Introduction to the Kabbalah

...at their end, they were not adorned and completed by him; and for the most part, they should not be called works so much as certain paths and preparations for the fulfillment of works conceived in the mind; and rather mutilated signs of his thoughts original: mutila eius cogitationum indicia than finished images. And thus, they defend themselves from death by a certain notable condition of life, yet are held back from life by death.

What, then, must I do with these? Ought I, with an impious hand, to break the tender and half-living throat of this beautiful and distinguished offspring born from my brother’s exceptional genius; or should I, so that it may yet grow to maturity, sink it into the warm embrace of a stranger’s womb, as it were, to be corrupted The editor uses a vivid metaphor here, comparing the act of another person finishing his brother's work to "adulterating" it in a stranger's womb? Yet the former can by no means be done; while the latter would not only be mournful for a brother’s love, but unjust for anyone else to do. Nevertheless, necessity has driven me—now conquered by hesitation—to stumble into this very situation in delivering this little book to you.

For many Kabbalistic original: Cabalistici commentaries, drawn from the Hebrew original: Hebraico and composed by him, had to be cast into the darkness by me; and out of all those, only this Introduction to the Kabbalah original: in Cabalam introductio could be published. Nor perhaps is even this work worthy enough of the light, especially if you judge it by the standards of my brother himself; for he compiled it original: compilauerit as a kind of beginning for some other work—beyond those I just mentioned—which he had decided to complete and for which he had already begun to prepare himself.

If, kind reader original: lector, you find this work perhaps more imperfect and meager original: ieiuniorem than either the hidden abundance of this science original: scientiæ or your desire to learn it more fully might require, do not think this should be blamed on him. For he lacked neither the faculty of genius, nor the industry of study, nor the knowledge of doctrine to provide you with everything in this field in an abundant manner. Indeed, he showed from his earliest years that he was born for these things by a peculiar gift of nature; just as we see happening in every kind of animal, where each one, by its primary innate...