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Eleven books by a shoemaker of Görlitz who wrote, by his own account, because he could not help it. Ten of them stand here in the seventeenth-century English of John Sparrow, who translated Boehme within a generation of his death and whose prose is itself now four hundred years old; where that English has drifted out of reach, the facing pane carries a modern register — the same text with archaic inflection and spelling normalised by rule, never paraphrased. Nothing is reworded, and where no register appears beside a passage it is because the rules found nothing to change.
The eleventh book is not in English at all, and it is the reason this note exists.
Des trois principes de l'essence divine, printed at Paris in 1802, is the same work as Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence, which stands here as the second book — the same twenty-seven chapters in the same order, opening `Du premier principe de l'essence divine` against Sparrow's `Of the first Principle of the Divine Essence`. Its translator was Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who gave the last years of his life to putting Boehme into French, and who has a shelf of his own in this Lycaeum.
That makes a closed circuit inside this archive, and it is worth naming plainly. Saint-Martin translates Boehme. La Iniciación, printed in Montevideo a hundred and forty years later, traces its own descent through Saint-Martin. A reader can therefore follow one thread from a German mystic of 1619, through the French philosopher who carried him into another language, to a Spanish-language monthly of the 1940s that claimed them both — and read every step of it in the original.
The two are shelved as one work rather than two because that is what they are. They are not set as facing panes: an English translation of 1619 and a French translation of 1802 are two independent readings of a lost German original, and pairing them line by line would assert a correspondence neither translator ever claimed.
1in body and soul, in good and evil, in joy and sorrow, in light and darkness, in power and weakness, in life and death : all is in man, both heaven and the earth, stars, and elements ; also the threefold God. O man ! seek thyself and thou shalt find thyself. Open the eyes of thy inward man and see rightly. This is the noble precious stone, the philosopher's stone, which wise men find. O thou bright crown of pearl, art thou not brighter than the sun ? There is nothing like thee ; thou art so very manifest, and yet so very secret that among many thousand in this world thou art scarce rightly known of anyone. Yet thou art borne by many that know thee not. Christ saith, Seek and thou shalt find. The noble stone must be sought for ; a lazy man findeth it not ; though he carrieth it about with him he knoweth it not. To whomsoever it revealeth itself, he hath all joy therein, for its virtue is endless. He CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME 89 that hath it doth not give it away ; if he doth impart it to any it is not profitable to him that is lazy, who diveth not into its virtue to learn that. The seeker findeth the stone and its virtue and benefit together. When he findeth it and knows that he is certain of it, there is greater joy in him than the world is able to apprehend ; no pen can describe nor any tongue express it in the manner of the world.
2It is accounted in the world's eyes the meanest of all stones and is trodden under foot. If a man light upon it he casteth it away as an unprofitable thing. None enquire after it, though there is none upon earth but desires it. All great ones and wise seek it. Indeed they find one and think it the true stone ; but they mistake it. They ascribe power and virtue to it and think they have it and will keep it. But the true stone is not thus : it needeth no virtue to be ascribed to it. all virtue 90 CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME lies hid in it. He who has it, and has knowledge of it, if he seeks, may find all things whatsoever, in heaven and in earth. It is the stone which is rejected of the builders, the chief corner-stone. 0 you Sophisters ! that out of envy often revile honest hearts according to your own pleasure, how will you be able to stand with those lambs whom you should have led into the fresh green pastures of the way of Christ, into love, purity and humility ? 1 speak not this out of a desire to reproach any man ; I discover only the smoky pit of the Devil that it may be seen what is in man, as well in one as in another, unless he be born anew and resisteth the spirit of the Devil and thrusteth it away from him. There is another Devil more crafty and cunning than this, a glistering angel with cloven feet. He, when he seeth a CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME 91
