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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.
1Now observe: 5. Now when upon the third day the fireflash rose up out of the light, which was shining in the sweet water, which flash is the bitter quality which generateth itself out of the kindled terror or crack of fire in the water: 6. Then the whole nature of this world became springing, boiling and moving in the earth, as well as above the earth, and everywhere, and began to generate itself again in all things. 7. Out of the earth sprang up grass, herbs and trees; and in the earth, silver, gold, and all manner of ores came to be; and in the deep above the earth sprang up the wonderful forming of power and virtue. 8. But that thou mayest understand what manner of substance and condition all these things and births or genitures have, I will describe all in order one after another, that thou mayest rightly understand the ground of this Mystery. I will treat, 1. Of the earth. 2. Of the deep above the earth. 3. Of the incorporating or compacting of the bodies of the stars. 4. Of the seven chief qualities of the planets, and of their heart, which is the sun. 5. Of the four elements. 6. Of the outward comprehensible or palpable birth or geniture, which existeth out of this whole regimen or dominion. 7. Of the wonderful proportion and fitness or dexterity of the whole wheel of nature. 9. Before this lookingglass 1 will now invite all lovers of the holy and highlytobeesteemed
2arts of philosophy, astrology, and theology, wherein I will lay open the root and ground of them. 10. Though I have not studied nor learned their arts, neither do I know how to go about to measure their circles; I take no great care about that. However, they will have so much to learn from hence, that many will not comprehend the ground thereof all the days of their lives. 11. I have no use for their tables, formulae or schemes, rules and ways, for I have not learned from them, but I have another teacher or schoolmaster, which is the whole or total NATURE. 12. From that whole nature, together with its innate, instant birth or geniture, have I studied and learned my philosophy, astrology, and theology, and not from men, or by men. 13. But seeing men are gods, and have the knowledge of God the only Father, from whom they are proceeded or descended, and in whom they live, therefore I despise not the canons, rules and formulae of their philosophy, astrology, and theology: For I find, that for the most part they [the philosophers, etc.] stand upon a right ground, and I will diligently endeavour to go according to their rules and formulae. 14.* For I must needs say that their scheme of formulation is my master; from it I have the first elements of my knowledge, and it is not my purpose to controvert or amend their formulae (for I cannot do it, neither have I learned them), but rather leave them where they are. * A new translation of this par. has been substituted for Sparrow's rendering. 15. I will not, however, build upon their ground,
3but as a laborious, careful servant I will dig away the earth from the root, that thereby men may see the whole tree, with its root, stock, branches, twigs and fruits; and they may also see that my writing is no new thing, but that their philosophy and my philosophy are one body, one tree, bearing one and the same sort of fruit. 16. Neither have I any command to bring in complaints against them, to condemn them for anything, except for their wickedness and abominations, as pride, covetousness, envy and wrath, against which the spirit of nature complaineth very exceedingly, and not I: For what can I do, that am poor dust and ashes, also very weak, simple, and altogether unable? 17. Only the spirit sheweth thus much: that to them is delivered and entrusted the weighty talent, and the key; and they are drowned in the pleasures of the flesh, and have buried their weighty talent in the earth, and have lost the key in their proud drunkenness. 18. The spirit hath a long time waited on them, and importuned them that they would once open the door, for the clear day is at hand; yet they walk up and down in their drunkenness, seeking for the key, when they have it about them, though they know it not; and so they go up and down in their proud and covetous drunkenness, always seeking about like the country man for his horse, who all the while he went seeking for him was riding upon the back of that very horse he looked for. 19. Thereupon, saith the spirit of nature, seeing they will not awake from sleep and open the door, I will therefore do it myself. 20. What could I, poor, simple layman, teach
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.
1Now observe: 5. Now when upon the third day the fireflash rose up out of the light, which was shining in the sweet water, which flash is the bitter quality which generateth itself out of the kindled terror or crack of fire in the water: 6. Then the whole nature of this world became springing, boiling and moving in the earth, as well as above the earth, and everywhere, and began to generate itself again in all things. 7. Out of the earth sprang up grass, herbs and trees; and in the earth, silver, gold, and all manner of ores came to be; and in the deep above the earth sprang up the wonderful forming of power and virtue. 8. But that thou mayest understand what manner of substance and condition all these things and births or genitures have, I will describe all in order one after another, that thou mayest rightly understand the ground of this Mystery. I will treat, 1. Of the earth. 2. Of the deep above the earth. 3. Of the incorporating or compacting of the bodies of the stars. 4. Of the seven chief qualities of the planets, and of their heart, which is the sun. 5. Of the four elements. 6. Of the outward comprehensible or palpable birth or geniture, which existeth out of this whole regimen or dominion. 7. Of the wonderful proportion and fitness or dexterity of the whole wheel of nature. 9. Before this lookingglass 1 will now invite all lovers of the holy and highlytobeesteemed
2arts of philosophy, astrology, and theology, wherein I will lay open the root and ground of them. 10. Though I have not studied nor learned their arts, neither do I know how to go about to measure their circles; I take no great care about that. However, they will have so much to learn from hence, that many will not comprehend the ground thereof all the days of their lives. 11. I have no use for their tables, formulae or schemes, rules and ways, for I have not learned from them, but I have another teacher or schoolmaster, which is the whole or total NATURE. 12. From that whole nature, together with its innate, instant birth or geniture, have I studied and learned my philosophy, astrology, and theology, and not from men, or by men. 13. But seeing men are gods, and have the knowledge of God the only Father, from whom they are proceeded or descended, and in whom they live, therefore I despise not the canons, rules and formulae of their philosophy, astrology, and theology: For I find, that for the most part they [the philosophers, etc.] stand upon a right ground, and I will diligently endeavour to go according to their rules and formulae. 14.* For I must needs say that their scheme of formulation is my master; from it I have the first elements of my knowledge, and it is not my purpose to controvert or amend their formulae (for I cannot do it, neither have I learned them), but rather leave them where they are. * A new translation of this par. has been substituted for Sparrow's rendering. 15. I will not, however, build upon their ground,
3but as a laborious, careful servant I will dig away the earth from the root, that thereby men may see the whole tree, with its root, stock, branches, twigs and fruits; and they may also see that my writing is no new thing, but that their philosophy and my philosophy are one body, one tree, bearing one and the same sort of fruit. 16. Neither have I any command to bring in complaints against them, to condemn them for anything, except for their wickedness and abominations, as pride, covetousness, envy and wrath, against which the spirit of nature complaineth very exceedingly, and not I: For what can I do, that am poor dust and ashes, also very weak, simple, and altogether unable? 17. Only the spirit sheweth thus much: that to them is delivered and entrusted the weighty talent, and the key; and they are drowned in the pleasures of the flesh, and have buried their weighty talent in the earth, and have lost the key in their proud drunkenness. 18. The spirit hath a long time waited on them, and importuned them that they would once open the door, for the clear day is at hand; yet they walk up and down in their drunkenness, seeking for the key, when they have it about them, though they know it not; and so they go up and down in their proud and covetous drunkenness, always seeking about like the country man for his horse, who all the while he went seeking for him was riding upon the back of that very horse he looked for. 19. Thereupon, saith the spirit of nature, seeing they will not awake from sleep and open the door, I will therefore do it myself. 20. What could I, poor, simple layman, teach
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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