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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.
1* "effect, product or fabric " (Gewirke). See Ch. 26, par. 3. 130. But the mass was held or kept in the firmament of heaven that it might not be congealed; for when the Heart of God glanced on the mass with its hot love, then the unctuosity or oil in the mass, which rose up out of the water through the fire, out of which the light riseth up, and out of which the lovespirit riseth up, caught hold of the Heart of God, and was impregnated with a young son. 131. And that was the seed of love; for one love embraced the other; the love of the mass embraced and conceived from the love out of the glance of the Heart of God, and was thereby impregnated; and this is the birth or geniture of the soul; and as to this son, man is the image of God. 132. But the qualifying or fountain spirits in the mass could not presently be kindled thereby from the soul; for the soul stood only in the seed in the mass, hidden with the Heart of God in its heaven, till the Creator breathed upon the mass; and then the qualifying or fountain spirits kindled the soul also, and then both body and soul lived equally together. 133. Indeed the soul had its life before the body, but it stood in the Heart of God, hidden in the mass in heaven, and was a kind of holy seed, qualifying, mixing or uniting with God, which seed is eternal, incorruptible and indestructible; for it was a new and pure seed for an angel and image of God. 134. But the fabric, effect or product * of the whole mass was an extract or attraction of the Word of God, out of the fabric or effect of the qualifying or fountain spirits, or of the Salitter, out of which the earth came to be.
2* " fabric, effect or product" (Gewirke). See Ch. 26, par. 3. 135. This extract was not yet become earth, though it was the Salitter of the earth, but was held or kept by the Word. 136. For when the lovespirit out of the Heart of God glanced on the Salitter of the mass, then the Salitter did catch hold of it and conceived from it, and was impregnated in the centre of the soul, and the Word stood in the mass in the sound; but the light abode in the centre of the mass, in the firmament of heaven, remaining hidden in the unctuous oil of the heart, and did not move itself forth out of the firmament of heaven, in the birth of the qualifying or fountain spirits. 137. Else, if the light had kindled itself in the birth or geniture of the soul, then all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, according to the eternal birthright of the Deity, had triumphed and qualified, mixed or united in and with the light, and had been a living angel; but seeing the wrath had clearly already infected the Salitter, therefore that danger was to be feared that befell Lucifer. Now it may be asked: 138. Why were not many masses created at this time, out of which, instantly at once, there might have been a whole angelical host or army, instead of fallen Lucifer? 139. Why should there be so long a time of staying in the wrath? 140. And why should the whole host or army be generated out of that one mass, in so very long a time? 141. Or did not the Creator at this time see and know of the fall of man?
3Answer. 142. This now is the very door of the hidden, secret Mystery of the Deity. Concerning which the Reader is to conceive, that it is not in the power or capacity of any man to discern or to know it, if the Dawning or MorningRedness doth not break forth in the centre in the soul. 143. For these things are divine Mysteries, which no man can search into by his own Reason. I also esteem myself most unworthy of such a gift; and besides, I shall have many scorners and mockers against me; for the corrupted nature is horribly ashamed before the light. 144. But for all that, I cannot forbear; for when the divine light breaketh forth in the circle or birth of life, then the qualifying or fountain spirits rejoice, and in the circle of the life reflect or look back into their mother, into the eternity; and they also look forwards into the eternity. 145. It [the breaking forth of the light] is not, however, a permanent essence, nor a constant illumination of the qualifying or fountain spirits, much less of the bestial body; but it is the ray of the breaking through of the light of God with a fiery impulse, which riseth up through the meek water of life in the love, and remaineth, abiding in its heaven. 146. Therefore I can bring it no further than from the heart into the brain, before the princely throne of the senses, and there it is shut up in the firmament of heaven; and it goeth not back again through the qualifying or fountain spirits into the mother of the heart, that it might come on to the tongue, for if that were done I would tell it with my mouth, and make it known
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.
