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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.
1of wrath, and also in death, thereupon also every body formed itself as was the birth or geniture to life and mobility. Of the Earth. 70. But now the earth was the Salitter, which was cast up out of the innermost birth and stood in death: But when the fireflash, through the word, rose up in the water, then it was a terror or crack, from which existed the mobility in death; and that mobility, in all the seven spirits, is now the astral birth or geniture. The Depth. Understand this aright. 71. Now when, on the third day, the fireflash in the water of death had kindled itself, then the life pressed forth quite through the dead body of the water and of the earth. 72. But yet the dead water and earth comprehend no more than the flash or terror or crack of the fire, through which their mobility existeth: But the light that riseth up very softly, gently or meekly in the fireflash neither the earth nor the dead water can comprehend. 73. But it retaineth its seat in the kernel, which is the unctuosity or fatness, or the water of life, or the heaven; for it is the body of life, which the death cannot comprehend, and yet it riseth up in the death. 74. Neither can the wrath take hold of it or apprehend it, but the wrath remaineth in the terror or crack of the fireflash, and maketh the mobility in the dead body of the earth and the water.
275. But the light presseth in very gently after, and formeth the birth, which birth, through the terror or crack of the fireflash, hath gotten its [the birth's] compacted body. Of the Growths or Vegetables of the Earth. 76. When now the wrathful fireflash awakened, and roused up the spirits of nature, which stand in death in the earth, and made them moveable by its fierce terror or crack, then the spirits began, according to their peculiar divine right, to generate themselves, as they had done from eternity, and form, figure or frame a body together, according to the innate, instant qualities of that place. 77. Now, that kind of Salitter which, in the time of the kindling of the wrath, did become torpid in death, as it did qualify or operate at that time, in the innate, instant [instanding] life of the seven spirits of God, that also did rise again in the time of the regeneration in the fireflash, and is not become any new thing, but only another form of the body, which standeth in the comprehensibility or palpability in death. 78. But now the Salitter of the earth and of the water is no more able to change or alter itself in its dead being, and shew forth itself infinitely, as it did in the heavenly place or seat; but when the qualifying or fountain spirits form the body, then it riseth up in the power and virtue of the light. 79. And the life of the light breaketh through the death, and generateth to it another body out of death, which is not conformable to, or of the condition of, the water and the dead earth; also it doth not get their taste and smell; but the power of the light presseth through, and tempereth
3or mixeth itself with the power of the earth, and taketh from death its sting, and from the wrath its poisonous, venomous power, and presseth forth up together in the midst or centre of the body, in the growth or vegetation, as a heart thereof. 80. And herein sticketh now the kernel of the Deity in the centre in its heaven, which standeth hidden in the water of life, if thou canst now apprehend or lay hold of it. Of the Metals in the Earth. 81. The metals have the same substance, condition and birth or geniture as the vegetables upon the earth. For the metals or mineral ores, at the time of the kindling of the wrath in the innate, instant wheel of the seventh naturespirit, stood in the fabric, work or operation of the love, wherein the meek beneficence or welldoing generateth itself behind the fireflash; wherein the holy heaven standeth, which in this birth or geniture, when the love is predominant, presents or sheweth forth itself in such a gracious, amiable and blessed clarity or brightness, and in such beauteous colours, like gold, silver and precious stones. 82. But silver and gold in the dead palpability or tangibility are but as a dark stone, in comparison with the root of the heavenly generating; but I set it down here * only that thou mayest know from whence it hath its original. * "I set it down here," i.e. I make mention of the dark stone here. 83. But seeing it hath been the most excellent rising up and generating in the holy heavenly nature, therefore also it is loved by man above
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.
1of wrath, and also in death, thereupon also every body formed itself as was the birth or geniture to life and mobility. Of the Earth. 70. But now the earth was the Salitter, which was cast up out of the innermost birth and stood in death: But when the fireflash, through the word, rose up in the water, then it was a terror or crack, from which existed the mobility in death; and that mobility, in all the seven spirits, is now the astral birth or geniture. The Depth. Understand this aright. 71. Now when, on the third day, the fireflash in the water of death had kindled itself, then the life pressed forth quite through the dead body of the water and of the earth. 72. But yet the dead water and earth comprehend no more than the flash or terror or crack of the fire, through which their mobility existeth: But the light that riseth up very softly, gently or meekly in the fireflash neither the earth nor the dead water can comprehend. 73. But it retaineth its seat in the kernel, which is the unctuosity or fatness, or the water of life, or the heaven; for it is the body of life, which the death cannot comprehend, and yet it riseth up in the death. 74. Neither can the wrath take hold of it or apprehend it, but the wrath remaineth in the terror or crack of the fireflash, and maketh the mobility in the dead body of the earth and the water.
275. But the light presseth in very gently after, and formeth the birth, which birth, through the terror or crack of the fireflash, hath gotten its [the birth's] compacted body. Of the Growths or Vegetables of the Earth. 76. When now the wrathful fireflash awakened, and roused up the spirits of nature, which stand in death in the earth, and made them moveable by its fierce terror or crack, then the spirits began, according to their peculiar divine right, to generate themselves, as they had done from eternity, and form, figure or frame a body together, according to the innate, instant qualities of that place. 77. Now, that kind of Salitter which, in the time of the kindling of the wrath, did become torpid in death, as it did qualify or operate at that time, in the innate, instant [instanding] life of the seven spirits of God, that also did rise again in the time of the regeneration in the fireflash, and is not become any new thing, but only another form of the body, which standeth in the comprehensibility or palpability in death. 78. But now the Salitter of the earth and of the water is no more able to change or alter itself in its dead being, and shew forth itself infinitely, as it did in the heavenly place or seat; but when the qualifying or fountain spirits form the body, then it riseth up in the power and virtue of the light. 79. And the life of the light breaketh through the death, and generateth to it another body out of death, which is not conformable to, or of the condition of, the water and the dead earth; also it doth not get their taste and smell; but the power of the light presseth through, and tempereth
3or mixeth itself with the power of the earth, and taketh from death its sting, and from the wrath its poisonous, venomous power, and presseth forth up together in the midst or centre of the body, in the growth or vegetation, as a heart thereof. 80. And herein sticketh now the kernel of the Deity in the centre in its heaven, which standeth hidden in the water of life, if thou canst now apprehend or lay hold of it. Of the Metals in the Earth. 81. The metals have the same substance, condition and birth or geniture as the vegetables upon the earth. For the metals or mineral ores, at the time of the kindling of the wrath in the innate, instant wheel of the seventh naturespirit, stood in the fabric, work or operation of the love, wherein the meek beneficence or welldoing generateth itself behind the fireflash; wherein the holy heaven standeth, which in this birth or geniture, when the love is predominant, presents or sheweth forth itself in such a gracious, amiable and blessed clarity or brightness, and in such beauteous colours, like gold, silver and precious stones. 82. But silver and gold in the dead palpability or tangibility are but as a dark stone, in comparison with the root of the heavenly generating; but I set it down here * only that thou mayest know from whence it hath its original. * "I set it down here," i.e. I make mention of the dark stone here. 83. But seeing it hath been the most excellent rising up and generating in the holy heavenly nature, therefore also it is loved by man above
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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