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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.
1the pith or kernel of the Barmhertzigkeit, warmheartedness, or mercifulness, according to which the whole being, with all the powers, is called GOTT (GOD). 136. The heat is the kernel of the spirit, out of which the light goeth and kindleth itself in the midst or centre of the sweet quality, and becometh captivated by the astringent and bitter qualities, as in the midst or centre wherein the Son of God is generated, and that is the very Hertz (heart) of God. 137. The light's flame or flash, which in the twinkling of an eye, or in a moment, shineth into all the powers, even as the sun doth in the whole world, is the Holy Ghost, which goeth forth from the clarity or brightness of the Son of God, and is the flash of lightning and sharpness; for the Son is generated in the midst or centre of the other qualities, and is caught by the other qualities. Understand this high thing rightly. 138. When the Father speaketh or pronounceth the WORD, that is, generateth his Son (which is always done for ever and eternally), then that Word first taketh its original in the astringent quality; therein it fixeth, conceiveth or compacteth itself; and in the sweet quality it taketh its fountain, spring or source, and in the bitter quality it sharpeneth and moveth itself, and in the heat it riseth up and kindleth the middle sweet fountain or source. 139. Now it burneth jointly or equally alike in all the qualities of the kindled fire, and the fire burneth forth from the qualities; for all qualities burn, and that fire is one fire, and not many several fires.
2140. That fire is the very Son of God, who is thus generated always from eternity to eternity: This I can demonstrate by the heaven and the earth, the stars and the elements, and by all the creatures, stones, leaves and grass, yea in the devil himself; and that, not with dead, slight, insignificant arguments, void of understanding, but with clear, quick, living and invincible firm arguments, even above, beyond and to the refutation of all men's reason, convincingly and undeniably; and lastly, in opposition against all the devils and the gates of hell; and I would do it here, if it would not take up too much room. 141. Yet it shall be treated of all along in this whole book, in all the articles and parts thereof; but you shall find it more particularly in that part concerning the creation of the creatures, as also concerning the creation of heaven and earth and of all things, which will be fitter to be done then, and more easily apprehended by the Reader. Now observe: 142. Out of that fire goeth forth the flash or the light, and moveth or boileth in all the powers, and hath or containeth in itself the fountain and sharpness of all the powers, because it is generated, through the Son, out of all the powers of the Father; and so then it reciprocally maketh all the powers in the Father living and moving; and through that spirit are all the angels formed and imaged out of the Father's powers. 143. That spirit formeth and preserveth and supporteth all, all vegetation, all colours and all creatures, both in heaven and in this world, and above the heaven of heavens. For the birth or geniture of the holy Trinity above all is thus and no otherwise, neither will it be otherwise in all eternity.
3144. But when the fire is kindled in a creature, that is, when a creature elevateth itself too high or too much (as Lucifer and his legions did), then the light extinguished or goeth out, and the fierce, wrathful and hot source, the source of the hellish fire, riseth up, that is, the spirit of the fire riseth up in the fierce quality. 145. Observe here the circumstances how this is done, or how it can come to be done. Therefore consider: an angel is formed, figured, composed or compacted together out of all powers, as I have described it at large. 146. Now when he elevateth himself, he elevateth himself first in the astringent quality, which he gripeth close together, as a woman who is in travail, and presseth himself, whereby the hard quality becometh so hard and sharp that the sweet water can force or prevail with it no more, and so can rise up no more meekly or mildly in the creature, but is captivated and dried up by the astringent quality, and changed into a hard, sharp, fierce coldness. 147. For it becometh too empty and dry by the astringent contraction, and loseth its bright lustre, and its unctuosity, fatness or oiliness (wherein the light spirit riseth up, which is the spirit of the holy angelical and divine life) becometh so hard compacted and pressed together by the astringent quality, whereby it is dried up like sweet dry wood. 148. So when the bitter quality riseth up in the exsiccated or dried sweet quality, then the sweetness cannot mollify it, and saturate it with its sweet light water, because it is dried up.
