Cis van Heertum

From music to millenarianism:

Philipp Joseph Frick (1742-1798)

Philipp Joseph Frick, musician and composer, is noted in the major musical lexicons as a performer on the glass harmonica, a curious musical instrument which captured audiences all over Europe in the eighteenth century. The instrument was extremely popular with the German Romantic poets: it was believed to evoke a supernatural atmosphere, and it was used for instance by Franz Anton Mesmer as a musical accompaniment during his séances.1 Its ethereal sounds, however, were also considered to be detrimental, believed not only to work upon the imagination, but also, quite literally, to affect the nerves, which may be one reason for the instrument's decline in the nineteenth century.2

Frick, acknowledged virtuoso on the glass harmonica, published a number of musical works during a career which took him from Germany to Russia and finally to London, where he published most of his compositions. One work of his, though, was published anonymously, in 1797, and it is this work which throws light on Frick's remarkable religious outlook, and associates him with millenarian circles in London in the late eighteenth century, which featured notable exponents such as Richard Brothers and Johanna Southcott.

Philipp Joseph Frick was born in Willanzheim, a village near Würzburg in southern Germany, on 14 April 1742.3 He was the son of a Catholic school-teacher in Willanzheim, Matthäus Frick, and his wife Margaretha Zapff, who were married in the town of Willanzheim in 1736.4 Where the young Joseph Frick, as he was to call himself in later life, received his musical education is not known,5 but he was apparently talented enough to rise to the position of court organist to August Georg, the Catholic Margrave of Baden-Baden, from 1762 until 1771, the year in which August Georg died.6 Two years into his established career as a court musician, Frick married Josepha Domini Fistler on 9 October 1764.7 After the Margrave's death, Frick was forced out of the safety of regular employment, and his peregrinations began. He travelled to Russia, where he allegedly performed occasionally in the presence of Catherine the Great, and was appointed piano teacher to Grand-Duchess Nathalie Alexeievna, first wife of Catherine the Great's son and successor Paul Petrovich.8 When his high-born pupil died in childbirth in 1775, Frick was again left penniless and out of a job.

In 1778 Frick travelled to Holland and on to London, where he pursued his musical career with some success until at least 1795, when a dramatic spiritual conversion appears to have urged him to observe a more retiring way of life. Soon after arriving in London, he began teaching the harpsichord. Frick apparently also gave performances on his glass harmonica to London audiences to general applause, until he supposedly gave up the instrument in 1786 because of its ruinous effects on his nerves.9

Frick died in London on 15 June 1798, without leaving a will.10 Although he lived separated from his wife at least from 1778 onwards, communication lines between the couple must have remained open. Josepha Frick is described as a widow in the Rastatt registers as early as 26 June 1798, eleven days after Frick had died in England. She died four years after her husband in Rastatt in 1802, in straitened circumstances.11


The True Knowledge of God and Man

Joseph Frick was not only a professional and an esteemed musician. After having experienced a spiritual conversion in 1795 he published a millenarian work in 1797, a year before his death. Although the treatise was published anonymously, it is a semi-anonymity, because The True Knowledge contains an extensive autobiographical passage, which shall be quoted in full below, with biographical facts which would appear to have made it not too difficult to identify the anonymous author as the musician Frick. The full title of the treatise is The True Knowledge of God and Man; of the Great Sabbath on Earth; and of the Restoration of All Things; With some Essential Remarks on the Duty we owe to our Creator. The pamphlet was published by William Bryan.12

The autobiographical passage, in which Frick describes his career from 1762 onwards, can be found in the middle of his earnest treatise, on pages 104-7:

§9 The Writer is compelled to confess likewise, that he himself was - till lately - many times in the said lowest situation, having neglected the laws of God - as most persons do. Nevertheless, such an unworthy being has been chosen for writing this book, on purpose to remove the discouragement which is mentioned in the preceding '. 8. The truth of this present confession will appear to Many, because the Writer was (formerly) obliged to travel through the greatest part of Europe, and thus became known with his musical instrument Harmonica, almost to every Monarch and Individual. These journeys were to be performed (as he but lately understood) merely for the purpose of proving now to all, who saw and knew him, that unlearned Men, like the Apostles, may again receive Light: and likewise that, as he found Mercy, every person might trust in the Lord for Pardon, if the example of '. 7 is followed. There are indeed many examples in the holy Scripture of Sinners being forgiven, as David, the Malefactor on the cross, St. Paul, &c &c. but as they do no longer live among us, some people are apt to think that all is over. But the same God living for ever, a new example is here shewn of His Mercy being bestowed upon an unworthy Man, who is yet alive or known in many Countries. These journeys have indeed been performed merely for this spiritual purpose, for they did not prove a temporal advantage to the Writer; and as all things will soon come to light, he is also permitted to mention some of the unjust treatment he has met with, from which he may indeed be compared with the Israelites who were driven from their home; but the Drivers - the Chaldeans - were also severely punished: so it happend here likewise already in one place.13 From the year 1762 to 1771, the Writer was Organist to the Prince or Margrave of Baaden, for whom he was desired to make the said Harmonica, and for which purpose the then Court-Marshal Baron SCHÖNAU14 advanced the money. When ready, the Prince was indeed pleased with the Instrument: but the said Baron took back his money from the Writer's whole salary, which obliged him to leave that Court, and to travel – as mentioned above. In Russia, he was (afterwards) music-master to the GRAND DUCHESS.15 When She died, almost his whole salary, &c. was due to him, as likewise some presents for having several times played upon his Harmonica before the Empress: and to the honour of that Imperial Court be it said, both sums were ordered to be paid, but again, the Minister, (Nicolay Iwanowitz Soltikoft)16 withheld the money. Had the whole sum been paid when due (1777), it might, through the interest, amount at present to at least 7000 rubles, or 1400 Pounds Sterling.* On account of this second loss he was obliged to travel still farther on, instead of returning to his original home; and though he never thought of coming to England, yet, two days before he intended to set off from Holland to the Southern parts, he was wonderfully directed to go to London (1778) at least for a few months. But having been robbed there, in the first fortnight, of a valuable gold watch, and his whole property being lost soon after (which however he received again after ten months) he was certainly obliged to enter into business, (teaching the Harpsichord) in order to get again, if possible, the expence he had incurred during that time, and what he was robbed of. This restitution came, however, so slowly, that at last he grew too old for pursuing his travels; and lately he employed much time upon this present knowledge, whereby he neglected all opportunities for increasing his business; therefore he acquired till now (1796) no more than what enabled him (during these 19 years past) to pay - as he did - every day for what he wanted, without having been at any time indebted or troublesome to any person whatever. After this declaration, it is hoped that his Enemies will no longer be jealous of his advantage in London; for instead of lessening any man's business, he has even instructed several actual Professors verbally, and many others by his printed works; consequently he has rather helped them to get bread (in future) in an honest way; thus he became useful to others in preference to himself. Though his undeserved enemies may now become easy about this point, yet they will perhaps smile and say - Look! - here is another mad man! but it is to be feared that the Lord will call them Hypocrites for saying that they are Christians, whilst they continue to serve Satan, and also that their smiling will soon be converted into sorrow. But taking no farther notice of those that are, and chuse to remain without, the Writer declares here, that he has forgiven his enemies, and begs that they will forgive him also: should he have undesignedly offended any one. From this whole statement it appears that - by his musical talent (which was serviceable to him merely as a cover, whilst searching for the Light until it was communicated) - he gained sufficient to have lived now in ease, had he not been deprived at times (as in Russia) of all he possessed. It is however probable, that if he had become independent, he might not have returned to the Lord for performing the present duty or predetermined function, which is, 'that he shall work in Spirit for the help of all Mankind.'

