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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.
1whom you yield yourselves servants in obedience, his servants ye are, to whom ye obey, either to sin unto death, or to the obedience of God unto righteousness. ** " his moving and driving" (sein Quell und Trieb), " his source and motive power." St M. has "son impulsion," "his impelling power." In the next par. and in several which follow, Sparrow renders the word Trieb, " impulse," or " inclination"; of these, the former is the better of the two. 15. But because man hath an impulse or inclination to both good and evil, he may lay hold on which he pleaseth; for he liveth in this world between both, and both qualities, the good and the bad, are in him; in whichsoever man moveth, with that he is endued, either with a holy, or with a hellish power. For Christ saith, My Father will give the Holy Ghost to those that ask Him. [Luke xi. 13] 16. Besides, God commanded man to do good, and forbad him to do evil; and now doth daily call and cry aloud, preach and exhort man unto good; whereby we see well enough that God willeth not evil, but his will is, That his kingdom should come, and his will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. But now man is poisoned through sin, that the fierce wrathful quality, as well as the good, reigneth in him, and he is now half dead, and in his gross ignorance can no more know God his Creator, nor nature and its operation: Yet hath nature used its best endeavours from the beginning till now, to which God hath given his Holy Ghost, so that it [nature] hath at all times generated * wise, holy, and understanding men, who learned to know nature, and their Creator, and who always in their writings and teachings have been a light to the world, whereby
2God hath raised his Church on earth, to his eternal praise. Against which the devil hath raged, and spoiled many a noble twig, through the wrathful fierceness in nature, whose prince and god he is. * " generated," lit., " generated and prepared," i.e. guided and instructed. 17. For nature hath many times prepared and fitted a learned judicious man with good gifts, and then the devil hath done his utmost to seduce that man, and bring him into carnal pleasures, into pride, into a desire to be rich, and to be in authority and power. Thereby the devil hath ruled in him, and the fierce wrathful quality hath overcome the good; his understanding and his knowledge and wisdom have been turned into heresy and error, and he hath made a mock of the truth, and been the author of great errors on earth, and a good leader of the devil's host. 18. For, ever since the beginning, the bad quality in nature hath wrestled with the good, and doth still wrestle, and hath elevated itself, and spoiled many a noble fruit even in the mother's womb, as it plainly appeareth, first by Cain and Abel, who came from one womb. From his mother's womb Cain was a despiser of God, and proud; but Abel, on the contrary, was a humble man, and one that feared God. 19. The same is seen also in the three sons of Noah; as also by Abraham's sons, Isaac, and Ismael, especially by Isaac's in Esau and Jacob, who struggled and wrestled even in the mother's womb: therefore said God, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated; which is nothing else but that both qualities in nature have vehemently wrestled the one with the other.
320. For when God at that time moved in nature, and would reveal himself unto the world through righteous Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would raise a Church to himself on earth for his glory, then in nature malice also moved, and its prince Lucifer. Seeing there was good and bad in man, therefore both qualities could reign in him, and therefore there was born at once in one womb an evil man and a good man. 21. Also it is clearly seen by the first world, as also by the second, even unto the end of our time, how the heavenly and the hellish kingdoms in nature have always wrestled the one with the other, and stood in great travail, even as a woman in the birth. This doth most clearly appear by Adam and Eve. For in Paradise there grew up a tree of both qualities, of good and bad, wherewith Adam and Eve were to be tempted, to try whether they would hold out in the good quality in the angelical kind and form. For the Creator forbad Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit: But the evil quality in nature wrestled with the good, and brought Adam and Eve into a lust and longing to eat of both. Thereupon they presently came to be of a bestial form and kind, and did eat of good and bad, and must increase and live in a bestial manner; and so many a noble twig begotten or born of them perished. 22. Afterwards it is seen how God wrought in nature, when the holy fathers in the first world were born: As Abel, Seth, Enos, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Henoch, Methusalah, Lamech, and holy Noah. These made the name of the Lord known to the world, and preached Repentance: For the Holy Ghost wrought in them. 23. On the contrary, the hellish god also wrought in nature, and begot mockers and despisers, first Cain and his posterity: And it
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.
