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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.
192. And as the tongue frameth itself for the hissing, and qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with the spirit, and moveth therewith, so the soul of man coimageth or frameth itself with the Holy Spirit, and qualifieth, operateth or uniteth therewith, and presseth together jointly in the power thereof, through heaven, and ruleth together also therewith in the word of God. 93. But, that afterwards the astringent and bitter qualities awaken behind, and coimage afterwards to the framing of the word, signifieth that indeed all is as it were one body, but the heaven and the Holy Spirit, together with the heart of God, hath its proper seat to itself; and the devil, together with the wrath of God, can comprehend neither the Holy Spirit nor the heaven; but the devil, together with the wrath, hangeth in the outward birth in the word, and the wrath helpeth to image all in the outermost birth in this world, all whatsoever that standeth in the comprehensibility or palpability; just as the astringent and bitter qualities afterwards rouse themselves behind to the framing of the word, and qualify, operate or unite therewith. 94. That the spirit first goeth over the astringent and bitter qualities unperceived, signifieth that the gate of God is everywhere in this world all over, wherein the Holy Ghost ruleth; and that the heaven standeth open everywhere, even in the midst or centre of the earth; and that the devil nowhere can either see or comprehend or apprehend the heaven, but is a grumbling and snarling hellhound, which afterwards, when the Holy Ghost hath built or raised to himself a Church and Temple, first cometh out from behind and destroyeth it in the wrath, and hangeth behind at the word as an enemy, who will not endure that a Temple of God should be raised or built in his land or country, whereby
2his kingdom might be lessened or diminished. THE TWENTYFIRST CHAPTER Of the Third Day. 1. ALTHOUGH in the writings of Moses the spirit hath kept the deepest mysteries secret, hidden and concealed in the letter, yet all is so very regularly described that there is no defect at all in the order thereof. 2. For when God through the Word had created heaven and earth, and had separated the light from the darkness, and had given a place to each of them, then each began at once its birth or geniture and qualifying or working. 3. On the first day God drave together (or compacted) the corrupt Salitter, which so came to be in the kindling of his wrath, I say, God then drave it together or created it through the strong spirit; for the word Schuff (created) signifieth here a driving together (or compaction). 4. In this driving together or compaction of the corrupted WrathSalitter, was king Lucifer also, as an impotent prince, together with his angels, driven into the hell of the WrathSalitter, into that place where the outward halfdead comprehensibility is generated, which is the place or space between the naturegoddess, the moon, and the dead earth. 5. Now when this was done the deep became clear, and with the hidden or concealed heaven the light was separated from the darkness, and the globe of the earth in the great wheel of nature was rolled or turned once about; and accordingly the there passed the time of one revolution, or of one
3day, which containeth twentyfour hours. 6. In the duration of the second day began the sharp separation, and the incomprehensible cleft * was made between the wrath and the love of the light; and so king Lucifer was firmly, strongly or fast bolted up into the house of darkness, and was reserved to the final Judgment. * "cleft" (Kluft). See Ch. 19, par. 34. 7. So also the water of life was separated from the water of death, yet in that manner as that, in this time of the world, they hang the one to the other, as body and soul, and yet neither of them comprehendeth the other. The heaven which was made out of the midst or centre of the water is the cleft between them, so that the comprehensible or palpable water is a death, and the incomprehensible or impalpable is the life. 8. Thus now the incomprehensible spirit, which is God, ruleth everywhere in this world, and replenisheth or filleth all, and the comprehensible hangeth or dependeth on him, and dwelleth in the darkness, and can neither see nor hear nor smell nor feel the incomprehensible one, but seeth the works thereof, and is a destroyer of them. 9. Now when God had bound up the devil in the darkness through the closure of the heaven, which heaven is everywhere in all places, then he began again his wonderful birth or geniture in the seventh naturespirit, and all generated again as it had done from eternity. 10. For Moses writeth thus: [gen. i. 1113] And God said, Let the earth send forth grass and herbs that yield a seed, and the fruit tree yielding or bearing fruit after its kind, which hath its own seed
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.
