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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.
142. Whereof you have an image in the Revelation of John, where he seeth seven golden candle sticks or lights before the Son of God, which signify the seven spirits of God, which shine in great clarity, brightness or lustre before the Son of God, out of which the Son of God is continually generated from eternity to eternity, and is the Heart of the seven spirits of God, and which I will here describe in order one after another. 43. You must here elevate your sense or mind in the spirit, if you intend to understand and apprehend it; or else in your own sense or mind you will be an astringent, hard, blind stock. III. Of the Third Circumstance or Species. 44. The Third quality, or the third spirit of God in the Father's power, is the bitter quality; which is a penetrating or forcing of the sweet and the astringent or harsh qualities, and which is trembling,* penetrating and rising up. * "trembling," rendered by St M., "vibrante," "vibrating" or " tense." Observe here: 45. The astringent or harsh quality is the kernel or stock, and is sour or attractive; and the sweet is the light, mollifying and softening; and the bitter is penetrating or triumphing, which riseth up and triumpheth in the astringent or harsh quality, and in the sweet. 46. This is the source of joy, or the cause of the laughing, elevating joy, whereby a thing trembleth and jubilateth for joy; whence the heavenly joy existeth.
247. Moreover, it is the imaging or forming of all sorts of red colours in its own quality; in the sweet it imageth or formeth all sorts of white and blue; in the astringent, or harsh and sour, it formeth all sorts of green, dusky and mixed colours, with all manner of forms or figures and smells. 48. The bitter quality is the first spirit from whence mobility taketh its original, whence the life becometh stirring, and is well called Cor or the heart, for it is the trembling, shivering, elevating, penetrating spirit, a triumphing or joy, an elevating source of laughing; in the sweet quality the bitter is mollified, so that it becometh very richly loving and joyful. 49. But if it be moved, elevated and kindled too much, then it kindleth the sweet and the astringent or harsh qualities, and is like a tearing, stinging and burning poison, as when a man is tormented with a raging plaguesore, which maketh him cry out for woe and misery. 50. In the divine power this quality, when it is kindled, is the spirit of the zealous or jealous and bitter wrath of God, which is unquenchable, as may be seen by the legions of Lucifer. 51. Yet further: this quality, when it is kindled, is the bitter hellish fire, which putteth out the light, turning the sweet quality into a stink, causing a sharpness and tearing, a hardness and coldness in the astringent or harsh quality. 52. In the sour quality it causeth a rankness and brittleness, a stink, a misery, a house of mourning, a house of darkness, of death and of hell; an end of joy, which therein can no more be thought upon: For it cannot be quieted or
3stilled by anything, nor can it be enlightened again by anything; but the dark, astringent or harsh, stinking, sour, torn, bitter, fierce quality riseth up to all eternity. Now observe: 53. In these three species or qualities standeth the corporeal being, or the creatural being of all creatures in heaven and in this world, whether it be angel or man, beast or fowl or vegetable, of a heavenly or of an earthly form, quality and kind, as also all colours and forms. 54. Briefly, whatsoever imageth itself, standeth in the power and authority of these three head qualities, and is formed by them, and also is formed out of their own power. 55. First, the astringent and sour quality is a body or source which attracteth the sweet power, and the cold in the astringent or harsh quality maketh it dry. 56. For the sweet quality is the heart of the water, for it is thin and light or bright, and is like heaven: and the bitter quality maketh it separable or distinct, so that the powers form themselves into members, and cause mobility in the body. 57. And when the sweet quality is dried, then it is a corpus or body, which is perfect, but wanting reason. 58. And the bitter quality penetrateth into the body, into the astringent or sour and into the sweet qualities, and frameth all sorts of colours according to that quality to which the body is most eagerly inclined, or according to that quality which is strongest in the body, according to that [strongest quality] the bitter quality frameth 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.
142. Whereof you have an image in the Revelation of John, where he seeth seven golden candle sticks or lights before the Son of God, which signify the seven spirits of God, which shine in great clarity, brightness or lustre before the Son of God, out of which the Son of God is continually generated from eternity to eternity, and is the Heart of the seven spirits of God, and which I will here describe in order one after another. 43. You must here elevate your sense or mind in the spirit, if you intend to understand and apprehend it; or else in your own sense or mind you will be an astringent, hard, blind stock. III. Of the Third Circumstance or Species. 44. The Third quality, or the third spirit of God in the Father's power, is the bitter quality; which is a penetrating or forcing of the sweet and the astringent or harsh qualities, and which is trembling,* penetrating and rising up. * "trembling," rendered by St M., "vibrante," "vibrating" or " tense." Observe here: 45. The astringent or harsh quality is the kernel or stock, and is sour or attractive; and the sweet is the light, mollifying and softening; and the bitter is penetrating or triumphing, which riseth up and triumpheth in the astringent or harsh quality, and in the sweet. 46. This is the source of joy, or the cause of the laughing, elevating joy, whereby a thing trembleth and jubilateth for joy; whence the heavenly joy existeth.
247. Moreover, it is the imaging or forming of all sorts of red colours in its own quality; in the sweet it imageth or formeth all sorts of white and blue; in the astringent, or harsh and sour, it formeth all sorts of green, dusky and mixed colours, with all manner of forms or figures and smells. 48. The bitter quality is the first spirit from whence mobility taketh its original, whence the life becometh stirring, and is well called Cor or the heart, for it is the trembling, shivering, elevating, penetrating spirit, a triumphing or joy, an elevating source of laughing; in the sweet quality the bitter is mollified, so that it becometh very richly loving and joyful. 49. But if it be moved, elevated and kindled too much, then it kindleth the sweet and the astringent or harsh qualities, and is like a tearing, stinging and burning poison, as when a man is tormented with a raging plaguesore, which maketh him cry out for woe and misery. 50. In the divine power this quality, when it is kindled, is the spirit of the zealous or jealous and bitter wrath of God, which is unquenchable, as may be seen by the legions of Lucifer. 51. Yet further: this quality, when it is kindled, is the bitter hellish fire, which putteth out the light, turning the sweet quality into a stink, causing a sharpness and tearing, a hardness and coldness in the astringent or harsh quality. 52. In the sour quality it causeth a rankness and brittleness, a stink, a misery, a house of mourning, a house of darkness, of death and of hell; an end of joy, which therein can no more be thought upon: For it cannot be quieted or
3stilled by anything, nor can it be enlightened again by anything; but the dark, astringent or harsh, stinking, sour, torn, bitter, fierce quality riseth up to all eternity. Now observe: 53. In these three species or qualities standeth the corporeal being, or the creatural being of all creatures in heaven and in this world, whether it be angel or man, beast or fowl or vegetable, of a heavenly or of an earthly form, quality and kind, as also all colours and forms. 54. Briefly, whatsoever imageth itself, standeth in the power and authority of these three head qualities, and is formed by them, and also is formed out of their own power. 55. First, the astringent and sour quality is a body or source which attracteth the sweet power, and the cold in the astringent or harsh quality maketh it dry. 56. For the sweet quality is the heart of the water, for it is thin and light or bright, and is like heaven: and the bitter quality maketh it separable or distinct, so that the powers form themselves into members, and cause mobility in the body. 57. And when the sweet quality is dried, then it is a corpus or body, which is perfect, but wanting reason. 58. And the bitter quality penetrateth into the body, into the astringent or sour and into the sweet qualities, and frameth all sorts of colours according to that quality to which the body is most eagerly inclined, or according to that quality which is strongest in the body, according to that [strongest quality] the bitter quality frameth 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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