; and unhappy as it is, and not knowing itself, it serveth strange bodies and evil ones, carrying the Body as a burden, and not ruling but ruled: And this is the mischief of the Soul.\n\n28. On the contrary, the virtue of the soul is Knowledge; for he that knows is both good and religious, and already Divine.\n\n29. *Tat.* But who is such a one, O Father?\n\n30. *Trism.*He that neither speaks nor hears many things; for he, O Son, that heareth two speeches, or hearings, fighteth in the shadow.\n\n31. For God, and the Father, and Good, is neither spoken nor heard.\n\n32. This being so in all things that are, are the *Senses*, because they cannot be without them.\n\n33. But Knowledge differs much from Sense; for Sense is of things that surmount it, but Knowledge is the end of Sense.\n\n34. Knowledge is the gift of God; for all Knowledge is unbodily, but useth the Mind as an instrument, as the Mind useth the Body.\n\n35. Therefore, both intelligible and material things, go both of them into bodies; for, of contraposition, *that is, setting one against another, *and* contrariety, all things must consist.* And it is impossible it should be otherwise.\n\n36. *Tat.*Who, therefore, is this Material God?\n\n37. *Trism.*The fair and beautiful World, and yet it is not good; for it is material, and easily passible, nay, it is the first of all passible things; and the second of the things that are, and needy or wanting somewhat else. And it was once made, and is always, and is ever in generation, and made, and continually makes, or generates things that have quantity and quality.\n\n38. For it is moveable, and every material motion is generation; but the intellectual stability moves the material motion after this manner.\n\n39. Because the World is a Sphere, that is, a head, and above the head there is nothing material, as beneath the feet there is nothing intellectual.\n\n40. The whole Universe is material: The Mind is the head, and it is moved spherically, that is, like a head.\n\n41. Whatsoever, therefore, is joined or united to the Membrane or Film of the head, wherin the Soul is, is immortal, and as in the Soul of a made Body, hath its Soul full of the Body; but those that are further from that Membrane, have the Body full of Soul.\n\n42. The whole is a living wight, and therefore consisteth of material and intellectual.\n\n43. And the World is the first and Man the second living wight after the World, but the first of things that are mortal; and therefore hath whatsoever benefit of the Soul all the other have: And yet for all this, he is not only not good, but flatly evil, as being mortal.\n\n44. For the World is not good, as it is moveable; nor evil, as it is immortal.\n\n45. But man is evil, both as he is moveable, and as he is mortal.\n\n46. But the Soul of Man is carried in this manner, The Mind is in Reason, Reason in the Soul, The Soul in the Spirit, The Spirit in the Body.\n\n47. The Spirit being diffused and going through the veins, and arteries, and blood, both moveth the living creature, and after a certain manner beareth it.\n\n48. Wherefore some also have thought the Soul to be blood, being deceived in Nature, not knowing that first the spirit must return into the Soul, and then the blood is congealed, and the veins and arteries emptied, and then the living thing dieth: And this is the death of the Body.\n\n49. All things depend of one beginning, and the beginning depends of that which is one and alone.\n\n50. And the beginning is moved, that it may again be a beginning; but that which is one, standeth and abideth, and is not moved.\n\n51. There are therefore, these three, *God the Father, and the Good, the World, and Man.*God hath the World, and the World hath Man; and the World is the Son of God, and Man as it were the offspring of the World.\n\n52. For God is not ignorant of Man, but knows him perfectly, and will be known by him. This only is healthful to man, the knowledge of God: This is the return of *Olympus*; by this only the soul is made good, and not sometimes good, and sometimes evil, but of necessity Good.\n\n53. *Tat.*What meaneth thou, O Father?\n\n54. *Trism.*Consider, O Son, the Soul of a Child, when as yet it hath as yet received no dissolution of its body, which is not yet grown, but is very small: how then if it look upon itself, it sees itself beautiful, as not having been as yet spotted with the Passions of the Body, but as it were depending yet upon the soul of the World.\n\n55. But when the Body is grown, and distracteth the Soul, it engenders forgetfulness, and partakes no more of the *Fair and the Good*, and Forgetfulness is evilness.\n\n56. The like also happeneth to them that go out of the Body: For when the soul runs back into itself, the Spirit is contracted into the blood, and the Soul into the Spirit. But the Mind being made pure, and free from these clothings; and being Divine by Nature, taking a fiery body, rangeth abroad in every place, leaving the soul to judgment, and to the punishment it hath deserved.\n\n57. *Tat.* Why dost thou say so, O Father, that the Mind is separated from the Soul, and the Soul from the Spirit? When even now thou saidst that the Soul was the clothing or apparel of the Mind, and the Body of the Soul.\n\n58. *Trism.*O Son, he that hears must co-understand, and conspire in thought with him that speaks; yea, he must have his hearing swifter and sharper than the voice of the speaker.\n\n59. The disposition of these clothings or Covers is done in an Earthly Body; for it is impossible that the Mind should establish or rest itself, naked, and of itself in an Earthly Body; neither is the Earthly Body able to bear such immortality: and therefore, that it might suffer so great virtue, the Mind compacted, as it were, and took to itself the passable Body of the Soul, as a covering or clothing. And the Soul being also in some sort Divine, useth the Spirit as her Minister or Servant; and the Spirit governeth the living things.\n\n60. When therefore the Mind is separated, and departeth from the Earthly Body, presently it puts on its Fiery Coat, which it could not do, having to dwell in an Earthly Body.\n\n61. For the Earth cannot suffer fire, for it is all burned of a small spark; therefore is the water poured round about the Earth, as a wall or defence, to withstand the flame of fire.\n\n62. But the Mind being the most sharp or swift of all the Divine Cogitations, and more swift than all the Elements, hath the fire for its Body.\n\n63. For the Mind, which is the Workman of all, useth the fire as his Instrument in his Workmanship; and he that is the Workman of all useth it to the making of all things, as it is used by Man to the making of Earthly things only, for the Mind that is upon Earth, void or naked of fire, cannot do the business of men, nor that which is otherwise the affairs of God.\n\n64. But the Soul of Man, and yet not everyone, but that which is pious and religious, is Angelic and Divine. And such a soul, after it is departed from the body, having striven the strife of Piety, becomes either Mind or God.\n\n65. And the strife of piety is to know God, and to injure no Man; and this way it becomes Mind.\n\n66. But the impious Soul abideth in its own offence, punished of itself, and seeking an earthly and humane body to enter into.\n\n67. For no other Body is capable of a Humane Soul, neither is it lawful for a Man's Soul to fall into the Body of an unreasonable living thing: For it is the Law or Decree of God to preserve a Human Soul from so great a contumely and reproach.\n\n68. *Tat.* How then is the Soul of Man punished, O Father, and what is its greatest torment?\n\n69. *Herm.* Impiety, O my Son; for what Fire hath so great a flame as it? Or what biting Beast doth so tear the Body as it doth the Soul?\n\n70. Or dost thou not see how many Evils the wicked Soul suffereth, roaring and crying out, I am burned, I am consumed, I know not what to say or do, I am devoured, unhappy wretch, of the evils that compass and lay hold upon me; miserable that I am, I neither hear nor see anything.\n\n71. These are the voices of a punished and tormented Soul, and not as many; and thou, O Son, thinkest that the Soul going out of the Body grows brutish or enters into a Beast; which is a very great error, for the Soul punished after this manner.\n\n72. For the Mind, when it is ordered or appointed to get a Fiery Body for the services of God, coming down into the wicked soul, torments it with the whips of Sins, wherewith the wicked Soul, being scorged, turns itself to Murders and Contumelies, and Blasphemies, and divers violences, and other things by which men are injured.\n\n73. But into a pious soul, the mind entering, leads it into the Light of Knowledge.\n\n74. And such a Soul is never satisfied with singing praise *to God*, and speaking well of all men; and both in words and deeds always doing good, in imitation of her Father.\n\n75. Therefore, O Son, we must give thanks and pray that we may obtain a good mind.\n\n76. The Soul therefore may be altered or changed into the better, but into the worse it is impossible.\n\n77. But there is a communion of souls, and those of Gods, communicate with those men, and those of Men with those of Beasts.\n\n78. And the better always take of the worse, Gods of Men; Men of brute Beasts, but God of all: For He is the best of all, and all things are less than He.\n\n79. Therefore is the World subject unto God, Man unto the World, and unreasonable things to Man.\n\n80. But God is above all and about all; and the beams of God are operations; and the beams of the World are Natures; and the beams of Man are *Arts and Sciences*.\n\n81. And operations do act by the World, and upon Man by the natural beams of the World, but Natures work by the Elements, and Man by *Arts and Sciences*.\n\n82. And this is the Government of the whole, depending upon the Nature of the *One*, and piercing or coming down by the *one Mind*, than which nothing is more Divine and more efficacious or operative; and nothing more uniting, or nothing is more *One*. The Communion of Gods to Men, and of Men to Gods.\n\n83. This is the *Bonas Genius*, or good *Demon*: blessed soul that is fullest of it! And unhappy soul that is empty of it.\n\n84. *Tat.*And wherefore, Father?\n\n85. *Trism.* Know, Son, that every Soul hath the *Good Mind*; for of that it is we now speak, and not of that Minister of whom we said before, that he was sent from the Judgment.\n\n86. For the Soul without the Mind can neither say nor do anything; for many times the Mind flies away from the Soul, and in that hour the Soul neither seeth nor heareth, but is like an unreasonable thing; so great is the power of the Mind.\n\n87. But neither brooketh it an idle or lazy Soul, but leaves such an one fastened to the Body, and by it is pressed down.\n\n88. And such a Soul, O Son, hath no Mind; wherefore neither must such a one be called a Man.\n\n89. For Man is a Divine living thing, and is not to be compared to any brute Beast that lives upon Earth, but to them that are above in Heaven, that are called Gods.\n\n90. Rather, if we shall be bold to speak the truth, he that is a Man indeed is above them, or at least they are equal in power, one to the other. For none of the things in Heaven will come down upon Earth, and leave the limits of Heaven, but a Man ascends up into Heaven, and measures it.\n\n91. And he knoweth what things are on high, and what below, and learneth all other things exactly.\n\n92. And that which is the greatest of all, he leaveth not the Earth, and yet is above: So great is the greatness of his Nature.\n\n93. Wherefore we must be bold to say, That an Earthly Man is a mortal God, and that the Heavenly God is an immortal Man.\n\n94. Wherefore, by these two are all things governed, the World and Man; but they and all things else of that which is *One*.\n\nTHE END OF THE FOURTH BOOK, Called THE KEY....\n\n## The Fifth Book, That God Is Not Manifest, And Yet Most Manifest\n\nTHIS Discourse, I will also make to thee, *O Tat*, that thou mayest not be ignorant of the more excellent name of God.\n\n2. But do thou contemplate in thy Mind how that which to many seems hidden and unmanifest may be most manifest to thee.\n\n3. For it were not all, if it were apparent, for whatsoever is apparent is generated or made; for it was made manifest, but that which is not manifest is ever.\n\n4. For it needeth not be manifested, for it is always.\n\n5. And he maketh all other things manifest, being unmanifest, as being always, and making other things manifest, he is not made manifest.\n\n6. Himself is not made, yet in fantasie he fantasieth all things, or in appearance he maketh them appear; for appearance is only of those things that are generated or made, for appearance is nothing but generation.\n\n7. But he that is *One*, that is not made nor generated, is also unapparent and unmanifest.\n\n8. But making all things appear, he appeareth in all, and by all; but especially he is manifested to or in those things wherein himself listeth.\n\n9. Thou, therefore, *O Tat*, my Son, pray first to the *Lord and Father*, and to the *Alone*, and to the *One*, from whom is one to be merciful to thee, that thou mayest know and understand so great a God; and that he would shine one of his beams upon thee in thy understanding.\n\n10. For only the Understanding see that which is not manifest, or apparent, as being itself not manifest or apparent; and if thou canst, *O Tat*, it will appear to the eyes of thy Mind.\n\n11. For the Lord, void of envy, appeareth through the whole world. Thou mayest see the intelligence, and take it into they hands, and contemplate the image of God.\n\n12. But if that which is in thee, be not known or apparent unto thee, how shall he in thee be seen, and appear unto thee by the eyes?\n\n13. But if thou will see him, consider and understand the *Sun*, consider the course of the *Moon*, consider the order of the *Stars*.\n\n14. Who is he that keepeth order? For all order is circumscribed or terminated in number and place.\n\n15. The Sun is the greatest of the Gods in Heaven, to whom all the Heavenly Gods give place, as to a King and Potentate; and yet he being such an one, greater than the Earth or the Sea, is content to suffer infinite lesser stars to walk and move above himself: whom doth he fear the while, O Son?\n\n16. Every one of these Stars that are in Heaven do not make the like, or an equal course; who is it that hath prescribed unto every one the manner and the greatness of their course?\n\n17. This Bear that turns round about its own self, and carries round the whole World with her, who possessed and made such an Instrument?\n\n18. Who hath set the bounds to the Sea? Who hath established the Earth? For there is somebody, *O Tat*, that is the Maker and Lord of these things.\n\n19. For it is impossible, O Son, that either place, or number, or measure, should be observed without a maker.\n\n20. For no order can be made by disorder or disproportion.\n\n21. I would it were possible for thee, O my Son, to have wings, and to fly into the Air, and being taken up in the midst, between Heaven and Earth, to see the stability of the Earth, the fluidness of the Sea, the courses of the Rivers, the largeness of the Air, the sharpness and swiftness of the Fire, the motion of the Stars, and the speediness of the Heaven, by which it goeth round about all these.\n\n22. O Son, what a happy sight it were, at one instant, to see all these; that which is immoveable moved, and that which is hidden appear and be manifest!\n\n23. And if thou wilt see and behold this Workman, even by mortal things that are upon earth, and in the deep, consider, O Son, how Man is made and framed in the Womb; and examine diligently the skill and cunning of the Workman, and learn who it was that wrought and fashioned the beautiful and Divine shape of*Man*; who circumscribed and marked out his eyes? who bored his nostrils and ears? who opened his mouth? who stretched out and tie together his sinews? who channelled the veins? who hardened and made strong the bones? who clothed the flesh with skin? who divided the fingers and joints? who flatted and made broad the soles of the feet? who digged the pores? who stretched out the spleen? who made the Heart like a *Pyramis*? who made the Liver broad? who made the Lights spungy, and full of holes? who made the belly large and capacious? who set to outward view the more honorable parts, and hid the filthy ones?\n\n24. See how many arts in one Matter, and how many Works in one Superscription, and all exceedingly beautiful and all done in measure, and yet all differing.\n\n25. Who hath made all these things? What Mother? What Father? Save only god that is not manifest; that made all things by his own will.\n\n26. And no man says that a statue or an image is made without a Carver or a Painter, and was this Workmanship made without a Workman? O Great Blindness! O Great Impiety! O Great Ignorance!\n\n27. Never, *O Son Tat*, canst thou deprive the Workmanship of the Workman; rather, it is the best Name of all the Names of God, to call him the *Father* of all, for so he is alone; and this is his work to be the Father.\n\n28. And if thou will force me to say anything more boldly, it is his Essence to be pregnant, or great with all things, and to make them.\n\n29. And as without a maker it is impossible that anything should be made, so it is that he should not always be, and always be making all things in Heaven, in the Air, in the Earth, in the Deep, in the whole World, and in every part of the whole, that is or that is not.\n\n30. For there is nothing in the whole World that is not himself; both the things that are, and the things that are not.\n\n31. For the things that are he hath made manifest, and the things that are not he hath hid in himself.\n\n32. This is God that is better than any name; this is he that is secret; this is he that is most manifest; this is he that is to be seen by the Mind; this is he that is visible to the Eye; this is he that hath no body; and this is he that hath many bodies; rather, there is nothing of any body which is not *he*.\n\n33. For he alone is all things.\n\n34. And for this cause he hath many Names, because he is the One Father; and therefore he hath no Name, because he is the Father of all.\n\n35. Who therefore can bless thee, or give thanks for thee, or to thee?\n\n36. Which way shall I look when I praise thee? upward? downward? outward? inward?\n\n37. For about these there is no manner nor place, nor anything else of all things that are.\n\n38. But all things are in thee; all things from thee; thou givest all things, and takest nothing; for thou hast all things; and there is nothing that thou hast not.\n\n39. When shall I praise thee, *O Father*, for it is neither possible to comprehend thy hour, nor they time?\n\n40. For what shall I praise thee? For what thou hast made, or for what thou hast not made? for those things thou hast manifested, or for those things thou hast hidden?\n\n41. Wherefore shall I praise thee, as being of myself, or having anything of mine own, or rather being anothers?\n\n42. For thou art what I am, thou art what I do, thou art what I say.\n\n43. Thou art all things, and there is nothing else thou art not.\n\n44. Thou are thou, all that is made, and all that is not made.\n\n45. The Mind that understandeth.\n\n46. The Father that maketh and frameth.\n\n47. The Good that worketh.\n\n48. The Good that doth all things.\n\n49. Of the matter, the most subtle and slender is *Air*; of the Air the *Soul*; of the soul the *Mind*; of the mind *God*.\n\nThe End of the Fifth Book....  \nTHAT GOD IS NOT MANIFEST, AND YET MOST MANIFEST...\n\n## The Sixth Book, That In God Alone Is Good\n\nGOD, *O Asclepius*, is in nothing but in God alone, or rather God himself is the Good always.\n\n2. And if it be so, then must he be an Essence or Substance, void of all Motion and Generation; but nothing is void or empty of him.\n\n3. And this Essence hath about or in himself a *Stable* and firm *Operation*, wanting nothing, most full and giving abundantly.\n\n4. One thing is the Beginning of all things, for it giveth all things; and when I name the Good, I mean that which is altogether and always Good.\n\n5. This is present to none, but God alone; for he wanteth nothing that he should desire to have it, nor can anything be taken from him; the loss whereof may grieve him; for sorrow is a part of evilness.\n\n6. Nothing is stronger than he, that he should be opposed by it; nor nothing equal to him, that he should be in love with it; nothing unheard of to be angry, with nothing wiser to be envious at.\n\n7. And none of these being in his Essence, what remains but only the Good?\n\n8. For as in this, being such an Essence, there is none of the evils; so in none of the other things shall the Good be found.\n\n9. For in all other things, are all those other things, as well in the small as the great, and as well in the particulars as in this living Creature; the greater and mightiest of all.\n\n10. For all things that are made or generated, are full of passion, Generation itself being a passion; and where Passion is, there is not the Good; where the Good is, there is no Passion; where it is day, it is not Night; where it is night, it is not Day.\n\n11. Wherefore it is impossible that in Generation should be the Good, but only in that which is not generated or made.\n\n12. Yet as the Participation of all things is in the Matter bound, so also of that which is Good. After this manner is the World Good, as it maketh all things, and in the part of making or doing ... it is Good, but in all other things not good.\n\n13. For it is passable and moveable, and the Maker of passable things.\n\n14. In Man also the Good is ordered *(or taketh denomination)* in comparison of that which is evil; for that which is not very Evil, is here Good; and that which is here called Good, is the least particle, or proportion of Evil.\n\n15. It is impossible, therefore, that the Good should be here pure from Evil; for here the Good groweth Evil, and growing Evil, it doth not still abide Good; and not abiding Good, it becomes Evil.\n\n16. Therefore in God alone is the Good, or rather God is the Good.\n\n17. Therefore, *O Asclepius*, there is nothing in men *(or among men)* but the name of Good, the thing itself is not, for it is impossible; for a material Body receiveth *(or comprehendeth)*, is not as being on every side encompassed and coacted with evils, and labours, and griefs, and desires, and wrath, and deceits, and foolish opinions.\n\n18. And in that which is the worst of all, *Asclepius*, every one of the forenames things, is here believed to be the greatest Good, especially that supreme mischief ... the pleasures of the Belly, and the ringleader of all evils. Error is here the absence of the Good.\n\n19. And I give thanks unto God, that, concerning the knowledge of good, put this assurance in my Mind, that it is impossible it should be in the World.\n\n20. For the World is the fulness of Evilness; but God is the fulness of Good, or good of God.\n\n21. For the eminencies of all appearing Beauty, are in the Essence more pure, and more sincere, and peradventure they are also the Essences of it.\n\n22. For we must be bold to say, *Asclepius*, that the Essence of God, if he have an Essence, is ... that which is fair or beautiful; but no good is comprehended in this World.\n\n23. For all things that are subject to the eye, are Idols, and as it were Shadows; but those things that are not subject to the eye, are ever, especially the *Essence* of the Fair and the Good.\n\n24. And as the Eye cannot see God, so neither the Fair and the Good.\n\n25. For those are the parts of God, that partake the Nature of the whole, proper, and familiar unto him alone, inseparable, most lovely, whereof either God is enamoured, or they are enamoured of God.\n\n26. If thou canst understand God, thou shall understand the *Fair*, and the Good, which is most shining, and enlightening, and most enlightened by God.\n\n27. For that Beauty is above Comparison, and that Good is inimitable, as God himself.\n\n28. As, therefore, thou understandest God, so understand the Fair and the Good; for these are incommunicable to any other living creatures, because they are inseparable from God.\n\n29. If thou seek concerning God, thou seekest or asketh also of the Fair, for there is one way which leadeth to the same thing, that is *Piety*, with *Knowledge*.\n\n30. Wherefore, they that are ignorant, and go not in the way of *Piety*, dare call Men Fair and Good, never seeing so much as in a dream, what good is; but being infolded and wrapped upon all evil, and believing that the Evil is the Good, they, by that means, both use it insatiable, and are afraid to be deprived of it; and therefore they strive, by all possible means, that they may not only have it, but also increase it.\n\n31. Such, *O Asclepius*, are the good and fair things of Men, which we can neither love nor hate; for this is the hardest thing of all, that we have need of them, and cannot live without them.\n\nThe End of the Sixth Book....  \n\nTHAT IN GOD ALONE IS GOOD....\n\n## The Seventh Book, His Secret Sermon In The Mount Of Regeneration, And The Profession Of Silence\n\nTO HIS SON *TAT.*\n\n*Tat.*  \nIN the general speeches, O Father, discoursing of the *Divinity*, thou speakest enigmatically, and didst not clearly reveal thyself, saying, That no man can be saved before *Regeneration*.\n\n2. And when I did humbly entreat thee, at the going up to the Mountain, after thou hadst discoursed to me, having a great desire to learn this *Argument of Regeneration*; because among all the rest, I am ignorant only of this, thou toldst me thou wouldst impart it to me, when I would estrange myself from the world; whereupon I made myself ready, and have vindicated the understanding that is in me, from the deceit of the World.\n\n3. Now, then fulfil my defect, and as thou saidst, instruct me of*Regeneration*, either by word of mouth or secretly; for I know not, *O Trismegistus*, of what Substance, or what Seed, or what Womb, a man is thus born.\n\n4. *Herm.*O Son, this wisdom is to be understood in silence, and the seed is the true Good.\n\n5. *Tat.*Who soweth it, O Father? for I am utterly ignorant and doubtful.\n\n6. *Herm.* The Will of God, O Son.\n\n7. And what manner of Man is he that is thus born? for in this point, I am clean deprived of the Essence that understandeth in me.\n\n8. *Herm.*The Son of God will be another. God made the universe, that in everything consisteth of all powers.\n\n9. *Tat.*Thou tellest me a Riddle, Father, and dost not speak as a Father to a Son.\n\n10. *Herm.* Son, things of this kind are not taught, but are by God, when he pleaseth, brought to remembrance.\n\n11. *Tat.* Thou speakest of things strained, or far fetched, and impossible, Father; and therefore I will directly contradict them.\n\n12. *Herm.*Wilt thou prove a Stranger, Son, to thy Father's kind?\n\n13. *Tat.*Do not envy me, Father, or pardon me, I am thy Natural Son; discourse unto me the manner of *Regeneration*.\n\n14. *Herm.* What shall I say, O my Son? I have nothing to say more than this, That I see in myself an unstrained sight or spectacle, made by the mercy of God; and I am gone out of myself into an immortal body, and am not now, what I was before, but was begotten in Mind.\n\n15. This thing is not taught, nor is it to be seen in this formed element; for which the first compounded form was neglected by me, and that I am now separated from it; for I have both the touch and the measure of it, yet am I now estranged from them.\n\n16. Thou seest, O Son, with thine eyes; but though thou never look so steadfastly upon me, with the Body, and the Bodily sight, thou canst not see nor understand what I am now.\n\n17. *Tat.* Thou hast driven me, O Father, into no small fury and distraction of mind, for I do not now see myself.\n\n18. *Herm.*I would, O Son, that thou also wert gone out of thyself, like them that Dream in their sleep.\n\n19. *Tat.*Then tell me this, who is the Author and Maker of Regeneration?\n\n20. *Herm.*The Child of God, one Man by the Will of God.\n\n21. *Tat.*Now, O Father, thou hast put me to silence for ever, and all my former thoughts have quite left and forsaken me; for I see the greatness and shape of things here below, and nothing but falsehood in them all.\n\n22. And so thence this mortal form is daily changed, and turned by time into increase or diminution, as being falsehood: What therefore is true, O Trismegistus?\n\n23. *Trism.*That, O my Son, which is not troubled, nor bounded; not coloured, not figured, not changed, that which is naked, high. Comprehensible only of itself, unalterable, unbodily.\n\n24. *Tat.* Now I am mad indeed, O Father, for when I thought me to have been made a wise man by thee, with these thoughts, thou hast quite dulled all my senses.\n\n25. *Herm. Yet is it so as I say, O Son, He that looketh only upon* that which is carried upward as Fire, that which is carried downward as Earth, that which is moist as Water, and that which bloweth, or is subject to blast, as Air; how can he sensibly understand that which is neither hard nor moist, nor tangible, nor perspicuous, seeing it is only understood in power and operation? But I beseech and pray to the Mind, which alone can understand the *Generation* which is in God.\n\n26. *Tat.*Then am I, O Father, utterly unable to do it.\n\n27. *Herm.*God forbid, Son, rather draw or pull him unto thee *(or study to know him)* and he will come, *be but willing and it shall be done*; quite (or make idle) the senses of the Body, purging thyself from the unreasonable brutish torments of matter.\n\n28. *Tat.* Have I any (revengers or) tormentors in myself, *Father*?\n\n29. *Herm.*Yea, and those not a few, but many, and fearful ones.\n\n30. *Tat.*I do not know them, Father.\n\n31. *Herm.* One Torment, Son, is *Ignorance*: a second, *Sorrow*; a third, *Intemperance*; a fourth, *Concupiscence*; a fifth, *Injustice*; a sixth, *Covetousness*; a seventh, *Deceit*; an eighth,*Envy*; a ninth, *Fraud*or *Guile*; a tenth, *Wrath*; an eleventh, *Rashness*; a twelfth, *Maliciousness*.\n\n32. They are in number twelve, and under these many more; some which through the prison of the Body do force the inwardly placed man to suffer sensibly.\n\n33. And they do not suddenly or easily depart from him that hath obtained mercy of God; and herein consists both the manner and the reason of *Regeneration*.\n\n34. For the rest, O Son, hold thy peace, and praise God in silence, and by that means the mercy of God will not cease, or be wanting unto us.\n\n35. Therefore, rejoice, my Son, from henceforward, being purged by the powers of God, to the Knowledge of the Truth.\n\n36. For the revelation of God is come to us, and when that came, all ignorance was cast out.\n\n37. The Knowledge of Joy is come unto us. And when that comes, Sorrow shall fly away to them that are capable.\n\n38. I call unto Joy the power of Temperance, a power whose Virtue is most sweet; let us take her unto ourselves, O son, most willingly, for how at her coming hath she put away Intemperance?\n\n39. Now I call forth, Continence, the power which is over Concupiscence. This, O Son, is the stable and firm foundation of Justice.\n\n40. For see how without labour she hath chased away Injustice; and we are justified, O Son, when Injustice is away.\n\n41. The sixth Virtue, which comes into us, I call *Communion*, which is against Covetousness.\n\n42. And when that (Covetousness) is gone, I call Truth, and when she cometh, Error and Deceit vanisheth.\n\n43. See, O Son, how the Good is fulfilled by the access of Truth; for by this means Envy is gone from us; for Truth is accompanied with the Good, together also with Life and Light.\n\n44. And there came no more any torment of Darkness, but being overcome, they all fled away suddenly and tumultuously.\n\n45. Thou hast understood, O Son, the manner of regeneration; for upon the coming of these Ten, the Intellectual Generation is perfected, and then it driveth away the Twelve; and we have seen it in the Generation itself.\n\n46. Whoseoever therefore hath of Mercy obtained this Generation, which is according to God, he leaving all bodily sense, knoweth himself to consist of divine things, and rejoiceth, being made by god Stable and immutable.\n\n47. *Tat.*O Father, I conceive and understand, not by the sight of mine eyes, but by the Intellectual operation, which is by the Powers. I am in Heaven, in the Earth, in the Water, in the Air; I am in Living Creatures, in Plants, in the Womb, everywhere.\n\n48. Yet tell me, further, this one thing, How are the Torments of Darkness, being in number Twelve, driven away and expelled by the Ten Powers? What is the manner of it, *Trismegistus*?\n\n49. This Tabernacle, O Son, consists of the Zodiacal Circle; and this consisting of Twelve numbers, the *Idea* of one; but all formed Nature admit divers Conjugations to the deceiving of Man.\n\n50. And though they be different in themselves, yet are they united in practice (as, for example, Rashness is inseparable from Anger), and they are also indeterminate. Therefore, with good reason do they make their departure, being driven away by the Ten Powers; that is to say, by the dead.\n\n51. For the number of Ten, O Son, is the begetter of Souls. And there Life and Light are united, where the number of *Unity* is born of the spirit.\n\n52. Therefore, according to Reason, Unity hath the number of Ten, and the number of Ten hath Unity.\n\n53. *Tat.*O Father, I now see the Universe and myself in the Mind.\n\n54. *Herm.* This is *Regeneration*, O Son, that we should not any longer fix our imagination upon this Body, subject to the three dimensions, according to this, according to this speech which we have now commented, that we may not at all caluminate the Universe.\n\n55. *Tat.*Tell me, O Father, This body that consists of Powers, shall it ever admit of Dissolution?\n\n56. *Herm.*Good words, Son, and speak not things impossible; for so thou shalt sin, and the eye of thy mind grow wicked.\n\n57. The sensible body of Nature is far from the Essential Generation, for that is subject to dissolution, but this is not; and that is mortal, but this immortal. Dost thou not know that thou art born a God, and the Son of the One, as I am?\n\n58. *Tat.*How feign would I, O Father, hear that praise given by a Hymn, which thou saidst thou heardest from the Powers, when I was in the *Octonary*?\n\n59. *Herm.* As *Pimander* said, by way of Oracle to the *Octonary*: Thou dost well, O Son, to desire the Solution of the *Tabernacle*, for thou art purified.\n\n60. Pimander, the Mind of Absolute Power and Authority, hath delivered no more unto me, than those that are written; knowing that of myself, I can understand all things, and hear, and see what I will. And he commanded me to do those things that are good; and therefore all the powers that are in me sing.\n\n61. *Tat.* I would hear thee, O Father, and understand these things.\n\n62. *Herm.*Be quiet, O Son, and now hearken to that harmonious blessing and thanksgiving; the hymn of *Regeneration*, which I did not determine to have spoken of so plainly, but to thyself in the end of all.\n\n63. Wherefore, this is not taught, but hid in silence.\n\n64. So then, O son, do thou, standing in the open Air, worship, looking to the North Wind, about the going down of the Sun; and to the South, when the Sun ariseth. And now keep silence, Son.\n\nTHE SECRET SONG.  \nThe Holy Speech.\n\n65. Let all the Nature of the World entertain the hearing of this Hymn.\n\n66. Be opened, O Earth, and let all the Treasure of the Rain be opened.\n\n67. You Trees, tremble not, for I will sing and praise the Lord of the Creation, and the *All*, and the *One*.\n\n68. Be opened, you Heavens; ye Winds, stand still, and let the immortal Circle of God receive these words.\n\n69. For I will sing and praise him that created all things, that fixed the earth, and hung up the Heavens, and commanded the sweet water to come out of the *Ocean*, into all the World, inhabited and not inhabited, to the use and nourishment of all things or men.\n\n70. That commanded the fire to shine for every action, both to Gods and Men.\n\n71. Let us altogether give him blessing, which rideth upon the Heavens, the Creator of all Nature.\n\n72. This is he that is the Eye of the Mind, and will accept the praise of my Powers.\n\n73. O all ye Powers that are in me, praise the*One*, and *All*.\n\n74. Sing together with my Will, all you Powers that are in me.\n\n75. O Holy knowledge, being enlightened by thee, I magnify the intelligible Light, and rejoice in the joy of the Mind.\n\n76. All my Powers sing praise with me, and now, my Continence, sing, praise my Righteousness by me; praise that which is righteous.\n\n77. O Communion which is in me; praise the *All*.\n\n78. By me the *Truth* sings praise to the *Truth*, the Good praiseth the Good.\n\n79. O Life, O Light, from us, unto you, comes this praise and thanksgiving.\n\n80. I give thanks unto thee, O Father, the operation or act of my Powers.\n\n81. I give thanks unto thee, O God, the Power of my operations.\n\n82. By me the Word sings praise unto thee; receive by me this reasonable (or verbal) Sacrifice in words.\n\n83. The powers that are in me cry these things, they praise the *All*, they fulfil thy Will; thy Will and counsel is form thee unto thee.\n\n84. *O All*, receive a reasonable sacrifice from all things.\n\n85. *O Life*, save all that is in us; *O Light*, enlighten, *O God*, the *Spirit*; for the Mind guideth (or feedeth) the Word; O Spirit-bearing Workman.\n\n86. Thou are *God*, thy *Man*cryeth these things unto thee through, by the Fire, by the Air, by the Earth, by the Water, by the Spirit, by thy Creatures.\n\n87. From eternity I have found (means to) bless and praise thee, and I have what I seek; for I rest in thy Will.\n\n88. *Tat.*O Father, I see thou hast sung this song of praise and blessing, with thy whole Will; and therefore have I put and placed it in my World.\n\n89. Herm. Say in thy Intelligible World, O Son.\n\n90. *Tat.*I do mean in my Intelligible world; for by thy Hymn and song of praise my mind is enlightened, and gladly would I send from my Understanding, a Thanksgiving unto God.\n\n91. *Herm.*Not rashly, O Son.\n\n92. *Tat.*In my Mind, O Father.\n\n93. *Herm.*Those things that I see and contemplate, I infuse them into thee, and therefore say, thou Son, *Tat*, the author of thy succeeding Generations, I send unto god these reasonable sacrifices.\n\n94. O God, thou art the Father, thou art the Lord, thou art the Mind, accept these reasonable sacrifices which thou requirest of me.\n\n95. For all things are done as the Mind willeth.\n\n96. Thou, O Son, send this acceptable Sacrifice to god, the Father of all things; but propound it also, O Son, by word.\n\n97. *Tat.* I thank thee, Father, thou hast advised and instructed me thus to give thanks and praise.\n\n98. *Herm.*I am glad, O Son, to see the Truth bring forth the Fruits of Good things, and such immortal Branches.\n\n99. And learn this from me: Above all other Virtues entertain Silence, and impart unto no man, O Son, the tradition of *Regeneration*, lest we be reputed Calumniators; for we both have now sufficiently meditated, I in speaking, thou in hearing. And now thou dost intellectually know thyself and our Father.\n\nThe End of the Seventh Book....HIS SECRET SERMON IN THE MOUNT OF REGENERATION,  \nAND THE PROFESSION OF SILENCE.\n\n## The Eighth Book, The Greatest Evil In Man Is The Not Knowing God\n\nWHITHER are you carried, O Men, drunken with drinking strong Wine of Ignorance? which seeing you cannot bear, why do you vomit it up again?\n\n2. Stand, and be sober, and look up again with the Eyes of your heart, and if you cannot all do so, yet do so many as you can.\n\n3. For the malice of Ignorance surroundeth all the Earth, and corrupteth the Soul, shut up in the Body, not suffering it to arrive at the Havens of Salvation.\n\n4. Suffer not yourselves to be carried with the Great Stream, but stem the tide you that can lay hold of the Haven of Safety, and make your full course towards it.\n\n5. Seek on that may lead you by the hand, and conduct you to the door of Truth and Knowledge, where the clear Light is that is pure from Darkness, where there is not one drunken, but all are sober, and in their heart look up to him, whose pleasure it is to be seen.