The Signature of All Things — trans. John Ellistone (1651)
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The translator’s English as printed (John Ellistone). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
8. 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
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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 re-conceived Will) must enter inwards, and yet there is no Separation.
12. 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 re-conceived 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 a Compunction, 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, cannot endure, and therefore it attracts more eagerly to hold the Compunction, and yet the Compunction is thereby only the stronger
13. 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.
14. 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, and the Something is yet its contrary Will, for it is an Unquietness, and the Free-Will is a Stillness.
15. 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 Center 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.
16. Understand it thus; Sul is in the first Principle the Free-Will, 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 Life burns, and every Thing grows.