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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.
1confused mixture. 84. Upon this king Lucifer was thrust out of his royal place or kingly throne, which he had in that place where now is the created heaven, and thereupon instantly ensued the creation of this world. 85. And the hard, spoiled or corrupt matter, which had wrought forth itself in the kindled seven qualifying or fountainspirits, was driven together, from whence the earth and stones came to be, and, after that, all the creatures were created out of the kindled Salitter of the seven spirits of God. 86. Now the qualifying or fountain spirits became so fierce and wrathful in their kindling, that the one continually spoileth the other with its evil corrupt quality or source, and so also now do the creatures, which were made out of the qualifying or fountain spirits, and live in the same impulse, the one biting, beating, worrying and annoying the other, all according to the kind or disposition of the qualities. 87. Upon this now the total or universal God hath decreed the Last Judgment, wherein he will separate the evil from the good, and set the good again in the meek, mild and pleasant delight, as it was before the horrible kindling of the devil, and will give that which is fierce or wrathful to king Lucifer for an everlasting habitation. 88. And then there will be two parts or divisions of this kingdom, the one men will get, with their King JESUS CHRIST; the other the devils shall have with all ungodly men and wickedness. 89. This is a short introduction, that the Reader might the better understand the divine Mystery; when I write concerning the fall of the
2devil, and concerning the creation of this world, you will find all more at large, particularly described. Therefore I would have the Reader admonished, that he read all in order, and so he will come to the true ground. 90. It is true, that from the beginning of the world it was not so fully revealed to any man; but seeing God will have it so, I submit to his will, and will see what God will do with it. 91. For his way which is before him is for the most part hidden from me: But following after him the spirit seeth, even into the highest and profoundest depth. THE TENTH CHAPTER Of the Sixth qualifying or fountain Spirit in the Divine Power. 1.THE Sixth qualifying or fountain spirit in the divine power is the sound, tone, tune or noise, wherein all soundeth and tuneth; whence ensued speech, language, and the distinction of everything, as also the ringing melody and singing of the holy angels, and therein consisteth the forming or framing of all colours, beauty and ornament, as also the heavenly joyfulness. Question. 2. But thou wilt ask, What is the tone or sound? Or how taketh this spirit its source and original?
3Answer. 3. All the seven spirits are generated one in another, the one continually generateth the other, not one of them is the first, nor is any one of them the last; for the last generateth as well the first as the second, third, fourth, and so on to the last. 4. But why one is called the first, another the second, and so on, that is in respect to that which is the first in order to the imaging, framing and forming of a creature. 5. For all the seven are equally eternal, and none of them hath either beginning or end; and therefore, in that the seven qualities are continally generating one another, and that none is without the other, it followeth that there is ONE Only Eternal Almighty GOD. 6. For, if anything be generated out of or in the divine being, that thing is not formed or framed by or through one spirit alone, but by all the seven. 7. And if a creature, which is like or as the whole being of God, spoileth, elevateth and kindleth itself in a qualifying or fountain spirit, it kindleth not one spirit alone, but all the seven spirits. 8. And therefore that creature is a loathsome abomination before the total God, and before all his creatures, and must stand in eternal enmity and ignominy or shame before God, and before all the creatures. 9. The tone or Mercurius taketh its original in the first, that is, in the astringent and hard quality.
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.
1confused mixture. 84. Upon this king Lucifer was thrust out of his royal place or kingly throne, which he had in that place where now is the created heaven, and thereupon instantly ensued the creation of this world. 85. And the hard, spoiled or corrupt matter, which had wrought forth itself in the kindled seven qualifying or fountainspirits, was driven together, from whence the earth and stones came to be, and, after that, all the creatures were created out of the kindled Salitter of the seven spirits of God. 86. Now the qualifying or fountain spirits became so fierce and wrathful in their kindling, that the one continually spoileth the other with its evil corrupt quality or source, and so also now do the creatures, which were made out of the qualifying or fountain spirits, and live in the same impulse, the one biting, beating, worrying and annoying the other, all according to the kind or disposition of the qualities. 87. Upon this now the total or universal God hath decreed the Last Judgment, wherein he will separate the evil from the good, and set the good again in the meek, mild and pleasant delight, as it was before the horrible kindling of the devil, and will give that which is fierce or wrathful to king Lucifer for an everlasting habitation. 88. And then there will be two parts or divisions of this kingdom, the one men will get, with their King JESUS CHRIST; the other the devils shall have with all ungodly men and wickedness. 89. This is a short introduction, that the Reader might the better understand the divine Mystery; when I write concerning the fall of the
2devil, and concerning the creation of this world, you will find all more at large, particularly described. Therefore I would have the Reader admonished, that he read all in order, and so he will come to the true ground. 90. It is true, that from the beginning of the world it was not so fully revealed to any man; but seeing God will have it so, I submit to his will, and will see what God will do with it. 91. For his way which is before him is for the most part hidden from me: But following after him the spirit seeth, even into the highest and profoundest depth. THE TENTH CHAPTER Of the Sixth qualifying or fountain Spirit in the Divine Power. 1.THE Sixth qualifying or fountain spirit in the divine power is the sound, tone, tune or noise, wherein all soundeth and tuneth; whence ensued speech, language, and the distinction of everything, as also the ringing melody and singing of the holy angels, and therein consisteth the forming or framing of all colours, beauty and ornament, as also the heavenly joyfulness. Question. 2. But thou wilt ask, What is the tone or sound? Or how taketh this spirit its source and original?
3Answer. 3. All the seven spirits are generated one in another, the one continually generateth the other, not one of them is the first, nor is any one of them the last; for the last generateth as well the first as the second, third, fourth, and so on to the last. 4. But why one is called the first, another the second, and so on, that is in respect to that which is the first in order to the imaging, framing and forming of a creature. 5. For all the seven are equally eternal, and none of them hath either beginning or end; and therefore, in that the seven qualities are continally generating one another, and that none is without the other, it followeth that there is ONE Only Eternal Almighty GOD. 6. For, if anything be generated out of or in the divine being, that thing is not formed or framed by or through one spirit alone, but by all the seven. 7. And if a creature, which is like or as the whole being of God, spoileth, elevateth and kindleth itself in a qualifying or fountain spirit, it kindleth not one spirit alone, but all the seven spirits. 8. And therefore that creature is a loathsome abomination before the total God, and before all his creatures, and must stand in eternal enmity and ignominy or shame before God, and before all the creatures. 9. The tone or Mercurius taketh its original in the first, that is, in the astringent and hard quality.
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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