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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.
1101. Here observe the sense and meaning; if thou apprehendest it, then thou understandest the Deity aright, if not, then thou art yet blind in the spirit. 102. Judge not, else here thou runnest counter against a strong gate, and wilt be imprisoned; if the wrathfire catcheth thee, then thou wilt remain eternally therein. 103. Thou child of man, behold now, how great a gate of heaven, of hell, and of the earth, as also of the whole Deity, the spirit openeth to thee. 104. Thou shouldst not think that God at that time did speak in that way as men do, and that it is but a weak, impotent word, like man's word. 105. Indeed man's word conceiveth itself just in such a form, manner, proportion, quality and correspondency; only the halfdead man doth not understand it: This understanding is very noble, dear and precious, for it is generated only in the knowledge of the Holy Ghost. 106. But God's word, which he spake then in power, hath encompassed heaven and earth, and the heaven of heavens; yea, and the whole Deity also. 107. But it frameth and conceiveth itself first between the teeth closed or clapped together, and hisseth, which signifieth that the Holy Ghost at the beginning of the creation went through the firmly closed wall of the third and outermost birth or geniture, which standeth in the wrath fire in this world. 108. For it is written, And it was dark on the deep, and the spirit of God moved on the water. The deep signifieth the innermost birth or
2geniture; and the darkness signifieth the outermost corrupt birth or geniture, in which the wrath burned. The water signifieth the allaying or mitigation of the spirit. 109. But that the spirit doth hiss through the teeth signifieth that the spirit is gone forth from the heart of God through the wrath; but that the teeth remain closed together, whilst the spirit hisseth, and do not open themselves, signifieth that the wrath hath not comprehended or reached the Holy Ghost. 110. But that the tongue doth crouch towards the nether gums, and is sharp at the point, and will not be used about the hissing, signifieth that the outward birth or geniture, together with all the creatures which are therein, cannot comprehend or reach to apprehend the Holy Spirit, which goeth forth out of the innermost birth or geniture out from the heart of God, neither can they hinder him by their power. 111. For he goeth and penetrateth through all shut or closed doors, closets and births, and needs no opening of them; as the teeth cannot stay or hinder the spirit or breath from going or passing through them. 112. But that the lips stand open, when it is come hissing through the teeth, signifieth that he [The Holy Ghost] with his going forth out of the heart of God, in the creation of this world, hath opened again the gates of heaven, and is gone through the gates of God's wrath, and hath left the wrath of God strongly shut and bolted up, and hath left the devil his eternal kindled wrathhouse close locked up, out of which he cannot come eternally.
3113. It further signifieth that the Holy Ghost in like manner hath an open gate in the wrathhouse of this world, where he may drive and perform his work, incomprehensibly as to the gates of hell, and where he gathereth or congregateth a holy seed to his eternal praise, against or without the will of the strong, fast, hellish gates, and altogether incomprehensibly as to them. 114. But in the same way as the spirit effecteth his going forth, and his conceived or intended will, through the teeth, and yet the teeth do not stir, nor can they comprehend the will of the spirit, so the Holy Ghost also, without the apprehension or comprehension, either of the devil or of the wrath of God, buildeth or erecteth continually a holy seed or temple in the house of this world. 115. But that the whole word (Sprach) said, formeth or conceiveth itself at the hinder gums on the tongue in the hollow hole in the centre of the astringent and bitter quality, and snarleth, signifieth that God hath conceived or framed the place of this world at the heart in the midst or centre of it, and hath built to himself again a house to his praise, against all the grumbling, murmuring and snarling of the devil, in which he ruleth with his Holy Ghost. 116. And in the same way as the spirit goeth forth from the heart through the grumbling, murmuring and snarling of the bitter and astringent quality, very strongly and powerfully, and with its going forth ruleth in the astringent and bitter quality, incomprehensibly as to the astrin gent and bitter quality, as a potent king, so also the spirit of God ruleth in the outermost birth or geniture of this world (in the wrathhouse) mightily, and generateth to himself a temple therein, incomprehensibly to the wrathhouse.