§. 10 Let us now observe the difference between Light and Darkness. The first appears by the following advice, at §. 7. The second has kept the Writer ignorant till July 1795. But look now, for the production of Light, to the manner in which the holy Actions of God are explained throughout this Book, and in so short a period; when, or where has the inward or spiritual meaning of the principal parts of the holy Scripture been offered so clear, open, complete, and at the same time, so concise? Moreover (besides the rectifying of the translation in many places) such secrets are revealed and proved, as were never enquired into, nor even thought of before - although so essential for knowing GOD and MAN, and our DUTY! Where then could all this come from, in only six months, viz. before the conclusion of the said year? The Writer is nothing; but judge of the Contents, taking care however not to question the Will of God. Let us rather enquire why, and for whom all this is written? Surely not to pass an idle time, nor is it for the use of the Writer alone, but certainly for all mankind, in order that we all might in earnest begin to prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of Christ - beginning with a true knowledge of God.

* If the present Emperor should happen to pay the whole, or any part of this demand (directing it to the Publisher) such a just action shall not only be noticed in the next Edition, but also in some public papers, if required.

Frick presents himself in this passage as a repentant sinner, looking back on his musical career as one long preparation for his spiritual conversion, yet also commenting, in a naievely down-to-earth way, that had his career not been chequered, he might not have come to the true knowledge of God. His conversion occurred in July 1795, prompting him to produce The True Knowledge in the space of six months - an astonishingly short period, thinks Frick, and a sure token of divine encouragement.


Philipp Joseph Frick and his masonic career

In 1779, a year after having arrived in London, Frick became a member of a newly-founded masonic lodge in London. This lodge was called the Pilgrim Lodge (now no. 238 in the Grand Lodge of England), which still exists today.17 The Pilgrim Lodge was founded on 5 August 1779 expressly for the German-speaking community in London: all ceremonies were held in the German language.18 The official founder was Johann Dan. Siegfried Leonhardi, a friend of the German masonic reformer Johann Wilhelm Ellenberger (better known as Zinnendorf), who wished to strenghten the Zinnendorf's position with regard to the Grand Lodge of England.19 Zinnendorf, in opposition to the then current and briefly powerful masonic system of 'Strict Observance' in Germany,20 founded a first lodge based on the Swedish System in Potsdam in 1768. Other lodges soon followed. The English Grand Lodge had acknowledged Zinnendorf's own Grand Lodge in 1773, and Zinnendorf's follower Leonhardi obtained without difficulty a patent from the English Grand Master, George Montagu, fourth Earl of Manchester, to institute a German lodge in London. An early historian of the Pilgrim Lodge notes with some disapproval that at that time, although there had been a boom in English lodges (their number having increased from 4 in 1717 to 516 in 1779), English freemasonry had degenerated, quantity apparently having gotten the better of quality. He quotes a contemporary observer, a German freemason from Frankfurt, who complained that English freemasons were mainly given to wining and dining, leaving nothing but the husk, the ceremonial part, of English Freemasonry.21 Clearly the Pilgrim Lodge wished to follow a different example. The system introduced by Zinnendorf urged a mystical knowledge of God, and an awareness of the divine essence in man.

The lodge, which was originally entered as No. 516 in the Grand Lodge of England, initially met in the Mitre Tavern in Fleet Street, but soon after moved to the Free Masons' Hall, then in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn. Apart from Johann Leonhardi, five other Germans were entered as members on 5 August 1779. The seventh member was Joseph Frick, who was admitted on 14 August. On 19 August another German was admitted, and four more on 23 August. In a list of the early members of the Pilgrim Lodge, Frick's professional occupation is described as 'Kaufmann' (tradesman), and his place of birth is not given.22

Frick became the Director of Ceremonies for the Pilgrim Lodge soon after its inception, as is witnessed by the title of a work published in October 1779, less than two months after the lodge's foundation: Freimaurer-Lieder zum Gebrauche der Pilger-Loge, in Musik gesetzt von Joseph Fricke, Cermonienmeister der Pilger-Loge. This 23-page work, published in a quarto format, contains 11 songs.23 Fourteen years later, in 1793, it was reviewed in Germany in an issue of the masonic publication Freymaurer-Bibliothek, published in Berlin by Christian Gottfried Schoene.24 The reviewer notes that the work is engraved throughout, which may, according to him, account for the many spelling errors. Seven of the songs were written by Leonhardi, the founder of the lodge, one by Heinrich August Corthym, co-founder, and another one by Count Christian von Stolberg. Of Frick's share in the work, the composition, the reviewer remarks that the melodies are flowing and full of charming simplicity.25

When Frick was admitted as a member of the Pilgrim Lodge, he had the qualification 'Affil.' (affiliated) added to the date of admission. This means Frick had already been inducted earlier into a masonic lodge,26 and the obvious assumption is that this took place in his native Germany. There was no lodge in Baden (Frick's domicile from 1762 until at least 1771) prior to 1778, by which time he was already in London. His admission into a Zinnendorfian lodge in London may mean that he was initiated earlier on the Continent in a lodge which observed the same system, although it is perhaps more likely that Frick, still a relative stranger in London, would prefer to resort to a German-language lodge, in order to establish himself in that city more easily. He probably met Joseph Haydn and Johann Friedrich Reichardt in person, two visiting German musicians who were also masons. Johann Christian Bach, Queen Charlotte's music master, was also a member of the Pilgrim Lodge, having been admitted on 12 September 1781.27

Frick explicitly refers to the masons twice in The True Knowledge: 'The said two Ribs are the two Columns before the Temple - so much spoken of by Free-Masons, but which are so little understood. Moses calls them AESCH-MAJIM, the first Essences in Man.' And, in relation to the four degrees of man's fall (and, in reverse, ascent) distinguished by Frick, he adds: 'If this remark is compared with the Second Plan, the real Free Masons will understand their four steps!'28 It is unknown whether Frick remained with the Pilgrim Lodge. But by 1797, when he published his theosophical work, he had certainly become associated with circles of a more exotic religious stamp.


