Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
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.
1And because this author could not so deeply and fundamentally disclose these Mysteries except in such significant, though hard, terms of expres sion as he useth, therefore he wrote for the satisfaction of his loving friends some explanatory Tables, and a Clavis [Key], which are already printed in English, yet still, for all that, they are accompted very difficult to be understood. And I also, who have much and studiously traced his writings over, have found them difficult —but far exceeding in recompense the utmost pains that I could possibly bestow upon them. I find, also, that the understanding of them cometh by degrees, and frequent loving conversation in all the parts and pieces he hath written. Yet, also I must say, that this book, Aurora, hath conduced more to open my mind to the understanding of all his writings, and of all Mysteries, both natural and divine (and so, consequently, of the Holy Scriptures) than any other helps and books which I could ever meet withal besides. Which the Reader will also perceive, by the diligent perusal of this book, in a continued order, from the beginning onwards, and find whatsoever his heart desireth or ever longed for, and that it is, as this author says near the end of the Preface to this book, THE WONDER OF THE WORLD. And though it was not quite finished at the time when he wrote it, nor ever after, being it was taken away and kept from him, till he had written several complete treatises; and so in them the defect of the Aurora was supplied in abundant measure, for instead of thirty sheets which that book wanted to the end, there are written of the same Mysteries—and at a time when he had fuller knowledge and also leave
2to declare his knowledge and set it down in writing — more than three hundred sheets of paper, which contain all Mysteries in succinct terms, very deeply expressed. But in his Aurora the ground of those terms is largely and plainly described in a childish way, after the manner of the infancy of his high manifestation; so that it is a large and most clear A B C , being the fitter and plainer for beginners, and with which his other books may the easier be understood; and it is a summary contents of all his Mysteries, and may serve instead of a manuduction, introduction and key, to unlock all the difficult expressions in his other books. And that, because it explains the first ground concerning the seven properties of the eternal nature (which here he calleth the seven qualifying or fountain spirits or qualities, which are the seven spirits of God, in, and from, and to all eternity), with notes of reference to the book of The Three Principles, and to The Threefold Life of Man, which are the supply to the want of finishing this book, and which he wrote down with his own hand, in their several proper places by way of exposition, in a manuscript of Michael von Endern's, his own written copy being kept from him by Gregory Richter, the Superintendent at Görlitz. The Aurora was published in print, with many whole verses and lines left out, in 1634, printed in High Dutch, but the beforementioned notes were added by the author in the year 1620, and are here inserted, with alphabetical marks,* in this translation into English, which is made from a copy taken from that of his own handwriting, which was kept laid up for twentyseven years together, till the 26th of November in the year 1641, when it was brought to light by D. P. S., a Burgomaster at Görlitz, and presented to George Pflugden, in Dresden, Marshal of the house of the Prince Elector of Saxony,
3but is now in the hands of a worthy person in Holland, and lately printed in High Dutch. And so the rest of this author's manuscripts in his hands will be printed by degrees, in nine parts, in the same order in which the author wrote them, this Aurora being the first. * In the present reprint the alphabetical marks are omitted. The notes added by J. B. in 1620 are quoted and set within square brackets in the text.—[EDS.] But the author was resolved to leave it unfinished, to remain as an eternal remembrance of the endeavour to suppress and quash this revelation in its first dawning: which will also be manifested at the last day, when all things shall appear to be judged whether they be good. or evil; and everything receive its just recompense of reward. Therefore, dear Reader, in true, sincere love to thee as to myself I commend this book, Aurora, to thy reading, whosoever thou art; desiring thy prayers, that is, thy good desires, that I, with thee, may be received into the grace and mercy of the almighty, omnipresent God, whose whole fulness is always with and in himself, everywhere; and so be protected through this miserable pilgrimage, under corruption, in the vale of sinful flesh, and that most hurting us, in the greatest pleasure, honour, pomp, riches and fulness of worldly content, in this transitory life, till we awake and meet together in the everlasting joy of our everblessed God, who filleth us throughout, and all things else, with himself, within and without, which we should perceive, if we would learn to distinguish him from the creature in everything. I willingly yield myself to be thine, though with the acknowledgement that I am one of 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.
