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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.
131. I write, and mean it, in a creaturely kind and manner, as if a man had been the devil's prisoner, and were suddenly removed out of the hellish fire into the light of God. 32. For the light hath had no beginning in the generating of God, but hath shone or given light from eternity in the generating, and God himself knoweth no beginning therein. 33. Only, the spirit here setteth open for thee the gates of hell, that thou mayest see what is the condition of the devils and of hell, and what is the condition of man, when the divine light extinguished in him, so that he sitteth in the wrath of God and liveth in such a generating, in such an anguish, in such smarting pains, in such woe and misery. 34. Neither can I declare it unto thee in any other manner; for I must write as if the generating or geniture of God had or took a beginning when things came to be thus; but I write here very, really true and precious dear words, which the spirit alone understandeth. Now observe the Gates of God. 35. The light, which generateth itself from the fire and becometh shining in the water, and replenisheth or filleth the whole geniture and enlighteneth it, and mitigates it, that light is the true Heart of God, or Son of God; for he is continually generated out of the Father, and is a Person other than the qualities and geniture of the Father. 36. For the generating or geniture of the Father cannot catch or comprehend the light, and use it to its generating, but the light standeth by itself, and is not comprehended by any
2geniture, and it replenisheth and enlighteneth the whole geniture, viz. [John i. 14.] the only begotten Son of the Father. This light I call, in the human birth or geniture, the animated or soulish birth— [" Understand, the image which budded "forth out of the essences of the soul, accord " ing to the similitude of God."] —or the soul's birth or geniture which qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with this animated or soulish birth or geniture of God; and herein is man's soul one heart with God: but that is when it standeth in this light. 37. V. The fifth generating in God is when this light thus very gently, mildly and amiably presseth through the first four births or generatings, and then it bringeth along with it the heart, and most pleasant lovely power and virtue of the sweet water, and so when the sharp births or genitures taste of it, then are they very meek, and richly full of love, and it is as if the life did continually rise up in and from death. 38. There each spirit tasteth of the others, and getteth mere new strength and power, for the astringent quality groweth now very pliable and yielding, because it is mitigated by the power of the light that springeth out of the sweet water, and in the fire the meek love riseth up, for it warmeth the coldness, and the sweet water maketh the sharp taste very pleasant, lovely, and mild. 39. And so in the sharp and fiery births or genera tings there is nothing but a mere longing of love, a tasting, friendly affecting, gracious, amiable and blessed generating; there is nothing but mere love, and all wrath and bitterness in the centre are bolted up as in a strong hold. This generating is a very meek, beneficial welldoing, and the bitter spirit is now the living mobility.
340. VI. Now the sixth generating in God is when the spirits, in their birth or geniture, thus taste one of another, for then they become very full of joy: For the fireflash, or the sharpness out of or from the birth or geniture, riseth up aloft, and moveth as the air in this world doth. 41. For when one power or virtue toucheth another, then they taste one another, and become very full of joy; for the light becometh generated out of all the powers, and presseth again through all the powers; whereby and wherein the rising joy generateth itself, from whence the tone or tune existeth. 42. For from the touching and moving the living spirit generateth itself, and that same spirit presseth through all births or generatings, very inconceiveably and incomprehensibly to the birth or geniture, and is a very richly joyful, pleasant, lovely sharpness, like melodious, sweet music. 43. And now when the birth generateth, then it conceiveth or apprehendeth the light, and speaketh or inspireth the light again into the birth or geniture through the moving spirit. This moving spirit is the third Person in the birth or geniture of God, and is called God the Holy Ghost. 44. VII. The seventh generating is, and keepeth its birth or geniture and forming in, the Holy Ghost; and so when that goeth through the sharp births or genitures, then it goeth forth with the tone, and so formeth and imageth all manner of figures, all according to the wrestling of the sharp births or genitures one with another. 45. For they wrestle in the birth or geniture continually one with another, like a loving play or scene, and according as the birth or geniture
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.
