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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.
1everything that liveth. 65. For in these five qualities rise up the seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling; and so a rational spirit cometh to be. 66. When the light riseth up, then one spirit seeth another. 67. When the sweet spring or fountainwater riseth up in the light, through all the spirits, then the one tasteth the other; and then the spirits become living, and the power of life penetrateth through all. 68. In that power the one smelleth the other; and through this qualifying influence and penetration the one feeleth the other. 69. So there is nothing else but a hearty, loving and friendly aspect or seeing, a pleasant smell, a good relishing or tasting, and a lovely feeling, a gracious, amiable, blessed kissing, a feeding upon and drinking of one another, and a lovely walking and conversing together. 70. This is the gracious, amiable, blessed BRIDE, which rejoiceth in her BRIDEGROOM; herein is love, joy and delight; here is light and brightness or clarity; here is a pleasant and lovely smell; here is a friendly and sweet taste. 71. And this for ever without end! How can a creature sufficiently rejoice therein? O dear love and gracious amiable blessedness! Surely thou hast no end. No man can see any end in thee, thy profound deep is unsearchable, thou art everywhere all over thus; only in the fierce devils art thou not thus, they have spoiled and perished thee in themselves.
2Question. 72. Now thou wilt say, Where then are these gracious, amiable and blessed spirits to be met with? Do they dwell only in themselves in heaven? Answer. 73. This is the other open gate of the Deity, here thou must set thy eyes wide open, and rouse up or awaken the spirit in thy half dead heart: for this is not an obscure fiction, contrivance or phantasy. Observe: 74. The seven spirits of God, in their circumference and space, contain or comprehend heaven and this world; also the wide breadth and depth without and beyond the heavens, even above and beneath the world, and in the world, yea the whole Father, who hath neither beginning nor end. 75. They contain also all the creatures both in heaven and in this world; and all the creatures in heaven and in this world are imaged, fashioned or framed out of these spirits, and live in them as in their own propriety. 76. Their life and their reason is generated in them in such a manner as the divine being is generated, and also in the same power. 77. Out of and from the same body of the seven spirits of God are all things made and produced, all angels, all devils, the heaven, the earth, the stars, the elements, men, beasts, fowls, fishes; all worms, wood, trees, also stones, herbs and grass, and all whatsoever is. Question. 78. Now thou wilt ask, Seeing God is everywhere, and is himself All, how cometh it then
3that there is in this world such cold and heat, such biting and striking among all creatures, and that there is almost nothing else but mere fierceness or wrath in this world? Answer. [79. " The cause is, that, without [apart from, " outside of] the light the first four forms of " nature are one at enmity against the other; " and yet they are the causes of life."] 80. Behold here the wickedness and malice which is the cause; viz. when king Lucifer did sit in his kingdom, like a highminded proud bride, then his circuit, circle or orb contained or comprehended the place or space where now is the created heaven, which is made out of the water: 81. And also the place of the created world, even unto heaven, as also the deep where now the earth is, all that was a pure and holy Salitter, wherein the seven spirits of God were complete and pleasant, as now [they are] in heaven, although they are still complete and full in this world. But observe the circumstances rightly. 82. When king Lucifer elevated himself, then he elevated himself in the seven qualifying fountainspirits, and kindled them with his eleva tion, so that all was wholly burning, and the astringent quality was so hard and compact, that it generated stones; and it was so cold, that it made the sweet spring or fountainwater turn into ice. 83. And the sweet spring water became very thick and stinking, and the bitter quality became very raging, tearing and raving, whence poison was generated, and the fire or heat was violently and zealously or fervently burning and consuming, and so there was a very great distemper and
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.
1everything that liveth. 65. For in these five qualities rise up the seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling; and so a rational spirit cometh to be. 66. When the light riseth up, then one spirit seeth another. 67. When the sweet spring or fountainwater riseth up in the light, through all the spirits, then the one tasteth the other; and then the spirits become living, and the power of life penetrateth through all. 68. In that power the one smelleth the other; and through this qualifying influence and penetration the one feeleth the other. 69. So there is nothing else but a hearty, loving and friendly aspect or seeing, a pleasant smell, a good relishing or tasting, and a lovely feeling, a gracious, amiable, blessed kissing, a feeding upon and drinking of one another, and a lovely walking and conversing together. 70. This is the gracious, amiable, blessed BRIDE, which rejoiceth in her BRIDEGROOM; herein is love, joy and delight; here is light and brightness or clarity; here is a pleasant and lovely smell; here is a friendly and sweet taste. 71. And this for ever without end! How can a creature sufficiently rejoice therein? O dear love and gracious amiable blessedness! Surely thou hast no end. No man can see any end in thee, thy profound deep is unsearchable, thou art everywhere all over thus; only in the fierce devils art thou not thus, they have spoiled and perished thee in themselves.
2Question. 72. Now thou wilt say, Where then are these gracious, amiable and blessed spirits to be met with? Do they dwell only in themselves in heaven? Answer. 73. This is the other open gate of the Deity, here thou must set thy eyes wide open, and rouse up or awaken the spirit in thy half dead heart: for this is not an obscure fiction, contrivance or phantasy. Observe: 74. The seven spirits of God, in their circumference and space, contain or comprehend heaven and this world; also the wide breadth and depth without and beyond the heavens, even above and beneath the world, and in the world, yea the whole Father, who hath neither beginning nor end. 75. They contain also all the creatures both in heaven and in this world; and all the creatures in heaven and in this world are imaged, fashioned or framed out of these spirits, and live in them as in their own propriety. 76. Their life and their reason is generated in them in such a manner as the divine being is generated, and also in the same power. 77. Out of and from the same body of the seven spirits of God are all things made and produced, all angels, all devils, the heaven, the earth, the stars, the elements, men, beasts, fowls, fishes; all worms, wood, trees, also stones, herbs and grass, and all whatsoever is. Question. 78. Now thou wilt ask, Seeing God is everywhere, and is himself All, how cometh it then
3that there is in this world such cold and heat, such biting and striking among all creatures, and that there is almost nothing else but mere fierceness or wrath in this world? Answer. [79. " The cause is, that, without [apart from, " outside of] the light the first four forms of " nature are one at enmity against the other; " and yet they are the causes of life."] 80. Behold here the wickedness and malice which is the cause; viz. when king Lucifer did sit in his kingdom, like a highminded proud bride, then his circuit, circle or orb contained or comprehended the place or space where now is the created heaven, which is made out of the water: 81. And also the place of the created world, even unto heaven, as also the deep where now the earth is, all that was a pure and holy Salitter, wherein the seven spirits of God were complete and pleasant, as now [they are] in heaven, although they are still complete and full in this world. But observe the circumstances rightly. 82. When king Lucifer elevated himself, then he elevated himself in the seven qualifying fountainspirits, and kindled them with his eleva tion, so that all was wholly burning, and the astringent quality was so hard and compact, that it generated stones; and it was so cold, that it made the sweet spring or fountainwater turn into ice. 83. And the sweet spring water became very thick and stinking, and the bitter quality became very raging, tearing and raving, whence poison was generated, and the fire or heat was violently and zealously or fervently burning and consuming, and so there was a very great distemper and
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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