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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.
1or fountain spirits; and the spirit or the heart, which the six spirits generate in the centre of the body, in which the light riseth up, and the animated or soulish spirit out of the light, which also qualifieth, uniteth or operateth with the Deity, without, distinct from the body, that signifieth the heart of God, out of which the Holy Ghost goeth forth. 18. And it was * also from or out of the heart of God, counited or mixed in the body of the angel in their first compacting or incorporating together; therefore the angel's government in the mind generateth itself as the Deity doth. * " And it was " = " And the soulish spirit was "; meaning, that there was, through the soulish spirit, an admixture of the heart of God incorporated in the body of the angels in the first compaction. 19. And as in the seventh naturespirit of God, which existeth out of the other six, there doth not stand the whole perfect knowledge of the other six spirits, for it cannot search or dive into their deep birth or geniture, in that they are its father, and generate it out of themselves. 20. So also the whole, full and perfect knowledge of God doth not stand in the angelical body, but in the spirit, which is generated in the heart, which goeth forth from the light, which qualifieth or operateth also with the heart and. spirit of God, wherein the whole, full and perfect knowledge of God standeth. But the body cannot apprehend that animated or soulish spirit; as also the seventh naturespirit comprehendeth not the deepest birth or geniture of God. 21. For when the seventh naturespirit is generated, then it is dried by the astringent quality, and is as it were staid and kept by
2its father, and cannot go back again into the deep, that is, into the centre of the heart, where the son is generated, and from whence the Holy Ghost goeth forth; but must hold still as a generated body, and must give way to the qualifying or fountain veins, that is, to the spirits, to qualify, work and labour therein as they please. 22. For it is the proper house and habitation of the six spirits, which they continually build according to their pleasure, or as a garden of delight into which the master of it soweth all manner of seeds, according to his pleasure, and then enjoyeth the fruit thereof. 23. Thus the other six spirits continually erect this garden of delight and pleasure, and sow their fruits thereinto, and feed upon it to strengthen their might and joy; and this is the garden in which the angels dwell, and walk up and down in, and wherein the heavenly fruit groweth. 24. But the wonderful proportion or variety of harmony, which appeareth in the growths or vegetations and figures and forms in this garden, ariseth from the qualification or operation, and from the loving, wrestling or struggling of the other spirits. 25. For that which is predominant or chief in the striving, imageth or formeth the growth and vegetation according to its kind, and the others always help to promote it; now the one, now the other, now the third, and so on. 26. Therefore also there arise so many diverse growths, vegetations and figures as are altogether unsearchable and incomprehensible to the bodily reason of the angels; but to the animated or
3soulish reason of the angels they are wholly, fully and perfectly comprehensible. 27. This is also wholly hidden as to my body, but not as to my animated or soulish spirit, for so long as my animated or soulish spirit qualifieth or worketh with and in God it comprehendeth the same; but when it falls into sin, then the door is shut against it, which the devil bolteth up fast, and which must, with great labour and industry of the spirit, be set open again. 28. I know very well that the wrath of the devil will mock and scoff in the hearts of many wicked men, at this revelation. For he is mightily ashamed because of this revelation; he hath also given my soul many a pang and crush for it; but I leave it to the direction of God, who will have it so; I cannot resist him, though my earthly body should go to wrack for it, yet my God will glorify me in my knowledge. 29. The glorification of this my knowledge I desire, and no other; for I know that when this my spirit in my new body, which I shall get at the day of my resurrection, out of this my now corrupted body, shall arise, that it will appear like the Deity, as also like the holy angels. 30. For the triumphing joyous light in my spirit sheweth it me sufficiently, in which I have also searched into the depth of the Deity, and described it rightly, according to my gifts and the impulse of the spirit, though in great feebleness and weakness, in that my original and actual sins have often bolted the door against me, and the devil hath danced before it, as a whorish woman, and rejoiced at my captivity and anguish; yet that will bring very little profit to his kingdom.
