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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.
110. All power and virtue is in God the Father; and proceedeth also forth from him, as light, heat, cold, soft, gentle, sweet, bitter, sour, astringent or harsh, sound or noise, and much more that is not possible to be spoken or apprehended. All these are in God the Father, one in another as one power, and yet all these powers move in his exit or going forth. 11. But the powers in God do not operate or qualify in the same manner as in nature in the stars and elements, or in the creatures. 12. No, you must not conceive it so: For lord Lucifer by his elevation made the powers of impure nature thus burning, bitter, cold, astringent, sour, dark and unclean. 13. But in the Father all powers are mild and soft, like heaven, and very full of joy, for all the powers triumph in one another, and their voice or sound riseth up from eternity to eternity. 14. There is nothing in them but love, meekness, mercy, friendliness or courtesy; even such a triumphing, rising source or fountain of joy, wherein all the voices of heavenly joyfulness sound forth, so that no man is able to express it, nor can it be likened to anything. 15. But if a man will liken it to anything, it may nearest be likened * to the soul of man, when kindled or enlightened by the Holy Ghost. * See Chap. 3, v. 40. 16. For then it is thus joyful and triumphing, and all powers rise up in it and triumph, and so raise the bestial body that it trembleth: This is a true glimpse of the divine quality, as the quality is in God. But in God all is spirit.
217. In God the quality of water is not of such a running and qualifying condition or manner as it is in this world, but is a spirit, very bright, clear and thin, wherein the Holy Ghost riseth up, a mere power. 18. The bitter quality qualifieth in the sweet, and in the astringent (or harsh and sour) quality, and the love riseth up therein from eternity to eternity. 19. For the love in the light and clarity or glorious brightness goeth forth from the Heart or Son of God, in all the powers of the Father, and the Holy Ghost moveth in them all. 20. And this, in the deep of the Father, is like a divine SALITTER [SALNITRUM], which I must needs liken to the earth, which before its corruption was even such a Salitter. 21. But not so hard, cold, bitter, sour and dark, but like the deep, or like heaven, very clear and pure, wherein all powers were good, fair and heavenly; but that prince Lucifer thus spoiled them, as you will perceive here following. 22. This heavenly Salitter or powers one in another generate heavenly joyful fruits and colours; all manner of trees and plants, on which grow the fair, pleasant and lovely fruits of life. 23. There spring up also in these powers and virtues all manner of blossoms and flowers, with fair heavenly colours and smells. 24. They are of several tastes, each according to its quality and kind, very holy, divine and full of joy.
325. For every quality beareth its own fruit: as in the corrupted murderous den or dark valley and dungeon of the earth there spring up all manner of earthly trees, plants, flowers and fruits, 26. Also within the earth grow curious precious stones, silver and gold; and these are a type of the heavenly generating or production. 27. Nature laboureth with its utmost diligence upon this corrupted dead earth, that it might generate heavenly forms and species or kinds; but it generateth only dead, dark and hard fruits, which are no more than a mere shadow or type of the heavenly. 28. Moreover, its fruits are altogether fierce or biting, bitter, sour, astringent or harsh and hot, also cold, hard and naught; they have scarce any spark or spice of goodness in them. 29. Their sap and spirit is mixed with hellish quality, their scent or smell is a very stink. Thus hath lord Lucifer caused them to be; as I shall clearly shew hereafter. 30. Now when I write of trees, plants and fruits, you must not understand them to be earthly, like those that are in this world; for it is not my meaning that there shall grow in heaven such dead, hard trees of wood, or such stones as consist of an earthly quality. 31. No, but my meaning is heavenly and spiritual, yet truly and properly such: I mean no other thing than what I set down in the letter. 32. In the divine pomp and state two things are especially to be considered: First, the Salitter or the divine powers, which are moving, springing powers.
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.
110. All power and virtue is in God the Father; and proceedeth also forth from him, as light, heat, cold, soft, gentle, sweet, bitter, sour, astringent or harsh, sound or noise, and much more that is not possible to be spoken or apprehended. All these are in God the Father, one in another as one power, and yet all these powers move in his exit or going forth. 11. But the powers in God do not operate or qualify in the same manner as in nature in the stars and elements, or in the creatures. 12. No, you must not conceive it so: For lord Lucifer by his elevation made the powers of impure nature thus burning, bitter, cold, astringent, sour, dark and unclean. 13. But in the Father all powers are mild and soft, like heaven, and very full of joy, for all the powers triumph in one another, and their voice or sound riseth up from eternity to eternity. 14. There is nothing in them but love, meekness, mercy, friendliness or courtesy; even such a triumphing, rising source or fountain of joy, wherein all the voices of heavenly joyfulness sound forth, so that no man is able to express it, nor can it be likened to anything. 15. But if a man will liken it to anything, it may nearest be likened * to the soul of man, when kindled or enlightened by the Holy Ghost. * See Chap. 3, v. 40. 16. For then it is thus joyful and triumphing, and all powers rise up in it and triumph, and so raise the bestial body that it trembleth: This is a true glimpse of the divine quality, as the quality is in God. But in God all is spirit.
217. In God the quality of water is not of such a running and qualifying condition or manner as it is in this world, but is a spirit, very bright, clear and thin, wherein the Holy Ghost riseth up, a mere power. 18. The bitter quality qualifieth in the sweet, and in the astringent (or harsh and sour) quality, and the love riseth up therein from eternity to eternity. 19. For the love in the light and clarity or glorious brightness goeth forth from the Heart or Son of God, in all the powers of the Father, and the Holy Ghost moveth in them all. 20. And this, in the deep of the Father, is like a divine SALITTER [SALNITRUM], which I must needs liken to the earth, which before its corruption was even such a Salitter. 21. But not so hard, cold, bitter, sour and dark, but like the deep, or like heaven, very clear and pure, wherein all powers were good, fair and heavenly; but that prince Lucifer thus spoiled them, as you will perceive here following. 22. This heavenly Salitter or powers one in another generate heavenly joyful fruits and colours; all manner of trees and plants, on which grow the fair, pleasant and lovely fruits of life. 23. There spring up also in these powers and virtues all manner of blossoms and flowers, with fair heavenly colours and smells. 24. They are of several tastes, each according to its quality and kind, very holy, divine and full of joy.
325. For every quality beareth its own fruit: as in the corrupted murderous den or dark valley and dungeon of the earth there spring up all manner of earthly trees, plants, flowers and fruits, 26. Also within the earth grow curious precious stones, silver and gold; and these are a type of the heavenly generating or production. 27. Nature laboureth with its utmost diligence upon this corrupted dead earth, that it might generate heavenly forms and species or kinds; but it generateth only dead, dark and hard fruits, which are no more than a mere shadow or type of the heavenly. 28. Moreover, its fruits are altogether fierce or biting, bitter, sour, astringent or harsh and hot, also cold, hard and naught; they have scarce any spark or spice of goodness in them. 29. Their sap and spirit is mixed with hellish quality, their scent or smell is a very stink. Thus hath lord Lucifer caused them to be; as I shall clearly shew hereafter. 30. Now when I write of trees, plants and fruits, you must not understand them to be earthly, like those that are in this world; for it is not my meaning that there shall grow in heaven such dead, hard trees of wood, or such stones as consist of an earthly quality. 31. No, but my meaning is heavenly and spiritual, yet truly and properly such: I mean no other thing than what I set down in the letter. 32. In the divine pomp and state two things are especially to be considered: First, the Salitter or the divine powers, which are moving, springing powers.
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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