Philipp Joseph Frick, keeper of The True Knowledge of God and Man

Frick's The True Knowledge of God and Man can be classified as belonging to the flood of millenarian tracts and prophecies which has been described in J.F.C. Harrison's highly absorbing The Second Coming. Popular Millenarianism 1780-1850.29 Harrison's study explores the tense political and social climate of the 1790s, both on the Continent and in England, which fostered millenarian expectations. In England, under the shadow of the French Revolution, prophecies were abundant. In 1795 The remarkable predictions of Mr. Christopher Love were reprinted, the prophecies of a seventeenth-century author who in the turbulence of the Civil War period had already promised that 'the Lord by his spirit shall cause knowledge to abound amongst his people, whereby the old prophecies shall be clearly and perfectly understood'.30 In the last decades of the eighteenth century, several individuals once more took it upon themselves to act out this promise, and reveal the divine knowledge they were convinced they had received to their fellow humans. Pamphlets prophesying the end of time and the establishment of the New Jerusalem on earth, as envisioned by John in Revelations XXI.2, were printed in abundance in London.

Frick's True Knowledge, which promises to describe the great 'Sabbath on Earth', is likewise intended to prepare mankind for the imminent coming of Christ. The treatise was published by William Bryan, who himself had been involved in millenarian circles at least since 1789. An account of Bryan's peregrinations under the influence of his unorthodox religious feelings can be found in Harrison's The Second Coming and in C. Garrett's earlier study Respectable Folly.31 Bryan, a copper-plate printer by profession, was a confirmed millenarian. Originating from Shrewsbury, he had travelled to London at the age of twenty-one and, after sampling various dissenting sects, had joined the Quaker Society around 1785, until he was ejected from that Society in December 1789.32 Earlier that year, he and a fellow-millenarian, the carpenter John Wright, had travelled to the south of France to join the illuminés of Avignon, a sect originally founded by Dom Antoine Joseph Pernety,33 which combined strands of freemasonry, occultism, mesmerism and spiritualism. Pernety was joined by the Polish count Tadeusz Grabianka, who diverted the movement's interest from occultism and alchemy towards millenarianism.34 Although Bryan and Wright returned to England much enlightened in spirit, Bryan found it very difficult as a result of his millenarian inclinations to find work. He moved to Bristol around 1791 and established himself there as an apothecary, but eventually returned to London in 1794, to become a follower of Richard Brothers, a Newfoundland-born prophet who had settled in London and had attracted a devoted following. In the vexed mid-1790s Brothers became such a threat to the authorities that, charges of political conspiracy having failed, he was committed to a lunatic asylum in May 1795, from which place he nevertheless continued to burst into print.35 William Bryan was still in London in 1802, when he accepted the prophecies of another, female prophet, Joanna Southcott, as true revelations of the divine Spirit. He was nevertheless considered an enduring devotee of Richard Brothers, and described by Harrison as belonging to the 'nucleus of Brothers' followers'.36

A few years before his illuminé adventures, in 1786, Bryan was selling the books of another visionary. He is mentioned as a bookseller in the imprints of Emanuel Swedenborg's Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord, The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the sacred Scripture, and The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem. All three were published in 1786, with the imprint giving Bryan's address as 7, Mark Lane, London.37 The extent of Bryan's printing career is not very clear,38 but it began promising, under the tutelage of the eminent engraver (and fellow millenarian) William Sharp, who encouraged Bryan and apparently launched him into business, probably in or after 1786.39

Frick's acquaintance with Bryan cannot have been casual or confined to a strictly business relationship. Not only did he entrust Bryan with the possible recuperation of outstanding salaries owed to him by the Russian imperial court, he also, more realistically, referred anyone wishing to meet the author personally to William Bryan.40 It is not unlikely that Frick was encouraged in his own millenarian fervour by Bryan, a follower of the prophet Brothers. The copy of The True Knowledge held by The British Library is part of a tract volume, which is headed by a treatise written by Richard Brothers, 'in confinement', as the title-page claims, so after he had been committed to the asylum. It was printed in October 1795. Another millenarian treatise in the same tract volume was written by the Scottish lawyer John Finlayson, a devoted follower and protector of Brothers. Most of the other treatises were printed in 1797. The inclusion of The True Knowledge in this tract volume, with one tract by Richard Brothers, and another one by a devotee of the prophet, would seem to suggest that Frick's anonymously published pamphlet was considered to issue from these circles.


The True Knowledge: Contents

Like others inclined towards mystical theosophy, Frick claims to have been divinely inspired, and thus to have true and direct knowledge of God. Believing the millennium to be at hand, he declares in his treatise that he was favoured by the Lord to present to the world the true account of man's divine origin, so that men might know and prepare themselves for the coming of Christ:

Christ has even revealed to the Writer the reasons why his Kingdom will be established upon Earth. This was, indeed, never before communciated to any person in the world; we may take it as a proof that it was only to be known at the latter end: otherwise something of it would certainly have been mentioned before, either by a Prophet or by an Apostle: this seems to be additional proof that the long expected time (Daniel XII.8,9 41) must be at hand. (p. 111)

Frick received many divine revelations, some of which were not to be made public yet:

Several other real reasons of the Lord's judgements have likewise been given to the Writer; but as they are not absolutely necessary for our instruction and preparation, they are not permitted publicly to be mentioned at present. (p. 72)

The True Knowledge, as Frick lets us know in a footnote to page 112, was published only after divine approval: 'The merciful permission for publishing this book was received on the 14th day of March 1797, at noon, 12 o'clock; for which Mercy the Lord be praised for ever.' Frick is very meticulous about the time he received his revelations, most of which appear to have been communicated to him in August 1795.42 1795 was a fateful year: according to the prophet Brothers, the Second Coming was fixed to happen on 19 November 1795, at dawn.43 In this tense atmosphere, Frick received further visions ten days after the announced non-event.

