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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.
17. Also when Christ went to heaven, two angels hovered in the clouds, [Acts i. 11] and said to the disciples, Ye men of Israel, what do you look after? This JESUS shall come again, as you have seen HIM go away to heaven. 8. Thus it is plain and clear enough that he will come again in the same form at the last day, with a divine and glorified body, as a Prince of the holy angels, which will be the menangels. 9. The spirit also testifieth clearly that angels and men have one and the same image; for out of the same place wherein Lucifer sat, and out of which he was made, God hath made another angel instead of expulsed Lucifer and his legions, which angel was ADAM, if he had but persevered in his clarity, brightness or glory. 10. But there is yet a sure hope of resurrection, and then we shall get the angelical clarity or glory and purity again. Question. 11. Now thou wilt ask, How then are the angels created according to the image of God? Answer. 12. First, the compacted, figured body is indivisible and incorruptible, and not to be felt by man's hands; for it is constituted or composed out of the divine power, and that power is so knit and bound together that it can never be destroyed again. 13. For as none, no not anything, can destroy the whole Deity, so also there is not anything that can destroy an angel; for every angel is formed, figured, set together or composed out of all the powers of God, not with flesh and
2blood, but out of the divine power. 14. First, the body is out of all the powers of the Father, and in those powers is the light of God the Son; now the powers of the Father and of the Son, which are in an angel creaturely, generate an understanding spirit, which riseth up in that angel. 15. First of all, the powers of the Father generate a light, whereby an angel seeth into the whole Father, whereby he can see the outward power and operation of God, which is externally without its own body, and thereby can see its fellowbrethren, and can see and enjoy the glorious fruit of God, and therein consisteth its joy. 16. At first that light came out of the Son of God in the powers of the Father, into the angelical body creaturely, and is the body's proper own, which cannot be withdrawn from it by anything, unless itself extinguished it, as Lucifer did. 17. Now all the powers, which are in the whole angel, generate that light; and as God the Father generateth his Son to be his Heart, so the power of the angel also generateth its son and heart in itself, and that again enlighteneth all powers in the whole angel. 18. After that there goeth forth out of all the powers of the angel, and also out of the light of the angel, a fountain, which springeth or welleth up in the whole angel; and that is its spirit, which riseth up into all eternity; for in this same spirit is all perception and all knowledge [i.e. understanding] of all powers and of all types and modes [of life] which are in the whole [universal] God.
319. For that spirit springeth up out of all the powers of the angel, and goeth up into the mind, where it hath five open doors; there it can look round about and see whatsoever is in God, and also whatsoever is in itself. 20. And so it goeth forth from all the powers of the angel, as also from the light of the angel; as the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Son, and filleth the whole corpus or body. Now observe the great Mystery. 21. There are two things to be observed in God; the first is the Salitter, or the divine powers, out of which is the body or corporeity; and the second is the Mercurius, tone, tune or sound: thus also it is, in like manner and form, in an angel. 22. First there is the power, and in the power is the tone or tune, which, in the spirit, riseth up into the head, into the mind,* as in man in the brain; and in the mind it [the tone] hath its open doors or gates; but in the heart it hath its seat and its origin, where it springeth [or ariseth] from all the powers. * " into the head, into the mind." J. B. does not here use Kopf, the usual word for head, but Haupt. " Mind " = Gemüthe. See Ch. 3, par. 94. 23. For the fountain of all powers floweth in [or to] the heart, as it doth also in man, and in the head it hath its princely seat, where it seeth all, smelleth all, and feeleth all. 24. And now when it seeth and heareth the divine tone, tune and sound rise up, which is externally without it, then is its spirit affected and kindled with joy, and elevateth itself in its princely
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.
17. Also when Christ went to heaven, two angels hovered in the clouds, [Acts i. 11] and said to the disciples, Ye men of Israel, what do you look after? This JESUS shall come again, as you have seen HIM go away to heaven. 8. Thus it is plain and clear enough that he will come again in the same form at the last day, with a divine and glorified body, as a Prince of the holy angels, which will be the menangels. 9. The spirit also testifieth clearly that angels and men have one and the same image; for out of the same place wherein Lucifer sat, and out of which he was made, God hath made another angel instead of expulsed Lucifer and his legions, which angel was ADAM, if he had but persevered in his clarity, brightness or glory. 10. But there is yet a sure hope of resurrection, and then we shall get the angelical clarity or glory and purity again. Question. 11. Now thou wilt ask, How then are the angels created according to the image of God? Answer. 12. First, the compacted, figured body is indivisible and incorruptible, and not to be felt by man's hands; for it is constituted or composed out of the divine power, and that power is so knit and bound together that it can never be destroyed again. 13. For as none, no not anything, can destroy the whole Deity, so also there is not anything that can destroy an angel; for every angel is formed, figured, set together or composed out of all the powers of God, not with flesh and
2blood, but out of the divine power. 14. First, the body is out of all the powers of the Father, and in those powers is the light of God the Son; now the powers of the Father and of the Son, which are in an angel creaturely, generate an understanding spirit, which riseth up in that angel. 15. First of all, the powers of the Father generate a light, whereby an angel seeth into the whole Father, whereby he can see the outward power and operation of God, which is externally without its own body, and thereby can see its fellowbrethren, and can see and enjoy the glorious fruit of God, and therein consisteth its joy. 16. At first that light came out of the Son of God in the powers of the Father, into the angelical body creaturely, and is the body's proper own, which cannot be withdrawn from it by anything, unless itself extinguished it, as Lucifer did. 17. Now all the powers, which are in the whole angel, generate that light; and as God the Father generateth his Son to be his Heart, so the power of the angel also generateth its son and heart in itself, and that again enlighteneth all powers in the whole angel. 18. After that there goeth forth out of all the powers of the angel, and also out of the light of the angel, a fountain, which springeth or welleth up in the whole angel; and that is its spirit, which riseth up into all eternity; for in this same spirit is all perception and all knowledge [i.e. understanding] of all powers and of all types and modes [of life] which are in the whole [universal] God.
319. For that spirit springeth up out of all the powers of the angel, and goeth up into the mind, where it hath five open doors; there it can look round about and see whatsoever is in God, and also whatsoever is in itself. 20. And so it goeth forth from all the powers of the angel, as also from the light of the angel; as the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Son, and filleth the whole corpus or body. Now observe the great Mystery. 21. There are two things to be observed in God; the first is the Salitter, or the divine powers, out of which is the body or corporeity; and the second is the Mercurius, tone, tune or sound: thus also it is, in like manner and form, in an angel. 22. First there is the power, and in the power is the tone or tune, which, in the spirit, riseth up into the head, into the mind,* as in man in the brain; and in the mind it [the tone] hath its open doors or gates; but in the heart it hath its seat and its origin, where it springeth [or ariseth] from all the powers. * " into the head, into the mind." J. B. does not here use Kopf, the usual word for head, but Haupt. " Mind " = Gemüthe. See Ch. 3, par. 94. 23. For the fountain of all powers floweth in [or to] the heart, as it doth also in man, and in the head it hath its princely seat, where it seeth all, smelleth all, and feeleth all. 24. And now when it seeth and heareth the divine tone, tune and sound rise up, which is externally without it, then is its spirit affected and kindled with joy, and elevateth itself in its princely
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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