The Forty Questions of the Soul

99. Seeing then, two Principles are so in one essence (*as no man with reason can speak against it, for every life consisteth in poison and in light, each in its own Principle, and according as it hath the source, so hath it also its light), therefore we must search what that is which sustaineth the life, that it be not starved, and what f driveth forth its source, that it can subsist eternally.

100. This now also hath two distinctions, for the light-life hath its own source and X driving, and the fire-life also its source and driving, each in itself: but the fire-life is the cause of the light -life, and the light-life is lord of the fire-life, and herein lieth the l great Mystery.

101. For if there were no fire, there would be no light, and also no spirit; and if there were no spirit to blow up the fire, it would be smothered, and darkness would be, and the one would be a nothing without the other; therefore they belong both together, and yet divide themselves one from another, but without any 2 fleeing, and yet there is a fleeing of the spirit.

1 Mysterium magnum.

2 Or removing.

* "as no man with reason can speak against it," lit., "which no man [endowed] with reason can contradict."

f "driveth forth" (fort-treiberi), or "impels forth."

X "driving." Here again and in the following par. the original "treiben" is best rendered "impulse."

102. You may understand it by this: Look upon the glowing fire; first there is the matter from whence it burneth, viz. the harsh attracted bitter substance, which hath an anguish source, and is a 1 dark body, whether it be wood or any such thing.

103. Now when it comes to be kindled, you see three Principles, first the wood, in the darkness, with the external 2 source of this world, which also hath its own life, or else it would not take fire.

104. Now the fire hath a wrathful, harsh, strong, bitter desiring 3 source, which begetteth thirst, a devouring and consuming, and the great bitterness is its right spirit, an enrager and awakener, which hath all essences of the life in it, and it is the power of the life and of the driving, otherwise there would be no burning.

105. That maketh the great anguish-seeking after the liberty, and in the fire it attaineth the liberty; for it consumeth the darkness in the fierce wrath, and also the matter of the fire, from which it burneth.

106. And thereby we know that one spirit, which divideth itself into two Principles, into two spirits, but not 4 severedly, and yet fleeing one before another, and the one catcheth or apprehendeth not the other, and the one is the hfe and cause of the other.

107. And therefore they are two Principles, seeing they have a twofold source and life, and yet there is but one root from whence they proceed, and one of them affordeth hfe, and the other affordeth food for that life: This is a wonder, and yet no wonder, for there is nothing that can wonder at it, for itself is all things in one only essence.

1 corpus opacum.

2 property and condition, or quality.

3 quality.

4 inseparabiliter.

[In the margin next to the beginning of par. 108:]

1. Fire. 4. Substantiality, or corporality. 6. Anguish.

2. Seeking. 5. Sting. 7. Liberty.

3. Desiring, attraction.

108. Now the fire in itself is first a seeking to draw into itself, and that is the substantiality, the Phur, for the seeking maketh it in the desiring by its attraction, or else there were nothing; and the attraction is the bitter sting, a destroyer, which the substantiality cannot endure, and will not suffer; and that not willing to suffer is an anguish, a will to overcome the substantiality with the bitter sting, and the anguish pierceth into itself, and catcheth at the hberty; and the liberty is a light in comparison of darkness.

109. Now the anguish is a horrible sharpness, and thus the liberty is taken and sharpened, so that it becometh a fire-flash, and the anguish-will, in the sharpness of the bitter flash, consumeth the substantiality, be it wood or any other thing.