JACOB BOEHME Author(s): EDWIN D. MEAD Source: The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Vol. 13, No.

2 (April, 1879), pp. 179-190 Published by: Penn State University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25666117 . Accessed: 03/06/2013 05:49
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Hegel tion of this negation is a negation which abstract relations conception to Matter,

on Jacob is to be

Boehme.

179

and Force, things. Motion our next topic. be will, therefore,

of

found in the notion of Force, of negation, a second remove from the

in their

JACOB BOEHME.
[TRANSLATED FROM HEGEL'S HISTORY I. OF PHILOSOPHY, BY EDWIN D. MEAD.]

lord chancellor, and the chief we turn to the leader philosophizing, as he was called, to the shoemaker of Phifosop/nis Teutouicus, a man of whom we Germans need not be ashamed. Lusatia? From Lord of all external, sensuous in indeed, through him that philosophy first appeared a distinctive in character. He stands with German Germany and was called Theos the directly opposite extreme to Bacon, It was, even as formerly Mysticism was called ophus TeAitoniciis, Pit ilosopii ia Teutonica. This Jacob Boehnie was long forgotten, and was decried as a The period of enlightenment, pietistic visionary. especially, es of his students. Even Leibnitz limited the number teemed him highly ; but not until more recent times has he been of his again duly honored, and has the profundity It is certain that, on thought again become acknowledged.

Bacon,

the English

held that man has his true reality in something other than or the evcry-day life of hewing wood, or eating and drinking, or As to the high honor and making clothes, buying selling. has been elevated, he owes it especially to to which Boehme have and sentiment; for contemplation his form of contemplation and inward feeling, praying and longing, the figurative style

the one hand, he does not deserve that old contempt; but neither, on the other hand, is he entitled to that high honor to To call him a which the present has sought to elevate him. one pleases, one can call every If visionary signifies nothing. and Bacon ; for even these philosopher so, including Epicurus

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180

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Philosophy.

indeed it is, as it is in itself. On this ? a man a is nevertheless, perfect barbarian a who, along with his crude mode of representation, possesses or no he has heart. is Since it concrete, deep method, order, of his philosophy. difficult to give a presentation near Jacob Boehme was born in 1575, in Old Seidenberg, in Upper Lusatia. His parents were poor peasants, Goerlitz, he herded cattle. He was brought up and in his boyhood he to The biography which in Lutheranism, always adhered. a his work was written by which accompanies clergyman, who be expressed, side Boehme or that in this biography con him personally. We find much he arrived at various the agitations through which cerning as a on the herdsman Even pastures, as deeper perception. knew he relates first wonderful

and the like, are held by some to be of thinking, allegorizing, But it is only in the idea, in the genuine form of philosophy. has its ?that that truth the absolute can thought, philosophy

of himself, he had most wonderful visions. The vision came to him in a thicket, in which he

saw a cavern and a box of money. Startled b}' this splendor, was out dull stupidity ; but the of he inwardly awakened He was afterwards apprenticed to a vision did not reappear.

on his wanderings with his master, should, through the passing into the Son according to the Spirit, be carried of the Father over into the holy Sabbath and glorious day of rest of souls,

It was chiefly through the text (Luke shoemaker. xi., 13), 44 in Heaven shall give the Holy Spirit to them Your Father that he was roused to the thought that in that ask Him," in simplicity of spirit, the know to truth he should, order earnestly and continually pray, seek and knock, until he, then

and that thus his prayer should be answered. Thereupon (ac was surrounded with divine own account,) he 44 to his cording and remained for seven days in the highest divine con light, His master dismissed and fulness of joy." him templation not to he afford could on this account, with the remark that

a prophet with him. After this he lived in Goerlitz. keep In 1594 he became a master shoemaker, and married. Later, 44in the his of in the age," the year 1600, twenty-fifth year a second vision, of the same in to him again light appeared

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Hegel sort as the first.

on Jacob

Boehme.

