Jakob Boehme

“ S.E. of Görlitz. His father was a well-to-do peasant, and his first employment was that of herd boy on the Landskrone, a hill in the neighbourhood of Görlitz; the only education he received was at the town-school of Seidenberg, a mile from his home. Seidenberg, to this day, is filled with shoemakers, and to a shoemaker Jakob was apprenticed in his fourteenth year (1589) , being judged not robust enough for husbandry. Ten years later (1599) we find him settled at Görlitz as master-shoemaker, and married to Katharina, daughter of Hans Kuntzschmann, a thriving butcher in the town. ”

“ JACOB BOEHMEN, THE MYSTIC. Jacob Boehmen, or Boehme, was born at the village of Altseidenberg, near Gorlitz, in Prussian Silesia, about a year before the death of Hans Sachs. A shoemaker for the greater part of his life, Boehmen devoted the powers of a remarkable mind to philosophical and religious speculation, and produced works which, notwithstanding their mystical and well-nigh unintelligible character, are declared by some of the best authorities in Germany and England to have laid the foundation of metaphysics and philosophy. ”

“ There is no doubt at all that this inside world which he discovered within and behind visible Nature, within and behind man, is really there, nor is there any doubt in my mind that he, Jacob Boehme, got an insight into its nature and significance which is of real worth to the modern world, but he is seriously hampered by the poverty of his categories, by the difficulties of his symbolism and by his literary limitations, when he comes to the almost insuperable task of expressing what he has seen. He is himself perfectly conscious of his limitations. ”

“ Jacob must be filled with God's Blessing, that he might bless the First-Born of angry Adam and Esau; for the Blessing, that is, Christ must be born in our Flesh and Soul, that the Seed of the Woman might bruise the Head of the Serpent.
32. The Anger must be drowned and appeased in the Humanity; an Offering did not do it, but this resigning into the Wrath, that the Love might drown the Wrath. Jacob in Christ must drown Esau in the Love-Power in his Blood, that Esau might also become a Jacob in Christ: But Esau was not willing to receive his brother Jacob, and contended about the first Birth ”

“ He proceeded at once—"without sufficient examination or knowledge"—to {163} "vilify and condemn" the writing, and in a sermon on "False Prophets" he vigorously attacked the local prophet of Görlitz, who meekly sat in Church and listened to the "fulminations" against him. [33] After the sermon, Boehme modestly asked the preacher to show him what was wrong with his teaching, but the only answer he received was that if he did not instantly leave the town the pastor would have him arrested ”

“ For when God's Love in the Humanity entered into God's Anger, the angry Father bewailed our Sins and Misery, and Jacob with his Humility drove forth mournful Tears out of his brother Esau; that is, the Love in the Humanity brought forth the great compassion out of and through the angry Father; so that the angry Father in the midst of his enkindled Wrath in the Humanity did set open a Gate of Mercy for Adam and all his Children; for his Love broke the Anger, which [Love] put itself into Death, and made an open Gate for poor Sinners in the Death to his Grace. ”

“ This being done, the young Man with his Virgin-like Heart will wholly give himself up to the Mother, when the Tempter comes and assaults him, and the Mother will wholly swallow him up into herself through the Devil's Wrath: He gives himself forth wholly out of his own Will into the Nothing. Now, thinks the Artist with himself, I have lost all; for he thinks that he has lost Heaven; for he seeks Nothing, and does not consider that a Virgin has now brought forth: But let him have Patience; that which is impossible to the Artist, that is possible to Nature ”

“ Even a polished sword-blade has been asserted to have made an effective magic mirror, and it is recorded that Jacob Boehme penetrated into the innermost secrets of nature and the hearts of men by means of a tin cup. ”

“ Between 1644 and 1662 all Boehme’s works were translated by John Ellistone (d. 1652) and John Sparrow, assisted by Durand Hotham and Humphrey Blunden, who paid for the undertaking. At that time regular societies of Behmenists, embracing not only the cultivated but the vulgar, existed in England and in Holland. ”

