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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.
123. This astringent quality is one species or source of wrath in the divine Salitter; and when this source is kindled, which may be done by great motion or elevation, touching or stirring, then the astringent causeth, or qualifieth in, great coldness, which is very sharp, like unto salt, very hard, binding, knitting and attracting together like a stone. 24. But in the heavenly pomp or state it is not so elevating; * for it doth not elevate itself, neither doth it kindle itself; king Lucifer alone hath kindled this quality in his kingdom, through his elevation and pride, whence this quality is burning even till the last day. * "it is not so elevating" (erheblich) or "predominant." St M. has: " elle ne s'exalte pas," " it does not exalt itself." 25. And by this now, in the creation of this world, the stars and the elements, as also the creatures, tremble and burn; out of it existeth also the house of death and of hell, also an eternal, base, loathsome habitation for the kingdom of Lucifer, and for all Godless men. 26. In the heavenly pomp this quality generateth the sharpness of the spirit, out of which, and whereby, the creaturely being is so formed or constituted that a heavenly body may be framed, as also all manner of colours, forms and sprouts or vegetation. 27. For it is the contraction, compacting or imaging of a thing, and therefore it is the first quality, and a beginning of the angelical creatures, and of all images or likenesses which are in heaven, and all which are in this world, and all whatsoever that can be named or expressed.
228. But if it be kindled through exaltation, which those creatures that are created out of the divine Salitter alone can do (and only in their own kingdom), then it is a burning sourcevein of the wrath of God. 29. For it is one of the seven spirits of God, in whose power standeth the divine being or essence in the whole divine power and heavenly pomp. 30. So if it be kindled, then it is a fierce source of wrath, and a beginning of hell, and a torment and woe of the hellish fire, also a quality of darkness; for therein are extinguished the divine love, and also the divine light. [31. "It is a key which locketh in to the " chamber of death, and generateth death, from " whence proceed earth, stones and all hard " things."] II. Of the Second Species or Circumstance. 32. The Second quality, or second spirit of God in the divine Salitter, or in the divine power, is the sweet quality, which worketh in the astringent, and mitigateth the astringent, so that it is altogether lovely, pleasant and mild or meek. 33. For it is the overcoming of the astringent quality, and is the very source or fountain of the mercy of God, which overcometh the wrath, whereby the astringent harsh source is mollified, and God's mercy riseth up. 34. Of this you have a similitude in an apple, which at first is astringent, harsh or chokey, but when the sweet quality forceth and overcometh it, then it is very soft, lovely and pleasant to eat: Thus it is in the divine
3power also. 35. For when men speak of the mercy of God the Father, they speak of his power, of his fountain spirits, of the qualities which are in the Salitter, out of which his most richly loving Heart or Son is generated. Observe here: 36. The astringent or harsh quality is the heart, pith or kernel in the divine power, the contraction, compaction or imaging, forming or impression; for it is the sharpness and cold, as it is seen that the harsh astringent cold drieth the water, and maketh it sharp ice. 37. The sweet quality is the allaying or warming, whereby the harsh or astringent and cold quality becometh thin and soft, whence the water taketh its original. 38. Thus the astringent quality is and is called the heart; and the sweet is called barm or warm, or softening or mitigating: they are the two qualities out of which the Heart or son of God is generated. 39. For the astringent or harsh quality, in its stock or kernel, when it qualifieth or operateth in its own power, is a darkness: The sweet quality, in its own power, is a moving, boiling, warming and rising light, a source or fountain of meekness and welldoing. 40. But while both of them qualify or operate the one in the other, in the divine power, as if they were but one power, they are a meek, mild, lovely, pleasant, merciful qualifying. 41. These two qualities are two of the spirits of God, among the seven qualifying or fountainspirits in the divine power.
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.
123. This astringent quality is one species or source of wrath in the divine Salitter; and when this source is kindled, which may be done by great motion or elevation, touching or stirring, then the astringent causeth, or qualifieth in, great coldness, which is very sharp, like unto salt, very hard, binding, knitting and attracting together like a stone. 24. But in the heavenly pomp or state it is not so elevating; * for it doth not elevate itself, neither doth it kindle itself; king Lucifer alone hath kindled this quality in his kingdom, through his elevation and pride, whence this quality is burning even till the last day. * "it is not so elevating" (erheblich) or "predominant." St M. has: " elle ne s'exalte pas," " it does not exalt itself." 25. And by this now, in the creation of this world, the stars and the elements, as also the creatures, tremble and burn; out of it existeth also the house of death and of hell, also an eternal, base, loathsome habitation for the kingdom of Lucifer, and for all Godless men. 26. In the heavenly pomp this quality generateth the sharpness of the spirit, out of which, and whereby, the creaturely being is so formed or constituted that a heavenly body may be framed, as also all manner of colours, forms and sprouts or vegetation. 27. For it is the contraction, compacting or imaging of a thing, and therefore it is the first quality, and a beginning of the angelical creatures, and of all images or likenesses which are in heaven, and all which are in this world, and all whatsoever that can be named or expressed.
228. But if it be kindled through exaltation, which those creatures that are created out of the divine Salitter alone can do (and only in their own kingdom), then it is a burning sourcevein of the wrath of God. 29. For it is one of the seven spirits of God, in whose power standeth the divine being or essence in the whole divine power and heavenly pomp. 30. So if it be kindled, then it is a fierce source of wrath, and a beginning of hell, and a torment and woe of the hellish fire, also a quality of darkness; for therein are extinguished the divine love, and also the divine light. [31. "It is a key which locketh in to the " chamber of death, and generateth death, from " whence proceed earth, stones and all hard " things."] II. Of the Second Species or Circumstance. 32. The Second quality, or second spirit of God in the divine Salitter, or in the divine power, is the sweet quality, which worketh in the astringent, and mitigateth the astringent, so that it is altogether lovely, pleasant and mild or meek. 33. For it is the overcoming of the astringent quality, and is the very source or fountain of the mercy of God, which overcometh the wrath, whereby the astringent harsh source is mollified, and God's mercy riseth up. 34. Of this you have a similitude in an apple, which at first is astringent, harsh or chokey, but when the sweet quality forceth and overcometh it, then it is very soft, lovely and pleasant to eat: Thus it is in the divine
3power also. 35. For when men speak of the mercy of God the Father, they speak of his power, of his fountain spirits, of the qualities which are in the Salitter, out of which his most richly loving Heart or Son is generated. Observe here: 36. The astringent or harsh quality is the heart, pith or kernel in the divine power, the contraction, compaction or imaging, forming or impression; for it is the sharpness and cold, as it is seen that the harsh astringent cold drieth the water, and maketh it sharp ice. 37. The sweet quality is the allaying or warming, whereby the harsh or astringent and cold quality becometh thin and soft, whence the water taketh its original. 38. Thus the astringent quality is and is called the heart; and the sweet is called barm or warm, or softening or mitigating: they are the two qualities out of which the Heart or son of God is generated. 39. For the astringent or harsh quality, in its stock or kernel, when it qualifieth or operateth in its own power, is a darkness: The sweet quality, in its own power, is a moving, boiling, warming and rising light, a source or fountain of meekness and welldoing. 40. But while both of them qualify or operate the one in the other, in the divine power, as if they were but one power, they are a meek, mild, lovely, pleasant, merciful qualifying. 41. These two qualities are two of the spirits of God, among the seven qualifying or fountainspirits in the divine power.
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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