\n\n6. For he cannot be heard with ears, nor seen with eyes, nor expressed in words; but only in mind and heart.\n\n7. But first thou must tear to pieces, and break through the garment thou wearest, the web of Ignorance; the foundation of all Mischief; the bond of Corruption; the dark Coverture; the living Death; the sensible Carcass; the Sepulchre, carried about with us; the domestical Thief, which in what he loves us, hates us, envies us.\n\n8. Such is the hurtful Apparel, wherewith thou art clothed, which draws and pulls thee downward by its own self, lest looking upward and seeing the beauty of Truth, and the Good that is reposed therein, thou shouldst hate the wickedness of this Garment and understand the traps and ambushes which it had laid for thee.\n\n9. Therefore doth it labour to make good those things that seem, and are by the senses, judged and determined; and the things that are truly, it hides, and envelopeth in much matter, filling what it presents unto thee, with hateful pleasure, that thou canst neither hear what thou shouldst hear, nor see what thou shouldst see.\n\nThe End of the Eighth Book,  \nTHE GREATEST EVIL IN MAN IS THE NOT KNOWING GOD.\n\n## The Ninth Book, A Universal Sermon To Asclepius\n\n*Herm.*  \nALL that is moved, O *Asclepius*, is it not moved in something and by something?\n\n2. *Asclep.*Yes, indeed.\n\n3. Herm. Must not that in which a thing is moved, of necessity be greater than the thing that is moved?\n\n4. Of necessity.\n\n5. And that which moveth, is it not stronger than that which is moved?\n\n6. *Asclep.*It is stronger.\n\n7. *Herm.*That in which a thing is moved, must it not needs have a Nature contrary to that of the thing that is moved?\n\n8. Asclep. It must needs.\n\n9. *Herm.* Is not this great World a Body, than which there is no greater?\n\n10. *Asclep.* Yes, confessedly.\n\n11. *Herm.*And is it not solid, as filled with many great bodies, and indeed with all the Bodies that are?\n\n12. *Asclep.* It is so.\n\n13. *Herm.*And is not the World a Body, and a Body that is moved?\n\n14. *Asclep.*It is.\n\n15. *Herm.*Then what a kind of place must it be, wherein it is moved, and of what Nature? Must it not be much bigger, that it may receive the continuity of Motion? And lest which is moved, should for want of room, be stayed, and hindered in the Motion?\n\n16. *Asclep.*It must needs be an immense thing, *Trismegistus,* but of what Nature?\n\n17. *Herm.*Of a contrary Nature, O *Asclepius*. But is not the Nature of things unbodily, contrary to a Body?\n\n18. *Asclep.*Confessedly.\n\n19. *Herm.*Therefore the place is unbodily; but that which is unbodily is either some Divine thing, or God himself. And by something Divine, I do not mean that which was made or begotten.\n\n20. If therefore it be Divine, it is an Essence or Substance; but if it be God, it is above Essence; but he is otherwise intelligible.\n\n21. For the first, God is intelligible, not to himself, but to us; for that which is intelligible is subject to that which understandeth by Sense.\n\n22. Therefore, God is not intelligible to himself; for not being any other thing from that which is understood, he cannot be understood by himself.\n\n23. But he is another thing from us, and therefore he is understood by us.\n\n24. If therefore Place be intelligible, it is not Place but God; but if God be intelligible, he is intelligible not as Place, but as a capable Operation.\n\n25. Now, everything that is moved, is moved not in or by that which is moved, but in that which standeth or resteth, and that which moveth standeth or resteth; for it is impossible it should be moved with it.\n\n26. *Asclep.*How, then, O *Trismegistus,* are those things that are here moved with the things that are moved? for thou sayest that the Spheres that wander, are moved by the sphere that wanders not.\n\n27. *Herm.*That, O *Asclepius,*is not a moving together, but a counter motion; for they are not moved after a like manner, but contrary one to the other; and contrariety hath a standing resistance of motion, for the ..., or resistance, is a staying of Motion.\n\n28. Therefore, the wandering spheres being moved contrarily to that Sphere which wandereth not, shall have one from another contrarily standing of itself.\n\n29. For this Bear thou seest neither rise nor go down, but turning always about the same; dost thou think it moveth or standeth still?\n\n30. *Asclep.*I think it moves, Trismegistus.\n\n31. What motion, O *Asclepius*?\n\n32. *Asclep.*A motion that is always carried about the same.\n\n33. But the Circulation which is about the same, and the motion bout the same, are both hidden by Station; for that which is about the same, forbids that which is above the same, if it stand to that which is about the same.\n\n34. And so the contrary motion stands fast always, being always established by the contrariety.\n\n35. But I will give thee concerning this matter, an Earthly Example, that may be seen with eyes.\n\n36. Look upon any of these living Creatures upon Earth, as Man, for example, and see him swimming; for as the Water is carried one way, the reluctation or resistance of his feet and hands is made a station to the Man, that he should not be carried with the Water, nor sink underneath it.\n\n37. *Asclep.*Thou hast laid down a very clear example, *Trismegistus*.\n\n38. *Herm.*Therefore, every motion is in station, and is moved of station.\n\n39. The motion, then, of the World, and of every material living thing, happeneth not to be done by those things that are without the World, but by those things within it, a Soul, or Spirit, or some other unbodily thing, to those things that are without it.\n\n40. For an inanimate Body doth not know, much less a Body if it be wholly inanimate.\n\n41. *Asclep.* What meaneth thou by this, O *Trismegistus*, wood and stones, and all other inanimate things, are they not moving Bodies?\n\n42. *Herm.*By no means, O *Asclepius,* for that within the Body, which moves the inanimate thing, is not the Body, that moves both as well the Body of that which beareth, as the Body of that which is born; for one dead or inanimate thing cannot move another; that which moveth, must needs be alive if it move.\n\n43. Thou seest therefore how the Soul is surcharged, when it carrieth two Bodies.\n\n44. And now it is manifest that the things that are moved in something, and by something.\n\n45. *Asclep.*The things that are moved, O *Trismegistus,* must needs be moved in that which is void, or empty vacuum, ....\n\n46. Be advised, O *Asclepius,* for all the things that are, there is nothing empty, only that which is not, is empty and a stranger to existence or being.\n\n47. But that which is could not be if it were not full of existence; for that which is in being or existence, can never be made empty.\n\n48. *Asclep.*Are there not therefore some things that are empty, O *Trismegistus,* as an empty Barrel, an empty Hogshead, an empty Will, an empty Wine-press, and many such like?\n\n49. *Herm.* O the grossness of thy error, O *Asclepius*; those things that are most full and replenished, dost thou account them void and empty?\n\n50. *Asclep.*What may be thy meaning, *Trismegistus*?\n\n51. *Herm.*Is not the Air a Body?\n\n52. *Asclep.*It is a Body.\n\n53. *Herm.*Why then this Body, does it not pass through all things that are? And passing through them, fill them? and that Body, doth it not consist of the mixture of the four? therefore, all those things which thou callest empty are full of Air.\n\n54. Therefore, those things thou callest empty, thou oughtest to call them hollow, not empty; for they exist and are full of Air and Spirit.\n\n55. *Asclep.*This reason is beyond all contradiction, O *Trismegistus,* but what shall we call the place in which the whole Universe is moved?\n\n56. *Herm.*Call it incorporeal, O *Asclepius.*\n\n57. *Asclep.*What is that, incorporeal or unbodily?\n\n58. *Herm.*The Mind and Reason, the whole, wholly comprehending itself, free from all Body, undeceivable, invisible, impassible from a Body itself, standing fast in itself, capable of all things, and that Savour of the things that are.\n\n59. Whereof the *Good,*the *Truth,* the *Archetypal Light,* the Archetype of the Soul, are, as it were, Beams.\n\n60. *Asclep.* Why, then, what is God?\n\n61. *Herm.*That which is none of these things, yet is, and is the cause of being to all, and every one of the things that are; for he left nothing destitute of Being.\n\n62. And all things are made of things that are, and not of things that are not; for the things that are not, have not the nature to be able to be made; and again, the things that are, have not the nature never to be, or not to be at all.\n\n63. *Asclep.* What dost thou then say at length that God is?\n\n64. *Herm.*God is not a Mind, but the Cause that the Mind is; not a spirit, but the Cause that the Spirit is; not Light, but the Cause that Light is.\n\n65. Therefore, we must worship God by these two Appellations, which are proper to him alone, and to no other.\n\n67. And this he is and nothing else; but all other things are separable from the nature of Good.\n\n68. For the Body and the Soul have no place that is capable of or can contain the Good.\n\n69. For the greatness of Good is as great as the Existence of all things that are, both bodily and unbodily, both sensible and intelligible.\n\n70. This is the Good, even God.\n\n71. See, therefore, that thou do not at any time call ought else Good, for so thou shalt be impious; or any else God, but only the Good, for so thou shalt again be impious.\n\n72. In Word it is often said by all men the Good, but all men do not understand what it is; but through Ignorance they call both the Gods, and some men, Good, that can never be, or be made so.\n\n73. Therefore all the other Gods are honoured with the title or appellation of God, but God is the Good, not according to Heaven, but Nature.\n\n74. For there is one Nature of God, even the Good, and one kind of them both, from whence all are kinds.\n\n75. For he that is Good, is the giver of all things, and takes nothing; and, therefore, God gives all things, and receives nothing.\n\n76. The other title and appellation, is the Father, because of his making all things; for it is the part of a Father to make.\n\n77. Therefore, it hath been the greatest and most Religious care in this life, to them that are Wise, and well-minded, to beget children.\n\n78. As likewise it is the greatest misfortune and impiety, for any to be separated from men, without children; and this man is punished after Death by the*Demons*, and the punishment is this: To have the Soul of this childless man, adjudged and condemned, to a Body that neither hath the nature of a man, nor of a woman, which is an accursed thing under the Sun.\n\n79. Therefore, O *Asclepius,* never congratulate any man that is childless; but on the contrary pity his misfortune, knowing what punishment abides, and is prepared for him.\n\n80. Let so many, and such manner of things, O *Asclepius,* be said as a certain precognition of all things in Nature.\n\nThe End of the Ninth Book,  \nA UNIVERSAL SERMON TO ASCLEPIUS.\n\n#\n\n## The Tenth Book, The Mind To Hermes\n\nFORBEAR thy Speech, *O Hermes Trismegistus,* and call to mind to those things that are said; but I will not delay to speak what comes into my mind, sithence many men have spoken many things, and those very different, concerning the Universe, and Good; but I have not learned the Truth.\n\n2. Therefore, the Lord make it plain to me in this point; for I will believe thee only, for the manifestation of these things.\n\n3. Then said the Mind how the case stands.\n\n4. God and All.\n\n5. God, Eternity, the World, Time, Generation.\n\n6. God made Eternity, Eternity the World, the world Time, and Time Generation.\n\n7. Of God, as it were, the Substance, is the *Good*, the *Fair*, *Blessedness*, *Wisdom*.\n\n8. Of Eternity, Identity, or Selfness.\n\n9. Of the World, Order.\n\n10. Of Time, Change.\n\n11. Of Generation, Life and Death.\n\n12. But the Operation of God, is Mind and Soul.\n\n13. Of Eternity, Permanence, or Long-lasting, and Immortality.\n\n14. Of the World, Restitution, and Decay, or Destruction.\n\n15. Of Time, Augmentation and Diminution.\n\n16. And of Generation qualities.\n\n17. Therefore, Eternity is in God.\n\n18. The World in Eternity.\n\n19. Time in the World.\n\n20. And Generation in Time.\n\n21. And Eternity standeth about God.\n\n22. The World is moved in Eternity.\n\n23. Time is determined in the World.\n\n24. Generation is done in Time.\n\n25. Therefore, the Spring and Fountain of all things is God.\n\n26. The Substance Eternity.\n\n27. The Matter is the World.\n\n28. The Power of God is Eternity.\n\n29. And the Work of Eternity, is the World not yet made, and yet ever made by Eternity.\n\n30. Therefore, shall nothing be at any time destroyed, for Eternity is incorruptible.\n\n31. Neither can anything perish, or be destroyed in the World, the World being contained and embraced by Eternity.\n\n32. But what is the Wisdom of God? Even the *Good* and the *Fair*, and *Blessedness*, and every Virtue, and Eternity.\n\n33. Eternity, therefore, put into the Matter Immortality and Everlastingness; for the Generation of that depends upon Eternity, even as Eternity doth of God.\n\n34. For Generation and Time, in Heaven and in Earth, are of a double Nature; in Heaven they are unchangeable and incorruptible; but on Earth they are changeable and corruptible.\n\n35. And the Soul of Eternity is God; and the Soul of the World, Eternity; and of the Earth, Heaven.\n\n36. God is in the Mind, the Mind in the Soul, the Soul in the Matter, all things by Eternity.\n\n37. All this Universal Body, in which are all Bodies, is full of Soul, the Soul full of Mind, the Mind full of God.\n\n38. For within he fills them, and without he contains them, quickening the Universe.\n\n39. Without, he quickens this perfect living thing the World, and within all living Creatures.\n\n40. And above in Heaven he abides in Identity or Selfness, but below upon Earth he changeth Generation.\n\n41. Eternity comprehendeth the World either by necessity, or Providence, or Nature.\n\n42. And if any man shall think any other thing, it is God that actuateth, or operateth this All.\n\n43. But the operation or Act of God, is Power insuperable, to which none may compare anything, either Humane or Divine.\n\n44. Therefore, O *Hermes,* think none of these things below, or the things above, in anywise like unto God; for if thou dost, thou errest from the Truth.\n\n45. For nothing can be like the unlike, and only, and One; nor mayest thou think that he hath given of his Power to any other thing.\n\n46. For who after him can make anything, either of Life or Immortality: of Change or of Quality? and himself, what other things should he make?\n\n47. For God is not idle, for then all things would be idle; for all things are full of God.\n\n48. But there is not anywhere in the World, such a thing as Idleness; for Idleness is a name that implieth a thing void or empty, both of a Doer, and a thing done.\n\n49. But all things must necessarily be made or done both always, and according to the nature of every place.\n\n50. For he that maketh or doth, is in all things, yet not fastened or comprehended in anything; nor making or doing one thing, but all things.\n\n51. For being an active or operating Power, and sufficient of himself for the things that are made, and the things that are made are under him.\n\n52. Look upon, through me, the World is subject to thy sight, and understand exactly the Beauty thereof.\n\n53. A Body perpetual, than the which there is nothing more ancient, yet always vigorous and young.\n\n54. See also the Seven Worlds set over us, adorned with an everlasting order, and filling Eternity with a different course.\n\n55. For all things are full of Light, but the Fire is nowhere.\n\n56. For the friendship and commixture of contraries and unlike, become Light shining from the Act or Operation of God, the Father of all Good, the Prince of all Order, and the Ruler of the Seven Worlds.\n\n57. Look also upon the Moon, the forerunner of them all, the Instrument of Nature, and which changeth the matter here below.\n\n58. Behold the Earth the middle of the Whole, the firm and stable Foundation of the Fair World, the Feeder and Nurse of Earthly things.\n\n59. Consider, moreover, how great the multitude is of immortal living things, and of mortal ones also; and see the Moon going about in the midst of both, to wit, of things immortal and mortal.\n\n60. But all things are full of Soul, and all things are properly moved by it; some things about the Heaven, and some things about the Earth; and neither of those on the right hand to the left; nor those on the left hand to the right; nor those things that are above, downward; nor those things that are below, upwards.\n\n61. And that all these things are made, O beloved *Hermes,*thou needst not learn of me.\n\n62. For they are Bodies, and have a Soul, and are moved.\n\n63. And that all these should come together into one, it is impossible without something to gather them together.\n\n64. Therefore, there must be some such ones, and he altogether One.\n\n65. For seeing that the motions are divers, and many, and the Bodies not alike, and yet one ordered swiftness among them all; It is impossible there should be two or more Makers.\n\n66. For one order is not kept by many.\n\n67. But in the weaker there would be jealousy of the stronger, and thence also contentions.\n\n68. And if there were one Maker, of mutable mortal living Wights, he would desire also to make immortal ones, as he that were the Maker of immortal ones, would do to make mortal.\n\n69. Moreover, also, if there were two, the Matter of being one, who should be chief, or have the disposing of the future?\n\n70. Or if both of them, which of them the greater part?\n\n71. But thinks thus that every living Body hath its consistence of Matter and soul; and of that which is immortal, and that which is mortal and unreasonable.\n\n72. For all living Bodies have a Soul; and those things that are not living, are only matter by itself.\n\n73. And the Soul likewise of itself drawing near her Maker, is the cause of Life and Being, and Being the cause of Life is, after a manner, the cause of immortal things.\n\n74. How then are mortal Wights other from immortal?\n\n75. Or how cannot he make living Wights, that causeth immortal things and immortality?\n\n76. That there is some Body that doth these things it is apparent, and that he is also one, it is most manifest.\n\n77. For there is one Soul, one Life, and one matter.\n\n78. Who is this? who can it be, other than the *One God*?\n\n79. For whom else can it benefit to make living things, save only God alone?\n\n80. There is therefore One God.\n\n81. For it is a ridiculous thing to confess the World to be one, one Sun, one Moon, one Divinity, and yet to have, I know not how many gods.\n\n82. He therefore being One, doth all things in many things.\n\n83. And what great thing is it for God, to make Life, and Soul, and Immortality, and Change, when thyself dost so many things?\n\n84. For thou both seest, speaketh, and hearest, smellest, tastest, and touchest, walkest, understandest, and breathest.\n\n85. And it is not one that sees, and another that heareth, and another that speaketh, and another that toucheth, and another that smelleth, and another that walketh, and another that understandeth, and another that breatheth; but one that doth all these things.\n\n86. Yet neither can these things possibly be without God.\n\n87. For as thou, if thou shouldest cease from doing these things, were not a living wight, so if God should cease from those, he were not (which is not lawful to say) any longer God.\n\n88. For if it be already demonstrated that nothing can be idle or empty, how much more may be affirmed of God?\n\n89. For if there be anything which he doth not do, then is he (if it were lawful to say so) imperfect.\n\n90. Whereas, seeing he is not idle, but perfect, certainly he doth all things.\n\n91. Now give thyself unto me, O *Hermes*, for a little while, thou shalt the more easily understand, that it is the necessary work of God, that all things should be made or done that are done, or were once done, or shall be done.\n\n92. And this, O best beloved, is Life.\n\n93. And this is the *Fair*.\n\n94. And this is the *Good*.\n\n95. And this is *God*.\n\n96. And if thou will understand this by work also, mark what happens to thyself when thou will generate.\n\n97. And yet this is not like unto him, for he is not sensible of pleasure, for neither hath he any other Fellow Workman.\n\n98. But being himself the only Workman, he is always in the work, himself being that which he doth or maketh.\n\n99. For all things, if they were separate from him, must needs fall and die, as there being no life in them.\n\n100. And again, if all things be living wights, both which are in heaven, and upon earth, and that there be one Life in all things which are made by God, and that is God, then certainly all things are made or done by God.\n\n101. Life is the union of the Mind and the Soul.\n\n102. But death is not the destruction of those things that were gathered together, but a dissolving of the Union.\n\n103. The Image therefore of God, is Eternity; of Eternity, the World; of the World, the Sun: of the Sun, Man.\n\n104. But the people say, That changing is Death, because the body is dissolved, and the Life goeth into that which appeareth not.\n\n105. By this discourse, my dearest *Hermes*, I affirm as thou hearest. That the World is changed, because every day part thereof becomes invisible, but that it is never dissolved.\n\n106. And these are the Passions of the World, Revolutions and Occultations, and Revolution is a turning, but Occultation is Renovation.\n\n107. And the World being all formed, hath not the forms lying without it, but itself changeth in itself.\n\n108. Seeing then the World is all formed, what must he be that made it! for without form, he cannot be.\n\n109. And if he be all formed, he will be kept like the World, but if he have but one form, he shall be in this regardless of the world.\n\n110. What do we then say that he is? We will not raise any doubts by our speech, for nothing that is doubtful concerning God is yet known.\n\n111. He hath therefore one *Idea,* which is proper to him, which, because it is unbodily, is not subject to the sight, and yet shows all forms by the Bodies.\n\n112. And do not wonder if there be an incorruptible *Idea*.\n\n113. For they are like the Margents of the Speech, which is in writing; for they seem to be high and swelling, but they are by nature smooth and even.\n\n114. But understand well this that I say, more boldly, for it is more true: As man cannot live without life, so neither can God live not doing good.\n\n115. For this is, as it were, the Life and Motion of God, to Move all things, and Quicken them.\n\n116. But some of the things I have said, must have a particular explanation; Understand then what I say.\n\n117. All things are in God, not as lying in a place, for Place is both a body and immoveable, and those things that are placed, have no motion.\n\n118. For they lie otherwise in that which is unbodily, than in the fantasie, or to appearance.\n\n119. Consider him that contains all things, and understand that nothing is more capacious, than that which is incorporeal, nothing more swift, nothing more powerful, but it is most capacious, most swift, and most strong.\n\n120. And judge of this by thyself, command thy Soul to go into *India*, and sooner than thou canst bid it, it will be there.\n\n121. Bid it likewise pass over the *Ocean*, and suddenly it will be there; not as passing from place to place, but suddenly it will be there.\n\n122. Command it to fly into Heaven, and it will not need no wings, neither shall anything hinder it, not the fire of the Sun, not the *Aether*, not the turning of the Spheres, not the bodies of any other Stars, but cutting through all, it will fly up to the last and furthest body.\n\n123. And if thou wilt even break the whole, and see those things that are without the world (if there be anything without), thou mayest.\n\n124. Behold, how great power, how great swiftness thou hast! Canst thou do all thee things, and cannot God?\n\n125. After this manner, therefore, contemplate God to have all the whole world to himself, as it were, all thoughts, or intellections.\n\n126. If therefore thou wilt not equal thyself to God, thou canst not understand God.\n\n127. For the like is intelligible by the like.\n\n128. Increase thyself unto an immeasureable greatness, leaping beyond every Body, and transcending all Time, become Eternity, and thou shalt understand God: If thou believe in thyself, that nothing is impossible, but accountest thyself immortal, and that thou canst understand all things, every Art, every Science, and the manner and custom of every living thing.\n\n129. Become higher than all height, lower than all depths, comprehend in thyself the qualitites of all the Creatures, of the Fire, the Water, the Dry, and Moist, and conceive likewise, that thou canst at once be everywhere, in the Sea, in the Earth.\n\n130. Thou shalt at once understand thyself, not yet begotten in the Womb, young, old, to be dead, the things after death, and all these together, as also times, places, deeds, qualities, quantities, or else thou canst not yet understand God.\n\n131. But if thou shut up thy Soul in the Body, and abuse it, and say, I understand nothing, I can do nothing, I am afraid of the Sea, I cannot climb up to Heaven, I know not who I am, I cannot tell what I shall be: What hast thou to do with god? for thou canst understand none of those Fair and Good things, and be a lover of the body and Evil.\n\n132. For it is the greatest Evil, not to know God.\n\n133. But to be able to know, and to will, and to hope, is the straight way, and Divine way, proper to the Good, and it will everywhere meet thee, and everywhere be seen of thee, plain and easy, when thou dost not expect or look for it; it will meet thee waking, sleeping, sailing, travelling, by night, by day, when thou speakest, and when thou keepest silence.\n\n134. For there is nothing which is not the Image of God.\n\n135. And yet thou sayest, God is invisible; but be advised, for who is more manifest than He?\n\n136. For therefore hath he made all things, that thou by all things mayest see Him.\n\n137. This is the Good of God, this is the Virtue, to appear, and to be seen in all things.\n\n138. There is nothing invisible, no, not of those things that are incorporeal.\n\n139. The Mind is seen in understanding, and God is seen in doing or making.\n\n140. Let these things thus far forth, be made manifest unto thee, O *Trismegistus*.\n\n141. Understand in like manner, all other things by thyself, and thou shalt not be deceived.\n\nThe End of the Tenth Book,  \nTHE MIND TO HERMES.\n\n## The Eleventh Book Of The Common Mind, To Tat\n\nTHE Mind, O *Tat*, is of the very Essence of God, if yet there be any Essence of God.\n\n2. What kind of Essence that is, he alone knows himself exactly.\n\n3. The Mind therefore is not cut off, or divided from the essentiality of God, but united as the light of the Sun.\n\n4. And this Mind in men, is God, and therefore are some men Divine, and their Humanity is near Divinity.\n\n5. For the good *Demon* called the Gods, immortal Men, and men mortal Gods.\n\n6. But in the brute Beast, or unreasonable living Wights, the Mind is their Nature.\n\n7. For where there is a Soul, there is the Mind, as where there is Life there is also a Soul.\n\n8. In living Creatures, therefore, that are without Reason, the Soul is Life, void of the operations of the Mind.\n\n9. For the Mind is the Benefactor of the Souls of men, and worketh to the proper Good.\n\n10. And in unreasonable things it co-operateth with the nature of everyone of them, but in men it worketh against their Natures.\n\n11. For the Soul being in the body, is straightway made Evil by Sorrow, and Grief, and Pleasure, or Delight.\n\n12. For Grief and Pleasure, flow like juices from the compound Body, whereinto when the Soul entereth or descendeth, she is moistened and tinctured with them.\n\n13. As many Souls, therefore, as the Mind governeth, or overruleth, to them it shows its own Light, resisting their prepossessions or presumptions.\n\n14. As a good Physician grieveth the Body, prepossessed of a disease, by burning or lancing it for health's sake; 15. After the same manner also the Mind grieveth the Soul, by drawing it out of Pleasure, from whence every disease of the Soul proceedeth.\n\n16. But the Great Disease of the Soul is *Atheism,* because that opinion followeth to all Evil, and no Good.\n\n17. Therefore, the Mind resisting, it procureth Good to the Soul, as a Physician to the Body.\n\n18. But as many Souls of Men, as do not admit or entertain the Mind for their Governor, do suffer the same thing that the Soul of unreasonable living things.\n\n19. For the Soul being a *Co-operator*with them, permits or leaves them to their concupiscences, whereunto they are carried by the torrent of their Appetite, and so tend to brutishness.\n\n20. And as brute Bests, they are angry without reason, and they desire without reason, and never cease, nor are satisfied with evil.\n\n21. For unreasonable Angers and Desires are the most exceeding Evils.\n\n22. And therefore hath God set the Mind over there, as a Revenger and Reprover of them.\n\n23. *Tat.* Here, O Father, that discourse of Fate of Destiny, which thou madest to me, is in danger of being overthrown; for if it be fatal for any man to commit *Adultery* or *Sacrilege*, or do any evil, he is punished also, though he, of necessity, do the work of the Fate or Destiny.\n\n24. *Herm.* All things, O Son, are the work of Fate, and without it can no bodily thing, either Good or Evil, be done.\n\n25. For it is decreed by Fate, that he that doth any evil, should also suffer for it.\n\n26. And therefore he doth it, that he may suffer that which he suffereth because he did it.\n\n27. But for the present, let alone that speech, concerning Evil and Fate, for at other times we have spoken of it.\n\n28. Now, our discourse is about the Mind, and what it can do, and how it differs, and is in men such a one, but in brute Beasts changed.\n\n29. And again in brute Beasts it is not beneficial, but in men by quenching both their Anger and Concupiscences.\n\n30. And of man, thou must understand, some to be rational, or governed by reason, and some irrational.\n\n31. But all men are subject to Fate, and to Generation, and Change, for these are the beginning and end of Fate or Destiny 32. And all men suffer those things that are decreed by Fate.\n\n33. But rational men, over whom, as we said, the mind bears rule, do not suffer like unto other men; but being free from viciousness, and being not evil, they do suffer evil.\n\n34. *Tat.*How sayest thou this again, Father? An *Adulterer*, is he not evil? A *Murderer*, is he not evil? and so of others.\n\n35. *Herm.* But the rational man, O Son, will not suffer for Adultery, but as the Adulterer not for Murder, but as the Murderer.\n\n36. And it is impossible to escape the Quality of change as of Generation, but the Viciousness, he that hath the Mind, may escape.\n\n37. And therefore, O Son, I have always heard the good *Demon*say, and if he had delivered it in writing, he had much profited all mankind. For he alone, O So, as the first born, God seeing all things, truly spake Divine words. *I have heard him sometimes, That all things are one thing, especially intelligible Bodies, or that all especially intelligible Bodies are one.*\n\n38. We live in Power, in Act, and in Eternity.\n\n39. Therefore, a good mind is that which the soul of him is.\n\n40. And if this be so, then no intelligible thing differs from intelligible things.\n\n41. As, therefore, it is possible that the Mind, the Prince of all things; so likewise, that the soul that is of God, can do whatsoever it will.\n\n42. But understand thou well, for this Discourse I have made to the Question which thou askest of me before, I man concerning Fate and the Mind.\n\n43. First, if, O Son, thou shalt diligently withdraw thyself from all contentious speeches, thou shalt find that in Truth, the Mind, the Soul of God bears rule over all things, both over Fate, and Law, and all other things.\n\n44. And nothing is impossible to him, no, not of the things that are of Fate.\n\n45. Therefore, though the Soul of Man be above it, let it not neglect the things that happen to be under Fate.\n\n46. And these, thus far, were the excellent sayings of the good *Demon*.\n\n47. *Tat.*Most divinely spoken, O Father, and truly and profitably, yet clear this one thing unto me.\n\n48. Thou sayest, that in brute Beasts the Mind worketh or acteth after the manner of Nature, co-operating also with their )... impetus) inclinations.\n\n49. Now, the impetuous inclinations of brute Beasts, as I conceive, are Passions. If, therefore, the Mind do co-operate with these impetuous Inclinations, and that they are the Passions in brute Beasts, certainly the Mind is also a Passion, conforming itself to Passions.\n\n50. *Herm.*Well done, Son, thou askest nobly, and yet it is just that I should answer thee.\n\n51. All incorporeal things, O Son, that are in the Body, are passible, nay, they are properly Passions.\n\n52. Everything that moveth is incorporeal; everything that is moved is a Body; and it is moved into the Bodies by the Mind. Now, Motion is passion, and there they both suffer; as well that which moveth, as that which is moved, as well that which ruleth, as that which is ruled.\n\n53. But being freed from the Body, it is freed likewise from Passion.\n\n54. But especially, O Son, there is nothing impassible, but all things are passible.\n\n55. But Passion differs from that which is passible; for that (Passion) acteth, but this suffers.\n\n56. Bodies also of themselves do act; for either they are unmoveable, or else are moved; and which soever it be, it is a Passion.\n\n57. But incorporeal things do always act, or work, and therefore they are passible.\n\n58. Let not, therefore, the appellations or names trouble thee, for Action and Passion are the same thing, but that it is not grievous to use the more honorable name.\n\n59. *Tat.* O Father, thou hast delivered this discourse most plainly.\n\n60. *Herm.*Consider this also, O Son, that God hath freely bestowed upon man, above all other living things, these two, to wit, Mind and Speech, or Reason ..., equal to immortality.\n\n61. These, if any man use, or employ upon what he ought, he shall differ nothing from the Immortals.\n\n62. Yea, rather going out of the Body, he shall be guided and led by them, both into the Choir and Society of the God, and blessed ones.\n\n63. *Tat.* Do not other living creatures use speech, O Father?\n\n64. *Herm.* No, Son, but only voice. Now, speech and voice do differ exceeding much; for speech is common to all men, but voice is proper unto every kind of living thing.\n\n65. *Tat.*Yea, but the Speech of men is different, O Father; every man according to his Nation.\n\n66. *Herm.*It is true, O Son, they do differ: yet as Man is one, so is Speech one also, and it is interpreted and found the same, both in *Egypt*, *Persia*, and *Greece*.\n\n67. But thou seemest unto me, Son, to be ignorant of the Vertue, or Power and greatness of Speech.\n\n68. For the blessed God, the good *Demon*said or commanded the Soul to be in the Body, the Mind in the Soul ..., the Word, or Speech, or Reason in the Mind, and the Mind in God, and that God is the Father of them all.\n\n69. Therefore, the Word is the Image of the Mind, and the Mind of God, and the Body of the *Idea*, and the *Idea* of the Soul.\n\n70. Therefore, of the Matter, the subtilest or smallest part is Air, of the Air the Soul, of the Soul the Mind, of the Mind God.\n\n71. And God is about all things, and through all things, but the Mind about the Soul, the Soul about the Air, and the Air about the Matter.\n\n72. But Necessity, and Providence, and Nature, are the Organs or Instruments of the World, and of the Order of Matter.\n\n73. For of those things that are intelligible, everyone is; but the essence of them is Identity.\n\n74. But of the Bodies of the whole, or universe, every one is many things.\n\n75. For the Bodies that are put together, and that have, and make their changes into other, having this Identity, do always and preserve the incorruption of the Identity.\n\n76. But in every one of the compound Bodies there is a Number\n\n77. For without Number it is impossible there should be consistence or constitution, or composition, or dissolution.\n\n78. But Unities do both beget and increase Numbers, and again being dissolved, come into themselves.\n\n79. And the Matter is One.\n\n80. But this whole World, the great God, and the Image of the Greater, and united unto him, and concerning the Order, and Will of the Father, is the fulness of Life.\n\n81. And there is nothing therein, through all the Eternity of the Revolution, neither of the whole, nor of the parts which doth not live.\n\n82. For there is nothing dead, that either hath been, or is, or shall be in the World.\n\n83. For the Father would have it, as long as it lasts, to be a living thing; and therefore it must needs be God also.\n\n84. How, therefore, O Son, can there be in God in the image of the Universe, in the fulness of Life, any dead things?\n\n85. For dying is Corruption, and corruption is destruction.\n\n86. How, then, can any part of the incorruptible be corrupted, or of God be destroyed?\n\n87. *Tat.*Therefore, O Father, do not the living things in the World die, though they be parts thereof?\n\n88. *Herm.* Be wary in thy speech, O Son, and not deceived in the names of things.\n\n89. For they do not die, O Son, but as Compound bodies they are dissolved.\n\n90. But dissolution is not death; and they are dissolved, not that they may be destroyed, but that they may be made new.\n\n91. *Tat.*What, then, is the operation of Life? Is it not Motion?\n\n92. *Herm.*And what is there in the World unmoveable? Nothing at all, O Son.\n\n93. *Tat.*Why, doth not the Earth seem immoveable to thee, O Father?\n\n94. *Herm.* No, but subject to many Motions, though after a manner, it alone be stable.\n\n95. What a ridiculous thing it were that the nurse of all things should be immoveable which beareth and bringeth forth all things.\n\n96. For it is impossible that anything that bringeth forth, should bring forth without Motion.\n\n97. And a ridiculous question it is, whether the fourth part of the whole, be idle; for the word immoveable, or without motion, signifies nothing else, but idleness.\n\n98. Know generally, O Son, that whatsoever is in the World is moved either according to Augmentation or Diminution.\n\n99. But that which is moved, liveth also, yet it is not necessary that a living thing should be or continue the same.\n\n100. For while the whole world is together, it is unchangeable, O Son, but all the parts thereof are changeable.\n\n101. Yet nothing is corrupted or destroyed, and quite abolished, but the names trouble men.\n\n102. For Generation is not Life, but Sense, neither is Change Death, but Forgetfulness, or rather Occultation, and lying hid. Or better thus:--\n\n103. For Generation is not a Creation of Life, but a production of things to Sense, and making them manifest. Neither is Change Death, but an Occultation of hiding of that which was.\n\n104. These things being so, all things are Immortal, Matter, Life, Spirit, Soul, Mind, whereof every living thing consisteth.\n\n105. Every living thing therefore is Immortal, because of the Mind, but especially Man, who both receiveth God, and converseth with him.\n\n106. For with this living wight, alone is God familiar; in the night by dreams, in the day by Symbols or Signs.\n\n107. And by all things doth he foretell him of things to come, by Birds, by Fowls, by the Spirit, or Wind, and by an Oak.\n\n108. Wherefore, also, Man professeth to know things that have been, things that are present, and things to come.\n\n109. Consider this also, O Son, that every other living Creature goeth upon one part of the World, Swimming things in the Water, Land wights upon the Earth, Flying Fowls in the Air.\n\n110. But Man useth all these, the Earth, the Water, the Air, and the Fire, nay, he seeth and toucheth Heaven by his senses.