“ Instead of standing up for the frivolous son, the pastor would now become his censor, which was all the easier for him as he had known him from his childhood. Moreover, he had now recovered his spectacles and his balance of mind.
Adler was leaning back with his hands clasped behind his head, looking at the ceiling. Boehme put his hand on his knee and began:
"My dear Gottlieb, your Christian submission in misfortune sets an excellent example; but as we are very imperfect in the sight of God, it is our duty not only to be resigned, but to be active. ”

“ Boehmer threw himself upon his knees, clasped his hands, burst into tears, and exclaimed, "Madame, I am ruined and disgraced if you do not purchase my necklace. I cannot outlive so many misfortunes. When I go hence I shall throw myself into the river."
"Rise, Boehmer," said the Queen, in a tone sufficiently severe to recall him to himself; "I do not like these rhapsodies; honest men have no occasion to fall on their knees to make their requests. ”

“ BODMER, JOHANN JAKOB (1698–1783) , Swiss-German author, was born at Greifensee, near Zürich, on the 19th of July 1698. After first studying theology and then trying a commercial career, he finally found his vocation in letters. In 1725 he was appointed professor of Helvetian history in Zürich, a chair which he held for half a century, and in 1735 became a member of the “Grosser Rat.” ”

“ There is nothing else, neither corner nor cupboard. Where Jakob kept his instruments and how he managed to practise are mysteries which the ordinary mind cannot satisfactorily penetrate, but it is probable that his easy-going temperament helped him over these and other difficulties, and that he was fairly content with his lot. ”

“ When Adam was in the Image of God, and was neither Man nor Woman, but both; he stood forty Days in Paradise without wavering, and when he fell he stood even till the third Day, viz. forty Hours in the Sleep, even till God did make or build the Woman out of him. Thus Israel must be tempted forty Days on Mount Sinai, whether they would live in the Obedience of God under the Wonders and mighty acts ”

“ When I recalled my wars with him and that terrible battle I must own I was afraid that he would perhaps arrange my death by mixing poison with my food." So spake Bohemund. I have never seen a wicked man who did not act wrongly in all his words and deeds; for whenever a man deserts the middle course of action, to whatever extreme he inclines, he stands far away from goodness.
The Emperor sent for Bohemund and requested him to take the customary oath of the Latins. ”

“ Here the anxious wife and mother was able to add a trifle to Jakob's scanty earnings, by engaging on her own account in a tiny business for the sale of needles, cottons, tapes, etc., which had been carried on for many years previously at No. 91 of the same street [Pg 54] by the 'sisters Nissen,' and by taking as boarder an acquaintance of her husband's, who, though not a musician, remained a life-long family friend. The intimacy descended to the next generation, and his son, Herr Carl Bade, has many a droll anecdote to relate of Jakob, whom he remembers with affectionate regard. ”

“ Hear!" cried Boakoam. "We will teach you our refined manners in return for your practical spirit."
"I consent," replied Jacob smiling. "One word more: you have alluded to some of us as rude and having repulsive manners. Very well; even among these men, vain, proud, and gross, there are some who are benevolent; though their appearance does not indicate it. I have not finished. In the presence of the representatives of the past I know not whether I shall be permitted to express my ideas. Behold them, if you will be kind enough to listen. Humanity will not retrograde. ”

“ It was well the rapids were between them, or he would have betrayed himself.
"My father, my father!" he murmured, while unseen tears suffused his eyes. It seemed good to pronounce the name. An overwhelming tenderness for the old man filled his soul. The weight of years and sorrow had bent, but not broken, him. Like Jacob, of old, he had wrestled with the Lord; and though ravaged by the conflict, he stood yet upon his legs. The son thought, with humility, of his own vain and flimsy woes, which were but boyish resentment and wounded pride; and his cherished plans of revenge vanished like smoke. ”

