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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.
1devils live in the power of the rising or elevating quality of fierceness, terror and darkness, and cannot comprehend the light, into which condition they precipitated and cast themselves through their pride and elevation of themselves; as I shall shew afterwards, when I shall write of the creation. 12. If thou wilt not believe that in this world all descendeth or cometh from the stars, I will demonstrate it to thee, if thou art not a blockhead, but hast some little reason and understanding left; therefore take notice of that which followeth. 13. First behold the sun; it is the heart or king of all stars, and giveth light to all stars from the east to the west; it enlighteneth and warmeth all, all liveth and groweth by its power; besides, the joy of all creatures consisteth in its virtue. 14. If that should be taken away or become extinct, then all would be dark and cold; neither would there grow any fruit, and neither man nor beast could propagate and increase, because their heat would be extinguished and their seed would be cold and torpid. Of the Quality of the Sun. 15. If thou wilt be a philosopher and naturalist, and search into God's being in nature, and discern how all is come to pass, then pray to God for the Holy Spirit, to enlighten thee with it. 16. For in thy flesh and blood thou art not able to apprehend it, and though thou dost read it, yet it is but as a fume or mist before thine eyes.
217. In the Holy Ghost alone, who is in God, and also in the whole nature,* out of which all things were made, in him alone canst thou search into the whole body or corporeity of God, which is nature; as also into the Holy Trinity itself. * "the whole nature." This expression is, in this and most other instances, rendered by St M.: " la nature universelle," " universal nature." 18. For the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Holy Trinity, and reigneth and ruleth in the whole body or corpus of God; that is, in the whole nature. 19. Even as the spirit of man ruleth and reigneth in the whole body, in all the veins, and replenisheth the whole man; even so the Holy Ghost replenisheth the whole nature, and is the heart of nature, and reigneth in the good qualities of everything. 20. Now, if thou hast that spirit in thee, so that it enlighteneth, filleth and replenisheth thy spirit, then thou wilt understand what followeth in this writing. 21. But if not, then it will be with thee as it was with the wise Heathen, who gazed and stared on the creation,* and would search and sift it out by their own reason; and though with their fictions and conceits + they came before God's countenance or face, yet they were not able to see it, but were stark blind in the knowledge of God. * " gazed and stared on the creation " (sich in der Schöpfung vergaffeten), "became enamoured with the creation," i.e. fell under the spell of the creation. + "fictions and conceits" (Dichten), "romance" or "allegories";
3the word is by no means used in an abusive sense. 22. As the Children of Israel in the desert could not behold the countenance of Moses, and therefore, when he drew near to the people, he must put a veil before his face. 23. The cause of this was, that they neither understood nor knew the true God and his will, who, notwithstanding, walked among them; and therefore that veil was a sign and type of their blindness and misunderstanding. 24. As little as a piece of work can apprehend him that made it, so little also can man apprehend and know God his Creator, unless the Holy Ghost enlighten him; which happeneth only to those that rely not upon themselves, but set their hope, will and desires upon God alone, and move in the Holy Ghost, and these are one spirit with God. 25. Now if we consider rightly of the sun and stars, with their corpus or body, operations and qualities, then the very divine being may be found therein, and we may find that the virtues of the stars are nature itself. 26. If the whole wheel, circumference or sphere of the stars be well considered, then it is soon found that the same is the mother of all things, or the nature out of which all things are come, and wherein all things stand and live, and whereby everything moveth; all things are made of these powers, and therein they all abide eternally. 27. Though indeed they shall be changed at the end of this time, when good and evil shall be separated. So in like manner angels and men, in
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.
1devils live in the power of the rising or elevating quality of fierceness, terror and darkness, and cannot comprehend the light, into which condition they precipitated and cast themselves through their pride and elevation of themselves; as I shall shew afterwards, when I shall write of the creation. 12. If thou wilt not believe that in this world all descendeth or cometh from the stars, I will demonstrate it to thee, if thou art not a blockhead, but hast some little reason and understanding left; therefore take notice of that which followeth. 13. First behold the sun; it is the heart or king of all stars, and giveth light to all stars from the east to the west; it enlighteneth and warmeth all, all liveth and groweth by its power; besides, the joy of all creatures consisteth in its virtue. 14. If that should be taken away or become extinct, then all would be dark and cold; neither would there grow any fruit, and neither man nor beast could propagate and increase, because their heat would be extinguished and their seed would be cold and torpid. Of the Quality of the Sun. 15. If thou wilt be a philosopher and naturalist, and search into God's being in nature, and discern how all is come to pass, then pray to God for the Holy Spirit, to enlighten thee with it. 16. For in thy flesh and blood thou art not able to apprehend it, and though thou dost read it, yet it is but as a fume or mist before thine eyes.
217. In the Holy Ghost alone, who is in God, and also in the whole nature,* out of which all things were made, in him alone canst thou search into the whole body or corporeity of God, which is nature; as also into the Holy Trinity itself. * "the whole nature." This expression is, in this and most other instances, rendered by St M.: " la nature universelle," " universal nature." 18. For the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Holy Trinity, and reigneth and ruleth in the whole body or corpus of God; that is, in the whole nature. 19. Even as the spirit of man ruleth and reigneth in the whole body, in all the veins, and replenisheth the whole man; even so the Holy Ghost replenisheth the whole nature, and is the heart of nature, and reigneth in the good qualities of everything. 20. Now, if thou hast that spirit in thee, so that it enlighteneth, filleth and replenisheth thy spirit, then thou wilt understand what followeth in this writing. 21. But if not, then it will be with thee as it was with the wise Heathen, who gazed and stared on the creation,* and would search and sift it out by their own reason; and though with their fictions and conceits + they came before God's countenance or face, yet they were not able to see it, but were stark blind in the knowledge of God. * " gazed and stared on the creation " (sich in der Schöpfung vergaffeten), "became enamoured with the creation," i.e. fell under the spell of the creation. + "fictions and conceits" (Dichten), "romance" or "allegories";
3the word is by no means used in an abusive sense. 22. As the Children of Israel in the desert could not behold the countenance of Moses, and therefore, when he drew near to the people, he must put a veil before his face. 23. The cause of this was, that they neither understood nor knew the true God and his will, who, notwithstanding, walked among them; and therefore that veil was a sign and type of their blindness and misunderstanding. 24. As little as a piece of work can apprehend him that made it, so little also can man apprehend and know God his Creator, unless the Holy Ghost enlighten him; which happeneth only to those that rely not upon themselves, but set their hope, will and desires upon God alone, and move in the Holy Ghost, and these are one spirit with God. 25. Now if we consider rightly of the sun and stars, with their corpus or body, operations and qualities, then the very divine being may be found therein, and we may find that the virtues of the stars are nature itself. 26. If the whole wheel, circumference or sphere of the stars be well considered, then it is soon found that the same is the mother of all things, or the nature out of which all things are come, and wherein all things stand and live, and whereby everything moveth; all things are made of these powers, and therein they all abide eternally. 27. Though indeed they shall be changed at the end of this time, when good and evil shall be separated. So in like manner angels and men, in
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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