192. And as the tongue frameth itself for the hissing, and qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with the spirit, and moveth therewith, so the soul of man coimageth or frameth itself with the Holy Spirit, and qualifieth, operateth or uniteth therewith, and presseth together jointly in the power thereof, through heaven, and ruleth together also therewith in the word of God. 93. But, that afterwards the astringent and bitter qualities awaken behind, and coimage afterwards to the framing of the word, signifieth that indeed all is as it were one body, but the heaven and the Holy Spirit, together with the heart of God, hath its proper seat to itself; and the devil, together with the wrath of God, can comprehend neither the Holy Spirit nor the heaven; but the devil, together with the wrath, hangeth in the outward birth in the word, and the wrath helpeth to image all in the outermost birth in this world, all whatsoever that standeth in the comprehensibility or palpability; just as the astringent and bitter qualities afterwards rouse themselves behind to the framing of the word, and qualify, operate or unite therewith. 94. That the spirit first goeth over the astringent and bitter qualities unperceived, signifieth that the gate of God is everywhere in this world all over, wherein the Holy Ghost ruleth; and that the heaven standeth open everywhere, even in the midst or centre of the earth; and that the devil nowhere can either see or comprehend or apprehend the heaven, but is a grumbling and snarling hellhound, which afterwards, when the Holy Ghost hath built or raised to himself a Church and Temple, first cometh out from behind and destroyeth it in the wrath, and hangeth behind at the word as an enemy, who will not endure that a Temple of God should be raised or built in his land or country, whereby
2his kingdom might be lessened or diminished. THE TWENTYFIRST CHAPTER Of the Third Day. 1. ALTHOUGH in the writings of Moses the spirit hath kept the deepest mysteries secret, hidden and concealed in the letter, yet all is so very regularly described that there is no defect at all in the order thereof. 2. For when God through the Word had created heaven and earth, and had separated the light from the darkness, and had given a place to each of them, then each began at once its birth or geniture and qualifying or working. 3. On the first day God drave together (or compacted) the corrupt Salitter, which so came to be in the kindling of his wrath, I say, God then drave it together or created it through the strong spirit; for the word Schuff (created) signifieth here a driving together (or compaction). 4. In this driving together or compaction of the corrupted WrathSalitter, was king Lucifer also, as an impotent prince, together with his angels, driven into the hell of the WrathSalitter, into that place where the outward halfdead comprehensibility is generated, which is the place or space between the naturegoddess, the moon, and the dead earth. 5. Now when this was done the deep became clear, and with the hidden or concealed heaven the light was separated from the darkness, and the globe of the earth in the great wheel of nature was rolled or turned once about; and accordingly the there passed the time of one revolution, or of one
3day, which containeth twentyfour hours. 6. In the duration of the second day began the sharp separation, and the incomprehensible cleft * was made between the wrath and the love of the light; and so king Lucifer was firmly, strongly or fast bolted up into the house of darkness, and was reserved to the final Judgment. * "cleft" (Kluft). See Ch. 19, par. 34. 7. So also the water of life was separated from the water of death, yet in that manner as that, in this time of the world, they hang the one to the other, as body and soul, and yet neither of them comprehendeth the other. The heaven which was made out of the midst or centre of the water is the cleft between them, so that the comprehensible or palpable water is a death, and the incomprehensible or impalpable is the life. 8. Thus now the incomprehensible spirit, which is God, ruleth everywhere in this world, and replenisheth or filleth all, and the comprehensible hangeth or dependeth on him, and dwelleth in the darkness, and can neither see nor hear nor smell nor feel the incomprehensible one, but seeth the works thereof, and is a destroyer of them. 9. Now when God had bound up the devil in the darkness through the closure of the heaven, which heaven is everywhere in all places, then he began again his wonderful birth or geniture in the seventh naturespirit, and all generated again as it had done from eternity. 10. For Moses writeth thus: [gen. i. 1113] And God said, Let the earth send forth grass and herbs that yield a seed, and the fruit tree yielding or bearing fruit after its kind, which hath its own seed
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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