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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.
1the mother of that body; as also thy flesh is not the spirit, but the flesh is the mother of the spirit. 75. But now in both of them, viz. in the earth and in thy flesh, there is hidden the light of the clear Deity, and it breaketh through, and generateth to itself a body according to the kind of each body; for man according to his body, and for the earth according to its body; for as the mother is, so is the child also. 76. Man's child is the soul, which is generated out of the astral birth from or out of the flesh; and the earth's child is the grass, the herbs, the trees, silver, gold, and all mineral ores. Now thou askest, How then shall I do, that I may understand somewhat concerning the birth or geniture of the earth? Answer. 77. Behold! the birth of the earth standeth in its birth or geniture as the whole Deity doth, and there is no difference at all, but only as to the corruption in the wrath, wherein comprehensibility or palpability standeth; that only is the difference or distinction, and is the death between God and the earth. 78. Thou must know that all the seven spirits of God are in the earth, and generate as they do in heaven: For the earth is in God, and God never died; but the outermost birth or geniture is dead, in which the wrath resteth, and is reserved for king Lucifer, to be a house of death and of darkness, and to be an eternal prison or dungeon. Of the seven Spirits of God, and of their Operation in the Earth. 79. The first is the astringent spirit, and that
2contracteth or draweth together in the astral birth of the seven qualifying or fountain spirits a mass or lump in the earth, through the kindling of the superior birth or geniture above the earth, and drieth up that with its sharp coldness; just as it contracteth or draweth the water together and maketh ice thereof, so also it contracteth or draweth together the water in the earth, and maketh thereof a dry mass or lump. 80. Then next the bitter spirit, which existeth in the fireflash, is also in the matter or mass, and that cannot endure to be captivated or imprisoned in the dried exsiccated matter, but rubs itself against the astringent spirit in the dried mass or lump, so long till it kindleth the fire; and so when that is done, then the bitter spirit is terrified, and getteth its life. Conceive this here aright. 81. In the earth thou canst not trace nor find, besides plants and metals, anything but astringency, bitterness, and water: But the water now therein is sweet, opposite to the other two qualities: Also it is thin or transparent, and the other two are hard, rough and bitter, and always the one is against the other. Thereupon there is a perpetual struggling, fighting and wrestling, but in the struggling of these three the life doth not yet stand; but they are a dark valley, and they are three things which can never endure one another, but there is an eternal struggling among them. [82. is absent according to Sparrow's text] 83.From hence mobility taketh its original; also God's wrath, which resteth in the hidden secrecy, taketh its original from hence; and so also the original of the devil, of death and of hell, ariseth from hence; as you may read thereof concerning the fall of the devil.
3The Depth in the Centre of the Birth or Geniture 84. Now when these three, viz. the astringency, the bitterness, and the sweetness, rub themselves one against another; then the astringent quality groweth predominant, for it is the strongest, and forcibly attracteth or draweth the sweetness together, for the sweetness is meek and extensive on account of its suppleness, and must yield to be captivated or imprisoned. 85. So when that is done, then the bitterness is also together captivated or imprisoned in the body of the sweet water, and becometh also together dried up, and then the astringent, the sweet and the bitter are one in another, and struggle so strongly in the dried mass or lump till the mass be quite dry: For the astringent quality always contracteth it together, and drieth it more and more. 86. But when the sweet water can defend itself no longer, then anguish riseth up in it; just as in man, when he is dying, when the spirit is departing from the body, and so the body yieldeth itself captive as a prisoner to death; just so the water also yieldeth itself captive as a prisoner. 87. And in this anxious rising up an anguish 1 humour or ing heat is generated, whereby a sweat [moisture or humour] presseth forth, as it doth in a dying man; and that sweat qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with the astringent and bitter qualities, for it is their son, which they have generated out of the sweet water, and which they had killed and brought to death. 88. Now when that is done, then the astringent
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.
1the mother of that body; as also thy flesh is not the spirit, but the flesh is the mother of the spirit. 75. But now in both of them, viz. in the earth and in thy flesh, there is hidden the light of the clear Deity, and it breaketh through, and generateth to itself a body according to the kind of each body; for man according to his body, and for the earth according to its body; for as the mother is, so is the child also. 76. Man's child is the soul, which is generated out of the astral birth from or out of the flesh; and the earth's child is the grass, the herbs, the trees, silver, gold, and all mineral ores. Now thou askest, How then shall I do, that I may understand somewhat concerning the birth or geniture of the earth? Answer. 77. Behold! the birth of the earth standeth in its birth or geniture as the whole Deity doth, and there is no difference at all, but only as to the corruption in the wrath, wherein comprehensibility or palpability standeth; that only is the difference or distinction, and is the death between God and the earth. 78. Thou must know that all the seven spirits of God are in the earth, and generate as they do in heaven: For the earth is in God, and God never died; but the outermost birth or geniture is dead, in which the wrath resteth, and is reserved for king Lucifer, to be a house of death and of darkness, and to be an eternal prison or dungeon. Of the seven Spirits of God, and of their Operation in the Earth. 79. The first is the astringent spirit, and that
2contracteth or draweth together in the astral birth of the seven qualifying or fountain spirits a mass or lump in the earth, through the kindling of the superior birth or geniture above the earth, and drieth up that with its sharp coldness; just as it contracteth or draweth the water together and maketh ice thereof, so also it contracteth or draweth together the water in the earth, and maketh thereof a dry mass or lump. 80. Then next the bitter spirit, which existeth in the fireflash, is also in the matter or mass, and that cannot endure to be captivated or imprisoned in the dried exsiccated matter, but rubs itself against the astringent spirit in the dried mass or lump, so long till it kindleth the fire; and so when that is done, then the bitter spirit is terrified, and getteth its life. Conceive this here aright. 81. In the earth thou canst not trace nor find, besides plants and metals, anything but astringency, bitterness, and water: But the water now therein is sweet, opposite to the other two qualities: Also it is thin or transparent, and the other two are hard, rough and bitter, and always the one is against the other. Thereupon there is a perpetual struggling, fighting and wrestling, but in the struggling of these three the life doth not yet stand; but they are a dark valley, and they are three things which can never endure one another, but there is an eternal struggling among them. [82. is absent according to Sparrow's text] 83.From hence mobility taketh its original; also God's wrath, which resteth in the hidden secrecy, taketh its original from hence; and so also the original of the devil, of death and of hell, ariseth from hence; as you may read thereof concerning the fall of the devil.
3The Depth in the Centre of the Birth or Geniture 84. Now when these three, viz. the astringency, the bitterness, and the sweetness, rub themselves one against another; then the astringent quality groweth predominant, for it is the strongest, and forcibly attracteth or draweth the sweetness together, for the sweetness is meek and extensive on account of its suppleness, and must yield to be captivated or imprisoned. 85. So when that is done, then the bitterness is also together captivated or imprisoned in the body of the sweet water, and becometh also together dried up, and then the astringent, the sweet and the bitter are one in another, and struggle so strongly in the dried mass or lump till the mass be quite dry: For the astringent quality always contracteth it together, and drieth it more and more. 86. But when the sweet water can defend itself no longer, then anguish riseth up in it; just as in man, when he is dying, when the spirit is departing from the body, and so the body yieldeth itself captive as a prisoner to death; just so the water also yieldeth itself captive as a prisoner. 87. And in this anxious rising up an anguish 1 humour or ing heat is generated, whereby a sweat [moisture or humour] presseth forth, as it doth in a dying man; and that sweat qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with the astringent and bitter qualities, for it is their son, which they have generated out of the sweet water, and which they had killed and brought to death. 88. Now when that is done, then the astringent
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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