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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.
176. Or if one member would stir and move too vehemently by hearing, and would fain hear false and wicked tongues in talking lies and fictions, and bring that to the heart, this also is rejected by the counsellors. 77. Or if it would by the smelling get a longing or lusting after that which is none of its own. As lord Lucifer did also, who longed after the holy savour or sweet smell of the Son of God, and intended in his elevation and kindling to smell and savour yet more pleasantly. 78. In that manner he also deceived our mother Eve, saying,[Gen. iii 5] If she did but eat of the forbidden tree, then she should be wise or witty, and be like God; but this smelling or stirring the council likewise rejecteth. 79. Or if by tasting it should fall into a desire and longing to eat that which is not of the quality of the body, or is none of its own; as mother Eve in Paradise fell a longing to eat of the devil's crabapples, and did eat thereof; such stirring in lust the council also rejecteth. 80. In short, there are therefore five in the princely council, that one should advise another, and every one is of a peculiar sundry quality; and that compacted or concreted spirit which is generated out of all the powers is their king or prince, and he sitteth in the head in the brain of a man, and in an angel in that power which is instead of the brain of a man, and in the head also, upon his princely throne, and executeth everything which was concluded and decreed by the whole princely council.* * "and he sitteth in the head in the brain of a man,'' etc. " In man, he sitteth in the head, in the brain; and in an angel he sitteth also in the head, upon his princely throne, in that
2THE SIXTH CHAPTER How an Angel, and how a Man, is the Similitude and Image of God. 1. BEHOLD! as the being or essence in God is, so also is the being in man and in angels; and as the divine body is, so also is the angelical and the human body or corporeity. 2. But with this difference alone, that an angel, and a man, is a creature, and not the whole being, but a son of the whole being, whom the whole being hath generated; and therefore it is fit that it should be in subjection to the whole being, seeing that it is the son of the body of the whole being. 3. Now if the son resist and oppose the father, it is but right that the father should cast him away out of the house, seeing the son sets himself against him that hath generated him, and from whose power he is become a creature. 4. For if any one make somewhat out of that which is his own, he may, if it doth not prove according to his will, do with it what he pleaseth, and make it either a vessel of honour or of dishonour; which was done even so to Lucifer. Now observe: 5. From all qualities the whole divine power of the Father speaketh forth the WORD; that is, the Son of God. 6. Now that voice, or that WORD which the Father speaketh, goeth forth from the Father's Salitter or powers, and from the Father's Mercurius, sound or tune: This the Father speaketh forth in himself, and that WORD is the very splendour or glance proceeding from all his powers.
37. But when it is spoken forth it stayeth or sticketh no more in the powers of the Father, but soundeth or tuneth back again in the whole Father in all powers. 8. Now that WORD which the Father pronounceth or speaketh forth hath such a sharpness, that the tone of the WORD goeth swiftly in a moment through the whole deep of the Father, and that sharpness is the Holy Ghost. 9. For the WORD which is spoken forth or outspoken abideth as a splendour or glorious edict [or proclamation] before the king. 10. But the tone or sound, which goeth forth through the Word, executeth the edict of the Father, which he had outspoken through the Word; and that is the birth or geniture of the holy Trinity. 11. Now behold! An angel, and a man also, is thus: The power in the whole body hath all the qualities, as it is in God the Father. 12. And as all the powers in God the Father rise up from eternity to eternity, so all the powers rise up also in an angel, and in a man, into the head; for higher they cannot rise; for they are but creatures that have a beginning and end. 13. And in the head is the divine councilseat or throne, and [the throne] signifieth God the Father, and the five senses or qualities are the counsellors, which have their influences out of the whole body, out of all the powers. 14. * The five senses always hold counsel in the power of the whole body, and when a conclusion is formed, the same is uttered [or pronounced] by
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.
176. Or if one member would stir and move too vehemently by hearing, and would fain hear false and wicked tongues in talking lies and fictions, and bring that to the heart, this also is rejected by the counsellors. 77. Or if it would by the smelling get a longing or lusting after that which is none of its own. As lord Lucifer did also, who longed after the holy savour or sweet smell of the Son of God, and intended in his elevation and kindling to smell and savour yet more pleasantly. 78. In that manner he also deceived our mother Eve, saying,[Gen. iii 5] If she did but eat of the forbidden tree, then she should be wise or witty, and be like God; but this smelling or stirring the council likewise rejecteth. 79. Or if by tasting it should fall into a desire and longing to eat that which is not of the quality of the body, or is none of its own; as mother Eve in Paradise fell a longing to eat of the devil's crabapples, and did eat thereof; such stirring in lust the council also rejecteth. 80. In short, there are therefore five in the princely council, that one should advise another, and every one is of a peculiar sundry quality; and that compacted or concreted spirit which is generated out of all the powers is their king or prince, and he sitteth in the head in the brain of a man, and in an angel in that power which is instead of the brain of a man, and in the head also, upon his princely throne, and executeth everything which was concluded and decreed by the whole princely council.* * "and he sitteth in the head in the brain of a man,'' etc. " In man, he sitteth in the head, in the brain; and in an angel he sitteth also in the head, upon his princely throne, in that
2THE SIXTH CHAPTER How an Angel, and how a Man, is the Similitude and Image of God. 1. BEHOLD! as the being or essence in God is, so also is the being in man and in angels; and as the divine body is, so also is the angelical and the human body or corporeity. 2. But with this difference alone, that an angel, and a man, is a creature, and not the whole being, but a son of the whole being, whom the whole being hath generated; and therefore it is fit that it should be in subjection to the whole being, seeing that it is the son of the body of the whole being. 3. Now if the son resist and oppose the father, it is but right that the father should cast him away out of the house, seeing the son sets himself against him that hath generated him, and from whose power he is become a creature. 4. For if any one make somewhat out of that which is his own, he may, if it doth not prove according to his will, do with it what he pleaseth, and make it either a vessel of honour or of dishonour; which was done even so to Lucifer. Now observe: 5. From all qualities the whole divine power of the Father speaketh forth the WORD; that is, the Son of God. 6. Now that voice, or that WORD which the Father speaketh, goeth forth from the Father's Salitter or powers, and from the Father's Mercurius, sound or tune: This the Father speaketh forth in himself, and that WORD is the very splendour or glance proceeding from all his powers.
37. But when it is spoken forth it stayeth or sticketh no more in the powers of the Father, but soundeth or tuneth back again in the whole Father in all powers. 8. Now that WORD which the Father pronounceth or speaketh forth hath such a sharpness, that the tone of the WORD goeth swiftly in a moment through the whole deep of the Father, and that sharpness is the Holy Ghost. 9. For the WORD which is spoken forth or outspoken abideth as a splendour or glorious edict [or proclamation] before the king. 10. But the tone or sound, which goeth forth through the Word, executeth the edict of the Father, which he had outspoken through the Word; and that is the birth or geniture of the holy Trinity. 11. Now behold! An angel, and a man also, is thus: The power in the whole body hath all the qualities, as it is in God the Father. 12. And as all the powers in God the Father rise up from eternity to eternity, so all the powers rise up also in an angel, and in a man, into the head; for higher they cannot rise; for they are but creatures that have a beginning and end. 13. And in the head is the divine councilseat or throne, and [the throne] signifieth God the Father, and the five senses or qualities are the counsellors, which have their influences out of the whole body, out of all the powers. 14. * The five senses always hold counsel in the power of the whole body, and when a conclusion is formed, the same is uttered [or pronounced] by
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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