subject-mysticism-freebo


Introduction

This is a Distant Reader "study carrel", a set of structured data intended to help the student, researcher, or scholar use & understand a corpus.

This study carrel was created on 2021-05-24 by Eric Morgan <emorgan@nd.edu>. The carrel was created using the Distant Reader zip2carrel process, and the input was a Zip file locally cached with the name input-file.zip. Documents in the Zip file have been saved in a cache, and each of them have been transformed & saved as a set of plain text files. All of the analysis -- "reading" -- has been done against these plain text files. For example, a short narrative report has been created. This Web page is a more verbose version of that report.

All study carrels are self-contained -- no Internet connection is necessary to use them. Download this carrel for offline reading. The carrel is made up of many subdirectories and data files. The manifest describes each one in greater detail.

Size

There are 13 item(s) in this carrel, and this carrel is 1,310,583 words long. Each item in your study carrel is, on average, 100,814 words long. If you dig deeper, then you might want to save yourself some time by reading a shorter item. On the other hand, if your desire is for more detail, then you might consider reading a longer item. The following charts illustrate the overall size of the carrel.

left image
histogram of sizes
left image
box plot of sizes

Readability

On a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 is very difficult and 100 is very easy, the documents have an average readability score of 95. Consequently, if you want to read something more simplistic, then consider a document with a higher score. If you want something more specialized, then consider something with a lower score. The following charts illustrate the overall readability of the carrel.

left image
histogram of readability
left image
box plot of readability

Word Frequencies

By merely counting & tabulating the frequency of individual words or phrases, you can begin to get an understanding of the carrel's "aboutness". Excluding "stop words", some of the more frequent words include:

god, will, spirit, one, man, life, may, shall, also, world, self, light, body, christ, holy, love, must, now, yet, fire, us, first, power, great, things, soul, nature, good, viz, eternal, therefore, divine, death, men, earth, without, forth, come, see, word, doth, birth, every, might, time, according, nothing, evil, jesus, heart

Using the three most frequent words, the three files containing all of those words the most are The light of the world a most true relation of a pilgrimess, M. Antonia Bourignon travelling towards eternity ... : divided into three parts ... / written originally in French, and faithfully translated into English ; to which is added, a preface to the English reader., Jacob Behmen''s theosophick philosophy unfolded in divers considerations and demonstrations, shewing the verity and utility of the several doctrines or propositions contained in the writings of that divinely instructed author : also, the principal treatises of the said author abridged, and answers given to the remainder of the 177 theosophick questions, propounded by the said Jacob Behmen, which were left unanswered by him at the time of his death : as a help towards the better understanding the Old and New Testament : also what man is with respect to time and eternity, being an open gate to the great mysteries / by Edward Taylor ; with a short account of the life of Jacob Behmen., and Aurora, that is, the day-spring, or dawning of the day in the Orient, or morning-rednesse in the rising of the sun, that is, the root or mother of philosophie, astrologie, & theologie from the true ground, or a description of nature ... all this set down diligently from a true ground in the knowledge of the spirit, and in the impulse of God / by Jacob Behme, Teutonick philosopher ....

The most frequent two-word phrases (bigrams) include:

jesus christ, holy ghost, every one, holy spirit, first principle, third principle, four elements, second principle, three principles, seven spirits, god will, fountain spirits, eternal nature, one another, fierce wrath, bring forth, divine power, lord jesus, every thing, goeth forth, will never, brought forth, astringent quality, sweet water, holy trinity, eternal life, go forth, ye may, bitter quality, outward man, outward world, will make, must needs, whole body, gods love, will give, new man, will find, gods anger, outermost birth, nothing else, roman church, ye shall, great mystery, let us, god created, shall come, divine light, dark world, may see

