XVII

Whoever has a good and true purpose—can he, contrary to his duty, cease from the endeavor to achieve it? They will remain silent, I say: if only some of them would not afterwards take up the mask of the hypocrite!

Perhaps this short introduction will serve to ensure that this little work—even if people cry it out as "fanatical" original: "schwärmerisch"; a common 18th-century pejorative for those claiming direct mystical inspiration—nevertheless reaches more hands. And, whoever wishes to read it will often find occasions to examine his innermost self, "whether the good work has truly begun within the same? whether, and by what means, it is being promoted or hindered? whether he is thus on the path to attaining the high dignity and blessedness Seligkeit: a state of spiritual happiness and salvation of the children of God?" And, should the higher, allegorical mode of representation in this writing not always be clear to some readers: they will nonetheless find a certain impression in their soul original: "Gemüth"; refers to the seat of emotions and spiritual disposition that will awaken them—