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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.
179. For our bodies also, at the resurrection, will not consist of such hard flesh and bones, but will be like the angels. And though indeed all forms and powers will be therein, and all faculties and members, even to the privy parts, yet these will be in another manner of form, and so also will the entrails and guts; but we shall not have the hard comprehensibility or palpability. 80. For Christ, after his resurrection, saith to Mary Magdalen, at the sepulchre in Joseph's garden, [John xx. 17.] Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my God and to your God. As if he would say, I have not now the bestial body any more, although I shew myself to thee in my form or shape which I had, otherwise, thou, in thy bestial body, couldst not see me. 81. And so during the forty days after his resurrection he did not always walk visibly among the disciples, but invisibly, according to his heavenly and angelical property; though when he would speak or talk with his disciples, then he shewed or presented himself in a comprehensible or palpable manner and form, that thereby he might speak natural words with them: for the corruption cannot comprehend or apprehend the divine (words or things). 82. Also it sufficiently appeareth that his body was of an angelical kind, in that he went to his disciples through closed doors [John xx. 19.]. 83. Thus now thou must know, that his body qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with all the seven spirits in nature in the astral birth in the part of love, and holdeth sin, death and the devil captive in its wrath part. 84. Thus thou now understandest what God
2made on the second day, when he separated the water under the firmament from the water above the firmament. Thou seest also, how thou art in this world everywhere in heaven, and also in hell, and dwellest between heaven and hell, in great danger. 85. Thou seest, also, how heaven is in a holy man; and that everywhere, wheresoever thou standest, goest or liest, if thy spirit doth but qualify or cooperate with God, then, as to that part, thou art in heaven, and thy soul is in God. Therefore also saith Christ, [John x. 28, 29] My sheep are in my hands, no man can pull them away from me. 86. In like manner thou seest, also, how thou art always in hell among all the devils, as to the wrath; if thy eyes were but open, thou wouldst see wonderful things; but thou standest between heaven and hell, and canst see neither of them, and walkest upon a very narrow bridge. 87. Some men have many times, according to or in the sidereal or astral spirit, entered in thither, and been ravished in an ecstasy, as men call it, and have presently known the gates of heaven and of hell, and have told, shewn and declared how that many men dwell in hell, with or in their living bodies, or with their bodies alive: Such indeed have been scorned, derided or laughed at, but with great ignorance and indiscretion, for it is just so as they declare; which I will also describe more at large in its due place, and shew in what manner and condition it is with them. 88. But the water hath a twofold birth, and I will here prove that also, with or by the language of nature; for that is the root or mother of all the languages which are in this
3world; and therein standeth the whole perfect knowledge of all things. 89. For when Adam spake at the first, he gave names to all the creatures, according to their qualities and innate, instant operations, virtues or faculties. And it is the very language of the total, universal nature, but is not known to every one. For it is a hidden secret mystery, which is imparted to me by the grace of God from the spirit, which hath a delight and longing towards me. Now observe: 90. The word Wasser (Water) is thrust forth from the heart, and closeth together the teeth, and passeth over the astringent and bitter qualities, and toucheth them not, but goeth forth through the teeth, and the tongue contracteth and rouseth up itself, together with the spirit, and helpeth to hiss, and so qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with the spirit, and the spirit presseth very forcibly through the teeth. But when the spirit is almost quite gone forth, then the astringent and bitter spirit contracteth and rouseth up itself, and afterwards first qualifieth with the word, but yet sitteth still in its seat,* and afterwards jarreth mightily and strongly in the syllable fer. * "sitteth still in its seat." See Ch. 25, par. 82. 91. But now, that the spirit conceiveth itself at the heart, and cometh forth and closeth together the teeth, and hisseth with the tongue through the teeth, signifieth that the heart of God hath moved itself, and with its spirit made a closure round about it, which is the firmament of heaven: Also, as the teeth do shut and close together, and then the spirit goeth through the teeth, so also the spirit goeth forth from the heart into the astral 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.