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.
1101. Here observe the sense and meaning; if thou apprehendest it, then thou understandest the Deity aright, if not, then thou art yet blind in the spirit. 102. Judge not, else here thou runnest counter against a strong gate, and wilt be imprisoned; if the wrathfire catcheth thee, then thou wilt remain eternally therein. 103. Thou child of man, behold now, how great a gate of heaven, of hell, and of the earth, as also of the whole Deity, the spirit openeth to thee. 104. Thou shouldst not think that God at that time did speak in that way as men do, and that it is but a weak, impotent word, like man's word. 105. Indeed man's word conceiveth itself just in such a form, manner, proportion, quality and correspondency; only the halfdead man doth not understand it: This understanding is very noble, dear and precious, for it is generated only in the knowledge of the Holy Ghost. 106. But God's word, which he spake then in power, hath encompassed heaven and earth, and the heaven of heavens; yea, and the whole Deity also. 107. But it frameth and conceiveth itself first between the teeth closed or clapped together, and hisseth, which signifieth that the Holy Ghost at the beginning of the creation went through the firmly closed wall of the third and outermost birth or geniture, which standeth in the wrath fire in this world. 108. For it is written, And it was dark on the deep, and the spirit of God moved on the water. The deep signifieth the innermost birth or
2geniture; and the darkness signifieth the outermost corrupt birth or geniture, in which the wrath burned. The water signifieth the allaying or mitigation of the spirit. 109. But that the spirit doth hiss through the teeth signifieth that the spirit is gone forth from the heart of God through the wrath; but that the teeth remain closed together, whilst the spirit hisseth, and do not open themselves, signifieth that the wrath hath not comprehended or reached the Holy Ghost. 110. But that the tongue doth crouch towards the nether gums, and is sharp at the point, and will not be used about the hissing, signifieth that the outward birth or geniture, together with all the creatures which are therein, cannot comprehend or reach to apprehend the Holy Spirit, which goeth forth out of the innermost birth or geniture out from the heart of God, neither can they hinder him by their power. 111. For he goeth and penetrateth through all shut or closed doors, closets and births, and needs no opening of them; as the teeth cannot stay or hinder the spirit or breath from going or passing through them. 112. But that the lips stand open, when it is come hissing through the teeth, signifieth that he [The Holy Ghost] with his going forth out of the heart of God, in the creation of this world, hath opened again the gates of heaven, and is gone through the gates of God's wrath, and hath left the wrath of God strongly shut and bolted up, and hath left the devil his eternal kindled wrathhouse close locked up, out of which he cannot come eternally.
3113. It further signifieth that the Holy Ghost in like manner hath an open gate in the wrathhouse of this world, where he may drive and perform his work, incomprehensibly as to the gates of hell, and where he gathereth or congregateth a holy seed to his eternal praise, against or without the will of the strong, fast, hellish gates, and altogether incomprehensibly as to them. 114. But in the same way as the spirit effecteth his going forth, and his conceived or intended will, through the teeth, and yet the teeth do not stir, nor can they comprehend the will of the spirit, so the Holy Ghost also, without the apprehension or comprehension, either of the devil or of the wrath of God, buildeth or erecteth continually a holy seed or temple in the house of this world. 115. But that the whole word (Sprach) said, formeth or conceiveth itself at the hinder gums on the tongue in the hollow hole in the centre of the astringent and bitter quality, and snarleth, signifieth that God hath conceived or framed the place of this world at the heart in the midst or centre of it, and hath built to himself again a house to his praise, against all the grumbling, murmuring and snarling of the devil, in which he ruleth with his Holy Ghost. 116. And in the same way as the spirit goeth forth from the heart through the grumbling, murmuring and snarling of the bitter and astringent quality, very strongly and powerfully, and with its going forth ruleth in the astringent and bitter quality, incomprehensibly as to the astrin gent and bitter quality, as a potent king, so also the spirit of God ruleth in the outermost birth or geniture of this world (in the wrathhouse) mightily, and generateth to himself a temple therein, incomprehensibly to the wrathhouse.
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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