To prove his point, Frick quotes liberally from the Bible, both the Old and the New Testament, including the book of Daniel, the apocryphal 2 Esdras, Revelations, Matthew 24, traditionally the favourite sources for apocalyptic writers.44 He also quotes from Ezekiel, another Fundgrube for religious enthusiasts. In his exegesis of the Bible Frick, who admits he is no Hebrew scholar, is nevertheless not hampered by his linguistic handicap, as his 'instruction comes from the original Source' (p. 57). The translators of the Bible, learned men, were wilfully wrong in their translations: 'men, through their own will, fell in the mud, so did the translators of the Bible. Whoever denies this, let him but look into two Bibles of any two languages, and observe whether they are alike; if not, which of the two is right? ye Doctors!' (p. 58). The 'Reformers', who were responsible for translating the Bible into the vernacular, he therefore calls the 'Deformers'. The usual contempt of the inspired for book learning reverberates here, in a shrewd observation of an almost comparative-linguistical nature. Even if the Hebrew had been translated exactly by the translators of the Bible, Frick continues, they would still have produced an imperfect version, as Esdras was not permitted fully to reveal the Holy Scripture. With the aid of Frick's divinely inspired explanation of the Bible, all men, made aware of their true divine origin, can now become inwardly purified. (The biblical quotations in Frick's True Knowledge, incidentally, are taken from the Authorized Version.)

What Frick intends to elucidate in The True Knowledge, to prepare mankind for the Second Coming, are mainly the first three chapters of Genesis, since 'every spiritual man knows that the first three chapters of Moses contain the substance of the whole Bible' (p. 101). However, what every spiritual man may not know is that the Mosaic writings were burnt, and that the second account of Creation, written by Esdras, is incomplete. Frick received divine permission to reveal and explain the omissions, in preparation of Christ's Coming, as he writes in the preface:

The Account of the very first Creation is omitted in the Holy Scripture - and so are many parts; because, after the Original Bible was burnt, GOD commanded ESDRAS to write it anew, but said to him at the same time (II. Book XIX. 26.) And when thou hast done, some things shalt thou publish, and some things shalt thou shew secretly to the Wise.45 These Omissions - together with some incorrect Translations - have been the Cause of many Errors. But at this late time of the World, The LORD has mercifully permitted these Secret things to be mentioned. They are chiefly omitted in - or belong to the three first Chapters of Genesis, which, therefore, are explained here, in order that every Man in the World might know his CREATOR - Himself and his Duty; and learn, even, from the Prodigal Son - how to come back to his FATHER. (p. i)

That Frick casts himself in the role of the Prodigal Son, a regenerate, is also clear from the following: 'It is well known that the servants of God have mostly been without a wordly elevation. This book is written by a man equally low, one who hardly knows how to write, an unworthy being, a sinner, but one that repents.' (p. 103) The True Knowledge urges its readers likewise to repent.

Although Frick claims to have been guided only by the spirit of God, his account of the first three chapters of Genesis is informed by contemporary theosophical accounts of the origin of man and the world into which he is cast, accounts which can be associated with original gnostic views. Frick writes that man 'was created of the essence of the highest spiritual world, which essence - Aesch-Majim46 - is a part of the Holy Trinity itself!' (pp. 45-6). Man, when created, was both male and female, or One, and was given a 'spirit of the highest spiritual world'. He was not created in Eden, as biblical commentators mistakenly assert, but in 'Jerusalem, next to the Throne of God' (p. 46), and he was a heavenly, spiritual man. Man was tempted by Satan in the spirit, for which transgression he was put in paradise, where he was furnished with a 'spiritual body of the dust in Eden.' Here man, now called Adam, was still male and female, but because he again listened to the insinuations of the serpent, the male and female essence was divided, and Adam received his mate. It was she who was subsequently tempted, by listening to Satan in the guise of the serpent, because the devil knew her to be weaker. Adam and his wife, driven out of Paradise, must consequently inhabit the earth, which is cursed, and 'Lucifer's seat' (p. 5). God did not create this earth we now inhabit - 'it was merely inverted or changed from good to bad, or laid in curse through his mighty and righteous Judgment, occasioned by the fall of Lucifer'. (p. 7)

In discussing Eve's part in what Frick considers the final stage of man's fall, he does not differ from orthodox misogynist thought. He is opposed to an undue female presence in the public domain. In this he differs from many millenarians, who accepted the prophecies of female prophets equally with those of their male colleagues. Frick's acquaintance and publisher Bryan switched allegiance from Richard Brothers to Joanna Southcott unhesitatingly, and many others with him. But Frick is quite determined about the subordinate status of women in the (millennial) world. Basing himself largely on the Pauline precepts concerning the position of women, drawn from Corinthians and 1 Timothy, he chides the female sex:

it is hoped, that Women, who brought us out of the Paradise, will be quiet and submissive, and not hinder Men in bringing them back again. (p. 158)

His opposition to female rule echoes that of a fellow-conservative of more than two centuries earlier, incidentally emphasizing the stock-in-trade of printed misogyny:

And as long as there is one single Man upon Earth, fit for some extraordinary Employment, no woman is chosen for any great action; and even then, such a choice could happen merely to our shame: as was the case at the time of Deborah, when all the Men were bad. (p. 157)

The Protestant John Knox employed the same argument in his ill-timed tract against the female rulership of the Catholic Mary Tudor with the magnificent title First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558). Frick, 250 years later, dips into the same pool of misogynist arguments.

In the seventeenth century the notion of man's first blessed state and his fall into matter was elaborated by the German theosopher Jacob Böhme (1575-1624), particularly in Mysterium Magnum, his exposition of Genesis. Böhme's works, in the original German and in translation, found wide circulation on the Continent and in England, well into the nineteenth century. Many theosophical writers, following Böhme, discuss the issue of the divine origin of man, and his original creation, amongst whom successively the English Behmenists John Pordage and Jane Lead, the Germans Johann Georg Gichtel, Friedrich Christoph Oettinger, and the French philosopher and theosopher Louis Claude de Saint-Martin.47 Although Böhme and his followers only distinguished two stages in man's fall, his fall into matter and his division into male and female, whereas Frick elaborates, and distinguishes four degrees, his version of man's fall nevertheless belongs to this theosophical tradition.

Frick also suggests that by reversion, and ascending via the four degrees he distinguished, man may regain the heavenly kingdom, and reign on earth during the Sabbath: 'we all (not only the Predestinators) have been, first, sent upon this world in order that we might have an opportunity to become soon reconciled with God'. For Frick the earth is an experimental garden, in which men, in anticipation of the Second Coming, may use their allotted time to purify themselves, and by means of the free will granted to man, that other doctrinal issue, decide to do good on this earth, and serve mankind: 'there can be no merit in our Service, unless we have bettered the situation of another being; and even then we have done no more than our duty' (pp. 121-22).

