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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.
1seven wheels one in another, and the one always wheeleth itself otherwise than the others in its station or position, and the seven wheels are hooped round with fellies, like a round globe. 91. And yet that a man may see all the seven wheels turning round about severally apart, as also the whole fitness or compass of the frame, with all its fellies and spokes and naves. 92. The seven naves in the midst or centre being as it were one nave, which doth fit everywhere in the turning about, and the wheels continually generating these naves, and the naves generating the spokes continually in all the seven wheels, and yet none of the wheels, as also none of the naves, nor any of the fellies or spokes, to be out of sight, and as if this wheel had seven wheels, and yet were all but one wheel, and went always forward, whithersoever the wind drove it. Now behold, and consider: 93. The seven wheels one in another, the one always generating the others, and going on every side, and yet none out of sight, or turning back; these are the seven qualifying or fountain spirits of God the Father. 94. They generate in the seven wheels in each wheel a nave, and yet there are not seven naves, but one only, which fitteth in all the seven wheels: This is the heart or innermost body of the wheels, wherein the wheels run about, and that signifieth the Son of God. 95. For all the seven spirits of God the Father generate continually in their circle, and that is the Son of all the seven spirits, and all those qualify or act in his light, and [the Son] is in the midst or centre of the birth, and holds together
2all the seven spirits of God, and they in their birth turn about therewith thus. 96. That is, they climb either upward or downward, backward or forward, or crossways, and so the Heart of God is always in the midst or centre, and fitteth itself to every qualifying or fountain spirit. 97. Thus there is one Heart of God, and not seven, which is always generated from all the seven, and is the heart and life of all the seven. 98. Now the spokes, which are always generated from the naves and wheels, and which fit themselves to all the wheels in their turning, and are their root, stay and fastening in which they stand, and out of which they are generated, signify God the Holy Ghost, which goeth forth from the Father and the Son, even as the spokes go out from the nave and wheel, and yet abide also in the wheel. 99. Now as the spokes are many, and go always about with and in the wheel, so the Holy Ghost is the workmaster in the wheel of God, and formeth, imageth and frameth all in the whole or total God. 100. Now this wheel hath seven wheels one in another, and one nave, which fitteth itself to all the seven wheels, and all the seven wheels turn on that one nave: Thus God is one God, with seven qualifying or fountain spirits one in another, where always one generateth the others, and yet is but one God, just as these seven wheels are but one wheel. Now observe: 101. The wheel in its incorporated structure and frame signifieth the astringent quality, which
3attracteth or draweth together the whole corporeal being of the Deity, and holdeth it, and drieth it, so that it subsisteth. 102. The sweet spring or fountainwater is generated by the driving about or rising up of the spirits, for when the light is generated in the heat, then the astringent quality is amazed or terrified for great joy, and this is a submitting or lying down or growing thin, and the hard corporeal being sinketh down like a meekness or mildness. 103. Now the terror * or the glance of the light riseth up in the astringent quality very gently and shivering, and trembleth, which now in the water is bitter, and the light drieth it, and maketh it friendly and sweet. * " the terror " (der Schrack). This word, peculiar to Bohme, is very aptly rendered by St M., "explosion" or "bursting forth." In the next par. it is made identical with "flash," " Schrack oder Blitz." 104. Therein standeth life and joy; for the terror or flash riseth up in all the qualities, like the wheel before mentioned which turneth about, and then there all the seven spirits rise up one in another, and generate themselves, as in a circle, and the light is shining in the midst or centre of the seven spirits, and reshineth back again in all the spirits, and all the spirits triumph therein, and rejoice in the light. 105. As the seven wheels turn about upon one nave, as upon their heart, which holds them, and they hold the nave, so the seven spirits generate the heart, and the heart holds the seven spirits, and so there arise voices, and divine joy fulness of hearty loving and kissing.
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.
1seven wheels one in another, and the one always wheeleth itself otherwise than the others in its station or position, and the seven wheels are hooped round with fellies, like a round globe. 91. And yet that a man may see all the seven wheels turning round about severally apart, as also the whole fitness or compass of the frame, with all its fellies and spokes and naves. 92. The seven naves in the midst or centre being as it were one nave, which doth fit everywhere in the turning about, and the wheels continually generating these naves, and the naves generating the spokes continually in all the seven wheels, and yet none of the wheels, as also none of the naves, nor any of the fellies or spokes, to be out of sight, and as if this wheel had seven wheels, and yet were all but one wheel, and went always forward, whithersoever the wind drove it. Now behold, and consider: 93. The seven wheels one in another, the one always generating the others, and going on every side, and yet none out of sight, or turning back; these are the seven qualifying or fountain spirits of God the Father. 94. They generate in the seven wheels in each wheel a nave, and yet there are not seven naves, but one only, which fitteth in all the seven wheels: This is the heart or innermost body of the wheels, wherein the wheels run about, and that signifieth the Son of God. 95. For all the seven spirits of God the Father generate continually in their circle, and that is the Son of all the seven spirits, and all those qualify or act in his light, and [the Son] is in the midst or centre of the birth, and holds together
2all the seven spirits of God, and they in their birth turn about therewith thus. 96. That is, they climb either upward or downward, backward or forward, or crossways, and so the Heart of God is always in the midst or centre, and fitteth itself to every qualifying or fountain spirit. 97. Thus there is one Heart of God, and not seven, which is always generated from all the seven, and is the heart and life of all the seven. 98. Now the spokes, which are always generated from the naves and wheels, and which fit themselves to all the wheels in their turning, and are their root, stay and fastening in which they stand, and out of which they are generated, signify God the Holy Ghost, which goeth forth from the Father and the Son, even as the spokes go out from the nave and wheel, and yet abide also in the wheel. 99. Now as the spokes are many, and go always about with and in the wheel, so the Holy Ghost is the workmaster in the wheel of God, and formeth, imageth and frameth all in the whole or total God. 100. Now this wheel hath seven wheels one in another, and one nave, which fitteth itself to all the seven wheels, and all the seven wheels turn on that one nave: Thus God is one God, with seven qualifying or fountain spirits one in another, where always one generateth the others, and yet is but one God, just as these seven wheels are but one wheel. Now observe: 101. The wheel in its incorporated structure and frame signifieth the astringent quality, which
3attracteth or draweth together the whole corporeal being of the Deity, and holdeth it, and drieth it, so that it subsisteth. 102. The sweet spring or fountainwater is generated by the driving about or rising up of the spirits, for when the light is generated in the heat, then the astringent quality is amazed or terrified for great joy, and this is a submitting or lying down or growing thin, and the hard corporeal being sinketh down like a meekness or mildness. 103. Now the terror * or the glance of the light riseth up in the astringent quality very gently and shivering, and trembleth, which now in the water is bitter, and the light drieth it, and maketh it friendly and sweet. * " the terror " (der Schrack). This word, peculiar to Bohme, is very aptly rendered by St M., "explosion" or "bursting forth." In the next par. it is made identical with "flash," " Schrack oder Blitz." 104. Therein standeth life and joy; for the terror or flash riseth up in all the qualities, like the wheel before mentioned which turneth about, and then there all the seven spirits rise up one in another, and generate themselves, as in a circle, and the light is shining in the midst or centre of the seven spirits, and reshineth back again in all the spirits, and all the spirits triumph therein, and rejoice in the light. 105. As the seven wheels turn about upon one nave, as upon their heart, which holds them, and they hold the nave, so the seven spirits generate the heart, and the heart holds the seven spirits, and so there arise voices, and divine joy fulness of hearty loving and kissing.
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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