\n\n111. But God is both about all things, and through all things, for he is both Act and Power.\n\n112. And it is no hard thing, O Son, to understand God.\n\n113. And if thou wilt also see him, look upon the Necessity of things that appear, and the Providence of things that have been, and are done.\n\n114. See the Matter being most full of Life, and so great a God moved, with all good, and Fair, both Gods, and *Demons*, and Men.\n\n115. *Tat.*But these, O Father, are wholly Acts, or Operations.\n\n116. *Herm.* If they be, therefore, wholly acts or operations, O Son, by whom are they acted or operated, but by God?\n\n117. Or art thou ignorant, that as parts of the World, are Heaven, and Earth, and Water, and Air; after the same manner, the Members of God, are Life, and Immortality, and Eternity, and Spirit, and Necessity, and Providence, and Nature, and Soul, and Mind, and the Continuance or Perseverance of all these which is called Good.\n\n118. And there is not anything of all that hath been, and all that is, where God is not.\n\n119. *Tat.*What, in Matter, O Father?\n\n120. *Herm.*The Matter, Son, what is it without God, that thou shouldst ascribe a proper place to it?\n\n121. Or what dost thou think it to be? Peradventure, some heap that is not actuated or operated.\n\n122. But if it be actuated, by whom is it actuated? for we have said, that Acts or Operations, are the parts of God.\n\n123. By whom are all living things quickened? and the Immortal, by whom are they immortalized? the things that are changeable, by whom are they changed?\n\n124. Whether thou speak of Matter or Body, or Essence, know that all these are Acts of God.\n\n125. And that the Act of Matter is materiality, and of the Bodies corporality, and of essence essentiality, and this is God the whole.\n\n126. And in the whole, there is nothing that is not God.\n\n127. Wherefore, about God, there is neither Greatness, Place, Quality, Figure, or time, foe he is All, and the All, through all, and about all.\n\n128. This Word, O Son, worship and adore. And the only service of God, is not to be evil.\n\nThe End of the Eleventh Book  \nOF THE COMMON MIND, TO TAT.\n\n## The Twelfth Book, His Crater Or Monas\n\nTHE Workman made this Universal World, not with his Hands, but his Word.\n\n2. Therefore thus think of him, as present everywhere, and being always, and making all things; and one above, that by his Will hath framed the things that are.\n\n3. For that is his Body, not tangible, nor visible, nor measurable, nor extensible, nor like any other body.\n\n4. For it is neither Fire, nor Water, nor Air, nor Wind, but all these things are of him; for being Good, he hath dedicated that name unto himself alone.\n\n5. But he would also adorn the Earth, but with the Ornament of a Divine Body.\n\n6. And he sent Man, an Immortal, and a mortal wight.\n\n7. And Man had more than all living Creatures, and the World; because of his Speech, and Mind.\n\n8. For Man became the Spectator of the Works of God, and wondered, and acknowledged the Maker.\n\n9. For he divided Speech among all Men, but not Mind, and yet he envied not any; for Envy comes not thither, but is abode here below in the Souls of men, that have not the Mind.\n\n10. *Tat.*But wherefore, Father, did not God distribute the Mind to all men?\n\n11. *Herm.*Because it pleased him, O Son, to set that in the middle among all souls, as a reward to strive for.\n\n12. *Tat.* And where hath he set it?\n\n13. *Herm.* Filling a large Cup or Bowl therewith, he sent it down, giving also a Cryer or Proclaimer.\n\n14. And he commanded him to proclaim these things to the souls of men.\n\n15. Dip and wash thyself, thou that art able in this Cup or Bowl: Thou that believeth that thou shalt return to him that sent this Cup; thou that acknowledgest whereunto thou wert made.\n\n16. As many, therefore, as understood the Proclamation, and were baptized, or dowsed into the Mind, these were made partakers of knowledge, and became perfect men, receiving the Mind.\n\n17. But as many as missed of the Proclamation, they received Speech, but not Mind; being ignorant whereunto they were made, or by whom.\n\n18. But their Senses are just like to brute Beasts, and having their temper in Anger and Wrath, they do not admire the things worthy of looking on.\n\n19. But wholly addicted to the pleasures and desires of the Body, they believe that man was made for them.\n\n20. But as many as partake of the gift of God; these, O *Tat*, in comparison of their works, are rather immortal, than mortal men.\n\n21. Comprehending all things in their Mind, which are upon Earth, which are in Heaven, and if there be anything above Heaven.\n\n22. And lifting up themselves so high, they see the Good, and seeing it, they account it a miserable calamity to make their abode here.\n\n23. And despising all things bodily and unbodily, they make haste to the *One and Only*.\n\n24. Thus, O *Tat*, is the knowledge of the Mind, the beholding of Divine things, and the Understanding of God, the Cup itself, being Divine.\n\n25. *Tat.*And I, O Father, would be baptized and drenched therein.\n\n26. Herm. Except thou first hate thy body, O Son, thou canst not love thyself, but loving thyself, thou shalt have the Mind, and having the Mind, thou shalt also partake the Knowledge or Science.\n\n27. *Tat.*How meanest thou, O Father?\n\n28. *Herm.*Because it is impossible, O Son, to be conversant about things Mortal and Divine.\n\n29. For the things that are, being two Bodies, and things incorporeal, wherein is the Mortal and the Divine, the Election or Choice of either is left to him that will choose: For no man can choose both.\n\n30. And of which soever the choice is made, the other being diminished or overcome, magnifieth the act or operation of the other.\n\n31. The choice of the better, therefore, is not only best for him that chooseth it, by deifying man, but it also shewth Piety and Religion towards God.\n\n32. But the choice of the worst destroys a man, but doth nothing against God, save that as *Pomps* or *Pageants*, when they come abroad, cannot do anything themselves but hinder; after the same manner also do these make *Pomps* and *Pageants* in the World, being seduced by the pleasures of the Body.\n\n33. These Things being so, O *Tat*, that things have been, and are so plenteously ministered to us from God, let them proceed also from us, without any scarcity or sparing.\n\n34. For God is innocent or guiltless, but we are the causes of Evil, preferring them before the Good.\n\n35. Thou seest, O Son, how many Bodies we must go beyond, and how many Choirs of *Demons*, and what continuity and courses of Stars, that we may make haste to the One, and only God.\n\n36. For the Good is not to be transcended, it is unbounded and infinite, unto itself, without beginning, but unto us, seeming to have a beginning, even our knowledge of it.\n\n37. For our Knowledge is not the beginning of it, but shews us the beginning of its being known unto us.\n\n38. Let us, therefore, lay hold of the beginning, and we shall quickly go through all things.\n\n39. It is indeed a difficult thing to leave those things that are accustomable and present, and turn us to those things that are ancient, and according to the original.\n\n40. For these things that appear, delight us, but make the things that appear not, hard to believe, *or the things that appear not, are hard to believe.*\n\n41. The things most apparent are Evil, but the Good is secret, or hid in, or to the things that appear, for it hath neither Form nor Figure.\n\n42. For this cause it is like to itself, but unlike everything else, for it is impossible that anything incorporeal should be made know, or appear to a Body.\n\n43. For this is the difference between the like and the unlike, and the unlike wanteth always somewhat of the like.\n\n44. For the Unity, Beginning, and Root of all things, as being the Root and Beginning.\n\n45. Nothing is without a beginning, but the Beginning is of nothing, but of itself, for it is the Beginning of all other things.\n\n46. Therefore it is, seeing it is not from another beginning.\n\n47. Unity therefore being the Beginning, containeth very number, but itself is contained of none, and begetteth every number, itself being begotten of no other number.\n\n48. Everything that is begotten (or made), is imperfect, and may be divided, increased, diminished.\n\n49. But to the perfect, there happeneth none of these.\n\n50. And that which is increased, is increased by Unity, but is consumed and vanished through weakness, being not able to receive the Unity.\n\n51. This Image of God, have I described to thee, *O Tat,* as well as I could, which if thou do diligently consider, and view by the eyes of they Mind, and hear, believe me, Son, thou shalt find the way to things above, or, rather, the Image itself will lead thee.\n\n52. But the spectacle or sight, hath this peculiar and proper: Them that can see, and behold it, it holds fast and draws unto it, as they say, the Loadstone doth Iron.\n\nThe End of the Twelfth Book,  \nHIS CRATER OR MONAS.\n\n## The Thirteenth Book, Of Sense And Understanding\n\nYESTERDAY, *Asclepius,* I delivered a perfect Discourse, but now I think it necessary, in suite of that, to dispute also of Sense.\n\n2. For Sense and Understanding seem to differ, because the one is material and the other essential.\n\n3. But unto me, they appear to be both one, or united, and not divided in men, I mean.\n\n4. For in other living Creatures, Sense is united into Nature, but in men to Understanding.\n\n5. But the Mind differs from Understanding, as much a God from Divinity.\n\n6. For Divinity is... from under God, and Understanding from the Mind, being the Sister of the Word or Speech, and they the Instruments one of another.\n\n7. For neither is the Word pronounced without Understanding, neither is Understanding manifested without the Word.\n\n8. Therefore, Sense and Understanding do both flow together into a man, as if they were infolded one within another.\n\n9. For neither is it possible without Sense to Understand, nor can we have Sense without Understanding.\n\n10. And yet it is possible (*for the time being*), that the Understanding may understand without Sense, as they that fancy visions in their Dreams.\n\n11. But it seems unto me, that both the operations are in the Visions of Dreams, and that the Sense is stirred up out of sleep, into awakening.\n\n12. For Man is divided into a Body and a Soul, when both parts of the Sense accord one with another, then is the Understanding childed, or brought forth by the Mind pronounced.\n\n13. For the Mind brings forth all Intellections or Understandings, Good ones when it receiveth good seed from God, and the contrary, when it receives them from Devils.\n\n14. For there is not part of the World void of the Devil, which entering in privately, sowed the seed of his own *proper* operation, and the mind did make pregnant, or did bring forth that which was sown. *Adulteries, Murders, Striking of Parents, Sacrileges, Impieties, Stranglings,* throwing down headlong, and all other things, which are the works of Evil *Demons*.\n\n15. And the seeds of God are few, but great and Fair, and Good, Virtue, and Temperance, and Piety.\n\n16. And the Piety is the knowledge of God, whom whosoever knoweth, being full of all good things, hath Divine Understanding, and not like the many.\n\n17. And therefore they that have that knowledge, neither please the multitude, nor the multitude them, but they seem to be mad, and to move laughter, hated and despised, and many times also murdered.\n\n18. For we have already said, That wickedness must dwell here, being in her own region.\n\n19. For her region is the Earth, and not the World, as some will sometimes say, Blaspheming.\n\n20. But the Godly or God-worshipping Man, laying hold on knowledge, will despise or tread under all these things, for though they be evil to other men, yet to him all things are good.\n\n21. And upon mature consideration, he refers all things to knowledge, and that which is most to be wondered at, he alone makes Evil things good.\n\n22. But I return again to my Discourse of Sense.\n\n23. It is, therefore, a thing proper to man, to communicate and conjoin Sense and Understanding.\n\n24. But every man, as I said before, doth not enjoy Understanding, for one man is material, another Essential.\n\n25. And he that is material with wickedness, as I said, received from the Devils the seed of Understanding, but they that are with the Good essentially, are eared with God.\n\n26. For God is the workman of all things, and when he worketh, he useth Nature.\n\n27. He maketh all things good like himself.\n\n28. But these things that are made good, are in the use of operation, unlawful.\n\n29. For the Motion of the World, stirring up Generations, makes Qualities; infesting some with evilness, and purifying some with good.\n\n30. And the World, *Asclepius,* hath a peculiar Sense and Understanding, not like to Man's, nor so various or manifold, but a better and more simple.\n\n31. For the Sense and Understanding of the World is *One*, in that it makes all things, and unmakes them again into itself, for it is the Organ of Instrument of the Will of God.\n\n32. And it is so organized or framed, and made for an Instrument by God, that receiving all Seeds into itself from God, and keeping them in itself, it maketh all things effectually, and dissolving them, reneweth all things.\n\n33. And therefore like a good Husbandman of Life, when things are dissolved or loosened, he affords, by the casting of Seed, renovation to all things that grow.\n\n34. There is nothing that it (the World) doth not beget or bring forth alive, and by its Motion, it makes all things alive.\n\n35. And it is at once, both the Place and the Workman of Life.\n\n36. But the Bodies are from the Matter, in a different manner, for some are of Earth, some of Water, some of Air, some of Fire, and all are compounded, but some are more compounded, and some are more simple.\n\n37. They that are compounded, are the heavier, and they that are less, are the higher.\n\n38. And the swiftness of the Motion of the World, makes the varieties of the qualities of Generation, for the Spiration of Influence being most frequent, extendeth unto the Bodies' qualities, with infulness, which is of Life.\n\n39. Therefore, God is the Father of the World, but the World is Father of the things in the World.\n\n40. And the World is the Son of God, but things in the World, are the Sons of the World.\n\n41. And, therefore, it is well called ... the World, that is, an Ornament, because it adorneth and beautifieth all things with the Variety of Generation, and indeficiency of Life, which the unweariedness of Operation, and the swiftness of Necessity, with the mingling of Elements, and the order of things done.\n\n42. Therefore, it is necessarily and proper called ... the World.\n\n43. For all living things, both the sense and the Understanding, cometh into them from without, inspired by that which compasseth them about, and continueth them.\n\n44. And the World receiving it once from God as soon as it was made, has it still, *whatever it once had.*\n\n45. But God is not as it seems to some who Blaspheme through superstition, without Sense, and without Mind, or Understanding.\n\n46. For all things that are, O *Asclepius,*are in God, and made by him, and depend of him, some working by bodies, some moving by a Soul, like Essence, some quickening by a Spirit, and some receiving the things that are weary, and all very fitly.\n\n47. Or rather, I say, that he hath them not, but I declare the Truth, *he is all things,*not receiving them from without, but exhibiting them outwardly.\n\n48. And this is the Sense and Understanding of God, to move all things always.\n\n49. And there shall never be any time, when any of these things that are, shall fail, or be wanting.\n\n50. When I say the things that are, I mean God, for the things that are, God hath, and neither is there anything without him, nor he without anything.\n\n51. These things, O *Asclepius,* will appear to be true, if thou understand them, but if thou understand them not, incredible.\n\n52. For to understand, is to believe, but not to believe, is not to understand; For my speech or words reach not unto the Truth, but the Mind is great, and being led or conducted for a while by Speech, is able to attain to the Truth.\n\n53. And understanding all things round about, and finding them consonant, and agreeable to those things that were delivered, and interrupted by Speech, believeth, and in that good belief resteth.\n\n54. To them, therefore, that understand the things that have been said of God, they are credible, but to them that understand them not, incredible.\n\n55. And let these, and thus many things, be spoken concerning *Understanding* and *Sense*.\n\nThe End of the Thirteenth Book,  \nOF SENSE AND UNDERSTANDING.\n\n## The Fourteenth Book, Of Operation And Sense\n\n*Tat.*  \nTHOU has well explained these things, Father. Teach me furthermore these things, for thou sayest, that *Science*and *Art*were the operations of the Rational, but now thou sayest, that Beasts are unreasonable, and for want of Reason, both are, and are called Brutes, so that by this reason, it must needs follow, that unreasonable Creatures partake not of Science, or Art, because they come short of Reason.\n\n2. *Herm.* It must needs be so, Son.\n\n3. *Tat.*Why then, O Father, do we see some unreasonable living Creatures use both Science and Art; as the *Pismires* treasure up for themselves food against Winter, and Fowls of the Air likewise make them Nests, and four-footed Beasts know their own Dens?\n\n4. These things they do, O Son, not by Science or Art, but by Nature; For Science and Art are things that are taught, but none of these Brute Beasts are taught any of these things.\n\n5. But these things being Natural unto them, are wrought by Nature, whereas, Art and Science do not happen unto all, but unto some.\n\n6. As Men are Musitians, but not all; neither are all Archers, or Huntsmen, or the rest, but some of them have learned something by the working of Science, or Art.\n\n7. After the same manner also, if some *Pismires* did so, and some not, thou mightest well say, they gather their Food according to Science and Art.\n\n8. But being, they are all led by Nature, to the same thing, even against their Wills, it is manifest they do not do it by Science or Art.\n\n9. For operations, O *Tat*, being unbodily are in Bodies, and work by bodies.\n\n10. Wherefore, O *Tat*, in as much as they are unbodily, thou must needs say, they are immortal.\n\n11. But inasmuch as they cannot act without Bodies, I say they are always in a Body.\n\n12. For those things that are to anything, or for the cause of anything made subject to Providence or Necessity, cannot possibly remain idle of their own proper operation.\n\n13. For that which is, shall ever be, for both the Body, and the Life of it, is the same.\n\n14. And by this reason, it follows, that the Bodies also are always, because I affirm: That this corporeity is always by the Act and Operation, or for them.\n\n15. For although Earthly Bodies be subject to dissolution, yet these bodies must be the Places, and the Organs, and Instruments of Acts or Operations.\n\n16. But acts or Operations are immortal, and that which is Immortal is always in Act, and therefore also *Corporification* if it be always.\n\n17. Acts or operations do follow the Soul, yet come not suddenly or promiscuously; but some of them come together with being made man, being about brutish or unreasonable things.\n\n18. But the purer operations do insensibly in the change of time, work with the oblique part of the Soul.\n\n19. And these operations depend upon Bodies, and truly they that are *Corporifying*, come from the Divine Bodies into Mortal ones.\n\n20. But every one of them acteth both about the Body and the Soul, and are present with the Soul, even without the Body.\n\n21. And they are always Acts or operations, but the Soul is not always in a Mortal Body, for it can be without a Body, but Acts or Operations cannot be without Bodies.\n\n22. This is a sacred Speech, Son; the Body cannot consist without a Soul.\n\n23. *Tat.*How meanest thou that, Father?\n\n24. *Herm.*Understand it thus, O *Tat*: When the Soul is separated from the Body, there remaineth that same body.\n\n25. And this same Body, according to the time of its abode, is actuated, or operated in that it is dissolved and becomes invisible.\n\n26. And these things the Body cannot suffer without act or operation, and consequently there remaineth with the Body, the same act or operation.\n\n27. This then is the difference between an Immortal Body and a Mortal one, that the Immortal one consists of one Matter, and so doth not the Mortal one, and the immortal one doth, but this suffereth.\n\n28. And every thing that acteth or operateth is stronger, and ruleth, but that which is actuated or operated, is ruled.\n\n29. And that which ruleth, directeth, and governeth as free, but the other is rules, a servant.\n\n30. Acts or Operations, do not only act or operate, living or breathing, or insouled ... Bodies, but also Breathless Bodies, or without Souls, Wood and Stones, and such like, encreasing and bearing fruit, ripening, corrupting, rotting, putrifying and breaking, or working such like things, and whatsoever inanimate Bodies can suffer.\n\n31. Act or Operation, O Son, is called, whatsoever is, or is made or done, and there are always many things made, or rather all things.\n\n32. For the World is never widowed or forsaken of any of those things that are, but being always carried or moved in itself, it is in labour to bring forth the things that are, which shall never be left by it to corruption.\n\n33. Let, therefore, every act or operation be understood to be always immortal, in what manner of Body soever it be.\n\n34. But some Acts or Operations be of Divine, some of corruptible bodies, some universal, some peculiar, and some of the generals, and some of the parts of everything.\n\n35. Divine Acts or Operations, therefore, there be, and such as work or operate upon their proper Bodies, and these also are perfect, and being upon or in perfect Bodies.\n\n36. Particular are they which work by any of the living Creatures.\n\n37. Proper be they that work upon any of the things that are.\n\n38. By this Discourse, therefore, O Son, it is gathered that all things are full of Acts or Operations.\n\n39. For if necessarily they be in every Body, and that there be many Bodies in the World, I may very well affirm, that there be many other Acts or Operations.\n\n40. For many items in one Body, there if one, and a second, and a third, besides these universal ones that follow.\n\n41. And universal operations, I call them that are indeed bodily, and are done by the Senses and Motions.\n\n42. For without these, it is impossible that the Body should consist.\n\n43. But other operations are proper to the Souls of Men, by Arts, Sciences, Studies, and Actions.\n\n44. The Senses also follow these Operations, or rather are the effects or perfections ... of them.\n\n45. Understand, therefore, O Son, the difference of Operations, it is sent from above.\n\n46. But Sense being in the Body, and having its essence from it, when it receiveth Act or Operation, manifesteth it, making it as it were corporeal.\n\n47. Therefore, I say, that the Senses are both corporeal and mortal, having so much existence as the Body, for they are born with the Body, and die with it.\n\n48. But mortal things themselves have not Sense, as *not* consisting of such an Essence.\n\n49. For Sense can be of no other than a corporeal apprehension, either of Evil or Good, that comes to the Body.\n\n50. But to External Bodies there is nothing comes, nothing departs, therefore there is no Sense in them.\n\n51. *Tat.*Doth the Sense therefore perceive or apprehend in every Body?\n\n52. *Herm.*In every Body, O Son.\n\n53. *Tat.*And do the Acts or Operations work in all things?\n\n54. *Herm.* Even in things inanimate, O Son, but there are differences of Senses.\n\n55. For the Senses of things rational, are with Reason, of things unreasonable, Corporeal only; but the Senses of things inanimate, are passive only, according to Augmentation and Diminution.\n\n56. But Passion and Sense depend both upon one head, or hight, and are gathered together into the same, by Acts or Operations.\n\n57. But in living Wights, there be two other Operations that follow the Senses and Passions, to wit, *Grief* and *Pleasure*.\n\n58. And without these, it is impossible that a living Wight, especially a reasonable one, should perceive or apprehend.\n\n59. And, therefore, I say, that these are the *Ideas*of Passions that bear rule, especially in reasonable living wights.\n\n60. The Operations work indeed, but the Senses do declare and manifest the operations, and they being bodily, are moved by the brutish parts of the Soul; therefore, I say, they are both malificial, or doers of evil.\n\n61. For that which affords the Sense to rejoice with Pleasure, is strightway the cause of many evils, happening to him that suffers it.\n\n62. But sorrow gives stronger torments and Anguish, therefore, doubtless, are they both malificial.\n\n63. The same may be said of the Sense of the Soul.\n\n64. *Tat.*Is not the soul incorporeal, and the sense a Body, Father? Or is it rather in the Body?\n\n65. *Herm.*If we put it in a Body, O So, we shall make it like the Soul, or the Operations; for these being unbodily, we say are in Bodies.\n\n66. But Sense is neither Operation, nor Soul, nor anything else that belongs to the Body, but as we have said, and, therefore, it is not incorporeal.\n\n67. And if it be not incorporeal, it must needs be a Body, for we always say, that of things that are, some are Bodies, and some incorporeal.\n\nThe End of The Fourteenth Book,  \nOF OPERATION AND SENSE.\n\n## The Fifteenth Book, Of Truth To His Son Tat\n\nHerm.\n\nOF TRUTH, O *Tat*, it is not possible that man, being an imperfect Wight, compounded of Imperfect members, and having his Tabernacle, consisting of different, and many Bodies, should speak with any Confidence.\n\n2. But as far as it is possible and just (I say). That Truth is only in Eternal Bodies, whose very Bodies are also True.\n\n3. The Fire is fire itself only, and nothing else; the Earth is earth itself, and nothing else; the Air is air itself, and nothing else; the Water, water itself, and nothing else.\n\n4. But our Bodies consist of all these, for they have of the Fire, they have of the Earth, they have of the Water, and Air, and yet there is neither Fire, nor Earth, nor Water, nor Air, nor anything true.\n\n5. And if at the beginning, our Constitution had not Truth, how could men either see the Truth, or speak it, or understand it, only except God would?\n\n6. All things, therefore, upon Earth, O *Tat*, are not Truth, but imitations of the Truth, and yet not all things neither, for they are but few that are so.\n\n7. But the other things are Falsehood and Deceit, O *Tat*, and opinions, like the Images of the fancy of appearance.\n\n8. And when the fancy hath an influence from above, then it is an imitation of Truth, but without the operations from above, it is left a lie.\n\n9. And as an Image shews the Body described, and yet it is not the Body of that which is seen, as it seems to be, and it is seen to have eyes, but it sees nothing, and ears, but it hears nothing at all, and all other things hath the picture, but they are false, deceiving the eyes of the beholder, whilst they think they see the Truth, and yet they are indeed but lies.\n\n10. As many, therefore, as see not falsehood, see the Truth.\n\n11. If, therefore, we do so understand, and see every one of those things as it is, then we see and understand true things.\n\n12. But if we see or understand anything besides, or otherwise, than that which is, we shall neither understand, nor know the Truth.\n\n13. *Tat.*Is Truth, therefore, upon Earth, O Father?\n\n14. *Herm.* Thou dost not miss the mark, O Son; Truth indeed is nowhere at all upon Earth, O *Tat*, for it cannot be generated, or made.\n\n15. But concerning the Truth, it may be that some men, to whom God will give the Good seeing power, may understand it.\n\n16. So that unto the Mind and Reason, there is nothing true indeed upon earth.\n\n17. But unto the true Mind and Reason, all things are fancies, or appearances, and opinions.\n\n18. *Tat.*Must we not, therefore, call it Truth, to understand and speak the things that are?\n\n19. *Herm.* But there is nothing true upon Earth.\n\n20. *Tat.* How then is this true: that we do not know anything true? How can that be done here?\n\n21. *Herm.* O Son, Truth is the most perfect Virtue, and the highest Good itself, not troubled by Matter, not encompassed by a Body, naked, clear, unchangeable, venerable, unalterable Good.\n\n22. But the things that are here, O Son, are visible, incapable of Good, corruptible, passible, dissolvable, changeable, continually altered, and made of another.\n\n23. The things therefore that are not true to themselves, how can they be true?\n\n24. For everything that is altered, is a lie, not abiding in what it is, but being changed it shews us always, other and other appearances.\n\n25. *Tat.* Is not man true, O Father?\n\n26. *Herm.* As far forth as he is a man, he is not true, Son, for that which is true, hath of itself alone its constitution, and remains and abides according to itself, such as it is.\n\n27. But man consists of many things, and doth not abide of himself, but is turned and changed, age after age,*Idea* after *Idea*, or form after form, and this while he is yet in the Tabernacle.\n\n28. And many have not known their own children after a little while, and many children likewise have not known their own Parents.\n\n29. Is it then possible, O *Tat*, that he who is so changed, as is not to be known, should be true? No, on the contrary, he is Falsehood, being in many Appearance of changes.\n\n30. But do thou understand the True to be that which abides the Same, and is Eternal, but man is not ever, therefore not True, but man is a certain appearance, and Appearance is the highest Lie or Falsehood.\n\n31. *Tat.*But these eternal bodies, Father, are they not true, though they be changed?\n\n32. *Herm.* Everything that is begotten, or made, and changed, is not true; but being made by our Progenitor, they might have had true matter.\n\n33. But these also have in themselves, something that is false, in regard to their change.\n\n34. For nothing that remains not in itself, is true.\n\n35. *Tat.*What shall one say then, Father, that only the sun, which besides the Nature of other things, is not changed, but abides in itself, is Truth?\n\n36. *Herm.* It is Truth, and therefore is he only intrusted with the Workmanship of the World, ruling and making all things, whom I do both honour, and adore his Truth; and after the *One*, and First, I acknowledge him the Workman.\n\n37. *Tat.*What, therefore, dost thou affirm to be the first Truth, O Father?\n\n38. *Herm.*The *One* and *Only*, O *Tat*, that is not of Matter, that is not in a Body, that is without colour, without Figure, or Shape, Immutable, Unalterable, which always is, but Falsehood, O Son, is corrupted.\n\n39. And corruption hath laid hold upon all things on Earth, and the Providence of the *True* encompasseth, and will encompass them.\n\n40. For without corruption there can no generation consist.\n\n41. For corruption followeth every generation, that it may again be generated.\n\n42. For those things that are generated, must of necessity be generated of those things that are corrupted, and the things generated must needs be corrupted, that the Generation of things being, may not stand still or cease.\n\n43. Acknowledge, therefore, the first Workman, by the Generation of things.\n\n44. Consequently the things that are generated of Corruption are false, as being sometimes one thing, sometimes another: For it is impossible, they should be made the same things again, and that which is not the same, how is it true?\n\n45. Therefore, O Son, we must call these things fancies or appearances.\n\n46. And if we will give a man his right name, we must call him the appearance of Manhood; and a child, the fancy or appearance of a child; an old man, the fancy or appearance of an old man; a young man, the appearance of a young man; and a man of ripe age, the appearance of a man of ripe age.\n\n47. For neither is a man, a man, nor a child, a child, nor a young man, young man, nor an old man, an old man.\n\n48. But the things that pre-exist, and that are, being changed, are false.\n\n49. These things, understand thus, O Son, as these false operations, having their dependence from above, even of the Truth itself.\n\n50. Which being so, I do affirm, that Falsehood is the Work of the Truth.\n\nThe End of the Fifteenth Book,  \nOF TRUTH TO HIS SON TAT.\n\n## The Sixteenth Book, That None Of The Things That Are Can Perish\n\nHerm.\n\nWE must now speak of the Soul and body, O Son, after what manner the soul is Immortal, and what operation that is, which constitutes the Body, and dissolves it.\n\n2. But in none of these is Death, for it is a conception of a name, which is either an empty word, or else it is wrongly called Death ..., by taking away the first letter, instead of Immortal ....\n\n3. For Death is destruction, but there is nothing in the whole World that is destroyed.\n\n4. For if the World be a second God, and an Immortal living Wight, it is impossible that any part of an Immortal living Wight should die.\n\n5. But all things that are in the World, are members of the World, especially man, the reasonable living Wight.\n\n6. For the first of all is God, the Eternal, the Unmade, and the Workman of all things.\n\n7. The second is the World, made by him, after his own Image, and by him holden together, and nourished, and immortalized, and as from its own Father, ever living.\n\n8. So that as Immortal, it is ever living, and ever immortal.\n\n9. For that which is ever living, differs from that which is eternal.\n\n10. For the Eternal was not begotten, or made by another, and if it were begotten or made, yet it was made by itself, not by any other, but it is always made.\n\n11. For the Eternal, as it is Eternal, is the Universe.\n\n12. For the Father himself, is Eternal of himself, but the World was made by the Father, ever living, and immortal.\n\n13. And as much Matter as there was laid up by him, the Father made it all into a Body, and swelling it, made it round like a Sphere, endued it with Quality, being itself immortal, and having Eternal Materiality.\n\n14. The Father being full of *Ideas,* sowed qualities in the Spheres, and shut them up as in a Circle, deliberating to beautify with every Quality, that which afterwards should be made.\n\n15. Then clothing the Universal Body with Immortality, lest the Matter, if it would depart from this Composition, should be dissolved into its own disorder.\n\n16. For when the Matter was Incorporated, O Son, it was disordered, and it hath here the same confusion daily revolved about other little things, endued with Qualities, in point of Augmentation, and Diminution, which men call Death, being indeed a disorder happening about earthly living Wights.\n\n17. For the Bodies of Heavenly things, have one order, which they have received from the Father at the beginning, and is by the instauration of each of them, kept indissolveable.\n\n18. But the instauration of earthly Bodies is their consistence, and their dissolution restores them into indissolveable, that is, Immortal.\n\n19. And so there is made a privation of Sense, but not a destruction of Bodies.\n\n20. Now the third living Wight is Man, made after the Image of the World, and having by the will of the Father, an mind above other earthly Wights.\n\n21. And he hath not only a sympathy with the second God, but also an understanding of the first.\n\n22. For the Second God, he apprehends as a Body, but the first, he understands as Incorporeal, and the Mind of the Good.\n\n23. *Tat.* And doth not this living Wight perish?\n\n24. *Herm.*Speak advisedly, O Son, and learn what God is, what the World, what an Immortal Wight, and what a dissolveable one is.\n\n25. And understand that the World is of God, and in God, but Man of the World, and in the World.\n\n26. The Beginning, and End, and Consistence of all, is God.\n\nThe End of the Sixteenth Book,  \nTHAT NONE OF THE THINGS THAT ARE CAN PERISH.\n\n## The Seventeenth Book, To Asclepius, To Be Truly Wise\n\nBECAUSE, my Son, *Tat*, in thy absence, would needs learn the Nature of the things that are, he would not suffer me to give over (as coming very young to the knowledge of every individual), till I was forced to discourse to him many things at large, that his contemplation might, from point to point, be more easy and successful.\n\n2. But to thee, I have thought good to write in few words, choosing out the principal heads of the things then spoken, and to interpret them more mystically, because thou hast both more years, and more knowledge of Nature.\n\n3. All things that appear, were made, and are made.\n\n4. Those things that are made, are not made by themselves, but by another.\n\n5. And there are many things made, but especially all things that appear, and which are different, and not like.\n\n6. If the things that be made and done, be made and done by another, there must be one that must make, and do them, and he, unmade, and more ancient than the things that are made.\n\n7. For I affirm the things that are made, to be made by another, and it is impossible, that of the things that are made, any should be more ancient than all, but only that which is not made.\n\n8. He is stronger, and one, and only knowing all things indeed, as not having anything more ancient than himself.\n\n9. For he bears rule, both over multitude and greatness, and the diversity of the things that are made, and the continuity of the Facture, and of the Operation.\n\n10. Moreover, the things that are made, are visible, but he is invisible, and for this cause, he maketh them, that he may be visible, and therefore he makes them always.\n\n11. Thus, it is fit to understand, and understanding to admire, and admiring to think thyself happy, that knowest thy natural Father.\n\n12. For what is sweeter than a natural Father?\n\n13. Who, therefore, is this, or how shall we know him?\n\n14. Or is it just to ascribe unto him alone, the Title and Appellation of God, or of the Maker or of the Father, or all Three? That of God because of his Power; the Maker, because of his Working and Operation; and the Father because of his Goodness.\n\n15. For Power is different from the things that are made, but Act or Operation in that all things are made.\n\n16. Wherefore, letting go all much and vain talking, we must understand these two things: *That which is made*, and *him which is the Maker*; for there is nothing in the Middle, between these Two, nor is there any third.\n\n17. Therefore, understanding All things, remember these Two; and think that these are All things, putting nothing into doubt; neither of the things above, nor of the things below; neither of things changeable, nor things that are in darkness or secret.\n\n18. For All things, are but Two things, *That which maketh*, and *that which is made*; and the One of them cannot depart, or be divided from the other.\n\n19. For neither is it possible that the Maker should be without the thing made, for either of them is the self-same thing; therefore cannot the one of them be separated from the other, no more than a thing can be separated from itself.\n\n20. For if he that makes be nothing else but that which makes alone, *simple*,*uncompounded*, it is of necessity, that he makes the same thing to himself, to whom it is the Generation of him that maketh to be also All that is made.\n\n21. For that which is Generated or made, must necessarily be generated or made by another, but without the maker, that which is made, neither is made, nor is; for the one of them without the other, has lost his proper Nature by the privation of the other.\n\n22. So if these Two be confessed, That which maketh, and that which is made, then they are One in Union, this going before, and that following.\n\n23. And that which goeth before, is, God the Maker; and that which follows, is, that which is made, be it what it will.\n\n24. And let no man be afraid because of the variety of things that are made or done, lest he should case an aspersion of baseness, or infamy upon God; for it is the only Glory of him to do, or make all things.\n\n25. And this making, or Facture, is as it were the Body of God; and to him that maketh, or doth, there is nothing evil or filthy to be imputed, or *there is nothing thought evil, or filthy*.\n\n26. For these are Passions that follow Generation, as Rust doth Copper, or as Excrements do the Body.\n\n27. But neither did the Coppersmith make the Rust, nor the Maker of the Filth, nor God the Evilness.\n\n28. But the vicissitude of Generation doth make them, as it were, to blossom out; and for this cause did make change to be, as one should say, The Purgation of Generation.\n\n29. Moreover, is it lawful for the same Painter to make both Heaven, and the Gods, and the Earth, and the Sea, and Men, and brute Beasts, and inanimate things, and Trees; and is it impossible for God to make these things? O the great madness, and ignorance of men in things that concern God!\n\n30. For men that think so, suffer that which is most ridiculous of all; for professing to bless, and praise God, yet in not ascribing to him the making or doing of All things, they know him now.\n\n31. And besides their not knowing him, they are extremely impious against him, attributing unto him Passions, as *Pride*, or *Oversight*, or Weakness, or Ignorance, or Envy.\n\n32. For if he do not make, or do all things, he is either proud, or not able, or ignorant, or envious, which is impious to affirm.\n\n33. For god hath only one Passion, namely, Good; and he that is good, is neither proud, nor impotent, nor the rest, but God is Good itself.\n\n34. For *Good*is all *Power*, to do or make all things, and everything that is made, is made by God, that is, by the Good, and that can make or do all things.\n\n35. See, then, how he maketh all things, and how the things are done, that are done, and if thou wilt learn, thou mayest see an Image thereof, very beautiful and like.\n\n36. Look upon the Husbandman, how he casteth seeds into the Earth, here wheat, there barley, and elsewhere some other seeds.\n\n37. Look upon the same Man, planting a vine, or an apple tree, or a fig tree, or some other tree.\n\n38. So doth God in Heaven sow Immortality in the Earth, Change in the whole Life and Motion.\n\n39. And these things are not many, but few, and easily numbered; for they are all but four, God and Generation, in which are all things.\n\nThe End of the Seventeenth Book,  \nTO ASCLEPIUS, TO BE TRULY WISE.  \n(End of the Divine Pymander--1650)\n"}
