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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.
1any man instruct me herein. 48. I have not my knowledge by study; indeed I have read the order and position of the seven planets in the books of astrologers, and find them * to be very right; but the root, how the planets came to be, and from what they are proceeded, I cannot learn from any man; for they know it not, neither was I present when God created the planets. * " find them," i.e. find the order and position of the seven planets. 49. But seeing the doors of the deep, and the gates of wrath, and the chambers of death also, are, through the love of God, set open in my spirit, therefore the spirit must needs look through them. 50. Accordingly I find, that the birth or geniture of nature standeth to this day, and generateth itself, just so as it did when it first took its beginning; and whatsoever riseth up in this world, whether men, beasts, trees, herbs, grass, mineral ores, or be it what it will, all riseth up in such a quality, manner and form as it first did; also every life, be it good or bad, taketh its original thus [as it did from the beginning]. 51. For this is the right or law of the Deity: that every life in the body of God should generate itself in one manner or uniform way; though it be done through many various imagings, yet the life hath one uniform way and original in all. 52. I see not this knowledge with my fleshly eyes, but with those eyes wherein life generateth itself in me; in that seat the gates of heaven and hell stand open to me, and the new man speculateth * into the midst or centre of the
2astral birth or geniture, and to him the inner and outermost gate standeth open. * "speculateth " (speculiret). See Ch. 10, par. 33. 53. While he yet sticketh in the old man of wrath and death, and sitteth also in his heaven, he seeth through both; in such a manner also he seeth the stars and elements. For in God there is no place of hindrance; for the eye of the LORD beholdeth all. 54. Now if my spirit did not see through his spirit, then I were but a blind stock; but seeing I see the gates of God in my spirit, and have the impulse to do it, I will therefore write directly according as I have seen it, and will not regard any man's authority. 55. Thou must not conceive it so, as if my old man were a living saint or angel. No, Friend, he sitteth with all men in the house of wrath and of death, and is a constant enemy to God, and sticketh in his sins, wickedness and malice, as all men do, and is full of faults, defects and infirmities. 56. But thou must know this, that he sticketh in a continual, anxious birth or geniture, but would fain be rid of the wrath and wickedness, and yet cannot. For he is as the whole house of this world, wherein love and wrath always wrestle the one with the other, and the new body always generateth itself in the midst or centre of the anguish. For so it must be, if thou wilt be born anew, otherwise no man can reach the regeneration. 57. In this world man is always seeking for soft days of ease for the flesh, and after riches, beauty and bravery, and knoweth not that he
3sitteth therewith in the chamber of death, where the sting of wrath darteth into him. 58. Behold! I tell this to thee, as a word of life, which I receive in the knowledge of the spirit, in the midst or centre in the birth or geniture of the new body of this world, over which the Man JESUS CHRIST is Ruler and King, together with his eternal Father. 59. Also, I receive it from before the seat of his throne, where all holy souls of men stand before him, and rejoice before him; [and I tell thee] that the desire of the flesh in soft pleasingness, to be rich, to be handsome, beautiful and fair, or to be mighty or potent, is a very bath or lake of hellish wrath, into which thou crowdest and runnest, as if thou wert drawn in with cartropes; for there is very great danger therein. 60. But if thou wouldst know how it is, behold, I will tell thee in a parable or similitude: When thou art pressed, according to the desire of thy heart, into riches and power, then it is with thee as if thou stoodst in a deep water, where the water always standeth up to thy very mouth, and thou feelest no ground under thy feet, but thou swimmest with thy hands and strugglest to protect or save thyself; now thou art in deep water, now above water again, yet always in a great terror and danger, expecting to sink down to the bottom, the water often coming into thy mouth, and always expecting death. 61. Just in this manner, and no other, thou sittest, when thou art in the pleasures of the flesh; if thou wilt not fight, thou canst not look for any victory, but thou wilt be murdered in thy soft bed of down. For man hath a continual host or army before him, which fight with him continually; if he will not defend himself, then he is
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.
