Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
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.
1The depth! 21. Behold, the first, innermost and deepest birth or geniture standeth in the centre, and is the heart of the Deity, which is generated by the qualifying or fountain spirits of God; and this birth or geniture is the light, which yet, though it be generated out of the qualifying or fountain spirits, no qualifying or fountain spirit of itself alone can comprehend, but every qualifying or fountain spirit comprehendeth only its own instanding, innate place or seat in the light; but all the seven spirits jointly together comprehend the whole light, for they are the father of the light. 22. Thus also the qualifying or fountain spirits of man do not wholly comprehend the innermost birth or geniture of the Deity, which standeth in the light; but every qualifying or fountain spirit reacheth, with its animated or soulish birth or geniture, into the heart of God, and uniteth, qualifieth or mixeth therewith in that place. 23. And that is the hidden birth or geniture in nature, which no man by his own reason, wit or capacity can comprehend; but the soul of that man alone who standeth in the light of God comprehends it, and no other. The Second Birth or Geniture in Nature, are the seven Spirits of Nature. 24. This birth or geniture is more intelligible and comprehensible, but yet also only to the children of this Mystery. The ploughman doth not understand it; though he seeth, smelleth, tasteth, heareth and feeleth it, yet he but looks on it, and knoweth not how the being thereof is. [" By this is meant or understood the corrupt " reason in its own wit, ingenuity or capacity, " without the spirit of God. The doctor, as well
2" as the ploughman, is here meant, the one is as " blind as the other concerning the Deity; and " sometimes the peasant or ploughman exceeds " the doctor in knowledge, if the peasant cleaves " close to God."] 25. Now these are the spirits wherein all things stand, both in heaven and in this world, and from these the third and outermost spirit is generated, wherein corruptibility standeth. 26. But this [third] spirit, or this birth hath seven kinds or species, viz. the astringent, the sweet, the bitter, the hot: these four generate the comprehensibility in the third birth or geniture. 27. The fifth spirit is the love, which existeth from the light of the life, which generateth sensibility and reason. 28. The sixth spirit is the tone, which generateth the sound and joy, and is the spring or source rising up through all the spirits. 29. In these six spirits now standeth the spirit of life, and the will or reason and thoughts of all the creatures; and all arts, inventions, formings and imagings of all that which standeth in the spirit in the incomprehensibility. 30. The seventh spirit is nature, in which standeth the corporeal being of all six spirits, for the six spirits generate the seventh. In this spirit standeth the corporeal being of angels, devils, and men, and it is the mother of all the six spirits, in which they generate themselves, and in which they also generate the light, which is the heart of God.
3Of the Third Birth or Geniture. 31. Now the third birth or geniture is the comprehensibility or palpability of nature, which (before the time of God's wrath) was rarified and transparent, lovely, pleasant and bright, so that the qualifying or fountain spirits could see through and through all. 32. There was neither stone nor earth therein, neither had it [the third birth or geniture] need of any such created or contracted light as now; but the light generated itself everywhere in the centre, and all stood in the light. 33. But when king Lucifer was created, then he excited or awakened the wrath of God in this third birth or geniture; for the bodies of the angels came to be creatures in this third birth. 34. Now then, seeing the devils kindled their own bodies, intending thereby to domineer over the whole Deity, therefore the creator also, in his wrath, kindled this third spirit, or this third birth or geniture in nature, and imprisoned the devil therein, and made an eternal lodging therein for him, that he might not be higher than the whole God. [" Understand, in the outward sources or " qualities; for the outermost of all, is also the " innermost of all."] 35. But seeing the devils kindled themselves out of pride, wantonness and wickedness; therefore they were quite thrust out from the birth or geniture of the light; and they can neither lay hold of nor comprehend it eternally. 36. For the light of their heart, which qualified, mixed or united with the heart of God, they themselves have extinguished, and instead thereof
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.
1The depth! 21. Behold, the first, innermost and deepest birth or geniture standeth in the centre, and is the heart of the Deity, which is generated by the qualifying or fountain spirits of God; and this birth or geniture is the light, which yet, though it be generated out of the qualifying or fountain spirits, no qualifying or fountain spirit of itself alone can comprehend, but every qualifying or fountain spirit comprehendeth only its own instanding, innate place or seat in the light; but all the seven spirits jointly together comprehend the whole light, for they are the father of the light. 22. Thus also the qualifying or fountain spirits of man do not wholly comprehend the innermost birth or geniture of the Deity, which standeth in the light; but every qualifying or fountain spirit reacheth, with its animated or soulish birth or geniture, into the heart of God, and uniteth, qualifieth or mixeth therewith in that place. 23. And that is the hidden birth or geniture in nature, which no man by his own reason, wit or capacity can comprehend; but the soul of that man alone who standeth in the light of God comprehends it, and no other. The Second Birth or Geniture in Nature, are the seven Spirits of Nature. 24. This birth or geniture is more intelligible and comprehensible, but yet also only to the children of this Mystery. The ploughman doth not understand it; though he seeth, smelleth, tasteth, heareth and feeleth it, yet he but looks on it, and knoweth not how the being thereof is. [" By this is meant or understood the corrupt " reason in its own wit, ingenuity or capacity, " without the spirit of God. The doctor, as well
2" as the ploughman, is here meant, the one is as " blind as the other concerning the Deity; and " sometimes the peasant or ploughman exceeds " the doctor in knowledge, if the peasant cleaves " close to God."] 25. Now these are the spirits wherein all things stand, both in heaven and in this world, and from these the third and outermost spirit is generated, wherein corruptibility standeth. 26. But this [third] spirit, or this birth hath seven kinds or species, viz. the astringent, the sweet, the bitter, the hot: these four generate the comprehensibility in the third birth or geniture. 27. The fifth spirit is the love, which existeth from the light of the life, which generateth sensibility and reason. 28. The sixth spirit is the tone, which generateth the sound and joy, and is the spring or source rising up through all the spirits. 29. In these six spirits now standeth the spirit of life, and the will or reason and thoughts of all the creatures; and all arts, inventions, formings and imagings of all that which standeth in the spirit in the incomprehensibility. 30. The seventh spirit is nature, in which standeth the corporeal being of all six spirits, for the six spirits generate the seventh. In this spirit standeth the corporeal being of angels, devils, and men, and it is the mother of all the six spirits, in which they generate themselves, and in which they also generate the light, which is the heart of God.
3Of the Third Birth or Geniture. 31. Now the third birth or geniture is the comprehensibility or palpability of nature, which (before the time of God's wrath) was rarified and transparent, lovely, pleasant and bright, so that the qualifying or fountain spirits could see through and through all. 32. There was neither stone nor earth therein, neither had it [the third birth or geniture] need of any such created or contracted light as now; but the light generated itself everywhere in the centre, and all stood in the light. 33. But when king Lucifer was created, then he excited or awakened the wrath of God in this third birth or geniture; for the bodies of the angels came to be creatures in this third birth. 34. Now then, seeing the devils kindled their own bodies, intending thereby to domineer over the whole Deity, therefore the creator also, in his wrath, kindled this third spirit, or this third birth or geniture in nature, and imprisoned the devil therein, and made an eternal lodging therein for him, that he might not be higher than the whole God. [" Understand, in the outward sources or " qualities; for the outermost of all, is also the " innermost of all."] 35. But seeing the devils kindled themselves out of pride, wantonness and wickedness; therefore they were quite thrust out from the birth or geniture of the light; and they can neither lay hold of nor comprehend it eternally. 36. For the light of their heart, which qualified, mixed or united with the heart of God, they themselves have extinguished, and instead thereof
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.
No commentary for this page.