39.

[48] For an example of it, see _Myst. mag._ lxxiv. 46.

[49] _Forty Questions_, x. 9.

[50] _Fourth Epistle_, 32, and _True Repentance_.

[51] _Regeneration_, 161-162.

[52] _Myst. mag._ lxiii. 47. This theme constantly reappears.

[53] _Sig. re._ xv. 37.

[54] _Resignation_, vi. 134-151.

[55] _Forty Questions_, xiv. 17-19.

[56] _Op. cit._ iv. 16.

[57] Von Hartmann's _Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme_, p. 50.

[58] _Twenty-fifth Epistle_, 2.

[59] _Aurora_, xix. 95.

[60] _Twenty-sixth Epistle_, 7.

[61] _Aurora_, xviii. 9.

[62] _Sig. re._ xvi. 38.

[63] _Ibid._ ix. 65.

[64] _Ibid._ xiii. 27 and xv. 9.

[65] _The Supersensual Life_, 29 and 30.

[66] _Ibid._ 27.

{208}

CHAPTER XII

JACOB BOEHME'S INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND

The first appearance in English of any of the writings of Jacob Boehme
was in 1645, when a tiny volume was issued with the title: _Two
Theosophical Epistles, Englished_.

There had appeared a year earlier (1644) a seven-page biography of
Boehme which was the first presentation of him to the English reader.
This brief sketch contains the well-known incidents which became the
stock material for the later accounts of his life.[1] It also contained
the following quaint description of Boehme which was the model for all
the portraits of the Teutonic philosopher in the English biographies of
him: "The stature of his outward body was almost of no Personage; his
person was little and leane, with browes somewhat inbowed; high
Temples, somewhat hauk-nosed: His eyes were gray and somewhat heaven
blew, and otherwise as the Windows in Solomon's Temple: He had a thin
Beard; a small low Voyce. His Speech was lovely. He was modest in his
Behaviour, humble in his conversation and meeke in his heart. His
spirit was highly enlightened by God, as is to be seen and discerned in
the Divine Light out of his writings."

The slender volume of _Theosophical Epistles_ was followed by another
little book issued a year later (1646), {209} consisting of a Discourse
delivered in Latin in the Schools at Cambridge by Charles Hotham,
Rector of Wigan. This Discourse was translated into English by the
author's brother, Justice Durant Hotham, and was published under the
title: _Introduction to Teutonic Philosophy, or A Determination
concerning the Original of the Soul_, Englished by D. F. [Durant
Frater], 1650. This interesting little volume, full of quaint phrase
and strange specula