1any man instruct me herein. 48. I have not my knowledge by study; indeed I have read the order and position of the seven planets in the books of astrologers, and find them * to be very right; but the root, how the planets came to be, and from what they are proceeded, I cannot learn from any man; for they know it not, neither was I present when God created the planets. * " find them," i.e. find the order and position of the seven planets. 49. But seeing the doors of the deep, and the gates of wrath, and the chambers of death also, are, through the love of God, set open in my spirit, therefore the spirit must needs look through them. 50. Accordingly I find, that the birth or geniture of nature standeth to this day, and generateth itself, just so as it did when it first took its beginning; and whatsoever riseth up in this world, whether men, beasts, trees, herbs, grass, mineral ores, or be it what it will, all riseth up in such a quality, manner and form as it first did; also every life, be it good or bad, taketh its original thus [as it did from the beginning]. 51. For this is the right or law of the Deity: that every life in the body of God should generate itself in one manner or uniform way; though it be done through many various imagings, yet the life hath one uniform way and original in all. 52. I see not this knowledge with my fleshly eyes, but with those eyes wherein life generateth itself in me; in that seat the gates of heaven and hell stand open to me, and the new man speculateth * into the midst or centre of the
2astral birth or geniture, and to him the inner and outermost gate standeth open. * "speculateth " (speculiret). See Ch. 10, par. 33. 53. While he yet sticketh in the old man of wrath and death, and sitteth also in his heaven, he seeth through both; in such a manner also he seeth the stars and elements. For in God there is no place of hindrance; for the eye of the LORD beholdeth all. 54. Now if my spirit did not see through his spirit, then I were but a blind stock; but seeing I see the gates of God in my spirit, and have the impulse to do it, I will therefore write directly according as I have seen it, and will not regard any man's authority. 55. Thou must not conceive it so, as if my old man were a living saint or angel. No, Friend, he sitteth with all men in the house of wrath and of death, and is a constant enemy to God, and sticketh in his sins, wickedness and malice, as all men do, and is full of faults, defects and infirmities. 56. But thou must know this, that he sticketh in a continual, anxious birth or geniture, but would fain be rid of the wrath and wickedness, and yet cannot. For he is as the whole house of this world, wherein love and wrath always wrestle the one with the other, and the new body always generateth itself in the midst or centre of the anguish. For so it must be, if thou wilt be born anew, otherwise no man can reach the regeneration. 57. In this world man is always seeking for soft days of ease for the flesh, and after riches, beauty and bravery, and knoweth not that he
3sitteth therewith in the chamber of death, where the sting of wrath darteth into him. 58. Behold! I tell this to thee, as a word of life, which I receive in the knowledge of the spirit, in the midst or centre in the birth or geniture of the new body of this world, over which the Man JESUS CHRIST is Ruler and King, together with his eternal Father. 59. Also, I receive it from before the seat of his throne, where all holy souls of men stand before him, and rejoice before him; [and I tell thee] that the desire of the flesh in soft pleasingness, to be rich, to be handsome, beautiful and fair, or to be mighty or potent, is a very bath or lake of hellish wrath, into which thou crowdest and runnest, as if thou wert drawn in with cartropes; for there is very great danger therein. 60. But if thou wouldst know how it is, behold, I will tell thee in a parable or similitude: When thou art pressed, according to the desire of thy heart, into riches and power, then it is with thee as if thou stoodst in a deep water, where the water always standeth up to thy very mouth, and thou feelest no ground under thy feet, but thou swimmest with thy hands and strugglest to protect or save thyself; now thou art in deep water, now above water again, yet always in a great terror and danger, expecting to sink down to the bottom, the water often coming into thy mouth, and always expecting death. 61. Just in this manner, and no other, thou sittest, when thou art in the pleasures of the flesh; if thou wilt not fight, thou canst not look for any victory, but thou wilt be murdered in thy soft bed of down. For man hath a continual host or army before him, which fight with him continually; if he will not defend himself, then he is
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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