1And because this author could not so deeply and fundamentally disclose these Mysteries except in such significant, though hard, terms of expres sion as he useth, therefore he wrote for the satisfaction of his loving friends some explanatory Tables, and a Clavis [Key], which are already printed in English, yet still, for all that, they are accompted very difficult to be understood. And I also, who have much and studiously traced his writings over, have found them difficult —but far exceeding in recompense the utmost pains that I could possibly bestow upon them. I find, also, that the understanding of them cometh by degrees, and frequent loving conversation in all the parts and pieces he hath written. Yet, also I must say, that this book, Aurora, hath conduced more to open my mind to the understanding of all his writings, and of all Mysteries, both natural and divine (and so, consequently, of the Holy Scriptures) than any other helps and books which I could ever meet withal besides. Which the Reader will also perceive, by the diligent perusal of this book, in a continued order, from the beginning onwards, and find whatsoever his heart desireth or ever longed for, and that it is, as this author says near the end of the Preface to this book, THE WONDER OF THE WORLD. And though it was not quite finished at the time when he wrote it, nor ever after, being it was taken away and kept from him, till he had written several complete treatises; and so in them the defect of the Aurora was supplied in abundant measure, for instead of thirty sheets which that book wanted to the end, there are written of the same Mysteries—and at a time when he had fuller knowledge and also leave
2to declare his knowledge and set it down in writing — more than three hundred sheets of paper, which contain all Mysteries in succinct terms, very deeply expressed. But in his Aurora the ground of those terms is largely and plainly described in a childish way, after the manner of the infancy of his high manifestation; so that it is a large and most clear A B C , being the fitter and plainer for beginners, and with which his other books may the easier be understood; and it is a summary contents of all his Mysteries, and may serve instead of a manuduction, introduction and key, to unlock all the difficult expressions in his other books. And that, because it explains the first ground concerning the seven properties of the eternal nature (which here he calleth the seven qualifying or fountain spirits or qualities, which are the seven spirits of God, in, and from, and to all eternity), with notes of reference to the book of The Three Principles, and to The Threefold Life of Man, which are the supply to the want of finishing this book, and which he wrote down with his own hand, in their several proper places by way of exposition, in a manuscript of Michael von Endern's, his own written copy being kept from him by Gregory Richter, the Superintendent at Görlitz. The Aurora was published in print, with many whole verses and lines left out, in 1634, printed in High Dutch, but the beforementioned notes were added by the author in the year 1620, and are here inserted, with alphabetical marks,* in this translation into English, which is made from a copy taken from that of his own handwriting, which was kept laid up for twentyseven years together, till the 26th of November in the year 1641, when it was brought to light by D. P. S., a Burgomaster at Görlitz, and presented to George Pflugden, in Dresden, Marshal of the house of the Prince Elector of Saxony,
3but is now in the hands of a worthy person in Holland, and lately printed in High Dutch. And so the rest of this author's manuscripts in his hands will be printed by degrees, in nine parts, in the same order in which the author wrote them, this Aurora being the first. * In the present reprint the alphabetical marks are omitted. The notes added by J. B. in 1620 are quoted and set within square brackets in the text.—[EDS.] But the author was resolved to leave it unfinished, to remain as an eternal remembrance of the endeavour to suppress and quash this revelation in its first dawning: which will also be manifested at the last day, when all things shall appear to be judged whether they be good. or evil; and everything receive its just recompense of reward. Therefore, dear Reader, in true, sincere love to thee as to myself I commend this book, Aurora, to thy reading, whosoever thou art; desiring thy prayers, that is, thy good desires, that I, with thee, may be received into the grace and mercy of the almighty, omnipresent God, whose whole fulness is always with and in himself, everywhere; and so be protected through this miserable pilgrimage, under corruption, in the vale of sinful flesh, and that most hurting us, in the greatest pleasure, honour, pomp, riches and fulness of worldly content, in this transitory life, till we awake and meet together in the everlasting joy of our everblessed God, who filleth us throughout, and all things else, with himself, within and without, which we should perceive, if we would learn to distinguish him from the creature in everything. I willingly yield myself to be thine, though with the acknowledgement that I am one of 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.
No commentary for this page.