3poor soul afraid, and desiring to repent and amend, saith, Pray, and be devout ; repent for once in a way. But when the poor soul goes about to pray, he slippeth into his heart and taketh away the understanding of the heart, and putteth it into mere doubting, as if God did not hear it. So the heart standeth and repeateth over the words of a prayer, as if it were learning to say something without book ; and the soul cannot reach the centre of nature ; it hath only rehearsed words, not in the spirit of a soul in the centre where the fire is kindled, but only in the mouth, in the spirit of this world. Its words vanish in the air or as those wherein God's name is taken in vain. There belongeth great earnestness to prayer ; for praying is calling upon God, entreating him and speaking with him, going out of the house of sin and entering the house of God. If the Devil offers to hinder it, then storm his hell Set 92 CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME thyself against him as he setteth himself against thee, and then thou shalt find what is here told thee. If he opposes strongly, then oppose thou the more strongly ; thou hast, in Christ, greater power than he.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1in body and soul, in good and evil, in joy and sorrow, in light and darkness, in power and weakness, in life and death : all is in man, both heaven and the earth, stars, and elements ; also the threefold God. O man ! seek thyself and thou shalt find thyself. Open the eyes of thy inward man and see rightly. This is the noble precious stone, the philosopher's stone, which wise men find. O thou bright crown of pearl, art thou not brighter than the sun ? There is nothing like thee ; thou art so very manifest, and yet so very secret that among many thousand in this world thou art scarce rightly known of anyone. Yet thou art borne by many that know thee not. Christ saith, Seek and thou shalt find. The noble stone must be sought for ; a lazy man findeth it not ; though he carrieth it about with him he knoweth it not. To whomsoever it revealeth itself, he hath all joy therein, for its virtue is endless. He CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME 89 that hath it doth not give it away ; if he doth impart it to any it is not profitable to him that is lazy, who diveth not into its virtue to learn that. The seeker findeth the stone and its virtue and benefit together. When he findeth it and knows that he is certain of it, there is greater joy in him than the world is able to apprehend ; no pen can describe nor any tongue express it in the manner of the world.
2It is accounted in the world's eyes the meanest of all stones and is trodden under foot. If a man light upon it he casteth it away as an unprofitable thing. None enquire after it, though there is none upon earth but desires it. All great ones and wise seek it. Indeed they find one and think it the true stone ; but they mistake it. They ascribe power and virtue to it and think they have it and will keep it. But the true stone is not thus : it needeth no virtue to be ascribed to it. all virtue 90 CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME lies hid in it. He who has it, and has knowledge of it, if he seeks, may find all things whatsoever, in heaven and in earth. It is the stone which is rejected of the builders, the chief corner-stone. 0 you Sophisters ! that out of envy often revile honest hearts according to your own pleasure, how will you be able to stand with those lambs whom you should have led into the fresh green pastures of the way of Christ, into love, purity and humility ? 1 speak not this out of a desire to reproach any man ; I discover only the smoky pit of the Devil that it may be seen what is in man, as well in one as in another, unless he be born anew and resisteth the spirit of the Devil and thrusteth it away from him. There is another Devil more crafty and cunning than this, a glistering angel with cloven feet. He, when he seeth a CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME 91
3poor soul afraid, and desiring to repent and amend, saith, Pray, and be devout ; repent for once in a way. But when the poor soul goes about to pray, he slippeth into his heart and taketh away the understanding of the heart, and putteth it into mere doubting, as if God did not hear it. So the heart standeth and repeateth over the words of a prayer, as if it were learning to say something without book ; and the soul cannot reach the centre of nature ; it hath only rehearsed words, not in the spirit of a soul in the centre where the fire is kindled, but only in the mouth, in the spirit of this world. Its words vanish in the air or as those wherein God's name is taken in vain. There belongeth great earnestness to prayer ; for praying is calling upon God, entreating him and speaking with him, going out of the house of sin and entering the house of God. If the Devil offers to hinder it, then storm his hell Set 92 CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME thyself against him as he setteth himself against thee, and then thou shalt find what is here told thee. If he opposes strongly, then oppose thou the more strongly ; thou hast, in Christ, greater power than he.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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