 {"text": "# THE KYBALION\n\n**By The Three Initiates.**\n\n## Contents\n\n- Introduction\n- Chapter 1. The Hermetic Philosophy\n- Chapter 2. The Seven Hermetic Principles\n- Chapter 3. Mental Transmutation\n- Chapter 4. The All\n- Chapter 5. The Mental Universe\n- Chapter 6. The Divine Paradox\n- Chapter 7. \"The All\" In All\n- Chapter 8. Planes Of Correspondence\n- Chapter 9. Vibration\n- Chapter 10. Polarity\n- Chapter 11. Rhythm\n- Chapter 12. Causation\n- Chapter 13. Gender\n- Chapter 14. Mental Gender\n- Chapter 15. Hermetic Axioms\n\n## Introduction\n\nWe take great pleasure in presenting to the attention of students and investigators of the Secret Doctrines this little work based upon the world-old Hermetic Teachings. There has been so little written upon this subject, not withstanding the countless references to the Teachings in the many works upon occultism, that the many earnest searchers after the Arcane Truths will doubtless welcome the appearance of this present volume.\n\nThe purpose of this work is not the enunciation of any special philosophy or doctrine, but rather is to give to the students a statement of the Truth that will serve to reconcile the many bits of occult knowledge that they may have acquired, but which are apparently opposed to each other and which often serve to discourage and disgust the beginner in the study. Our intent is not to erect a new Temple of Knowledge, but rather to place in the hands of the student a Master-Key with which he may open the many inner doors in the Temple of Mystery through the main portals he has already entered.\n\nThere is no portion of the occult teachings possessed by the world which have been so closely guarded as the fragments of the Hermetic Teachings which have come down to us over the tens of centuries which have elapsed since the lifetime of its great founder, Hermes Trismegistus, the \"scribe of the gods,\" who dwelt in old Egypt in the days when the present race of men was in its infancy. Contemporary with Abraham, and, if the legends be true, an instructor of that venerable sage, Hermes was, and is, the Great Central Sun of Occultism, whose rays have served to illumine the countless teachings which have been promulgated since his time. All the fundamental and basic teachings embedded in the esoteric teachings of every race may be traced back to Hermes. Even the most ancient teachings of India undoubtedly have their roots in the original Hermetic Teachings.\n\nFrom the land of the Ganges many advanced occultists wandered to the land of Egypt, and sat at the feet of the Master. From him they obtained the Master-Key which explained and reconciled their divergent views, and thus the Secret Doctrine was firmly established. From other lands also came the learned ones, all of whom regarded Hermes as the Master of Masters, and his influence was so great that in spite of the many wanderings from the path on the part of the centuries of teachers in these different lands, there may still be found a certain basic resemblance and correspondence which underlies the many and often quite divergent theories entertained and taught by the occultists of these different lands today. The student of Comparative Religions will be able to perceive the influence of the Hermetic Teachings in every religion worthy of the name, now known to man, whether it be a dead religion or one in full vigor in our own times. There is always certain correspondence in spite of the contradictory features, and the Hermetic Teachings act as the Great Reconciler.\n\nThe lifework of Hermes seems to have been in the direction of planting the great Seed-Truth which has grown and blossomed in so many strange forms, rather than to establish a school of philosophy which would dominate, the world's thought. But, nevertheless, the original truths taught by him have been kept intact in their original purity by a few men each age, who, refusing great numbers of half-developed students and followers, followed the Hermetic custom and reserved their truth for the few who were ready to comprehend and master it. From lip to ear the truth has been handed down among the few. There have always been a few Initiates in each generation, in the various lands of the earth, who kept alive the sacred flame of the Hermetic Teachings, and such have always been willing to use their lamps to re-light the lesser lamps of the outside world, when the light of truth grew dim, and clouded by reason of neglect, and when the wicks became clogged with foreign matter. There were always a few to tend faithfully the altar of the Truth, upon which was kept alight the Perpetual Lamp of Wisdom. These men devoted their lives to the labor of love which the poet has so well stated in his lines:\n\n\"O, let not the flame die out! Cherished age after age  \nin its dark cavern - in its holy temples cherished. Fed  \nby pure ministers of love - let not the flame die out!\"\n\nThese men have never sought popular approval, nor numbers of followers. They are indifferent to these things, for they know how few there are in each generation who are ready for the truth, or who would recognize it if it were presented to them. They reserve the \"strong meat for men,\" while others furnish the \"milk for babes.\" They reserve their pearls of wisdom for the few elect, who recognize their value and who wear them in their crowns, instead of casting them before the materialistic vulgar swine, who would trample them in the mud and mix them with their disgusting mental food. But still these men have never forgotten or overlooked the original teachings of Hermes, regarding the passing on of the words of truth to those ready to receive it, which teaching is stated in The Kybalion as follows: \"Where fall the footsteps of the Master, the ears of those ready for his Teaching open wide.\" And again: \"When the ears of the student are ready to hear, then cometh the lips to fill them with wisdom.\" But their customary attitude has always been strictly in accordance with the other Hermetic aphorism, also in The Kybalion: \"The lips of Wisdom are closed, except to the ears of Understanding.\"\n\nThere are those who have criticized this attitude of the Hermetists, and who have claimed that they did not manifest the proper spirit in their policy of seclusion and reticence. But a moment's glance back over the pages of history will show the wisdom of the Masters, who knew the folly of attempting to teach to the world that which it was neither ready or willing to receive. The Hermetists have never sought to be martyrs, and have, instead, sat silently aside with a pitying smile on their closed lips, while the \"heathen raged noisily about them\" in their customary amusement of putting to death and torture the honest but misguided enthusiasts who imagined that they could force upon a race of barbarians the truth capable of being understood only by the elect who had advanced along The Path.\n\nAnd the spirit of persecution has not as yet died out in the land. There are certain Hermetic Teachings, which, if publicly promulgated, would bring down upon the teachers a great cry of scorn and revilement from the multitude, who would again raise the cry of \"Crucify! Crucify.\"\n\nIn this little work we have endeavored to give you an idea of the fundamental teachings of The Kybalion, striving to give you the working Principles, leaving you to apply therm yourselves, rather than attempting to work out the teaching in detail. If you are a true student, you will be able to work out and apply these Principles - if not, then you must develop yourself into one, for otherwise the Hermetic Teachings will be as \"words, words, words\" to you.\n\nTHE THREE INITIATES.\n\n#\n\n## Chapter 1. The Hermetic Philosophy\n\n***\"The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of Understanding\" - The Kybalion.***\n\nFrom old Egypt have come the fundamental esoteric and occult teachings which have so strongly influenced the philosophies of all races, nations and peoples, for several thousand years. Egypt, the home of the Pyramids and the Sphinx, was the birthplace of the Hidden Wisdom and Mystic Teachings. From her Secret Doctrine all nations have borrowed. India, Persia, Chaldea, Medea, China, Japan, Assyria, ancient Greece and Rome, and other ancient countries partook liberally at the feast of knowledge which the Hierophants and Masters of the Land of Isis so freely provided for those who came prepared to partake of the great store of Mystic and Occult Lore which the masterminds of that ancient land had gathered together.\n\nIn ancient Egypt dwelt the great Adepts and Masters who have never been surpassed, and who seldom have been equaled, during the centuries that have taken their processional flight since the days of the Great Hermes. In Egypt was located the Great Lodge of Lodges of the Mystics. At the doors of her Temples entered the Neophytes who afterward, as Hierophants, Adepts, and Masters, traveled to the four corners of the earth, carrying with them the precious knowledge which they were ready, anxious, and willing to pass on to those who were ready to receive the same. All students of the Occult recognize the debt that they owe to these venerable Masters of that ancient land.\n\nBut among these great Masters of Ancient Egypt there once dwelt one of whom Masters hailed as \"The Master of Masters.\" This man, if \"man\" indeed he was, dwelt in Egypt in the earliest days. He was known as Hermes Trismegistus. He was the father of the Occult Wisdom; the founder of Astrology; the discoverer of Alchemy. The details of his life story are lost to history, owing to the lapse of the years, though several of the ancient countries disputed with each other in their claims to the honor of having furnished his birthplace - and this thousands of years ago. The date of his sojourn in Egypt, in that his last incarnation on this planet, is not now known, but it has been fixed at the early days of the oldest dynasties of Egypt - long before the days of Moses. The best authorities regard him as a contemporary of Abraham, and some of the Jewish traditions go so far as to claim that Abraham acquired a portion of his mystic knowledge from Hermes himself.\n\nAs the years rolled by after his passing from this plane of life (tradition recording that he lived three hundred years in the flesh), the Egyptians deified Hermes, and made him one of their gods, under the name of Thoth. Years after, the people of Ancient Greece also made him one of their many gods - calling him \"Hermes, the god of Wisdom.\" The Egyptians revered his memory for many centuries-yes, tens of centuries -  calling him \"the Scribe of the Gods,\" and bestowing upon him, distinctively, his ancient title, \"Trismegistus,\" which means \"the thrice-great\"; \"the great-great\"; \"the greatest-great\"; *etc.* In all the ancient lands, the name of Hermes Trismegistus was revered, the name being synonymous with the \"Fount of Wisdom.\"\n\nEven to this day, we use the term \"hermetic\" in the sense of \"secret\"; \"sealed so that nothing can escape\"; etc., and this by reason of the fact that the followers of Hermes always observed the principle of secrecy in their teachings. They did not believe in \"casting pearls before swine,\" but rather held to the teaching \"milk for babes\"; \"meat for strong men,\" both of which maxims are familiar to readers of the Christian scriptures, but both of which had been used by the Egyptians for centuries before the Christian era.\n\nAnd this policy of careful dissemination of the truth has always characterized the Hermetics, even unto the present day. The Hermetic Teachings are to be found in all lands, among all religions, but never identified with any particular country, nor with any particular religious sect. This because of the warning of the ancient teachers against allowing the Secret Doctrine to become crystallized into a creed. The wisdom of this caution is apparent to all students of history. The ancient occultism of India and Persia degenerated, and was largely lost, owing to the fact that the teachers became priests, and so mixed theology with the philosophy, the result being that the occultism of India and Persia has been gradually lost amidst the mass of religious superstition, cults, creeds and \"gods.\" So it was with Ancient Greece and Rome. So it was with the Hermetic Teachings of the Gnostics and Early Christians, which were lost at the time of Constantine, whose iron hand smothered philosophy with the blanket of theology, losing to the Christian Church that which was its very essence and spirit, and causing it to grope throughout several centuries before it found the way back to its ancient faith, the indications apparent to all careful observers in this Twentieth Century being that the Church is now struggling to get back to its ancient mystic teachings.\n\nBut there were always a few faithful souls who kept alive the Flame, tending it carefully, and not allowing its light to become extinguished. And thanks to these staunch hearts, and fearless minds, we have the truth still with us. But it is not found in books, to any great extent. It has been passed along from Master to Student; from Initiate to Hierophant; from lip to ear. When it was written down at all, its meaning was veiled in terms of alchemy and astrology so that only those possessing the key could read it aright. This was made necessary in order to avoid the persecutions of the theologians of the Middle Ages, who fought the Secret Doctrine with fire and sword; stake, gibbet and cross. Even to this day there will be found but few reliable books on the Hermetic Philosophy, although there are countless references to it in many books written on various phases of Occultism. And yet, the Hermetic Philosophy is the only Master Key which will open all the doors of the Occult Teachings!\n\nIn the early days, there was a compilation of certain Basic Hermetic Doctrines, passed on from teacher to student, which was known as \"THE KYBALION,\" the exact significance and meaning of the term having been lost for several centuries. This teaching, however, is known to many to whom it has descended, from mouth to ear, on and on throughout the centuries. Its precepts have never been written down, or printed, so far as we know. It was merely a collection of maxims, axioms, and precepts, which were non-understandable to outsiders, but which were readily understood by students, after the axioms, maxims, and precepts had been explained and exemplified by the Hermetic Initiates to their Neophytes. These teachings really constituted the basic principles of \"The Art of Hermetic Alchemy,\" which, contrary to the general belief, dealt in the mastery of Mental Forces, rather than Material Elements-the Transmutation of one kind of Mental Vibrations into others, instead of the changing of one kind of metal into another. The legends of the \"Philosopher's Stone\" which would turn base metal into Gold, was an allegory relating to Hermetic Philosophy, readily understood by all students of true Hermeticism.\n\nIn this little book, of which this is the First Lesson, we invite our students to examine into the Hermetic Teachings, as set forth in THE KYBALION, and as explained by ourselves, humble students of the Teachings, who, while bearing the title of Initiates, are still students at the feet of HERMES, the Master. We herein give you many of the maxims, axioms and precepts of THE KYBALION, accompanied by explanations and illustrations which we deem likely to render the teachings more easily comprehended by the modern student, particularly as the original text is purposely veiled in obscure terms.\n\nThe original maxims, axioms, and precepts of THE KYBALION are printed herein, in italics, the proper credit being given. Our own work is printed in the regular way, in the body of the work.\n\nWe trust that the many students to whom we now offer this little work will derive as much benefit from the study of its pages as have the many who have gone on before, treading the same Path to Mastery throughout the centuries that have passed since the times of HERMES TRISMEGISTUS - the Master of Masters - the Great-Great. In the words of \"THE KYBALION\":\n\n*\"Where fall the footsteps of the Master, the ears of those ready for his Teaching open wide.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\n*\"When the ears of the student are ready to hear, then cometh the lips to fill them with Wisdom.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nSo that according to the Teachings, the passage of this book to those ready for the instruction will attract the attention of such as are prepared to receive the Teaching.\n\nAnd, likewise, when the pupil is ready to receive the truth, then will this little book come to him, or her. Such is The Law.\n\nThe Hermetic Principle of Cause and Effect, in its aspect of The Law of Attraction, will bring lips and ear together - pupil and book in company. So mote it be!\n\n## Chapter 2. The Seven Hermetic Principles\n\n*\"The Principles of Truth are Seven; he who knows these, understandingly, possesses the Magic Key before whose touch all the Doors of the Temple fly open.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThe Seven Hermetic Principles, upon which the entire Hermetic Philosophy is based, are as follows:\n\n1. The Principle of Mentalism.  \n2. The Principle of Correspondence.  \n3. The Principle of Vibration.  \n4. The Principle of Polarity.  \n5. The Principle of Rhythm.  \n6. The Principle of Cause and Effect.  \n7. The Principle of Gender.\n\nThese Seven Principles will be discussed and explained as we proceed with these lessons. A short explanation of each, however, may as well be given at this point.\n\n**1. The Principle of Mentalism**\n\n*\"THE ALL IS MIND; The Universe is Mental.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThis Principle embodies the truth that \"All is Mind.\" It explains that THE ALL (which is the Substantial Reality underlying all the outward manifestations and appearances which we know under the terms of \"The Material Universe\"; the \"Phenomena of Life\"; \"Matter\"; \"Energy\"; and, in short, all that is apparent to our material senses) is SPIRIT which in itself is UNKNOWABLE and UNDEFINABLE, but which may be considered and thought of as AN UNIVERSAL, INFINITE, LIVING MIND. It also explains that all the phenomenal world or universe is simply a Mental Creation of THE ALL, subject to the Laws of Created Things, and that the universe, as a whole, and in its parts or units, has its existence in the Mind of THE ALL, in which Mind we \"live and move and have our being.\" This Principle, by establishing the Mental Nature of the Universe, easily explains all of the varied mental and psychic phenomena that occupy such a large portion of the public attention, and which, without such explanation, are non-understandable and defy scientific treatment. An understanding of this great Hermetic Principle of Mentalism enables the individual to readily grasp the laws of the Mental Universe, and to apply the same to his well-being and advancement. The Hermetic Student is enabled to apply intelligently the great Mental Laws, instead of using them in a haphazard manner. With the Master-Key in his possession, the student may unlock the many doors of the mental and psychic temple of knowledge, and enter the same freely and intelligently. This Principle explains the true nature of \"Energy,\" \"Power,\" and \"Matter,\" and why and how all these are subordinate to the Mastery of Mind. One of the old Hermetic Masters wrote, long ages ago: \"He who grasps the truth of the Mental Nature of the Universe is well advanced on The Path to Mastery.\" And these words are as true today as at the time they were first written. Without this Master-Key, Mastery is impossible, and the student knocks in vain at the many doors of The Temple.\n\n**2. The Principle of Correspondence**\n\n*\"As above, so below; as below, so above.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThis Principle embodies the truth that there is always a Correspondence between the laws and phenomena of the various planes of Being and Life. The old Hermetic axiom ran in these words: \"As above, so below; as below, so above.\" And the grasping of this Principle gives one the means of solving many a dark paradox, and hidden secret of Nature. There are planes beyond our knowing, but when we apply the Principle of Correspondence to them we are able to understand much that would otherwise be unknowable to us. This Principle is of universal application and manifestation, on the various planes of the material, mental, and spiritual universe - it is an Universal Law. The ancient Hermetists considered this Principle as one of the most important mental instruments by which man was able to pry aside the obstacles which hid from view the Unknown. Its use even tore aside the Veil of Isis to the extent that a glimpse of the face of the goddess might be caught. Just as a knowledge of the Principles of Geometry enables man to measure distant suns and their movements, while seated in his observatory, so a knowledge of the Principle of Correspondence enables Man to reason intelligently from the Known to the Unknown. Studying the monad, he understands the archangel.\n\n**3. The Principle of Vibration**\n\n*\"Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThis Principle embodies the truth that \"everything is in motion\"; \"everything vibrates\"; \"nothing is at rest\"; facts which Modern Science endorses, and which each new scientific discovery tends to verify. And yet this Hermetic Principle was enunciated thousands of years ago, by the Masters of Ancient Egypt. This Principle explains that the differences between different manifestations of Matter, Energy, Mind, and even Spirit, result largely from varying rates of Vibration. From THE ALL, which is Pure Spirit, down to the grossest form of Matter, all is in vibration - the higher the vibration, the higher the position in the scale. The vibration of Spirit is at such an infinite rate of intensity and rapidity that it is practically at rest - just as a rapidly moving wheel seems to be motionless. And at the other end of the scale, there are gross forms of matter whose vibrations are so low as to seem at rest. Between these poles, there are millions upon millions of varying degrees of vibration. From corpuscle and electron, atom and molecule, to worlds and universes, everything is in vibratory motion. This is also true on the planes of energy and force (which are but varying degrees of vibration); and also on the mental planes (whose states depend upon vibrations); and even on to the spiritual planes. An understanding of this Principle, with the appropriate formulas, enables Hermetic students to control their own mental vibrations as well as those of others. The Masters also apply this Principle to the conquering of Natural phenomena, in various ways. \"He who understands the Principle of Vibration, has grasped the scepter of power,\" says one of the old writers.\n\n**4. The Principle of Polarity**\n\n*\"Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThis Principle embodies the truth that \"everything is dual\"; \"everything has two poles\"; \"everything has its pair of opposites,\" all of which were old Hermetic axioms. It explains the old paradoxes, that have perplexed so many, which have been stated as follows: \"Thesis and antithesis are identical in nature, but different in degree\"; \"opposites are the same, differing only in degree\"; \"the pairs of opposites may be reconciled\"; \"extremes meet\"; \"everything is and isn't, at the same time\"; \"all truths are but half-truths\"; \"every truth is half-false\"; \"there are two sides to everything,\" etc., etc., *etc.* It explains that in everything there are two poles, or opposite aspects, and that \"opposites\" are really only the two extremes of the same thing, with many varying degrees between them. To illustrate: Heat and Cold, although \"opposites,\" are really the same thing, the differences consisting merely of degrees of the same thing. Look at your thermometer and see if you can discover where \"heat\" terminates and \"cold\" begins! There is no such thing as \"absolute heat\" or \"absolute cold\" - the two terms \"heat\" and \"cold\" simply indicate varying degrees of the same thing, and that \"same thing\" which manifests as \"heat\" and \"cold\" is merely a form, variety, and rate of Vibration. So \"heat\" and \"cold\" are simply the \"two poles\" of that which we call \"Heat\" - and the phenomena attendant thereupon are manifestations of the Principle of Polarity. The same Principle manifests in the case of \"Light and Darkness,\" which are the same thing, the difference consisting of varying degrees between the two poles of the phenomena. Where does \"darkness\" leave off, and \"light\" begin? What is the difference between \"Large and Small\"? Between \"Hard and Soft\"? Between \"Black and White\"? Between \"Sharp and Dull\"? Between \"Noise and Quiet\"? Between \"High and Low\"? Between \"Positive and Negative\"? The Principle of Polarity explains these paradoxes, and no other Principle can supersede it. The same Principle operates on the Mental Plane. Let us take a radical and extreme example - that of \"Love and Hate,\" two mental states apparently totally different. And yet there are degrees of Hate and degrees of Love, and a middle point in which we use the terms \"Like or Dislike,\" which shade into each other so gradually that sometimes we are at a loss to know whether we \"like\" or \"dislike\" or \"neither.\" And all are simply degrees of the same thing, as you will see if you will but think a moment. And, more than this (and considered of more importance by the Hermetists), it is possible to change the vibrations of Hate to the vibrations of Love, in one's own mind, and in the minds of others. Many of you, who read these lines, have had personal experiences of the involuntary rapid transition from Love to Hate, and the reverse, in your own case and that of others. And you will therefore realize the possibility of this being accomplished by the use of the Will, by means of the Hermetic formulas. \"Good and Evil\" are but the poles of the same thing, and the Hermetist understands the art of transmuting Evil into Good, by means of an application of the Principle of Polarity. In short, the \"Art of Polarization\" becomes a phase of \"Mental Alchemy\" known and practiced by the ancient and modern Hermetic Masters. An understanding of the Principle will enable one to change his own Polarity, as well as that of others, if he will devote the time and study necessary to master the art.\n\n**5. The Principle of Rhythm**\n\n*\"Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThis Principle embodies the truth that in everything there is manifested a measured motion, to and fro; a flow and inflow; a swing backward and forward; a pendulum-like movement; a tide-like ebb and flow; a high-tide and low-tide; between the two poles which exist in accordance with the Principle of Polarity described a moment ago. There is always an action and a reaction; an advance and a retreat; a rising and a sinking. This is in the affairs of the Universe, suns, worlds, men, animals, mind, energy, and matter. This law is manifest in the creation and destruction of worlds; in the rise and fall of nations; in the life of all things; and finally in the mental states of Man (and it is with this latter that the Hermetists find the understanding of the Principle most important). The Hermetists have grasped this Principle, finding its universal application, and have also discovered certain means to overcome its effects in themselves by the use of the appropriate formulas and methods. They apply the Mental Law of Neutralization. They cannot annul the Principle, or cause it to cease its operation, but they have learned how to escape its effects upon themselves to a certain degree depending upon the Mastery of the Principle. They have learned how to USE it, instead of being USED BY it. In this and similar methods, consist the Art of the Hermetists. The Master of Hermetics polarizes himself at the point at which he desires to rest, and then neutralizes the Rhythmic swing of the pendulum which would tend to carry him to the other pole. All individuals who have attained any degree of Self-Mastery do this to a certain degree, more or less unconsciously, but the Master does this consciously, and by the use of his Will, and attains a degree of Poise and Mental Firmness almost impossible of belief on the part of the masses who are swung backward and forward like a pendulum. This Principle and that of Polarity have been closely studied by the Hermetists, and the methods of counteracting, neutralizing, and USING them form an important part of the Hermetic Mental Alchemy.\n\n**6. The Principle of Cause and Effect**\n\n*\"Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThis Principle embodies the fact that there is a Cause for every Effect; an Effect from every Cause. It explains that: \"Everything Happens according to Law\"; that nothing ever \"merely happens\"; that there is no such thing as Chance; that while there are various planes of Cause and Effect, the higher dominating the lower planes, still nothing ever entirely escapes the Law. The Hermetists understand the art and methods of rising above the ordinary plane of Cause and Effect, to a certain degree, and by mentally rising to a higher plane they become Causers instead of Effects. The masses of people are carried along, obedient to environment; the wills and desires of others stronger than themselves; heredity; suggestion; and other outward causes moving them about like pawns on the Chessboard of Life. But the Masters, rising to the plane above, dominate their moods, characters, qualities, and powers, as well as the environment surrounding them, and become Movers instead of pawns. They help to PLAY THE GAME OF LIFE, instead of being played and moved about by other wills and environment. They USE the Principle instead of being its tools. The Masters obey the Causation of the higher planes, but they help to RULE on their own plane. In this statement there is condensed a wealth of Hermetic knowledge - let him read who can.\n\n**7. The Principle of Gender**\n\n*\"Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThis Principle embodies the truth that there is GENDER manifested in everything - the Masculine and Feminine Principles ever at work. This is true not only of the Physical Plane, but of the Mental and even the Spiritual Planes. On the Physical Plane, the Principle manifests as SEX, on the higher planes it takes higher forms, but the Principle is ever the same. No creation, physical, mental or spiritual, is possible without this Principle. An understanding of its laws will throw light on many a subject that has perplexed the minds of men. The Principle of Gender works ever in the direction of generation, regeneration, and creation. Everything, and every person, contains the two Elements or Principles, or this great Principle, within it, him or her. Every Male thing has the Female Element also; every Female contains also the Male Principle. If you would understand the philosophy of Mental and Spiritual Creation, Generation, and Regeneration, you must understand and study this Hermetic Principle. It contains the solution of many mysteries of Life. We caution you that this Principle has no reference to the many base, pernicious and degrading lustful theories, teachings and practices, which are taught under fanciful titles, and which are a prostitution of the great natural principle of Gender. Such base revivals of the ancient infamous forms of Phallicism tend to ruin mind, body and soul, and the Hermetic Philosophy has ever sounded the warning note against these degraded teachings which tend toward lust, licentiousness, and perversion of Nature's principles. If you seek such teachings, you must go elsewhere for them - Hermeticism contains nothing for you along these lines. To the pure, all things are pure; to the base, all things are base.\n\n## Chapter 3. Mental Transmutation\n\n*\"Mind (as well as metals and elements) may be transmuted, from state to state; degree to degree; condition to condition; pole to pole; vibration to vibration. True Hermetic Transmutation is a Mental Art.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nAs we have stated, the Hermetists were the original alchemists, astrologers, and psychologists, Hermes having been the founder of these schools of thought. From astrology has grown modern astronomy; from alchemy has grown modern chemistry; from the mystic psychology has grown the modern psychology of the schools. But it must not be supposed that the ancients were ignorant of that which the modern schools suppose to be their exclusive and special property. The records engraved on the stones of Ancient Egypt show conclusively that the ancients had a full comprehensive knowledge of astronomy, the very building of the Pyramids showing the connection between their design and the study of astronomical science. Nor were they ignorant of Chemistry, for the fragments of the ancient writings show that they were acquainted with the chemical properties of things; in fact, the ancient theories regarding physics are being slowly verified by the latest discoveries of modern science, notably those relating to the constitution of matter. Nor must it be supposed that they were ignorant of the so-called modern discoveries in psychology - on the contrary, the Egyptians were especially skilled in the science of Psychology, particularly in the branches that the modern schools ignore, but which, nevertheless, are being uncovered under the name of \"psychic science\" which is perplexing the psychologists of to-day, and making them reluctantly admit that \"there may be something in it after all.\"\n\nThe truth is, that beneath the material chemistry, astronomy and psychology (that is, the psychology in its phase of \"brain-action\") the ancients possessed a knowledge of transcendental astronomy, called astrology; of transcendental chemistry, called alchemy; of transcendental psychology, called mystic psychology. They possessed the Inner Knowledge as well as the Outer Knowledge, the latter alone being possessed by modern scientists. Among the many secret branches of knowledge possessed by the Hermetists, was that known as Mental Transmutation, which forms the subject matter of this lesson.\n\n\"Transmutation\" is a term usually employed to designate the ancient art of the transmutation of metals - particularly of the base metals into gold. The word \"Transmute\" means \"to change from one nature, form, or substance, into another; to transform\" (Webster). And accordingly, \"Mental Transmutation\" means the art of changing and transforming mental states, forms, and conditions, into others. So you may see that Mental Transmutation is the \"Art of Mental Chemistry,\" if you like the term - a form of practical Mystic Psychology.\n\nBut this means far more than appears on the surface. Transmutation, Alchemy, or Chemistry on the Mental Plane is important enough in its effects, to be sure, and if the art stopped there it would still be one of the most important branches of study known to man. But this is only the beginning. Let us see why!\n\nThe first of the Seven Hermetic Principles is the Principle of Mentalism, the axiom of which is \"THE ALL is Mind; the Universe is Mental,\" which means that the Underlying Reality of the Universe is Mind; and the Universe itself is Mental - that is, \"existing in the Mind of THE ALL.\" We shall consider this Principle in succeeding lessons, but let us see the effect of the principle if it be assumed to be true.\n\nIf the Universe is Mental in its nature, then Mental Transmutation must be the art of CHANGING THE CONDITIONS OF THE UNIVERSE, along the lines of Matter, Force and mind. So you see, therefore, that Mental Transmutation is really the \"Magic\" of which the ancient; writers had so much to say in their mystical works, and about which they gave so few practical instructions. If All be Mental, then the art which enables one to transmute mental conditions must render the Master the controller of material conditions as well as those ordinarily called \"mental.\"\n\nAs a matter of fact, none but advanced Mental Alchemists have been able to attain the degree of power necessary to control the grosser physical conditions, such as the control of the elements of Nature; the production or cessation of tempests; the production and cessation of earthquakes and other great physical phenomena. But that such men have existed, and do exist today, is a matter of earnest belief to all advanced occultists of all schools. That the Masters exist, and have these powers, the best teachers assure their students, having had experiences which justify them in such belief and statements. These Masters do not make public exhibitions of their powers, but seek seclusion from the crowds of men, in order to better work their may along the Path of Attainment. We mention their existence, at this point, merely to call your attention to the fact that their power is entirely Mental, and operates along the lines of the higher Mental Transmutation, under the Hermetic Principle of Mentalism.\n\n*\"The Universe is Mental\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nBut students and Hermetists of lesser degree than Masters - the Initiates and Teachers - are able to freely work along the Mental Plane, in Mental Transmutation. In fact all that we call \"psychic phenomena,\"; \"mental influence\"; \"mental science\"; \"new-thought phenomena,\" etc., operates along the same general lines, for there is but one principle involved, no matter by what name the phenomena be called.