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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.
134. But that also the element of fire is, and doth rule in the deep of the air and water, thou seest in tempests of lightning; also thou perceivest how the light of the sun kindleth the element of fire on the earth with its reflection, although many times aloft in the upper region towards the moon it is very cold. 35. But now God separated the palpable water from the impalpable, and placed the palpable on the earth, and the impalpable remained still in the deep, in its own seat, as it had been from eternity. 36. But seeing the wrath also is in that water in the deep above the earth, therefore constantly, through the kindling of the stars, and of the water in the wrath, such palpable water generateth itself, which, with its outermost birth, standeth in death. 37. And which, seeing it qualifieth or uniteth with the innermost birth of the astral birth or geniture, cometh to help the Salitter of the corrupted earth, and quencheth its wrath; whereby, in the astral birth or geniture, all standeth in the life. And so the earth generateth the life through the death. The Gate of the Mystery. 38. But that there is a firmament between the waters, which firmament is called heaven, hath this understanding or meaning: 39. The whole deep, from the moon to the earth, standeth with its whole working in the wrathful and comprehensible or palpable birth or geniture; for the moon is the goddess of the palpable birth; so the house of the devil, of
2death, and of hell, is in the circuit, orb or extent between the moon and the earth. 40. Where, therefore, the fierce wrath of God, in the outermost birth or geniture in the deep, becometh daily kindled and blown up by the devils and all wicked men, through the great sins of man, which still qualify, mix, unite or cooperate with the astral birth or geniture in the deep. 41. Therefore God hath made the firmament, which is called heaven, between the outermost and the innermost birth; and that is a partition or division between the outermost and the innermost birth or geniture. 42. For the outermost birth of the water cannot comprehend the innermost birth of the water which is called heaven, and which is made out of the midst or centre of the water. [" Heaven is the firmament, viz. the firesea, or " sea of fire, out of the seven spirits of nature, out of which the stars, as a quintessence, were " concreted, incorporated or created by the Word " FIAT: It hath or containeth both fire and " water, and hangeth in itself inwardly on the "first Principle, and will bring its wonders, with " or as to the figure of them, into the eternal; but " its birth or geniture fadeth or passeth away."] 43. Now the innermost birth of heaven reflects strongly upon the earth, and holdeth the outermost water upon the earth strongly captive, together with the earth also. 44. If that were not, then, with the revolution of the globe of the earth, the water would be divided or dissolved again; also then would the earth crumble, break and moulder away in the deep (and all would be a Chaos again).
345. Therefore that firmament, between the outermost palpable water and the inward, holdeth the earth and the palpable water captive. But now thou mayest ask, What kind of firmament of heaven then is that which I can neither see nor apprehend? Answer. 46. It is the firmament between the clear Deity and the corrupt nature, which thou must break through when thou intendest to come to God; and it is that very firmament which doth not quite stand in the wrath, neither is it altogether or perfectly pure; concerning which it is written, [job XV. 15] The very heavens are not pure in the sight of God. But at the Last Judgment Day the wrath will be purged from them. For it is written, [Matt xxiv. 35] Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away, saith Christ. [Mark xiii. 31] 47. Now that impurity in that heaven is the wrath, but the purity is the word of God, which he once spake, saying [Gen.i. 6.]; Let the water under the firmament be separated from the water above the firmament. And that word standeth and is comprised in the firmament of the water, and holdeth captive or fixed the outward water, together with the earth. The Gate of the Deity. Observe here the hidden Mystery of God. 48. When thou beholdest the deep above the earth, thou oughtest not to say that it is not the gate of God, where God in his holiness dwelleth: No, no, think not so; for the whole holy
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.
134. But that also the element of fire is, and doth rule in the deep of the air and water, thou seest in tempests of lightning; also thou perceivest how the light of the sun kindleth the element of fire on the earth with its reflection, although many times aloft in the upper region towards the moon it is very cold. 35. But now God separated the palpable water from the impalpable, and placed the palpable on the earth, and the impalpable remained still in the deep, in its own seat, as it had been from eternity. 36. But seeing the wrath also is in that water in the deep above the earth, therefore constantly, through the kindling of the stars, and of the water in the wrath, such palpable water generateth itself, which, with its outermost birth, standeth in death. 37. And which, seeing it qualifieth or uniteth with the innermost birth of the astral birth or geniture, cometh to help the Salitter of the corrupted earth, and quencheth its wrath; whereby, in the astral birth or geniture, all standeth in the life. And so the earth generateth the life through the death. The Gate of the Mystery. 38. But that there is a firmament between the waters, which firmament is called heaven, hath this understanding or meaning: 39. The whole deep, from the moon to the earth, standeth with its whole working in the wrathful and comprehensible or palpable birth or geniture; for the moon is the goddess of the palpable birth; so the house of the devil, of
2death, and of hell, is in the circuit, orb or extent between the moon and the earth. 40. Where, therefore, the fierce wrath of God, in the outermost birth or geniture in the deep, becometh daily kindled and blown up by the devils and all wicked men, through the great sins of man, which still qualify, mix, unite or cooperate with the astral birth or geniture in the deep. 41. Therefore God hath made the firmament, which is called heaven, between the outermost and the innermost birth; and that is a partition or division between the outermost and the innermost birth or geniture. 42. For the outermost birth of the water cannot comprehend the innermost birth of the water which is called heaven, and which is made out of the midst or centre of the water. [" Heaven is the firmament, viz. the firesea, or " sea of fire, out of the seven spirits of nature, out of which the stars, as a quintessence, were " concreted, incorporated or created by the Word " FIAT: It hath or containeth both fire and " water, and hangeth in itself inwardly on the "first Principle, and will bring its wonders, with " or as to the figure of them, into the eternal; but " its birth or geniture fadeth or passeth away."] 43. Now the innermost birth of heaven reflects strongly upon the earth, and holdeth the outermost water upon the earth strongly captive, together with the earth also. 44. If that were not, then, with the revolution of the globe of the earth, the water would be divided or dissolved again; also then would the earth crumble, break and moulder away in the deep (and all would be a Chaos again).
345. Therefore that firmament, between the outermost palpable water and the inward, holdeth the earth and the palpable water captive. But now thou mayest ask, What kind of firmament of heaven then is that which I can neither see nor apprehend? Answer. 46. It is the firmament between the clear Deity and the corrupt nature, which thou must break through when thou intendest to come to God; and it is that very firmament which doth not quite stand in the wrath, neither is it altogether or perfectly pure; concerning which it is written, [job XV. 15] The very heavens are not pure in the sight of God. But at the Last Judgment Day the wrath will be purged from them. For it is written, [Matt xxiv. 35] Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away, saith Christ. [Mark xiii. 31] 47. Now that impurity in that heaven is the wrath, but the purity is the word of God, which he once spake, saying [Gen.i. 6.]; Let the water under the firmament be separated from the water above the firmament. And that word standeth and is comprised in the firmament of the water, and holdeth captive or fixed the outward water, together with the earth. The Gate of the Deity. Observe here the hidden Mystery of God. 48. When thou beholdest the deep above the earth, thou oughtest not to say that it is not the gate of God, where God in his holiness dwelleth: No, no, think not so; for the whole holy
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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