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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.
1and grass grow out of the earth. Heat is therefore called a quality, because it operateth, moveth and boileth (or welleth up) in all, and elevateth all. 13. But the light in the heat giveth power to all qualities, so that all grow pleasant and joyful: Heat without light availeth not the other qualities, but is a perdition to the good, an evil source or spring; for all is spoiled in the fierceness or wrath of the heat. Thus the light in the heat is a quick spring or living fountain, into which the Holy Ghost entereth, but the Holy Ghost entereth not into the fierceness or wrath. 14. Yet the heat maketh the light moveable, so that it springeth and driveth forth; as is seen in winter, when the light of the sun is likewise upon the earth, but the hot rays of the sun cannot reach into the earth, and that is the reason why no fruit groweth in winter. Of the Qualification of the Cold Quality. 15. Cold is a quality also, as well as heat; it qualifieth or operateth in all creatures whatsoever that come forth in nature, and in all whatsoever that move therein, in men, beasts, fowls, fishes, worms, leaves and grass. 16. Heat is set in opposition unto it, and qualifieth therein, as if it were one and the same thing; but cold opposeth the fierceness or rage of the heat, and allayeth the heat. 17. Cold containeth also two sorts or species* in it, which are to be observed, viz. It miti gateth the heat, maketh all things pleasant, and is in all creatures a quality of life; for no creature can subsist without cold; for it is a springing, driving mobility in every thing.
2* "species." St. Martin uses the word "characteristics." 18. The other kind or species is fierceness; for where this getteth power it suppresseth all, and spoileth all, even as the heat doth; no life could subsist in it if the heat did not hinder that. The fierceness of cold is a destruction to every life, and the house of death, even as the hot fierceness also is. Of the Qualification of the Air and the Water. 19. Air hath its original from heat and cold; for heat and cold work powerfully * and replenish all, whereby is caused a lively and stirring motion; but when cold allayeth or mitigateth the heat, then both their qualities are rarefied and made thin; and the bitter quality attracteth or concreteth them together, so that they become dewy. * " work powerfully " (treiben gewaltig von sich), i.e. " produce an outgoing impelling force." 20. But the air hath its original and greatest motion from heat, and the water hath its original and greatest motion from cold. 21. Now these two qualities wrestle continually the one with the other, the heat consumeth the water, and the cold condenseth or crowdeth the air. Now air is the cause and spirit of every life and motion in the world, be it in flesh or in any of the vegetables; all whatever is hath its life from the air, and nothing whatsoever that moveth and is in this world can subsist without air. 22. Water also springeth in every living and
3moving creature in this world. In the water consisteth the body of everything, as the spirit consisteth in the air, be it in animals [or in flesh] or in vegetables. 23. These two [air and water] are caused by heat and cold, and qualify or mix * and operate together as one thing. * "qualify or mix" (qualificiret unter einander), "qualify between themselves." The idea is that of interaction. 24. Now in these two qualities two other species or kinds are to be observed, viz. a living operation and a dead operation. The air is a living quality, if it be temperate or moderate in a thing, and the Holy Ghost reigneth in the calmness or meekness of the air; and all the creatures rejoice therein. 25. + But there is a fierceness or wrath also in it, so that it killeth and destroyeth by its terrible disturbance. But the qualification taketh its original from the fierce disturbance or elevation, so that it moveth and driveth in every creature, from whence life hath its originals and doth exist; and therefore both of them must be in this life. + "But the air also containeth a fierceness or wrath, so that it killeth and destroyeth by its violence" [St. M. has "furious impetus"]. "Nevertheless the qualification ariseth from this furious impetus; and thus in all things there is a motion and a stimulus whence life ariseth and wherein it consisteth, therefore both qualities must be in this life." 26. The water also hath a fierce deadly spring, for it killeth and consumeth; and so all things that have a life and being must rot and perish in the water. 27. Thus heat and cold are the cause and
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.
