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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.
143. They saw very well that the animated or soulish spirit qualified, mixed or operated with the heart of God; and thereupon they were resolved they would elevate and kindle themselves, hoping to be as bright, illustrious, deep and almighty as the deepest ground in the centre of the heart of God. 44. For they thought to elevate the natural body, (which was compacted together or incorporated out of the naturespirit of God), up into the hidden birth or geniture of God, that their seven qualifying or fountain spirits might thus be as high, and as allcomprehensible as the animated or soulish spirit. 45. And the animated or soulish spirit would triumph over the centre of the heart of God, and the heart of God should be subjected under it; and so the seven spirits of God would image, frame and form all, by their animated or soulish spirit. 46. And this high mind and selfwill was directly and wholly against the birth or geniture of God; for the body of the angels should abide and remain in its seat, and be nature, and, as a humble mother, hold still and be quiet, and should not have the omniscience, and own self rational comprehensibility of the heart, or of the deepest birth or geniture of the Holy Trinity; but the seven spirits should generate themselves in their natural body, as is done in God. 47. And their comprehensibility should not be in the hidden kernel, or in the innermost birth or geniture of God, but the animated or soulish spirit, which they generate in the centre of their heart, should qualify, mix or operate with the innermost birth or geniture of God, and help to form all figures, shapes and images, according to the pleasure, delight and will of the seven spirits,
2whereby, in the divine pomp, all might be but one heart and one will. 48. For the birth or geniture of God also is thus; the seventh naturespirit doth not reach back into its father, which generateth it, but holdeth still and is quiet as a body, and letteth the father's will, which is the other six spirits, to form and image in it how they please. 49. Neither doth any one spirit particularly and severally reach, with its corporeal being, after the heart of God, but includeth, closeth or joineth its will with the others, in the centre, to the birth or geniture of the heart, so that the heart and the seven spirits of God are one will. 50. For this is the law of the comprehensibility, that it doth not elevate itself up into the incomprehensibility; for the power which, in the centre or midst, is compacted together or incorporated out of all the seven spirits is incomprehensible and unsearchable, but not invisible; for it is not the power of one spirit alone, but of all seven. 51. Therefore one spirit in its own body, besides and distinct from its instanding or innate instant birth or geniture, cannot reach into the whole heart of God, and examine, try and search all; for, besides and distinct from its instanding birth or geniture, it comprehends only its own birth or geniture in the heart of God; but all the seven spirits, jointly together, comprehend the whole heart of God. ["So also in man. But understand it as to " the image of God, viz. in the soul's spirit; not " in the fiery essence of the soul, but in the " essence of the light, wherein the image of God " standeth."] 52. But in the instanding or innate birth or geniture of the spirits, where the one still
3generateth the other, there every spirit generateth all the seven spirits, but yet only in the rising flash of the life. 53. But the heart, when it is generated, is singular or distinct, viz. a peculiar person, and yet not separated from the spirits; but the spirits cannot transmute or change themselves, in their first birth or geniture, one into another. 54. Also the second cannot change itself into the third, which is the exit of the spirit; but every birth or geniture abideth in its seat; and yet all the births or genitures together are but the one only God. 55. But seeing the body of Lucifer, was created out of nature, [which is] the most outward birth or geniture, therefore it was unjustly done that he should elevate himself into the innermost and deepest, which he could not do in the divine right, but must only so elevate and kindle him self that thereby the qualifying or fountain spirits might be set or put into the sharpest penetrating and infecting. 56. I verily suppose, indeed, that thou, fair Necromancer, hath changed thyself to purpose; and mayest well also teach men thy black art, that they perhaps might also become such potent gods as thou art. 57. Ye blind and proud necromancers, jugglers and sorcerers, your art consisteth in your changing the elements of your body by your conjurations and instruments of the qualities or qualifying properties, which you make use of to that purpose, and ye think ye have right so to do; but is it not against the birth or geniture of God? If you think not, make that appear.
