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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.
1in itself, upon the earth, and it was so done. And the earth sent forth grass, and the herb that yieldeth seed, each after its kind, and the tree yielding fruit, which hath its seed in itself, every one according to its kind; and God saw that it was good. And so out of evening and morning the third day came to be. 11. This indeed is very rightly and properly described, but the true ground sticketh hidden or concealed in the word, and hath never been understood by man. For man since the fall could never comprehend or apprehend the inward birth or geniture, to perceive how the heavenly birth or geniture is; but his reason lay captivated in the outward comprehensibility or palpability, and could not penetrate and press through heaven, and see the inward birth or geniture of God, which also is in the corrupted earth, and everywhere, in all places. 12. Thou must not here think that God hath made some new thing, which never was before; for if that were so, then there had been another God, which is not possible to be. For without or besides this one only God, nothing is at all, for the gates of hell are not anywhere without, beyond or absent from this one only God; only, there is a partition or distinction between the love in the light, and the kindled wrath in the darkness, so that the one cannot comprehend the other, and yet the one hangeth to the other as one body. 13. The Salitter, out of which the earth is come to be, was from eternity, and stood in the seventh qualifying or fountain spirit, which is the naturespirit, and the other six have generated the seventh continually, and are encompassed or surrounded therewith, or lie captivated or enclosed therein, as in their mother, and are the
2power and life of the seventh, just as is the astral birth in the flesh. 14. But when king Lucifer had stirred the wrath in this birth or geniture, and had with his loftiness brought the poison and death into it, then in the wrathful birth, in the fierceness or sting of death, such earth and stones were generated. 15. Upon this now ensued the spewing out thereof; * for the Deity could not endure such a birth or geniture in the love and light of God, but the corrupted Salitter must be driven together into a lump, and lord Lucifer also with it. So then presently the innate light in the corrupted Salitter went out or extinguished, and the closure of the heaven was made between the wrath and the love, that so such Salitter might be generated no more, and that heaven might hold the wrath in the outermost birth or geniture in nature captive in the darkness, and be an eternal partition or separation between them. ** * " the spewing out thereof," i.e. the spewing out of the wrathful birth. ** " between them," i.e. between the wrath and the love. 16. This being accomplished in the two days, then on the third day the light rose up in the darkness, and the darkness, together with the prince thereof, could not comprehend it. 17. For out of the earth there sprang up grass and herbs and trees, and now also it standeth written thus: [Gen. i. 12 ] Each according to its kind. In these words lieth hidden or concealed the kernel of the eternal birth or geniture, and it cannot be comprehended or apprehended by or with flesh and blood, but the Holy Ghost, through the animated or soulish birth, must kindle the astral
3man, otherwise he is blind herein, and understandeth nothing but concerning earth and stones, also grass, herbs and wooden trees. 18. But now is it written here, God sprach (said), Let the earth bring forth grass, and herbs, and fruitful trees. Observe here: 19. The word sprach (said), is an eternal word, and was before the times of the wrath from eternity in this Salitter, when the Salitter still stood in the heavenly form and life, and now also it is not quite dead in its centre, but only in the comprehensibility or palpability. 20. But now when the light rose up again in the outward comprehensibility, or in death, then the eternal word stood in its full birth, and generated the life through and out of death, and the corrupted Salitter brought forth fruit again. 21. But seeing the eternal word must qualify, mix or unite with the corruption in the wrath, thereupon the bodies of the fruits were evil and good. For the outward birth or geniture of the fruits must be out of or from the earth which is in death; and the spirit of life must be out of the astral birth which standeth in love and wrath. 22. For thus stood the birth or geniture of nature in the time of the kindling, and was thus together incorporated in the earth, and must also in such a birth spring up again: For it is written, [Gen. i 12] That the dead earth should let the grass and herbs and trees spring up, each according to its kind, that is, according to the kind and quality that it had been in from eternity, and as it had been in the heavenly quality, kind and form. For that is called its own kind which is received in the mother's body or womb, and is its
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.