\n\nThe student and practitioner of Mental Transmutation works among the Mental Plane, transmuting mental conditions, states, etc., into others, according to various formulas, more or less efficacious. The various \"treatments,\" \"affirmations,\" \"denials\" etc., of the schools of mental science are but formulas, often quite imperfect and unscientific, of The Hermetic Art. The majority of modern practitioners are quite ignorant compared to the ancient masters, for they lack the fundamental knowledge upon which the work is based.\n\nNot only may the mental states, etc., of one's self be changed or transmuted by Hermetic Methods; but also the states of others may be, and are, constantly transmuted in the same way, usually unconsciously, but often consciously by some understanding the laws and principles, in cases where the people affected are not informed of the principles of self-protection. And more than this, as many students and practitioners of modern mental science know, every material condition depending upon the minds of other people may be changed or transmuted in accordance with the earnest desire, will, and \"treatments\" of person desiring changed conditions of life. The public are so generally informed regarding these things at present, that we do not deem it necessary to mention the same at length, our purpose at this point being merely to show the Hermetic Principle and Art underlying all of these various forms of practice, good and evil, for the force can be used in opposite directions according to the Hermetic Principles of Polarity.\n\nIn this little book we shall state the basic principles of Mental Transmutation, that all who read may grasp the Underlying Principles, and thus possess the Master-Key that will unlock the many doors of the Principle of Polarity.\n\nWe shall now proceed to a consideration of the first of the Hermetic Seven Principles - the Principle of Mentalism, in which is explained the truth that \"THE ALL is Mind; the Universe is Mental,\" in the words of The Kybalion. We ask the close attention, and careful study of this great Principle, on the part of our students, for it is really the Basic Principle of the whole Hermetic Philosophy, and of the Hermetic Art of Mental Transmutation.\n\n## Chapter 4. The All\n\n*\"Under, and back of, the Universe of Time, Space and Change, is ever to be found The Substantial Reality - the Fundamental Truth.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\n\"Substance\" means: \"that which underlies all outward manifestations; the essence; the essential reality; the thing in itself,\" *etc.* \"Substantial\" means: \"actually existing; being the essential element; being real,\" *etc.* \"Reality\" means: \"the state of being real; true, enduring; valid; fixed; permanent; actual,\" *etc.*\n\nUnder and behind all outward appearances or manifestations, there must always be a Substantial Reality. This is the Law. Man considering the Universe, of which he is a unit, sees nothing but change in matter, forces, and mental states. He sees that nothing really IS, but that everything is BECOMING and CHANGING. Nothing stands still-everything is being born, growing, dying-the very instant a thing reaches its height, it begins to decline - the law of rhythm is in constant operation - there is no reality, enduring quality, fixity, or substantiality in anything -  nothing is permanent but Change. He sees all things evolving from other things, and resolving into other things - constant action and reaction; inflow and outflow; building up and tearing down; creation and destruction; birth, growth and death. Nothing endures but Change. And if he be a thinking man, he realizes that all of these changing things must be but outward appearances or manifestations of some Underlying Power - some Substantial Reality.\n\nAll thinkers, in all lands and in all times, have assumed the necessity for postulating the existence of this Substantial Reality. All philosophies worthy of the name have been based upon this thought. Men have given to this Substantial Reality many names-some have called it by the term of Deity (under many titles). Others have called it \"The Infinite and Eternal Energy\" others have tried to call it \"Matter\" - but all have acknowledged its existence. It is self-evident it needs no argument.\n\nIn these lessons we have followed the example of some of the world's greatest thinkers, both ancient and modern - the Hermetic. Masters - and have called this Underlying Power - this Substantial Reality - by the Hermetic name of \"THE ALL,\" which term we consider the most comprehensive of the many terms applied by Man to THAT which transcends names and terms.\n\nWe accept and teach the view of the great Hermetic thinkers of all times, as well as of those illumined souls who have reached higher planes of being, both of whom assert that the inner nature of THE ALL is UNKNOWABLE. This must be so, for naught by THE ALL itself can comprehend its own nature and being.\n\nThe Hermetists believe and teach that THE ALL, \"in itself,\" is and must ever be UNKNOWABLE. They regard all the theories, guesses and speculations of the theologians and metaphysicians regarding the inner nature of THE ALL, as but the childish efforts of mortal minds to grasp the secret of the Infinite. Such efforts have always failed and will always fail, from the very nature of the task. One pursuing such inquiries travels around and around in the labyrinth of thought, until he is lost to all sane reasoning, action or conduct, and is utterly unfitted for the work of life. He is like the squirrel which frantically runs around and around the circling treadmill wheel of his cage, traveling ever and yet reaching nowhere - at the end a prisoner still, and standing just where he started.\n\nAnd still more presumptuous are those who attempt to ascribe to THE ALL the personality, qualities, properties, characteristics and attributes of themselves, ascribing to THE ALL the human emotions, feelings, and characteristics, even down to the pettiest qualities of mankind, such as jealousy, susceptibility to flattery and praise, desire for offerings and worship, and all the other survivals from the days of the childhood of the race. Such ideas are not worthy of grown men and women, and are rapidly being discarded.\n\n(At this point, it may be proper for me to state that we make a distinction between Religion and Theology - between Philosophy and Metaphysics. Religion, to us, means that intuitional realization of the existence of THE ALL, and one's relationship to it; while Theology means the attempts of men to ascribe personality, qualities, and characteristics to it; their theories regarding its affairs, will, desires, plans, and designs, and their assumption of the office of '' middle-men'' between THE ALL and the people. Philosophy, to us, means the inquiry after knowledge of things knowable and thinkable; while Metaphysics means the attempt to carry the inquiry over and beyond the boundaries and into regions unknowable and unthinkable, and with the same tendency as that of Theology. And consequently, both Religion and Philosophy mean to us things having roots in Reality, while Theology and Metaphysics seem like broken reeds, rooted in the quicksands of ignorance, and affording naught but the most insecure support for the mind or soul of Man. we do not insist upon our students accepting these definitions - we mention them merely to show our position. At any rate, you shall hear very little about Theology and Metaphysics in these lessons.)\n\nBut while the essential nature of THE ALL is Unknowable, there are certain truths connected with its existence which the human mind finds itself compelled to accept. And an examination of these reports form a proper subject of inquiry, particularly as they agree with the reports of the Illumined on higher planes. And to this inquiry we now invite you.\n\n*\"THAT which is the Fundamental Truth - the Substantial Reality - is beyond true naming, but the Wise Men call it THE ALL.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\n*\"In its Essence, THE ALL is UNKNOWABLE.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\n*\"But, the report of Reason must be hospitably received, and treated with respect.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThe human reason, whose reports we must accept so long as we think at all, informs us as follows regarding THE ALL, and that without attempting to remove the veil of the Unknowable:\n\n(1) THE ALL must be ALL that REALLY IS. There can be nothing existing outside of THE ALL, else THE ALL would not be THE ALL.\n\n(2) THE ALL must be INFINITE, for there is nothing else to define, confine, bound, limit; or restrict THE ALL. It must be Infinite in Time, or ETERNAL, - it must have always continuously existed, for there is nothing else to have ever created it, and something can never evolve from nothing, and if it had ever \"not been,\" even for a moment, it would not \"be\" now, - it must continuously exist forever, for there is nothing to destroy it, and it can never \"not-be,\" even for a moment, because something can never become nothing. It must be Infinite in Space - it must be Everywhere, for there is no place outside of THE ALL - it cannot be otherwise than continuous in Space, without break, cessation, separation, or interruption, for there is nothing to break, separate, or interrupt its continuity, and nothing with which to \"fill in the gaps.\" It must be Infinite in Power, or Absolute, for there is nothing to limit, restrict, restrain, confine, disturb or condition it - it is subject to no other Power, for there is no other Power.\n\n(3) THE ALL must be IMMUTABLE, or not subject to change in its real nature, for there is nothing to work changes upon it nothing into which it could change, nor from which it could have changed. It cannot be added to nor subtracted from; increased nor diminished; nor become greater or lesser in any respect whatsoever. It must have always been, and must always remain, just what it is now - THE ALL - there has never been, is not now, and never will be, anything else into which it can change.\n\nTHE ALL being Infinite, Absolute, Eternal and Unchangeable it must follow that anything finite, changeable, fleeting, and conditioned cannot be THE ALL. And as there is Nothing outside of THE ALL, in Reality, then any and all such finite things must be as Nothing in Reality. Now do not become befogged, nor frightened - we are not trying to lead you into the Christian Science field under cover of Hermetic Philosophy. There is a Reconciliation of this apparently contradictory state of affairs. Be patient, we will reach it in time.\n\nWe see around us that which is called \"Matter,\" which forms the physical foundation for all forms. Is THE ALL merely Matter? Not at all! Matter cannot manifest Life or Mind, and as Life and Mind are manifested in the Universe, THE ALL cannot be Matter, for nothing rises higher than its own source - nothing is ever manifested in an effect that is not in the cause - nothing is evolved as a consequent that is not involved as an antecedent. And then Modern Science informs us that there is really no such thing as Matter - that what we call Matter is merely \"interrupted energy or force,\" that is, energy or force at a low rate of vibration. As a recent writer has said \"Matter has melted into Mystery.\" Even Material Science has abandoned the theory of Matter, and now rests on the basis of \"Energy.\"\n\nThen is THE ALL mere Energy or Force? Not Energy or Force as the materialists use the terms, for their energy and force are blind, mechanical things, devoid of Life or Mind. Life and Mind can never evolve from blind Energy or Force, for the reason given a moment ago: \"Nothing can rise higher than its source - nothing is evolved unless it is involved - nothing manifests in the effect, unless it is in the cause. \" And so THE ALL cannot be mere Energy or Force, for, if it were, then there would be no such things as Life and Mind in existence, and we know better than that, for we are Alive and using Mind to consider this very question, and so are those who claim that Energy or Force is Everything.\n\nWhat is there then higher than Matter or Energy that we know to be existent in the Universe? LIFE AND MIND! Life and Mind in all their varying degrees of unfoldment! \"Then,\" you ask, \"do you mean to tell us that THE ALL is LIFE and MIND?\" Yes! and No! is our answer. If you mean Life and Mind as we poor petty mortals know them, we say No! THE ALL is not that! \"But what kind of Life and Mind do you mean?\" you ask.\n\nThe answer is \"LIVING MIND,\" as far above that which mortals know by those words, as Life and Mind are higher than mechanical forces, or matter - INFINITE LIVING MIND as compared to finite \"Life and Mind.\" We mean that which the illumined souls mean when they reverently pronounce the word: \"SPIRIT!\"\n\n\"THE ALL\" is Infinite Living Mind - the Illumined call it SPIRIT!\n\n## Chapter 5. The Mental Universe\n\n*\"The Universe is Mental - held in the Mind of THE ALL.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nTHE ALL is SPIRIT! But what is Spirit? This question cannot be answered, for the reason that its definition is practically that of THE ALL, which cannot be explained or defined. Spirit is simply a name that men give to the highest conception of Infinite Living Mind - it means \"the Real Essence\" - it means Living Mind, as much superior to Life and Mind as we know them, as the latter are superior to mechanical Energy and Matter. Spirit transcends our understanding, and we use the term merely that we may think or speak of THE ALL. For the purposes of thought and understanding, we are justified in thinking of Spirit as Infinite Living Mind, at the same time acknowledging that we cannot fully understand it. We must either do this or stop thinking of the matter at all.\n\nLet us now proceed to a consideration of the nature of the Universe, as a whole and in its parts. What is the Universe? We have seen that there can be nothing outside of THE ALL. Then is the Universe THE ALL? No, this cannot be, because the Universe seems to be made up of MANY, and is constantly changing, and in other ways it does not measure up to the ideas that we are compelled to accept regarding THE ALL, as stated in our last lesson. Then if the Universe be not THE ALL, then it must be Nothing - such is the inevitable conclusion of the mind at first thought. But this will not satisfy the question, for we are sensible of the existence of the Universe. Then if the Universe is neither THE ALL, nor Nothing, what Can it be? Let us examine this question.\n\nIf the Universe exists at all, or seems to exist, it must proceed in some way from THE ALL - it must be a creation of THE ALL. But as something can never come from nothing, from what could THE ALL have created it. Some philosophers have answered this question by saying that THE ALL created the Universe from ITSELF - that is, from the being and substance of THE ALL. But this will not do, for THE ALL cannot be subtracted from, nor divided, as we have seen, and then again if this be so, would not each particle in the Universe be aware of its being THE ALL - THE ALL could not lose its knowledge of itself, nor actually BECOME an atom, or blind force, or lowly living thing. Some men, indeed, realizing that THE ALL is indeed ALL, and also recognizing that they, the men, existed, have jumped to the conclusion that they and THE ALL were identical, and they have filled the air with shouts of \"I AM GOD,\" to the amusement of the multitude and the sorrow of sages. The claim of the corpuscle that: \"I am Man!\" would be modest in comparison.\n\nBut, what indeed is the Universe, if it be not THE ALL, not yet created by THE ALL having separated itself into fragments? What else can it be -  of what else can it be made? This is the great question. Let us examine it carefully. We find here that the \"Principle of Correspondence\" (see Lesson I.) comes to our aid here. The old Hermetic axiom, \"As above so below,\" may be pressed into service at this point. Let us endeavor to get a glimpse of the workings on higher planes by examining those on our own. The Principle of Correspondence must apply to this as well as to other problems.\n\nLet us see! On his own plane of being, how does Man create? Well, first, he may create by making something out of outside materials. But this will not do, for there are no materials outside of THE ALL with which it may create. Well, then, secondly, Man pro-creates or reproduces his kind by the process of begetting, which is self-multiplication accomplished by transferring a portion of his substance to his offspring. But this will not do, because THE ALL cannot transfer or subtract a portion of itself, nor can it reproduce or multiply itself - in the first place there would be a taking away, and in the second case a multiplication or addition to THE ALL, both thoughts being an absurdity. Is there no third way in which MAN creates? Yes, there is - he CREATES MENTALLY! And in so doing he uses no outside materials, nor does he reproduce himself, and yet his Spirit pervades the Mental Creation.\n\nFollowing the Principle of Correspondence, we are justified in considering that THE ALL creates the Universe MENTALLY, in a manner akin to the process whereby Man creates Mental Images. And, here is where the report of Reason tallies precisely with the report of the Illumined, as shown by their teachings and writings. Such are the teachings of the Wise Men. Such was the Teaching of Hermes.\n\nTHE ALL can create in no other way except mentally, without either using material (and there is none to use), or else reproducing itself (which is also impossible). There is no escape from this conclusion of the Reason, which, as we have said, agrees with the highest teachings of the Illumined. Just as you, student, may create a Universe of your own in your mentality, so does THE ALL create Universes in its own Mentality. But your Universe is the mental creation of a Finite Mind, whereas that of THE ALL is the creation of an Infinite. The two are similar in kind, but infinitely different in degree. We shall examine more closely into the process of creation and manifestation as we proceed. But this is the point to fix in your minds at this stage: THE UNIVERSE, AND ALL IT CONTAINS, IS A MENTAL CREATION OF THE ALL. Verily indeed, ALL IS MIND!\n\n*\"THE ALL creates in its Infinite Mind countless Universes, which exist for aeons of Time - and yet, to THE ALL, the creation, development, decline and death of a million Universes is as the time of the twinkling of an eye.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\n*\"The Infinite Mind of THE ALL is the womb of Universes.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThe Principle of Gender (see Lesson I. and other lessons to follow) is manifested on all planes of life, material mental and spiritual. But, as we have said before, \"Gender\" does not mean \"Sex\" sex is merely a material manifestation of gender. \"Gender\" means \"relating to generation or creation.\" And whenever anything is generated or created, on any plane, the Principle of Gender must be manifested. And this is true even in the creation of Universes.\n\nNow do not jump to the conclusion that we are teaching that there is a male and female God, or Creator. That idea is merely a distortion of the ancient teachings on the subject. The true teaching is that THE ALL, in itself, is above Gender, as it is above every other Law, including those of Time and Space. It is the Law, from which the Laws proceed, and it is not subject to them. But when THE ALL manifests on the plane of generation or creation, then it acts according to Law and Principle, for it is moving on a lower plane of Being. And consequently it manifests the Principle of Gender, in its Masculine and Feminine aspects, on the Mental Plane, of course.\n\nThis idea may seem startling to some of you who hear it for the first time, but you have all really passively accepted it in your everyday conceptions. You speak of the Fatherhood of God, and the Motherhood of Nature - of God, the Divine Father, and Nature the Universal Mother - and have thus instinctively acknowledged the Principle of Gender in the Universe. Is this not so?\n\nBut, the Hermetic teaching does not imply a real duality - THE ALL is ONE - the Two Aspects are merely aspects of manifestation. The teaching is that The Masculine Principle manifested by THE ALL stands, in a way, apart from the actual mental creation of the Universe. It projects its Will toward the Feminine Principle (which may be called \"Nature\") whereupon the latter begins the actual work of the evolution of the Universe, from simple \"centers of activity\" on to man, and then on and on still higher, all according to well-established and firmly enforced Laws of Nature. If you prefer the old figures of thought, you may think of the Masculine Principle as GOD, the Father, and of the Feminine Principle as NATURE, the Universal Mother, from whose womb all things have been born. This is more than a mere poetic figure of speech - it is an idea of the actual process of the creation of the Universe. But always remember, that THE ALL is but One, and that in its Infinite Mind the Universe is generated, created and exists.\n\nIt may help you to get the proper idea, if you will apply the Law of Correspondence to yourself, and your own mind. You know that the part of You which you call \"I,\" in a sense, stands apart and witnesses the creation of mental Images in your own mind. The part of your mind in which the mental generation is accomplished may be called the \"Me\" in distinction from the \"I\" which stands apart and witnesses and examines the thoughts, ideas and images of the \"Me.\" \"As above, so below,\" remember, and the phenomena of one plane may be employed to solve the riddles of higher or lower planes.\n\nIs it any wonder that You, the child, feel that instinctive reverence for THE ALL, which feeling we call \"religion\" - that respect, and reverence for THE FATHER MIND? Is it any wonder that, when you consider the works and wonders of Nature, you are overcome with a mighty feeling which has its roots away down in your inmost being? It is the MOTHER MIND that you are pressing close up to, like a babe to the breast.\n\nDo not make the mistake of supposing that the little world you see around you - the Earth, which is a mere grain of dust in the Universe - is the Universe itself. There are millions upon millions of such worlds, and greater. And there are millions of millions of such Universes in existence within the Infinite Mind of THE ALL. And even in our own little solar system there are regions and planes of life far higher than ours, and beings compared to which we earth-bound mortals are as the slimy life-forms that dwell on the ocean's bed when compared to Man. There are beings with powers and attributes higher than Man has ever dreamed of the gods' possessing. And yet these beings were once as you, and still lower - and you will be even as they, and still higher, in time, for such is the Destiny of Man as reported by the Illumined.\n\nAnd Death is not real, even in the Relative sense - it is but Birth to a new life - and You shall go on, and on, and on, to higher and still higher planes of life, for aeons upon aeons of time. The Universe is your home, and you shall explore its farthest recesses before the end of Time. You are dwelling in the Infinite Mind of THE ALL, and your possibilities and opportunities are infinite, both in time and space. And at the end of the Grand Cycle of Aeons, when THE ALL shall draw back into itself all of its creations - you will go gladly for you will then be able to know the Whole Truth of being At One with THE ALL. Such is the report of the Illumined - those who have advanced well along The Path.\n\nAnd, in the meantime, rest calm and serene - you are safe and protected by the Infinite Power of the FATHER-MOTHER MIND.\n\n*\"Within the Father-Mother Mind, mortal children are at home.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\n*\"There is not one who is Fatherless, nor Motherless in the Universe.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\n## Chapter 6. The Divine Paradox\n\n*\"The half-wise, recognizing the comparative unreality of the Universe, imagine that they may defy its Laws - such are vain and presumptuous fools, and they are broken against the rocks and torn asunder by the elements by reason of their folly. The truly wise, knowing the nature of the Universe, use Law against laws; the higher against the lower; and by the Art of Alchemy transmute that which is undesirable into that which is worthy, and thus triumph. Mastery consists not in abnormal dreams, visions and fantastic imaginings or living, but in using the higher forces against the lower - escaping the pains of the lower planes by vibrating on the higher. Transmutation, not presumptuous denial, is the weapon of the Master.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThis is the Paradox of the Universe, resulting from the Principle of Polarity which manifests when THE ALL begins to Create - hearken to it for it points the difference between half-wisdom and wisdom. While to THE INFINITE ALL, the Universe, its Laws, its Powers, its life, its Phenomena, are as things witnessed in the state of Meditation or Dream; yet to all that is Finite, the Universe must be treated as Real, and life, and action, and thought, must be based thereupon, accordingly, although with an ever understanding of the Higher Truth. Each according to its own Plane and Laws. Were THE ALL to imagine that the Universe were indeed Reality, then woe to the Universe, for there would be then no escape from lower to higher, divineward - then would the Universe become a fixity and progress would become impossible. And if Man, owing to half-wisdom, acts and lives and thinks of the Universe as merely a dream (akin to his own finite dreams) then indeed does it so become for him, and like a sleep-walker he stumbles ever around and around in a circle, making no progress, and being forced into an awakening at last by his falling bruised and bleeding over the Natural Laws which he ignored. Keep your mind ever on the Star, but let your eyes watch over your footsteps, lest you fall into the mire by reason of your upward gaze. Remember the Divine Paradox, that while the Universe IS NOT, still IT IS. Remember ever the Two Poles of Truth the Absolute and the Relative. Beware of Half-Truths.\n\nWhat Hermetists know as \"the Law of Paradox\" is an aspect of the Principle of Polarity. The Hermetic writings are filled with references to the appearance of the Paradox in the consideration of the problems of Life and Being. The Teachers are constantly warning their students against the error of omitting the \"other side\" of any question. And their warnings are particularly directed to the problems of the Absolute and the Relative, which perplex all students of philosophy, and which cause so many to think and act contrary to what is generally known as \"common sense.\" And we caution all students to be sure to grasp the Divine Paradox of the Absolute and Relative, lest they become entangled in the mire of the Half-Truth. With this in view this particular lesson has been written. Read it carefully!\n\nThe first thought that comes to the thinking man after he realizes the truth that the Universe is a Mental Creation of THE ALL, is that the Universe and all that it contains is a mere illusion; an unreality; against which idea his instincts revolt. But this, like all other great truths, must be considered both from the Absolute and the Relative points of view. From the Absolute viewpoint, of course, the Universe is in the nature of an illusion, a dream, a phantasmagoria, as compared to THE ALL in itself. We recognize this even in our ordinary view, for we speak of the world as \"a fleeting show\" that comes and goes, is born and dies - for the element of impermanence and change, finiteness and unsubstantiality, must ever be connected with the idea of a created Universe when it is contrasted with the idea of THE ALL, no matter what may be our beliefs concerning the nature of both. Philosopher, metaphysician, scientist and theologian all agree upon this idea, and the thought is found in all forms of philosophical thought and religious conceptions, as well as in the theories of the respective schools of metaphysics and theology.\n\nSo, the Hermetic Teachings do not preach the unsubstantiality of the Universe in any stronger terms than those more familiar to you, although their presentation of the subject may seem somewhat more startling. Anything that has a beginning and an ending must be, in a sense, unreal and untrue, and the Universe comes under the rule, in all schools of thought. From the Absolute point of view, there is nothing Real except THE ALL, no matter what terms we may use in thinking of, or discussing the subject. Whether the Universe be created of Matter, or whether it be a Mental Creation in the Mind of THE ALL - it is unsubstantial, non-enduring, a thing of time, space and change. We want you to realize this fact thoroughly, before you pass judgment on the Hermetic conception of the Mental nature of the Universe. Think over any and all of the other conceptions, and see whether this be not true of them.\n\nBut the Absolute point of view shows merely one side of the picture - the other side is the Relative one. Absolute Truth has been defined as \"Things as the mind of God knows them,\" while Relative Truth is \"Things as the highest reason of Man understands them.\" And so while to THE ALL the Universe must be unreal and illusionary, a mere dream or result of meditation, - nevertheless, to the finite minds forming a part of that Universe, and viewing it through mortal faculties, the Universe is very real indeed, and must be so considered. In recognizing the Absolute view, we must not make the mistake of ignoring or denying the facts and phenomena of the Universe as they present themselves to our mortal faculties - we are not THE ALL, remember.\n\nTo take familiar illustrations, we all recognize the fact that matter \"exists\" to our senses - we will fare badly if we do not. And yet, even our finite minds understand the scientific dictum that there is no such thing as Matter from a scientific point of view - that which we call Matter is held to be merely an aggregation of atoms, which atoms themselves are merely a grouping of units of force, called electrons or \"ions,\" vibrating and in constant circular motion. We kick a stone and we feel the impact - it seems to be real, notwithstanding that we know it to be merely what we have stated above. But remember that our foot, which feels the impact by means of our brains, is likewise Matter, so constituted of electrons, and for that matter so are our brains. And, at the best, if it were not by reason of our Mind, we would not know the foot or stone at all.\n\nThen again, the ideal of the artist or sculptor, which he is endeavoring to reproduce in stone or on canvas, seems very real to him. So do the characters in the mind of the author; or dramatist, which he seeks to express so that others may recognize them. And if this be true in the case of our finite minds, what must be the degree of Reality in the Mental Images created in the Mind of the Infinite? Oh, friends, to mortals this Universe of Mentality is very real indeed - it is the only one we can ever know, though we rise from plane to plane, higher and higher in it. To know it otherwise, but actual experience, we must be THE ALL itself. It is true that the higher we rise in the scale - the nearer to \"the mind of the Father\" we reach - the more apparent becomes the illusory nature of finite things, but not until THE ALL finally withdraws us into itself does the vision actually vanish.\n\nSo, we need not dwell upon the feature of illusion. Rather let us, recognizing the real nature of the Universe, seek to understand its mental laws, and endeavor to use them to the best effect in our upward progress through life, as we travel from plane to plane of being. The Laws of the Universe are none the less \"Iron Laws\" because of the mental nature. All, except THE ALL, are bound by them. What is IN THE INFINITE MIND OF THE ALL is REAL in a degree second only to that Reality itself which is vested in the nature of THE ALL.\n\nSo, do not feel insecure or afraid - we are all HELD FIRMLY IN THE INFINITE MIND OF THE ALL, and there is naught to hurt us or for us to fear. There is no Power outside of THE ALL to affect us. So we may rest calm and secure. There is a world of comfort and security in this realization when once attained. Then \"calm and peaceful do we sleep, rocked in the Cradle of the Deep\" - resting safely on the bosom of the Ocean of Infinite Mind, which is THE ALL. In THE ALL, indeed, do \"we live and move and have our being.\"\n\nMatter is none the less Matter to us, while we dwell on the plane of Matter, although we know it to be merely an aggregation of \"electrons,\" or particles of Force, vibrating rapidly and gyrating around each other in the formations of atoms; the atoms in turn vibrating and gyrating, forming molecules, which latter in turn form larger masses of Matter. Nor does Matter become less Matter, when we follow the inquiry still further, and learn from the Hermetic Teachings, that the \"Force\" of which the electrons are but units is merely a manifestation of the Mind of THE ALL, and like all else in the Universe is purely Mental in its nature. While on the Plane of matter, we must recognize its phenomena -  we may control Matter (as all Masters of higher or lesser degree do), but we do so by applying the higher forces. We commit a folly when we attempt to deny the existence of Matter in the relative aspect. We may deny its mastery over us - and rightly so - but we should not attempt to ignore it in its relative aspect, at least so long as we dwell upon its plane.\n\nNor do the Laws of Nature become less constant or effective, when we know them, likewise, to be merely mental creations. They are in full effect on the various planes. We overcome the lower laws, by applying still higher ones - and in this way only. But we cannot escape Law or rise above it entirely. Nothing but THE ALL can escape Law - and that because THE ALL is LAW itself, from which all Laws emerge. The most advanced Masters may acquire the powers usually attributed to the gods of men; and there are countless ranks of being, in the great hierarchy of life, whose being and power transcends even that of the highest Masters among men to a degree unthinkable by mortals, but even the highest Master, and the highest Being, must bow to the Law, and be as Nothing in the eye of THE ALL. So that if even these highest Beings, whose powers exceed even those attributed by men to their gods - if even these are bound by and are subservient to Law, then imagine the presumption of mortal man, of our race and grade, when he dares to consider the Laws of Nature as \"unreal!\" visionary and illusory, because he happens to be able to grasp the truth that the Laws are Mental in nature, and simply Mental Creations of THE ALL. Those Laws which THE ALL intends to be governing Laws are not to be defied or argued away. So long as the Universe endures, will they endure - for the Universe exists by virtue of these Laws which form its framework and which hold it together.\n\nThe Hermetic Principle of Mentalism, while explaining the true nature of the Universe upon the principle that all is Mental, does not change the scientific conceptions of the Universe, Life, or Evolution. In fact, science merely corroborates the Hermetic Teachings. The latter merely teaches that the nature of the Universe is \"Mental,\" while modern science has taught that it is \"Material\"; or (of late) that it is \"Energy\" at the last analysis. The Hermetic Teachings have no fault to find with Herbert Spencer's basic principle which postulates the existence of an \"Infinite and Eternal Energy, from which all things proceed.\" In fact, the Hermetics recognize in Spencer's philosophy the highest outside statement of the workings of the Natural Laws that have ever been promulgated, and they believe Spencer to have been a reincarnation of an ancient philosopher who dwelt in ancient Egypt thousands of years ago, and who later incarnated as Heraclitus, the Grecian philosopher who lived B. C. 500. And they regard his statement of the \"Infinite and Eternal Energy\" as directly in the line of the Hermetic Teachings, always with the addition of their own doctrine that his \"Energy\" is the Energy of the Mind of THE ALL. With the Master-Key of the Hermetic Philosophy, the student of Spencer will be able to unlock many doors of the inner philosophical conceptions of the great English philosopher, whose work shows the results of the preparation of his previous incarnations. His teachings regarding Evolution and Rhythm are in almost perfect agreement with the Hermetic Teachings regarding the Principle of Rhythm.\n\nSo, the student of Hermetics need not lay aside any of his cherished scientific views regarding the Universe. All he is asked to do is to grasp the underlying principle of \"THE ALL is Mind; the Universe is Mental - held in the mind of THE ALL.\"\n\nHe will find that the other six of the Seven Principles will \"fit into\" his scientific knowledge, and will serve to bring out obscure points and to throw light in dark corners. This is not to be wondered at, when we realize the influence of the Hermetic thought of the early philosophers of Greece, upon whose foundations of thought the theories of modern science largely rest. The acceptance of the First Hermetic Principle (Mentalism) is the only great point of difference between Modern Science and Hermetic students, and Science is gradually moving toward the Hermetic position in its groping in the dark for a way out of the Labyrinth into which it has wandered in its search for Reality.\n\nThe purpose of this lesson is to impress upon the minds of our students the fact that, to all intents and purposes, the Universe and its laws, and its phenomena, are just as REAL, so far as Man is concerned, as they would be under the hypotheses of Materialism or Energism.\n\nUnder any hypothesis the Universe in its outer aspect is changing, ever-flowing, and transitory - and therefore devoid of substantiality and reality. But (note the other pole of the truth) under the same hypotheses, we are compelled to ACT AND LIVE as if the fleeting things were real and substantial. With this difference, always, between the various hypotheses - that under the old views Mental Power was ignored as a Natural Force, while under Mentalism it becomes the Greatest Natural Force. And this one difference revolutionizes Life, to those who understand the Principle and its resulting laws and practice.\n\nSo, finally, students all, grasp the advantage of Mentalism, and learn to know, use and apply the laws resulting therefrom. But do not yield to the temptation which, as The Kybalion states, overcomes the half-wise and which causes them to be hypnotized by the apparent unreality of things, the consequence being that they wander about like dream-people dwelling in a world of dreams, ignoring the practical work and life of man, the end being that \"they are broken against the rocks and torn asunder by the elements, by reason of their folly.\" Rather follow the example of the wise, which the same authority states, \"use Law against Laws; the higher against the lower; and by the Art of Alchemy transmute that which is undesirable into that which is worthy, and thus triumph.\" Following the authority, let us avoid the half-wisdom (which is folly) which ignores the truth that: \"Mastery consists not in abnormal dreams, visions, and fantastic imaginings or living, but in using the higher forces against the lower - escaping the pains of the lower planes by vibrating on the higher.\" Remember always, student, that \"Transmutation, not presumptuous denial, is the weapon of the Master.\" The above quotations are from The Kybalion, and are worthy of being committed to memory by the student.