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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.
164. That part, which here it hath comprehended in its departure, is now its eternal and indissoluble dwellinghouse, and from thence it can never get; for there is a great cleft * [1 Luke xvi. 26] between them; as Christ speaks of the rich man. * "cleft" (Kluft). See Ch. 19, par. 34. 65. And in this heaven the holy angels dwell amongst us, and the devils in the other part: and in this heaven man liveth between heaven and hell, and must endure and suffer from the fierceness many hard blows, temptations, persecutions, and many times torments and squeezings. 66. The wrath is called the cross, and the loveheaven is called patience, and the spirit that riseth up therein is called hope and faith, which qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with God, and wrestleth with the wrath till it overcometh [1 John v. 4] and getteth the victory. 67. And herein lieth the whole Christian doctrine: He that teacheth otherwise doth not know what he teacheth, for his doctrine hath no foot, ground or foundation, and his heart always tottereth, wavereth and doubteth, and knoweth not what it should do. 68. For his spirit always seeketh for rest, but findeth it not; for it is impatient, and always seeketh after novelties, or some new thing; and when it findeth somewhat, it tickleth itself therewith, as if it had found some new treasure, and yet there is no steadfastness, stability or certainty in him, but he seeketh continually for abstinence or for a diversion.*
2* "or for a diversion." These words are an addition by Sparrow; it is probable, however, that they render the meaning of the original, Abstinentz, better than the English "abstinence." St M. has dropped the latter altogether and uses only the word "diversion." Anyone who knows the meaning of the prefix ab, in German, will understand why J. B. uses this otherwise unsuitable word. 69. O ye theologists! the spirit here openeth a door and gate for you: If you will not now see, and feed your sheep and lambs on a green meadow, but on a dry, seared heath, you must be accountable for it before the severe, earnest and wrathful judgment of God; therefore look to it. 70. I take heaven to witness that I perform here what I must do; for the spirit driveth me to it, so that I am wholly captivated therewith, and cannot be freed from it, whatever may befall me hereafter, or ensue upon it. The Holy Gate. 71. III. The third birth or geniture in the body of God, in or of this world, is under the firmament of heaven, hidden or concealed; and the firmament of heaven qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth therewith, but yet not fully bodily, but creaturely, as the angels and the souls of men do. 72. And this third birth or geniture is the almighty and holy heart of God, wherein our King Jesus Christ, with his natural body, sitteth at the right hand of God, as a King and Lord of the whole body or place of this world, who encompasseth, holdeth and preserveth all with his heart. 73. And this firmament of heaven is his throne
3or footstool, and the qualifying or fountain spirits of his natural body rule in the whole body of this world, and all is tied, bound or united with them, all whatsoever that standeth in the astral birth in the part of love: The other part of this world is tied, bound and united with the devil. 74. Thou must not think, as Johannes Calvus or Calvinus thought, which was, that the body of Christ is not an almighty being [Wesen], and that it comprehendeth or reacheth no farther than the little circumscribed place wherein it is. 75. No; thou child of man, thou errest, and dost not rightly understand the divine power: Doth not every man in his astral, qualifying or fountain spirits comprehend the whole place or body of this world, and the place comprehendeth man? it is all but one body, only there are distinct members. 76. Why then should not the qualifying or fountain spirits in the natural body of Christ qualify, mix or unite with the qualifying or fountain spirits of nature? Is not his body also out of the qualifying or fountain spirits of nature, and is not his heart animated or become soulish from or out of the third birth or geniture, which is the heart of God, which comprehendeth all angels and the heaven of heavens, even the whole Father? 77. Ye Calvinists, desist from your opinion, and do not torment yourselves with the comprehensible or palpable being; for God is a Spirit;[ John iv. 24.] and in the comprehensibility or palpability standeth death. 78. The body of Christ is no more the hard comprehensibility or palpability, but the divine comprehensibility or palpability of nature, like the angels.
