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1901
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The Works of Jacob Behmen, the "Teutonic Theosopher," translated intoEnglish, were first printed in England in the seventeenth century,between 1644 and 1662. In the following century a complete edition infour large volumes was produced by some of the disciples of William Law.This edition, completed in the year 1781, was compiled in part from theolder English edition, and in part from later fragmentary translationsby Law and others. It is not easily accessible to the general reader,and, moreover, the greater part of Behmen's Works could not berecommended save to those who had the time and power to plunge into thatdeep sea in search of the many noble pearls which it contains.
Behmen's language and way of thought are remote and strange, and inreading his thought one has often to pass it through a process ofintellectual translation. This is chiefly true of his earlier work, the"Aurora" or "Morning Redness." But among those works which he[Pg vi] wroteduring the last five years of his life there are some written in athought-language less difficult to be understood, yet containing theessential teaching of this humble Master of Divine Science. From these Ihave selected some which may, in a small volume, be useful. It seemedthat for this purpose it would be best to take the "Dialogues of theSupersensual Life," including as one of them the beautiful, reallyseparate, Dialogue, called in the Complete Works, "The way from darknessto true illumination." In the case of neither of these works is thetranslation used that of the seventeenth century. The first threedialogues are a translation made by William Law, one of the greatestmasters of the English language, and found in MS. after his death. Thistranslation from the original German is not exactly literal, but rathera liberal version, or paraphrase, the thought of Behmen being expandedand elucidated, though in nowise departed from. The dialogue called "Theway from darkness to true illumination" was taken by the eighteenthcentury editors from a book containing translations of certain smallertreatises of Behmen then lately printed at Bristol and made, as theysay, "in a style better adapted to the taste and more accommodated tothe apprehension of modern readers." I do not know who was thetranslator,[Pg vii] but the work seems to be excellently well done.
It will be well to say a few words first as to the life, then as to theleading ideas of Jacob Behmen. This name is more correctly written JacobBœhme, but I prefer to retain the more easily pronounced spelling ofBehmen, adopted by the Editors of both the complete English editions.
Jacob Behmen's outward life was simplicity itself. He was born in theyear 1575 at Alt Seidenberg, a village among pastoral hills, nearGörlitz in Lusatia, a son of poor peasants. As a boy he watched theherds in the fields, and was then apprenticed to a shoemaker, being notenough robust for rural work. One day, when the master and his wife wereout, and he was alone in the house, a stranger entered the shop andasked for a pair of shoes. Jacob had no authority to conclude a bargainand asked a high price for the shoes in the hope that the stranger wouldnot buy. But the man paid the price, and when he had gone out into thestreet, called out "Jacob, come forth." Jacob obeyed the call, and nowthe stranger looked at him with a kindly, earnest, deep, soul-piercinggaze, and said,