The doctrine of predestination and its proclaimers is attacked on several occasions: 'let all these predestinators, who wish to keep others from heaven, learn first how to come into it, and how to keep free from sin' (pp.68-9). In fact, far from allowing any souls to be damned for ever, Frick reveals that in the end, even Satan and his host of fallen angels will be restored, because God would not allow even the smallest or least part of his Creation to be lost forever: 'Can it be imagined that he would give away for ever, a part of His own Essence, of which Satan consists?' (p. 144). Frick's ideas regarding general redemption and thus the restoration of all things to their authentic, divine origin, reflect a theological stand on universal salvation, Origen's original 'apokatastasis pantoon', (including the salvation of 'Satan and his host of fallen angels' as Frick affirms) which in England was revived in the heterodoxy of the Civil War period, (the English Behmenists Pordage and Lead also advocated this view in the seventeenth century), and which was still current in Frick's time. In 1797, when his The True Knowledge was published, a journal expressly devoted to the Universalist doctrine, entitled The Universalist's Miscellany, was established.48 In Frick's own country, earlier in the century, the radical Pietist Johann Wilhelm Petersen (1649-1727) also entertained Universalist ideas. Petersen reinterpreted Jane Lead's views in a work published in 1701-1703, translated into English as The Mystery of the Restoration of All Things.49 Both in German and in English the work was frequently reprinted, and of great influence in disseminating Universalist doctrine.

Although Frick belongs to a theosophical tradition current in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, he is not a student of alchemy, which featured so prominently in the mystical-theosophical circles of the eighteenth century. He has no use for the alchemists' pursuit of the philosophers' stone, the lapis philosophorum: since the Flood, he warns, the 'Philosopher's stone was taken away; and those who make it since that time against His will, God will melt together with fire and smoke like Ham' (p. 24). Among the lunatics of his day and age, Frick counts the 'Alchymists, and other idle Writers, who believe that this world will remain, and therefore, endeavour to provide for worldly ease, though they see that the time for living here is but short; moreover, because they mix the Good with the Evil, acknowledging the Commands of our Saviour, and nevertheless meddle with gold making, which neither Christ nor his Apostles did' (p.153).

But while Frick rejects alchemy, pursued for instance by adherents of mystical masonic systems, he was obviously familiar with much mystical-theosophical matter, such as number mysticism, or at least a popular distillation of it. The eighth chapter of his work, for instance, presents many numerological gifts to the readers, and concentrates on the 'curious signification of the number four',50 and other explanations of numbers which point to the divine operations on earth and in man.


Sources and references

Five authors are mentioned by name in his treatise, three near-contemporary, only one of whom - Georg von Welling - can find (partial) favour in Frick's eyes. Welling (1655-1727) was the author of the Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum et Theosophicum, a theosophical-alchemical work which was highly influential in eighteenth-century Continental theosophical, masonic and pietist circles. Because of a summary published in 1768 which concentrates on paragraphs of a purely alchemical nature, the Opus came to be regarded and studied as an alchemical handbook.51 As is well known Goethe, too, was among the readers of Welling's work, equally well known that he decided, even after close study, that the book remained dark and unintelligible to him.52 Frick's account of the creation is greatly indebted to Welling's Opus, although he is also critical of his source, as will be seen below.

There are three (unsigned) engravings in The True Knowledge. At least one of them is copied from the Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum, with due acknowledgement. The engraving which is taken from Welling's Opus represents the 'mundus archetypus', consisting of three spiritual worlds: the throne of God (the heavenly Jerusalem), the throne of Lucifer (earth and the seven planets) and the realm of the angels.53 The other two engravings illustrate respectively the position of Eden, the sun and the moon with respect to the earth; and 'The system of the Last Judgment', showing the position of the sun and the moon with respect to the earth, and the seven circles of hell. The last of the two is also reminiscent of Welling.54 Apart from the engravings, there are incidentally also two unsophisticated typographical attempts at representing common theosophical symbols. The title-page features two double-lined triangles, the upper triangle pointing upwards, the lower triangle pointing downwards. Symbolically, these triangles respectively represent God (above) and the world (below). The first triangle contains the title, the second triangle the imprint. The second typographical embellishment occurs at the end of the text, on p. 150, where the word 'end' in the final sentence 'This is in few Words the real end' is capitalized, separated from the sentence and put within a decagon, symbolizing divine perfection.

Although Frick draws on the Opus, he is not uncritical of its author. There are various explicit references in The True Knowledge to Welling, who, although Frick grants that he has '(as far as it went) indeed been serviceable to the honour of God' (p. 114), is nevertheless generally called the 'mistaken author George Welling', and similarly he refers in a note to p. 3 to the 'numerous Admirers of his Work', who 'should know how little it ought to be read in future though he has been hitherto considered to be the best writer on the subject.' As can be expected, Frick certainly found fault with Welling's alchemical preoccupations:

the mistaken author Welling (although he allows that we have a spirit of the highest heaven) brings man no higher than into the garden of Eden; and wonderful it is that he imagined so high, since he was rather too much engaged in the ground with gold-making - though in words he denies the fact. (p. 95)

There is no evidence of a printed English translation of Welling's work in the eighteenth century, and although there do exist two manuscript copies of an English translation of the Opus,55 it is questionable whether Welling was ever very influential in England. Frick's explicit dismissal of Welling and his 'numerous admirers' seems therefore to be a legacy of his German background.

The author singled out for absolute condemnation is, not surprisingly, Voltaire. Frick repeats with distaste Voltaire's discussion of one of the Emperors of China,56 who lived, according to Voltaire, four thousand years ago, 'nay, he insinuates as if this miserable Earth had existed without a beginning - like God himself!' (pp. 113-14). Not much more is said about Voltaire, author of the maxim 'Si Dieu n'existe pas, il faut l'inventer', other than that 'it is known that Satan has many secretaries'.