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to his own account, he saw a According and " through brightly polished pewter vessel in the chamber, " the sudden sight of the lovely, jovial lustre of the metal, he a fit of abstraction, and in the entrancement was conducted (in of his astral spirit) 64to the central point of secret Nature," " He went out and into the light of the Divine Being. before the gate and into thg fields, in order to drive this vision out of his head, and yet he experienced the feeling none the less, but so that, means of the rather longer, stronger, and clearer; by imparted signs or figures, outlines and colors, he could, as it were, see into the heart so (which position, tains and glorifies count of which he overflowed and turned innermost nature of all things forced upon him, he also main strongly on ac in his book De Signatura lierum), to his and

in published in His first work Amsterdam, though reprinted Hamburg. " " 44 was the 44 in its Rising, The Morning Red or, Aurora; 64 which was followed by many others; that entitled On the 44 Three Principles," and another, On the Threefold Life of are among those which are worthiest of attention. Man," Boehme constantly read the Bible. other works he read What is not known. Very many points in his works prove, however, that he had read much, and especially mystic, theosophic, and alchemistic writings ; partly, at any rate, the works of Theo a philoso of Hohenheim ? Bombastus, phrastus Paracelsus same as of the sort Boehme himself, but pecu pher something

peacefully wrote many works. He remained trade, and there, in 1624, he died. His works have received special and therefore most

with great joy, thanked God, affairs." Later he domestic in Goerlitz, attention have working at his

from the Dutch,

of the editions

been

land, where his works have His writings make a strange one must be familiar with

liarly diffuse in his writings, and without Boehme's deep feel was often persecuted Boehme the ing. by clergy, but he caused less sensation in Germany than in Holland and Eng been published

in many forms. impression upon the reader, and his ideas in order to find the true

in the exceedingly confused form of their expression. meaning The content of Jacob Boehme's is thoroughly philosophizing

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182
German

Tlie

Journal

of Speculative

Philosophy. him and makes him

worthy ferred to, of placing mind ? of viewing,

; for that which distinguishes of attention is the Protestant the intellectual

re principle, already world in the individual

and knowing, and of feeling in the self consciousness The that which before was regarded as external. on one idea of shows itself the Boehme's hand, thus, general on the other hand, however, he does deep and fundamental; not, with all his desire and in the universe, distinction and struggle after determination and order. arrive at clearness confusion in his three numbers

There

is no coherent system, but the greatest even in his "Table," wherein distinctions ? : I. What God is, apart fromNature II.

appear

and Creation.

Separableness, God inLpve.

Mysterium Magnum.
III.

The I. Principiumy Wrath. God in

God There

Wrath in

and Love.

of moments here ; we is no positive determination now sense is this it of have the distinction, and only struggle ; as now that, which is laid down ; and the distinctions are sep arately referred to, they run one into another. The manner and method of his presentation must, therefore, The modes of expression in his works be called barbaric. prove

views

this; as when, for instance, he speaks of the divine salitter, the mercurius, and so forth. As Boehme places the of movement in absolute the the life, soul, so he also Being, all conceptions in an actuality ; or he uses actualities as conceptions (that is, natural things and sensible qualities arbi to represent his ideas. of definitions) instead For in trarily,

stance, sulphur and the like mean, with him, not the things that we so name, but their essence ; or a certain conception has this specific form of reality. Boehme is most deeply in

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Hegel terested

on Jacob

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in the idea, and struggles sorely with it. The specu lative truth which he wishes to represent, requires, in order to himself comprehended, make the essentially thought and in thought can this unity, in whose form of thought. Only central point his spirit stands, be comprehended, but it is pre which of he lacks. form the The forms which cisely thought

he uses are essentially no categories of thought. They are on one side sensible, chemical determinations the ; such qualities as harsh, sweet, sour, or as anger, love ; or such ; grim feelings tincture, essence, pain, etc. These sensuous forms, however,, do not have with him their peculiar sensuous significance; but he uses them in order to give words to his thoughts. It is at once apparent how arbitrary this mode of presentation must since only strangely of lightning, of unity. Thus thought is capable we when read of the bitterness confusing etc. We must have the find it figured in these uses is that Boehme it seems of God* idea beforehand, and strange similes as form of the

be,

be it must nevertheless "spirits," "angels,"), recognized out of his reality that these pictures and representations speak ? out of his soul. This rough, deep German mind, that deals with the innermost, exercises, peculiarly indeed, a tremendous a as use conception, and to keep reality might and power to As about him and within him whatever goes on inHeaven. Hans

as this is, on the one hand, and hard to endure by those and try firmly to hold his in reading Boehme who persevere " is head one's (for kept qualities,'r whirling with thoughts barous

the form of the Trinity* idea the, Christian form, particularly was The sensuous form which that which lay nearest to him. and the religious form of imaging, of sensuous pictures and he strangely mixes together. Crude and bar representations,

then, indeed, we may second The point

has represented the Lord God, in his manner, Sachs, common citizens like himself, as and the Ghost Christ, Holy manner same the angels and patriarchs, in the has treated and as instead of taking them bygone and historic beings, just so Boehme. In the eyes of faith spirit has truth, but in this truth the of certainty is lacking. That the subject of Chris

moment

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The Journal of Speculative Philosophy.