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.
1the pith or kernel of the Barmhertzigkeit, warmheartedness, or mercifulness, according to which the whole being, with all the powers, is called GOTT (GOD). 136. The heat is the kernel of the spirit, out of which the light goeth and kindleth itself in the midst or centre of the sweet quality, and becometh captivated by the astringent and bitter qualities, as in the midst or centre wherein the Son of God is generated, and that is the very Hertz (heart) of God. 137. The light's flame or flash, which in the twinkling of an eye, or in a moment, shineth into all the powers, even as the sun doth in the whole world, is the Holy Ghost, which goeth forth from the clarity or brightness of the Son of God, and is the flash of lightning and sharpness; for the Son is generated in the midst or centre of the other qualities, and is caught by the other qualities. Understand this high thing rightly. 138. When the Father speaketh or pronounceth the WORD, that is, generateth his Son (which is always done for ever and eternally), then that Word first taketh its original in the astringent quality; therein it fixeth, conceiveth or compacteth itself; and in the sweet quality it taketh its fountain, spring or source, and in the bitter quality it sharpeneth and moveth itself, and in the heat it riseth up and kindleth the middle sweet fountain or source. 139. Now it burneth jointly or equally alike in all the qualities of the kindled fire, and the fire burneth forth from the qualities; for all qualities burn, and that fire is one fire, and not many several fires.
2140. That fire is the very Son of God, who is thus generated always from eternity to eternity: This I can demonstrate by the heaven and the earth, the stars and the elements, and by all the creatures, stones, leaves and grass, yea in the devil himself; and that, not with dead, slight, insignificant arguments, void of understanding, but with clear, quick, living and invincible firm arguments, even above, beyond and to the refutation of all men's reason, convincingly and undeniably; and lastly, in opposition against all the devils and the gates of hell; and I would do it here, if it would not take up too much room. 141. Yet it shall be treated of all along in this whole book, in all the articles and parts thereof; but you shall find it more particularly in that part concerning the creation of the creatures, as also concerning the creation of heaven and earth and of all things, which will be fitter to be done then, and more easily apprehended by the Reader. Now observe: 142. Out of that fire goeth forth the flash or the light, and moveth or boileth in all the powers, and hath or containeth in itself the fountain and sharpness of all the powers, because it is generated, through the Son, out of all the powers of the Father; and so then it reciprocally maketh all the powers in the Father living and moving; and through that spirit are all the angels formed and imaged out of the Father's powers. 143. That spirit formeth and preserveth and supporteth all, all vegetation, all colours and all creatures, both in heaven and in this world, and above the heaven of heavens. For the birth or geniture of the holy Trinity above all is thus and no otherwise, neither will it be otherwise in all eternity.
3144. But when the fire is kindled in a creature, that is, when a creature elevateth itself too high or too much (as Lucifer and his legions did), then the light extinguished or goeth out, and the fierce, wrathful and hot source, the source of the hellish fire, riseth up, that is, the spirit of the fire riseth up in the fierce quality. 145. Observe here the circumstances how this is done, or how it can come to be done. Therefore consider: an angel is formed, figured, composed or compacted together out of all powers, as I have described it at large. 146. Now when he elevateth himself, he elevateth himself first in the astringent quality, which he gripeth close together, as a woman who is in travail, and presseth himself, whereby the hard quality becometh so hard and sharp that the sweet water can force or prevail with it no more, and so can rise up no more meekly or mildly in the creature, but is captivated and dried up by the astringent quality, and changed into a hard, sharp, fierce coldness. 147. For it becometh too empty and dry by the astringent contraction, and loseth its bright lustre, and its unctuosity, fatness or oiliness (wherein the light spirit riseth up, which is the spirit of the holy angelical and divine life) becometh so hard compacted and pressed together by the astringent quality, whereby it is dried up like sweet dry wood. 148. So when the bitter quality riseth up in the exsiccated or dried sweet quality, then the sweetness cannot mollify it, and saturate it with its sweet light water, because it is dried up.
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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