Copernicus and Newton are both mentioned briefly when Frick discusses two of the three engravings. He explains that the plan in the first engraving, which is based on Welling, already occurs in Copernicus, but that he has 'extended and fully explained it according to the direction which is conspicuous in this whole Book.'57 Newton and his successors are discussed with disapproval in a note to the second engraving. Frick here anticipates criticism from the modern astronomers, but would have them first correct 'their own erroneous assertion, viz. "that the Moon receives her Light from the Sun"'. Frick interprets the existence of the planets in a purely symbolical sense. The sun and the moon are opposites, types of good and evil:

the Moon (so far from being supported by the Sun) canot be fully bright until the Sun is quite opposite or farthest off. In short, as long as Sin exists, there cannot exist two things in this Universe without being, in some measure, contrary to eachother. (p. 61)

Frick's dualism cannot tolerate a scientific study of the universe as such: as everything is either good or evil, and knowledge of God is all that matters, everything else is irrelevant: 'it is hoped, a little more attention will be paid in future to Man than to the Planets; for it is only by possessing some higher knowledge, that inferior things can be understood also' (p. 61). Condemnation of Newton and the modern school of astronomy was endemic amongst theosophers: the new science could not be reconciled with their theocentric world view.58

The last author mentioned by Frick is Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). Towards the end of The True Knowledge, on page 179, Frick devotes an extensive footnote to the 'New Jerusalem gentleman', as he was also known in London. Quoting 1 Timothy 2:17, Frick makes clear his opinion: 'And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymeneus and Philetus (and also SWEDENBORG).' He attacks a number of Swedenborg's assertions as contrary to Holy Scripture.59 Swedenborg claimed to have been directed by God himself to explain the spiritual contents of Holy Scripture in April 1745.60 Frick, in a sense a rival secretary to the spirit of God, claims that Swedenborg's Spirits 'took care, however, to keep him ignorant of the Origin of Man, and other principal points.'

Frick died a year after The True Knowledge was published, in 1798, when prophecies concerning the end of time still abounded. Brothers was not yet released from the asylum to which he had been committed and Southcott, the female prophet, was just then gathering strength. Frick may have belonged (peripherally?) to Brothers' following: his own communications with the divine spirit concerning the millennium began after Brothers had been confined in 1795, and he was closely acquainted with one of Brothers's most ardent followers, William Bryan. And yet for all its chiliastic fervour, The True Knowledge strikes not an exalted but a conciliatory and almost sober note (all are eventually saved, man's business on earth is to do good, in order to regain the heavenly Jerusalem). Frick's chiliasm, universalism, and his insistence on divine inspiration, may point to a pietist background: the spiritual father of Pietism, Philipp Jakob Spener, his follower Johann Wilhelm Petersen and other radical pietists, believed divine revelations would abound prior to the millennium. And although it is likely that Frick's religious fervour was further encouraged in London, he was probably already a student of mystical theosophy before he settled in England: his frequent discussion of Welling's Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum, a work not available in a printed translation in England, but very influential in masonic, pietist and theosophical circles on the Continent, points to an earlier familiarity with theosophical literature. His quest for inner illumination finally landed him in a chiliastic environment in London in the late 1790s, and his anonymously published The True Knowledge is the culmination in print of that preoccupation.


Abbreviated version of an article which earlier appeared in Mededelingen van de Stichting Jacob Campo Weyerman 22-2 & 3 (1999)

Notes


1. See Music, mysticism and magic, London and New York, 1986, ed. J. Godwin, 326n., ibid., Music and the Occult. French musical philosophies 1750-1950, Rochester 1995, 59-60.


2. Cf. F. Pohl, London-Industrie-Ausstellung. Zur Geschichte der Glas-Harmonica, Vienna 1862. An English translation, International Exhibition 1862. Cursory notices on the origin and history of the glass harmonica, was published in the same year. Pohl notes 'objections made against the instrument, as having a tendency to affect the nerves - indeed, so much so as to cause it to be forbidden in several countries by the police', 8.


3. The registers for the Catholic parish of Willanzheim held by the Archiv des Erzbistums Bamberg list the birth of Philipp Joseph Frick, son of Matthäus Frick and his wife Margaretha, on 14 April 1742. Witnesses were Joseph Dorsch and his son Johannis Dorsch. (Registers, vol. 4, 226 F 39). I thank Ms Ursula Schröder of the Archive for providing me with the information in this and the following note.


4. Matthäus Frick, described as 'ludimoderator', school master, in the register, the son of Master Frick, also a school-teacher in Willanzheim, married Anna Margaretha Zapff, the daughter of Anthonius Zapff, on 30 January 1736 in Willanzheim. Witnesses were Conradt Schmidt and Georgius Düll. (Registers of the Catholic parish of Willanzheim, vol. 4, 34 F 29).


5. After training at (choir) school he was probably apprenticed to a master, as musical training in Germany was regulated by musicians' guilds. See M.F. Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, London 1948, 404-407. I thank Paul Sparks for pointing out to me this and other relevant works on eighteenth-century music.


6. Friedrich von Weech, Badische Biographien, vol 1, 1875 (DBA 47, 3): 'August Georg, der letzte Baden-Badenischen Markgraf (21 Oktober 1771).' He died without issue. Karl Friedrich (1738-1811), nephew of Karl Wilhelm von Baden-Durlach, inherited the title in 1771.


7. Frick is described as 'court organist' from Willanzheim. Witnesses were Joseph Ulbrech and Joseph Schmittbauer, respectively choir leader and director of music at the court of the Margrave August Georg. I thank Mrs E. Frischeisen of the parish of St Alexander in Rastatt for providing me with this information.


8. R.A. Mooser, Annales de la musique et des musiciens en Russie au XVIIIme siècle, 3 vols, Vienna 1948-51, vol 2, 127.


9. This fact is related by Ernst Ludwig Gerber, Historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstler, part 2, 1792 (DBA 1122, 366).


10. The Will Registers and Death Duty Registers in the Public Record Office, London, do not include Frick's name. Neither is there a will or administration in the records of the three probate courts kept in the Guildhall Library in London, or in the records of the ecclesiastical courts held by the Greater London Record Office.


11. Information kindly provided by Dr M. Salaba of the Generallandesarchiv Karslruhe.


12. Collation: 8o, A4 B-M8 N4, [2] i-viii 1-182 [2].
The British Library holds only one copy of The True Knowledge (pressmark 701.i.13(2)). It is item 2 in a tract volume, and has a blue octagonal 'Museum Britannicum' stamp on the last page of the last (seventh) item. This stamp was used exclusively until 1805/1810, and was then used intermittently until 1835. I am grateful to Anna E.C. Simoni for this information. The NUC also lists only one copy of The True Knowledge of God and Man, in the Union Theological Seminary, New York, N.Y.
The other items in the BL volume are: 1. Richard Brothers, An exposition of the trinity, London 1795; 3. [Thomas Scantlebury], A looking glass for the clergy, London [1797]; 4. John Finlayson, An admonition to the people of all countries, Edinburgh 1797; 5. [Christopher Frederic Triebner], 'A letter, to the editors of the Critical Review', [1795]; 6. [Aaron West], A plain address, &c. to the churches of Christ, London [n.d.]; 7. The constellation: being a selection of the finest thoughts of some of our most eminent divines, London [1797]. I thank Dr Jaap Harskamp of the Dutch Section of the BL for providing me with information about this tract volume.


