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.
1their calumniating and malicious enmity. 3. Men have always been of the opinion that heaven is many hundred, nay, many thousand miles distant from the face of the earth, and that God dwelleth only in that heaven. 4. Some naturalists [scientists] or artists have undertaken to measure that height and distance, and have produced many strange and monstrous devices. Indeed, before this my knowledge and revelation of God, I held that only to be the true heaven, which in a round circumference and sphere, very azure of a light blue colour, extends itself above the stars, supposing that God had therein his peculiar being, and did rule only in the power of his holy spirit in this world. 5. But when this had given me many a hard blow and repulse, doubtless from the [holy] spirit, which had a great longing yearning towards me, at last I fell into a very deep melancholy and heavy sadness, when I beheld and contemplated the great deep of this world, also the sun and stars, the clouds, rain and snow, and considered in my spirit the whole creation of this world. 6. Wherein then I found to be in all things, evil and good, love and anger, in the inanimate creatures, viz. in wood, stones, earth and the elements, as also in men and beasts. 7. Moreover, I considered the little spark of light, man, what he should be esteemed for with God, in comparison with this great work and fabric of heaven and earth. 8. But finding that in all things there was evil and good, as well in the elements as in the creatures, and that it went as well in this world with the wicked as with the virtuous, honest, and
2Godly; also that the barbarous people had the best countries in their possession, and that they had more prosperity in their ways than the virtuous, honest and Godly had. 9. I was thereupon very melancholy, perplexed and exceedingly troubled, no Scripture could comfort or satisfy me, though I was very well acquainted with it, and versed therein; at which time the devil would by no means stand idle, but was often beating into me many heathenish thoughts, which I will here be silent in. 10. But when in this affliction and trouble I elevated my spirit (for I then understood very little or not at all what it was), I earnestly raised it up into God, as with a great storm or onset, wrapping up my whole heart and mind, as also all my thoughts and whole will and resolution, incessantly to wrestle with the love and mercy of God, and not to give over, until he blessed me, that is, until he enlightened me with his holy spirit, whereby I might understand his will, and be rid of my sadness. And then the spirit did break through. 11. But when, in my resolved zeal, I gave so hard an assault, storm and onset upon God, and upon all the gates of hell, as if I had more reserves of virtue and power ready, with a resolution to hazard my life upon it, (which assuredly were not in my ability without the assistance of the spirit of God), suddenly, after some violent storms made, my spirit did break through the gates of hell, even into the innermost birth or geniture of the Deity, and there I was embraced with love, as a bridegroom embraceth his dearly beloved bride. 12. But the greatness of the triumphing that was in the spirit I cannot express, either in speaking or writing; neither can it be compared to
3anything, but to that wherein the life is generated in the midst of death, and it is like the resurrection from the dead. 13. In this light my spirit suddenly saw through all, and in and by all the creatures, even in herbs and grass it knew God, who he is, and how he is, and what his will is: And suddenly in that light my will was set on by a mighty impulse, to describe the being of God. 14. But because I could not at once apprehend the deepest births of God in their being, and comprehend them in my reason, there passed almost twelve years, before the exact understanding thereof was given me. 15. It was with me as with a young tree that is planted in the ground, and at first is young and tender, and flourishing to the eye, especially if it comes on lustily in its growing: But [it] doth not bear fruit at once; and though it blossoms, the blossoms fall off; also many a cold wind, frost and snow pass over it, before it comes to any growth and bearing of fruit. 16. So also it went with this spirit: The first fire was but a seed, and not a constant lasting light: Since that time many a cold wind blew upon it; but the will never extinguished. 16a. This tree was also often tempted to try whether it would bear fruit, and shew itself with blossoms; but the blossoms were struck off till this very time, wherein it standeth in its first fruit, in the growth or vegetation. 17. From this light now it is that I have my knowledge, as also my will, impulse and driving, and therefore I will set down this knowledge in writing according to my gift, and let God work
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.
