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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 loving thyself, thou lovest not thyself as thine own ; but as given thee from the love of God thou lovest the divine ground in thee, by which and in which thou lovest the divine wisdom, the divine goodness, the divine beauty. Thou lovest also God's works of wonder, and in this same ground thou lovest thy brethren. In hating thyself thou hatest only that wherein the evil sticks close to thee. There is, there can be, no selfishness in love ; they are opposed one to another. Love, that is, divine love (of which alone we are now discoursing) hates all evil selfhood. It is impossible that these two should subsist in one person ; by a necessity of nature the one drives out the other. 152 CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME
2The height of love is as high as God ; it brings thee to be as high as God himself is, by uniting thee with God. Its greatness is as great as God : there is a latitude of heart in love which cannot be expressed ; it enlarges the soul as wide as the whole creation of God. This shall be experienced by thee, beyond the compass of all words, when the throne of love shall be set up in thy heart. Its power supports the heavens and upholds the earth ; its virtue is the principle of all principles, the virtue of all virtues. It is the worker of all things and a vital energy through all powers natural and supernatural. It is the power of all powers, nothing being able to let or hinder the omnipotence of love, or resist its penetrating might. If thou findest it thou comest into that fountain from whence all things are proceeded, into that ground wherein they subsist; and thou art a King over all the works of God. Be silent therefore and watch unto CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME 153
3prayer, that thy mind may be disposed for finding that jewel, which to the world appears as nothing, but which to the children of Wisdom is all things. The way to the love of God is folly to the world, but wisdom to the children of God, for whom that which is despised of the world is the most precious treasure ; yea, so great a treasure it is, that no life can express, nor tongue so much as name, what this inflaming, all-conquering love of God is. It is brighter than the sun ; it is sweeter than any thing that is called sweet ; it is stronger than all strength ; it is more nourishment than any food, more cheering to the heart than wine, more pleasant than all the pleasantness of this world. Whosoever obtaineth it is richer than any monarch on earth, and he who winneth it is nobler than an emperor and more potent and absolute than all earthly powers and authorities. PRINTED BV MOKRISON AND GIBB LTD. EDINBURGH Date Due & ■ ,Vpr> ,; - .- -9-fflBE* k f <=»— ^ P lW*W-2-fr ■**jk} W ^^ ■" DtCt3f« 1 •MS f 7>5f rJ FEB8 3 ^1 v i i £g NOV 2 3 '58 ! ^ ^ s • fcfdsaai o$&r L. B. CAT. N 0. 1137 \atMUlt 3 5002 00167 1499 S?oenf.i2?«bs of Jacob Boehme/ BV 50SO . B7 C6 1920 B ohme, Jakob, 1575-162-4, The confessions of Jacob Boehme
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 loving thyself, thou lovest not thyself as thine own ; but as given thee from the love of God thou lovest the divine ground in thee, by which and in which thou lovest the divine wisdom, the divine goodness, the divine beauty. Thou lovest also God's works of wonder, and in this same ground thou lovest thy brethren. In hating thyself thou hatest only that wherein the evil sticks close to thee. There is, there can be, no selfishness in love ; they are opposed one to another. Love, that is, divine love (of which alone we are now discoursing) hates all evil selfhood. It is impossible that these two should subsist in one person ; by a necessity of nature the one drives out the other. 152 CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME
2The height of love is as high as God ; it brings thee to be as high as God himself is, by uniting thee with God. Its greatness is as great as God : there is a latitude of heart in love which cannot be expressed ; it enlarges the soul as wide as the whole creation of God. This shall be experienced by thee, beyond the compass of all words, when the throne of love shall be set up in thy heart. Its power supports the heavens and upholds the earth ; its virtue is the principle of all principles, the virtue of all virtues. It is the worker of all things and a vital energy through all powers natural and supernatural. It is the power of all powers, nothing being able to let or hinder the omnipotence of love, or resist its penetrating might. If thou findest it thou comest into that fountain from whence all things are proceeded, into that ground wherein they subsist; and thou art a King over all the works of God. Be silent therefore and watch unto CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME 153
3prayer, that thy mind may be disposed for finding that jewel, which to the world appears as nothing, but which to the children of Wisdom is all things. The way to the love of God is folly to the world, but wisdom to the children of God, for whom that which is despised of the world is the most precious treasure ; yea, so great a treasure it is, that no life can express, nor tongue so much as name, what this inflaming, all-conquering love of God is. It is brighter than the sun ; it is sweeter than any thing that is called sweet ; it is stronger than all strength ; it is more nourishment than any food, more cheering to the heart than wine, more pleasant than all the pleasantness of this world. Whosoever obtaineth it is richer than any monarch on earth, and he who winneth it is nobler than an emperor and more potent and absolute than all earthly powers and authorities. PRINTED BV MOKRISON AND GIBB LTD. EDINBURGH Date Due & ■ ,Vpr> ,; - .- -9-fflBE* k f <=»— ^ P lW*W-2-fr ■**jk} W ^^ ■" DtCt3f« 1 •MS f 7>5f rJ FEB8 3 ^1 v i i £g NOV 2 3 '58 ! ^ ^ s • fcfdsaai o$&r L. B. CAT. N 0. 1137 \atMUlt 3 5002 00167 1499 S?oenf.i2?«bs of Jacob Boehme/ BV 50SO . B7 C6 1920 B ohme, Jakob, 1575-162-4, The confessions of Jacob Boehme
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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