1whom you yield yourselves servants in obedience, his servants ye are, to whom ye obey, either to sin unto death, or to the obedience of God unto righteousness. ** " his moving and driving" (sein Quell und Trieb), " his source and motive power." St M. has "son impulsion," "his impelling power." In the next par. and in several which follow, Sparrow renders the word Trieb, " impulse," or " inclination"; of these, the former is the better of the two. 15. But because man hath an impulse or inclination to both good and evil, he may lay hold on which he pleaseth; for he liveth in this world between both, and both qualities, the good and the bad, are in him; in whichsoever man moveth, with that he is endued, either with a holy, or with a hellish power. For Christ saith, My Father will give the Holy Ghost to those that ask Him. [Luke xi. 13] 16. Besides, God commanded man to do good, and forbad him to do evil; and now doth daily call and cry aloud, preach and exhort man unto good; whereby we see well enough that God willeth not evil, but his will is, That his kingdom should come, and his will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. But now man is poisoned through sin, that the fierce wrathful quality, as well as the good, reigneth in him, and he is now half dead, and in his gross ignorance can no more know God his Creator, nor nature and its operation: Yet hath nature used its best endeavours from the beginning till now, to which God hath given his Holy Ghost, so that it [nature] hath at all times generated * wise, holy, and understanding men, who learned to know nature, and their Creator, and who always in their writings and teachings have been a light to the world, whereby
2God hath raised his Church on earth, to his eternal praise. Against which the devil hath raged, and spoiled many a noble twig, through the wrathful fierceness in nature, whose prince and god he is. * " generated," lit., " generated and prepared," i.e. guided and instructed. 17. For nature hath many times prepared and fitted a learned judicious man with good gifts, and then the devil hath done his utmost to seduce that man, and bring him into carnal pleasures, into pride, into a desire to be rich, and to be in authority and power. Thereby the devil hath ruled in him, and the fierce wrathful quality hath overcome the good; his understanding and his knowledge and wisdom have been turned into heresy and error, and he hath made a mock of the truth, and been the author of great errors on earth, and a good leader of the devil's host. 18. For, ever since the beginning, the bad quality in nature hath wrestled with the good, and doth still wrestle, and hath elevated itself, and spoiled many a noble fruit even in the mother's womb, as it plainly appeareth, first by Cain and Abel, who came from one womb. From his mother's womb Cain was a despiser of God, and proud; but Abel, on the contrary, was a humble man, and one that feared God. 19. The same is seen also in the three sons of Noah; as also by Abraham's sons, Isaac, and Ismael, especially by Isaac's in Esau and Jacob, who struggled and wrestled even in the mother's womb: therefore said God, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated; which is nothing else but that both qualities in nature have vehemently wrestled the one with the other.
320. For when God at that time moved in nature, and would reveal himself unto the world through righteous Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would raise a Church to himself on earth for his glory, then in nature malice also moved, and its prince Lucifer. Seeing there was good and bad in man, therefore both qualities could reign in him, and therefore there was born at once in one womb an evil man and a good man. 21. Also it is clearly seen by the first world, as also by the second, even unto the end of our time, how the heavenly and the hellish kingdoms in nature have always wrestled the one with the other, and stood in great travail, even as a woman in the birth. This doth most clearly appear by Adam and Eve. For in Paradise there grew up a tree of both qualities, of good and bad, wherewith Adam and Eve were to be tempted, to try whether they would hold out in the good quality in the angelical kind and form. For the Creator forbad Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit: But the evil quality in nature wrestled with the good, and brought Adam and Eve into a lust and longing to eat of both. Thereupon they presently came to be of a bestial form and kind, and did eat of good and bad, and must increase and live in a bestial manner; and so many a noble twig begotten or born of them perished. 22. Afterwards it is seen how God wrought in nature, when the holy fathers in the first world were born: As Abel, Seth, Enos, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Henoch, Methusalah, Lamech, and holy Noah. These made the name of the Lord known to the world, and preached Repentance: For the Holy Ghost wrought in them. 23. On the contrary, the hellish god also wrought in nature, and begot mockers and despisers, first Cain and his posterity: And it
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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