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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.
133. That is, the outermost birth or geniture of this world cannot comprehend the outermost birth or geniture of heaven aloft above this world, for they are one to the other as the life and the death, or as a man and a stone are one to the other. 34. Therefore there is a strong firmament or enclosure between the outermost birth or geniture of the upper heaven, and that of this world; for the firmament between them is death, which ruleth and reigneth everywhere in the outermost birth in this world, and this world is so bolted up therewith that the outermost birth of the upper heaven cannot come into the outermost birth of this world; there is a great cleft* or gulf between them. Therefore in our outermost birth or geniture we cannot see the angels, neither can the angels dwell with us in the outermost birth of this world; but in the innermost they dwell with us. * " cleft"—a literal translation of Kluft, gulf or chasm. [35]. (absent Sparrow's numbering) 36. And if or as we fight with the devil, they keep off his blows in the innermost birth, and the defence and protection of the holy soul. 37. Therefore we can neither see nor compre hend the holy angels; for the outermost birth of their body is incomprehensible to the outermost birth or geniture of this world. 38. The second birth of this world standeth in the life, for it is the astral birth, out of which is generated the third and holy birth or geniture, and therein love and wrath strive the one with the other.
239. For the second birth standeth in the seven qualifying or fountain spirits of this world, and is in all places and in all the creatures, as also in man: But the Holy Ghost also ruleth and reigneth in the second birth, and helpeth to generate the third holy birth or geniture. 40. But this third birth or geniture is the clear and holy heaven, which qualifieth or uniteth with the heart of God without, distinct and above all heavens, as one heart; also they are the one heart, which, as an almighty, incomprehensible God, holdeth and beareth up or sustaineth the place of this world, and holdeth the devil captive in the outermost birth in the angerfire. 41. And out of this heart JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God, in the womb or body of the Virgin Mary, went into all the three births or genitures, and assumed them really, that he might, through and with his innermost birth or geniture, take the devil, death and hell captive in the outermost birth, and overcome the wrath of God, as a king and victorious prince; and, in the power of his geniture or birth in the flesh, press through all men. 42. And so by this entering of the innermost birth of the heart of the heaven of this world into the astral and outermost, is JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God and of Mary, become the Lord and King of this our heaven and earth, who ruleth and reigneth in all the three births or genitures over sin, the devil, death and hell, and so we with him press through the sinful, corrupted and outermost dead birth or geniture of the flesh, through death and the wrath of God into our heaven. 43. In this heaven now sitteth our King JESUS CHRIST, at the right hand of God,
3and encompasseth or surroundeth all the three births, as an almighty Son of the Father, who is present in and throughout all the three births in this world, in all corners and places, and comprehendeth, holdeth and beareth up or sustaineth all, as a newborn Son of the Father, in the power, and upon the seat or throne, of the once great, mighty, potent, and now expelled, accursed and damned king Lucifer, the devil. 44. Therefore, thou child of man, be not discouraged, be not so timorous and despondent; for if thou sowest in thy zeal and earnest sincerity the seed of thy tears, thou dost not sow it in earth, but in heaven; for in thy astral birth thou sowest, and in thy animated or soulish birth thou reapest, and in the kingdom of heaven thou possessest and enjoyest it. 45. While thou livest in this struggling or striving birth or geniture thou must buckle to, and suffer the devil to ride upon thee; but so hard as he striketh thee, so hard thou must strike him again, if thou wilt defend thyself. For when thou tightest against him, thou stirrest up his wrathfire, and destroyest his nest, and this is then as a great combustion, and as a great strong battle maintained against him. 46. And though thy body may suffer pain, yet it is much worse with him when he is vanquished, for then he roareth like a lion that is robbed of her young whelps, for the fierceness and wrath of God tormenteth him; but if thou lettest him lodge within thee, then he groweth fat and wanton, and will vanquish thee in time. 47. Thus thou hast a real description of heaven: And though perhaps thou canst not in thy reason conceive it, yet I can very well conceive it; therefore consider rationally and seriously what
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.
