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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.
142. This firespirit, and right devil's spirit, elevated itself now also in the centre of the heart, and would rule through the animated or soulish spirit, [ " Hereby is understood the spirit " of the will, out of the centre, which is generated " out of the genitrix, viz. out of the seven qualify " ing or fountain spirits, which is the image of " God,"] in the whole divine power, and kindle the whole Salitter of God as a new and potent God; and so the formings and heavenly imagings should rise up in a horrible fiery quality, and suffer themselves to be imaged and framed according to this fierceness. 43. Now when I write of the animated soulish spirit, then you must exactly know what it is, or how it is, else thou wilt read this birth or geniture [Or nativity] in vain, and it will happen to thee as it did to the wise Heathen, who climbed up to the very face or countenance of God, but could not see it. 44. The [soulish] spirit of the soul is very much more subtle, and more incomprehensible than the body, or the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, which hold, retain and form the body; for it goeth forth from the seven spirits, as God the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Son. 45. The seven qualifying or fountain spirits have their compacted or incorporated body out of nature, that is, out of the seventh naturespirit in the divine power; which in this book I call the Salitter of God, or the Comprehensibility, wherein the heavenly figures or shapes arise. 46. And that is a spirit, as all the rest of the seven spirits are, only the other six are an incomprehensible
2being therein; for the divine power generateth itself in the comprehensibility of the seventh naturespirit, as it were hidden or concealed, and incomprehensible to the creatures. 47. But the animated or soulish spirit generateth itself in the heart, out of or from the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, in that manner as the Son of God is generated, and keepeth its seat in the heart, and goeth forth from that seat in the divine power, as the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son; for it hath the same subtleness as the Holy Spirit of God, and it uniteth, qualifieth or operateth with God the Holy Ghost. 48. When the animated or soulish spirit goeth forth out of the body, then it is one thing with the hidden Deity, and is together the midst or centre in the imaging or framing of a thing in nature, as God the Holy Ghost himself is. 49. An example whereof you have in this: as when a carpenter will build a curious house or artificial piece of architecture, or when any other artist goeth about the making of some artificial work, the hands, which signify nature, cannot be the first that begin the work: but the seven spirits are the first workmasters about it, and the animated or soulish spirit sheweth to the seven spirits the form, figure or shape of it. 50. Then the seven spirits image or frame it, and make it comprehensible, and then the hands first begin to fall to work, to make the structure according to the image or frame contrived: For a work must be first brought to the sense, before you can make it. 51. For the soul comprehendeth the highest sense, it beholdeth what God its Father acteth or maketh, also it cooperateth in the heavenly
3imaging or framing: and therefore it maketh a description,* draught, platform or model for the naturespirits, shewing how a thing should be imaged or framed. * " it maketh a description," etc., lit., " it draweth [round] a model," etc. 52. According to this delineation or prefiguration of the soul, all things in this world are made; for the corrupted soul worketh or endeavoureth continually to bring forth or frame heavenly forms, but cannot bring that to effect, for the materials for its work are only the earthly corrupted Salitter, even a halfdead nature, wherein it cannot image or frame heavenly ideas, shapes or figures. 53. By this you may understand what great power the spirits of the expelled angels have had in the heavenly nature; and of what manner of substance this perdition or corruption is; how in their place they have corrupted and spoiled nature in heaven with their horrible kindling, from whence the horrible fierceness which is predominant in this world exists. 54. For the kindled nature burneth still continually until the Last Judgment Day, and this kindled fire, source or quality, is an eternal enmity against God. 55. But yet whether this kindled firespirit hath right therein, and whether God himself hath kindled it, from whence the wrathfire existed, let the Electionists or Predestinarians, or those that dispute so about Election, justify it, and prove it in nature, if they can; if not, then this firespirit is to be condemned also. Of the Fifth Kind, Species, Form or Manner of
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.
142. This firespirit, and right devil's spirit, elevated itself now also in the centre of the heart, and would rule through the animated or soulish spirit, [ " Hereby is understood the spirit " of the will, out of the centre, which is generated " out of the genitrix, viz. out of the seven qualify " ing or fountain spirits, which is the image of " God,"] in the whole divine power, and kindle the whole Salitter of God as a new and potent God; and so the formings and heavenly imagings should rise up in a horrible fiery quality, and suffer themselves to be imaged and framed according to this fierceness. 43. Now when I write of the animated soulish spirit, then you must exactly know what it is, or how it is, else thou wilt read this birth or geniture [Or nativity] in vain, and it will happen to thee as it did to the wise Heathen, who climbed up to the very face or countenance of God, but could not see it. 44. The [soulish] spirit of the soul is very much more subtle, and more incomprehensible than the body, or the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, which hold, retain and form the body; for it goeth forth from the seven spirits, as God the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Son. 45. The seven qualifying or fountain spirits have their compacted or incorporated body out of nature, that is, out of the seventh naturespirit in the divine power; which in this book I call the Salitter of God, or the Comprehensibility, wherein the heavenly figures or shapes arise. 46. And that is a spirit, as all the rest of the seven spirits are, only the other six are an incomprehensible
2being therein; for the divine power generateth itself in the comprehensibility of the seventh naturespirit, as it were hidden or concealed, and incomprehensible to the creatures. 47. But the animated or soulish spirit generateth itself in the heart, out of or from the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, in that manner as the Son of God is generated, and keepeth its seat in the heart, and goeth forth from that seat in the divine power, as the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son; for it hath the same subtleness as the Holy Spirit of God, and it uniteth, qualifieth or operateth with God the Holy Ghost. 48. When the animated or soulish spirit goeth forth out of the body, then it is one thing with the hidden Deity, and is together the midst or centre in the imaging or framing of a thing in nature, as God the Holy Ghost himself is. 49. An example whereof you have in this: as when a carpenter will build a curious house or artificial piece of architecture, or when any other artist goeth about the making of some artificial work, the hands, which signify nature, cannot be the first that begin the work: but the seven spirits are the first workmasters about it, and the animated or soulish spirit sheweth to the seven spirits the form, figure or shape of it. 50. Then the seven spirits image or frame it, and make it comprehensible, and then the hands first begin to fall to work, to make the structure according to the image or frame contrived: For a work must be first brought to the sense, before you can make it. 51. For the soul comprehendeth the highest sense, it beholdeth what God its Father acteth or maketh, also it cooperateth in the heavenly
3imaging or framing: and therefore it maketh a description,* draught, platform or model for the naturespirits, shewing how a thing should be imaged or framed. * " it maketh a description," etc., lit., " it draweth [round] a model," etc. 52. According to this delineation or prefiguration of the soul, all things in this world are made; for the corrupted soul worketh or endeavoureth continually to bring forth or frame heavenly forms, but cannot bring that to effect, for the materials for its work are only the earthly corrupted Salitter, even a halfdead nature, wherein it cannot image or frame heavenly ideas, shapes or figures. 53. By this you may understand what great power the spirits of the expelled angels have had in the heavenly nature; and of what manner of substance this perdition or corruption is; how in their place they have corrupted and spoiled nature in heaven with their horrible kindling, from whence the horrible fierceness which is predominant in this world exists. 54. For the kindled nature burneth still continually until the Last Judgment Day, and this kindled fire, source or quality, is an eternal enmity against God. 55. But yet whether this kindled firespirit hath right therein, and whether God himself hath kindled it, from whence the wrathfire existed, let the Electionists or Predestinarians, or those that dispute so about Election, justify it, and prove it in nature, if they can; if not, then this firespirit is to be condemned also. Of the Fifth Kind, Species, Form or Manner of
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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