13. It is unknown to whom this refers. The 'malefactors' listed by name are Franz Anton, Baron von Schönau and Nikolay Ivanovich Saltykov. Von Schönau served a Catholic and a Protestant margrave in succession, and Saltykov flourished under the emperors Peter III, Catherine the Great and Paul I. Both were still alive when Frick wrote The True Knowledge.


14. Franz Anton Baron von Schönau had been connected to the Baden-Baden court since 1754. In 1764 he was appointed 'Hofmarshall' , the official title Frick gives him, and three years later, in 1767, he became 'Geheimrat' to August Georg. In that year he was also promoted to the position of 'Oberhofmarshall'. As 'Oberhofmarshall' he controlled much in the household, including Frick's financial fortunes, as Frick himself tells us. When August Georg died, Von Schönau was not dismissed, although his career changed course. In 1772 he was appointed a senior civil servant in the districts Rastatt and Kuppenheim, later he became governor of Rastatt. He requested to be pensioned off in 1796, and died on 1 March 1806. I thank Dr M. Sabala of the Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe for providing me with this information.


15. The German-born Nathalie Alexeievna (Wilhelmina von Darmstadt) was the first wife of Paul Petrovich.


16. Nikolay Ivanovich Saltykov (1736-1816), general and field marshall, was appointed guardian to Catherine's son Paul Petrovich in 1773. Great Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 22, New York [etc.], 1979, 569.


17. A.T. Craig, Catalogue of the Manuscripts and Library at Freemason's Hall, London 1938, 109, lists a number of works on the Pilgrim Lodge, including a history of this German lodge by O. Hehner: Zur Feier des 125sten Gründungsfeste der Pilgerloge No 238, London 1904. A copy of this work and of the earlier Festgabe für die erste Säcular-Feier der ger. u. voll. St. Joh.-Loge 'Der Pilger' No 238 by K. Bergmann is in the Library of the Cultural-Masonic Centre 'Prins Frederik' at the Grand East of the Netherlands.


18. R.F. Gould, The History of Freemasonry, Edinburgh 1886-1887, vol. 2, 496. Gould adds: 'Not only are the proceedings carried on in the German language, but the method of working is also German.'


19. Gould, vol. 3, 226.


20. Founded by Karl Gotthelf, Reichsfreiherr von Hundt (1722-1776), the System of Strict Observance was a curious and mystifying masonic system which hardly survived its founder and which was based on the idea that the order of the Knights Templar, after their violent dissolution by the papacy in the early fourteenth century, had survived in the masonic brotherhood. For a survey of the history and organization of the System of Strict Observance see Lennhoff and Posner, Internationales Freimaurer-Lexikon, München [etc], 1938, reprinted 1973, s.v. Hundt and Strikte Observanz.


21. Bergmann (see note 17), 3, 4.


22. This list, the 'Verzeichnis sämmtlicher Brüder, Mitglieder und Kinder' of the first hundred years of the existence of the Pilgrim Lodge is appended to Bergmann's anniversary history of the lodge. It was compiled by C. Kupferschmidt, and gives the names, professions, birth places and dates of admission into the lodge.


23. The title of Frick's masonic work is thus quoted in G. Kloss, Bibliographie der Freimaurerei, Frankfurt am Main, 1844, 108, no. 1547 (s.v. Freimaurer-Lieder). See also August Wolfstieg, (no. 39752), in Bibliographie der Freimaurerischen Literatur, Leipzig 1911-1926, 4 vols, including a supplement. More recently Frick's Freymaurerlieder has been inlcuded in A. Basso, L'invenzione della Gioia, Musica e Massoneria nell'èta dei Lumi, Garzanti 1994, 53.


24. See Wolfstieg 39752, who refers to the review. The review appeared in the 1793 edition of the Freymaurer-Bibliothek, part 3, 228.


25. 'Die Melodieen sind fließend und voll anmuthiger Simplizität', Freymaurer-Bibliothek, 228.


26. I owe this information to Mr W. van Keulen of the masonic library in The Hague.


27. See also Basso (see note 23), 57.


28. The True Knowledge, 64, 131. The two columns before Solomon's temple are called Jachin and Boaz (1 Kings 7). In Royal Arch Masonry, a Brother was 'made by receiving the four steps, that of an Excellt., Sup.-Excellt., Royll. Arch and Kt. Templar' - these may be the four steps Frick refers to.


29. J.F.C. Harrison, The Second Coming. Popular Millenarianism 1780-1850, London 1979. See also C. Garrett, Respectable Folly. Millenarians and the French Revolution in France and England, Baltimore [etc.] 1975.


30. Garrett, 170-171.


31. Harrison (see note 29), 69-72. He mentions that William Bryan also left an account of his spiritual leanings in A Testimony of the Spirit of Truth, concerning Richard Brothers (1794), published in World's Doom, a two-volume compilation of prophetic tracts which came out in London in 1795. See also Garrett (see note 29), especially 111-113.


32. Frick is not listed as a member of the Friends' Society, so that his acquaintanceship with Bryan did not spring from this environment. I thank Ms Tabitha Driver of the Friends' Library in London for her help.


33. Dom Antoine Joseph Pernety (1716-1801), a Benedictine monk and student of alchemy and hermetic philosophy, founded a masonic system, the 'Rite hermétique' or 'Rite de Pernety' in Avignon in 1766. In 1768 he left Avignon for fear of clerical opposition and travelled to Berlin, where Frederic the Great appointed him librarian and member of the Academy of Sciences. In Berlin his mystical leanings became more marked and when he returned to Avignon in 1783 he pursued the occult studies he began in Berlin with increased vigour, attracting many followers (mainly Freemasons), who were to become known as the 'illuminés d'Avignon'. See Lennhoff and Posner (see note 20), cols. 734-35. See also K.R.H. Frick, Die Erleuchteten, Graz 1973, 513, who writes that Wright and Bryan were initiated into the mysteries of the 'Illuminés'.


34. Garrett (see note 29), 103.


35. Harrison (see note 29), 78. Brothers' followers eventually secured his release from the asylum.


36. Harrison (see note 29), 91.


37. J. Hyde, A bibliography of the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, London 1906, nos 1721, 1793 and 1860. Hyde gives 1786-1795 as dates for Bryan.


38. He is not listed in I. Maxted, The London Book Trades, 1775-1800, or in H.R. Plomer et al., A dictionary of the printers and booksellers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1726-1775, Oxford 1932. W.B. Todd, A Directory of printers and others in allied trades, London & vicinity, 1800-1840, London 1972, 28, lists a W. Bryan at 311, Strand, in 1825, who owned a press.


