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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.
1like the love of life, that power lowered itself, according to the nature of humility. 34. Out of this the planet Venus existed; * for in the house of death Venus is an opener of meekness, or a kindler of the water, and a soft penetrator into the hardness, a kindler of the love, in which [Venus] the upper regimen or dominion, viz., the bitter heat, is desirous or longing after Mars, and the hearty sensibility is desirous or longing after Jupiter. * " Out of this the planet Venus existed " = out of this descent of the power of the light the planet Venus has arisen, or, has come into being (lit., " is become "). 35. From whence the affections or insinuations exist; for the power of Venus maketh fierce Mars or the firecrack mild, and mitigateth it, and maketh Jupiter humble, else the power of Jupiter would break through the hard chamber, Saturn; and in men and beasts would break through the skull or brainpan; and so the sensibility would transmute itself into highmindedness above the birthright, or right, law or order of the geniture of the Deity, in the manner and way of the proud devil. Of the Planet Mercurius. 36. If we would exactly and fundamentally know how, in the deep of this world, the birth or beginning is of the planets and stars, and of the essence of all beings, we must accurately consider the instant or innate birth, or the beginning of life, in man. 37. For that life taketh such a beginning and rising, and standeth also in such an order, as doth the birth or geniture of the essence of all beings in
2the body of this world. 38. For the instant or innate wheel of the stars and planets is no otherwise than as the birth of the seventh spirit of nature, before the time of the world rose up, wherein were formed images and figures, forms, shapes or ideas, as also heavenly fruits, according to the eternal right, law or order of the Deity. 39. Thus, because man is created according to the qualifying or fountain spirits of God, and also out of the divine essence, therefore hath man's life such a beginning and rising up as that of the planets and stars hath been. 40. For the beginning, instant or innate state and being of the planets and stars is not otherwise than as the beginning and impulse or government and dominion in man. 41. Now in the same way that the human life riseth up, so also in that way hath the birth of the seven planets and stars risen and sprung up; and therein there is no difference at all. The Centre or Circle of the Birth of Life. The great Depth. 42. The spirit citeth the physicians to come before this lookingglass; especially anatomists and dissectors of men, who by their anatomy would learn the birth and rising or springing up of man's life, and who have murdered many innocent men, against the right and law of God and of nature, hoping thereby to find out the wonderful proportion, harmony and form of nature, that they might thereby be useful in restoring the health of others.
343. But seeing in nature they are found to be murderers, and malefactors against the law and right of God and nature, therefore the spirit, which qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with God, doth not justify them in their murderous way. 44. They might have had a nearer and surer way to learn the wonderful birth or geniture of nature, if their lofty highmindedness, and devilish, murderous curiosity had given them leave, but these have perverted their true divine senses or understandings. 45. Their intent was only to fight with men, and not with gods, therefore it is just they should receive such a reward of their error. 46. Come on, ye crowned ornaments of caps and hoods, etc. Let us see whether a simple layman may be able, in the knowledge of God, to search into the birth or geniture of man's life. If it be amiss, then reject it; if it be right, then let it stand. 47. I here set down this description of the birth or geniture of man's life, to the end that the original of the stars and planets may be the better conceived. In the description of the creation of man thou wilt find all, more fundamentally and deeply, what the beginning of man is. Now observe: 48. The seed of man is generated in such a manner as the wonderful proportion, harmony or form of nature in its wrestling and rising up is generated, from eternity. 49. For the human flesh is and resembleth nature in the body of God, which is generated
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.
1like the love of life, that power lowered itself, according to the nature of humility. 34. Out of this the planet Venus existed; * for in the house of death Venus is an opener of meekness, or a kindler of the water, and a soft penetrator into the hardness, a kindler of the love, in which [Venus] the upper regimen or dominion, viz., the bitter heat, is desirous or longing after Mars, and the hearty sensibility is desirous or longing after Jupiter. * " Out of this the planet Venus existed " = out of this descent of the power of the light the planet Venus has arisen, or, has come into being (lit., " is become "). 35. From whence the affections or insinuations exist; for the power of Venus maketh fierce Mars or the firecrack mild, and mitigateth it, and maketh Jupiter humble, else the power of Jupiter would break through the hard chamber, Saturn; and in men and beasts would break through the skull or brainpan; and so the sensibility would transmute itself into highmindedness above the birthright, or right, law or order of the geniture of the Deity, in the manner and way of the proud devil. Of the Planet Mercurius. 36. If we would exactly and fundamentally know how, in the deep of this world, the birth or beginning is of the planets and stars, and of the essence of all beings, we must accurately consider the instant or innate birth, or the beginning of life, in man. 37. For that life taketh such a beginning and rising, and standeth also in such an order, as doth the birth or geniture of the essence of all beings in
2the body of this world. 38. For the instant or innate wheel of the stars and planets is no otherwise than as the birth of the seventh spirit of nature, before the time of the world rose up, wherein were formed images and figures, forms, shapes or ideas, as also heavenly fruits, according to the eternal right, law or order of the Deity. 39. Thus, because man is created according to the qualifying or fountain spirits of God, and also out of the divine essence, therefore hath man's life such a beginning and rising up as that of the planets and stars hath been. 40. For the beginning, instant or innate state and being of the planets and stars is not otherwise than as the beginning and impulse or government and dominion in man. 41. Now in the same way that the human life riseth up, so also in that way hath the birth of the seven planets and stars risen and sprung up; and therein there is no difference at all. The Centre or Circle of the Birth of Life. The great Depth. 42. The spirit citeth the physicians to come before this lookingglass; especially anatomists and dissectors of men, who by their anatomy would learn the birth and rising or springing up of man's life, and who have murdered many innocent men, against the right and law of God and of nature, hoping thereby to find out the wonderful proportion, harmony and form of nature, that they might thereby be useful in restoring the health of others.
343. But seeing in nature they are found to be murderers, and malefactors against the law and right of God and nature, therefore the spirit, which qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with God, doth not justify them in their murderous way. 44. They might have had a nearer and surer way to learn the wonderful birth or geniture of nature, if their lofty highmindedness, and devilish, murderous curiosity had given them leave, but these have perverted their true divine senses or understandings. 45. Their intent was only to fight with men, and not with gods, therefore it is just they should receive such a reward of their error. 46. Come on, ye crowned ornaments of caps and hoods, etc. Let us see whether a simple layman may be able, in the knowledge of God, to search into the birth or geniture of man's life. If it be amiss, then reject it; if it be right, then let it stand. 47. I here set down this description of the birth or geniture of man's life, to the end that the original of the stars and planets may be the better conceived. In the description of the creation of man thou wilt find all, more fundamentally and deeply, what the beginning of man is. Now observe: 48. The seed of man is generated in such a manner as the wonderful proportion, harmony or form of nature in its wrestling and rising up is generated, from eternity. 49. For the human flesh is and resembleth nature in the body of God, which is generated
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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