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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.
1124. As this hath a being or substance, form or condition in angels, so it hath also a being, substance, form or condition in man. Therefore bethink and consider yourselves, you that are proud, covetous, thievish, extorting usurers, calumniating, blasphemous, envious, and whorish or lascivious, what manner of little son or spirit you send into God. [" The soul was originally comprehended in " the eternal nature with the Word Fiat, which is " God's nature according to the first Principle " and eternal original of nature; and if it "kindleth itself in the original, then it kindleth " God's wrath in the eternal nature."] Objection. Thou wilt say, We do not send this into God, but only into our neighbour, or into his work which we like and have a mind to. [or meddle with in our minds.] Answer. 125. Now shew thou me any place, to which thou sendeth thy covetous or lustful spirit, where God is not; be it to man, beasts, garments, fields, money or anything whatsoever. From him is all, and he is in all, he himself is all, and he upholdeth and supporteth all. Objection. Then thou wilt say, But he is with his wrath in many things which are so hard and evil that they are not suitable to or capable of the Deity. Answer. 126. Yes, dear man, all this is true: The wrath of God is certainly everywhere all over, in silver, gold, stones, fields, garments, beasts and men, and all whatsoever is comprehensible and palpable; otherwise they would not be so
2hard and harsh to be felt, as they are. 127. But thou must know that the kernel of love also sticketh in all in the hidden centre, unless it be altogether too evil; and so evil a thing man hath no liking for at all. [" God possesseth all, only as to nature, he is " not the essence, he possesseth himself."] Or dost thou think thou dost well, if thou bathest or soakest thyself in God's wrath? Take heed, that it doth not kindle thy body and soul, and so thou wilt burn therein eternally, as befell Lucifer. 128. But when God shall bring forth the hidden things, at the end of this time, then you will discern in what God's love or wrath hath been. Therefore have a care, and take heed, and turn thy eyes from evil, or else thou undoest thyself, and so bringest thyself into perdition. 129. I take heaven and earth to witness, that I have performed here as God hath revealed to me, that it is his will. 130. Thus hath king Lucifer in his body turned the sweet water into a sour sharpness, intending therewith, in his haughtymindedness, to rule in the whole Deity. 131. He hath brought it so far to pass that, in this world, with that sharpness, he reacheth into the heart of all living creatures, as also into vegetables, leaves and grass, and into all other things, as a king and prince of this world. 132. And if the divine love were not yet in the whole nature of this world, and if we poor men and creatures had not in and about us the
3Champion in the fight, we should all perish in a moment, in the hellish horrible abominations. 133. Therefore we sing very rightly thus; Mitten wir im Leben seynd. Mit dem Todt umfangen; Wo sollen wir dann fliehen hin, dasz wir Gnad erlangen? Zu dir Herr Christ alleine. Da ist nun Der Held im Streit, zu dem wir fliehen mussen, Welcher ist unser König, JESUS CHRISTUS. In the midst of this our life, death doth us round embrace, Whither shall we flee away, that we may obtain grace? To thee Lord Christ alone. This is the Champion in the fight, to Him 'tis we must flee, Who is our King, JESUS CHRIST. 134. He hath the Father's love in him, and fighteth in divine power and might against the kindled hellish abomination. To him we must flee; and he it is that preserveth and retaineth the love of God in all things in this world; else all would be lost and perish. Nur hoffe, wart, und beit, Es ist noch eine Kleine Zeit, Bis Teufels Reich darnieder leit. Now hope, pray, and wait But a small time, and then strait Th' devil's kingdom will be quite down laid.* * " Now hope, pray," etc., lit., " Only hope, wait and pray, there is but a little time, until the kingdom of the devil is put down."
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.
1124. As this hath a being or substance, form or condition in angels, so it hath also a being, substance, form or condition in man. Therefore bethink and consider yourselves, you that are proud, covetous, thievish, extorting usurers, calumniating, blasphemous, envious, and whorish or lascivious, what manner of little son or spirit you send into God. [" The soul was originally comprehended in " the eternal nature with the Word Fiat, which is " God's nature according to the first Principle " and eternal original of nature; and if it "kindleth itself in the original, then it kindleth " God's wrath in the eternal nature."] Objection. Thou wilt say, We do not send this into God, but only into our neighbour, or into his work which we like and have a mind to. [or meddle with in our minds.] Answer. 125. Now shew thou me any place, to which thou sendeth thy covetous or lustful spirit, where God is not; be it to man, beasts, garments, fields, money or anything whatsoever. From him is all, and he is in all, he himself is all, and he upholdeth and supporteth all. Objection. Then thou wilt say, But he is with his wrath in many things which are so hard and evil that they are not suitable to or capable of the Deity. Answer. 126. Yes, dear man, all this is true: The wrath of God is certainly everywhere all over, in silver, gold, stones, fields, garments, beasts and men, and all whatsoever is comprehensible and palpable; otherwise they would not be so
2hard and harsh to be felt, as they are. 127. But thou must know that the kernel of love also sticketh in all in the hidden centre, unless it be altogether too evil; and so evil a thing man hath no liking for at all. [" God possesseth all, only as to nature, he is " not the essence, he possesseth himself."] Or dost thou think thou dost well, if thou bathest or soakest thyself in God's wrath? Take heed, that it doth not kindle thy body and soul, and so thou wilt burn therein eternally, as befell Lucifer. 128. But when God shall bring forth the hidden things, at the end of this time, then you will discern in what God's love or wrath hath been. Therefore have a care, and take heed, and turn thy eyes from evil, or else thou undoest thyself, and so bringest thyself into perdition. 129. I take heaven and earth to witness, that I have performed here as God hath revealed to me, that it is his will. 130. Thus hath king Lucifer in his body turned the sweet water into a sour sharpness, intending therewith, in his haughtymindedness, to rule in the whole Deity. 131. He hath brought it so far to pass that, in this world, with that sharpness, he reacheth into the heart of all living creatures, as also into vegetables, leaves and grass, and into all other things, as a king and prince of this world. 132. And if the divine love were not yet in the whole nature of this world, and if we poor men and creatures had not in and about us the
3Champion in the fight, we should all perish in a moment, in the hellish horrible abominations. 133. Therefore we sing very rightly thus; Mitten wir im Leben seynd. Mit dem Todt umfangen; Wo sollen wir dann fliehen hin, dasz wir Gnad erlangen? Zu dir Herr Christ alleine. Da ist nun Der Held im Streit, zu dem wir fliehen mussen, Welcher ist unser König, JESUS CHRISTUS. In the midst of this our life, death doth us round embrace, Whither shall we flee away, that we may obtain grace? To thee Lord Christ alone. This is the Champion in the fight, to Him 'tis we must flee, Who is our King, JESUS CHRIST. 134. He hath the Father's love in him, and fighteth in divine power and might against the kindled hellish abomination. To him we must flee; and he it is that preserveth and retaineth the love of God in all things in this world; else all would be lost and perish. Nur hoffe, wart, und beit, Es ist noch eine Kleine Zeit, Bis Teufels Reich darnieder leit. Now hope, pray, and wait But a small time, and then strait Th' devil's kingdom will be quite down laid.* * " Now hope, pray," etc., lit., " Only hope, wait and pray, there is but a little time, until the kingdom of the devil is put down."
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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