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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.
1especial loverestraint of God: When this also groweth weak, then is the end of this time. See Signatura Rerum, Ch. 10, par. 11. 27. But whether Lucifer hath done rightly, in that he hath awakened and stirred up the fierceness in the Salitter of God, whence this world is become stinging, venomous, thorny, rocky, envious and evil, false or wicked, let the attorneys, proctors, advocates and defenders of Lucifer answer, and plead and justify it if they can; if not, then this third bitter, stinging, venomous spirit shall be condemned also. Of the Fourth Kind, Species, Form or Manner of Sin's Beginning in Lucifer. 28. The fourth spirit of God is heat, which is generated between the bitter and the astringent qualities, and is conceived or bred in the sweet water, and is shining and giving light, and is the true fountain of life. 29. For in the sweet water it is very meek, from whence love existeth, and is only a loving warmth, but no fire. 30. Though indeed it be in the hidden kernel of the fire's quality or original, yet that fire is not kindled or burning, for it is generated in the sweet water. 31. Now where the water is there is no burning fire, but a pleasing warmth, and a gentle qualifying or vivifying; but if the water should be dried up, then there would be burning fire there. 32. Thus lord Lucifer thought also, that if he did but kindle his fire, then he might domineer forcibly in the divine power; for he thought it would have burnt eternally, and also have given light; his
2purpose was not to put out the light, but he would have it burn continually in the fire; he thought he would dry up the water, and then the light would move, stir or shine, in the burning fire. 33. But he knew not, that if he kindled the dried water, that the kernel, that is, the unctuosity, oil or heart of the water would be consumed, and that the light would turn into darkness, and the water turn into a sour stink. 34. For the oil or unctuosity in the water is generated through meekness or welldoing, and that is the unctuosity, oil, unction, marrow or fatness wherein the light becomes shining. But if the unctuosity be burnt up, then the water is turned into a sour stink, and moreover becometh very dark. 35. Thus it befell the pride of Lucifer: he triumphed a little while with his kindled light; but when his light was spent and burnt up, then he became a black devil. 36. But he supposed he would eternally reign thus in his burning light in the whole divine power, as a very terrible god, and so with his firespirit he wrestled with the Salitter of God, intending to kindle the whole circumference or extent of his kingdom. 37. And indeed he hath done somewhat, in that he hath set the divine power into a burning, which appeareth even in the sun and stars; also the fire in the Salitter in the elements is often kindled, so that it seemeth as if the deep were of a burning fire; of which I shall speak in another place. [" He stept back out of the meekness into the " anxious firewill, and fell into darkness. The " Reader is advertised that he must not under " stand in any place, as if the devil had kindled
3" or fired the light of God; no, but the forms of " nature only, out of which the light shineth. " For he hath not comprehended the light, as " little as the fire doth, which cannot lay hold on " the light: But he entered into the fire, and is " expelled into the darkness, and hath neither fire " nor light, besides, without or distinct from his creature." [ Or his own creatureliness.] 38. Now in this quality king Lucifer hath prepared for himself the right hellish bath or lake. He dares not say that God hath framed or erected the hellish quality for him, but he himself hath done it: Moreover, he hath offended the Deity, and turned the powers of God into a hellish bath or lake, for his own eternal habitation. 39. For when he and all his angels had kindled in their bodies the qualifying or fountain spirit of the fire, then the unctuosness, marrow or fatness burnt in the sweet water, and the flash or terror, which riseth up fiercely in the birth of the light, became raging and tearing, burning and stinging, and a being or substance of a mere opposite or contrary will. 40. Here, in this quality, the life was turned into a sting of death; for through heat the bitter quality grew so fierce, stinging, raging and burning, as if the whole body were mere fiery stings; these did tear and rage in the astringent quality, as if one did thrust redhot bodkins through the body. 41. On the other side, the cold fire of the astringent quality was in a mad furious rage against the heat, and against the bitter venom or poison, like a great uproar or hurliburly; and now, furthermore, in the body of Lucifer there was nothing else but a murdering, rubbing, fretting, burning and stinging, a most horrible hellish fire.