1* "effect, product or fabric " (Gewirke). See Ch. 26, par. 3. 130. But the mass was held or kept in the firmament of heaven that it might not be congealed; for when the Heart of God glanced on the mass with its hot love, then the unctuosity or oil in the mass, which rose up out of the water through the fire, out of which the light riseth up, and out of which the lovespirit riseth up, caught hold of the Heart of God, and was impregnated with a young son. 131. And that was the seed of love; for one love embraced the other; the love of the mass embraced and conceived from the love out of the glance of the Heart of God, and was thereby impregnated; and this is the birth or geniture of the soul; and as to this son, man is the image of God. 132. But the qualifying or fountain spirits in the mass could not presently be kindled thereby from the soul; for the soul stood only in the seed in the mass, hidden with the Heart of God in its heaven, till the Creator breathed upon the mass; and then the qualifying or fountain spirits kindled the soul also, and then both body and soul lived equally together. 133. Indeed the soul had its life before the body, but it stood in the Heart of God, hidden in the mass in heaven, and was a kind of holy seed, qualifying, mixing or uniting with God, which seed is eternal, incorruptible and indestructible; for it was a new and pure seed for an angel and image of God. 134. But the fabric, effect or product * of the whole mass was an extract or attraction of the Word of God, out of the fabric or effect of the qualifying or fountain spirits, or of the Salitter, out of which the earth came to be.
2* " fabric, effect or product" (Gewirke). See Ch. 26, par. 3. 135. This extract was not yet become earth, though it was the Salitter of the earth, but was held or kept by the Word. 136. For when the lovespirit out of the Heart of God glanced on the Salitter of the mass, then the Salitter did catch hold of it and conceived from it, and was impregnated in the centre of the soul, and the Word stood in the mass in the sound; but the light abode in the centre of the mass, in the firmament of heaven, remaining hidden in the unctuous oil of the heart, and did not move itself forth out of the firmament of heaven, in the birth of the qualifying or fountain spirits. 137. Else, if the light had kindled itself in the birth or geniture of the soul, then all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, according to the eternal birthright of the Deity, had triumphed and qualified, mixed or united in and with the light, and had been a living angel; but seeing the wrath had clearly already infected the Salitter, therefore that danger was to be feared that befell Lucifer. Now it may be asked: 138. Why were not many masses created at this time, out of which, instantly at once, there might have been a whole angelical host or army, instead of fallen Lucifer? 139. Why should there be so long a time of staying in the wrath? 140. And why should the whole host or army be generated out of that one mass, in so very long a time? 141. Or did not the Creator at this time see and know of the fall of man?
3Answer. 142. This now is the very door of the hidden, secret Mystery of the Deity. Concerning which the Reader is to conceive, that it is not in the power or capacity of any man to discern or to know it, if the Dawning or MorningRedness doth not break forth in the centre in the soul. 143. For these things are divine Mysteries, which no man can search into by his own Reason. I also esteem myself most unworthy of such a gift; and besides, I shall have many scorners and mockers against me; for the corrupted nature is horribly ashamed before the light. 144. But for all that, I cannot forbear; for when the divine light breaketh forth in the circle or birth of life, then the qualifying or fountain spirits rejoice, and in the circle of the life reflect or look back into their mother, into the eternity; and they also look forwards into the eternity. 145. It [the breaking forth of the light] is not, however, a permanent essence, nor a constant illumination of the qualifying or fountain spirits, much less of the bestial body; but it is the ray of the breaking through of the light of God with a fiery impulse, which riseth up through the meek water of life in the love, and remaineth, abiding in its heaven. 146. Therefore I can bring it no further than from the heart into the brain, before the princely throne of the senses, and there it is shut up in the firmament of heaven; and it goeth not back again through the qualifying or fountain spirits into the mother of the heart, that it might come on to the tongue, for if that were done I would tell it with my mouth, and make it known
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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