or the spirit, we have seen. This is given tianity is truth, to faith as immediate truth. But faith has it unconsciously, without knowing it as self-conscious without knowledge, ness

the thought, the con ; and since in self-consciousness ? ? Giordano Bruno's ception, is essential unity of opposites faith lacks precisely fall apart as this unity. Its moments ? moments its the good forms, particularly separate highest so is the and and the evil, or God and the Devil. God is,

of man to divine life, to place this life in the soul as one in the soul, and to make to it itself, regard the strife the soul's own work and endeavor ; and partly, for that very a in the good ? to show that the evil is contained ground, the soul But as Boehme problem which also agitates our own time. has nx>t got hold of the idea, and is in so far behind in the as a fearful, painful culture of thought, this process appears with language ; and the struggle of his soul and consciousness idea of to obtain the of is this profoundest object struggle God, which may bring together and bind in one the most ab If one solute opposites ? not, however, for thinking reason. so to him is all) God Boehme express it, may struggles (since ? ? and from in to conceive the evil, the devil the negative God, to comprehend God as absolute ; and this struggle char It acterizes his entire writings, and is the travail of his soul. is a tremendous, wild, crude effort of the inner being to bind

If God, is the both are for themselves. however, Devil; arises: absolute the absolute What question Being, Being is this to which all reality, and especially the evil, does not is therefore compelled Boehme appertain? partly to conduct

are so far from together things that in form and appearance one another. In his strong soul Boehme brings both together, and in that act breaks to pieces all that immediate appearance of reality which both possess. however, he conceives When, in itself thus internally, this spiritual nature this movement, after all, simply the definition of the moments approaches, nearer to the form of self-consciousness ? of the idea devoid form. The the background tion. Popular

of sensuous

speculative thought stands, indeed, in come not to its proper representa does ; but it crude methods of representation are employed ;

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a perfect looseness of speech appears, which to us seems vul has especially much to do, and the devil Boehme gar. With him often. he says, "thou he addresses "Come here," wilt thou? I will write for thee a pre What Black-Jack. scription." ens Ariel in the Tempest, threat Prospero, Shakespeare's that he will cleave an oak and peg him in the a thousand years ; thus Boehme's great knotty entrails for in the hard, knotty oak of the sensuous, im soul is pegged

in the knotty, hard growth of the imagination, with prisoned out being able to come to the free representation of the idea. I will briefly indicate Boehme's main ideas, and then point out several separate forms in which he revels ; for he does not abide suffices him.

as they advance in their task. in Boehme One must expect nor an accurate management neither a systematic representation of particulars. One cannot speak much of his thoughts with out assuming

in one form, since neither the sensuous nor the religious he copiously repeats himself, the Although are forms of his main representations still everywhere differ ent, and students will be deceived who undertake to give a systematic development of Boehme's representations, especially

sal

struggle to maintain all things in an absolute unity. He desires to exhibit the absolute, Divine unity, and the union in God of one may indeed say his all antitheses. His main thought ? ? runs which that is to only thought, through all his works conceive in all things the Holy Trinity ; to recognize all things as its revelation and representation, so that it is the univer

his own form of expression and quoting directly concerning particulars, for otherwise it is impossible to express his thoughts. is the idea of Jacob Boehme The fundamental

The universe is thus to only this Trinity ; this Trinity is all. him one divine life, and a universal revelation of God ; so that from the one essence of God, the source of all powers and ? is eternally born the Son the Son who is mani qualities, fested in those powers ; and the inner unity of this light with

in which and through which all is ; and this in principle this way : that all things have only this divine Trinity in them selves, not as a trinity of the imagination, but as the reality of the absolute idea. All that exists is, according to Boehme,

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The Journal of Speculative Philosophy.

is the spirit. The representation follows is the explication here especially appear the various forms What the distinction which occurs

the substance of the powers is now darker, now clearer. of this Trinity; and which he uses to denote .

