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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.
1123. But this I must mention here, viz. that Lucifer, the king, was incorporated together out of his whole kingdom, as the heart of the whole place or room thereof, so far as his whole angelical host or army reached when it was created, and so far as that circumference or circle, region or quarter reached, wherein he with his angels became a creature, and which God before the time of creation had enclosed or concluded as a room or space for a kingdom, whose circuit or extent comprehendeth heaven and this world, as also the deep of the earth, and of the whole circle, sphere or circumference of this whole world of the heavens and stars. 124. According to the qualities were his [Lucifer's] qualifying or fountain princes created, which are his kingly counsellors, and so also were all his angels created. 125. Yet you are to know that every angel hath all the seven spirits in him, but one of the seven is chief or principal. Now behold! 126. When the king was thus incorporated or compacted together, as one comprehending his whole kingdom, then instantly, the same hour, and in the same moment, when he was incorporated or compacted together, the birth of the Holy Trinity of God, which he had for a propriety in his body, rose up and generated itself without, distinct from the creature, in God. [" Understand, for a propriety in the liberty, " not essentially, but as the fire shineth forth or " gloweth through the iron that is flaming hot, " and the iron remaineth iron still; or as the " light replenisheth or filleth the darkness, the " dark source or quality being changed into light, " and so becometh joyful, and yet in the centre " remaineth a darkness, which is understood to
2" be nature; for a spirit is replenished only with " the Majesty."] 127. For in the driving together of the body, presently likewise rose up the birth also in great triumph, as in a newborn king, in God; and all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits shewed themselves very joyful and triumphing. 128. And instantly, in the same moment, the light was generated and rose up out of the seven spirits in the centre of the heart, as a newborn son of the king, which also instantly, in a moment, transfigured the body of all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits from the centre of the heart; and externally from without the light of the Son of God transfigured it. 129. For the birth of the new son in the heart of Lucifer also penetrated through the whole body, and was glorified from the Son of God, which was without, distinct from the body, and was in a friendly manner welcomed with the greatest beauty of heaven, according to the beauty of God the Son, and it was to him as a loving heart or propriety, with which the whole Deity qualified or operated. 130. Then instantly the spirit of the newborn son in the heart also went forth from the light of Lucifer through his mouth, and united, qualified or cooperated with the holy Spirit of God, and was with highest joy received and embraced, as a dear little brother. 131. Now here standeth the beauteous bride: what shall I write of her now? was she not a Prince of God, as also the most beautiful, moreover, in God's love also, and as a dear son of the creatures?
3Of the horrible, proud, and henceforth doleful lamentable Beginning of Sin. The highest Depth. Observe here: 132. When king Lucifer was thus fairly, gloriously, beauteously, highly and holily framed or built, he should surely have now begun to praise, honour and magnify his Creator; and should do that which God his Creator doth. 133. Viz. God his Creator qualifieth or operateth very meekly, lovingly and joyfully, and one qualifying or fountain spirit of God always loveth the other, and infecteth itself with the other, and always helpeth the other to image, form and frame all in the heavenly pomp. 134. Whereby in the heavenly pomp such fair beauteous forms, ideas, figures and vegetations always spring up, as also various colours and fruits; and this the qualifying or fountain spirits of God do in God, as a holy play, sport or scene. Now behold! 135. Seeing then God had incorporated or compacted together out of himself eternal creatures, they should not qualify or operate in the heavenly pomp in such a way and manner as to be like God himself. 136. No, by no means; for they were not thus imaged or framed for that end: For the Creator had for this cause incorporated or compacted the body of an angel together, to be more dry than he [the Creator] is in his body, that he might be and remain to be God; so that the qualities should be harder and tougher, that the tone or sound might be audible.
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.
1123. But this I must mention here, viz. that Lucifer, the king, was incorporated together out of his whole kingdom, as the heart of the whole place or room thereof, so far as his whole angelical host or army reached when it was created, and so far as that circumference or circle, region or quarter reached, wherein he with his angels became a creature, and which God before the time of creation had enclosed or concluded as a room or space for a kingdom, whose circuit or extent comprehendeth heaven and this world, as also the deep of the earth, and of the whole circle, sphere or circumference of this whole world of the heavens and stars. 124. According to the qualities were his [Lucifer's] qualifying or fountain princes created, which are his kingly counsellors, and so also were all his angels created. 125. Yet you are to know that every angel hath all the seven spirits in him, but one of the seven is chief or principal. Now behold! 126. When the king was thus incorporated or compacted together, as one comprehending his whole kingdom, then instantly, the same hour, and in the same moment, when he was incorporated or compacted together, the birth of the Holy Trinity of God, which he had for a propriety in his body, rose up and generated itself without, distinct from the creature, in God. [" Understand, for a propriety in the liberty, " not essentially, but as the fire shineth forth or " gloweth through the iron that is flaming hot, " and the iron remaineth iron still; or as the " light replenisheth or filleth the darkness, the " dark source or quality being changed into light, " and so becometh joyful, and yet in the centre " remaineth a darkness, which is understood to
2" be nature; for a spirit is replenished only with " the Majesty."] 127. For in the driving together of the body, presently likewise rose up the birth also in great triumph, as in a newborn king, in God; and all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits shewed themselves very joyful and triumphing. 128. And instantly, in the same moment, the light was generated and rose up out of the seven spirits in the centre of the heart, as a newborn son of the king, which also instantly, in a moment, transfigured the body of all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits from the centre of the heart; and externally from without the light of the Son of God transfigured it. 129. For the birth of the new son in the heart of Lucifer also penetrated through the whole body, and was glorified from the Son of God, which was without, distinct from the body, and was in a friendly manner welcomed with the greatest beauty of heaven, according to the beauty of God the Son, and it was to him as a loving heart or propriety, with which the whole Deity qualified or operated. 130. Then instantly the spirit of the newborn son in the heart also went forth from the light of Lucifer through his mouth, and united, qualified or cooperated with the holy Spirit of God, and was with highest joy received and embraced, as a dear little brother. 131. Now here standeth the beauteous bride: what shall I write of her now? was she not a Prince of God, as also the most beautiful, moreover, in God's love also, and as a dear son of the creatures?
3Of the horrible, proud, and henceforth doleful lamentable Beginning of Sin. The highest Depth. Observe here: 132. When king Lucifer was thus fairly, gloriously, beauteously, highly and holily framed or built, he should surely have now begun to praise, honour and magnify his Creator; and should do that which God his Creator doth. 133. Viz. God his Creator qualifieth or operateth very meekly, lovingly and joyfully, and one qualifying or fountain spirit of God always loveth the other, and infecteth itself with the other, and always helpeth the other to image, form and frame all in the heavenly pomp. 134. Whereby in the heavenly pomp such fair beauteous forms, ideas, figures and vegetations always spring up, as also various colours and fruits; and this the qualifying or fountain spirits of God do in God, as a holy play, sport or scene. Now behold! 135. Seeing then God had incorporated or compacted together out of himself eternal creatures, they should not qualify or operate in the heavenly pomp in such a way and manner as to be like God himself. 136. No, by no means; for they were not thus imaged or framed for that end: For the Creator had for this cause incorporated or compacted the body of an angel together, to be more dry than he [the Creator] is in his body, that he might be and remain to be God; so that the qualities should be harder and tougher, that the tone or sound might be audible.
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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