\n\nWe do not live in a world of dreams, but in an Universe which while relative, is real so far as our lives and actions are concerned. Our business in the Universe is not to deny its existence, but to LIVE, using the Laws to rise from lower to higher - living on, doing the best that we can under the circumstances arising each day, and living, so far as is possible, to our biggest ideas and ideals. The true Meaning of Life is not known to men on this plane if, indeed, to any - but the highest authorities, and our own intuitions, teach us that we will make no mistake in living up to the best that is in us, so far as is possible, and realising the Universal tendency in the same direction in spite of apparent evidence to the contrary. We are all on The Path - and the road leads upward ever, with frequent resting places.\n\nRead the message of The Kybalion - and follow the example of \"the wise\" - avoiding the mistake of \"the half-wise\" who perish by reason of their folly.\n\n## Chapter 7. \"The All\" In All\n\n*\"While All is in THE ALL, it is equally true that THE ALL is in ALL. To him who truly understands this truth hath come great knowledge.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nHow often have the majority of people heard repeated the statement that their Deity (called by many names) was \"All in All\" and how little have they suspected the inner occult truth concealed by these carelessly uttered words? The commonly used expression is a survival of the ancient Hermetic Maxim quoted above. As the Kybalion says: \"To him who truly understands this truth, hath come great knowledge.\" And, this being so, let us seek this truth, the understanding of which means so much. In this statement of truth - this Hermetic Maxim - is concealed one of the greatest philosophical, scientific and religious truths.\n\nWe have given you the Hermetic Teaching regarding the Mental Nature of the Universe - the truth that \"the Universe is Mental - held in the Mind of THE ALL.\" As the Kybalion says, in the passage quoted above: \"All is in THE ALL.\" But note also the co-related statement, that: \"It is equally true that THE ALL is in ALL.\" This apparently contradictory statement is reconcilable under the Law of Paradox. It is, moreover, an exact Hermetic statement of the relations existing between THE ALL and its Mental Universe. We have seen how \"All is in THE ALL\" - now let us examine the other aspect of the subject.\n\nThe Hermetic Teachings are to the effect that THE ALL is Imminent in (\"remaining within; inherent; abiding within\") its Universe, and in every part, particle, unit, or combination, within the Universe. This statement is usually illustrated by the Teachers by a reference to the Principle of Correspondence. The Teacher instructs the student to form a Mental Image of something, a person, an idea, something having a mental form, the favorite example being that of the author or dramatist forming an idea of his characters; or a painter or sculptor forming an image of an ideal that he wishes to express by his art. In each case, the student will find that while the image has its existence, and being, solely within his own mind, yet he, the student, author, dramatist, painter, or sculptor, is, in a sense, immanent in; remaining within; or abiding within, the mental image also. In other words, the entire virtue, life, spirit, of reality in the mental image is derived from the \"immanent mind\" of the thinker. Consider this for a moment, until the idea is grasped.\n\nTo take a modern example, let us say that Othello, Iago, Hamlet, Lear, Richard III, existed merely in the mind of Shakespeare, at the time of their conception or creation. And yet, Shakespeare also existed within each of these characters, giving them their vitality, spirit, and action. Whose is the \"spirit\" of the characters that we know as Micawber, Oliver Twist, Uriah Heep - is it Dickens, or have each of these characters a personal spirit, independent of their creator? Have the Venus of Medici, the Sistine Madonna, the Apollo Belvidere, spirits and reality of their own, or do they represent the spiritual and mental power of their creators? The Law of Paradox explains that both propositions are true, viewed from the proper viewpoints. Micawber is both Micawber, and yet Dickens. And, again, while Micawber may be said to be Dickens, yet Dickens is not identical with Micawber. Man, like Micawber, may exclaim: \"The Spirit of my Creator is inherent within me -  and yet I am not HE!\" How different this from the shocking half-truth so vociferously announced by certain of the half-wise, who fill the air with their raucous cries of: \"I am God!\" Imagine poor Micawber, or the sneaky Uriah Heep, crying: \"I Am Dickens\"; or some of the lowly clods in one of Shakespeare's plays, eloquently announcing that: \"I Am Shakespeare!\" THE ALL is in the earthworm, and yet the earthworm is far from being THE ALL. And still the wonder remains, that though the earthworm exists merely as a lowly thing, created and having its being solely within the Mind of THE ALL - yet THE ALL is immanent in the earthworm, and in the particles that go to make up the earthworm. Can there be any greater mystery than this of \"All in THE ALL; and THE ALL in All?\"\n\nThe student will, of course, realize that the illustrations given above are necessarily imperfect and inadequate, for they represent the creation of mental images in finite minds, while the Universe is a creation of Infinite Mind - and the difference between the two poles separates them. And yet it is merely a matter of degree - the same Principle is in operation - the Principle of Correspondence manifests in each - \"As above, so Below; as Below, so above.\"\n\nAnd, in the degree that Man realizes the existence of the Indwelling Spirit immanent within his being, so will he rise in the spiritual scale of life. This is what spiritual development means - the recognition, realization, and manifestation of the Spirit within us. Try to remember this last definition - that of spiritual development. It contains the Truth of True Religion.\n\nThere are many planes of Being - many sub-planes of Life - many degrees of existence in the Universe. And all depend upon the advancement of beings in the scale, of which scale the lowest point is the grossest matter, the highest being separated only by the thinnest division from the SPIRIT of THE ALL. And, upward and onward along this Scale of Life, everything is moving. All are on the Path, whose end is THE ALL. All progress is a Returning Home. All is Upward and Onward, in spite of all seemingly contradictory appearances. Such is the message of the Illumined.\n\nThe Hermetic Teachings concerning the process of the Mental Creation of the Universe, are that at the beginning of the Creative Cycle, THE ALL, in its aspect of Being, projects its Will toward its aspect of \"Becoming\" and the process of creation begins. It is taught that the process consists of the lowering of Vibration until a very low degree of vibratory energy is reached, at which point the grossest possible form of Matter is manifested. This process is called the stage of Involution, in which THE ALL becomes \"involved,\" or \"wrapped up,\" in its creation. This process is believed by the Hermetists to have a Correspondence to the mental process of an artist, writer, or inventor, who becomes so wrapped up in his mental creation as to almost forget his own existence and who, for the time being, almost \"lives in his creation,\" If instead of \"wrapped\" we use the word \"rapt,\" perhaps we will give a better idea of what is meant.\n\nThis Involuntary stage of Creation is sometimes called the \"Outpouring\" of the Divine Energy, just as the Evolutionary state is called the \"Indrawing.\" The extreme pole of the Creative process is considered to be the furthest removed from THE ALL, while the beginning of the Evolutionary stage is regarded as the beginning of the return swing of the pendulum of Rhythm - a \"coming home\" idea being held in all of the Hermetic Teachings.\n\nThe Teachings are that during the \"Outpouring,\" the vibrations become lower and lower until finally the urge ceases, and the return swing begins. But there is this difference, that while in the \"Outpouring\" the creative forces manifest compactly and as a whole, yet from the beginning of the Evolutionary or \"Indrawing\" stage, there is manifested the Law of Individualization - that is, the tendency to separate into Units of Force, so that finally that which left THE ALL as unindividualized energy returns to its source as countless highly developed Units of Life, having risen higher and higher in the scale by means of Physical, Mental and Spiritual Evolution.\n\nThe ancient Hermetists use the word \"Meditation\" in describing the process of the mental creation of the Universe in the Mind of THE ALL, the word \"Contemplation\" also being frequently employed. But the idea intended seems to be that of the employment of the Divine Attention. \"Attention\" is a word derived from the Latin root, meaning \"to reach out; to stretch out,\" and so the act of Attention is really a mental \"reaching out; extension\" of mental energy, so that the underlying idea is readily understood when we examine into the real meaning of \"Attention.\"\n\nThe Hermetic Teachings regarding the process of Evolution are that, THE ALL, having meditated upon the beginning of the Creation - having thus established the material foundations of the Universe - having thought it into existence - then gradually awakens or rouses from its Meditation and in so doing starts into manifestation the process of Evolution, on the material mental and spiritual planes, successively and in order. Thus the upward movement begins - and all begins to move Spiritward. Matter becomes less gross; the Units spring into being; the combinations begin to form; Life appears and manifests in higher and higher forms; and Mind becomes more and more in evidence - the vibrations constantly becoming higher. In short, the entire process of Evolution, in all of its phases, begins, and proceeds according to the established \"Laws of the Indrawing\" process. All of this occupies aeons upon aeons of Man's time, each aeon containing countless millions of years, but yet the Illumined inform us that the entire creation, including Involution and Evolution, of an Universe, is but \"as the twinkle of the eye\" to THE ALL. At the end of countless cycles of aeons of time, THE ALL withdraws its Attention - its Contemplation and Meditation - of the Universe, for the Great Work is finished - and All is withdrawn into THE ALL from which it emerged. But Mystery of Mysteries - the Spirit of each soul is not annihilated, but is infinitely expanded - the Created and the Creator are merged. Such is the report of the Illumined!\n\nThe above illustration of the \"meditation,\" and subsequent \"awakening from meditation,\" of THE ALL, is of course but an attempt of the teachers to describe the Infinite process by a finite example. And, yet: \"As Below, so Above.\" The difference is merely in degree. And just as THE ALL arouses itself from the meditation upon the Universe, so does Man (in time) cease from manifesting upon the Material Plane, and withdraws himself more and more into the Indwelling Spirit, which is indeed \"The Divine Ego.\"\n\nThere is one more matter of which we desire to speak in this lesson, and that comes very near to an invasion of the Metaphysical field of speculation, although our purpose is merely to show the futility of such speculation. We allude to the question which inevitably comes to the mind of all thinkers who have ventured to seek the Truth. The question is: \"WHY does THE ALL create Universes\" The question may be asked in different forms, but the above is the gist of the inquiry.\n\nMen have striven hard to answer this question, but still there is no answer worthy of the name. Some have imagined that THE ALL had something to gain by it, but this is absurd, for what could THE ALL gain that it did not already possess? Others have sought the answer in the idea that THE ALL \"wished something to love\" and others that it created for pleasure, or amusement; or because it \"was lonely\" or to manifest its power; - all puerile explanations and ideas, belonging to the childish period of thought.\n\nOthers have sought to explain the mystery by assuming that THE ALL found itself \"compelled\" to create, by reason of its own \"internal nature\" - its \"creative instinct.\" This idea is in advance of the others, but its weak point lies in the idea of THE ALL being \"compelled\" by anything, internal or external. If its \"internal nature,\" or \"creative instinct,\" compelled it to do anything, then the \"internal nature\" or \"creative instinct\" would be the Absolute, instead of THE ALL, and so accordingly that part of the proposition falls. And, yet, THE ALL does create and manifest, and seems to find some kind of satisfaction in so doing. And it is difficult to escape the conclusion that in some infinite degree it must have what would correspond to an \"inner nature,\" or \"creative instinct,\" in man, with correspondingly infinite Desire and Will. It could not act unless it Willed to Act; and it would not Will to Act, unless it Desired to Act and it would not Desire to Act unless it obtained some Satisfaction thereby. And all of these things would belong to an \"Inner Nature,\" and might be postulated as existing according to the Law of Correspondence. But, still, we prefer to think of THE ALL as acting entirely FREE from any influence, internal as well as external. That is the problem which lies at the root of difficulty - and the difficulty that lies at the root of the problem.\n\nStrictly speaking, there cannot be said to be any \"Reason\" whatsoever for THE ALL to act, for a \"reason\" implies a \"cause,\" and THE ALL is above Cause and Effect, except when it Wills to become a Cause, at which time the Principle is set into motion. So, you see, the matter is Unthinkable, just as THE ALL is Unknowable. Just as we say THE ALL merely \"IS\" - so we are compelled to say that \"THE ALL ACTS BECAUSE IT ACTS.\" At the last, THE ALL is All Reason in Itself; All Law in Itself; All Action in Itself - and it may be said, truthfully, that THE ALL is Its Own Reason; its own Law; its own Act - or still further, that THE ALL; Its Reason; Its Act; is Law; are ONE, all being names for the same thing. In the opinion of those who are giving you these present lessons, the answer is locked up in the INNER SELF of THE ALL, along with its Secret of Being. The Law of Correspondence, in our opinion, reaches only to that aspect of THE ALL, which may be spoken of as \"The Aspect of BECOMING.\" Back of that Aspect is \"The Aspect of BEING\" in which all Laws are lost in LAW; all Principles merge into PRINCIPLE - and THE ALL; PRINCIPLE; and BEING; are IDENTICAL, ONE AND THE SAME. Therefore, Metaphysical speculation on this point is futile. We go into the matter here, merely to show that we recognize the question, and also the absurdity of the ordinary answers of metaphysics and theology.\n\nIn conclusion, it may be of interest to our students to learn that while some of the ancient, and modern, Hermetic Teachers have rather inclined in the direction of applying the Principle of Correspondence to the question, with the result of the \"Inner Nature\" conclusion, - still the legends have it that HERMES, the Great, when asked this question by his advanced students, answered them by PRESSING HIS LIPS TIGHTLY TOGETHER and saying not a word, indicating that there WAS NO ANSWER. But, then, he may have intended to apply the axiom of his philosophy, that: \"The lips of Wisdom are closed, except to the ears of Understanding,\" believing that even his advanced students did not possess the Understanding which entitled them to the Teaching. At any rate, if Hermes possessed the Secret, he failed to impart it, and so far as the world is concerned THE LIPS OF HERMES ARE CLOSED regarding it. And where the Great Hermes hesitated to speak, what mortal may dare to teach?\n\nBut, remember, that whatever be the answer to this problem, if indeed there be an answer the truth remains that: \"While All is in THE ALL, it is equally true that THE ALL is in All.\" The Teaching on this point is emphatic. And, we may add the concluding words of the quotation: \"To him who truly understands this truth, hath come great knowledge.\"\n\n## Chapter 8. Planes Of Correspondence\n\n*\"As above, so below; as below, so above.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThe great Second Hermetic Principle embodies the truth that there is a harmony, agreement, and correspondence between the several planes of Manifestation, Life and Being. This truth is a truth because all that is included in the Universe emanates from the same source, and the same laws, principles, and characteristics apply to each unit, or combination of units, of activity, as each manifests its own phenomena upon its own plane.\n\nFor the purpose of convenience of thought and study, the Hermetic Philosophy considers that the Universe may be divided into three great classes of phenomena, known as the Three Great Planes, namely:\n\n1. The Great Physical Plane.  \n2. The Great Mental Plane.  \n3. The Great Spiritual Plane.\n\nThese divisions are more or less artificial and arbitrary, for the truth is that all of the three divisions are but ascending degrees of the great scale of Life, the lowest point of which is undifferentiated Matter, and the highest point that of Spirit. And, moreover, the different Planes shade into each other, so that no hard and fast division may be made between the higher phenomena of the Physical and the lower of the Mental; or between the higher of the Mental and the lower of the Physical.\n\nIn short, the Three Great Planes may be regarded as three great groups of degrees of Life Manifestation. While the purposes of this little book do not allow us to enter into an extended discussion of, or explanation of, the subject of these different planes, still we think it well to give a general description of the same at this point.\n\nAt the beginning we may as well consider the question so often asked by the neophyte, who desires to be informed regarding the meaning of the word \"Plane\", which term has been very freely used, and very poorly explained, in many recent works upon the subject of occultism. The question is generally about as follows: \"Is a Plane a place having dimensions, or is it merely a condition or state?\" We answer: \"No, not a place, nor ordinary dimension of space; and yet more than a state or condition. It may be considered as a state or condition, and yet the state or condition is a degree of dimension, in a scale subject to measurement.\" Somewhat paradoxical, is it not? But let us examine the matter. A \"dimension,\" you know, is \"a measure in a straight line, relating to measure,\" *etc.* The ordinary dimensions of space are length, breadth, and height, or perhaps length, breadth, height, thickness or circumference. But there is another dimension of \"created things\" or \"measure in a straight line,\" known to occultists, and to scientists as well, although the latter have not as yet applied the term \"dimension\" to it - and this new dimension, which, by the way, is the much speculated -about \"Fourth Dimension,\" is the standard used in determining the degrees or \"planes.\"\n\nThis Fourth Dimension may be called \"The Dimension of Vibration\" It is a fact well known to modern science, as well as to the Hermetists who have embodied the truth in their \"Third Hermetic Principle,\" that \"everything is in motion; everything vibrates; nothing is at rest.\" From the highest manifestation, to the lowest, everything and all things Vibrate. Not only do they vibrate at different rates of motion, but as in different directions and in a different manner. The degrees of the rate of vibrations constitute the degrees of measurement on the Scale of Vibrations - in other words the degrees of the Fourth Dimension. And these degrees form what occultists call \"Planes\" The higher the degree of rate of vibration, the higher the plane, and the higher the manifestation of Life occupying that plane. So that while a plane is not \"a place,\" nor yet \"a state or condition,\" yet it possesses qualities common to both. We shall have more to say regarding the subject of the scale of Vibrations in our next lessons, in which we shall consider the Hermetic Principle of Vibration.\n\nYou will kindly remember, however, that the Three Great Planes are not actual divisions of the phenomena of the Universe, but merely arbitrary terms used by the Hermetists in order to aid in the thought and study of the various degrees and Forms of universal activity and life. The atom of matter, the unit of force, the mind of man, and the being of the arch -angel are all but degrees in one scale, and all fundamentally the same, the difference between solely a matter of degree, and rate of vibration - all are creations of THE ALL, and have their existence solely within the Infinite Mind of THE ALL.\n\nThe Hermetists sub-divide each of the Three Great Planes into Seven Minor Planes, and each of these latter are also sub-divided into seven subplanes, all divisions being more or less arbitrary, shading into each other, and adopted merely for convenience of scientific study and thought.\n\nThe Great Physical Plane, and its Seven Minor Planes, is that division of the phenomena of the Universe which includes all that relates to physics, or material things, forces, and manifestations. It includes all forms of that which we call Matter, and all forms of that which we call Energy or Force. But you must remember that the Hermetic Philosophy does not recognize Matter as a thing in itself, or as having a separate existence even in the Mind of THE ALL. The Teachings are that Matter is but a form of Energy - .that is, Energy at a low rate of vibrations of a certain kind. And accordingly the Hermetists classify Matter under the head of Energy, and give to it three of the Seven Minor Planes of the Great Physical Plane.\n\nThese Seven Minor Physical Planes are as follows:\n\n1. The Plane of Matter (A)  \n2. The Plane of Matter (B)  \n3. The Plane of Matter (C)  \n4. The Plane of Ethereal Substance  \n5. The Plane of Energy (A)  \n6. The Plane of Energy (B)  \n7. The Plane of Energy (C)\n\nThe Plane of Matter (A) comprises the forms of Matter in its form of solids, liquids, and gases, as generally recognized by the text-books on physics. The Plane of Matter (B) comprises certain higher and more subtle forms of Matter of the existence of which modern science is but now recognizing, the phenomena of Radiant Matter, in its phases of radium, etc., belonging to the lower subdivision of this Minor Plane. The Plane of Matter (C) comprises forms of the most subtle and tenuous Matter, the existence of which is not suspected by ordinary scientists. The Plane of Ethereal Substance comprises that which science speaks of as \"The Ether\", a substance of extreme tenuity and elasticity, pervading all Universal Space, and acting as a medium for the transmission of waves of energy, such as light, heat, electricity, *etc.* This Ethereal Substance forms a connecting link between Matter (so-called) and Energy, and partakes of the nature of each. The Hermetic Teachings, however, instruct that this plane has seven subdivisions (as have all of the Minor Planes), and that in fact there are seven ethers, instead of but one.\n\nNext above the Plane of Ethereal Substance comes the Plane of Energy (A), which comprises the ordinary forms of Energy known to science, its seven subplanes being, respectively, Heat; Light; Magnetism; Electricity, and Attraction (including Gravitation, Cohesion, Chemical Affinity, etc.) and several other forms of energy indicated by scientific experiments but not as yet named or classified. The Plane of Energy (B) comprises seven subplanes of higher forms of energy not as yet discovered by science, but which have been called \"Nature's Finer Forces\" and which are called into operation in manifestations of certain forms of mental phenomena, and by which such phenomena becomes possible. The Plane of Energy (C) comprises seven subplanes of energy so highly organized that it bears many of the characteristics of \"life,\" but which is not recognized by the minds of men on the ordinary plane of development, being available for the use on beings of the Spiritual Plane alone - such energy is unthinkable to ordinary man, and may be considered almost as \"the divine power.\" The beings employing the same are as \"gods\" compared even to the highest human types known to us.\n\nThe Great Mental Plane comprises those forms of \"living things\" known to us in ordinary life, as well as certain other forms not so well known except to the occultist. The classification of the Seven Minor Mental Planes is more or less satisfactory and arbitrary (unless accompanied by elaborate explanations which are foreign to the purpose of this particular work), but we may as well mention them. They are as follows:\n\n1. The Plane of Mineral Mind  \n2. The Plane of Elemental Mind (A)  \n3. The Plane of Plant Mind  \n4. The Plane of Elemental Mind (B)  \n5. The Plane of Animal Mind  \n6. The Plane of Elemental Mind (C)  \n7. The Plane of Human Mind\n\nThe Plane of Mineral Mind comprises the \"states or conditions\" of the units or entities, or groups and combinations of the same, which animate the forms known to us as \"minerals, chemicals, etc.\" These entities must not be confounded with the molecules, atoms and corpuscles themselves, the latter being merely the material bodies or forms of these entities, just as a man's body is but his material form and not \"himself.\" These entities may be called \"souls\" in one sense, and are living beings of a low degree of development, life, and mind - just a little more than the units of \"living energy\" which comprise the higher subdivisions of the highest Physical Plane. The average mind does not generally attribute the possession of mind, soul, or life, to the mineral kingdom, but all occultists recognize the existence of the same, and modern science is rapidly moving forward to the point-of-view of the Hermetic, in this respect. The molecules, atoms and corpuscles have their \"loves and hates\"; \"likes and dislikes\"; \"attractions and repulsions\". \"affinities and non-affinities,\" etc., and some of the more daring of modern scientific minds have expressed the opinion that the desire and will, emotions and feelings, of the atoms differ only in degree from those of men. We have no time or space to argue this matter here. All occultists know it to be a fact, and others are referred to some of the more recent scientific works for outside corroboration. There are the usual seven subdivisions to this plane.\n\nThe Plane of Elemental Mind (A) comprises the state or condition, and degree of mental and vital development of a class of entities unknown to the average man, but recognized to occultists. They are invisible to the ordinary senses of man, but, nevertheless, exist and play their part of the Drama of the Universe. Their degree of intelligence is between that of the mineral and chemical entities on the one hand, and of the entities of the plant kingdom on the other. There are seven subdivisions to this plane, also.\n\nThe Plane of Plant Mind, in its seven subdivisions, comprises the states or conditions of the entities comprising the kingdoms of the Plant World, the vital and mental phenomena of which is fairly well understood by the average intelligent person, many new and interesting scientific works regarding \"Mind and Life in Plants\" having been published during the last decade. Plants have life, mind and \"souls,\" as well as have the animals, man, and super-man.\n\nThe Plane of Elemental Mind (B), in its seven subdivisions, comprises the states and conditions of a higher form of \"elemental\" or unseen entities, playing their part in the general work of the Universe, the mind and life of which form a part of the scale between the Plane of Plant Mind and the Plane of Animal Mind, the entities partaking of the nature of both.\n\nThe Plane of Animal Mind, in its seven subdivisions, comprises the states and conditions of the entities, beings, or souls, animating the animal forms of life, familiar to us all. It is not necessary to go into details regarding this kingdom or plane of life, for the animal world is as familiar to us as is our own.\n\nThe Plane of Elemental Mind (C), in its seven subdivisions, comprises those entities or beings, invisible as are all such elemental forms, which partake of the nature of both animal and human life in a degree and in certain combinations. The highest forms are semi-human in intelligence.\n\nThe Plane of Human Mind, in its seven subdivisions, comprises those manifestations of life and mentality which are common to Man, in his various grades, degrees, and divisions. In this connection, we wish to point out the fact that the average man of today occupies but the fourth subdivision of the Plane of Human Mind, and only the most intelligent have crossed the borders of the Fifth SubDivision. It has taken the race millions of years to reach this stage, and it will take many more years for the race to move on to the sixth and seventh subdivisions, and beyond. But, remember, that there have been races before us which have passed through these degrees, and then on to higher planes. Our own race is the fifth (with stragglers from the fourth) which has set foot upon The Path. And, then there are a few advanced souls of our own race who have outstripped the masses, and who have passed on to the sixth and seventh subdivision, and some few being still further on. The man of the Sixth SubDivision will be \"The Super-Man\"; he of the Seventh will be \"The Over-Man.\"\n\nIn our consideration of the Seven Minor Mental Planes, we have merely referred to the Three Elementary Planes in a general way. We do not wish to go into this subject in detail in this work, for it does not belong to this part of the general philosophy and teachings. But we may say this much, in order to give you a little clearer idea, of the relations of these planes to the more familiar ones - the Elementary Planes bear the same relation to the Planes of Mineral, Plant, Animal and Human Mentality and Life, that the black keys on the piano do to the white keys. The white keys are sufficient to produce music, but there are certain scales, melodies, and harmonies, in which the black keys play their part, and in which their presence is necessary. They are also necessary as \"connecting links\" of soul-condition; entity states, etc., between the several other planes, certain forms of development being attained therein - this last fact giving to the reader who can \"read between the lines\" a new light upon the processes of Evolution, and a new key to the secret door of the \"leaps of life\" between kingdom and kingdom. The great kingdoms of Elementals are fully recognized by all occultists, and the esoteric writings are full of mention of them. The readers of Bulwer's \"Sanoni\" and similar tales will recognize the entities inhabiting these planes of life.\n\nPassing on from the Great Mental Plane to the Great Spiritual Plane, what shall we say? How can we explain these higher states of Being, Life and Mind, to minds as yet unable to grasp and understand the higher subdivisions of the Plane of Human Mind? The task is impossible. We can speak only in the most general terms. How may Light be described to a man born blind - how sugar, to a man who has never tasted anything sweet - how harmony, to one born deaf?\n\nAll that we can say is that the Seven Minor Planes of the Great Spiritual Plane (each Minor Plane having its seven subdivisions) comprise Beings possessing Life, Mind and Form as far above that of Man of to-day as the latter is above the earth-worm, mineral or even certain forms of Energy or Matter. The Life of these Beings so far transcends ours, that we cannot even think of the details of the same; their minds so far transcend ours, that to them we scarcely seem to \"think,\" and our mental processes seem almost akin to material processes; the Matter of which their forms are composed is of the highest Planes of Matter, nay, some are even said to be \"clothed in Pure Energy.\" What may be said of such Beings?\n\nOn the Seven Minor Planes of the Great Spiritual Plane exist Beings of whom we may speak as Angels; Archangels; Demi-Gods. On the lower Minor Planes dwell those great souls whom we call Masters and Adepts. Above them come the Great Hierarchies of the Angelic Hosts, unthinkable to man; and above those come those who may without irreverence be called \"The Gods,\" so high in the scale of Being are they, their being, intelligence and power being akin to those attributed by the races of men to their conceptions of Deity. These Beings are beyond even the highest flights of the human imagination, the word \"Divine\" being the only one applicable to them. Many of these Beings, as well as the Angelic Host, take the greatest interest in the affairs of the Universe and play an important part in its affairs. These Unseen Divinities and Angelic Helpers extend their influence freely and powerfully, in the process of Evolution, and Cosmic Progress. Their occasional intervention and assistance in human affairs have led to the many legends, beliefs, religions and traditions of the race, past and present. They have superimposed their knowledge and power upon the world, again and again, all under the Law of THE ALL, of course.\n\nBut, yet, even the highest of these advanced Beings exist merely as creations of, and in, the Mind of THE ALL, and are subject to the Cosmic Processes and Universal Laws. They are still Mortal. We may call them \"gods\" if we like, but still they are but the Elder Brethren of the Race, - the advanced souls who have outstripped their brethren, and who have foregone the ecstasy of Absorption by THE ALL, in order to help the race on its upward journey along The Path. But, they belong to the Universe, and are subject to its conditions - they are mortal - and their plane is below that of Absolute Spirit.\n\nOnly the most advanced Hermetists are able to grasp the Inner Teachings regarding the state of existence, and the powers manifested on the Spiritual Planes. The phenomena is so much higher than that of the Mental Planes that a confusion of ideas would surely result from an attempt to describe the same. Only those whose minds have been carefully trained along the lines of the Hermetic Philosophy for years - yes, those who have brought with them from other incarnations the knowledge acquired previously - can comprehend just what is meant by the Teaching regarding these Spiritual Planes. And much of these Inner Teachings is held by the Hermetists as being too sacred, important and even dangerous for general public dissemination. The intelligent student may recognize what we mean by this when we state that the meaning of \"Spirit\" as used by the Hermetists is akin to \"Living Power\"; \"Animated Force;\" \"Inner Essence;\" \"Essence of Life,\" etc., which meaning must not be confounded with that usually and commonly employed in connection with the term, i.e., \"religious; ecclesiastical; spiritual; ethereal; holy,\" etc., *etc.* To occultists the word \"Spirit\" is used in the sense of \"The Animating Principle,\" carrying with it the idea of Power, Living Energy, Mystic Force, *etc.* And occultists know that that which is known to them as \"Spiritual Power\" may be employed for evil as well as good ends (in accordance with the Principle of Polarity), a fact which has been recognized by the majority of religions in their conceptions of Satan, Beelzebub, the Devil, Lucifer, Fallen Angels, *etc.* And so the knowledge regarding these Planes has been kept in the Holy of Holies in all Esoteric Fraternities and Occult Orders, - in the Secret Chamber of the Temple. But this may be said here, that those who have attained high spiritual powers and have misused them, have a terrible fate in store for them, and the swing of the pendulum of Rhythm will inevitably swing them back to the furthest extreme of Material existence, from which point they must retrace their steps Spiritward, along the weary rounds of The Path, but always with the added torture of having always with them a lingering memory of the heights from which they fell owing to their evil actions. The legends of the Fallen Angels have a basis in actual facts, as all advanced occultists know. The striving for selfish power on the Spiritual Planes inevitably results in the selfish soul losing its spiritual balance and falling back as far as it had previously risen. But to even such a soul, the opportunity of a return is given - and such souls make the return journey, paying the terrible penalty according to the invariable Law.\n\nIn conclusion we would again remind you that according to the Principle of Correspondence, which embodies the truth: \"As Above so Below; as Below, so Above,\" all of the Seven Hermetic Principles are in full operation on all of the many planes, Physical Mental and Spiritual. The Principle of Mental Substance of course applies to all the planes, for all are held in the Mind of THE ALL. The Principle of Correspondence manifests in all, for there is a correspondence, harmony and agreement between the several planes. The Principle of Vibration manifests on all planes, in fact the very differences that go to make the \"planes\" arise from Vibration, as we have explained. The Principle of Polarity manifests on each plane, the extremes of the Poles being apparently opposite and contradictory. The Principle of Rhythm manifests on each Plane, the movement of the phenomena having its ebb and flow, rise and flow, incoming and outgoing. The Principle of Cause and Effect manifests on each Plane, every Effect having its Cause and every Cause having its effect. The Principle of Gender manifests on each Plane, the Creative Energy being always manifest, and operating along the lines of its Masculine and Feminine Aspects.\n\n\"As Above so Below; as Below, so Above.\" This centuries old Hermetic axiom embodies one of the great Principles of Universal Phenomena. As we proceed with our consideration of the remaining Principles, we will see even more clearly the truth of the universal nature of this great Principle of Correspondence.\n\n## Chapter 9. Vibration\n\n*\"Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThe great Third Hermetic Principle - the Principle of Vibration - embodies the truth that Motion is manifest in everything in the Universe - that nothing is at rest - that everything moves, vibrates, and circles. This Hermetic Principle was recognized by some of the early Greek philosophers who embodied it in their systems. But, then, for centuries it was lost sight of by the thinkers outside of the Hermetic ranks. But in the Nineteenth Century physical science re-discovered the truth and the Twentieth Century scientific discoveries have added additional proof of the correctness and truth of this centuries-old Hermetic doctrine.\n\nThe Hermetic Teachings are that not only is everything in constant movement and vibration, but that the \"differences\" between the various manifestations of the universal power are due entirely to the varying rate and mode of vibrations. Not only this, but that even THE ALL, in itself, manifests a constant vibration of such an infinite degree of intensity and rapid motion that it may be practically considered as at rest, the teachers directing the attention of the students to the fact that even on the physical plane a rapidly moving object (such as a revolving wheel) seems to be at rest. The Teachings are to the effect that Spirit is at one end of the Pole of Vibration, the other Pole being certain extremely gross forms of Matter. Between these two poles are millions upon millions of different rates and modes of vibration.\n\nModern Science has proven that all that we call Matter and Energy are but \"modes of vibratory motion,\" and some of the more advanced scientists are rapidly moving toward the positions of the occultists who hold that the phenomena of Mind are likewise modes of vibration or motion. Let us see what science has to say regarding the question of vibrations in matter and energy.