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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.
189. If we would rightly search into the original of the birth and geniture of the stars, or into their beginning, then we must exactly know the birth or geniture of the life, viz. how the life generateth itself in a body; for all these are one kind of birth or geniture. 90. He that doth not know nor understand this, he doth not at all know the birth of the stars, for all, concreted together, is one body. When once life is generated in any creature, the creature's life standeth or subsisteth afterwards in the creature's own body, as the birth or geniture of the natural body of this world standeth or subsisteth in its own body; for every life must be generated according to the right, law or ordinance of the Deity, as the Deity* generateth itself continually. * "as the Deity " = in the same way that the Deity. 91. If this be rightly considered, which, indeed, cannot be done without a special illumination of the holy God, then, before he finds anything else, a man findeth the astringent, cold and austere birth or geniture, which is the cause of the corporeal nature, or of the imaging, fashioning or framing of a thing. 92. Now if it were not for this severe, and cold sharp contracting, compacting power, there would be no natural or corporeal being, neither could the birth or geniture of God subsist, and all would be unsearchable. 93. But in this hard, severe and cold power standeth [i.e. consisteth] the corporeal essence or the body, wherein the spirit of life generateth itself; and out of that same spirit the light and the understanding [generate themselves]; and then through these the senses and the trial or
2testing of all powers ariseth. 94. For when the light is generated, it is generated in the midst or centre of the body, as a heart or spirit out of all powers; and there it standeth and remaineth in the place where it had its beginning, and goeth forth through all the powers. 95. For as it is generated out of all powers, and hath the fountain of all powers, so with its shining lustre it also bringeth the fountain of all powers into each power; from whence then existeth the taste and smell, also seeing, feeling and hearing; as also reason and understanding. 96. Now, as the original and beginning of the life is, in a creature, so is the first regeneration of the nature of the new life in the corrupted body of this world. He that denieth it hath not the true understanding, nor any knowledge of nature; and so his knowledge is not generated in God, but he is a mocker of God. 97. I. For behold! thou canst not deny that the life in a creature existeth in the heat of the heart; and in that life also standeth the light of the animated or soulish birth or geniture. 98. Now the heart signifieth the sun, which is the beginning of life in the outward body of this world. Now, whilst the body standeth in the mobility or life, thou canst not say that the animated or soulish birth goeth away or departeth from the heart. 99. No more doth the sun go away or depart from its seat, but retains and keeps its own place to itself, as a heart; and shineth forth as a light, or as a spirit of the whole body of this world, in all powers of the body.
3100. For its birth also hath a beginning out of all powers, and therefore with its light and heat it is again one spirit and heart in the whole body of this world. 101. II. Further, thou canst not deny, either, that the gall in a creature is not existed from the heart, and yet it is the mobility or stirring of the heart, by a vein that goeth from the gall to the heart; from whence the heat existeth. But it hath its first original from the flash of life, and so when the life generateth itself in the heart, and the light riseth up in the water, then the firecrack goeth before, which riseth up out of the anxiety of the water in the heat. 102. For when the heat is so anxious in the cold in the astringent quality, that the light kindleth itself through the hidden heaven of the heart in the corporeity, then the anxious death in the wrath of God is terrified, and departeth as a crack or flash from the light, and climbeth upwards very terribly, trembling, and timorously; and the light of the heart hasteneth after it, and affecteth or possesseth it, and then it remaineth at a standstill. 103. This is, and signifieth, the planet Mars, for thus is [or hath] Mars come into being; and its own quality is nothing else but a poisonous, venomous, bitter firecrack, which is risen up from the place of the sun. 104. But now it is always a kindler of the sun, just as the gall is a kindler of the heart; whence the heat, both in the sun and in the heart, existeth, and whence the life taketh its original in all things. 105. III. Thirdly, thou canst not deny that the brain in the head in a creature is the power of the heart; for from the heart all powers rise up into
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.
