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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.
1joy, but in the anxious birth or geniture, perplexity and trouble. 87. For what I did hereupon undergo, suffer and endure from the devil and the hellish quality, which as well doth rule in my outward man as in all men whatsoever, this thou canst not apprehend, unless thou also dancest in this round. 88. Had not our philosophers and doctors always played upon the fiddle of pride, but had played on the musical instrument of the prophets and apostles, there would have been far another knowledge and philosophy in the world. 89. Concerning which, in regard of my imbecility, want of literature or learning and study, as also the slowness and dulness of my tongue, I am very insufficient, but not so simple in the knowledge. Only I cannot deliver it in profound language, and in the ornament of eloquence, but I rest contented with my gift I have received, and am a philosopher among the simple. Concerning the Creation of the Light in this World. 90. Here shut the eyes of thy flesh a little, for here they will profit thee nothing, seeing they are blind and dead, and open the eyes of thy spirit, and then I will rightly shew thee the creation of God. Observe: 91. When God had driven the corrupted Salitter of earth and stones, (which had generated itself in the outermost birth by the kindling), together on a heap as in a lump, then, for that cause, the third birth or geniture in nature in the deep, above the earth, was not pure and
2bright, because the wrath of God did yet burn therein. 92. And though the innermost birth or geniture was light and bright, yet the outermost, which stood in the wrathfire, could not comprehend it, but was altogether dark. 93. For Moses writeth, Und es war Finster auf der Tieffe. And it was dark on the deep. The word (auf) on, signifieth the outermost birth or geniture, and the word (in) signifieth the innermost birth or geniture. 94. But if the innermost birth had been dark, then the wrath of God had rested in this world eternally, and it would never have been light; but the wrath hath not thus touched or reached the heart of God. 95. Therefore he is a sweet, friendly, bounteous, good, meek, pure and merciful God, according to his heart in the innermost birth or geniture in the place of this world, and still continues so to be; and his meek love presseth forth from his heart into the outermost birth or geniture of the wrath, and quencheth the same, and therefore Sprach Er, He said, Es werde Licht, Let there be light. Here observe the sense in the highest depth. 96. The word (Sprach) or said, is spoken after the manner of men: Ye philosophers, open your eyes. I will, in my simplicity, teach you the Sprach Gottes, the speech, speaking or language of God, as indeed it must be.* * "as indeed it must be." St M. has, "as indeed it ought
3to be." 97. The word (Sprach)) conceiveth itself between the teeth, for they bite or join close together, and the spirit hisseth forth through the teeth, and the tongue boweth or bendeth in the middle, and setteth its forepoint, as if it did listen after the hissing, and was afraid. 98. But when the spirit conceiveth the word, that shuts the mouth, and conceiveth it at the hinder gums upon the tongue in the hole or hollowness, in the bitter and astringent quality. 99. There the tongue is terrified, trembleth and croucheth to the nether gums, and then the spirit cometh forth from the heart, and closeth the word, which conceiveth itself at the hinder gums, in the astringent and bitter quality, in the wrath, and goeth forth mightily and strongly through the fierceness, as a king and a prince, and also openeth the mouth, and ruleth with a strong spirit from the heart through the whole mouth within, and also without the mouth, and maketh a mighty and long syllable, as a spirit which hath broken the wrath. 100. Against which the wrath, with its snarling in the astringent and bitter quality, at the hinder gums in the hollow on the tongue, struggleth, and keeps its right to itself, and keepeth its seat in its place, and lets the meek spirit come forth from the heart, through itself [the wrath], and thundereth with its [the wrath's] snarling after the meek spirit, and so helps to form or frame the word, yet with its thundering cannot get away from its seat, but abideth in its hollow hole, as a captive prisoner, and appears terrible. This is a great Mystery.
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.
1joy, but in the anxious birth or geniture, perplexity and trouble. 87. For what I did hereupon undergo, suffer and endure from the devil and the hellish quality, which as well doth rule in my outward man as in all men whatsoever, this thou canst not apprehend, unless thou also dancest in this round. 88. Had not our philosophers and doctors always played upon the fiddle of pride, but had played on the musical instrument of the prophets and apostles, there would have been far another knowledge and philosophy in the world. 89. Concerning which, in regard of my imbecility, want of literature or learning and study, as also the slowness and dulness of my tongue, I am very insufficient, but not so simple in the knowledge. Only I cannot deliver it in profound language, and in the ornament of eloquence, but I rest contented with my gift I have received, and am a philosopher among the simple. Concerning the Creation of the Light in this World. 90. Here shut the eyes of thy flesh a little, for here they will profit thee nothing, seeing they are blind and dead, and open the eyes of thy spirit, and then I will rightly shew thee the creation of God. Observe: 91. When God had driven the corrupted Salitter of earth and stones, (which had generated itself in the outermost birth by the kindling), together on a heap as in a lump, then, for that cause, the third birth or geniture in nature in the deep, above the earth, was not pure and
2bright, because the wrath of God did yet burn therein. 92. And though the innermost birth or geniture was light and bright, yet the outermost, which stood in the wrathfire, could not comprehend it, but was altogether dark. 93. For Moses writeth, Und es war Finster auf der Tieffe. And it was dark on the deep. The word (auf) on, signifieth the outermost birth or geniture, and the word (in) signifieth the innermost birth or geniture. 94. But if the innermost birth had been dark, then the wrath of God had rested in this world eternally, and it would never have been light; but the wrath hath not thus touched or reached the heart of God. 95. Therefore he is a sweet, friendly, bounteous, good, meek, pure and merciful God, according to his heart in the innermost birth or geniture in the place of this world, and still continues so to be; and his meek love presseth forth from his heart into the outermost birth or geniture of the wrath, and quencheth the same, and therefore Sprach Er, He said, Es werde Licht, Let there be light. Here observe the sense in the highest depth. 96. The word (Sprach) or said, is spoken after the manner of men: Ye philosophers, open your eyes. I will, in my simplicity, teach you the Sprach Gottes, the speech, speaking or language of God, as indeed it must be.* * "as indeed it must be." St M. has, "as indeed it ought
3to be." 97. The word (Sprach)) conceiveth itself between the teeth, for they bite or join close together, and the spirit hisseth forth through the teeth, and the tongue boweth or bendeth in the middle, and setteth its forepoint, as if it did listen after the hissing, and was afraid. 98. But when the spirit conceiveth the word, that shuts the mouth, and conceiveth it at the hinder gums upon the tongue in the hole or hollowness, in the bitter and astringent quality. 99. There the tongue is terrified, trembleth and croucheth to the nether gums, and then the spirit cometh forth from the heart, and closeth the word, which conceiveth itself at the hinder gums, in the astringent and bitter quality, in the wrath, and goeth forth mightily and strongly through the fierceness, as a king and a prince, and also openeth the mouth, and ruleth with a strong spirit from the heart through the whole mouth within, and also without the mouth, and maketh a mighty and long syllable, as a spirit which hath broken the wrath. 100. Against which the wrath, with its snarling in the astringent and bitter quality, at the hinder gums in the hollow on the tongue, struggleth, and keeps its right to itself, and keepeth its seat in its place, and lets the meek spirit come forth from the heart, through itself [the wrath], and thundereth with its [the wrath's] snarling after the meek spirit, and so helps to form or frame the word, yet with its thundering cannot get away from its seat, but abideth in its hollow hole, as a captive prisoner, and appears terrible. This is a great Mystery.
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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