179. For our bodies also, at the resurrection, will not consist of such hard flesh and bones, but will be like the angels. And though indeed all forms and powers will be therein, and all faculties and members, even to the privy parts, yet these will be in another manner of form, and so also will the entrails and guts; but we shall not have the hard comprehensibility or palpability. 80. For Christ, after his resurrection, saith to Mary Magdalen, at the sepulchre in Joseph's garden, [John xx. 17.] Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my God and to your God. As if he would say, I have not now the bestial body any more, although I shew myself to thee in my form or shape which I had, otherwise, thou, in thy bestial body, couldst not see me. 81. And so during the forty days after his resurrection he did not always walk visibly among the disciples, but invisibly, according to his heavenly and angelical property; though when he would speak or talk with his disciples, then he shewed or presented himself in a comprehensible or palpable manner and form, that thereby he might speak natural words with them: for the corruption cannot comprehend or apprehend the divine (words or things). 82. Also it sufficiently appeareth that his body was of an angelical kind, in that he went to his disciples through closed doors [John xx. 19.]. 83. Thus now thou must know, that his body qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with all the seven spirits in nature in the astral birth in the part of love, and holdeth sin, death and the devil captive in its wrath part. 84. Thus thou now understandest what God
2made on the second day, when he separated the water under the firmament from the water above the firmament. Thou seest also, how thou art in this world everywhere in heaven, and also in hell, and dwellest between heaven and hell, in great danger. 85. Thou seest, also, how heaven is in a holy man; and that everywhere, wheresoever thou standest, goest or liest, if thy spirit doth but qualify or cooperate with God, then, as to that part, thou art in heaven, and thy soul is in God. Therefore also saith Christ, [John x. 28, 29] My sheep are in my hands, no man can pull them away from me. 86. In like manner thou seest, also, how thou art always in hell among all the devils, as to the wrath; if thy eyes were but open, thou wouldst see wonderful things; but thou standest between heaven and hell, and canst see neither of them, and walkest upon a very narrow bridge. 87. Some men have many times, according to or in the sidereal or astral spirit, entered in thither, and been ravished in an ecstasy, as men call it, and have presently known the gates of heaven and of hell, and have told, shewn and declared how that many men dwell in hell, with or in their living bodies, or with their bodies alive: Such indeed have been scorned, derided or laughed at, but with great ignorance and indiscretion, for it is just so as they declare; which I will also describe more at large in its due place, and shew in what manner and condition it is with them. 88. But the water hath a twofold birth, and I will here prove that also, with or by the language of nature; for that is the root or mother of all the languages which are in this
3world; and therein standeth the whole perfect knowledge of all things. 89. For when Adam spake at the first, he gave names to all the creatures, according to their qualities and innate, instant operations, virtues or faculties. And it is the very language of the total, universal nature, but is not known to every one. For it is a hidden secret mystery, which is imparted to me by the grace of God from the spirit, which hath a delight and longing towards me. Now observe: 90. The word Wasser (Water) is thrust forth from the heart, and closeth together the teeth, and passeth over the astringent and bitter qualities, and toucheth them not, but goeth forth through the teeth, and the tongue contracteth and rouseth up itself, together with the spirit, and helpeth to hiss, and so qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with the spirit, and the spirit presseth very forcibly through the teeth. But when the spirit is almost quite gone forth, then the astringent and bitter spirit contracteth and rouseth up itself, and afterwards first qualifieth with the word, but yet sitteth still in its seat,* and afterwards jarreth mightily and strongly in the syllable fer. * "sitteth still in its seat." See Ch. 25, par. 82. 91. But now, that the spirit conceiveth itself at the heart, and cometh forth and closeth together the teeth, and hisseth with the tongue through the teeth, signifieth that the heart of God hath moved itself, and with its spirit made a closure round about it, which is the firmament of heaven: Also, as the teeth do shut and close together, and then the spirit goeth through the teeth, so also the spirit goeth forth from the heart into the astral 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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