131. I write, and mean it, in a creaturely kind and manner, as if a man had been the devil's prisoner, and were suddenly removed out of the hellish fire into the light of God. 32. For the light hath had no beginning in the generating of God, but hath shone or given light from eternity in the generating, and God himself knoweth no beginning therein. 33. Only, the spirit here setteth open for thee the gates of hell, that thou mayest see what is the condition of the devils and of hell, and what is the condition of man, when the divine light extinguished in him, so that he sitteth in the wrath of God and liveth in such a generating, in such an anguish, in such smarting pains, in such woe and misery. 34. Neither can I declare it unto thee in any other manner; for I must write as if the generating or geniture of God had or took a beginning when things came to be thus; but I write here very, really true and precious dear words, which the spirit alone understandeth. Now observe the Gates of God. 35. The light, which generateth itself from the fire and becometh shining in the water, and replenisheth or filleth the whole geniture and enlighteneth it, and mitigates it, that light is the true Heart of God, or Son of God; for he is continually generated out of the Father, and is a Person other than the qualities and geniture of the Father. 36. For the generating or geniture of the Father cannot catch or comprehend the light, and use it to its generating, but the light standeth by itself, and is not comprehended by any
2geniture, and it replenisheth and enlighteneth the whole geniture, viz. [John i. 14.] the only begotten Son of the Father. This light I call, in the human birth or geniture, the animated or soulish birth— [" Understand, the image which budded "forth out of the essences of the soul, accord " ing to the similitude of God."] —or the soul's birth or geniture which qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with this animated or soulish birth or geniture of God; and herein is man's soul one heart with God: but that is when it standeth in this light. 37. V. The fifth generating in God is when this light thus very gently, mildly and amiably presseth through the first four births or generatings, and then it bringeth along with it the heart, and most pleasant lovely power and virtue of the sweet water, and so when the sharp births or genitures taste of it, then are they very meek, and richly full of love, and it is as if the life did continually rise up in and from death. 38. There each spirit tasteth of the others, and getteth mere new strength and power, for the astringent quality groweth now very pliable and yielding, because it is mitigated by the power of the light that springeth out of the sweet water, and in the fire the meek love riseth up, for it warmeth the coldness, and the sweet water maketh the sharp taste very pleasant, lovely, and mild. 39. And so in the sharp and fiery births or genera tings there is nothing but a mere longing of love, a tasting, friendly affecting, gracious, amiable and blessed generating; there is nothing but mere love, and all wrath and bitterness in the centre are bolted up as in a strong hold. This generating is a very meek, beneficial welldoing, and the bitter spirit is now the living mobility.
340. VI. Now the sixth generating in God is when the spirits, in their birth or geniture, thus taste one of another, for then they become very full of joy: For the fireflash, or the sharpness out of or from the birth or geniture, riseth up aloft, and moveth as the air in this world doth. 41. For when one power or virtue toucheth another, then they taste one another, and become very full of joy; for the light becometh generated out of all the powers, and presseth again through all the powers; whereby and wherein the rising joy generateth itself, from whence the tone or tune existeth. 42. For from the touching and moving the living spirit generateth itself, and that same spirit presseth through all births or generatings, very inconceiveably and incomprehensibly to the birth or geniture, and is a very richly joyful, pleasant, lovely sharpness, like melodious, sweet music. 43. And now when the birth generateth, then it conceiveth or apprehendeth the light, and speaketh or inspireth the light again into the birth or geniture through the moving spirit. This moving spirit is the third Person in the birth or geniture of God, and is called God the Holy Ghost. 44. VII. The seventh generating is, and keepeth its birth or geniture and forming in, the Holy Ghost; and so when that goeth through the sharp births or genitures, then it goeth forth with the tone, and so formeth and imageth all manner of figures, all according to the wrestling of the sharp births or genitures one with another. 45. For they wrestle in the birth or geniture continually one with another, like a loving play or scene, and according as the birth or geniture
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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