1their calumniating and malicious enmity. 3. Men have always been of the opinion that heaven is many hundred, nay, many thousand miles distant from the face of the earth, and that God dwelleth only in that heaven. 4. Some naturalists [scientists] or artists have undertaken to measure that height and distance, and have produced many strange and monstrous devices. Indeed, before this my knowledge and revelation of God, I held that only to be the true heaven, which in a round circumference and sphere, very azure of a light blue colour, extends itself above the stars, supposing that God had therein his peculiar being, and did rule only in the power of his holy spirit in this world. 5. But when this had given me many a hard blow and repulse, doubtless from the [holy] spirit, which had a great longing yearning towards me, at last I fell into a very deep melancholy and heavy sadness, when I beheld and contemplated the great deep of this world, also the sun and stars, the clouds, rain and snow, and considered in my spirit the whole creation of this world. 6. Wherein then I found to be in all things, evil and good, love and anger, in the inanimate creatures, viz. in wood, stones, earth and the elements, as also in men and beasts. 7. Moreover, I considered the little spark of light, man, what he should be esteemed for with God, in comparison with this great work and fabric of heaven and earth. 8. But finding that in all things there was evil and good, as well in the elements as in the creatures, and that it went as well in this world with the wicked as with the virtuous, honest, and
2Godly; also that the barbarous people had the best countries in their possession, and that they had more prosperity in their ways than the virtuous, honest and Godly had. 9. I was thereupon very melancholy, perplexed and exceedingly troubled, no Scripture could comfort or satisfy me, though I was very well acquainted with it, and versed therein; at which time the devil would by no means stand idle, but was often beating into me many heathenish thoughts, which I will here be silent in. 10. But when in this affliction and trouble I elevated my spirit (for I then understood very little or not at all what it was), I earnestly raised it up into God, as with a great storm or onset, wrapping up my whole heart and mind, as also all my thoughts and whole will and resolution, incessantly to wrestle with the love and mercy of God, and not to give over, until he blessed me, that is, until he enlightened me with his holy spirit, whereby I might understand his will, and be rid of my sadness. And then the spirit did break through. 11. But when, in my resolved zeal, I gave so hard an assault, storm and onset upon God, and upon all the gates of hell, as if I had more reserves of virtue and power ready, with a resolution to hazard my life upon it, (which assuredly were not in my ability without the assistance of the spirit of God), suddenly, after some violent storms made, my spirit did break through the gates of hell, even into the innermost birth or geniture of the Deity, and there I was embraced with love, as a bridegroom embraceth his dearly beloved bride. 12. But the greatness of the triumphing that was in the spirit I cannot express, either in speaking or writing; neither can it be compared to
3anything, but to that wherein the life is generated in the midst of death, and it is like the resurrection from the dead. 13. In this light my spirit suddenly saw through all, and in and by all the creatures, even in herbs and grass it knew God, who he is, and how he is, and what his will is: And suddenly in that light my will was set on by a mighty impulse, to describe the being of God. 14. But because I could not at once apprehend the deepest births of God in their being, and comprehend them in my reason, there passed almost twelve years, before the exact understanding thereof was given me. 15. It was with me as with a young tree that is planted in the ground, and at first is young and tender, and flourishing to the eye, especially if it comes on lustily in its growing: But [it] doth not bear fruit at once; and though it blossoms, the blossoms fall off; also many a cold wind, frost and snow pass over it, before it comes to any growth and bearing of fruit. 16. So also it went with this spirit: The first fire was but a seed, and not a constant lasting light: Since that time many a cold wind blew upon it; but the will never extinguished. 16a. This tree was also often tempted to try whether it would bear fruit, and shew itself with blossoms; but the blossoms were struck off till this very time, wherein it standeth in its first fruit, in the growth or vegetation. 17. From this light now it is that I have my knowledge, as also my will, impulse and driving, and therefore I will set down this knowledge in writing according to my gift, and let God work
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.