And the three file that use all of the three most frequent phrases are The fifth book of the authour, in three parts the first, Of the becoming man or incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Sonne of God, that is, concerning the Virgin Mary ... and how the Eternal word is become man : the second part is of Christ''s suffering, dying, death, and resurrection ... : the third part is of The tree of Christian faith ... / written through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, by Jacob Behme, the Teutonick philosopher ... Four tables of divine revelation signifying what God in himself is, without nature; and how considered in nature; according to the three principles. : Also what heaven, hell, world, time, and eternitie are; together with all creatures visible and invisible: and out of what all things had their original. / Written in the German language by Jacob Behm, and Englished by H.B., and Jacob Behmen''s theosophick philosophy unfolded in divers considerations and demonstrations, shewing the verity and utility of the several doctrines or propositions contained in the writings of that divinely instructed author : also, the principal treatises of the said author abridged, and answers given to the remainder of the 177 theosophick questions, propounded by the said Jacob Behmen, which were left unanswered by him at the time of his death : as a help towards the better understanding the Old and New Testament : also what man is with respect to time and eternity, being an open gate to the great mysteries / by Edward Taylor ; with a short account of the life of Jacob Behmen..

While often deemed superficial or sophomoric, rudimentary frequencies and their associated "word clouds" can be quite insightful:

left image
unigrams
left image
bigrams

Keywords

Sets of keywords -- statistically significant words -- can be enumerated by comparing the relative frequency of words with the number of times the words appear in an entire corpus. Some of the most statistically significant keywords in the carrel include:

spirit, god, love, life, holy, body, lord, light, earth, soul, man, christ, world, power, kingdom, ghost, father, eternal, nature, heart, fire, devil, death, wisdom, virgin, image, glory, essence, divine, day, birth, anger, wrath, word, tree, sun, stars, spiritual, property, properties, new, mind, men, jesus, faith, center, angels, water, vision, unity

And now word clouds really begin to shine:

left image
keywords

Topic Modeling

Topic modeling is another popular approach to connoting the aboutness of a corpus. If the study carrel could be summed up in a single word, then that word might be god, and Aurora, that is, the day-spring, or dawning of the day in the Orient, or morning-rednesse in the rising of the sun, that is, the root or mother of philosophie, astrologie, & theologie from the true ground, or a description of nature ... all this set down diligently from a true ground in the knowledge of the spirit, and in the impulse of God / by Jacob Behme, Teutonick philosopher ... is most about that word.

If the study carrel could be summed up in three words ("topics") then those words and their significantly associated titles include:

  1. god - Aurora, that is, the day-spring, or dawning of the day in the Orient, or morning-rednesse in the rising of the sun, that is, the root or mother of philosophie, astrologie, & theologie from the true ground, or a description of nature ... all this set down diligently from a true ground in the knowledge of the spirit, and in the impulse of God / by Jacob Behme, Teutonick philosopher ...
  2. god - The light of the world a most true relation of a pilgrimess, M. Antonia Bourignon travelling towards eternity ... : divided into three parts ... / written originally in French, and faithfully translated into English ; to which is added, a preface to the English reader.
  3. viz - Signatura rerum, or, The signature of all things shewing the sign and signification of the severall forms and shapes in the creation, and what the beginning, ruin, and cure of every thing is ... / written in High Dutch, MDCXXII, by Jacob Behmen, aliàs Teutonicus Phylosophus.

If the study carrel could be summed up in five topics, and each topic were each denoted with three words, then those topics and their most significantly associated files would be:

  1. god, man, self - Signatura rerum, or, The signature of all things shewing the sign and signification of the severall forms and shapes in the creation, and what the beginning, ruin, and cure of every thing is ... / written in High Dutch, MDCXXII, by Jacob Behmen, aliàs Teutonicus Phylosophus.
  2. god, spirit, thou - Aurora, that is, the day-spring, or dawning of the day in the Orient, or morning-rednesse in the rising of the sun, that is, the root or mother of philosophie, astrologie, & theologie from the true ground, or a description of nature ... all this set down diligently from a true ground in the knowledge of the spirit, and in the impulse of God / by Jacob Behme, Teutonick philosopher ...
  3. shall, spirit, god - A fountain of gardens Vol. II. Being a continuation of the process of a life according to faith, of the divinely magical knowledge, and of the new creation. In mutual entertainments betwixt the essential wisdom, and the soul in her progress through paradise, to Mount Sion, and to the new Jerusalem. By J. Lead.
  4. god, men, things - The light of the world a most true relation of a pilgrimess, M. Antonia Bourignon travelling towards eternity ... : divided into three parts ... / written originally in French, and faithfully translated into English ; to which is added, a preface to the English reader.
  5. thy, thee, thou - A fountain of gardens watered by the rivers of divine pleasure, and springing up in all the variety of spiritual plants; blown up the pure breath into a paradise, sending forth their sweet savours, and strong odours, for soul-refreshing. By Jane Lead.