\n\nIn the first place, science teaches that all matter manifests, in some degree, the vibrations arising from temperature or heat. Be an object cold or hot - both being but degrees of the same things - it manifests certain heat vibrations, and in that sense is in motion and vibration. Then all particles of Matter are in circular movement, from corpuscle to suns. The planets revolve around suns, and many of them turn on their axes. The suns move around greater central points, and these are believed to move around still greater, and so on, ad infinitum. The molecules of which the particular kinds of Matter are composed are in a state of constant vibration and movement around each other and against each other. The molecules are composed of Atoms, which, likewise, are in a state of constant movement and vibration. The atoms are composed of Corpuscles, sometimes called \"electrons,\" \"ions,\" etc., which also are in a state of rapid motion, revolving around each other, and which manifest a very rapid state and mode of vibration. And, so we see that all forms of Matter manifest Vibration, in accordance with the Hermetic Principle of Vibration.\n\nAnd so it is with the various forms of Energy. Science teaches that Light, Heat, Magnetism and Electricity are but forms of vibratory motion connected in some way with, and probably emanating from the Ether. Science does not as yet attempt to explain the nature of the phenomena known as Cohesion, which is the principle of Molecular Attraction; nor Chemical Affinity, which is the principle of Atomic Attraction; nor Gravitation (the greatest mystery of the three), which is the principle of attraction by which every particle or mass of Matter is bound to every other particle or mass. These three forms of Energy are not as yet understood by science, yet the writers incline to the opinion that these too are manifestations of some form of vibratory energy, a fact which the Hermetists have held and taught for ages past.\n\nThe Universal Ether, which is postulated by science without its nature being understood clearly, is held by the Hermetists to be but a higher manifestation of that which is erroneously called matter - that is to say, Matter at a higher degree of vibration - and is called by them \"The Ethereal Substance.\" The Hermetists teach that this Ethereal Substance is of extreme tenuity and elasticity, and pervades universal space, serving as a medium of transmission of waves of vibratory energy, such as heat, light, electricity, magnetism, *etc.* The Teachings are that The Ethereal Substance is a connecting link between the forms of vibratory energy known as \"Matter\" on the one hand, and \"Energy or Force\" on the other; and also that it manifests a degree of vibration, in rate and mode, entirely its own.\n\nScientists have offered the illustration of a rapidly moving wheel, top, or cylinder, to show the effects of increasing rates of vibration. The illustration supposes a wheel, top, or revolving cylinder, running at a low rate of speed - we will call this revolving thing \"the object\" in following out the illustration. Let us suppose the object moving slowly. It may be seen readily, but no sound of its movement reaches the ear. The speed is gradually increased. In a few moments its movement becomes so rapid that a deep growl or low note may be heard. Then as the rate is increased the note rises one in the musical scale. Then, the motion being still further increased, the next highest note is distinguished. Then, one after another, all the notes of the musical scale appear, rising higher and higher as the motion is increased. Finally when the motions have reached a certain rate the final note perceptible to human ears is reached and the shrill, piercing shriek dies away, and silence follows. No sound is heard from the revolving object, the rate of motion being so high that the human ear cannot register the vibrations. Then comes the perception of rising degrees of Heat. Then after quite a time the eye catches a glimpse of the object becoming a dull dark reddish color. As the rate increases, the red becomes brighter. Then as the speed is increased, the red melts into an orange. Then the orange melts into a yellow. Then follow, successively, the shades of green, blue, indigo, and finally violet, as the rate of sped increases. Then the violet shades away, and all color disappears, the human eye not being able to register them. But there are invisible rays emanating from the revolving object, the rays that are used in photographing, and other subtle rays of light. Then begin to manifest the peculiar rays known as the \"X Rays,\" etc., as the constitution of the object changes. Electricity and Magnetism are emitted when the appropriate rate of vibration is attained.\n\nWhen the object reaches a certain rate of vibration its molecules disintegrate, and resolve themselves into the original elements or atoms. Then the atoms, following the Principle of Vibration, are separated into the countless corpuscles of which they are composed. And finally, even the corpuscles disappear and the object may be said to Be composed of The Ethereal Substance. Science does not dare to follow the illustration further, but the Hermetists teach that if the vibrations be continually increased the object would mount up the successive states of manifestation and would in turn manifest the various mental stages, and then on Spiritward, until it would finally re-enter THE ALL, which is Absolute Spirit. The \"object,\" however, would have ceased to be an \"object\" long before the stage of Ethereal Substance was reached, but otherwise the illustration is correct inasmuch as it shows the effect of constantly increased rates and modes of vibration. It must be remembered, in the above illustration, that at the stages at which the \"object\" throws off vibrations of light, heat, etc., it is not actually \"resolved\" into those forms of energy (which are much higher in the scale), but simply that it reaches a degree of vibration in which those forms of energy are liberated, in a degree, from the confining influences of its molecules, atoms and corpuscles, as the case may be. These forms of energy, although much higher in the scale than matter, are imprisoned and confined in the material combinations, by reason of the energies manifesting through, and using material forms, but thus becoming entangled and confined in their creations of material forms, which, to an extent, is true of all creations, the creating force becoming involved in its creation.\n\nBut the Hermetic Teachings go much further than do those of modern science. They teach that all manifestation of thought, emotion, reason, will or desire, or any mental state or condition, are accompanied by vibrations, a portion of which are thrown off and which tend to affect the minds of other persons by \"induction.\" This is the principle which produces the phenomena of \"telepathy\"; mental influence, and other forms of the action and power of mind over mind, with which the general public is rapidly becoming acquainted, owing to the wide dissemination of occult knowledge by the various schools, cults and teachers along these lines at this time.\n\nEvery thought, emotion or mental state has its corresponding rate and mode of vibration. And by an effort of the will of the person, or of other persons, these mental states may be reproduced, just as a musical tone may be reproduced by causing an instrument to vibrate at a certain rate - just as color may be reproduced in the same may. By a knowledge of the Principle of Vibration, as applied to Mental Phenomena, one may polarize his mind at any degree he wishes, thus gaining a perfect control over his mental states, moods, *etc.* In the same way he may affect the minds of others, producing the desired mental states in them. In short, he may be able to produce on the Mental Plane that which science produces on the Physical Plane - namely, \"Vibrations at Will.\" This power of course may be acquired only by the proper instruction, exercises, practice, etc., the science being that of Mental Transmutation, one of the branches of the Hermetic Art.\n\nA little reflection on what we have said will show the student that the Principle of Vibration underlies the wonderful phenomena of the power manifested by the Masters and Adepts, who are able to apparently set aside the Laws of Nature, but who, in reality, are simply using one law against another; one principle against others; and who accomplish their results by changing the vibrations of material objects, or forms of energy, and thus perform what are commonly called \"miracles.\"\n\nAs one of the old Hermetic writers has truly said: \"He who understands the Principle of Vibration, has grasped the scepter of Power.\"\n\n## Chapter 10. Polarity\n\n*\"Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThe great Fourth Hermetic Principle - the Principle of Polarity embodies the truth that all manifested things have \"two sides\"; \"two aspects\"; \"two poles\"; a \"pair of opposites,\" with manifold degrees between the two extremes. The old paradoxes, which have ever perplexed the mind of men, are explained by an understanding of this Principle. Man has always recognized something akin to this Principle, and has endeavored to express it by such sayings, maxims and aphorisms as the following: \"Everything is and isn't, at the same time\"; \"all truths are but half-truths\"; \"every truth is half-false\"; \"there are two sides to everything\" - \"there is a reverse side to every shield,\" etc., *etc.*\n\nThe Hermetic Teachings are to the effect that the difference between things seemingly diametrically opposed to each other is merely a matter of degree. It teaches that \"the pairs of opposites may be reconciled,\" and that \"thesis and anti-thesis are identical in nature, but different in degree\"; and that the \"universal reconciliation of opposites\" is effected by a recognition of this Principle of Polarity. The teachers claim that illustrations of this Principle may be had on every hand, and from an examination into the real nature of anything. They begin by showing that Spirit and Matter are but the two poles of the same thing, the intermediate planes being merely degrees of vibration. They show that THE ALL and The Many are the same, the difference being merely a matter of degree of Mental Manifestation. Thus the LAW and Laws are the two opposite poles of one thing. Likewise, PRINCIPLE and Principles. Infinite Mind and finite minds.\n\nThen passing on to the Physical Plane, they illustrate the Principle by showing that Heat and Cold are identical in nature, the differences being merely a matter of degrees. The thermometer shows many degrees of temperature, the lowest pole being called \"cold,\" and the highest \"heat.\" Between these two poles are many degrees of \"heat\" or \"cold,\" call them either and you are equally correct. The higher of two degrees is always \"warmer,\" while the lower is always \"colder.\" There is no absolute standard-all is a matter of degree. There is no place on the thermometer where heat ceases and cold begins. It is all a matter of higher or lower vibrations. The very terms \"high\" and \"low,\" which we are compelled to use, are but poles of the same thing-the terms are relative. So with \"East and West\" - travel around the world in an eastward direction, and you reach a point which is called west at your starting point, and you return from that westward point. Travel far enough North, and you will find yourself traveling South, or vice versa.\n\nLight and Darkness are poles of the same thing, with many degrees between them. The musical scale is the same - starting with \"C\" you move upward until you reach another \"C\" and so on, the differences between the two ends of the board being the same, with many degrees between the two extremes. The scale of color is the same-higher and lower vibrations being the only difference between high violet and low red. Large and Small are relative. So are Noise and Quiet; Hard and Soft follow the rule. Likewise Sharp and Dull. Positive and Negative are two poles of the same thing, with countless degrees between them.\n\nGood and Bad are not absolute - we call one end of the scale Good and the other Bad, or one end Good and the other Evil, according to the use of the terms. A thing is \"less good\" than the thing higher in the scale; but that \"less good\" thing, in turn, is \"more good\" than the thing next below it - and so on, the \"more or less\" being regulated by the position on the scale.\n\nAnd so it is on the Mental Plane. \"Love and. Hate\" are generally regarded as being things diametrically opposed to each other; entirely different; unreconcilable. But we apply the Principle of Polarity; we find that there is no such thing as Absolute Love or Absolute Hate, as distinguished from each other. The two are merely terms applied to the two poles of the same thing. Beginning at any point of the scale we find \"more love,\" or \"less hate,\" as we ascend the scale; and \"more hate\" or \"less love\" as we descend this being true no matter from what point, high or low, we may start. There are degrees of Love and Hate, and there is a middle point where \"Like and Dislike\" become so faint that it is difficult to distinguish between them. Courage and Fear come under the same rule. The Pairs of Opposites exist everywhere. Where you find one thing you find its opposite-the two poles.\n\nAnd it is this fact that enables the Hermetist to transmute one mental state into another, along the lines of Polarization. Things belonging to different classes cannot be transmuted into each other, but things of the same class may be changed, that is, may have their polarity changed. Thus Love never becomes East or West, or Red or Violet-but it may and often does turn into Hate and likewise Hate may be transformed into Love, by changing its polarity. Courage may be transmuted into Fear, and the reverse. Hard things may be rendered Soft. Dull things become Sharp. Hot things become Cold. And so on, the transmutation always being between things of the same kind of different degrees. Take the case of a Fearful man. By raising his mental vibrations along the line of Fear-Courage, he can be filled with the highest degree of Courage and Fearlessness. And, likewise, the Slothful man may change himself into an Active, Energetic individual simply by polarizing along the lines of the desired quality.\n\nThe student who is familiar with the processes by which the various schools of Mental Science, etc., produce changes in the mental states of those following their teachings, may not readily understand the principle underlying many of these changes. When, however, the Principle of Polarity is once grasped, and it is seen that the mental changes are occasioned by a change of polarity-a sliding along the same scale-the hatter is readily understood. The change is not in the nature of a transmutation of one thing into another thing entirely different-but is merely a change of degree in the same things, a vastly important difference. For instance, borrowing an analogy from the Physical Plane, it is impossible to change Heat into Sharpness, Loudness, Highness, etc., but Heat may readily be transmuted into Cold, simply by lowering the vibrations. In the same way Hate and Love are mutually transmutable; so are Fear and Courage. But Fear cannot be transformed into Love, nor can Courage be transmuted into Hate. The mental states belong to innumerable classes, each class of which has its opposite poles, along which transmutation is possible.\n\nThe student will readily recognize that in the mental states, as well as in the phenomena of the Physical Plane, the two poles may be classified as Positive and Negative, respectively. Thus Love is Positive to Hate; Courage to Fear; Activity to Non-Activity, etc., *etc.* And it will also be noticed that even to those unfamiliar with the Principle of Vibration, the Positive pole seems to be of a higher degree than the Negative, and readily dominates it. The tendency of Nature is in the direction of the dominant activity of the Positive pole.\n\nIn addition to the changing of the poles of one's own mental states by the operation of the art of Polarization, the phenomena of Mental Influence, in its manifold phases, shows us that the principle may be extended so as to embrace the phenomena of the influence of one mind over that of another, of which so much has been written and taught of late years. When it is understood that Mental Induction is possible, that is that mental states may be produced by \"induction\" from others, then we can readily see how a certain rate of vibration, or polarization of a certain mental state, may be communicated to another person, and his polarity in that class of mental states thus changed. It is along this principle that the results of many of the \"mental treatments\" are obtained. For instance, a person is \"blue,\" melancholy and full of fear. A mental scientist bringing his own mind up to the desired vibration by his trained will, and thus obtaining the desired polarization in his own case, then produces a similar mental state in the other by induction, the result being that the vibrations are raised and the person polarizes toward the Positive end of the scale instead toward the Negative, and his Fear and other negative emotions are transmuted to Courage and similar positive mental states. A little study will show you that these mental changes are nearly all along the line of Polarization, the change being one of degree rather than of kind.\n\nA knowledge of the existence of this great Hermetic Principle will enable the student to better understand his own mental states, and those of other people. He will see that these states are all matters of degree, and seeing thus, he will be able to raise or lower the vibration at will - to change his mental poles, and thus be Master of his mental states, instead of being their servant and slave. And by his knowledge he will be able to aid his fellows intelligently and by the appropriate methods change the polarity when the same is desirable. We advise all students to familiarize themselves with this Principle of Polarity, for a correct understanding of the same will throw light on many difficult subjects.\n\n## Chapter 11. Rhythm\n\n*\"Everything flows out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right, is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThe great Fifth Hermetic Principle - the Principle of Rhythm-embodies the truth that in everything there is manifested a measured motion; a to-and-from movement; a flow and inflow; a swing forward and backward; a pendulum-like movement; a tide-like ebb and flow; a high-tide and a low-tide; between the two-poles manifest on the physical, mental or spiritual planes. The Principle of rhythm is closely connected with the Principle of Polarity described in the preceding chapter. Rhythm manifests between the two poles established by the Principle of Polarity. This does not mean, however, that the pendulum of Rhythm swings to the extreme poles, for this rarely happens; in fact, it is difficult to establish the extreme polar opposites in the majority of cases. But the swing is ever \"toward\" first one pole and then the other.\n\nThere is always an action and reaction; an advance and a retreat; a rising and a sinking; manifested in all of the airs and phenomena of the Universe. Suns, worlds, men, animals, plants, minerals, forces, energy, mind and matter, yes, even Spirit, manifests this Principle. The Principle manifests in the creation and destruction of worlds; in the rise and fall of nations; in the life history of all things; and finally in the mental states of Man.\n\nBeginning with the manifestations of Spirit - of THE ALL - it will be noticed that there is ever the Outpouring and the Indrawing; the \"Outbreathing and Inbreathing of Brahm,\" as the Brahmans word it. Universes are created; reach their extreme low point of materiality; and then begin in their upward swing. Suns spring into being, and then their height of power being reached, the process of retrogression begins, and after aeons they become dead masses of matter, awaiting another impulse which starts again their inner energies into activity and a new solar life cycle is begun. And thus it is with all the worlds; they are born, grow and die; only to be reborn. And thus it is with all the things of shape and form; they swing from action to reaction; from birth to death; from activity to inactivity - and then back again. Thus it is with all living things; they are born, grow, and die - and then are reborn. So it is with all great movements, philosophies, creeds, fashions, governments, nations, and all else-birth, growth, maturity, decadence, death-and then new-birth. The swing of the pendulum is ever in evidence.\n\nNight follows day; and day night. The pendulum swings from Summer to Winter, and then back again. The corpuscles, atoms, molecules, and all masses of matter, swing around the circle of their nature. There is no such thing as absolute rest, or cessation from movement, and all movement partakes of rhythm. The principle is of universal application. It may be applied to any question, or phenomena of any of the many planes of life. It may be applied to all phases of human activity. There is always the Rhythmic swing from one pole to the other. The Universal Pendulum is ever in motion. The Tides of Life flow in and out, according to Law.\n\nThe Principle of rhythm is well understood by modern science, and is considered a universal law as applied to material things. But the Hermetists carry the principle much further, and know that its manifestations and influence extend to the mental activities of Man, and that it accounts for the bewildering succession of moods, feelings and other annoying and perplexing changes that we notice in ourselves. But the Hermetists by studying the operations of this Principle have learned to escape some of its activities by Transmutation.\n\nThe Hermetic Masters long since discovered that while the Principle of Rhythm was invariable, and ever in evidence in mental phenomena, still there were two planes of its manifestation so far as mental phenomena are concerned. They discovered that there were two general planes of Consciousness, the Lower and the Higher, the understanding of which fact enabled them to rise to the higher plane and thus escape the swing of the Rhythmic pendulum which manifested on the lower plane. In other words, the swing of the pendulum occurred on the Unconscious Plane, and the Consciousness was not affected. This they call the Law of Neutralization. Its operations consist in the raising of the Ego above the vibrations of the Unconscious Plane of mental activity, so that the negative-swing of the pendulum is not manifested in consciousness, and therefore they are not affected. It is akin to rising above a thing and letting it pass beneath you. The Hermetic Master, or advanced student, polarizes himself at the desired pole, and by a process akin to \"refusing\" to participate in the backward swing or, if you prefer, a \"denial\" of its influence over him, he stands firm in his polarized position, and allows the mental pendulum to swing back along the unconscious plane. All individuals who have attained any degree of self-mastery, accomplish this, more or less unknowingly, and by refusing to allow their moods and negative mental states to affect them, they apply the Law of Neutralization. The Master, however, carries this to a much higher degree of proficiency, and by the use of his Will he attains a degree of Poise and Mental Firmness almost impossible of belief on the part of those who allow themselves to be swung backward and forward by the mental pendulum of moods and feelings.\n\nThe importance of this will be appreciated by any thinking person who realizes what creatures of moods, feelings and emotion the majority of people are, and how little mastery of themselves they manifest. If you will stop and consider a moment, you will realize how much these swings of Rhythm have affected you in your life - how a period of Enthusiasm has been invariably followed by an opposite feeling and mood of Depression. Likewise, your moods and periods of Courage have been succeeded by equal moods of Fear. And so it has ever been with the majority of persons - tides of feeling have ever risen and fallen with them, but they have never suspected the cause or reason of the mental phenomena. An understanding of the workings of this Principle will give one the key to the Mastery of these rhythmic swings of feeling, and will enable him to know himself better and to avoid being carried away by these inflows and outflows. The Will is superior to the conscious manifestation of this Principle, although the Principle itself can never be destroyed. We may escape its effects, but the Principle operates, nevertheless. The pendulum ever swings, although we may escape being carried along with it.\n\nThere are other features of the operation of this Principle of Rhythm of which we wish to speak at this point. There comes into its operations that which is known as the Law of Compensation. One of the definitions or meanings of the word \"Compensate\" is, \"to counterbalance\" which is the sense in which the Hermetists use the term. It is this Law of Compensation to which the Kybalion refers when it says: \"The measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates.\"\n\nThe Law of Compensation is that the swing in one direction determines the swing in the opposite direction, or to the opposite pole-the one balances, or counterbalances, the other. On the Physical Plane we see many examples of this Law. The pendulum of the clock swings a certain distance to the right, and then an equal distance to the left. The seasons balance each other in the same way. The tides follow the same Law. And the same Law is manifested in all the phenomena of Rhythm. The pendulum, with a short swing in one direction, has but a short swing in the other; while the long swing to the right invariably means the long swing to the left. An object hurled upward to a certain height has an equal distance to traverse on its return. The force with which a projectile is sent upward a mile is reproduced when the projectile returns to the earth on its return journey. This Law is constant on the Physical Plane, as reference to the standard authorities will show you.\n\nBut the Hermetists carry it still further. They teach that a man's mental states are subject to the same Law. The man who enjoys keenly, is subject to keen suffering; while he who feels but little pain is capable of feeling but little joy. The pig suffers but little mentally, and enjoys but little - he is compensated. And on the other hand, there are other animals who enjoy keenly, but whose nervous organism and temperament cause them to suffer exquisite degrees of pain and so it is with Man. There are temperaments which permit of but low degrees of enjoyment, and equally low degrees of suffering; while there are others which permit the most intense enjoyment, but also the most intense suffering. The rule is that the capacity for pain and pleasure, in each individual, are balanced. The Law of Compensation is in full operation here.\n\nBut the Hermetists go still further in this matter. They teach that before one is able to enjoy a certain degree of pleasure, he must have swung as far, proportionately, toward the other pole of feeling. They hold, however, that the Negative is precedent to the Positive in this matter, that is to say that in experiencing a certain degree of pleasure it does not follow that he will have to \"pay up for it\" with a corresponding degree of pain; on the contrary, the pleasure is the Rhythmic swing, according to the Law of Compensation, for a degree of pain previously experienced either in the present life, or in a previous incarnation. This throws a new light on the Problem of Pain.\n\nThe Hermetists regard the chain of lives as continuous, and as forming a part of one life of the individual, so that in consequence the rhythmic swing is understood in this way, while it would be without meaning unless the truth of reincarnation is admitted.\n\nBut the Hermetists claim that the Master or advanced student is able, to a great degree, to escape the swing toward Pain, by the process of Neutralization before mentioned. By rising on to the higher plane of the Ego, much of the experience that comes to those dwelling on the lower plane is avoided and escaped.\n\nThe Law of Compensation plays an important part in the lives of men and women. It will be noticed that one generally \"pays the price\" of anything he possesses or lacks. If he has one thing, he lacks another - the balance is struck. No one can \"keep his penny and have the bit of cake\" at the same time Everything has its pleasant and unpleasant sides. The things that one gains are always paid for by the things that one loses. The rich possess much that the poor lack, while the poor often possess things that are beyond the reach of the rich. The millionaire may have the inclination toward feasting, and the wealth wherewith to secure all the dainties and luxuries of the table, while he lacks the appetite to enjoy the same; he envies the appetite and digestion of the laborer who lacks the wealth and inclinations of the millionaire, and who gets more pleasure from his plain food than the millionaire could obtain even if his appetite were not jaded, nor his digestion ruined, for the wants, habits and inclinations differ. And so it is through life. The Law of Compensation is ever in operation, striving to balance and counterbalance, and always succeeding in time, even though several lives may be required for the return swing of the Pendulum of Rhythm.\n\n## Chapter 12. Causation\n\n*\"Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThe great Sixth Hermetic Principle - the Principle of Cause and Effect - embodies the truth that Law pervades the Universe; that nothing happens by Chance; that Chance is merely a term indicating cause existing but not recognized or perceived; that phenomena is continuous, without break or exception.\n\nThe Principle of Cause and Effect underlies all scientific thought, ancient and modern, and was enunciated by the Hermetic Teachers in the earliest days. While many and varied disputes between the many schools of thought have since arisen, these disputes have been principally upon the details of the operations of the Principle, and still more often upon the meaning of certain words. The underlying Principle of Cause and Effect has been accepted as correct by practically all the thinkers of the world worthy of the name. To think otherwise would be to take the phenomena of the universe from the domain of Law and Order, and to relegate it; to the control of the imaginary something which men have called \"Chance.\"\n\nA little consideration will show anyone that there is in reality no such thing as pure chance. Webster defines the word \"Chance\" as follows: \"A supposed agent or mode of activity other than a force, law or purpose; the operation or activity of such agent; the supposed effect of such an agent; a happening; fortuity; casualty, etc.\" But a little consideration will show you that there can be no such agent as \"Chance,\" in the sense of something outside of Law-something outside of Cause and Effect. How could there be a something acting in the phenomenal universe, independent of the laws, order, and continuity of the latter? Such a something would be entirely independent of the orderly trend of the universe, and therefore superior to it. We can imagine nothing outside of THE ALL being outside of the Law, and that only because THE ALL is the LAW in itself. There is no room in the universe for a something outside of and independent of Law. The existence of such a Something would render all Natural Laws ineffective, and would plunge the universe into chaotic disorder and lawlessness.\n\nA careful examination will show that what we call \"Chance\" is merely an expression relating to obscure causes; causes that we cannot perceive; causes that we cannot understand. The word Chance is derived from a word Meaning \"to fall\" (as the falling of dice), the idea being that the fall of the dice (and many other happenings) are merely a \"happening\" unrelated to any cause. And this is the sense in which the term is generally employed. But when the matter is closely examined, it is seen that there is no chance whatsoever about the fall of the dice. Each time a die falls, and displays a certain number, it obeys a law as infallible as that which governs the revolution of the planets around the sun. Back of the fall of the die are causes, or chains of causes, running back further than the mind can follow. The position of the die in the box; the amount of muscular energy expended in the throw; the condition of the table, etc., etc., all are causes, the effect of which may be seen. But back of these seen causes there are chains of unseen preceding causes, all of which had a bearing upon the number of the die which fell uppermost.\n\nIf a die be cast a great number of times, it will be found that the numbers shown will be about equal, that is, there will be an equal number of one-spot, two-spot, etc., coming uppermost. Toss a penny in the air, and it may come down either \"heads\" or \"tails\"; but make a sufficient number of tosses, and the heads and tails will about even up. This is the operation of the law of average. But both the average and the single toss come under the Law of Cause and Effect, and if we were able to examine into the preceding causes, it would be clearly seen that it was simply impossible for the die to fall other than it did, under the same circumstances and at the same time. Given the same causes, the same results will follow. There is always a \"cause\" and a \"because\" to every event. Nothing ever \"happens\" without a cause, or rather a chain of causes.\n\nSome confusion has arisen in the minds of persons considering this Principle, from the fact that they were unable to explain how one thing could cause another thing - that is, be the \"creator\" of the second thing. As a matter of fact, no \"thing\" ever causes or \"creates\" another \"thing.\" Cause and Effect deals merely with \"events.\" An \"event\" is \"that which comes, arrives or happens, as a result or consequent of some preceding event.\" No event \"creates\" another event, but is merely a preceding link in the great orderly chain of events flowing from the creative energy of THE ALL. There is a continuity between all events precedent, consequent and subsequent. There is a relation existing between everything that has gone before, and everything that follows. A stone is dislodged from a mountain side and crashes through a roof of a cottage in the valley below. At first sight we regard this as a chance effect, but when we examine the matter we find a great chain of causes behind it. In the first place there was the rain which softened the earth supporting the stone and which allowed it to fall; then back of that was the influence of the sun, other rains, etc., which gradually disintegrated the piece of rock from a larger piece; then there were the causes which led to the formation of the mountain, and its upheaval by convulsions of nature, and so on ad infinitum. Then we might follow up the causes behind the rain, *etc.* Then we might consider the existence of the roof In short, we would soon find ourselves involved in a mesh of cause and effect, from which we would soon strive to extricate ourselves.\n\nJust as a man has two parents, and four grandparents, and eight great-grandparents, and sixteen great-great-grandparents, and so on until when, say, forty generations are calculated the numbers of ancestors run into many millions - so it is with the number of causes behind even the most trifling event or phenomena, such as the passage of a tiny speck of soot before your eye. It is not an easy matter to trace the bit of soot hack to the early period of the world's history when it formed a part of a massive tree-trunk, which was afterward converted into coal, and so on, until as the speck of soot it now passes before your vision on its way to other adventures. And a mighty chain of events, causes and effects, brought it to its present condition, and the later is but one of the chain of events which will go to produce other events hundreds of years from now. One of the series of events arising from the tiny bit of soot was the writing of these lines, which caused the typesetter to perform certain work; the proofreader to do likewise; and which will arouse certain thoughts in your mind, and that of others, which in turn will affect others, and so on, and on, and on, beyond the ability of man to think further-and all from the passage of a tiny bit of soot, all of which shows the relativity and association of things, and the further fact that \"there is no great; there is no small, in the mind that causeth all.\"\n\nStop to think a moment. If a certain man had not met a certain maid, away back in the dim period of the Stone Age - you who are now reading these lines would not now be here. And if, perhaps, the same couple had failed to meet, we who now write these lines would not now be here. And the very act of writing, on our part, and the act of reading, on yours, will affect not only the respective lives of yourself and ourselves, but will also have a direct, or indirect, affect upon many other people now living and who will live in the ages to come. Every thought we think, every act we perform, has its direct and indirect results which fit into the great chain of Cause and Effect.\n\nWe do not wish to enter into a consideration of Free Will, or Determinism, in this work, for various reasons. Among the many reasons, is the principal one that neither side of the controversy is entirely right-in fact, both sides are partially right, according to the Hermetic Teachings. The Principle of Polarity shows that both are but Half-Truths the opposing poles of Truth. The Teachings are that a man may be both Free and yet bound by Necessity, depending upon the meaning of the terms, and the height of Truth from which the matter is examined. The ancient writers express the matter thus: \"The further the creation is from the Centre, the more it is bound; the nearer the Centre it reaches, the nearer Free is it.\"\n\nThe majority of people are more or less the slaves of heredity, environment, etc., and manifest very little Freedom. They are swayed by the opinions, customs and thoughts of the outside world, and also by their emotions, feelings, moods, *etc.* They manifest no Mastery, worthy of the name. They indignantly repudiate this assertion, saying, \"Why, I certainly am free to act and do as I please - I do just what I want to do,\" but they fail to explain whence arise the \"want to\" and \"as I please.\" What makes them \"want to\" do one thing in preference to another; what makes them \"please\" to do this, and not do that? Is there no \"because\" to their \"pleasing\" and \"Wanting\"? The Master can change these \"pleases\" and \"wants\" into others at the opposite end of the mental pole. He is able to \"Will to will,\" instead of to will because some feeling, mood, emotion, or environmental suggestion arouses a tendency or desire within him so to do.\n\nThe majority of people are carried along like the falling stone, obedient to environment, outside influences and internal moods, desires, etc., not to speak of the desires and wills of others stronger than themselves, heredity, environment, and suggestion, carrying them along without resistance on their part, or the exercise of the Will. Moved like the pawns on the checkerboard of life, they play their parts and are laid aside after the game is over. But the Masters, knowing the rules of the game, rise above the plane of material life, and placing themselves in touch with the higher powers of their nature, dominate their own moods, characters, qualities, and polarity, as well as the environment surrounding them and thus become Movers in the game, instead of Pawns-Causes instead of Effects. The Masters do not escape the Causation of the higher planes, but fall in with the higher laws, and thus master circumstances on the lower plane. They thus form a conscious part of the Law, instead of being mere blind instruments. While they Serve on the Higher Planes, they Rule on the Material Plane.