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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.
128. The tone is the fourth murderer; for it taketh its ringing sound in the fire, in the sweet water, and riseth up very gently and lovely in the whole body. 29. Yet it did not so here, but after it was risen up in the water, in the astringent quality, it also dissembled [or played] with the astringent quality and broke out or burst forth furiously, like a thunderclap, whereby it would prove and shew forth its new Deity; and so the fire rose up, as when there is a tempest of lightning, intending thereby to be so great as to be above all things in God. 30. And this they * practised so long till they had murdered their mother, the sweet water; and therein the whole body became a dark valley, and there was no more remedy or council in God that could help here: For love was turned into enmity, and the whole body became a black dark Teufel (devil). * " they," i.e. the tone, and the heat, and the bitter and the astringent qualities. 31. Of the word (Teufel) Teu hath its original from hard beating, drumming or thumping; * and the word or syllable fel hath its original from the Falle [fall], and so lord Lucifer is called Teufel (devil), and is no more called a Cherubim or Seraphim. * "beating, drumming or thumping " (Pochen). See Ch. 10, par. 119. Here it may be asked: Question. Could not God have hindered and prevented the pride of Lucifer, that he might have abstained
2from his highmindedness? Answer. 32. This is a high question, on which all those lay hold that justify and plead the cause of the devil; but they are all cited to appear at the court of justice held for trial of criminal malefactors: let them have a care how they plead for their master, else the sentence of judgment will be pronounced against him, and he will lose his crown. The wonderful Revelation. 33. Behold, king Lucifer was the head in his whole region, circuit or circumference, also he was a mighty king, and was created out of the kernel or marrow of his whole region and circumference, also he would fain have kindled that whole circumference by his elevating, that so all might have burned and qualified, or operated as he did in his own body. 34. Though indeed the Deity, without or distinct from his body, would have meekly and gently qualified or acted towards him, and would have enlightened and exhorted him to repentance, yet now there was no other will in Lucifer, but that he would needs rule over the Son of God, and kindle that whole region or circumference, and in such a way he himself would be the whole God, above and over all the angelical hosts or armies. 35. Now when the Heart of God with his meekness and love made haste towards Lucifer, he despised it, and thought himself far better than it, and then stormed back again with fire and coldness in hard claps of thunder against the Son of God, supposing the Son of God must be in subjection under him, and that he himself was lord; for he despised the light of the Son
3of God. Question. Then thou askest: How? Had he such power? Answer. 36. Yes, he had; for he was a great part of the Deity, and besides, was from or out of the kernel thereof, for he made an attempt also upon that king and great prince Michael, to spoil and destroy him, who at last fought with Lucifer, and overcame him, since [or because] the power of God in Lucifer's kingdom also fought vehemently against its king, till at last he was thrust down from his kingly seat, as one that was vanquished. [Rev. xii. 79] Objection. Now thou wilt say, God should have enlightened his heart, that he might have repented. Answer. 37. No! Lucifer would receive no light other than his own, for he scorned the light of the Son of God, which did shine without, distinct from his body, seeing he had such a glittering light in himself, and so he elevated himself more and more, till his water was quite dried up and burnt, and his light was quite put out; and then all was done with him. [ " This water here, is the water of eternal life, " generated in the light of the Majesty, but in " the centre it is like the sulphur or brimstone " spirit, or like unto aquafortis, or the water of " separation."] Concerning the fall of all his angels, one might ask: Question. How comes it, that at this time all his angels did also fall?
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.
128. The tone is the fourth murderer; for it taketh its ringing sound in the fire, in the sweet water, and riseth up very gently and lovely in the whole body. 29. Yet it did not so here, but after it was risen up in the water, in the astringent quality, it also dissembled [or played] with the astringent quality and broke out or burst forth furiously, like a thunderclap, whereby it would prove and shew forth its new Deity; and so the fire rose up, as when there is a tempest of lightning, intending thereby to be so great as to be above all things in God. 30. And this they * practised so long till they had murdered their mother, the sweet water; and therein the whole body became a dark valley, and there was no more remedy or council in God that could help here: For love was turned into enmity, and the whole body became a black dark Teufel (devil). * " they," i.e. the tone, and the heat, and the bitter and the astringent qualities. 31. Of the word (Teufel) Teu hath its original from hard beating, drumming or thumping; * and the word or syllable fel hath its original from the Falle [fall], and so lord Lucifer is called Teufel (devil), and is no more called a Cherubim or Seraphim. * "beating, drumming or thumping " (Pochen). See Ch. 10, par. 119. Here it may be asked: Question. Could not God have hindered and prevented the pride of Lucifer, that he might have abstained
2from his highmindedness? Answer. 32. This is a high question, on which all those lay hold that justify and plead the cause of the devil; but they are all cited to appear at the court of justice held for trial of criminal malefactors: let them have a care how they plead for their master, else the sentence of judgment will be pronounced against him, and he will lose his crown. The wonderful Revelation. 33. Behold, king Lucifer was the head in his whole region, circuit or circumference, also he was a mighty king, and was created out of the kernel or marrow of his whole region and circumference, also he would fain have kindled that whole circumference by his elevating, that so all might have burned and qualified, or operated as he did in his own body. 34. Though indeed the Deity, without or distinct from his body, would have meekly and gently qualified or acted towards him, and would have enlightened and exhorted him to repentance, yet now there was no other will in Lucifer, but that he would needs rule over the Son of God, and kindle that whole region or circumference, and in such a way he himself would be the whole God, above and over all the angelical hosts or armies. 35. Now when the Heart of God with his meekness and love made haste towards Lucifer, he despised it, and thought himself far better than it, and then stormed back again with fire and coldness in hard claps of thunder against the Son of God, supposing the Son of God must be in subjection under him, and that he himself was lord; for he despised the light of the Son
3of God. Question. Then thou askest: How? Had he such power? Answer. 36. Yes, he had; for he was a great part of the Deity, and besides, was from or out of the kernel thereof, for he made an attempt also upon that king and great prince Michael, to spoil and destroy him, who at last fought with Lucifer, and overcame him, since [or because] the power of God in Lucifer's kingdom also fought vehemently against its king, till at last he was thrust down from his kingly seat, as one that was vanquished. [Rev. xii. 79] Objection. Now thou wilt say, God should have enlightened his heart, that he might have repented. Answer. 37. No! Lucifer would receive no light other than his own, for he scorned the light of the Son of God, which did shine without, distinct from his body, seeing he had such a glittering light in himself, and so he elevated himself more and more, till his water was quite dried up and burnt, and his light was quite put out; and then all was done with him. [ " This water here, is the water of eternal life, " generated in the light of the Majesty, but in " the centre it is like the sulphur or brimstone " spirit, or like unto aquafortis, or the water of " separation."] Concerning the fall of all his angels, one might ask: Question. How comes it, that at this time all his angels did also fall?
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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