the world. Thou art the glory, ornament, and supporter of the Earth. Thou art the Asyle, Anchor, and tye of the Universe. Next to the minde of Man, God Created nothing more Noble, more Glorious, or more Profitable.”[75] His _Subtle Allegory concerning the Secrets of Alchemy, very useful to possess and pleasant to read_, will be found in the _Hermetic Museum_, together with his _Golden Tripod_, consisting of translations of “Valentine’s” “_Practica_” and _Twelve Keys_, Norton’s _Ordinal_ and Cremer’s spurious _Testament_. [75] MICHAEL MAIER: _Lusus Serius: or Serious Passe-time_ (1654), p. 138. [Illustration: Plate 11. PORTRAIT OF JACOB BOEHME. _To face page 74_]] Jacob Boehme (1575-1624.) § =56.= =Jacob Boehme=, or Behmen (see plate 11), was born at Alt Seidenberg, a village near Görlitz, in 1575. His parents being poor, the education he received was of a very rudimentary nature, and when his schooling days were over, Jacob was apprenticed to a shoemaker. His religious nature caused him often to admonish his fellow-apprentices, which behaviour ultimately caused him to be dismissed. He travelled about as a journeyman shoemaker, returning, however, to Görlitz in 1594, where he married and settled in business. He claims to have experienced a wonderful vision in 1598, and to have had a similar vision two years later. In these visions, the first of which lasted for several days, he believed that he saw into the inmost secrets of nature; but what at first appeared dim and vague became clear and coherent in a third vision, which he tells us was vouchsafed to him in 1610. It was then that he wrote his first book, the _Aurora_, which he composed for himself only, in order that he should not forget the mysteries disclosed to him. At a later period he produced a large number of treatises of a mystical-religious nature, having spent the intervening years in improving his early education. These books aroused the ire of the narrow-minded ecclesiastical authorities of the town, and Jacob suffered considerable persecution in consequence. He visited Dresden in 1624, and in the same year was there taken ill with a fever. Returning to Görlitz, he expired in a condition of ecstasy.