Moreover, the totality of the study carrel's aboutness, can be visualized with the following pie chart:

left image
topic model

Noun & Verbs

Through an analysis of your study carrel's parts-of-speech, you are able to answer question beyonds aboutness. For example, a list of the most frequent nouns helps you answer what questions; "What is discussed in this collection?":

self, things, body, viz, light, life, man, death, fire, nothing, thing, power, world, will, time, hath, heart, doth, wrath, love, way, men, day, one, quality, property, part, spirit, soul, place, end, desire, whence, nature, word, manner, water, mind, eternity, p., spirits, powers, source, none, mystery, reason, others, form, page, truth

An enumeration of the verbs helps you learn what actions take place in a text or what the things in the text do. Very frequently, the most common lemmatized verbs are "be", "have", and "do"; the more interesting verbs usually occur further down the list of frequencies:

is, be, are, was, have, do, were, had, did, being, come, see, according, been, said, know, made, make, give, has, take, hath, let, given, become, created, understand, go, say, having, done, bring, find, brought, found, generated, live, set, put, born, came, called, known, follow, believe, became, enter, am, seeing, stand

left image
nouns
left image
verbs

Proper Nouns

An extraction of proper nouns helps you determine the names of people and places in your study carrel.

god, spirit, christ, man, holy, thou, life, world, love, earth, nature, soul, jesus, lord, hath, adam, heaven, eternal, divine, father, fire, light, birth, body, kingdom, word, will, power, principle, gods, men, devil, ye, virgin, angels, essence, wisdom, sun, ghost, sir, church, spirits, heavenly, faith, image, joy, mercury, elements, flesh, paradise

An analysis of personal pronouns enables you to answer at least two questions: 1) "What, if any, is the overall gender of my study carrel?", and 2) "To what degree are the texts in my study carrel self-centered versus inclusive?"

it, his, he, they, i, we, their, him, them, you, its, our, my, me, us, her, himself, thy, your, she, themselves, thee, one, ye, mine, theirs, ours, s, †, itself, u, yours, herself, f, whereof, us''d, l, myself, g, thou, shou''d, o, ha, elias, ''s, yourself, y, wil, whosoever, vvhat

Below are words cloud of your study carrel's proper & personal pronouns.

left image
proper nouns
left image
pronouns

Adjectives & Verbs

Learning about a corpus's adjectives and adverbs helps you answer how questions: "How are things described and how are things done?" An analysis of adjectives and adverbs also points to a corpus's overall sentiment. "In general, is my study carrel positive or negative?"

other, great, own, first, good, true, such, many, outward, same, whole, more, pure, new, eternal, holy, second, divine, dark, high, sweet, heavenly, evil, third, free, little, dead, perfect, earthly, last, much, full, inward, bitter, fierce, strong, present, mighty, right, false, astringent, willing, very, able, wicked, hard, fiery, clear, spiritual, light

not, so, then, also, now, up, only, therefore, yet, forth, thus, again, here, out, more, very, as, even, never, most, still, well, there, in, all, ever, down, away, together, first, much, therein, indeed, no, onely, far, else, always, that, wholly, off, often, long, continually, is, thereby, too, once, thereof, on

left image
adjectives
left image
adverbs

Next steps

There is much more to a study carrel than the things outlined above. Use this page's menubar to navigate and explore in more detail. There you will find additional features & functions including: ngrams, parts-of-speech, grammars, named entities, topic modeling, a simple search interface, etc.

Again, study carrels are self-contained. Download this carrel for offline viewing and use.

Thank you for using the Distant Reader.