The Forty Questions of the Soul

% "therefore we rightly say that the eternal will is God's will" (darum sagen wir recht es sey Gottes), lit., "therefore we rightly say that it [the fire] is God's." St Martin has also given this literal rendering which points out the shade of meaning between "the will" and "the fire."

The First Form.

22. First, there is the eternal liberty, which hath the will, and is itself the will: now * every will hath a l seeking to do, or to desire something; and herein it beholdeth itself, and f seeth in the eternity what itself is; it maketh to itself a glass of its own likeness, for it seeth what itself is; and so finding nothing but itself, it desireth itself.

The Second Form.

23. The second form is the desiring, and yet it hath nothing but itself, thereupon $its desire seeketh a model of its own will in itself, and maketh itself pregnant, so that a darkness or overshadowing cometh to be in the will, which the will would not have; but the desire, §the seeking, causeth it; and yet there is nothing that is able to consume or expel the desire.

1 Or longing.

* "every will hath a seeking (Sucht) to do," or "every will is irresistibly impelled to do." See $ , par. 5.

f "seeth (besiehet) in the eternity what itself is," lit., "beholdeth [observes, examines] in itself, in eternity what itself is."

J "its desire seeketh a model," lit., "its desire begetteth a model."

§ "the seeking (Sucht) causeth it," or "the attraction causeth it." See J, par. 5.

24. For that which is before the desire, * beyond the seeking, is free and a nothing, and yet it is: yet if it were a thing that could be perceived, it were an essence, and must subsist in that essence which brought it forth: but seeing it is without essence, it is the eternity, viz. Good: For it is no source, and hath also no mutability, but it is a rest and an eternal peace.

25. But seeing the immense space is bottomless, therein being neither number nor end, and also no beginning, therefore it is f like a glass; it is all things, and yet as a nothing: it beholdeth itself, and yet findeth nothing but an A, which is its 1 eye.

A A A/ 26. $AV: That is, the eternal original that something is; for it is the eternal beginning, and the eternal end. Thus the abyss seeth in itself, A/ V and findeth itself.

A Q (T) 27. The A is below, and the V is above; and the is AVge, the eye, and yet is in itself no substance; but thus is the original of substance: there /V X Y /"Tj is neither below nor above, only its looking-glass in the AV is thus a A seeing.

j\ ^\ 1 In the text, AVge, which in the German language signifieth an eye.

* "beyond the seeking," or "beyond the attraction."

f "like a glass." Here and throughout, the word "glass" (Spigel) should be rendered "lookingglass" or "mirror."

X Paragraphs 26 and 27 are reprinted from Sparrow's translation of 1665.

28. But whereas there is no ground, therefore its glass is such an eye as this Oj for God himself saith in the Revelations, I am A and O, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

29. Consider us according to its precious depth; for we speak not here according to nature in a 1 form, but according to the spirit above nature in the 2 divine character T.

30. The O is the eye of God, the eye of Eternity: This maketh, and is, a glass, and it is a round circle like a globe O , not like a ring Oj for we cannot describe it otherwise. Hereby we mean the globe of eternity, wherein heth the foundation of heaven and earth, of the elements, and also of the starry 3 sphere.

31. For it is a globe O like an eye, and it is 4 the eye of Gods wonders, wherein everything was seen from eternity, yet without essence, as in a glass or eye, for it is the eye of the abyss; concerning which we have no pen, tongue, nor utterance, either to write or speak, only the spirit of eternity leadeth the eye of the soul thereinto; and so we see it, else it must remain in sdence; and this hand could not describe anything of it.