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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.
1Of the great Sin, and contrary or opposite Will; and of the eternal Enmity against God of King Lucifer, together with his whole Host or Army. 52. This is the right lookingglass of man; before this court of justice for malefactors the spirit inviteth and citeth all men to stand as before a lookingglass, wherein they may see themselves, and what the hidden, secret sin is. 53. This hath remained hidden ever since the world began, and was never so fully and totally revealed in any heart of man: I myself also do wonder much more than the Reader can wonder at this high revelation or manifestation. 54. I do not write this for my own glory; for my glory standeth in my hope of that which is to come: I am a poor sinner as well as other men, and I also ought to come before this glass. 55. But I marvel that God should reveal himself thus fully to such a simple man, and that God thus impelleth him also to set it down in writing; whereas there are many learned writers who could set it forth and express it better, in a more flourishing style, and demonstrate it more exactly and fully than I, who am a scorn and a fool to the world. 56. But I neither can nor will oppose him; for I often stood in great striving against him, that if it were not his impulse or will, that he would be pleased to take it from me; but I find, that with my striving against him I have but merely gathered stones for this building. 57. Now I am climbed up and mounted so very high that I dare not look back, for fear a giddiness
2should overtake me, and I have now but a short length of ladder to the mark, to which it is the whole desire, longing and delight of my heart to reach fully. When I go upward I have no giddiness at all; but when I look back and would return, then am I giddy, and afraid to fall. 58. Therefore have I put my confidence in the strong God, and will venture, and see what will come of it. I have no more than one body, which nevertheless is mortal and corruptible, I willingly venture that; if the light and knowledge of my God do but remain with me, then I have sufficiently enough for this life and the life to come. 59. Thus I will not be angry with my God, though for his name's sake I should endure shame, ignominy and reproach, which springeth, buddeth and blossometh for me every day, so that I am almost inured to it: I will sing with the prophet David [Psalm lxxiii 26], Though my body and soul should faint and fail, yet thou, O God, art my trust and confidence; also my salvation, and the comfort of my heart. 60. Sin hath seven kinds, forms, species or sorts; among which there are four special wellsprings or sources: And the eighth kind or sort is the house of death. Now observe: 61. The seven forms are the seven qualifying or fountain spirits of the body; when these are kindled each spirit generateth a special or particular enmity against God. 62. Out of these seven are generated other four new sons, and they together are the new god, which is wholly against the old God, as two
3professed armies of enemies, which have sworn eternal enmity one against the other. The first Son is PRIDE. The second Son is COVETOUSNESS. The third Son is ENVY. The fourth Son is WRATH. 63. Now let us view these in the ground from whence all hath its original, and see how it is an enmity against God: and therein you will see what is the beginning and root of sin, and wherefore in God it cannot be suffered or endured. 64. Therefore come on, ye philosophers and lawyers, you that will maintain, and undertake to prove it, that God created the evil also, and that he willeth the same; also that it is his predestinate purpose that the devil fell, and that many men are damned; otherwise God could have altered all, and turned it some other way. The Citation, or Summons. 65. Here the spirit of our kingdom for the third time citeth you, together with your prince Lucifer, whom you defend and justify, before the final Court of Justice for criminal malefactors; give in your answer there. 66. For as to these seven kinds or forms, and four new sons, the right shall be prosecuted in the heavenly Father's house. 67. If you can prove and maintain that the seven spirits of Lucifer have of right and equity generated these four new sons, so that they of right and equity should govern heaven and the whole Deity, then king Lucifer shall be reenthroned,
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.
1Of the great Sin, and contrary or opposite Will; and of the eternal Enmity against God of King Lucifer, together with his whole Host or Army. 52. This is the right lookingglass of man; before this court of justice for malefactors the spirit inviteth and citeth all men to stand as before a lookingglass, wherein they may see themselves, and what the hidden, secret sin is. 53. This hath remained hidden ever since the world began, and was never so fully and totally revealed in any heart of man: I myself also do wonder much more than the Reader can wonder at this high revelation or manifestation. 54. I do not write this for my own glory; for my glory standeth in my hope of that which is to come: I am a poor sinner as well as other men, and I also ought to come before this glass. 55. But I marvel that God should reveal himself thus fully to such a simple man, and that God thus impelleth him also to set it down in writing; whereas there are many learned writers who could set it forth and express it better, in a more flourishing style, and demonstrate it more exactly and fully than I, who am a scorn and a fool to the world. 56. But I neither can nor will oppose him; for I often stood in great striving against him, that if it were not his impulse or will, that he would be pleased to take it from me; but I find, that with my striving against him I have but merely gathered stones for this building. 57. Now I am climbed up and mounted so very high that I dare not look back, for fear a giddiness
2should overtake me, and I have now but a short length of ladder to the mark, to which it is the whole desire, longing and delight of my heart to reach fully. When I go upward I have no giddiness at all; but when I look back and would return, then am I giddy, and afraid to fall. 58. Therefore have I put my confidence in the strong God, and will venture, and see what will come of it. I have no more than one body, which nevertheless is mortal and corruptible, I willingly venture that; if the light and knowledge of my God do but remain with me, then I have sufficiently enough for this life and the life to come. 59. Thus I will not be angry with my God, though for his name's sake I should endure shame, ignominy and reproach, which springeth, buddeth and blossometh for me every day, so that I am almost inured to it: I will sing with the prophet David [Psalm lxxiii 26], Though my body and soul should faint and fail, yet thou, O God, art my trust and confidence; also my salvation, and the comfort of my heart. 60. Sin hath seven kinds, forms, species or sorts; among which there are four special wellsprings or sources: And the eighth kind or sort is the house of death. Now observe: 61. The seven forms are the seven qualifying or fountain spirits of the body; when these are kindled each spirit generateth a special or particular enmity against God. 62. Out of these seven are generated other four new sons, and they together are the new god, which is wholly against the old God, as two
3professed armies of enemies, which have sworn eternal enmity one against the other. The first Son is PRIDE. The second Son is COVETOUSNESS. The third Son is ENVY. The fourth Son is WRATH. 63. Now let us view these in the ground from whence all hath its original, and see how it is an enmity against God: and therein you will see what is the beginning and root of sin, and wherefore in God it cannot be suffered or endured. 64. Therefore come on, ye philosophers and lawyers, you that will maintain, and undertake to prove it, that God created the evil also, and that he willeth the same; also that it is his predestinate purpose that the devil fell, and that many men are damned; otherwise God could have altered all, and turned it some other way. The Citation, or Summons. 65. Here the spirit of our kingdom for the third time citeth you, together with your prince Lucifer, whom you defend and justify, before the final Court of Justice for criminal malefactors; give in your answer there. 66. For as to these seven kinds or forms, and four new sons, the right shall be prosecuted in the heavenly Father's house. 67. If you can prove and maintain that the seven spirits of Lucifer have of right and equity generated these four new sons, so that they of right and equity should govern heaven and the whole Deity, then king Lucifer shall be reenthroned,
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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