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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.
1from the other six qualifying or fountain spirits, wherein the qualifying or fountain spirits generate themselves again, and shew forth them selves infinitely, wherein forms and images rise up, and wherein the heart of God, or the holy clear Deity in the middle or central seat, generateth itself above nature, in that centre wherein the light of life riseth up. 50. But now in man's body, in the government or dominion of the birth or geniture, there are three several things, each of them being distinct, and yet they are not divided asunder one from another; but all three together are one only man, after the kind and manner of the Ternary or Trinity in the divine being [or essence]. 51. The flesh is not the life, but is a dead, inanimate being, which, when the government or dominion of the spirit ceaseth to qualify or operate therein, soon becometh a dead carcass, and putrefieth and turneth to dust or ashes. 52. But now no spirit can subsist in its perfection without a body, for as soon as it departeth from the body it loseth its government or dominion. For the body is the mother of the spirit, in which the spirit is generated, and in which it receiveth its strength and power. The spirit is and remaineth a spirit when it is separated and departed from the body, but it loseth its rule, dominion or government. 53. These three dominions or regimens are the whole man, together with flesh and spirit; and they have severally, for their beginning and dominion or government, a sevenfold form, after the kind and manner of the seven spirits of God, or of the seven planets.
254. Now as the dominion or government of God's eternal, beginningless, infinite birth or geniture is, so also is the beginning and rising or springing up of the seven planets and the stars; and just so also is the rising or springing up of mans life. Now observe: 55. When thou mindest, thinkest and considerest what there is in this world, and what there is without, besides or distinct from this world, or what the essence of all beings is, then thou speculatest, contemplatest, meditatest in the whole body of God, who is the essence of all beings; and that is a beginningless, infinite being. 56. But it hath in its own seat no mobility, rationality or comprehensibility, but is a dark deep, which hath neither beginning nor end. In the dark deep is neither thick nor thin, opaque nor transparent, but it is a dark chamber of death, where nothing is perceived, neither cold nor warmth, for it is the end of all things. 57. This, now, is the body of the deep, or the very real chamber of death. 58. But in this dark valley there are the seven spirits of God, which have neither beginning nor end, and the one is neither the first, second, third or last. 59. In these seven dominions or regimens the regimen divideth itself into three distinct beings, where the one is not without the other, nor can they be divided the one from the other. But those seven spirits do each of them generate one another, from eternity to eternity.
360. The first dominion or regimen standeth or consisteth in the body of all things, that is, in the whole deep, or the being or essence of all beings or essences, which hath, in all corners and places thereof, in itself the seven spirits in possession, or in propriety indivisibly, or irresistibly, for its proper own. 61. Now if these seven spirits in any one place wrestle not triumphingly, then in that place there is no mobility, but a deep darkness; and although the spirits are perfect in that place, yet that place is a dark house; as you may perceive and understand by a dark cave or room close shut up, in which the kindled spirits of the planets and stars cannot kindle the elements. 62. But now the root of the seven spirits is everywhere all over, but when there is no wrestling, then it standeth still and quiet, and no mobility is perceived. 63. And such a house is the whole deep without, within, and above all heavens; which house is called the Eternity. And such a house also is the house of flesh in man, and in all creatures. 64. And this being, together,* comprehendeth the eternity, which is not called God, but the unalmighty body of nature, wherein, indeed, the Deity is immortal or not dead, but standing hidden in the kernel of the seven spirits; and yet not comprehended or understood.** * "And this being, together." "Together" is a literal rendering of the German. St M. has used, "entier," "in its wholeness." ** " and yet not comprehended or understood." The idea is that the " kernel of the seven spirits" does not comprehend
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.
1from the other six qualifying or fountain spirits, wherein the qualifying or fountain spirits generate themselves again, and shew forth them selves infinitely, wherein forms and images rise up, and wherein the heart of God, or the holy clear Deity in the middle or central seat, generateth itself above nature, in that centre wherein the light of life riseth up. 50. But now in man's body, in the government or dominion of the birth or geniture, there are three several things, each of them being distinct, and yet they are not divided asunder one from another; but all three together are one only man, after the kind and manner of the Ternary or Trinity in the divine being [or essence]. 51. The flesh is not the life, but is a dead, inanimate being, which, when the government or dominion of the spirit ceaseth to qualify or operate therein, soon becometh a dead carcass, and putrefieth and turneth to dust or ashes. 52. But now no spirit can subsist in its perfection without a body, for as soon as it departeth from the body it loseth its government or dominion. For the body is the mother of the spirit, in which the spirit is generated, and in which it receiveth its strength and power. The spirit is and remaineth a spirit when it is separated and departed from the body, but it loseth its rule, dominion or government. 53. These three dominions or regimens are the whole man, together with flesh and spirit; and they have severally, for their beginning and dominion or government, a sevenfold form, after the kind and manner of the seven spirits of God, or of the seven planets.
254. Now as the dominion or government of God's eternal, beginningless, infinite birth or geniture is, so also is the beginning and rising or springing up of the seven planets and the stars; and just so also is the rising or springing up of mans life. Now observe: 55. When thou mindest, thinkest and considerest what there is in this world, and what there is without, besides or distinct from this world, or what the essence of all beings is, then thou speculatest, contemplatest, meditatest in the whole body of God, who is the essence of all beings; and that is a beginningless, infinite being. 56. But it hath in its own seat no mobility, rationality or comprehensibility, but is a dark deep, which hath neither beginning nor end. In the dark deep is neither thick nor thin, opaque nor transparent, but it is a dark chamber of death, where nothing is perceived, neither cold nor warmth, for it is the end of all things. 57. This, now, is the body of the deep, or the very real chamber of death. 58. But in this dark valley there are the seven spirits of God, which have neither beginning nor end, and the one is neither the first, second, third or last. 59. In these seven dominions or regimens the regimen divideth itself into three distinct beings, where the one is not without the other, nor can they be divided the one from the other. But those seven spirits do each of them generate one another, from eternity to eternity.
360. The first dominion or regimen standeth or consisteth in the body of all things, that is, in the whole deep, or the being or essence of all beings or essences, which hath, in all corners and places thereof, in itself the seven spirits in possession, or in propriety indivisibly, or irresistibly, for its proper own. 61. Now if these seven spirits in any one place wrestle not triumphingly, then in that place there is no mobility, but a deep darkness; and although the spirits are perfect in that place, yet that place is a dark house; as you may perceive and understand by a dark cave or room close shut up, in which the kindled spirits of the planets and stars cannot kindle the elements. 62. But now the root of the seven spirits is everywhere all over, but when there is no wrestling, then it standeth still and quiet, and no mobility is perceived. 63. And such a house is the whole deep without, within, and above all heavens; which house is called the Eternity. And such a house also is the house of flesh in man, and in all creatures. 64. And this being, together,* comprehendeth the eternity, which is not called God, but the unalmighty body of nature, wherein, indeed, the Deity is immortal or not dead, but standing hidden in the kernel of the seven spirits; and yet not comprehended or understood.** * "And this being, together." "Together" is a literal rendering of the German. St M. has used, "entier," "in its wholeness." ** " and yet not comprehended or understood." The idea is that the " kernel of the seven spirits" does not comprehend
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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