133. That is, the outermost birth or geniture of this world cannot comprehend the outermost birth or geniture of heaven aloft above this world, for they are one to the other as the life and the death, or as a man and a stone are one to the other. 34. Therefore there is a strong firmament or enclosure between the outermost birth or geniture of the upper heaven, and that of this world; for the firmament between them is death, which ruleth and reigneth everywhere in the outermost birth in this world, and this world is so bolted up therewith that the outermost birth of the upper heaven cannot come into the outermost birth of this world; there is a great cleft* or gulf between them. Therefore in our outermost birth or geniture we cannot see the angels, neither can the angels dwell with us in the outermost birth of this world; but in the innermost they dwell with us. * " cleft"—a literal translation of Kluft, gulf or chasm. [35]. (absent Sparrow's numbering) 36. And if or as we fight with the devil, they keep off his blows in the innermost birth, and the defence and protection of the holy soul. 37. Therefore we can neither see nor compre hend the holy angels; for the outermost birth of their body is incomprehensible to the outermost birth or geniture of this world. 38. The second birth of this world standeth in the life, for it is the astral birth, out of which is generated the third and holy birth or geniture, and therein love and wrath strive the one with the other.
239. For the second birth standeth in the seven qualifying or fountain spirits of this world, and is in all places and in all the creatures, as also in man: But the Holy Ghost also ruleth and reigneth in the second birth, and helpeth to generate the third holy birth or geniture. 40. But this third birth or geniture is the clear and holy heaven, which qualifieth or uniteth with the heart of God without, distinct and above all heavens, as one heart; also they are the one heart, which, as an almighty, incomprehensible God, holdeth and beareth up or sustaineth the place of this world, and holdeth the devil captive in the outermost birth in the angerfire. 41. And out of this heart JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God, in the womb or body of the Virgin Mary, went into all the three births or genitures, and assumed them really, that he might, through and with his innermost birth or geniture, take the devil, death and hell captive in the outermost birth, and overcome the wrath of God, as a king and victorious prince; and, in the power of his geniture or birth in the flesh, press through all men. 42. And so by this entering of the innermost birth of the heart of the heaven of this world into the astral and outermost, is JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God and of Mary, become the Lord and King of this our heaven and earth, who ruleth and reigneth in all the three births or genitures over sin, the devil, death and hell, and so we with him press through the sinful, corrupted and outermost dead birth or geniture of the flesh, through death and the wrath of God into our heaven. 43. In this heaven now sitteth our King JESUS CHRIST, at the right hand of God,
3and encompasseth or surroundeth all the three births, as an almighty Son of the Father, who is present in and throughout all the three births in this world, in all corners and places, and comprehendeth, holdeth and beareth up or sustaineth all, as a newborn Son of the Father, in the power, and upon the seat or throne, of the once great, mighty, potent, and now expelled, accursed and damned king Lucifer, the devil. 44. Therefore, thou child of man, be not discouraged, be not so timorous and despondent; for if thou sowest in thy zeal and earnest sincerity the seed of thy tears, thou dost not sow it in earth, but in heaven; for in thy astral birth thou sowest, and in thy animated or soulish birth thou reapest, and in the kingdom of heaven thou possessest and enjoyest it. 45. While thou livest in this struggling or striving birth or geniture thou must buckle to, and suffer the devil to ride upon thee; but so hard as he striketh thee, so hard thou must strike him again, if thou wilt defend thyself. For when thou tightest against him, thou stirrest up his wrathfire, and destroyest his nest, and this is then as a great combustion, and as a great strong battle maintained against him. 46. And though thy body may suffer pain, yet it is much worse with him when he is vanquished, for then he roareth like a lion that is robbed of her young whelps, for the fierceness and wrath of God tormenteth him; but if thou lettest him lodge within thee, then he groweth fat and wanton, and will vanquish thee in time. 47. Thus thou hast a real description of heaven: And though perhaps thou canst not in thy reason conceive it, yet I can very well conceive it; therefore consider rationally and seriously what
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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