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.
143. They saw very well that the animated or soulish spirit qualified, mixed or operated with the heart of God; and thereupon they were resolved they would elevate and kindle themselves, hoping to be as bright, illustrious, deep and almighty as the deepest ground in the centre of the heart of God. 44. For they thought to elevate the natural body, (which was compacted together or incorporated out of the naturespirit of God), up into the hidden birth or geniture of God, that their seven qualifying or fountain spirits might thus be as high, and as allcomprehensible as the animated or soulish spirit. 45. And the animated or soulish spirit would triumph over the centre of the heart of God, and the heart of God should be subjected under it; and so the seven spirits of God would image, frame and form all, by their animated or soulish spirit. 46. And this high mind and selfwill was directly and wholly against the birth or geniture of God; for the body of the angels should abide and remain in its seat, and be nature, and, as a humble mother, hold still and be quiet, and should not have the omniscience, and own self rational comprehensibility of the heart, or of the deepest birth or geniture of the Holy Trinity; but the seven spirits should generate themselves in their natural body, as is done in God. 47. And their comprehensibility should not be in the hidden kernel, or in the innermost birth or geniture of God, but the animated or soulish spirit, which they generate in the centre of their heart, should qualify, mix or operate with the innermost birth or geniture of God, and help to form all figures, shapes and images, according to the pleasure, delight and will of the seven spirits,
2whereby, in the divine pomp, all might be but one heart and one will. 48. For the birth or geniture of God also is thus; the seventh naturespirit doth not reach back into its father, which generateth it, but holdeth still and is quiet as a body, and letteth the father's will, which is the other six spirits, to form and image in it how they please. 49. Neither doth any one spirit particularly and severally reach, with its corporeal being, after the heart of God, but includeth, closeth or joineth its will with the others, in the centre, to the birth or geniture of the heart, so that the heart and the seven spirits of God are one will. 50. For this is the law of the comprehensibility, that it doth not elevate itself up into the incomprehensibility; for the power which, in the centre or midst, is compacted together or incorporated out of all the seven spirits is incomprehensible and unsearchable, but not invisible; for it is not the power of one spirit alone, but of all seven. 51. Therefore one spirit in its own body, besides and distinct from its instanding or innate instant birth or geniture, cannot reach into the whole heart of God, and examine, try and search all; for, besides and distinct from its instanding birth or geniture, it comprehends only its own birth or geniture in the heart of God; but all the seven spirits, jointly together, comprehend the whole heart of God. ["So also in man. But understand it as to " the image of God, viz. in the soul's spirit; not " in the fiery essence of the soul, but in the " essence of the light, wherein the image of God " standeth."] 52. But in the instanding or innate birth or geniture of the spirits, where the one still
3generateth the other, there every spirit generateth all the seven spirits, but yet only in the rising flash of the life. 53. But the heart, when it is generated, is singular or distinct, viz. a peculiar person, and yet not separated from the spirits; but the spirits cannot transmute or change themselves, in their first birth or geniture, one into another. 54. Also the second cannot change itself into the third, which is the exit of the spirit; but every birth or geniture abideth in its seat; and yet all the births or genitures together are but the one only God. 55. But seeing the body of Lucifer, was created out of nature, [which is] the most outward birth or geniture, therefore it was unjustly done that he should elevate himself into the innermost and deepest, which he could not do in the divine right, but must only so elevate and kindle him self that thereby the qualifying or fountain spirits might be set or put into the sharpest penetrating and infecting. 56. I verily suppose, indeed, that thou, fair Necromancer, hath changed thyself to purpose; and mayest well also teach men thy black art, that they perhaps might also become such potent gods as thou art. 57. Ye blind and proud necromancers, jugglers and sorcerers, your art consisteth in your changing the elements of your body by your conjurations and instruments of the qualities or qualifying properties, which you make use of to that purpose, and ye think ye have right so to do; but is it not against the birth or geniture of God? If you think not, make that appear.
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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