ON THE SIGNATURE

OF THINGS.

CHAPTER I.

How everything that is spoken concerning God is mute and without understanding without the knowledge of the Signature: and how the Signature lies within the human mind according to the Essence of all Essences.

Everything that is spoken, written, or taught concerning God without the knowledge of the Signature The "Signature" refers to the outward manifestation of the inner essence; the idea that the physical form of a thing reveals its spiritual character. is mute and without understanding; for it comes only from a historical delusion, passed from another's mouth, wherein the spirit is mute without knowledge. But if the Spirit opens the Signature to him, then he understands the other's mouth and further understands how the Spirit has revealed itself out of the Essence original: "Essenz"; the fundamental spiritual substance of a thing. through the Principle original: "Principium"; the foundational beginning or governing law. in the resonance of the voice. For though I see that one speaks, teaches, preaches, and writes of God, and I likewise hear and read the same, it is not yet sufficiently understood by me; but if his resonance and his Spirit enter out of his Signature and Formation original: "Gestaldniß"; the specific shape or configuration of a being's nature. into my own Formation, and mark his Formation into mine, then I may understand him in the true ground, whether it be spoken or written—provided he has the hammer that can strike my bells. Therein