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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.
1wine in a vessel will do; but none of the other qualities alter, but only into a stink, which is caused by the quality of water. Now thou wilt ask, Question. Why did God suffer Lucifer's evil spirit, which proceeded out of the body of Lucifer, to come into Himself? Could God not hinder it? Answer. 111. Thou must know, that between God and Lucifer there was no other difference, than there is between parents and their children; nay, there was yet a nearer relation between them: For as parents generate a child out of their body according to their image, and keep it in their house, as a natural heir of their bodies, and cherish it, thus near also is the body of Lucifer to the Deity. 112. For God had generated him out of his body, and therefore also made him the heir of his goods, and gave him for a possession the whole region or extent of the place in which he created him. The highest Depth. 113. But here you must know what it was with which Lucifer fought against God, and so moved God to anger. For he could not do it with his body; for his body reached no farther than the place where he then stood; he could effect little with that, but it was something else. Be attentive here. 114. The spirit, which is generated from or out of all the seven qualifying spirits in the centre of the heart, the same doth (whilst it is yet in the body, when it is generated) qualify, mix or act in and with God, as one substance or thing, nor is there any difference.
2115. And when that same spirit, which is generated in the body, seeth anything through the eyes, or heareth through the ears, or smelleth through the nostrils, then it is already in that thing, and worketh, laboureth or acteth therein, as in its own propriety. 116. And if the same be pleasing to it, it eateth thereof, and infecteth itself with the thing, and wrestleth therewith, and maketh a mixture or temper together; let the thing be as far off as it will, even so far as the originality of its kingdom in God reacheth, so far can the spirit govern or rule in a moment, and is withheld or hindered by nothing. 117. For it is and comprehendeth the power, as God the Holy Ghost doth; and in this there is no difference at all between God the Holy Ghost and the spirit of the body, but only this, that the Holy Spirit of God is the whole fulness, and the spirit of the body is but a piece or part, which presseth through the whole fulness, and wherever it cometh, there it is mixed or affected with the place, and presently ruleth with God in the same place. 118. For it is of God and in God, and cannot be withheld or hindered, but only by the seven naturespirits of the body, which generate the animated or soulish spirit; they have the reins in their hand, and generate it as they please. [" God's Spirit hath all the wellsprings, but " distinguished itself in three Principles, where " three sources or qualities arise, the first in the " fire according to the first Principle, and the " second in the light in the second Principle, and " the third in the spirit of this world in the aërial " and astral source."]
3119. When the astringent or harsh quality, as the father, formeth the word or son, or spirit, then it stands captive in the centre of the heart, and is examined or tried by the other spirits, whether it be good or no. Now if it pleaseth the fire, then the fire letteth the flash (in which the bitter spirit standeth) go through the sweet water, wherein it conceiveth the love, and goeth therewith into the astringent quality. 120. Now when the flash returns with the love into the astringent quality again, together with the newgenerated spirit or will, then the astringent quality rejoiceth in the new young son, and elevateth itself. 121. Then the tone lays hold thereon, and goeth forth therewith at the mouth, eyes, ears and nostrils, and executeth that which is decreed in the council of the seven spirits: for as the decree of the council is, so also is the spirit; and the council can alter the same as it will. 122. Therefore the original lust sticketh in the circle of the heart, in the council of the seven spirits; and as they generate the spirit, so also it is. 123. So in this manner lord Lucifer brought the Deity into anger and wrath; [" that is, kindled the eternal nature according to the first Principle;"] seeing he, together with all his angels, as a malicious devil, fought or strove against the Deity, intending to bring and subdue the whole circumference, circuit or region under his innate spirits, that they should form, frame, figure and image all, and the whole circumference, region or extent should bow, yield and suffer itself to be ruled and formed by the kindled sharpness of the innate spirits.
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.
1wine in a vessel will do; but none of the other qualities alter, but only into a stink, which is caused by the quality of water. Now thou wilt ask, Question. Why did God suffer Lucifer's evil spirit, which proceeded out of the body of Lucifer, to come into Himself? Could God not hinder it? Answer. 111. Thou must know, that between God and Lucifer there was no other difference, than there is between parents and their children; nay, there was yet a nearer relation between them: For as parents generate a child out of their body according to their image, and keep it in their house, as a natural heir of their bodies, and cherish it, thus near also is the body of Lucifer to the Deity. 112. For God had generated him out of his body, and therefore also made him the heir of his goods, and gave him for a possession the whole region or extent of the place in which he created him. The highest Depth. 113. But here you must know what it was with which Lucifer fought against God, and so moved God to anger. For he could not do it with his body; for his body reached no farther than the place where he then stood; he could effect little with that, but it was something else. Be attentive here. 114. The spirit, which is generated from or out of all the seven qualifying spirits in the centre of the heart, the same doth (whilst it is yet in the body, when it is generated) qualify, mix or act in and with God, as one substance or thing, nor is there any difference.
2115. And when that same spirit, which is generated in the body, seeth anything through the eyes, or heareth through the ears, or smelleth through the nostrils, then it is already in that thing, and worketh, laboureth or acteth therein, as in its own propriety. 116. And if the same be pleasing to it, it eateth thereof, and infecteth itself with the thing, and wrestleth therewith, and maketh a mixture or temper together; let the thing be as far off as it will, even so far as the originality of its kingdom in God reacheth, so far can the spirit govern or rule in a moment, and is withheld or hindered by nothing. 117. For it is and comprehendeth the power, as God the Holy Ghost doth; and in this there is no difference at all between God the Holy Ghost and the spirit of the body, but only this, that the Holy Spirit of God is the whole fulness, and the spirit of the body is but a piece or part, which presseth through the whole fulness, and wherever it cometh, there it is mixed or affected with the place, and presently ruleth with God in the same place. 118. For it is of God and in God, and cannot be withheld or hindered, but only by the seven naturespirits of the body, which generate the animated or soulish spirit; they have the reins in their hand, and generate it as they please. [" God's Spirit hath all the wellsprings, but " distinguished itself in three Principles, where " three sources or qualities arise, the first in the " fire according to the first Principle, and the " second in the light in the second Principle, and " the third in the spirit of this world in the aërial " and astral source."]
3119. When the astringent or harsh quality, as the father, formeth the word or son, or spirit, then it stands captive in the centre of the heart, and is examined or tried by the other spirits, whether it be good or no. Now if it pleaseth the fire, then the fire letteth the flash (in which the bitter spirit standeth) go through the sweet water, wherein it conceiveth the love, and goeth therewith into the astringent quality. 120. Now when the flash returns with the love into the astringent quality again, together with the newgenerated spirit or will, then the astringent quality rejoiceth in the new young son, and elevateth itself. 121. Then the tone lays hold thereon, and goeth forth therewith at the mouth, eyes, ears and nostrils, and executeth that which is decreed in the council of the seven spirits: for as the decree of the council is, so also is the spirit; and the council can alter the same as it will. 122. Therefore the original lust sticketh in the circle of the heart, in the council of the seven spirits; and as they generate the spirit, so also it is. 123. So in this manner lord Lucifer brought the Deity into anger and wrath; [" that is, kindled the eternal nature according to the first Principle;"] seeing he, together with all his angels, as a malicious devil, fought or strove against the Deity, intending to bring and subdue the whole circumference, circuit or region under his innate spirits, that they should form, frame, figure and image all, and the whole circumference, region or extent should bow, yield and suffer itself to be ruled and formed by the kindled sharpness of the innate spirits.
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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