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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.
1" splendour and power of the sun, so the angels " are desirous of their Cherubim or prince; all " according to God, and to his similitude."] 75. For the Creator hath extracted the heart out of the Salitter and Mercurius of the divine powers; [" Understand he hath composed it by " the Fiat, viz. the centre of nature."] 76. And the Creator hath formed out of that the Cherubim or king, that the Cherubim or king might press or penetrate again with his power into all the angels, and affect them all with his power. 77. Just as the sun with its power presseth into all the stars, and affecteth them all; or as the power of God the Son presseth into all the powers of God the Father, whereby they are all affected, wherein the birth or geniture of the heavenly joyfulness springeth up. 78. In this form, condition and manner it is with the angels also. All the angels of one kingdom signify the many and various powers of God the Father; the angelical king signifieth the Son of the Father, or the heart out of the powers of the Father, out of which the angels are made; the exit out of the king of angels, or his going forth into his angels,* or his affecting of his angels, signifieth God the Holy Ghost. * "the exit out of the king of angels, or his going forth into his angels." " The exit" (Ausgang) is rendered by St M., " l'expansion," and "going forth into," " l'imprégnation." The original has, "Ausgang... Inficirung" "going out... going into." See Ch. 8, par. 65. 79. As the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Son, and affecteth all the powers of the Father, as also all heavenly fruits and forms, from whence all hath its rising, and wherein
2the heavenly joyfulness doth consist: 80. Just in such a manner is the operation or power of a Cherubim or throne angel, which worketh or operateth in all his angels, as the Son and Holy Ghost operate in all the powers of the Father; or as the sun operateth in all the powers of the stars [planets]. 81. Whereby all angels obtain the will of the throneangel, and are all obedient to him; for they all work in his power which is in them all. 82. For they are the members of his body; as all the powers of the Father are members of the Son, and he is their heart; and as all heavenly forms and fruits are members of the Holy Ghost, and he is their heart, in whom they rise up. 83. Or as the sun is the heart of all the stars, and as all stars are members of the sun, and work one among another as one star, and yet the sun is the heart therein; though indeed there are many and various powers, yet all work in the power of the sun, and all hath its life from the power of the sun; look on what you please, be it in animals, in metals or in vegetables of the earth.
3THE EIGHTH CHAPTER Of the whole Corpus or Body of an Angelical Kingdom. The Great Mystery. 1. THE angelical kingdoms are throughout formed according to the Divine Being, and they have no other form or condition than the Divine Being hath in its Trinity. 2. This only is the difference: that their bodies are creatures, which have a beginning and an end, and that the kingdom where their locality, habitation or court is, is not their corporeal propriety, or proper own, having it for their natural right, as they have their bodies for a natural right. 3. But the kingdom belongs to God the Father, who hath made it out of his powers, and he may set it and dispose it which way he pleaseth; otherwise their body is made according to all, and out of all, the powers of the Father. 4. Their power generateth the light and know ledge in them. As God generateth his Son out of all his powers; and as the Holy Ghost goeth forth out of all the powers of the Father and the Son; so also in an angel: the spirit goeth forth from their heart, from their light and from all their powers. Now observe: 5. As the condition and constitution of an angel is, in his corporeal body, with all the members thereof, such also is the condition of a whole kingdom, which together is as it were but one angel.
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.
1" splendour and power of the sun, so the angels " are desirous of their Cherubim or prince; all " according to God, and to his similitude."] 75. For the Creator hath extracted the heart out of the Salitter and Mercurius of the divine powers; [" Understand he hath composed it by " the Fiat, viz. the centre of nature."] 76. And the Creator hath formed out of that the Cherubim or king, that the Cherubim or king might press or penetrate again with his power into all the angels, and affect them all with his power. 77. Just as the sun with its power presseth into all the stars, and affecteth them all; or as the power of God the Son presseth into all the powers of God the Father, whereby they are all affected, wherein the birth or geniture of the heavenly joyfulness springeth up. 78. In this form, condition and manner it is with the angels also. All the angels of one kingdom signify the many and various powers of God the Father; the angelical king signifieth the Son of the Father, or the heart out of the powers of the Father, out of which the angels are made; the exit out of the king of angels, or his going forth into his angels,* or his affecting of his angels, signifieth God the Holy Ghost. * "the exit out of the king of angels, or his going forth into his angels." " The exit" (Ausgang) is rendered by St M., " l'expansion," and "going forth into," " l'imprégnation." The original has, "Ausgang... Inficirung" "going out... going into." See Ch. 8, par. 65. 79. As the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Son, and affecteth all the powers of the Father, as also all heavenly fruits and forms, from whence all hath its rising, and wherein
2the heavenly joyfulness doth consist: 80. Just in such a manner is the operation or power of a Cherubim or throne angel, which worketh or operateth in all his angels, as the Son and Holy Ghost operate in all the powers of the Father; or as the sun operateth in all the powers of the stars [planets]. 81. Whereby all angels obtain the will of the throneangel, and are all obedient to him; for they all work in his power which is in them all. 82. For they are the members of his body; as all the powers of the Father are members of the Son, and he is their heart; and as all heavenly forms and fruits are members of the Holy Ghost, and he is their heart, in whom they rise up. 83. Or as the sun is the heart of all the stars, and as all stars are members of the sun, and work one among another as one star, and yet the sun is the heart therein; though indeed there are many and various powers, yet all work in the power of the sun, and all hath its life from the power of the sun; look on what you please, be it in animals, in metals or in vegetables of the earth.
3THE EIGHTH CHAPTER Of the whole Corpus or Body of an Angelical Kingdom. The Great Mystery. 1. THE angelical kingdoms are throughout formed according to the Divine Being, and they have no other form or condition than the Divine Being hath in its Trinity. 2. This only is the difference: that their bodies are creatures, which have a beginning and an end, and that the kingdom where their locality, habitation or court is, is not their corporeal propriety, or proper own, having it for their natural right, as they have their bodies for a natural right. 3. But the kingdom belongs to God the Father, who hath made it out of his powers, and he may set it and dispose it which way he pleaseth; otherwise their body is made according to all, and out of all, the powers of the Father. 4. Their power generateth the light and know ledge in them. As God generateth his Son out of all his powers; and as the Holy Ghost goeth forth out of all the powers of the Father and the Son; so also in an angel: the spirit goeth forth from their heart, from their light and from all their powers. Now observe: 5. As the condition and constitution of an angel is, in his corporeal body, with all the members thereof, such also is the condition of a whole kingdom, which together is as it were but one angel.
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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