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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 spirit generateth and sheweth itself infinitely. 62. For that power which in the turning about sheweth itself the strongest in the generating, according to that power, manner and colour, the Holy Ghost also imageth, shapeth or frameth the figures in the body of nature. 63. Thus thou seest that none of the powers is the first, also none the second, third, fourth or last; but the last generateth the first, as well as the first the last, and the middlemost taketh its original from the last, as also from the first, as well as from the second, third, or any of the rest. 64. Thou seest also that nature cannot be distinguished from the powers of God, but is all one body. 65. The Deity, that is, the holy power of the heart of God, is generated in nature, and so also the Holy Ghost existeth or goeth forth out of the heart of the light continually, through all the powers of the Father, and figureth all, and imageth or frameth all. 66. This birth or geniture is now in three distinct parts, every part being several and total* and yet not one of them is divided asunder from the others. * "several and total" (ein sonderlichet und ganzes), "a particular [one] and a whole [in itself]." The Gate of the Holy Trinity. 67. The whole birth or geniture, which is the heaven of all heavens, as also this world, which is in the body of the whole, as also the place of the earth and of all creatures, and whatever thou
2canst think on, all that together is God the Father, who hath neither beginning nor end; and wheresoever and upon whatsoever thou thinkest, even in the smallest circle that can be imagined, is the whole birth or geniture of God, perfectly, incessantly and irresistibly. 68. But if in a creature, or in any place, the light be extinguished, then in that place is the austere birth or geniture, which lieth hid in the light in the innermost kernel: And this now is one part. 69. The second part, or the second Person, is the light, which is continually generated from or out of all powers, and enlighteneth again all the powers of the Father, and hath the fountain of all powers; but it is therein distinguished from the Father as a singular Person, in that it cannot comprehend the birth or geniture of the Father, and yet is the Father's Son, which is always generated from or out of the Father: An instance whereof you have in all the kindled fires in this world; do but consider of it. 70. Therefore the Father loveth this his only begotten or innate Son so heartily, because he is the light and the meek beneficent welldoing in his body, through whose power the Father's joy and delight riseth up. 71. Now these are two Persons, and neither of them can apprehend, retain, or comprehend the other, and the one is as great as the other; and if either of them were not, the other could not be. 72. Observe here, ye Jews, Turks, and Heathen, for it concerneth you; to you here are opened the gates of God, harden not yourselves, for now
3is the acceptable time. 73. You are not forgotten of God at all, but if you convert, then the light and heart of God will rise up in you, as the bright sun at noonday. 74. This I write in the power and perfect knowledge of the great God, and I understand his will herein very well. For I live and am in him, and spring up with this work and labour out of his root and stock; and it must be so: Only, take thou heed, if thou blindest thyself, then there is no remedy more; neither canst thou say thou knewest not of it, therefore arise, for the day breaketh! 75. The third diversity, or the third Person in the being of God, is the moving spirit, which existeth from the rising up in the terror or crack, where life is generated, which now moveth in all powers, and is the spirit of life; and the powers can no more comprehend him, or apprehend him; but he kindleth the powers, and by his moving maketh figures and images, and formeth them according to that kind and manner as the wrestling birth standeth in every place. 76. And if thou art not wilfully blind, thou mayest know that the air is that very spirit; but in the place of this world nature is kindled therein very swelling in the wrathfire, which lord Lucifer effected, and the Holy Ghost, who is the spirit of meekness, lieth hidden therein in his heaven. 77. Thou needest not to ask where that heaven is. It is in thy heart, do but open thy heart, the key is here shewn to thee. 78. Thus there is one God, and three distinct Persons one in another, and not one of them can comprehend, or withhold, or fathom the original
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 spirit generateth and sheweth itself infinitely. 62. For that power which in the turning about sheweth itself the strongest in the generating, according to that power, manner and colour, the Holy Ghost also imageth, shapeth or frameth the figures in the body of nature. 63. Thus thou seest that none of the powers is the first, also none the second, third, fourth or last; but the last generateth the first, as well as the first the last, and the middlemost taketh its original from the last, as also from the first, as well as from the second, third, or any of the rest. 64. Thou seest also that nature cannot be distinguished from the powers of God, but is all one body. 65. The Deity, that is, the holy power of the heart of God, is generated in nature, and so also the Holy Ghost existeth or goeth forth out of the heart of the light continually, through all the powers of the Father, and figureth all, and imageth or frameth all. 66. This birth or geniture is now in three distinct parts, every part being several and total* and yet not one of them is divided asunder from the others. * "several and total" (ein sonderlichet und ganzes), "a particular [one] and a whole [in itself]." The Gate of the Holy Trinity. 67. The whole birth or geniture, which is the heaven of all heavens, as also this world, which is in the body of the whole, as also the place of the earth and of all creatures, and whatever thou
2canst think on, all that together is God the Father, who hath neither beginning nor end; and wheresoever and upon whatsoever thou thinkest, even in the smallest circle that can be imagined, is the whole birth or geniture of God, perfectly, incessantly and irresistibly. 68. But if in a creature, or in any place, the light be extinguished, then in that place is the austere birth or geniture, which lieth hid in the light in the innermost kernel: And this now is one part. 69. The second part, or the second Person, is the light, which is continually generated from or out of all powers, and enlighteneth again all the powers of the Father, and hath the fountain of all powers; but it is therein distinguished from the Father as a singular Person, in that it cannot comprehend the birth or geniture of the Father, and yet is the Father's Son, which is always generated from or out of the Father: An instance whereof you have in all the kindled fires in this world; do but consider of it. 70. Therefore the Father loveth this his only begotten or innate Son so heartily, because he is the light and the meek beneficent welldoing in his body, through whose power the Father's joy and delight riseth up. 71. Now these are two Persons, and neither of them can apprehend, retain, or comprehend the other, and the one is as great as the other; and if either of them were not, the other could not be. 72. Observe here, ye Jews, Turks, and Heathen, for it concerneth you; to you here are opened the gates of God, harden not yourselves, for now
3is the acceptable time. 73. You are not forgotten of God at all, but if you convert, then the light and heart of God will rise up in you, as the bright sun at noonday. 74. This I write in the power and perfect knowledge of the great God, and I understand his will herein very well. For I live and am in him, and spring up with this work and labour out of his root and stock; and it must be so: Only, take thou heed, if thou blindest thyself, then there is no remedy more; neither canst thou say thou knewest not of it, therefore arise, for the day breaketh! 75. The third diversity, or the third Person in the being of God, is the moving spirit, which existeth from the rising up in the terror or crack, where life is generated, which now moveth in all powers, and is the spirit of life; and the powers can no more comprehend him, or apprehend him; but he kindleth the powers, and by his moving maketh figures and images, and formeth them according to that kind and manner as the wrestling birth standeth in every place. 76. And if thou art not wilfully blind, thou mayest know that the air is that very spirit; but in the place of this world nature is kindled therein very swelling in the wrathfire, which lord Lucifer effected, and the Holy Ghost, who is the spirit of meekness, lieth hidden therein in his heaven. 77. Thou needest not to ask where that heaven is. It is in thy heart, do but open thy heart, the key is here shewn to thee. 78. Thus there is one God, and three distinct Persons one in another, and not one of them can comprehend, or withhold, or fathom the original
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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