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.
1or fountain spirits; and the spirit or the heart, which the six spirits generate in the centre of the body, in which the light riseth up, and the animated or soulish spirit out of the light, which also qualifieth, uniteth or operateth with the Deity, without, distinct from the body, that signifieth the heart of God, out of which the Holy Ghost goeth forth. 18. And it was * also from or out of the heart of God, counited or mixed in the body of the angel in their first compacting or incorporating together; therefore the angel's government in the mind generateth itself as the Deity doth. * " And it was " = " And the soulish spirit was "; meaning, that there was, through the soulish spirit, an admixture of the heart of God incorporated in the body of the angels in the first compaction. 19. And as in the seventh naturespirit of God, which existeth out of the other six, there doth not stand the whole perfect knowledge of the other six spirits, for it cannot search or dive into their deep birth or geniture, in that they are its father, and generate it out of themselves. 20. So also the whole, full and perfect knowledge of God doth not stand in the angelical body, but in the spirit, which is generated in the heart, which goeth forth from the light, which qualifieth or operateth also with the heart and. spirit of God, wherein the whole, full and perfect knowledge of God standeth. But the body cannot apprehend that animated or soulish spirit; as also the seventh naturespirit comprehendeth not the deepest birth or geniture of God. 21. For when the seventh naturespirit is generated, then it is dried by the astringent quality, and is as it were staid and kept by
2its father, and cannot go back again into the deep, that is, into the centre of the heart, where the son is generated, and from whence the Holy Ghost goeth forth; but must hold still as a generated body, and must give way to the qualifying or fountain veins, that is, to the spirits, to qualify, work and labour therein as they please. 22. For it is the proper house and habitation of the six spirits, which they continually build according to their pleasure, or as a garden of delight into which the master of it soweth all manner of seeds, according to his pleasure, and then enjoyeth the fruit thereof. 23. Thus the other six spirits continually erect this garden of delight and pleasure, and sow their fruits thereinto, and feed upon it to strengthen their might and joy; and this is the garden in which the angels dwell, and walk up and down in, and wherein the heavenly fruit groweth. 24. But the wonderful proportion or variety of harmony, which appeareth in the growths or vegetations and figures and forms in this garden, ariseth from the qualification or operation, and from the loving, wrestling or struggling of the other spirits. 25. For that which is predominant or chief in the striving, imageth or formeth the growth and vegetation according to its kind, and the others always help to promote it; now the one, now the other, now the third, and so on. 26. Therefore also there arise so many diverse growths, vegetations and figures as are altogether unsearchable and incomprehensible to the bodily reason of the angels; but to the animated or
3soulish reason of the angels they are wholly, fully and perfectly comprehensible. 27. This is also wholly hidden as to my body, but not as to my animated or soulish spirit, for so long as my animated or soulish spirit qualifieth or worketh with and in God it comprehendeth the same; but when it falls into sin, then the door is shut against it, which the devil bolteth up fast, and which must, with great labour and industry of the spirit, be set open again. 28. I know very well that the wrath of the devil will mock and scoff in the hearts of many wicked men, at this revelation. For he is mightily ashamed because of this revelation; he hath also given my soul many a pang and crush for it; but I leave it to the direction of God, who will have it so; I cannot resist him, though my earthly body should go to wrack for it, yet my God will glorify me in my knowledge. 29. The glorification of this my knowledge I desire, and no other; for I know that when this my spirit in my new body, which I shall get at the day of my resurrection, out of this my now corrupted body, shall arise, that it will appear like the Deity, as also like the holy angels. 30. For the triumphing joyous light in my spirit sheweth it me sufficiently, in which I have also searched into the depth of the Deity, and described it rightly, according to my gifts and the impulse of the spirit, though in great feebleness and weakness, in that my original and actual sins have often bolted the door against me, and the devil hath danced before it, as a whorish woman, and rejoiced at my captivity and anguish; yet that will bring very little profit to his kingdom.
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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