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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.
1the angelical gates. 26. Thou must understand this properly, what the meaning of it is: For when I speak by way of similitude, and liken the Son of God to the sun, or to a round globe, it hath not that meaning as if he were a circumscriptive fountain, which can be measured, or whose depth, beginning or end could be fathomed. I write so by way of similitude only, till the Reader can come to the true understanding. 27. For the meaning here is not that the Son of God should be generated in the centre or midst of these angelical gates only, and nowhere else without, beyond or besides these angelical gates. 28. For the powers of the Father are everywhere, from and out of which the Son is generated, and from which the Holy Ghost goeth forth; how then should he be generated in the centre of these angelical gates only? 29. This therefore is the only ground and meaning, that the holy Father, who is ALL, would have in these angelical gates his most joyful and most richly loving qualities, out of which is generated the most joyful and most richly loving light, word, heart, or fountain of powers; and therefore hath he created his holy angels in this place for his joy, honour and glory. [" 30. In the abyssal or bottomless eternity " indeed, it is [the same] in one place as in another; " but where there are no creatures nothing can be " known, except by the spirit in its wonders."] 31. And this is the select place of the glory of God, which God the Father, in himself, hath made choice of, wherein his holy WORD or Heart is generated in highest glory, clarity or brightness,
2power and triumphing joy. 32. For observe this mystery: The light, which is generated out of the powers of the Father, who is the true fountain of the Son of God, is generated also in an angel, and in a holy man, so that in the same light and knowledge he [the Son of God] triumpheth in great joy. 33. How then is it that the light should not be generated everywhere, in the whole Father? For its power is ALL, and everywhere, even there, where our heart and senses or thoughts cannot reach. 34. So now, where the Father is, there also is the Son and the Holy Ghost; for the Father everywhere generateth the Son, his holy WORD, power, light and sound, and the Holy Ghost goeth everywhere forth from the Father and the Son, even within all the angelical gates, and also without, beside * or beyond the angelical gates. * "beside." See note to par. 46. 35. Now if a man likeneth the Son of God to the globe of the sun, as I have often done in the foregoing chapters, that is spoken in the way and manner of natural similitudes; and I was constrained to write so, because of the lack of understanding of the Reader, that so he might raise his sense or thoughts in these natural things, and climb from step to step, from one degree to another, till he might come into the high Mysteries. 36. But it hath not this meaning, that the Son of God is a circumscribed, compacted, figured image, like the sun. 37. For if it were so, then must the Son of God
3have a beginning, and the Father must have generated him in time, and then he could not be the eternal, almighty Son of the Father; but the Son would be like a king, who had yet a greater king above him, who had generated him in time, and in whose power it was to alter and change him. 38. This would be such a Son as had a beginning, and his power and splendour would be like the power of the sun which goeth forth from the sun, the body or globe of the sun standing still in its place: If this were so, then indeed one angelical gate [or port] would be nearer to the Son of God than another. 39. But here I will shew to thee the highest gate of the divine Mystery, and thou needest seek no higher; for there is no higher. Observe: 40. The Father's power is all, in and above all heavens, and the same power everywhere generateth the light. Now this UNIVERSAL POWER is, and is called, the universal power of the Father; and the light which is generated out of that universal power is, and is called, the Son. 41. But it is therefore called the Son, in that it is generated out of the Father, so that it is the Heart of the Father in his powers. 42. And being generated, it is another person than the Father is; for the Father is the power and the kingdom, and the Son is the light and the splendour in the Father, and the Holy Ghost is the moving or exit * out of the powers of the Father and of the Son, and formeth, figureth, frameth and imageth all. * "exit" (Ausgang), "effluence"; rendered by St M., " expansion."
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.
1the angelical gates. 26. Thou must understand this properly, what the meaning of it is: For when I speak by way of similitude, and liken the Son of God to the sun, or to a round globe, it hath not that meaning as if he were a circumscriptive fountain, which can be measured, or whose depth, beginning or end could be fathomed. I write so by way of similitude only, till the Reader can come to the true understanding. 27. For the meaning here is not that the Son of God should be generated in the centre or midst of these angelical gates only, and nowhere else without, beyond or besides these angelical gates. 28. For the powers of the Father are everywhere, from and out of which the Son is generated, and from which the Holy Ghost goeth forth; how then should he be generated in the centre of these angelical gates only? 29. This therefore is the only ground and meaning, that the holy Father, who is ALL, would have in these angelical gates his most joyful and most richly loving qualities, out of which is generated the most joyful and most richly loving light, word, heart, or fountain of powers; and therefore hath he created his holy angels in this place for his joy, honour and glory. [" 30. In the abyssal or bottomless eternity " indeed, it is [the same] in one place as in another; " but where there are no creatures nothing can be " known, except by the spirit in its wonders."] 31. And this is the select place of the glory of God, which God the Father, in himself, hath made choice of, wherein his holy WORD or Heart is generated in highest glory, clarity or brightness,
2power and triumphing joy. 32. For observe this mystery: The light, which is generated out of the powers of the Father, who is the true fountain of the Son of God, is generated also in an angel, and in a holy man, so that in the same light and knowledge he [the Son of God] triumpheth in great joy. 33. How then is it that the light should not be generated everywhere, in the whole Father? For its power is ALL, and everywhere, even there, where our heart and senses or thoughts cannot reach. 34. So now, where the Father is, there also is the Son and the Holy Ghost; for the Father everywhere generateth the Son, his holy WORD, power, light and sound, and the Holy Ghost goeth everywhere forth from the Father and the Son, even within all the angelical gates, and also without, beside * or beyond the angelical gates. * "beside." See note to par. 46. 35. Now if a man likeneth the Son of God to the globe of the sun, as I have often done in the foregoing chapters, that is spoken in the way and manner of natural similitudes; and I was constrained to write so, because of the lack of understanding of the Reader, that so he might raise his sense or thoughts in these natural things, and climb from step to step, from one degree to another, till he might come into the high Mysteries. 36. But it hath not this meaning, that the Son of God is a circumscribed, compacted, figured image, like the sun. 37. For if it were so, then must the Son of God
3have a beginning, and the Father must have generated him in time, and then he could not be the eternal, almighty Son of the Father; but the Son would be like a king, who had yet a greater king above him, who had generated him in time, and in whose power it was to alter and change him. 38. This would be such a Son as had a beginning, and his power and splendour would be like the power of the sun which goeth forth from the sun, the body or globe of the sun standing still in its place: If this were so, then indeed one angelical gate [or port] would be nearer to the Son of God than another. 39. But here I will shew to thee the highest gate of the divine Mystery, and thou needest seek no higher; for there is no higher. Observe: 40. The Father's power is all, in and above all heavens, and the same power everywhere generateth the light. Now this UNIVERSAL POWER is, and is called, the universal power of the Father; and the light which is generated out of that universal power is, and is called, the Son. 41. But it is therefore called the Son, in that it is generated out of the Father, so that it is the Heart of the Father in his powers. 42. And being generated, it is another person than the Father is; for the Father is the power and the kingdom, and the Son is the light and the splendour in the Father, and the Holy Ghost is the moving or exit * out of the powers of the Father and of the Son, and formeth, figureth, frameth and imageth all. * "exit" (Ausgang), "effluence"; rendered by St M., " expansion."
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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