“ Boehme was taken aback.
"In order to be useful to himself and others," he replied.
"Well, if Ferdinand comes back he can be a director here with me; and he is already useful to others by spending seventy-eight thousand and thirty-one roubles—and certainly to himself!"
"But he does not work."
"That is true, but I work for him and for myself. I have done the work of five all my [198] life; why shouldn't he enjoy himself? He won't do it later on; I know that by my own experience. Work is a curse ”

“ Therefore let every one seek and find himself; for the Time of Visitation is at Hand, that he may be found in his Love; for the Turba has found all false Lust in it, and the Most High Worker of all Essences manifests the Turba; and then all false Lust or Imagination becomes manifest, and each Thing enters into its eternal Keeper, for all Things are generated out of Imagination: So also it shall receive its Property in the Imagination, and every Imagination reaps its own Work which it has wrought ”

“ They all thought he had talent; at Heidelberg they had admired his water colours, Miss Wilkinson had told him over and over again that they were chasing; even strangers like the Watsons had been struck by his sketches. La Vie de Boheme had made a deep impression on him. He had brought it to London and when he was most depressed he had only to read a few pages to be transported into those chasing attics where Rodolphe and the rest of them danced and loved and sang. He began to think of Paris as before he had thought of London, but he had no fear of a second disillusion ”

“ Bacon as the herald of empiricism, Bruno as the representative of a poetic pantheism, and Boehme as the father of the theosophic mysticism. If we regarded alone the profoundness of his principle, Boehme should hold a much later place in the history of philosophy, but if we looked chiefly at the imperfect form of his philosophizing, his rank would be assigned to the mystics of the Middle Ages, while chronologically we must associate him with the German Reformation and the protestant elements that were nourished at that time. ”

“ Therefore the Artist can effect nothing, unless he gives a Meat to the Forms, which they all desire, and Love to eat; wherein there is no Turba: Now the Prop-erties cannot eat, seeing their Mouth is frozen up in the Impression of Saturn; the Artist must first open their Mouth, and make them alive in their Zeal, that all the Forms may be hungry, and then if there be Manna, they all eat together of it, and so the precious Grain of Mustard-Seed is sown. ”

“ It may safely be said that in the real Bohème there was no such goodly company of industrious, gifted, morally austere, intellectually gay, unselfish young men, and that there never will be in any society till the coming of the Coquecigrues.
The Bohemia of artistic tradition began in what Théophile Gautier named the "second cénacle." The first cénacle, as all the world knows, was that of Victor Hugo, Sainte-Beuve, and the brothers Deschamps, who met regularly at the cabaret of Mère Saguet on Montparnasse in the days when Hugo was still hatching the plot of the literary revolution. ”

“ At the present moment Boehme was quite content to look at the cornfields around him and the sky above—scattered with white and grey clouds—and to recall the memories of childhood; a similar factory in the shape of a horseshoe, the same kind of trees, and the same villa with a pond in the garden.... What a pity there was no village school here, no almshouses, no [190] hospital! Adler had forgotten to build these, although he had copied the shape of the Brandenburg factory. "Had there not been a school there," the pastor reflected, "Adler would never have been a millionaire, nor I a pastor." ”

“ Though opposed by Calov, he was befriended by the Dresden consistory. Boehme died in A.D. 1624, in retirement at Görlitz, in the arms of his family.470―In close connexion with Boehmists, separatists, and Pietists, yet differing from them all, Gottfried Arnold abused orthodoxy and canonized the heretics of all ages. In A.D. 1700 he wrote “The Mystery of the Divine Sophia.” When Adam, originally man and woman, fell, his female nature, the heavenly Sophia, was taken from him, and in his place a woman of flesh was made for him out of a rib ”

“ How acquit Bonamy of sentimentality of the grossest sort; of being tossed like a cork on the waves; of having no steady insight into character; of being unsupported by reason, and of drawing no comfort whatever from the works of the classics?
"The height of civilization," said Jacob.
He was fond of using Latin words.
Magnanimity, virtue—such words when Jacob used them in talk with Bonamy meant that he took control of the situation; that Bonamy would play round him like an affectionate spaniel; and that (as likely as not) they would end by rolling on the floor.
"And Greece?" said Bonamy. ”