in the

Trinity. or Mother In the "Aurora," the " Root, and Boehme attempts Astrology, Theology,"

of Philosophy, a classification, side by side, yet without in which he places these sciences over clear distinctions, from one to the other. simply passing " treats he In of the divine power, what God (1.) Philosophy is, and how, in the being of God, nature, the stars, and the elementa heaven

how

in nature are, in the impulse and actions of God. In the powers of nature, the stars and the (2.) Astrology, and how from these all creatures have elements are treated; are in how ; proceeded wrought, through them, good and evil men and animals. treats the he king (3.) Under Theology to how this is conditioned cf Christ; ; how it is opposed the kingdom of hell ; also, how it struggles in nature with the kingdom of hell." This First has at the same 1. The First is God, the Father. dom

devils, two qualities

are made; all things have their origin; whence and and earth are made; also, angels, men, heaven and hell, and all that is created ; also, what the

time a distinction within itself, and is the unity of the dis " He is darkness and " is all," he says. tinction. God light, alone one love and anger, fire and light; but He calls Himself There is an eternal contra love. God, after the light of His rium between darkness and light; neither holds the other, and neither is the other ; and yet there is but one single Being only so with the will, torture? in distinction; with the Qual ? there being, however, no separable Being. Only one prin a as one is in the other this: that nothing, and cipitim divides it is not to its quality, wherein nevertheless is; but according manifest." is absolute, (" torture ") is expressed that which By the Qual even the self-conscious, felt negativity, the self which is therefore absolute affirmation. negative,

determining efforts turn ; the principle Around this point all of Boehme's is in him throughout alive, only he cannot ex of conception

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Boehme.

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press it in the form of thought. All depends upon this: to

think the negative as Thus the opposite. yet at the same simple, when it is at the same time an torture is this inner self-opposition, time the simple. From this word derives

and

ent is everywhere present with him. a. Thus Boehme does not represent God as an empty unity, but as the self-dirempting unity of the absolutely opposed. The First One, the Father, has at the same time the manner of existence. this, he speaks thus : that God Concerning is the simple Essence This simple Essence ; quite like Proclus. as he defines he calls the Hidden it also the ; Temperamentum? that unity of differences in which all is tempered. We find, now about the great salitter? too, in this connection, much the divine, now the salitter of nature ? also called salniter. When be discourses about this great salitter as of something natural known, one does not immediately understand what he means. It is, however, a cobbler-like murder of the words sal nitri,

Quellen (torture) good [sources]?a for the Qual upon words; negativity (torture)?this passes into vitality, activity ; and thus he brings it also together with Qualitdt The absolute (quality). identity of the differ play

Qual

Boehme

i. e., saltpetre in Austria, is still called salniter). (which, This figures thus the neutral and truly universal Being; this a is the divine splendor. In God is splendid nature?trees, " In the divine splendor, two things are especially plants, etc. the salitter, or the divine powers, which to be considered: produce salitter or sound." all fruit, and the mercurius, This great even as is the unrevealed the Platonic New Being, so is without and unknown. self-cousciousness, unity equally b. This first substance or qualities, contains all powers as not yet differenced; so then this salitter appears as the in itself. Quality body of God, which contains all qualities is a main the first and determination with Boehme; idea, and he begins with the'qualities in his work, "The Morn in its Rising." With the quality he also after ing Red " brings

wards

and there together inqualiren (inqualitize), is the or the unrest says: Quality Quallen mobility, (pain), These qualities he then defines, but it is an ob of a thing."

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scure

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Philosophy.

But it has two cold, wet, and dark, and makes the soft hard. in and itself, namely, species rage" (negativity); light * a lovely, the light?the heart of the heat?is joyful sight, a power of life, a part, or a source of the heavenly joy; for it in this world alive and moving. makes All flesh, everything as well as all trees, and in this world by grass, grow foliage, the power of light, and have life therein, as in the good. On and rains.

