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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.
1Sin's Beginning, in Lucifer and his Angels. 56. The fifth qualifying or fountain spirit in the divine power, is the gracious, amiable and blessed love, which is the very glance or aspect of meekness and humility, which is also generated in the flash of life. 57. For the flash, as a crack, penetrateth suddenly, whereby joy existeth, and then the stock of the kindled light in the sweet water abideth standing, and presseth gently through the fire after the flash, even into the astringent quality, and mitigateth the fire, and maketh the astringent quality beautifully mild and soft or subtle, which is also a birth or geniture of the water. 58. But when the fire tasteth the mild, sweet and pliant taste, then is it mitigated and formeth itself into a meek warmth, very lovingly, and there riseth up a very friendly life in the fire, and penetrateth the astringent quality with this pleasing, lovely, gentle warmth, and allayeth or stilleth the cold fire, and mollifieth or suppleth the hardness, attenuateth the thick, and maketh the dark to be light. 59. But when the bitter flash, together with the astringent quality and the firespirit, tasteth this meekness, there is nothing else then but a mere longing, desiring and replenishing, a very gentle, pleasant tasting, wrestling, kissing and lovebirth: For the severe births of all the qualifying or fountain spirits become, in this [inter]penetration very gentle, pleasant, humble and friendly, and the very Deity rightly subsisteth therein. 60. For in the first four qualifying or fountain spirits standeth the divine birth or geniture; therefore they must be very earnest and strong
2also, though they, too, have among them their meek mother, the sweet water; and in the fifth standeth the gracious, amiable and blessed love; and in the sixth the joy, and in the seventh the framing, imaging or comprehensibility. 61. Now, Lucifer! come on; with thy love; how hast thou behaved thyself? Is thy love also such a wellspring or fountain as this? We will now view that also, and examine what manner of loving angel thou art turned into. Observe: 62. If Lucifer had not elevated and kindled himself, then his fountain of love would be no other than that in God, for there was no other Salitter in him than there is in God. 63. But when he elevated himself, intending to rule the whole Deity with his animated or soulish spirit, then the stock and heart of light, which is the kernel, marrow or pith of love in the sweet water, became a fierce and hotly pursuing fire, source or quality, from whence in the whole body existed a very trembling, burning government and birth or geniture. 64. Now when the animated or soulish spirit was generated in this severe and astringent fire's birth, then it pressed very furiously forth from the body into nature, or the Salitter of God, and destroyed the gracious, amiable and blessed love in the Salitter; for it pressed very fiercely, furiously and in a fiery manner through all, as a raging tyrant, and supposed that itself alone was God; itself alone would govern with its sharpness. 65. From hence now existeth the great contrary opposite will and eternal enmity between God and Lucifer; for the power of God moveth
3very softly, meekly, pleasantly and friendly, so that its birth cannot be conceived of or apprehended, and the spirits of Lucifer move and tear very harshly, astringently, in a fiery manner, swiftly and furiously. 66. An example whereof you have in the kindled Salitter of the stars, which because of this kindled fierceness must roll with the vanity, even to the Last Judgment Day: then the fierceness will be separated from them, and be given to king Lucifer for an eternal house. 67. But that this is a great opposite, contrary will in God, needs no proof. But a man may think, in case such a fierce fire, source or quality should rise in his body, what an untowardness and contrary will he would have in him, and how often the whole body would be in a rage and fury. 68. Which indeed befalls those who lodge the devil within them; but so long as he is but a guest, he lieth still like a tame whelp; but when he becometh the host himself, the master of the house, then he stormeth and maketh havock in the house, as he did to the body of God. 69. Therefore it is that the wrathfire of God is yet in the body of God which is in this world, till the end, and many a creature is swallowed up and devoured in the wrathfire, of which much is to be written, but it is referred to its proper place. 70. But now, whether God himself hath created and kindled this enmity and fierce firesource in Lucifer, they are to plead for and justify who dispute for Predestination, Foreseeing, and the Election of Grace, and they are to prove it in nature, if they can; if not, then this corrupted firesource, which stands in the place or stead 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.