\n\nBut, on higher and on lower, the Law is always in operation. There is no such thing as Chance. The blind goddess has been abolished by Reason. We are able to see now, with eyes made clear by knowledge, that everything is governed by Universal Law-that the infinite number of laws are but manifestations of the One Great Law-the LAW which is THE ALL. It is true indeed that not a sparrow drops unnoticed by the Mind of THE AL - that even the hairs on our head are numbered - as the scriptures have said There is nothing outside of Law; nothing that happens contrary to it. And yet, do not make the mistake of supposing that Man is but a blind automaton-far from that. The Hermetic Teachings are that Man may use Law to overcome laws, and that the higher will always prevail against the lower, until at last he has reached the stage in which he seeks refuge in the LAW itself, and laughs the phenomenal laws to scorn. Are you able to grasp the inner meaning of this?\n\n## Chapter 13. Gender\n\n*\"Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThe great Seventh Hermetic Principle - the Principle of Gender - embodies the truth that there is Gender manifested in everything - that the Masculine and Feminine principles are ever present and active in all phases of phenomena, on each and every plane of life. At this point we think it well to call your attention to the fact that Gender, in its Hermetic sense, and Sex in the ordinarily accepted use of the term, are not the same.\n\nThe word \"Gender\" is derived from the Latin root meaning \"to beget; to procreate; to generate; to create; to produce.\" A moment's consideration will show you that the word has a much broader and more general meaning than the term \"Sex,\" the latter referring to the physical distinctions between male and female living things. Sex is merely a manifestation of Gender on a certain plane of the Great Physical Plane - the plane of organic life. We wish to impress this distinction upon your minds, for the reason that certain writers, who have acquired a smattering of the Hermetic Philosophy, have sought to identify this Seventh Hermetic Principle with wild and fanciful, and often reprehensible, theories and teachings regarding Sex.\n\nThe office of Gender is solely that of creating, producing, generating, etc., and its manifestations are visible on every plane of phenomena. It is somewhat difficult to produce proofs of this along scientific lines, for the reason that science has not as yet recognized this Principle as of universal application. But still some proofs are forthcoming from scientific sources. In the first place, we find a distinct manifestation of the Principle of Gender among the corpuscles, ions, or electrons, which constitute the basis of Matter as science now knows the latter, and which by forming certain combinations form the Atom, which until lately was regarded as final and indivisible.\n\nThe latest word of science is that the atom is composed of a multitude of corpuscles, electrons, or ions (the various names being applied by different authorities) revolving around each other and vibrating at a high degree and intensity. But the accompanying statement is made that the formation of the atom is really due to the clustering of negative corpuscles around a positive one - -the positive corpuscles seeming to exert a certain influence upon the negative corpuscles, causing the latter to assume certain combinations and thus \"create\" or \"generate\" an atom. This is in line with the most ancient Hermetic Teachings, which have always identified the Masculine principle of Gender with the \"Positive,\" and the Feminine with the \"Negative\" Poles of Electricity (so called).\n\nNow a word at this point regarding this identification. The public mind has formed an entirely erroneous impression regarding the qualities of the so-called \"Negative\" pole of electrified or magnetized Matter. The terms Positive and Negative are very wrongly applied to this phenomenon by science. The word Positive means something real and strong, as compared with a Negative unreality or weakness. Nothing is further from the real facts of electrical phenomenon. The so-called Negative pole of the battery is really the pole in and by which the generation or production of new forms and energies is manifested. There is nothing \"negative\" about it. The best scientific authorities now use the word \"Cathode\" in place of \"Negative,\" the word Cathode coming from the Greek root meaning \"descent; the path of generation, etc,\" From the Cathode pole emerge the swarm of electrons or corpuscles; from the same pole emerge those wonderful \"rays\" which have revolutionized scientific conceptions during the past decade. The Cathode pole is the Mother of all of the strange phenomena which have rendered useless the old textbooks, and which have caused many long accepted theories to be relegated to the scrap-pile of scientific speculation. The Cathode, or Negative Pole, is the Mother Principle of Electrical Phenomena, and of the finest forms of matter as yet known to science. So you see we are justified in refusing to use the term \"Negative\" in our consideration of the subject, and in insisting upon substituting the word \"Feminine\" for the old term. The facts of the case bear us out in this, without taking the Hermetic Teachings into consideration. And so we shall use the word \"Feminine\" in the place of \"Negative\" in speaking of that pole of activity.\n\nThe latest scientific teachings are that the creative corpuscles or electrons are Feminine (science says \"they are composed of negative electricity\"-we say they are composed of Feminine energy). A Feminine corpuscle becomes detached from, or rather leaves, a Masculine corpuscle, and starts on a new career. It actively seeks a union with a Masculine corpuscle, being urged thereto by the natural impulse to create new forms of Matter or Energy. One writer goes so far as to use the term \"it at once seeks, of its own volition, a union,\" *etc.* This detachment and uniting form the basis of the greater part of the activities of the chemical world. When the Feminine corpuscle unites with a Masculine corpuscle, a certain process is begun. The Feminine particles vibrate rapidly under the influence of the Masculine energy, and circle rapidly around the latter. The result is the birth of a new atom. This new atom is really composed of a union of the Masculine and Feminine electrons, or corpuscles, but when the union is formed the atom is a separate thing, having certain properties, but no longer manifesting the property of free electricity. The process of detachment or separation of the Feminine electrons is called \"ionization.\" These electrons, or corpuscles, are the most active workers in Nature's field. Arising from their unions, or combinations, manifest the varied phenomena of light, heat, electricity, magnetism, attraction, repulsion, chemical affinity and the reverse, and similar phenomena. And all this arises from the operation of the Principle of Gender on the plane of Energy.\n\nThe part of the Masculine principle seems to be that of directing a certain inherent energy toward the Feminine principle, and thus starting into activity the creative processes. But the Feminine principle is the one always doing the active creative work-and this is so on all planes. And yet, each principle is incapable of operative energy without the assistance of the other. In some of the forms of life, the two principles are combined in one organism. For that matter, everything in the organic world manifests both genders - there is always the Masculine present in the Feminine form, and the Feminine form. The Hermetic Teachings include much regarding the operation of the two principles of Gender in the production and manifestation of various forms of energy, etc., but we do not deem it expedient to go into detail regarding the same at this point, because we are unable to back up the same with scientific proof, for the reason that science has not as yet progressed thus far. But the example we have given you of the phenomena of the electrons or corpuscles will show you that science is on the right path, and will also give you a general idea of the underlying principles.\n\nSome leading scientific investigators have announced their belief that in the formation of crystals there was to be found something that corresponded to \"sex-activity\" which is another straw showing the direction the scientific winds are blowing. And each year will bring other facts to corroborate the correctness of the Hermetic Principle of Gender. It will be found that Gender is in constant operation and manifestation in the field of inorganic matter, and in the field of Energy or Force. Electricity is now generally regarded as the \"Something\" into which all other forms of energy seem to melt or dissolve. The \"Electrical Theory of the Universe\" is the latest scientific doctrine, and is growing rapidly in popularity and general acceptance. And it thus follows that if we are able to discover in the phenomena of electricity-even at the very root and source of its manifestations a clear and unmistakable evidence of the presence of Gender and its activities, we are justified in asking you to believe that science at last has offered proofs of the existence in all universal phenomena of that great Hermetic Principle-the Principle of Gender.\n\nIt is not necessary to take up your time with the well known phenomena of the \"attraction and repulsion\" of the atoms; chemical affinity; the \"loves and hates\" of the atomic particles; the attraction or cohesion between the molecules of matter. These facts are too well known to need extended comment from us. But, have you ever considered that all of these things are manifestations of the Gender Principle? Can you not see that the phenomena is \"on all fours\" with that of the corpuscles or electrons? And more than this, can you not see the reasonableness of the Hermetic Teachings which assert that the very Law of Gravitation-that strange attraction by reason of which all particles and bodies of matter in the universe tend toward each other is but another manifestation of the Principle of Gender, which operates in the direction of attracting the Masculine to the Feminine energies, and vice versa? We cannot offer you scientific proof of this at this time-but examine the phenomena in the light of the Hermetic Teachings on the subject, and see if you have not a better working hypothesis than any offered by physical science. Submit all physical phenomena to the test, and you will discern the Principle of Gender ever in evidence.\n\nLet us now pass on to a consideration of the operation of the Principle on the Mental Plane. Many interesting features are there awaiting examination.\n\n## Chapter 14. Mental Gender\n\nStudents of psychology who have followed the modern trend of thought along the lines of mental phenomena are struck by the persistence of the dual-mind idea which has manifested itself so strongly during the past ten or fifteen years, and which has given rise to a number of plausible theories regarding the nature and constitution of these \"two minds.\" The late Thomson J. Hudson attained great popularity in 1893 by advancing his well-known theory of the \"objective and subjective minds\" which he held existed in every individual. Other writers have attracted almost equal attention by the theories regarding the \"conscious and subconscious minds\"; the \"voluntary and involuntary minds\"; \"the active and passive minds,\" etc., *etc.* The theories of the various writers differ from each other, but there remains the underlying principle of \"the duality of mind.\"\n\nThe student of the Hermetic Philosophy is tempted to smile when he reads and hears of these many \"new theories\" regarding the duality of mind, each school adhering tenaciously to its own pet theories, and each claiming to have \"discovered the truth.\" The student turns back the pages of occult history, and away back in the dim beginnings of occult teachings he finds references to the ancient Hermetic doctrine of the Principle of Gender on the Mental Plane-the manifestation of Mental Gender. And examining further he finds that the ancient philosophy took cognizance of the phenomenon of the \"dual mind,\" and accounted for it by the theory of Mental Gender. This idea of Mental Gender may be explained in a few words to students who are familiar with the modern theories just alluded to. The Masculine Principle of Mind corresponds to the so-called Objective Mind; Conscious Mind; Voluntary Mind; Active Mind, *etc.* And the Feminine Principle of Mind corresponds to the so-called Subjective Mind; Subconscious Mind; Involuntary Mind; Passive Mind, *etc.* Of course the Hermetic Teachings do not agree with the many modern theories regarding the nature of the two phases of mind, nor does it admit many of the facts claimed for the two respective aspects - some of the said theories and claims being very far-fetched and incapable of standing the test of experiment and demonstration. We point to the phases of agreement merely for the purpose of helping the student to assimilate his previously acquired knowledge with the teachings of the Hermetic Philosophy. Students of Hudson will notice the statement at the beginning of his second chapter of \"The Law of Psychic Phenomena,\" that: \"The mystic jargon of the Hermetic philosophers discloses the same general idea\" i.e., the duality of mind. If Dr. Hudson had taken the time and trouble to decipher a little of \"the mystic jargon of the Hermetic Philosophy,\" he might have received much light upon the subject of \"the dual mind\" - but then, perhaps, his most interesting work might not have been written. Let us now consider the Hermetic Teachings regarding Mental Gender.\n\nThe Hermetic Teachers impart their instruction regarding this subject by bidding their students examine the report of their consciousness regarding their Self. The students are bidden to turn their attention inward upon the Self dwelling within each. Each student is led to see that his consciousness gives him first a report of the existence of his Self-the report is \"I Am.\" This at first seems to be the final words from the consciousness, but a little further examination discloses the fact that this \"I Am\" may be separated or split into two distinct parts, or aspects, which while working in unison and in conjunction, yet, nevertheless, may be separated in consciousness.\n\nWhile at first there seems to be only an \"I\" existing, a more careful and closer examination reveals the fact that there exists an \"I\" and a \"Me.\" These mental twins differ in their characteristics and nature, and an examination of their nature and the phenomena arising from the same will throw much light upon many of the problems of mental influence.\n\nLet us begin with a consideration of the Me, which is usually mistaken for the I by the student, until he presses the inquiry a little further back into the recesses of consciousness. A man thinks of his Self (in its aspect of Me) as being composed of certain feelings, tastes likes, dislikes, habits, peculiar ties, characteristics, etc., all of which go to make up his personality, or the \"Self\" known to himself and others. He knows that these emotions and feelings change; are born and die away; are subject to the Principle of Rhythm, and the Principle of Polarity, which take him from one extreme of feeling to another. He also thinks of the \"Me\" as being certain knowledge gathered together in his mind, and thus forming a part of himself. This is the \"Me\" of a man.\n\nBut we have proceeded too hastily. The \"Me\" of many men may be said to consist largely of their consciousness of the body and their physical appetites, *etc.* Their consciousness being largely bound up with their bodily nature, they practically \"live there.\" Some men even go so far as to regard their personal apparel as a part of their \"Me\" and actually seem to consider it a part of themselves. A writer has humorously said that \"men consist of three parts - soul, body and clothes.\" These \"clothes conscious\" people would lose their personality if divested of their clothing by savages upon the occasion of a shipwreck. But even many who are not so closely bound up with the idea of personal raiment stick closely to the consciousness of their bodies being their \"Me\" They cannot conceive of a Self independent of the body. Their mind seems to them to be practically \"a something belonging to\" their body-which in many cases it is indeed.\n\nBut as man rises in the scale of consciousness he is able to disentangle his \"Me\" from his idea of body, and is able to think of his body as \"belonging to\" the mental part of him. But even then he is very apt to identify the \"Me\" entirely with the mental states, feelings, etc., which he feels to exist within him. He is very apt to consider these internal states as identical with himself, instead of their being simply \"things\" produced by some part of his mentality, and existing within him - of him, and in him, but still not \"himself.\" He sees that he may change these internal states of feelings by all effort of will, and that he may produce a feeling or state of an exactly opposite nature, in the same way, and yet the same \"Me\" exists. And so after a while he is able to set aside these various mental states, emotions, feelings, habits, qualities, characteristics, and other personal mental belongings - he is able to set them aside in the \"not-me\" collection of curiosities and encumbrances, as well as valuable possessions. This requires much mental concentration and power of mental analysis on the part of the student. But still the task is possible for the advanced student, and even those not so far advanced are able to see, in the imagination, how the process may be performed.\n\nAfter this laying-aside process has been performed, the student will find himself in conscious possession of a \"Self\" which may be considered in its \"I\" and \"Me\" dual aspects. The \"Me\" will be felt to be a Something mental in which thoughts, ideas, emotions, feelings, and other mental states may be produced. It may be considered as the \"mental womb,\" as the ancients styled it-capable of generating mental offspring. It reports to the consciousness as a \"Me\" with latent powers of creation and generation of mental progeny of all sorts and kinds. Its powers of creative energy are felt to be enormous. But still it seems to be conscious that it must receive some form of energy from either its \"I\" companion, or else from some other \"I\" ere it is able to bring into being its mental creations. This consciousness brings with it a realization of an enormous capacity for mental work and creative ability.\n\nBut the student soon finds that this is not all that he finds within his inner consciousness. He finds that there exists a mental Something which is able to Will that the \"Me\" act along certain creative lines, and which is also able to stand aside and witness the mental creation. This part of himself he is taught to call his \"I.\" He is able to rest in its consciousness at will. He finds there not a consciousness of an ability to generate and actively create, in the sense of the gradual process attendant upon mental operations, but rather a sense and consciousness of an ability to project an energy from the \"I\" to the \"Me\" - a process of \"willing\" that the mental creation begin and proceed. He also finds that the \"I\" is able to stand aside and witness the operations of the \"Me's\" mental creation and generation. There is this dual aspect in the mind of every person. The \"I\" represents the Masculine Principle of Mental Gender-the \"Me\" represents the Female Principle. The \"I\" represents the Aspect of Being; the \"Me\" the Aspect of Becoming. You will notice that the Principle of Correspondence operates on this plane just as it does upon the great plane upon which the creation of Universes is performed. The two are similar in kind, although vastly different in degree. \"As above, so below; as below, so above.\"\n\nThese aspects of mind-the Masculine and Feminine Principles-the \"I\" and the \"Me\"-considered in connection with the well-known mental and psychic phenomena, give the master-key to these dimly known regions of mental operation and manifestation. The principle of Mental Gender gives the truth underlying the whole field of the phenomena of mental influence, *etc.*\n\nThe tendency of the Feminine Principle is always in the direction of receiving impressions, while the tendency of the Masculine Principle is always in the direction of giving, out or expressing. The Feminine Principle has much more varied field of operation than has the Masculine Principle. The Feminine Principle conducts the work of generating new thoughts, concepts, ideas, including the work of the imagination. The Masculine Principle contents itself with the work of the \"Will\" in its varied phases. And yet, without the active aid of the Will of the Masculine Principle, the Feminine Principle is apt to rest content with generating mental images which are the result of impressions received from outside, instead of producing original mental creations.\n\nPersons who can give continued attention and thought to a subject actively employ both of the Mental Principles-the Feminine in the work of the mental generation, and the Masculine Will in stimulating and energizing the creative portion of the mind. The majority of persons really employ the Masculine Principle but little, and are content to live according to the thoughts and ideas instilled into the \"Me\" from the \"I\" of other minds. But it is not our purpose to dwell upon this phase of the subject, which may be studied from any good text-book upon psychology, with the key that we have given you regarding Mental Gender.\n\nThe student of Psychic Phenomena is aware of the wonderful phenomena classified under the head of Telepathy; Thought Transference; Mental Influence; Suggestion; Hypnotism, *etc.* Many have sought for an explanation of these varied phases of phenomena under the theories of the various \"dual mind\" teachers. And in a measure they are right, for there is clearly a manifestation of two distinct phases of mental activity. But if such students will consider these \"dual minds\" in the light of the Hermetic Teachings regarding Vibrations and Mental Gender, they will see that the long sought for key is at hand.\n\nIn the phenomena of Telepathy it is seen how the Vibratory Energy of the Masculine Principle is projected toward the Feminine Principle of another person, and the latter takes the seed-thought and allows it to develop into maturity. In the same way Suggestion and Hypnotism operates. The Masculine Principle of the person giving the suggestions directs a stream of Vibratory Energy or Will-Power toward the Feminine Principle of the other person, and the latter accepting it makes it its own and acts and thinks accordingly. An idea thus lodged in the mind of another person grows and develops, and in time is regarded as the rightful mental offspring of the individual, whereas it is in reality like the cuckoo egg placed in the sparrows nest, where it destroys the rightful offspring and makes itself at home. The normal method is for the Masculine and Feminine Principles in a person's mind to co-ordinate and act harmoniously in conjunction with each other, but, unfortunately, the Masculine Principle in the average person is too lazy to act-the display of Will-Power is too slight-and the consequence is that such persons are ruled almost entirely by the minds and wills of other persons, whom they allow to do their thinking and willing for them. How few original thoughts or original actions are performed by the average person? Are not the majority of persons mere shadows and echoes of others having stronger wills or minds than themselves? The trouble is that the average person dwells almost altogether in his \"Me\" consciousness and does not realize that he has such a thing as an \"I.\" He is polarized in his Feminine Principle of Mind, and the Masculine Principle, in which is lodged the Will, is allowed to remain inactive and not employed.\n\nThe strong men and women of the world invariably manifest the Masculine Principle of Will, and their strength depends materially upon this fact. Instead of living upon the impressions made upon their minds by others, they dominate their own minds by their Will, obtaining the kind of mental images desired, and moreover dominate the minds of others likewise, in the same manner. Look at the strong people, how they manage to implant their seed-thoughts in the minds of the masses of the people, thus causing the latter to think thoughts in accordance with the desires and wills of the strong individuals. This is why the masses of people are such sheeplike creatures, never originating an idea of their own, nor using their own powers of mental activity.\n\nThe manifestation of Mental Gender may be noticed all around us in everyday life. The magnetic persons are those who are able to use the Masculine Principle in the way of impressing their ideas upon others. The actor who makes people weep or cry as he wills, is employing this principle. And so is the successful orator, statesman, preacher, writer or other people who are before the public attention. The peculiar influence exerted by some people over others is due to the manifestation of Mental Gender, along the Vibrational lines above indicated. In this principle lies the secret of personal magnetism, personal influence, fascination, etc., as well as the phenomena generally grouped under the name of Hypnotism.\n\nThe student who has familiarized himself with the phenomena generally spoken of as \"psychic\" will have discovered the important part played in the said phenomena by that force which science has styled \"Suggestion,\" by which term is meant the process or method whereby an idea is transferred to, or \"impressed upon\" the mind of another, causing the second mind to act in accordance therewith. A correct understanding of Suggestion is necessary in order to intelligently comprehend the varied psychical phenomena which Suggestion underlies. But, still more is a knowledge of Vibration and Mental Gender necessary for the student of Suggestion. For the whole principle of Suggestion depends upon the principle of Mental Gender and Vibration.\n\nIt is customary for the writers and teachers of Suggestion to explain that it is the \"objective or voluntary\" mind which make the mental impression, or suggestion, upon the \"subjective or involuntary\" mind. But they do not describe the process or give us any analogy in nature whereby we may more readily comprehend the idea. But if you will think of the matter in the light of the Hermetic Teachings you will be able to see that the energizing of the Feminine Principle by the Vibratory Energy of the Masculine Principle Is in accordance to the universal laws of nature, and that the natural world affords countless analogies whereby the principle may be understood. In fact, the Hermetic Teachings show that the very creation of the Universe follows the same law, and that in all creative manifestations, upon the planes of the spiritual, the mental, and the physical, there is always in operation this principle of Gender-this manifestation of the Masculine and the Feminine Principles. \"As above, so below; as below, so above.\" And more than this, when the principle of Mental Gender is once grasped and understood, the varied phenomena of psychology at once becomes capable of intelligent classification and study, instead of being very much in the dark. The principle \"works out\" in practice, because it is based upon the immutable universal laws of life.\n\nWe shall not enter into an extended discussion of, or description of, the varied phenomena of mental influence or psychic activity. There are many books, many of them quite good, which have been written and published on this subject of late years. The main facts stated in these various books are correct, although the several writers have attempted to explain the phenomena by various pet theories of their own. The student may acquaint himself with these matters, and by using the theory of Mental Gender he will be able to bring order out of the chaos of conflicting theory and teachings, and may, moreover, readily make himself a master of the subject if he be so inclined. The purpose of this work is not to give an extended account of psychic phenomena but rather to give to the student a master-key whereby He may unlock the many doors leading into the parts of the Temple of Knowledge which he may wish to explore. We feel that in this consideration of the teachings of The Kybalion, one may find an explanation which will serve to clear away many perplexing difficulties - a key that will unlock many doors. What is the use of going into detail regarding all of the many features of psychic phenomena and mental science, provided we place in the hands of the student the means whereby he may acquaint himself fully regarding any phase of the subject which may interest him. With the aid of The Kybalion one may go through any occult library anew, the old Light from Egypt illuminating many dark pages, and obscure subjects. That is the purpose of this book. We do not come expounding a new philosophy, but rather furnishing the outlines of a great world-old teaching which will make clear the teachings of others-which will serve as a Great Reconciler of differing: theories, and opposing doctrines.\n\n## Chapter 15. Hermetic Axioms\n\n*\"The possession of Knowledge, unless accompanied by a manifestation and expression in Action, is like the hoarding of precious metals-a vain and foolish thing. Knowledge, like wealth, is intended for Use. The Law of Use is Universal, and he who violates it suffers by reason of his conflict with natural forces.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThe Hermetic Teachings, while always having been kept securely locked up in the minds of the fortunate possessors thereof, for reasons which we have already stated, were never intended to be merely stored away and secreted. The Law of Use is dwelt upon in the Teachings, as you may see by reference to the above quotation from The Kybalion, which states it forcibly. Knowledge without Use and Expression is a vain thing, bringing no good to its possessor, or to the race. Beware of Mental Miserliness, and express into Action that which you have learned. Study the Axioms and Aphorisms, but practice them also.\n\nWe give below some of the more important Hermetic Axioms, from The Kybalion, with a few comments added to each. Make these your own, and practice and use them, for they are not really your own until you have Used them.\n\n*\"To change your mood or mental state - change your vibration.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nOne may change his mental vibrations by an effort of Will, in the direction of deliberately fixing the Attention upon a more desirable state. Will directs the Attention, and Attention changes the Vibration. Cultivate the Art of Attention, by means of the Will, and you have solved the secret of the Mastery of Moods and Mental States.\n\n*\"To destroy an undesirable rate of mental vibration, put into operation the principle of Polarity and concentrate upon the opposite pole to that which you desire to suppress. Kill out the undesirable by changing its polarity.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThis is one of the most important of the Hermetic Formulas. It is based upon true scientific principles. We have shown you that a mental state and its opposite were merely the two poles of one thing, and that by Mental Transmutation the polarity might be reversed. This Principle is known to modern psychologists, who apply it to the breaking up of undesirable habits by bidding their students concentrate upon the opposite quality. If you are possessed of Fear, do not waste time trying to \"kill out\" Fear, but instead cultivate the quality of Courage, and the Fear will disappear. Some writers have expressed this idea most forcibly by using the illustration of the dark room. You do not have to shovel out or sweep out the Darkness, but by merely opening the shutters and letting in the Light the Darkness has disappeared. To kill out a Negative quality, concentrate upon the Positive Pole of that same quality, and the vibrations will gradually change from Negative to Positive, until finally you will become polarized on the Positive pole instead of the Negative. The reverse is also true, as many have found out to their sorrow, when they have allowed themselves to vibrate too constantly on the Negative pole of things. By changing your polarity you may master your moods, change your mental states, remake your disposition, and build up character. Much of the Mental Mastery of the advanced Hermetics is due to this application of Polarity, which is one of the important aspects of Mental Transmutation. Remember the Hermetic Axiom (quoted previously), which says:\n\n*\"Mind (as well as metals and elements) may be transmuted from state to state; degree to degree, condition to condition; pole to pole; vibration to vibration.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nThe mastery of Polarization is the mastery of the fundamental principles of Mental Transmutation or Mental Alchemy, for unless one acquires the art of changing his own polarity, he will be unable to affect his environment. An understanding of this principle will enable one to change his own Polarity, as well as that of others, if he will but devote the time, care, study and practice necessary to master the art. The principle is true, but the results obtained depend upon the persistent patience and practice of the student.\n\n*\"Rhythm may be neutralized by an application of the Art of Polarization.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nAs we have explained in previous chapters, the Hermetists hold that the Principle of Rhythm manifests on the Mental Plane as well as on the Physical Plane, and that the bewildering succession of moods, feelings, emotions, and other mental states, are due to the backward and forward swing of the mental pendulum, which carries us from one extreme of feeling to the other. The Hermetists also teach that the Law of Neutralization enables one, to a great extent, to overcome the operation of Rhythm in consciousness. As we have explained, there is a Higher Plane of Consciousness, as well as the ordinary Lower Plane, and the Master by rising mentally to the Higher Plane causes the swing of the mental pendulum to manifest on the Lower Plane, and he, dwelling on his Higher Plane, escapes the consciousness of the swing backward. This is effected by polarizing on the Higher Self, and thus raising the mental vibrations of the Ego above those of the ordinary plane of consciousness. It is akin to rising above a thing and allowing it to pass beneath you. The advanced Hermetist polarizes himself at the Positive Pole of his Being-the \"I Am\" pole rather than the pole of personality and by \"refusing\" and \"denying\" the operation of Rhythm, raises himself above its plane of consciousness, and standing firm in his Statement of Being he allows the pendulum to swing back on the Lower Plane without changing his Polarity. This is accomplished by all individuals who have attained any degree of self-mastery, whether they understand the law or not. Such persons simply \"refuse\" to allow themselves to be swung back by the pendulum of mood and emotion, and by steadfastly affirming the superiority they remain polarized on the Positive pole. The Master, of course, attains a far greater degree of proficiency, because he understands the law which he is overcoming by a higher law, and by the use of his Will he attains a degree of Poise and Mental Steadfastness almost impossible of belief on the part of those who allow themselves to be swung backward and forward by the mental pendulum of moods and feelings.\n\nRemember always, however, that you do not really destroy the Principle of Rhythm, for that is indestructible. You simply overcome one law by counterbalancing it with another and thus maintain an equilibrium. The laws of balance and counterbalance are in operation on the mental as well as on the physical planes, and an understanding of these laws enables one to seem to overthrow laws, whereas he is merely exerting a counterbalance.\n\n*\"Nothing escapes the Principle of Cause and Effect, but there are many Planes of Causation, and one may use the laws of the higher to overcome the laws of the lower.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nBy an understanding of the practice of Polarization, the Hermetists rise to a higher plane of Causation and thus counterbalance the laws of the lower planes of Causation. By rising above the plane of ordinary Causes they become themselves, in a degree, Causes instead of being merely Caused. By being able to master their own moods and feelings, and by being able to neutralize Rhythm, as we have already explained, they are able to escape a great part of the operations of Cause and Effect on the ordinary plane. The masses of people are carried along, obedient to their environment; the wills and desires of others stronger than themselves; the effects of inherited tendencies; the suggestions of those about them; and other outward causes; which tend to move them about on the chess-board of life like mere pawns. By rising above these influencing causes, the advanced Hermetists seek a higher plane of mental action, and by dominating their moods, emotions, impulses and feelings, they create for themselves new characters, qualities and powers, by which they overcome their ordinary environment, and thus become practically players instead of mere Pawns. Such people help to play the game of life understandingly, instead of being moved about this way and that way by stronger influences and powers and wills. They use the Principle of Cause and Effect, instead of being used by it. Of course, even the highest are subject to the Principle as it manifests on the higher planes, but on the lower planes of activity, they are Masters instead of Slaves. As The Kybalion says:\n\n*\"The wise ones serve on the higher, but rule on the lower. They obey the laws coming from above them, But on their own plane, and those below them they rule and give orders. And, yet, in so doing, they form a part of the Principle, instead of opposing it. The wise man falls in with the Law, and by understanding its movements he operates it instead of being its blind slave. Just as does the skilled swimmer turn this way and that way, going and coming as he will, instead of being as the log which is carried here and there - so is the wise man as compared to the ordinary man - and yet both swimmer and log; wise man and fool, are subject to Law. He who understands this is well on the road to Mastery.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nIn conclusion let us again call your attention to the Hermetic Axiom:\n\n*\"True Hermetic Transmutation is a Mental Art.\" - The Kybalion.*\n\nIn the above axiom, the Hermetists teach that the great work of influencing one's environment is accomplished by Mental Power. The Universe being wholly mental, it follows that it may be ruled only by Mentality. And in this truth is to be found an explanation of all the phenomena and manifestations of the various mental powers which are attracting so much attention and study in these earlier years of the Twentieth Century. Back of and under the teachings of the various cults and schools, remains ever constant the Principle of the Mental Substance of the Universe. If the Universe be Mental in its substantial nature, then it follows that Mental Transmutation must change the conditions and phenomena of the Universe. If the Universe is Mental, then Mind must be the highest power affecting its phenomena. If this be understood then all the so-called \"miracles\" and \"wonder-workings\" are seen plainly for what they are.\n\n*\"THE ALL is MIND; The Universe is Mental.\" - The Kybalion.*\n"}