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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.
1the earth, thou speakest as one that is blind; for thou mayest see plainly that herbs and grass grow out of it. 80. But if thou sayest it hath but one kind of birth or geniture, thou speakest again also like one that is blind; for the herbs and wood which grow out of it are not earth, neither is the fruit, which groweth upon a tree, wood; so also the power and virtue of the fruit is not God either; but God is in the centre, in the innermost birth in all the three natural births or genitures, hiddenly, but is not known, except in the spirit of man alone; also the outermost birth in the fruit doth not comprehend, conceive or contain him, but he containeth the outermost birth of the fruit, and formeth it. Another Question is: Why then is the earth so mountainous, hilly, rocky, stony and uneven? Answer. 81. The hills came so to be in the driving together or compaction: For the corrupted Salitter was more abounding in one place than in another, according as the wheel of God was, as to its innate standing, or instant qualifying or fountain spirits.* * " according as the wheel of God was, as to its innate standing, or instant qualifying or fountainspirits," (als nach das Rad Gottes mit seinen instehenden Quellgeistern ist gewesen), "according as the wheel of God was, with its innate [i.e. involved, impelled and impelling] and instant qualifying fountainspirits." Sparrow has used "innate standing" and " instant qualifying " to render one word alone in the German, "instehenden" (which here refers unmistakably to fountainspirits, not to the wheel). Instehend means, literally, "instanding" and " instanting," i.e. own, innate, involved, impelled and impelling. The phrase " instehenden Quellgeistern " means, not only that the fountainspirits stand
2within the wheel (involved in it, and as it were constituting it and impelling it), but also that they are impelled to act, or qualify, instantly and invariably: where the wheel is, there they must operate. See also Ch. 13, par. 86 et seq. 82. For in those places where the sweet water in the standing wheel of God was chief or predominant, there much earthly, comprehensible or palpable water came to be. 83. But where the astringent quality in the bitterness in Mercurius was chief or predominant, there much earth and stones came to be. 84. But where the heat in the light was chief or predominant, there much silver and gold, as also some fair, clear stones, in the flash of the light, came to be; but especially where the love in the light was chief or predominant, there the most precious stones or jewels, as also the best, purest and finest gold came to be. 85. But when the lump of the earth was pressed and compacted together, then thereby the water came to be squeezed and pressed forth: But where the water was enclosed and pressed in with the astringent quality by hard rocks, there it is yet in the earth still, and hath since that time worn and made some great holes or veins for its passage. 86. In those places where there are great lakes and seas, there the water was chief or predominant over that place in that zenith or elevation of the pole; and there not being much Salitter in that place, there came to be as it were a dale or valley, wherein the water remained standing.
387. For the thin water seeketh for the valley, and is a humility of the life, which did not exalt itself, as the astringent and the bitter qualities, and the fire's quality, have done in those creatures the devils. 88. Therefore it always seeketh the lowest places of the earth; which rightly signifieth or resembleth the spirit of meekness, in which the life is generated; as you may read concerning the creation of man, as also before, concerning the species or condition of water, meekness, and suchlike qualities. Of Day and Night. 89. The whole Deity with all its powers and operations, together with its innate or instant being, as also its rising up, penetration, changing and alteration, that is to say the whole machine, fabric and work, or the whole generating or production, is all understood in the spirit of the word. 90. For in what proportion or harmony soever, or in what innate or instant generating or production of qualities soever, the spirit comprehendeth, conceiveth and formeth the word, and goeth forth therewith, just such an innate or instant birth, penetrating, rising, wrestling and overcoming it hath also in nature. 91. For when man fell into sin, he was removed out of the innermost birth or geniture, and was set or put into the other two genitures, which presently embraced him, and mixed, qualified or united with him and in him, as in their own propriety; and so man instantly received the spirit, and all generatings or productions of the astral birth, and also of the outermost birth or geniture.
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 earth, thou speakest as one that is blind; for thou mayest see plainly that herbs and grass grow out of it. 80. But if thou sayest it hath but one kind of birth or geniture, thou speakest again also like one that is blind; for the herbs and wood which grow out of it are not earth, neither is the fruit, which groweth upon a tree, wood; so also the power and virtue of the fruit is not God either; but God is in the centre, in the innermost birth in all the three natural births or genitures, hiddenly, but is not known, except in the spirit of man alone; also the outermost birth in the fruit doth not comprehend, conceive or contain him, but he containeth the outermost birth of the fruit, and formeth it. Another Question is: Why then is the earth so mountainous, hilly, rocky, stony and uneven? Answer. 81. The hills came so to be in the driving together or compaction: For the corrupted Salitter was more abounding in one place than in another, according as the wheel of God was, as to its innate standing, or instant qualifying or fountain spirits.* * " according as the wheel of God was, as to its innate standing, or instant qualifying or fountainspirits," (als nach das Rad Gottes mit seinen instehenden Quellgeistern ist gewesen), "according as the wheel of God was, with its innate [i.e. involved, impelled and impelling] and instant qualifying fountainspirits." Sparrow has used "innate standing" and " instant qualifying " to render one word alone in the German, "instehenden" (which here refers unmistakably to fountainspirits, not to the wheel). Instehend means, literally, "instanding" and " instanting," i.e. own, innate, involved, impelled and impelling. The phrase " instehenden Quellgeistern " means, not only that the fountainspirits stand
2within the wheel (involved in it, and as it were constituting it and impelling it), but also that they are impelled to act, or qualify, instantly and invariably: where the wheel is, there they must operate. See also Ch. 13, par. 86 et seq. 82. For in those places where the sweet water in the standing wheel of God was chief or predominant, there much earthly, comprehensible or palpable water came to be. 83. But where the astringent quality in the bitterness in Mercurius was chief or predominant, there much earth and stones came to be. 84. But where the heat in the light was chief or predominant, there much silver and gold, as also some fair, clear stones, in the flash of the light, came to be; but especially where the love in the light was chief or predominant, there the most precious stones or jewels, as also the best, purest and finest gold came to be. 85. But when the lump of the earth was pressed and compacted together, then thereby the water came to be squeezed and pressed forth: But where the water was enclosed and pressed in with the astringent quality by hard rocks, there it is yet in the earth still, and hath since that time worn and made some great holes or veins for its passage. 86. In those places where there are great lakes and seas, there the water was chief or predominant over that place in that zenith or elevation of the pole; and there not being much Salitter in that place, there came to be as it were a dale or valley, wherein the water remained standing.
387. For the thin water seeketh for the valley, and is a humility of the life, which did not exalt itself, as the astringent and the bitter qualities, and the fire's quality, have done in those creatures the devils. 88. Therefore it always seeketh the lowest places of the earth; which rightly signifieth or resembleth the spirit of meekness, in which the life is generated; as you may read concerning the creation of man, as also before, concerning the species or condition of water, meekness, and suchlike qualities. Of Day and Night. 89. The whole Deity with all its powers and operations, together with its innate or instant being, as also its rising up, penetration, changing and alteration, that is to say the whole machine, fabric and work, or the whole generating or production, is all understood in the spirit of the word. 90. For in what proportion or harmony soever, or in what innate or instant generating or production of qualities soever, the spirit comprehendeth, conceiveth and formeth the word, and goeth forth therewith, just such an innate or instant birth, penetrating, rising, wrestling and overcoming it hath also in nature. 91. For when man fell into sin, he was removed out of the innermost birth or geniture, and was set or put into the other two genitures, which presently embraced him, and mixed, qualified or united with him and in him, as in their own propriety; and so man instantly received the spirit, and all generatings or productions of the astral birth, and also of the outermost birth or geniture.
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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