1in itself, upon the earth, and it was so done. And the earth sent forth grass, and the herb that yieldeth seed, each after its kind, and the tree yielding fruit, which hath its seed in itself, every one according to its kind; and God saw that it was good. And so out of evening and morning the third day came to be. 11. This indeed is very rightly and properly described, but the true ground sticketh hidden or concealed in the word, and hath never been understood by man. For man since the fall could never comprehend or apprehend the inward birth or geniture, to perceive how the heavenly birth or geniture is; but his reason lay captivated in the outward comprehensibility or palpability, and could not penetrate and press through heaven, and see the inward birth or geniture of God, which also is in the corrupted earth, and everywhere, in all places. 12. Thou must not here think that God hath made some new thing, which never was before; for if that were so, then there had been another God, which is not possible to be. For without or besides this one only God, nothing is at all, for the gates of hell are not anywhere without, beyond or absent from this one only God; only, there is a partition or distinction between the love in the light, and the kindled wrath in the darkness, so that the one cannot comprehend the other, and yet the one hangeth to the other as one body. 13. The Salitter, out of which the earth is come to be, was from eternity, and stood in the seventh qualifying or fountain spirit, which is the naturespirit, and the other six have generated the seventh continually, and are encompassed or surrounded therewith, or lie captivated or enclosed therein, as in their mother, and are the
2power and life of the seventh, just as is the astral birth in the flesh. 14. But when king Lucifer had stirred the wrath in this birth or geniture, and had with his loftiness brought the poison and death into it, then in the wrathful birth, in the fierceness or sting of death, such earth and stones were generated. 15. Upon this now ensued the spewing out thereof; * for the Deity could not endure such a birth or geniture in the love and light of God, but the corrupted Salitter must be driven together into a lump, and lord Lucifer also with it. So then presently the innate light in the corrupted Salitter went out or extinguished, and the closure of the heaven was made between the wrath and the love, that so such Salitter might be generated no more, and that heaven might hold the wrath in the outermost birth or geniture in nature captive in the darkness, and be an eternal partition or separation between them. ** * " the spewing out thereof," i.e. the spewing out of the wrathful birth. ** " between them," i.e. between the wrath and the love. 16. This being accomplished in the two days, then on the third day the light rose up in the darkness, and the darkness, together with the prince thereof, could not comprehend it. 17. For out of the earth there sprang up grass and herbs and trees, and now also it standeth written thus: [Gen. i. 12 ] Each according to its kind. In these words lieth hidden or concealed the kernel of the eternal birth or geniture, and it cannot be comprehended or apprehended by or with flesh and blood, but the Holy Ghost, through the animated or soulish birth, must kindle the astral
3man, otherwise he is blind herein, and understandeth nothing but concerning earth and stones, also grass, herbs and wooden trees. 18. But now is it written here, God sprach (said), Let the earth bring forth grass, and herbs, and fruitful trees. Observe here: 19. The word sprach (said), is an eternal word, and was before the times of the wrath from eternity in this Salitter, when the Salitter still stood in the heavenly form and life, and now also it is not quite dead in its centre, but only in the comprehensibility or palpability. 20. But now when the light rose up again in the outward comprehensibility, or in death, then the eternal word stood in its full birth, and generated the life through and out of death, and the corrupted Salitter brought forth fruit again. 21. But seeing the eternal word must qualify, mix or unite with the corruption in the wrath, thereupon the bodies of the fruits were evil and good. For the outward birth or geniture of the fruits must be out of or from the earth which is in death; and the spirit of life must be out of the astral birth which standeth in love and wrath. 22. For thus stood the birth or geniture of nature in the time of the kindling, and was thus together incorporated in the earth, and must also in such a birth spring up again: For it is written, [Gen. i 12] That the dead earth should let the grass and herbs and trees spring up, each according to its kind, that is, according to the kind and quality that it had been in from eternity, and as it had been in the heavenly quality, kind and form. For that is called its own kind which is received in the mother's body or womb, and is its
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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