39. Garrett (see note 29), 176. See also M.K. Schuchard, Freemasonry, secret societies, and the occult traditions in English literature, unpublished Ph.D. thesis at the University of Texas, 1975, vol 1, 255, who mentions Sharp's connections with the Avignon Illuminés.


40. 'In case it should be supposed that the Writer has a temporal advantage in view, he declares that all he wishes for is, that this Light might be well received, and that he (in his usual quietness) might not be disturbed by any person calling upon him. Yet, when sent for, he will explain (if permitted) whatever he knows. For this purpose his direction will always be known to the present Publisher, William Bryan, No 2, Walbrook, London', The True Knowledge, 182.


41. Daniel XII.9: 'And he said, Go thy way Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the end of time.' (King James version).
Harrison (see note 29), 4, distinguishes between premillenialists and postmillenialists, the difference being that the former believed Christ's second coming would precede the millennium, while the latter held that the second advent would follow the millennium. Frick belongs to the latter, more moderate, category, as is evidenced by a note concerning the messianic expectations of the Jews, 27: 'they may be certain that He will again appear in his Glory, to judge mankind, at the latter end of the shortly expected Sabbath on Earth'.


42. Referring to the eighth chapter of his work, 'containing many great gifts', he remarks that 'A few of them the Writer obtained formerly; but the greatest part so late as August 1795', 130; also that on 29 November 1795 God had revealed to Frick the reasons for the establishment of Christ's Kingdom on Earth, which should not be made known until the millennium was imminent, 115-16.


43. Harrison (see note 29), 61.


44. Harrison (see note 29), 4: 'From the early church there was handed down a body of inspired prophecy, the core of which was contained in the books of Daniel and Revelation, the Apocrypha and the "synoptic Apocalypse" of Jesus himself.'


45. That there is a secret tradition of knowledge passed on by the wise but hidden from the majority of mankind, is claimed by Frick in a footnote to p. 84: 'but for the generality of mankind the true light or pearls became hid, by the laws of men (the Papists) as gold is covered in the earth by mud.'


46. The Hebrew word for heaven ('shamayim') was interpreted in the early Midrash as a combination of fire and water ('aesch' and 'majim'), making the creation of heaven a mixture of fire and water. I am grateful to Dr Esther Liebes of the JN & UL, Jerusalem, for this reference.
Frick here leans on the Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum (see note 51) of Georg von Welling, who frequently uses the term 'Aesch-Majim'.


47. See E. Benz, Adam. Der Mythus vom Urmenschen, München-Planegg 1955, for a discussion of these authors in connection with the Adamic myth.


48. See J.E. Odgers: 'Universalism' in: Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Ed. J. Hastings, Edinburgh 1961, vol. 12, 531b-533a.


49. See J.C. Godbey, 'Unitarian Universalist Association' in: The Encyclopedia of Religion, Ed. M. Eliade, New York 1987, 145. Petersen's work was first published in German as Das geheimnisz der Wiederbringung aller Dinge, s.l., s.n., 1701-1703.
J. Wallmann, 'Geistliche Erneuerung der Kirche nach Philipp Jakob Spener', in: Pietismus und Neuzeit, vol. 12 (Göttingen 1986), 34, refers to Petersen's chiliastic convictions.


50. Cf. B. Beyer, Das Lehrsystems des Ordens der Gold-und Rosenkreuzer, Leipzig 1925, 184-5 for a discussion of the mystical number four, similar to Frick's own presentation. The Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer, first printed in Altona in 1785, also includes a representation of the 'wonderful number four'. These handbooks were part of a theosophical current which, leaning on alchemy, kabbalah and mysticism, sought to explain the world as a manifestation of the divine.


51. The Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum et Theosophicum was first published in its complete form in Hamburg in 1735, reprinted in 1760 and 1784. For the printing history see P. Jungmayr, Georg von Welling (1655-1727). Studien zu Leben und Werk, Heidelberger Studien zur Naturkunde der frühen Neuzeit, vol. 2, Stuttgart 1990, 117-123, 89.


52. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Werke, ed. E. Trunz, Hamburg 1981, vol. 9, 342, quoted in Jungmayr (see note 51), 93-4.


53. The engraving occurs in The True Knowledge between pages 2 and 3, cf the engraving in Welling's Opus, between pages 94-95. (Facsimile reprint of the ed. 1784). Frick refers to Colossians I.16 to explain the twelve angelic spheres.


54. These two engravings occur between pp. 60-61 and pp. 140-41. The seven circles of hell are respectively filled with 'tempters', 'blasphemers', 'furies', 'the mighty of the air', 'sorcerers', the 'malicious' and 'darkness'. Cf Welling, Opus., fig. 5, between pp. 500-501.


55. See Jungmayr (see note 51), 133, two copies of an English translation of the first book of the Opus prior to 1800 in Yale University Library.


56. See Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique,' De la Chine', Section premiëre. I am grateful to Dr Carlos Gilly for this reference.


57. Note to p. 3 of The True Knowledge.


58. For a discussion of the impact of Newton on theosophical circles see M.C. Jacob, The Radical Enlightenment, London [etc.], 1981, especially chapter 3, 'The Newtonian Enlightenment and Its Critics'


59. He mentions Swedenborg's A Treatise concerning the Last Judgment, in which Swedenborg had stated, according to Frick, that 'Two Judgments have passed before, and that the Third and LAST Judgment was accomplished in the year 1757' (see Hyde, note 37), first English translation published in 1788, no. 1168); The delights of wisdom concerning conjugal love ('his conjugal Love is likewise against what Christ said: Luke xx. 34, 35, nor did he regard Matth. xxv.'), first English translation 1790 (Hyde, no.
2404, reprinted 1794); thirdly A Treatise concerning heaven and hell, a work which, according to Frick, only death prevented the author from repeating over and over again. The English translation of this work was first published in 1778 (Hyde, no. 1006), reprinted in 1784 and 1789.


60. See M. Lamm, Swedenborg. Eine Studie über seine Entwicklung zum Mystiker und Geisterseher, Leipzig 1922 (translated from the Swedish), 176-77, who quotes the memoirs of Carl Robsahm, to whom Swedenborg related the story of a vision, in which God appeared to him and told him he was elected to divulge the spiritual contents of the Bible to the world, and that he would be guided by God as to what to write. These memoirs are reproduced in Documents concerning the life and character of Emanuel Swedenborg, ed. R.L. Tafel, London 1875-1877, 31ff.