me conceives of the correlation of two
triads of forces. Each triad consists of a thesis, an antithesis and a
synthesis; and the two are connected by an important link. In the hidden
life of the Godhead, which is at once _Nichts_ and _Alles_, exists the
original triad, viz. Attraction, Diffusion, and their resultant, the
Agony of the unmanifested Godhead. The transition is made; by an act of
will the divine Spirit comes to Light; and immediately the manifested
life appears in the triad of Love, Expression, and their resultant,
Visible Variety. As the action of contraries and their resultant are
explained the relations of soul, body and spirit; of good, evil and free
will; of the spheres of the angels, of Lucifer, and of this world. It is
a more difficult problem to account on this philosophy for the
introduction of evil. Boehme does not resort to dualism, nor has he the
smallest sympathy with a pantheistic repudiation of the fact of sin.
That the difficulty presses him is clear from the progressive changes
in his attempted solution of the problem. In the _Aurora_ nothing save
good proceeds from the _Ungrund_, though there is good that abides and
good that fall;--Christ and Lucifer. In the second stage of his writing
the antithesis is directly generated as such; good and its contrary are
coincidently given from the one creative source, as factors of life and
movement; while in the third period evil is a direct outcome of the
primary principle of divine manifestation--it is the wrath side of God.
Corresponding to this change we trace a significant variation in the
moral end contemplated by Boehme as the object of this world's life and
history. In the first stage the world is created in remedy of a decline;
in the second, for the adjustment of a balance of forces; in the third,
to exhibit the eternal victory of good over evil, of love over wrath.

Editions of Boehme's works were published by H. Betke (Amsterdam,
1675); by J.G. Gichtel (Amsterdam, 1682-1683, 10 vols.); by K.W.
Schiebler (Leipzig, 1831-1847, 7 vols.). Translations of sundry
treatises have been made into Latin (by J.A. Werdenhagen, 1632), Dutch
(complete, by W. v. Bayerland, 1634-1641), and French (by Jean Macle,
c. 1640, and L.C. de Saint-Martin, 1800-1809). 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 th