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.
164. That part, which here it hath comprehended in its departure, is now its eternal and indissoluble dwellinghouse, and from thence it can never get; for there is a great cleft * [1 Luke xvi. 26] between them; as Christ speaks of the rich man. * "cleft" (Kluft). See Ch. 19, par. 34. 65. And in this heaven the holy angels dwell amongst us, and the devils in the other part: and in this heaven man liveth between heaven and hell, and must endure and suffer from the fierceness many hard blows, temptations, persecutions, and many times torments and squeezings. 66. The wrath is called the cross, and the loveheaven is called patience, and the spirit that riseth up therein is called hope and faith, which qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with God, and wrestleth with the wrath till it overcometh [1 John v. 4] and getteth the victory. 67. And herein lieth the whole Christian doctrine: He that teacheth otherwise doth not know what he teacheth, for his doctrine hath no foot, ground or foundation, and his heart always tottereth, wavereth and doubteth, and knoweth not what it should do. 68. For his spirit always seeketh for rest, but findeth it not; for it is impatient, and always seeketh after novelties, or some new thing; and when it findeth somewhat, it tickleth itself therewith, as if it had found some new treasure, and yet there is no steadfastness, stability or certainty in him, but he seeketh continually for abstinence or for a diversion.*
2* "or for a diversion." These words are an addition by Sparrow; it is probable, however, that they render the meaning of the original, Abstinentz, better than the English "abstinence." St M. has dropped the latter altogether and uses only the word "diversion." Anyone who knows the meaning of the prefix ab, in German, will understand why J. B. uses this otherwise unsuitable word. 69. O ye theologists! the spirit here openeth a door and gate for you: If you will not now see, and feed your sheep and lambs on a green meadow, but on a dry, seared heath, you must be accountable for it before the severe, earnest and wrathful judgment of God; therefore look to it. 70. I take heaven to witness that I perform here what I must do; for the spirit driveth me to it, so that I am wholly captivated therewith, and cannot be freed from it, whatever may befall me hereafter, or ensue upon it. The Holy Gate. 71. III. The third birth or geniture in the body of God, in or of this world, is under the firmament of heaven, hidden or concealed; and the firmament of heaven qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth therewith, but yet not fully bodily, but creaturely, as the angels and the souls of men do. 72. And this third birth or geniture is the almighty and holy heart of God, wherein our King Jesus Christ, with his natural body, sitteth at the right hand of God, as a King and Lord of the whole body or place of this world, who encompasseth, holdeth and preserveth all with his heart. 73. And this firmament of heaven is his throne
3or footstool, and the qualifying or fountain spirits of his natural body rule in the whole body of this world, and all is tied, bound or united with them, all whatsoever that standeth in the astral birth in the part of love: The other part of this world is tied, bound and united with the devil. 74. Thou must not think, as Johannes Calvus or Calvinus thought, which was, that the body of Christ is not an almighty being [Wesen], and that it comprehendeth or reacheth no farther than the little circumscribed place wherein it is. 75. No; thou child of man, thou errest, and dost not rightly understand the divine power: Doth not every man in his astral, qualifying or fountain spirits comprehend the whole place or body of this world, and the place comprehendeth man? it is all but one body, only there are distinct members. 76. Why then should not the qualifying or fountain spirits in the natural body of Christ qualify, mix or unite with the qualifying or fountain spirits of nature? Is not his body also out of the qualifying or fountain spirits of nature, and is not his heart animated or become soulish from or out of the third birth or geniture, which is the heart of God, which comprehendeth all angels and the heaven of heavens, even the whole Father? 77. Ye Calvinists, desist from your opinion, and do not torment yourselves with the comprehensible or palpable being; for God is a Spirit;[ John iv. 24.] and in the comprehensibility or palpability standeth death. 78. The body of Christ is no more the hard comprehensibility or palpability, but the divine comprehensibility or palpability of nature, like the angels.
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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