170 ON THE DIVINE INTUITION
nothing but himself; for he has nothing before or
after him that he can will. But if he will anything,
that very same has emanated from him, and is a
counterstroke of himself, wherein the eternal will
wills in its something. Now if the something were
only a one, the will could have no exercise therein.
And therefore the unfathomable will has separated
itself into beginnings and carried itself into being,
that it might work in something, as we have a
similitude in the soul (Gemuth) of man.
18. If the soul did not itself flow from itself, it
would have no sense-perception; but if it had no
sense-perception, neither would it have any know-
ledge of itself, nor of any other thing, and were
incapable of doing or working. But the efflux
of sense from the soul (which efflux is a counter-
stroke of the soul, in which the soul feels itself)
endows the soul with will or desire, so that it
introduces the senses into a something, viz. into a
centrum of an ego-hood, wherein the soul works
through sense, and reveals and contemplates itself
in its working through the senses.
19. Now if in these centra of sense in the counter-
stroke of the soul there were no contrarium, then
all the centra of emanated sense were but a one ;
in all the centra of sense but one single will, that
did continually but one and the same thing. How
could then the wonders and powers of the divine
wisdom become known by the soul (which is an
image of divine revelation) and be brought into
figures ? '
20. But if there be, a contrarium, as light and
darkness, therein, then this contrarium is contrary