The Signature of All Things

Jakob Böhme

Translated by John Ellistone

18 chapters · about 7 h

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The opening

CHAP. I.

How that all hatfoevtr is jpoken of God without the kttowledg of the Signatttre,is dumb, and without finder- Jianding and that in the mind of man the SigaatHre lieth very exaElly cempofed according to the * £ fence ♦ . _ of all E fences. all Beings,

LL whatfoever is fpoken,vvrlttenjOr taught of Godjwithout die knowledg ot the Signaturcjis dumb, and voyd of underftanding -y tor It proccedeih only out of an Hiftorical Conjefture, from the mouth of another, v.hcrein the fpirit withcut know- Jedg is dumb •, but if the Spirit doth open unto him the Signature then he undcrftands the fpeech of another j and further underftandeth how the Spirit hath manifefted and revealed it feU (out of the Effence through the Principle } in the Sound with the voycc. For that I fee one iofpeak,teachjpreachjani write of God, and albeit I hear and read the fame, yet this is not fufficient for me to undeiftand him; but if his Sound, and Ipirit out of his Signature and Similitude,entrcth into my own Similitude, and imprinieth his Simili’ tude into mine, then I may underftand him really and fundamentally, be it either fpoken or written, if he hath the Hammer that can ftrike my Bell.

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About this edition

The words
John Ellistone's English translation, copied word for word.
Left out
  • Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 19 places
  • The scanned copy's speckled endpapers and the library's shelf marks, read as characters by the OCR (24 blocks)
  • The scanning library's stamp (“PERKINS LIBRARY”, “Duke University”, “Rare Books”) (3 blocks)
  • The title page and opening pages before chapter 1, in 2 places
  • Other material that isn't the author's, in 4 places
  • Printed ornaments and dividers, in 2 places
  • Scan noise: the same tailpiece (3 blocks)
  • Scan noise: a speck read as characters (“■•£'”) above the first line of Chapter XV
  • The printer's signature mark and catchword the OCR ran into the last line of the page
  • The catchword at the foot of page 215 (“7he”, for “The”)
  • The printer's signature mark and catchword at the foot of the page (“I.;!t .'A E ? I *^- What”)
  • A preface, foreword or afterword
  • Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers
  • Specks read as characters (“^ I”, “ift .”) (2 blocks)
  • The closing line “FINIS.”
  • Specks on the last leaves and the back cover, read as single letters (5 blocks)

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