1and grass grow out of the earth. Heat is therefore called a quality, because it operateth, moveth and boileth (or welleth up) in all, and elevateth all. 13. But the light in the heat giveth power to all qualities, so that all grow pleasant and joyful: Heat without light availeth not the other qualities, but is a perdition to the good, an evil source or spring; for all is spoiled in the fierceness or wrath of the heat. Thus the light in the heat is a quick spring or living fountain, into which the Holy Ghost entereth, but the Holy Ghost entereth not into the fierceness or wrath. 14. Yet the heat maketh the light moveable, so that it springeth and driveth forth; as is seen in winter, when the light of the sun is likewise upon the earth, but the hot rays of the sun cannot reach into the earth, and that is the reason why no fruit groweth in winter. Of the Qualification of the Cold Quality. 15. Cold is a quality also, as well as heat; it qualifieth or operateth in all creatures whatsoever that come forth in nature, and in all whatsoever that move therein, in men, beasts, fowls, fishes, worms, leaves and grass. 16. Heat is set in opposition unto it, and qualifieth therein, as if it were one and the same thing; but cold opposeth the fierceness or rage of the heat, and allayeth the heat. 17. Cold containeth also two sorts or species* in it, which are to be observed, viz. It miti gateth the heat, maketh all things pleasant, and is in all creatures a quality of life; for no creature can subsist without cold; for it is a springing, driving mobility in every thing.
2* "species." St. Martin uses the word "characteristics." 18. The other kind or species is fierceness; for where this getteth power it suppresseth all, and spoileth all, even as the heat doth; no life could subsist in it if the heat did not hinder that. The fierceness of cold is a destruction to every life, and the house of death, even as the hot fierceness also is. Of the Qualification of the Air and the Water. 19. Air hath its original from heat and cold; for heat and cold work powerfully * and replenish all, whereby is caused a lively and stirring motion; but when cold allayeth or mitigateth the heat, then both their qualities are rarefied and made thin; and the bitter quality attracteth or concreteth them together, so that they become dewy. * " work powerfully " (treiben gewaltig von sich), i.e. " produce an outgoing impelling force." 20. But the air hath its original and greatest motion from heat, and the water hath its original and greatest motion from cold. 21. Now these two qualities wrestle continually the one with the other, the heat consumeth the water, and the cold condenseth or crowdeth the air. Now air is the cause and spirit of every life and motion in the world, be it in flesh or in any of the vegetables; all whatever is hath its life from the air, and nothing whatsoever that moveth and is in this world can subsist without air. 22. Water also springeth in every living and
3moving creature in this world. In the water consisteth the body of everything, as the spirit consisteth in the air, be it in animals [or in flesh] or in vegetables. 23. These two [air and water] are caused by heat and cold, and qualify or mix * and operate together as one thing. * "qualify or mix" (qualificiret unter einander), "qualify between themselves." The idea is that of interaction. 24. Now in these two qualities two other species or kinds are to be observed, viz. a living operation and a dead operation. The air is a living quality, if it be temperate or moderate in a thing, and the Holy Ghost reigneth in the calmness or meekness of the air; and all the creatures rejoice therein. 25. + But there is a fierceness or wrath also in it, so that it killeth and destroyeth by its terrible disturbance. But the qualification taketh its original from the fierce disturbance or elevation, so that it moveth and driveth in every creature, from whence life hath its originals and doth exist; and therefore both of them must be in this life. + "But the air also containeth a fierceness or wrath, so that it killeth and destroyeth by its violence" [St. M. has "furious impetus"]. "Nevertheless the qualification ariseth from this furious impetus; and thus in all things there is a motion and a stimulus whence life ariseth and wherein it consisteth, therefore both qualities must be in this life." 26. The water also hath a fierce deadly spring, for it killeth and consumeth; and so all things that have a life and being must rot and perish in the water. 27. Thus heat and cold are the cause and
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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