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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.
1original of water and air, in which everything acteth and standeth; every life and mobility standeth therein. Of this I shall write plainly, concerning the creation of the stars. Of the Influences of the other Qualities in the Three Elements, Fire, Air, and Water. Of the Bitter Quality. 28. The bitter quality is the heart in every life; for as it attracteth together the water in the air, and also dissipateth the same, so that it [the water] becometh separable; so also in other creatures, and in the vegetables of the earth. For leaves and grass have their green colour from the bitter quality. 29. Now if the bitter quality dwelleth meekly and gently in any creature, then is it the heart or joy therein; for it dissipateth all other evil influences, and is the beginning or cause of joy or of laughing. 30. * For the bitter quality, when stirred, causeth the creature to tremble and be joyful, and to be lifted up in its whole body; for the stirring of the bitter quality is, as it were, a glimpse or ray of or from the heavenly kingdom of joy, an exaltation of the spirit, a spirit and virtue in all plants of the earth, a mother of life. * A new translation of this par. has been substituted for Sparrow's rendering. 31. The Holy Ghost springeth, moveth and driveth vehemently in this quality, for this quality is a part of the heavenly joyfulness, as I shall demonstrate afterwards.
232. But it hath also in it another species or kind, namely, the fierceness or wrath, which is the very house of death, a corruption of all good, a perdition and destruction of the life in the flesh. 33. For if it be too much elevated or too preponderant in any creature, and be inflamed in the heat, then flesh and spirit separate, and the creature loseth its life and must die; for then it moveth and kindleth the element fire; and in the great heat and bitterness no flesh can subsist. But if it be kindled in the element water, and springeth [becometh active] therein, it causeth debility and sickness* in the flesh, and finally death.+ * The German word Siechtage, translated " debility and sickness," implies lingering sickness, and is aptly rendered des langueurs by St Martin. + The last clause of this par. does not appear in Sparrow's translation. It is in the German eds. of 1682, 1715, and 1730, but not in 1656, nor in Schiebler's ed. Of the Sweet Quality. 34. The sweet quality is set opposite to the bitter, and is a gracious, amiable, blessed and pleasant quality, a refreshing of the life, an allaying of the fierceness. It maketh all pleasant and friendly in every creature; it maketh the vegetables of the earth fragrant and of good taste, affording fair, yellow, white and ruddy colours. 35. It is a glimpse and source of meekness, a pleasant habitation of heavenly joyfulness, a house or mansion of the Holy Ghost, a qualification of love and mercy, a joy of the life.
336. But, on the other side, it hath also a fierce or wrathful source, a source of death and corruption. For if it be kindled in the bitter quality in the element water, then it breedeth diseases, and the blotchy plague* or pestilence, and corruption of the flesh. * " blotchy plague " (aufgeschwollene Pestilentz), lit., " swollen plague." St M. renders this, " des enflures et des maladies pestilentielles," "swellings and plaguelike [i.e. infectious] sicknesses." 37. But if it be kindled in the heat and bitterness, then it infecteth the element air, whereby is engendered a sudden spreading plague and sudden death. Of the Sour Quality. 38. The sour quality is set opposite to the bitter and the sweet, and is a good temper to all, a refreshing and cooling when the bitter and the sweet qualities are too much elevated or too preponderant. It is a longing delight in the taste, a pleasure of life, a stirring, boiling, flowing joy + in everything; a desire, longing and lust of joyfulness, a still joy or habitation of the spirit. Thus it is a temperature to all living and moving creatures. + " a stirring, boiling, flowing joy " (eine quellende Freude), " a wellingup joy." 39. It containeth also a source of evil and corruption: For if it predominate too much, or stirreth too much in anything, so that it be inflamed, then it engendereth sadness and melancholy. 40. In the water it causeth a stink, putridness and rankness,* a forgetfulness of all good things,
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.
1original of water and air, in which everything acteth and standeth; every life and mobility standeth therein. Of this I shall write plainly, concerning the creation of the stars. Of the Influences of the other Qualities in the Three Elements, Fire, Air, and Water. Of the Bitter Quality. 28. The bitter quality is the heart in every life; for as it attracteth together the water in the air, and also dissipateth the same, so that it [the water] becometh separable; so also in other creatures, and in the vegetables of the earth. For leaves and grass have their green colour from the bitter quality. 29. Now if the bitter quality dwelleth meekly and gently in any creature, then is it the heart or joy therein; for it dissipateth all other evil influences, and is the beginning or cause of joy or of laughing. 30. * For the bitter quality, when stirred, causeth the creature to tremble and be joyful, and to be lifted up in its whole body; for the stirring of the bitter quality is, as it were, a glimpse or ray of or from the heavenly kingdom of joy, an exaltation of the spirit, a spirit and virtue in all plants of the earth, a mother of life. * A new translation of this par. has been substituted for Sparrow's rendering. 31. The Holy Ghost springeth, moveth and driveth vehemently in this quality, for this quality is a part of the heavenly joyfulness, as I shall demonstrate afterwards.
232. But it hath also in it another species or kind, namely, the fierceness or wrath, which is the very house of death, a corruption of all good, a perdition and destruction of the life in the flesh. 33. For if it be too much elevated or too preponderant in any creature, and be inflamed in the heat, then flesh and spirit separate, and the creature loseth its life and must die; for then it moveth and kindleth the element fire; and in the great heat and bitterness no flesh can subsist. But if it be kindled in the element water, and springeth [becometh active] therein, it causeth debility and sickness* in the flesh, and finally death.+ * The German word Siechtage, translated " debility and sickness," implies lingering sickness, and is aptly rendered des langueurs by St Martin. + The last clause of this par. does not appear in Sparrow's translation. It is in the German eds. of 1682, 1715, and 1730, but not in 1656, nor in Schiebler's ed. Of the Sweet Quality. 34. The sweet quality is set opposite to the bitter, and is a gracious, amiable, blessed and pleasant quality, a refreshing of the life, an allaying of the fierceness. It maketh all pleasant and friendly in every creature; it maketh the vegetables of the earth fragrant and of good taste, affording fair, yellow, white and ruddy colours. 35. It is a glimpse and source of meekness, a pleasant habitation of heavenly joyfulness, a house or mansion of the Holy Ghost, a qualification of love and mercy, a joy of the life.
336. But, on the other side, it hath also a fierce or wrathful source, a source of death and corruption. For if it be kindled in the bitter quality in the element water, then it breedeth diseases, and the blotchy plague* or pestilence, and corruption of the flesh. * " blotchy plague " (aufgeschwollene Pestilentz), lit., " swollen plague." St M. renders this, " des enflures et des maladies pestilentielles," "swellings and plaguelike [i.e. infectious] sicknesses." 37. But if it be kindled in the heat and bitterness, then it infecteth the element air, whereby is engendered a sudden spreading plague and sudden death. Of the Sour Quality. 38. The sour quality is set opposite to the bitter and the sweet, and is a good temper to all, a refreshing and cooling when the bitter and the sweet qualities are too much elevated or too preponderant. It is a longing delight in the taste, a pleasure of life, a stirring, boiling, flowing joy + in everything; a desire, longing and lust of joyfulness, a still joy or habitation of the spirit. Thus it is a temperature to all living and moving creatures. + " a stirring, boiling, flowing joy " (eine quellende Freude), " a wellingup joy." 39. It containeth also a source of evil and corruption: For if it predominate too much, or stirreth too much in anything, so that it be inflamed, then it engendereth sadness and melancholy. 40. In the water it causeth a stink, putridness and rankness,* a forgetfulness of all good things,
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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