viii
I
only
know
what
the
possessor
has
disclosed
in
his
French
mono-
graph
on
Eckhart
{Memoir
es
de
Vacaddmie
franc,
mor,
et
polit.
par
savants
Strangers,
Paris,
1847.
T.
2).
With
regard
to
the
internal
arrangement
and
ordering
of
my
material
I
make
the
following
observations.
The
broad
division
into
Sermons,
Tractates,
Sayings
was
obvious.
On
the
other
hand
it
was
diflicult
to
decide
what
sequence
the
sermons
ought
to
follow.
An
arrangement
which
showed
the
changes
in
Eckhart’s
teaehi)]g
in
a
logical
manner
was
out
of
the
question,
and
the
same
applies
to
putting
them
in
order
of
age
or
time
of
delivery
;
the
data
for
this
are
wholly
lacking.
It
is
quite
exceptional
for
Eckhart
to
make
any
reference
to
a
previous
sermon.
Among
the
earliest
of
these
sermons,
belonging
perhaps
to
the
period
of
his
Vicar-Generalship
in
Bohemia
(about
1.307),
I
reckon
those
numbered
105-110
from
the
Melk
MS.,
L.
5.
(No.
22.)
In
the
superscription
of
these
Eckhart
is
so
called
instead
of
Meistcr
Eckhart,
a
designation
which
points
to
the
time
when
the
memory
of
his
final
years
of
study
in
Paris
was
still
lively.
These
I
have
placed
last,
simply
on
the
grounds
that,
like
all
the
MSS.
obtained
from
Austria,
they
seem
to
be
much
edited
;
superheially,
in
diction,
they
certainly
are
and
I
think
too
their
matter
has
been
tampered
with.
As
being
the
simplest
arrangement,
the
liturgical
order
of
the
Gospels
commended
itself
but
here
great
diirieulties
,
were
encountered
the
sermons
being
prefaced
by
texts
chosen
quite
at
random
and
as
a
rule
all
reference
to
the
Sunday
or
festival
is
wanting.
The
titles
of
the
old
Basle
edition
arc
for
the
most
part
arbitrary.
I
decided
therefore
to
rely
solely
on
my
sources
and
the
order
in
which
their
individual
sermons
were
presented.
With
this
end
in
view
those
manuscripts
were
chosen
out
which
were
specially
distinguished
for
their
age
or
authenticity,
and
from
these
again
selection
was
made
of
those
with
superscriptions
imputing
them
to
Eckhart.
In
this
way
and
in
this
way
only
I
found
it
possible
to
enter
into
the
genius
and
the
method
and
the
idiosyncrasy
of
Eckhart
and
gain
a
reliable
standard
whereby
to
determine
those
sermons
which,
though
found
among
the
authentic
ones,
were
yet
without
his
name.
By
this
means
I
hope
to
have
acquired
the
necessary
]>ractice
and
familiarity
with
Eckhart’s
writings
and
I
believe
1
need
not
fear
that
any
important
item
of
my
collec-
tion
will
ultimately
prove
to
be
wrongly
attributed
to
Eckhart.
The
Sayings,
with
few
exceptions,
bear
all
the
marks
of
authen-
ticity
and
need
no
further
verification.
Only
a
couple
of
them
are
traceable
to
the
complete
sermons
and
tractates
included,
though
most
are
fragments
and
portions
of
larger
works.
From
this
we
can
form
some
notion
of
the
amount
of
Eckhart
still
lost
to
us.
