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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.
1till the Last Judgment Day, which is at hand, and very near to be expected. 89. But Lucifer hath kindled his qualifying or fountain spirits even in the innermost birth or geniture, and now his qualifying or fountain spirits generate an animated or soulish devil's spirit, which is an eternal enemy of God. 90. For when God was angry in his outermost birth or geniture in nature, then it was not his purposed determinate will to be kindled, neither hath he effected that kindling; but he hath drawn the Salitter together, and thereby hath prepared an eternal lodging for the devil. 91. For the devil cannot be expelled quite out, away, beyond God, into another kingdom of angels; but a place must be reserved to him for a habitation. 92. Neither would God presently give him the kindled Salitter for an eternal habitation, for the internal birth or geniture of the spirits stood yet hidden therein. 93. For God intended to do somewhat else with it, and so king Lucifer would be kept a prisoner till another angelical host or army, out of the same Salitter, should come in his stead, which are men. 94. Now come on, ye advocates [or justifiers] of Lucifer, maintain the cause of your king now, and shew whether he hath done right in kindling of the wrathfire in nature; if not, then he must bum therein eternally, and your lies against the truth must burn with him. 95. These are the seven kinds, species, forms or manners of sin's beginning, and eternal enmity against God.
2Now followeth briefly concerning the four new little sons of Lucifer, which he hath generated in himself in his corporeal regimen, for which he was expelled from his place, and is become the most horrible devil. Of the First Son, Pride. Now it may be asked, What moved Lucifer to this, that he would needs be above God? Answer. 96. Here thou must know, that without, distinct from himself, he had no impulse at all to his pride, but his beauty and brightness deceived him. When he saw that he was the fairest and most beautiful prince in heaven, then he despised the friendly qualifying, mixing, operating and generating of the Deity, and thought with himself that he would rule with his princely power in the whole Deity; all must stoop and bow to him. 97. But when he found that he could not effect it, then he kindled himself, intending to do it some other way; and so then the Son of Light became a Son of Darkness; for he himself consumed the power of his sweet water, and made it to be a sour stink. Of the Second Son, Covetousness. [Avarice] 98. The second will was covetousness, which grew out of pride, for Lucifer thought with himself that he would reign over all kingdoms, as a sole god; all should bow to him, he would form and frame all with his own power; and besides, also his beauty so deceived him that he thought he would have all in his sole possession. 99. This modern world would do well to
3speculate on this pride and covetousness, and to consider how it is an enmity against God; and that thereby they go headlong to the devil, and there must have their jaws and throats open eternally to rob and devour, and yet find nothing but hellish abomination. Of the Third Son, Envy. [Spite] 100. This son is the very gout [Podagra] of this world; for it taketh its original in the flash of pride and covetousness, and standeth on the root of life as pricking and bitter gall. 101. This spirit also came at first from pride, for pride thought and said to itself, Surely thou art beautiful, and mighty potent; and covetousness thought and said to itself, All must be thine; and envy thought and said to itself, All which is not obedient unto thee thou must kill with thy stinging; and thus it stung at the other gates of angels. But all was in vain, for its power and might reached no farther than the extent of the place out of which it was created. Of the Fourth Son, Wrath. [anger] 102. This son is the very burning hellish fire, and taketh its original also from pride. For when Lucifer with his antagonistic envy could not fill his pride and covetousness, then he kindled the wrathfire in himself, and roared therewith into God's nature, as a fierce lion, and from whence then arose the wrath of God and all evil. 103. Of which much were to be written, but [in the present book] you will find it more apprehensibly at the place concerning the
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.
1till the Last Judgment Day, which is at hand, and very near to be expected. 89. But Lucifer hath kindled his qualifying or fountain spirits even in the innermost birth or geniture, and now his qualifying or fountain spirits generate an animated or soulish devil's spirit, which is an eternal enemy of God. 90. For when God was angry in his outermost birth or geniture in nature, then it was not his purposed determinate will to be kindled, neither hath he effected that kindling; but he hath drawn the Salitter together, and thereby hath prepared an eternal lodging for the devil. 91. For the devil cannot be expelled quite out, away, beyond God, into another kingdom of angels; but a place must be reserved to him for a habitation. 92. Neither would God presently give him the kindled Salitter for an eternal habitation, for the internal birth or geniture of the spirits stood yet hidden therein. 93. For God intended to do somewhat else with it, and so king Lucifer would be kept a prisoner till another angelical host or army, out of the same Salitter, should come in his stead, which are men. 94. Now come on, ye advocates [or justifiers] of Lucifer, maintain the cause of your king now, and shew whether he hath done right in kindling of the wrathfire in nature; if not, then he must bum therein eternally, and your lies against the truth must burn with him. 95. These are the seven kinds, species, forms or manners of sin's beginning, and eternal enmity against God.
2Now followeth briefly concerning the four new little sons of Lucifer, which he hath generated in himself in his corporeal regimen, for which he was expelled from his place, and is become the most horrible devil. Of the First Son, Pride. Now it may be asked, What moved Lucifer to this, that he would needs be above God? Answer. 96. Here thou must know, that without, distinct from himself, he had no impulse at all to his pride, but his beauty and brightness deceived him. When he saw that he was the fairest and most beautiful prince in heaven, then he despised the friendly qualifying, mixing, operating and generating of the Deity, and thought with himself that he would rule with his princely power in the whole Deity; all must stoop and bow to him. 97. But when he found that he could not effect it, then he kindled himself, intending to do it some other way; and so then the Son of Light became a Son of Darkness; for he himself consumed the power of his sweet water, and made it to be a sour stink. Of the Second Son, Covetousness. [Avarice] 98. The second will was covetousness, which grew out of pride, for Lucifer thought with himself that he would reign over all kingdoms, as a sole god; all should bow to him, he would form and frame all with his own power; and besides, also his beauty so deceived him that he thought he would have all in his sole possession. 99. This modern world would do well to
3speculate on this pride and covetousness, and to consider how it is an enmity against God; and that thereby they go headlong to the devil, and there must have their jaws and throats open eternally to rob and devour, and yet find nothing but hellish abomination. Of the Third Son, Envy. [Spite] 100. This son is the very gout [Podagra] of this world; for it taketh its original in the flash of pride and covetousness, and standeth on the root of life as pricking and bitter gall. 101. This spirit also came at first from pride, for pride thought and said to itself, Surely thou art beautiful, and mighty potent; and covetousness thought and said to itself, All must be thine; and envy thought and said to itself, All which is not obedient unto thee thou must kill with thy stinging; and thus it stung at the other gates of angels. But all was in vain, for its power and might reached no farther than the extent of the place out of which it was created. Of the Fourth Son, Wrath. [anger] 102. This son is the very burning hellish fire, and taketh its original also from pride. For when Lucifer with his antagonistic envy could not fill his pride and covetousness, then he kindled the wrathfire in himself, and roared therewith into God's nature, as a fierce lion, and from whence then arose the wrath of God and all evil. 103. Of which much were to be written, but [in the present book] you will find it more apprehensibly at the place concerning the
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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