Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence
In the meantime, our philosopher's old opponent, Gregorius Richter, died on the 14th of August. Boehme himself was to survive him only by a few months. While he still was with Herr von Schweinitz, he was seized with a fatal bowel complaint. He returned home very ill on the 7th of November, and his friends and his family doctor were unable to give him any hope of recovery. He expressed a desire for the Sacrament, which was granted only after he had answered satisfactorily a long list of questions. During the night of the 17th November, he spoke of hearing most beautiful music, and asked to have the door opened in order to listen. Towards morning, he took leave of his wife and sons, blessed them, and said : " Now I go hence into Paradise." Then he asked his son to turn him over on his other side, sighed deeply, and fell asleep, leaving this world easily and peacefully.
The clergy refused to give him a Church funeral, until a special order from the Governor of Lausitz compelled the second Pastor of Gorlitz to perform the burial service. The latter began his sermon by declaring that he would rather have walked twenty miles than have officiated at the funeral of such a man. He also rejected the text that had been submitted to him, and chose the words : " And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." The cross upon Boehme's grave was pulled down by the mob. Now, a block of porphyry marks the resting-place of the " Philosophus Teutonicus," and soon, we hope, the monument raised to his memory will prove that a grateful posterity is at pains to atone for the sins of his contemporaries.
As we now turn from the personality of our philosopher
to his works, the newest edition of which (Schiebler,
Leipzig, 1830-47) consists of seven fairly bulky volumes,
p. 11
we are struck at once and not a little delighted with the highly original treatment of first principles that we discover therein. Everywhere Boehme appears as an independent, bold and profoundly penetrating thinker, who laboriously endeavours to bring into intelligible expression his deep interior perceptions. If he does but imperfectly succeed, if he again and again returns to the same idea, yet without achieving a perfectly clear and consistent presentation throughout, that is due to his complete lack of a suitable education. The invaluable advantage of a study of the classics was denied him. He knew nothing of the art of connectedly considering and preparing, clearly linking and grouping in order, the vast array of his conceptions. For the rest, he had assimilated much of the knowledge of his time. He was thoroughly conversant with the Bible, and he states himself (Aurora, x. 45) that he read "the writings of many great masters," but had found therein " only a half -dead spirit." By these words he refers principally to works of the school of Paracelsus, wherefrom he took his idea of the threefold nature of man ; namely, a body formed out of the elements, a spirit originating from the stars, and a soul inbreathed from God. From the same sources he also borrowed many technical, philosophical and alchemical terms, some of which, however, he had partly misunderstood. Yet all this applies only to the external side of his teaching, the shell, as it were, which encloses the kernel of his own peculiar and deep knowledge of essential truth. This same knowledge he claims, and rightly enough, to have obtained through revelation ; for he drew from the same fountain-head as all teachers of religion and philosophy before him ; from the same source that is also open to us, if we are but willing to plunge and sink into the mysterious depths of our own innermost Spirit, and therein reach the very Heart of God.
In the meantime, our philosopher's old opponent, Gregorius Richter, died on the 14th of August. Boehme himself was to survive him only by a few months. While he still was with Herr von Schweinitz, he was seized with a fatal bowel complaint. He returned home very ill on the 7th of November, and his friends and his family doctor were unable to give him any hope of recovery. He expressed a desire for the Sacrament, which was granted only after he had answered satisfactorily a long list of questions. During the night of the 17th November, he spoke of hearing most beautiful music, and asked to have the door opened in order to listen. Towards morning, he took leave of his wife and sons, blessed them, and said : " Now I go hence into Paradise." Then he asked his son to turn him over on his other side, sighed deeply, and fell asleep, leaving this world easily and peacefully.
The clergy refused to give him a Church funeral, until a special order from the Governor of Lausitz compelled the second Pastor of Gorlitz to perform the burial service. The latter began his sermon by declaring that he would rather have walked twenty miles than have officiated at the funeral of such a man. He also rejected the text that had been submitted to him, and chose the words : " And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." The cross upon Boehme's grave was pulled down by the mob. Now, a block of porphyry marks the resting-place of the " Philosophus Teutonicus," and soon, we hope, the monument raised to his memory will prove that a grateful posterity is at pains to atone for the sins of his contemporaries.
As we now turn from the personality of our philosopher
to his works, the newest edition of which (Schiebler,
Leipzig, 1830-47) consists of seven fairly bulky volumes,
p. 11
we are struck at once and not a little delighted with the highly original treatment of first principles that we discover therein. Everywhere Boehme appears as an independent, bold and profoundly penetrating thinker, who laboriously endeavours to bring into intelligible expression his deep interior perceptions. If he does but imperfectly succeed, if he again and again returns to the same idea, yet without achieving a perfectly clear and consistent presentation throughout, that is due to his complete lack of a suitable education. The invaluable advantage of a study of the classics was denied him. He knew nothing of the are of connectedly considering and preparing, clearly linking and grouping in order, the vast array of his conceptions. For the rest, he had assimilated much of the knowledge of his time. He was thoroughly conversant with the Bible, and he states himself (Aurora, x. 45) that he read "the writings of many great masters," but had found therein " only a half -dead spirit." By these words he refers principally to works of the school of Paracelsus, wherefrom he took his idea of the threefold nature of man ; namely, a body formed out of the elements, a spirit originating from the stars, and a soul inbreathed from God. From the same sources he also borrowed many technical, philosophical and alchemical terms, some of which, however, he had partly misunderstood. Yet all this applies only to the external side of his teaching, the shell, as it were, which encloses the kernel of his own peculiar and deep knowledge of essential truth. This same knowledge he claims, and rightly enough, to have obtained through revelation ; for he drew from the same fountain-head as all teachers of religion and philosophy before him ; from the same source that is also open to us, if we are but willing to plunge and sink into the mysterious depths of our own innermost Spirit, and therein reach the very Heart of God.