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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.
1fingers. Also, I will dwell in Jacob, and Israel shall be my tabernacle. 7. But in that Christ calls his Father a heavenly Father, his meaning is that his Father's lustre and power appear and shine very bright and pure in heaven; and that above the circle or enclosure which we behold with our eyes, and which we call heaven, doth appear the totally triumphing Holy Trinity, The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 8. Thereby Christ also distinguisheth his heavenly Father from the father of nature, which is indeed the stars and the elements; these are our natural father, out of which we are made, and by whose impulse we live here in this world, and from whence we have our food and nourishment. 9. Therefore God is our heavenly Father, in that our soul continually longeth after him, and is desirous of him, yea it thirsteth and hungereth continually after him. 10. The body hungereth and thirsteth after the father of nature, viz. the stars and the elements, and that father feedeth and nourisheth the body. 11. But the soul thirsteth after the heavenly holy Father, and he giveth meat and drink to it, feeding it with his holy Spirit, and the spring, source or fountain of joy. 12. Yet we have not two fathers, but one only: For heaven is made by his power, and the stars are made out of his wisdom which is in him, and which proceedeth forth from him. Of the Substance and Property of the Father. 13. When we consider the whole nature and
2its property, then we see the Father. 14. When we behold heaven and the stars, then we behold his eternal power and wisdom: So many stars stand in the whole heaven that they are innumerable and incomprehensible to reason, and some of them are not visible, so manifold and [so] various is the power and wisdom of God the Father. 15. But every star in heaven differeth in its power and quality, which also maketh so many distinctions in and among the creatures upon the earth, and in the whole creation. 16. All the powers which are in nature proceed from God the Father; all light, heat, cold, air, water; and all the powers of the earth, bitter, sour, sweet, astringent, hard and soft, and more than can be reckoned; all have their beginning from the Father. 17. Therefore if a man would liken the Father to anything, he should liken him to the round globe of heaven. 18. Thou must not conceive here that every power which is in the Father standeth in a peculiar severed or divided part and place in the Father, as the stars do in heaven. 19. No, the spirit sheweth that all the powers in the Father are one in another as one power. 20. A resemblance, image or figure whereof we have in the Prophet Ezekiel, [Chap. 1] who seeth the Lord in the spirit and resemblance like a wheel, having four other wheels one in another, the four being like one another; and when they moved they went straight forward, which way soever the wind did sit or blow, and that way they all went forward, having no cause of returning.
321. Thus it is with God the Father; for all the powers are in the Father, one in another, as one power; and all powers consist in the Father, in an unsearchable light and clarity or brightness and glory. 22. Yet thou must not think that God, who is in heaven and above heaven, doth there stand and hover, like a power and quality which hath in it neither reason nor knowledge. 23. As the sun which turneth round in its circle, and poureth forth from itself heat and light, whether it be for benefit or hurt to the earth and creatures, which indeed would be for hurt if the other planets and stars did not hinder. 24. No, the Father is not so, but he is an allmighty, allwise, allknowing, allseeing, allhearing, allsmelling, allfeeling, alltasting God, who in himself is meek, friendly, gracious, merciful and full of joy, yea joy itself. 25. And he is thus from eternity to eternity unchangeable: He never changed himself in his being, neither will he change himself in all eternity. 26. He is proceeded or born of nothing, but he himself is all, in eternity; and all whatsoever is, is come from his power, which from eternity goeth forth from him. 27. His immensity, height and depth, no creature, no nor any angel in heaven, can search into, but the angels live in the power of the Father, very meekly and full of joy, and they always sing in the power of the Father.
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.
1fingers. Also, I will dwell in Jacob, and Israel shall be my tabernacle. 7. But in that Christ calls his Father a heavenly Father, his meaning is that his Father's lustre and power appear and shine very bright and pure in heaven; and that above the circle or enclosure which we behold with our eyes, and which we call heaven, doth appear the totally triumphing Holy Trinity, The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 8. Thereby Christ also distinguisheth his heavenly Father from the father of nature, which is indeed the stars and the elements; these are our natural father, out of which we are made, and by whose impulse we live here in this world, and from whence we have our food and nourishment. 9. Therefore God is our heavenly Father, in that our soul continually longeth after him, and is desirous of him, yea it thirsteth and hungereth continually after him. 10. The body hungereth and thirsteth after the father of nature, viz. the stars and the elements, and that father feedeth and nourisheth the body. 11. But the soul thirsteth after the heavenly holy Father, and he giveth meat and drink to it, feeding it with his holy Spirit, and the spring, source or fountain of joy. 12. Yet we have not two fathers, but one only: For heaven is made by his power, and the stars are made out of his wisdom which is in him, and which proceedeth forth from him. Of the Substance and Property of the Father. 13. When we consider the whole nature and
2its property, then we see the Father. 14. When we behold heaven and the stars, then we behold his eternal power and wisdom: So many stars stand in the whole heaven that they are innumerable and incomprehensible to reason, and some of them are not visible, so manifold and [so] various is the power and wisdom of God the Father. 15. But every star in heaven differeth in its power and quality, which also maketh so many distinctions in and among the creatures upon the earth, and in the whole creation. 16. All the powers which are in nature proceed from God the Father; all light, heat, cold, air, water; and all the powers of the earth, bitter, sour, sweet, astringent, hard and soft, and more than can be reckoned; all have their beginning from the Father. 17. Therefore if a man would liken the Father to anything, he should liken him to the round globe of heaven. 18. Thou must not conceive here that every power which is in the Father standeth in a peculiar severed or divided part and place in the Father, as the stars do in heaven. 19. No, the spirit sheweth that all the powers in the Father are one in another as one power. 20. A resemblance, image or figure whereof we have in the Prophet Ezekiel, [Chap. 1] who seeth the Lord in the spirit and resemblance like a wheel, having four other wheels one in another, the four being like one another; and when they moved they went straight forward, which way soever the wind did sit or blow, and that way they all went forward, having no cause of returning.
321. Thus it is with God the Father; for all the powers are in the Father, one in another, as one power; and all powers consist in the Father, in an unsearchable light and clarity or brightness and glory. 22. Yet thou must not think that God, who is in heaven and above heaven, doth there stand and hover, like a power and quality which hath in it neither reason nor knowledge. 23. As the sun which turneth round in its circle, and poureth forth from itself heat and light, whether it be for benefit or hurt to the earth and creatures, which indeed would be for hurt if the other planets and stars did not hinder. 24. No, the Father is not so, but he is an allmighty, allwise, allknowing, allseeing, allhearing, allsmelling, allfeeling, alltasting God, who in himself is meek, friendly, gracious, merciful and full of joy, yea joy itself. 25. And he is thus from eternity to eternity unchangeable: He never changed himself in his being, neither will he change himself in all eternity. 26. He is proceeded or born of nothing, but he himself is all, in eternity; and all whatsoever is, is come from his power, which from eternity goeth forth from him. 27. His immensity, height and depth, no creature, no nor any angel in heaven, can search into, but the angels live in the power of the Father, very meekly and full of joy, and they always sing in the power of the Father.
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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