Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
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.
1declare that even in the event of many other planets being discovered, they would nevertheless, as a whole, remain the organ of seven powers which rule temporal (actuelle) nature as well as eternal nature, and that the only error would consist in the application made of this number seven." 46. Now observe: The sun stirreth in the midst, in the deep between the stars, in a round circle, and is the heart of the stars, and giveth light and power to all the stars, so tempering the power of the stars that all becometh pleasant and joyful. 47. It enlighteneth also the heaven, the stars, and the deep above the earth, working in all things that are in this world, and is the king and the heart of all things of this world, and so rightly signifieth the Son of God. 48. For as the sun standeth in the midst, between the stars and the earth, enlightening all powers, and is the light and heart of all the powers, and is all the joy in this world, besides, all beauty and pleasantness standeth in the light and power of the sun. 49. Even so the Son of God in the Father is the Heart of the Father, and shineth in all the powers of the Father; his power is the moving springing joy in all the powers of the Father, and shineth in the whole Father, as the sun doth in the whole world. 50. If the earth should be taken away, which signifieth the house of misery, of trouble, or of hell, then the whole deep would be light in one place as well as in another: as indeed, from the lustre of the Son of God, the whole deep in the Father is as light * in one place as in another. * " light... light." The German gar lichte is adjectival, and
2is rendered by St M., "luminous." In the New Testament, "full of light" renders exactly the meaning implied here: " Thy whole body shall be full of light," Matt. vi. 22. 51. As the sun is a selfsubsisting creature, power and light, which shineth not forth from or out of all creatures, but in and into all creatures, and all creatures rejoice in its power. 52. So the Son in the Father is a selfsubsisting Person, and enlighteneth all the powers in the Father, and is the Father's joy or Heart in his centre, or in the midst of him. Observe here the great Mystery of God. 53. Further, the sun is made or generated from all the stars, and is a light taken from the whole nature, and shineth again into the whole nature of this world; it is united with the other stars, as if itself together with all the stars were but one star. 54. So the Son of God is continually generated from all the powers of his Father from eternity, and is not made, but is the heart and lustre shining forth from the powers of his heavenly Father; a selfsubsisting Person, the centre or body of the lustre in the deep. 55. For the Father's power generateth the Son continually from eternity to eternity; but if the Father should cease to generate, then the Son would be no more: Also, if the Son should shine no more in the Father, then the Father would be a dark valley: And then the Father's power would not rise from eternity to eternity, and so the divine being would not subsist. 56. Thus the Father is the selfsubsisting
3being * of all powers, and the Son is the Heart in the Father, which is generated continually out of all the powers of the Father, who again enlighteneth the powers of the Father. * " the selfsubsisting being" (das selbständige Wesen). St M.'s rendering is, " l'essence radicale," " the rootessence." 57. Do not conceive that the Son in the Father is so mixed that his Person can neither be seen nor known: No; for if it were so then it were but one Person.** ** At the end of this par., and referring to pars. 56 and 57, St M. adds: " This passage, as well as others on the divine Persons, has been developed to a considerable extent, elucidated and greatly improved upon in other works of the author. It must be looked upon as provisional." 58. For as the sun shineth not from or out of the other stars, though it had its original from the other stars, so also the Son shineth not from or out of the powers of the Father, as to his body or corporeity. 59. Though he is generated continually out of the powers of the Father; yet he shineth back again into the powers of the Father, for he is another Person than the Father, but not another God. 60. He is eternally in the Father, and the Father generateth him continually from eternity to eternity, and the Father and the Son are ONE God, of an equal being in power and omnipotence. 61. The Son seeth, tasteth, heareth, feeleth, smelleth and comprehendeth all, as the Father doth; in his power all liveth and is, whatsoever is good, as in the Father; but that which is bad or evil is not in him.
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.
1declare that even in the event of many other planets being discovered, they would nevertheless, as a whole, remain the organ of seven powers which rule temporal (actuelle) nature as well as eternal nature, and that the only error would consist in the application made of this number seven." 46. Now observe: The sun stirreth in the midst, in the deep between the stars, in a round circle, and is the heart of the stars, and giveth light and power to all the stars, so tempering the power of the stars that all becometh pleasant and joyful. 47. It enlighteneth also the heaven, the stars, and the deep above the earth, working in all things that are in this world, and is the king and the heart of all things of this world, and so rightly signifieth the Son of God. 48. For as the sun standeth in the midst, between the stars and the earth, enlightening all powers, and is the light and heart of all the powers, and is all the joy in this world, besides, all beauty and pleasantness standeth in the light and power of the sun. 49. Even so the Son of God in the Father is the Heart of the Father, and shineth in all the powers of the Father; his power is the moving springing joy in all the powers of the Father, and shineth in the whole Father, as the sun doth in the whole world. 50. If the earth should be taken away, which signifieth the house of misery, of trouble, or of hell, then the whole deep would be light in one place as well as in another: as indeed, from the lustre of the Son of God, the whole deep in the Father is as light * in one place as in another. * " light... light." The German gar lichte is adjectival, and
2is rendered by St M., "luminous." In the New Testament, "full of light" renders exactly the meaning implied here: " Thy whole body shall be full of light," Matt. vi. 22. 51. As the sun is a selfsubsisting creature, power and light, which shineth not forth from or out of all creatures, but in and into all creatures, and all creatures rejoice in its power. 52. So the Son in the Father is a selfsubsisting Person, and enlighteneth all the powers in the Father, and is the Father's joy or Heart in his centre, or in the midst of him. Observe here the great Mystery of God. 53. Further, the sun is made or generated from all the stars, and is a light taken from the whole nature, and shineth again into the whole nature of this world; it is united with the other stars, as if itself together with all the stars were but one star. 54. So the Son of God is continually generated from all the powers of his Father from eternity, and is not made, but is the heart and lustre shining forth from the powers of his heavenly Father; a selfsubsisting Person, the centre or body of the lustre in the deep. 55. For the Father's power generateth the Son continually from eternity to eternity; but if the Father should cease to generate, then the Son would be no more: Also, if the Son should shine no more in the Father, then the Father would be a dark valley: And then the Father's power would not rise from eternity to eternity, and so the divine being would not subsist. 56. Thus the Father is the selfsubsisting
3being * of all powers, and the Son is the Heart in the Father, which is generated continually out of all the powers of the Father, who again enlighteneth the powers of the Father. * " the selfsubsisting being" (das selbständige Wesen). St M.'s rendering is, " l'essence radicale," " the rootessence." 57. Do not conceive that the Son in the Father is so mixed that his Person can neither be seen nor known: No; for if it were so then it were but one Person.** ** At the end of this par., and referring to pars. 56 and 57, St M. adds: " This passage, as well as others on the divine Persons, has been developed to a considerable extent, elucidated and greatly improved upon in other works of the author. It must be looked upon as provisional." 58. For as the sun shineth not from or out of the other stars, though it had its original from the other stars, so also the Son shineth not from or out of the powers of the Father, as to his body or corporeity. 59. Though he is generated continually out of the powers of the Father; yet he shineth back again into the powers of the Father, for he is another Person than the Father, but not another God. 60. He is eternally in the Father, and the Father generateth him continually from eternity to eternity, and the Father and the Son are ONE God, of an equal being in power and omnipotence. 61. The Son seeth, tasteth, heareth, feeleth, smelleth and comprehendeth all, as the Father doth; in his power all liveth and is, whatsoever is good, as in the Father; but that which is bad or evil is not in him.
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.
No commentary for this page.