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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.
143. As the air goeth forth from the power of the sun and stars, and moveth in this world, and causeth that all creatures are generated, and that the grass, herbs and trees spring and grow, and causeth all whatsoever is in this world to be: 44. So the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Son, and moveth or acteth, formeth or frameth and imageth all that is in the whole God. 45. All growing or vegetation and forms in the Father arise and spring up in the moving of the Holy Ghost; therefore there is but ONE only GOD, and three distinct Persons in one divine being, essence or substance. 46. Now if a man should say the Son of God were an image, circumscriptive or measurable like the sun, then the three Persons would be only in that place where the Son is, and his splendour or shining would be without or beyond him, and as gone forth from the Son; and the Father would be one, only externally, without or beside * the Son, and then the power of the Father, which would be afar off and wide distant from the Son, would not generate the Son and Holy Ghost, externally, without and beyond the angelical gates; and so there would be an unalmighty being, externally, without or beside this place of the Son; and, moreover, the Father would be a circumscribed or measurable being. * "beside." In par. 34 the word used in the original is "ausser," "without," i.e. out of. In par. 46, "ausserhalb," " without," i.e. outside of. The latter term St M. translates, "détaché," "apart from."
247. Which is not so: But the Father everywhere generateth the Son out of all his powers, and the Holy Ghost goeth everywhere forth from the Father and the Son, and so there is but ONE only God in one being, with three distinct persons. 48. Of which you have a similitude in the precious gold ore, or a goldstone unseparated. First there is the matter, that is, the Salitter and Mercurius, which is the mother or the whole stone, which generateth the gold everywhere in the whole stone; and in the gold is the glorious power or virtue of the stone. 49. Now the Salitter and Mercurius signify the Father, the gold signifieth the Son, and the power or virtue signifies the Holy Ghost: In such a manner also is the Ternary in the holy Trinity, only that all moveth and goeth forth therein universally. 50. In a goldstone men find also a little piece of it in some place, wherein there is more and purer gold, than in another not discerned, though there is gold in the whole stone or ore. 51. Thus also is the place or space in the centre or midst of the angelical gates a more pleasant, more gracious, amiable and blessed place to the Father, wherein his Son and Heart is generated in the most richly and fully loving manner, and wherein the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Son in the most richly and fully loving manner. 52. Thus you have the right ground of this Mystery, and you ought not to think that the Son of God was generated of the Father at once, at a certain time, as one that hath a beginning, and that he standeth now as a king, and would
3be worshipped. 53. No; this would not be an eternal Son, but one that had a beginning, and was under, beneath or inferior to the Father that had generated him. 54. Neither would he be allknowing, for he could not know how it was before his Father had generated him. 55. But the Son is generated continually from eternity unto eternity, and shineth continually from eternity into the powers of the Father again, whereby the powers of the Father are always from eternity to eternity continually impregnated with the Son, and generate him continually. 56. Out of which the Holy Ghost continually existeth from eternity to eternity, and so continually from eternity to eternity goeth forth from the Father and the Son, and hath neither beginning nor end. 57. And this being is not so in one place only of the Father, but everywhere in the whole Father, who hath neither beginning nor end; into which no creature can reach with its senses or thoughts. Of the Nativities or Genitures of the Angelical Kings, and how they came to be. [58. " This also is more fundamentally described in the second and in the third book."] 59. The person or the body of a king of angels is generated out of all the qualities, and out of all the powers of his whole kingdom, through the
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.
143. As the air goeth forth from the power of the sun and stars, and moveth in this world, and causeth that all creatures are generated, and that the grass, herbs and trees spring and grow, and causeth all whatsoever is in this world to be: 44. So the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Son, and moveth or acteth, formeth or frameth and imageth all that is in the whole God. 45. All growing or vegetation and forms in the Father arise and spring up in the moving of the Holy Ghost; therefore there is but ONE only GOD, and three distinct Persons in one divine being, essence or substance. 46. Now if a man should say the Son of God were an image, circumscriptive or measurable like the sun, then the three Persons would be only in that place where the Son is, and his splendour or shining would be without or beyond him, and as gone forth from the Son; and the Father would be one, only externally, without or beside * the Son, and then the power of the Father, which would be afar off and wide distant from the Son, would not generate the Son and Holy Ghost, externally, without and beyond the angelical gates; and so there would be an unalmighty being, externally, without or beside this place of the Son; and, moreover, the Father would be a circumscribed or measurable being. * "beside." In par. 34 the word used in the original is "ausser," "without," i.e. out of. In par. 46, "ausserhalb," " without," i.e. outside of. The latter term St M. translates, "détaché," "apart from."
247. Which is not so: But the Father everywhere generateth the Son out of all his powers, and the Holy Ghost goeth everywhere forth from the Father and the Son, and so there is but ONE only God in one being, with three distinct persons. 48. Of which you have a similitude in the precious gold ore, or a goldstone unseparated. First there is the matter, that is, the Salitter and Mercurius, which is the mother or the whole stone, which generateth the gold everywhere in the whole stone; and in the gold is the glorious power or virtue of the stone. 49. Now the Salitter and Mercurius signify the Father, the gold signifieth the Son, and the power or virtue signifies the Holy Ghost: In such a manner also is the Ternary in the holy Trinity, only that all moveth and goeth forth therein universally. 50. In a goldstone men find also a little piece of it in some place, wherein there is more and purer gold, than in another not discerned, though there is gold in the whole stone or ore. 51. Thus also is the place or space in the centre or midst of the angelical gates a more pleasant, more gracious, amiable and blessed place to the Father, wherein his Son and Heart is generated in the most richly and fully loving manner, and wherein the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Son in the most richly and fully loving manner. 52. Thus you have the right ground of this Mystery, and you ought not to think that the Son of God was generated of the Father at once, at a certain time, as one that hath a beginning, and that he standeth now as a king, and would
3be worshipped. 53. No; this would not be an eternal Son, but one that had a beginning, and was under, beneath or inferior to the Father that had generated him. 54. Neither would he be allknowing, for he could not know how it was before his Father had generated him. 55. But the Son is generated continually from eternity unto eternity, and shineth continually from eternity into the powers of the Father again, whereby the powers of the Father are always from eternity to eternity continually impregnated with the Son, and generate him continually. 56. Out of which the Holy Ghost continually existeth from eternity to eternity, and so continually from eternity to eternity goeth forth from the Father and the Son, and hath neither beginning nor end. 57. And this being is not so in one place only of the Father, but everywhere in the whole Father, who hath neither beginning nor end; into which no creature can reach with its senses or thoughts. Of the Nativities or Genitures of the Angelical Kings, and how they came to be. [58. " This also is more fundamentally described in the second and in the third book."] 59. The person or the body of a king of angels is generated out of all the qualities, and out of all the powers of his whole kingdom, through the
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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