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.
1especial loverestraint of God: When this also groweth weak, then is the end of this time. See Signatura Rerum, Ch. 10, par. 11. 27. But whether Lucifer hath done rightly, in that he hath awakened and stirred up the fierceness in the Salitter of God, whence this world is become stinging, venomous, thorny, rocky, envious and evil, false or wicked, let the attorneys, proctors, advocates and defenders of Lucifer answer, and plead and justify it if they can; if not, then this third bitter, stinging, venomous spirit shall be condemned also. Of the Fourth Kind, Species, Form or Manner of Sin's Beginning in Lucifer. 28. The fourth spirit of God is heat, which is generated between the bitter and the astringent qualities, and is conceived or bred in the sweet water, and is shining and giving light, and is the true fountain of life. 29. For in the sweet water it is very meek, from whence love existeth, and is only a loving warmth, but no fire. 30. Though indeed it be in the hidden kernel of the fire's quality or original, yet that fire is not kindled or burning, for it is generated in the sweet water. 31. Now where the water is there is no burning fire, but a pleasing warmth, and a gentle qualifying or vivifying; but if the water should be dried up, then there would be burning fire there. 32. Thus lord Lucifer thought also, that if he did but kindle his fire, then he might domineer forcibly in the divine power; for he thought it would have burnt eternally, and also have given light; his
2purpose was not to put out the light, but he would have it burn continually in the fire; he thought he would dry up the water, and then the light would move, stir or shine, in the burning fire. 33. But he knew not, that if he kindled the dried water, that the kernel, that is, the unctuosity, oil or heart of the water would be consumed, and that the light would turn into darkness, and the water turn into a sour stink. 34. For the oil or unctuosity in the water is generated through meekness or welldoing, and that is the unctuosity, oil, unction, marrow or fatness wherein the light becomes shining. But if the unctuosity be burnt up, then the water is turned into a sour stink, and moreover becometh very dark. 35. Thus it befell the pride of Lucifer: he triumphed a little while with his kindled light; but when his light was spent and burnt up, then he became a black devil. 36. But he supposed he would eternally reign thus in his burning light in the whole divine power, as a very terrible god, and so with his firespirit he wrestled with the Salitter of God, intending to kindle the whole circumference or extent of his kingdom. 37. And indeed he hath done somewhat, in that he hath set the divine power into a burning, which appeareth even in the sun and stars; also the fire in the Salitter in the elements is often kindled, so that it seemeth as if the deep were of a burning fire; of which I shall speak in another place. [" He stept back out of the meekness into the " anxious firewill, and fell into darkness. The " Reader is advertised that he must not under " stand in any place, as if the devil had kindled
3" or fired the light of God; no, but the forms of " nature only, out of which the light shineth. " For he hath not comprehended the light, as " little as the fire doth, which cannot lay hold on " the light: But he entered into the fire, and is " expelled into the darkness, and hath neither fire " nor light, besides, without or distinct from his creature." [ Or his own creatureliness.] 38. Now in this quality king Lucifer hath prepared for himself the right hellish bath or lake. He dares not say that God hath framed or erected the hellish quality for him, but he himself hath done it: Moreover, he hath offended the Deity, and turned the powers of God into a hellish bath or lake, for his own eternal habitation. 39. For when he and all his angels had kindled in their bodies the qualifying or fountain spirit of the fire, then the unctuosness, marrow or fatness burnt in the sweet water, and the flash or terror, which riseth up fiercely in the birth of the light, became raging and tearing, burning and stinging, and a being or substance of a mere opposite or contrary will. 40. Here, in this quality, the life was turned into a sting of death; for through heat the bitter quality grew so fierce, stinging, raging and burning, as if the whole body were mere fiery stings; these did tear and rage in the astringent quality, as if one did thrust redhot bodkins through the body. 41. On the other side, the cold fire of the astringent quality was in a mad furious rage against the heat, and against the bitter venom or poison, like a great uproar or hurliburly; and now, furthermore, in the body of Lucifer there was nothing else but a murdering, rubbing, fretting, burning and stinging, a most horrible hellish fire.
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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