189. If we would rightly search into the original of the birth and geniture of the stars, or into their beginning, then we must exactly know the birth or geniture of the life, viz. how the life generateth itself in a body; for all these are one kind of birth or geniture. 90. He that doth not know nor understand this, he doth not at all know the birth of the stars, for all, concreted together, is one body. When once life is generated in any creature, the creature's life standeth or subsisteth afterwards in the creature's own body, as the birth or geniture of the natural body of this world standeth or subsisteth in its own body; for every life must be generated according to the right, law or ordinance of the Deity, as the Deity* generateth itself continually. * "as the Deity " = in the same way that the Deity. 91. If this be rightly considered, which, indeed, cannot be done without a special illumination of the holy God, then, before he finds anything else, a man findeth the astringent, cold and austere birth or geniture, which is the cause of the corporeal nature, or of the imaging, fashioning or framing of a thing. 92. Now if it were not for this severe, and cold sharp contracting, compacting power, there would be no natural or corporeal being, neither could the birth or geniture of God subsist, and all would be unsearchable. 93. But in this hard, severe and cold power standeth [i.e. consisteth] the corporeal essence or the body, wherein the spirit of life generateth itself; and out of that same spirit the light and the understanding [generate themselves]; and then through these the senses and the trial or
2testing of all powers ariseth. 94. For when the light is generated, it is generated in the midst or centre of the body, as a heart or spirit out of all powers; and there it standeth and remaineth in the place where it had its beginning, and goeth forth through all the powers. 95. For as it is generated out of all powers, and hath the fountain of all powers, so with its shining lustre it also bringeth the fountain of all powers into each power; from whence then existeth the taste and smell, also seeing, feeling and hearing; as also reason and understanding. 96. Now, as the original and beginning of the life is, in a creature, so is the first regeneration of the nature of the new life in the corrupted body of this world. He that denieth it hath not the true understanding, nor any knowledge of nature; and so his knowledge is not generated in God, but he is a mocker of God. 97. I. For behold! thou canst not deny that the life in a creature existeth in the heat of the heart; and in that life also standeth the light of the animated or soulish birth or geniture. 98. Now the heart signifieth the sun, which is the beginning of life in the outward body of this world. Now, whilst the body standeth in the mobility or life, thou canst not say that the animated or soulish birth goeth away or departeth from the heart. 99. No more doth the sun go away or depart from its seat, but retains and keeps its own place to itself, as a heart; and shineth forth as a light, or as a spirit of the whole body of this world, in all powers of the body.
3100. For its birth also hath a beginning out of all powers, and therefore with its light and heat it is again one spirit and heart in the whole body of this world. 101. II. Further, thou canst not deny, either, that the gall in a creature is not existed from the heart, and yet it is the mobility or stirring of the heart, by a vein that goeth from the gall to the heart; from whence the heat existeth. But it hath its first original from the flash of life, and so when the life generateth itself in the heart, and the light riseth up in the water, then the firecrack goeth before, which riseth up out of the anxiety of the water in the heat. 102. For when the heat is so anxious in the cold in the astringent quality, that the light kindleth itself through the hidden heaven of the heart in the corporeity, then the anxious death in the wrath of God is terrified, and departeth as a crack or flash from the light, and climbeth upwards very terribly, trembling, and timorously; and the light of the heart hasteneth after it, and affecteth or possesseth it, and then it remaineth at a standstill. 103. This is, and signifieth, the planet Mars, for thus is [or hath] Mars come into being; and its own quality is nothing else but a poisonous, venomous, bitter firecrack, which is risen up from the place of the sun. 104. But now it is always a kindler of the sun, just as the gall is a kindler of the heart; whence the heat, both in the sun and in the heart, existeth, and whence the life taketh its original in all things. 105. III. Thirdly, thou canst not deny that the brain in the head in a creature is the power of the heart; for from the heart all powers rise up into
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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