1Sin's Beginning, in Lucifer and his Angels. 56. The fifth qualifying or fountain spirit in the divine power, is the gracious, amiable and blessed love, which is the very glance or aspect of meekness and humility, which is also generated in the flash of life. 57. For the flash, as a crack, penetrateth suddenly, whereby joy existeth, and then the stock of the kindled light in the sweet water abideth standing, and presseth gently through the fire after the flash, even into the astringent quality, and mitigateth the fire, and maketh the astringent quality beautifully mild and soft or subtle, which is also a birth or geniture of the water. 58. But when the fire tasteth the mild, sweet and pliant taste, then is it mitigated and formeth itself into a meek warmth, very lovingly, and there riseth up a very friendly life in the fire, and penetrateth the astringent quality with this pleasing, lovely, gentle warmth, and allayeth or stilleth the cold fire, and mollifieth or suppleth the hardness, attenuateth the thick, and maketh the dark to be light. 59. But when the bitter flash, together with the astringent quality and the firespirit, tasteth this meekness, there is nothing else then but a mere longing, desiring and replenishing, a very gentle, pleasant tasting, wrestling, kissing and lovebirth: For the severe births of all the qualifying or fountain spirits become, in this [inter]penetration very gentle, pleasant, humble and friendly, and the very Deity rightly subsisteth therein. 60. For in the first four qualifying or fountain spirits standeth the divine birth or geniture; therefore they must be very earnest and strong
2also, though they, too, have among them their meek mother, the sweet water; and in the fifth standeth the gracious, amiable and blessed love; and in the sixth the joy, and in the seventh the framing, imaging or comprehensibility. 61. Now, Lucifer! come on; with thy love; how hast thou behaved thyself? Is thy love also such a wellspring or fountain as this? We will now view that also, and examine what manner of loving angel thou art turned into. Observe: 62. If Lucifer had not elevated and kindled himself, then his fountain of love would be no other than that in God, for there was no other Salitter in him than there is in God. 63. But when he elevated himself, intending to rule the whole Deity with his animated or soulish spirit, then the stock and heart of light, which is the kernel, marrow or pith of love in the sweet water, became a fierce and hotly pursuing fire, source or quality, from whence in the whole body existed a very trembling, burning government and birth or geniture. 64. Now when the animated or soulish spirit was generated in this severe and astringent fire's birth, then it pressed very furiously forth from the body into nature, or the Salitter of God, and destroyed the gracious, amiable and blessed love in the Salitter; for it pressed very fiercely, furiously and in a fiery manner through all, as a raging tyrant, and supposed that itself alone was God; itself alone would govern with its sharpness. 65. From hence now existeth the great contrary opposite will and eternal enmity between God and Lucifer; for the power of God moveth
3very softly, meekly, pleasantly and friendly, so that its birth cannot be conceived of or apprehended, and the spirits of Lucifer move and tear very harshly, astringently, in a fiery manner, swiftly and furiously. 66. An example whereof you have in the kindled Salitter of the stars, which because of this kindled fierceness must roll with the vanity, even to the Last Judgment Day: then the fierceness will be separated from them, and be given to king Lucifer for an eternal house. 67. But that this is a great opposite, contrary will in God, needs no proof. But a man may think, in case such a fierce fire, source or quality should rise in his body, what an untowardness and contrary will he would have in him, and how often the whole body would be in a rage and fury. 68. Which indeed befalls those who lodge the devil within them; but so long as he is but a guest, he lieth still like a tame whelp; but when he becometh the host himself, the master of the house, then he stormeth and maketh havock in the house, as he did to the body of God. 69. Therefore it is that the wrathfire of God is yet in the body of God which is in this world, till the end, and many a creature is swallowed up and devoured in the wrathfire, of which much is to be written, but it is referred to its proper place. 70. But now, whether God himself hath created and kindled this enmity and fierce firesource in Lucifer, they are to plead for and justify who dispute for Predestination, Foreseeing, and the Election of Grace, and they are to prove it in nature, if they can; if not, then this corrupted firesource, which stands in the place or stead 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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