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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.
1113. * And the spirit of the man, (understand the root of the love which, in the rising up of the life out of the water, riseth up through the fire), and also the spirit of the woman, both catch one another in that oil of the heart, where presently a mass, seed, or driving will or desire to the propagating of a man again arises in the mass. * A new translation of this par. has been substituted for Sparrow's rendering. 114. Just in such a way and manner the first mass also came to be, for the lovespirit in the Heart of God cast a glance, in the body of the kindled wrathful Father, on the water of life, whereby, and out of which, the love in the fireflash arose or sprang up before the time of the wrath. 115. In this casting of the glance the one spirit caught the other; the unctuous oil or water in the wrath conceived from the lovespirit in the Heart of God, and qualified, mixed or united with the same, and the astringent spirit drew the mass together; and there was clearly a birth, or a will or desire to the producing of a whole creature; just as the seed in man is. 116. But now the firmament of heaven, that is between the Heart of God and the kindled, hard chamber of death, was closed or shut up; else the life in the mass had suddenly kindled itself. 117. For the firmament was within in the mass, as well as without, distinct from the mass, which is the parting mark or limit of separation between the Heart of God and the fierce devils. 118. Therefore the Word or Heart of God must blow up the moving spirit in the mass,
2which was first done but on the sixth day, for very assured causes. 119. For if heaven had not, as a firmament, been shut up in the mass, between the Heart of God and the corporeal, qualifying or fountain spirits of the mass, then the mass might have kindled the soul from or by its own power; as it happened with the holy angels. 120. But it was to be feared that it would come to pass as it did with that fair little son Lucifer, seeing the corporeal, qualifying or fountain spirits in the mass were kindled in the wrathfire. 121. Therefore heaven must be a firmament between the sparkle which had conceived from the Heart of God in the first glance; that though the body might happen to perish, yet the holy seed might remain, which is the soul, which qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with the Heart of God, out of which a new body might come to be, when the whole God should kindle again the deep of this world in the light of the Heart of God; and just so it is come to be with the body. The love of God have mercy, and take pity on it! 122. The dear man Moses writeth, That God made man out of a clod of earth, as the learned have rendered it. But Moses was not present when it was done. 123. But this I must needs say, that Moses hath written very rightly, though the true understanding or meaning, out of what the earth proceeded, remained hidden to Moses, and to them that have come after him in the letter, for the spirit hath kept it hidden to this very time. 124. It was also hidden from Adam, while he
3was yet in Paradise; but now it will be fully revealed. For the Heart of God hath set upon or assaulted the chamber of death, and will shortly break quite through. 125. And therefore, in these our present times, some beams of the day will more and more break through in the hearts of some men, and make known the day. 126. But when the Dawning or Morning Redness shall shine from the east to the west, or from the rising to the setting, then, assuredly, time will be no more; but the SUN of the Heart of God riseth or sprinqeth forth, and, RA. RA. R. P . will be pressed in the winepress without the city, and therewith to R. P. * [see Epistles of Jacob Behmen (1649), Ep. 23, v. 12.] * " and therewith to R. P.," lit., " and therewith AM. R. P." 127. These are hidden, mystical words, and are understood only in the language of nature. 128. Moses writeth very rightly, that man was created out of the earth; but at that time, when the mass was held by the Word, then the mass was not earth. But if it had not been held or kept by the Word, then at that very hour it had become black earth, but the cold wrathfire was in it already. 129. For at the very hour when Lucifer elevated himself the Father was moved to wrath in the qualifying or fountain spirits against the legions of Lucifer; and the Heart of God hid itself in the firmament of heaven, where the Salitter, effect, product or fabric * of the corporeity was burning already; for without or distinct from the light is the dark chamber of death.
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.
1113. * And the spirit of the man, (understand the root of the love which, in the rising up of the life out of the water, riseth up through the fire), and also the spirit of the woman, both catch one another in that oil of the heart, where presently a mass, seed, or driving will or desire to the propagating of a man again arises in the mass. * A new translation of this par. has been substituted for Sparrow's rendering. 114. Just in such a way and manner the first mass also came to be, for the lovespirit in the Heart of God cast a glance, in the body of the kindled wrathful Father, on the water of life, whereby, and out of which, the love in the fireflash arose or sprang up before the time of the wrath. 115. In this casting of the glance the one spirit caught the other; the unctuous oil or water in the wrath conceived from the lovespirit in the Heart of God, and qualified, mixed or united with the same, and the astringent spirit drew the mass together; and there was clearly a birth, or a will or desire to the producing of a whole creature; just as the seed in man is. 116. But now the firmament of heaven, that is between the Heart of God and the kindled, hard chamber of death, was closed or shut up; else the life in the mass had suddenly kindled itself. 117. For the firmament was within in the mass, as well as without, distinct from the mass, which is the parting mark or limit of separation between the Heart of God and the fierce devils. 118. Therefore the Word or Heart of God must blow up the moving spirit in the mass,
2which was first done but on the sixth day, for very assured causes. 119. For if heaven had not, as a firmament, been shut up in the mass, between the Heart of God and the corporeal, qualifying or fountain spirits of the mass, then the mass might have kindled the soul from or by its own power; as it happened with the holy angels. 120. But it was to be feared that it would come to pass as it did with that fair little son Lucifer, seeing the corporeal, qualifying or fountain spirits in the mass were kindled in the wrathfire. 121. Therefore heaven must be a firmament between the sparkle which had conceived from the Heart of God in the first glance; that though the body might happen to perish, yet the holy seed might remain, which is the soul, which qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with the Heart of God, out of which a new body might come to be, when the whole God should kindle again the deep of this world in the light of the Heart of God; and just so it is come to be with the body. The love of God have mercy, and take pity on it! 122. The dear man Moses writeth, That God made man out of a clod of earth, as the learned have rendered it. But Moses was not present when it was done. 123. But this I must needs say, that Moses hath written very rightly, though the true understanding or meaning, out of what the earth proceeded, remained hidden to Moses, and to them that have come after him in the letter, for the spirit hath kept it hidden to this very time. 124. It was also hidden from Adam, while he
3was yet in Paradise; but now it will be fully revealed. For the Heart of God hath set upon or assaulted the chamber of death, and will shortly break quite through. 125. And therefore, in these our present times, some beams of the day will more and more break through in the hearts of some men, and make known the day. 126. But when the Dawning or Morning Redness shall shine from the east to the west, or from the rising to the setting, then, assuredly, time will be no more; but the SUN of the Heart of God riseth or sprinqeth forth, and, RA. RA. R. P . will be pressed in the winepress without the city, and therewith to R. P. * [see Epistles of Jacob Behmen (1649), Ep. 23, v. 12.] * " and therewith to R. P.," lit., " and therewith AM. R. P." 127. These are hidden, mystical words, and are understood only in the language of nature. 128. Moses writeth very rightly, that man was created out of the earth; but at that time, when the mass was held by the Word, then the mass was not earth. But if it had not been held or kept by the Word, then at that very hour it had become black earth, but the cold wrathfire was in it already. 129. For at the very hour when Lucifer elevated himself the Father was moved to wrath in the qualifying or fountain spirits against the legions of Lucifer; and the Heart of God hid itself in the firmament of heaven, where the Salitter, effect, product or fabric * of the corporeity was burning already; for without or distinct from the light is the dark chamber of death.
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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