"It .is as the heat, which burns, con representation: sumes, and drives out all that comes into itwhich is not of its own quality. On the other hand, it lights and warms all that is

God

the other hand, it possesses rage, which burns, consumes, This rage swells, drives, and uplifts itself in the causes the to move. light, and They struggle and fight light with each other in their twofold source. The light exists in for in heat, but it does not exist in nature; are one in another, to all qualities and kind according " " is as manner. Even is everything, God God (the Father) without nature In another place (in the work on the heart," says Boehme. " " the " Threefold Life of Man the Son is the heart ) he says " or foun of God." is also the called the heart, spirit Again, rules

tain of nature; from Him proceeds everything." Now, heat in all forces of nature, and warms them all and is a source in all. The the power enumerates light in the heat, however, gives to all them lovely and delightful. that makes a whole list of qualities: cold, hot, bitter,

qualities Boehme

live therein as in their mother." ** The powers of the stars are nature. All things in this world originate from the stars. That I will prove to thee, if If one and hast but a little reason. thou art not a blockhead, considers nature, the whole still's, one soon finds out of which things stand and curriculum, or the entire circle of the that it is the mother of all things, or all things have grown, and in which all all things have their

etc. sweet, hard, rough Sound, qualities, raging, harsh, " The bitter same sort quality is also inGod, yet not after the and manner, as gall is in man. It is rather an eternally con a great triumphing source of joy. Out of these tinuing force, are come creatures and all thence and made, qualities they

live, ami through which

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and all things are made out of the same forces, and movement; is the reality continue therein eternally." Thus, we say, God must "Thou continues: of all realities. Boehme here, lift up thy feeling in the spirit, and consider how en with all the powers which are in nature?the nature, tirely the earth, and all that therein wide, deep, the high, Heaven, are the body of God; the above and that are, Heaven?^are are the chief arteries in the and how the powers of the stars however,

Thou must not think that in this world. natural body of God in the corpus of the stars the entire triumphant Holy Trinity ? ? exists. But this is God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost all in the corpus is not at not to be thus understood that He of the stars and does Heaven

Whence duces

in this world. theu, is the question : Here, obtain or take these forces, that it pro

And thou look/ in nature? here must such mobility into the holy light, triumph and outside of nature above ? into the ant, divine power holy Trinity, unchangeable, and all which is a triumphant, originating, moving Being; as are nature. in have Therefrom Heaven, therein, powers earth, stars, elementa, devils, angels, men, animals, and every Thus we thing arisen, and therein everything has its stand. and earth, the stars and elements, and all that call Heaven who therein is, and all that is above the heavens ? GOD; thus,

in the power which in these many enumerated beings, a made creature.'9 from hath Him, Himself proceeds as follows: c. defines the Boehme God, Father, Again, we nature we all and its consider now, "When, qualities, and the stars, we when we view the Heaven seethe Father; Thus many stars twinkle eternal power and wisdom. innumerable ; thus great and varied are the under the Heaven, of God, the Father. wisdom and star has its powers Every " think own quality. Thou must that every not, however, a Father is in the that certain power part and place occupies in the Father, as the stars in the Heaven. shows see His

No ! But the spirit that all powers in the Father are in one another, as one This whole is the universal power in general, which power." in which the differences are united; exists as God, the Father, as the totality of the stars, therefore as but it exists createdly 13

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circle and sheds from itself warmth and light, which bring No ! Thus alike harm and help to the earth or the creatures. is not the Father. He is an almighty, all-wise, all-knowing, all-seeing, all-tasting God, who is at all-hearing, all-smelling, the same time in Himself gentle, friendly, lovely, merciful, and ? yea, is joy itself." joyful

" Thou must not think diremption into the different qualities. and above the Heaven, that God inHeaven, stands, as itwere, and undulates as a power and quality, which has no reason and knowledge in itself? as the sun, which courseth through its

ON THE

STUDY
OF

OF THEOLOGY.
UNIVERSITY SCHELLING, BEING THE NINTH STUDY "? AKADEMISCHEN

FROM THE GERMAN [TRANSLATED THE METHOD LECTURE "ON STUDIUM.] BY

OF F. W. J. VON

ELLA

S. MORGAN.

because whole

lose their meaning that maintain Theologians as conceive which tion, they to resort Thus Time. they altogether

of that science, and the consider the method should be taken, as lost which its truths from standpoint The collective theories of this science are un and forgotten. derstood empirically, and as such have been asserted and con and But they are not native to this soil [empiricism] tested. I must and significance. is a divine Christianity an action of God revela

to speak of the study of theology, it is If I find itdifficult

in performed from which the very standpoint is there can be no question whether the origin of Christianity not answer on who could One natural explicable grounds. to his satisfaction must know very little of the this problem Read the writings history and culture of the time of its rise. is shown of the learned men, in which the germ of Christianitv to have existed, not merely in Judaism, but in a single religi It is not necessary ous community which preceded Judaism. so account of to go far, although the Josephus, and even the remains of the Christian historical books, have not been thor

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