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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.
1brought forth. 50. Thus saith the spirit, which riseth up in the seven spirits of God, which is thy Father: Despair not, behold, I am thy strength, and thy power, I will fill to thee a mild draught in thy age. 51. Seeing all thy children despise thee, whom thou didst bear, and hast given them suck in their childhood, and who will not give thee any attendance, or minister to thee in thy high or old age: 52. Therefore I will comfort thee, and will give unto thee a young SON in thy high or old age; he shall abide in thy house as long as thou livest, and attend thee or minister to thee, and comfort thee against all the raving and raging of thy proud children. Now here observe further concerning the Mercurius, Tone or Sound. 53. All qualities take their beginningoriginal [finite or transitory origin] in their middle or centre: Therefore observe where the fire is generated; for there riseth up the flash of the life of all the qualities, and it is caught in the water, so that it remaineth shining; and it is dried in the astringency, so that it remaineth corporeal, and becometh shining, bright and clear. Observe here: 54. For instance: Kindle some wood, and then you will see the mystery: The fire kindleth itself in the hardness of the wood; and this is now the astringent hard quality, the quality or source
2Saturnus, which maketh the wood hard and dry. 55. But now the light, that is, the flash, doth not consist in the hardness, otherwise a stone also would burn and give light, but the light subsisteth only in the sap of the wood, that is, in the water [or oiliness ]. 56. Whilst there is sap in the wood the fire shineth as a shining light; but when the sap is consumed in the wood the shining light goeth out, and the wood becometh a glowing coal. 57. Now behold: the fierceness which riseth up in the light consists not in the water of the wood, but when the heat riseth up in the hard ness, then is the flash generated, which the sap in the wood first catcheth, whereby the water becomes shining. 58. The fierceness or bitterness is generated in the midst or centre of the hardness, and the heat is generated in the flash, and therein also it subsisteth; and so far as the flash, that is, the flame of the fire reacheth, so far also reacheth the fierceness of the bitterness, which is the son of the hardness and heat. 59. But thou must know this mystery, that the bitterness is already in the wood, else the fierce bitterness would not so suddenly generate itself like lightning in the natural fire. 60. For as, when wood is kindled, the body of the fire generateth itself, in such a manner likewise is the wood generated in and above the earth. 61. But if the fierceness should be generated in the shining light, then surely it would reach as far also as the splendour or shining of the light, but it doth not so.
362. But thus it is; the flash is the mother of the light; for the flash generateth the light, and is the father of the fierceness, for the fierceness abideth in the flash as a seed in the father; and that flash generateth also the tone or sound. 63. When it goeth from the hardness and heat, then the hardness maketh a thumping, knocking sound in the flash, and the heat ringeth forth, and the light in the flash maketh the ringing clear, and the water mitigateth or softeneth it, and then in the astringency and hardness it is caught and dried up, so that it is a corporeal spirit in all the qualities. 64. For every spirit in the seven spirits of God is impregnated with all the seven spirits, and they all are one in another as one spirit, not one of them is without the others. 65. Only the birth therein is thus, and so the one generateth the other, in and through itself, and the birth lasteth or continueth thus from eternity to eternity. 66. Here I will have the Reader warned that he rightly consider the divine birth. Thou must not think that one spirit standeth by another, asyou see the stars of heaven stand one by another. 67. But all the seven are one in another as one spirit; as this may be conceived in man, who hath several thoughts, because of the operation of the seven spirits of God, which keep and reside in the human body. 68. But you may say to me, Thou art foolish in this; for any member of the whole body hath the power of the other.*
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.
1brought forth. 50. Thus saith the spirit, which riseth up in the seven spirits of God, which is thy Father: Despair not, behold, I am thy strength, and thy power, I will fill to thee a mild draught in thy age. 51. Seeing all thy children despise thee, whom thou didst bear, and hast given them suck in their childhood, and who will not give thee any attendance, or minister to thee in thy high or old age: 52. Therefore I will comfort thee, and will give unto thee a young SON in thy high or old age; he shall abide in thy house as long as thou livest, and attend thee or minister to thee, and comfort thee against all the raving and raging of thy proud children. Now here observe further concerning the Mercurius, Tone or Sound. 53. All qualities take their beginningoriginal [finite or transitory origin] in their middle or centre: Therefore observe where the fire is generated; for there riseth up the flash of the life of all the qualities, and it is caught in the water, so that it remaineth shining; and it is dried in the astringency, so that it remaineth corporeal, and becometh shining, bright and clear. Observe here: 54. For instance: Kindle some wood, and then you will see the mystery: The fire kindleth itself in the hardness of the wood; and this is now the astringent hard quality, the quality or source
2Saturnus, which maketh the wood hard and dry. 55. But now the light, that is, the flash, doth not consist in the hardness, otherwise a stone also would burn and give light, but the light subsisteth only in the sap of the wood, that is, in the water [or oiliness ]. 56. Whilst there is sap in the wood the fire shineth as a shining light; but when the sap is consumed in the wood the shining light goeth out, and the wood becometh a glowing coal. 57. Now behold: the fierceness which riseth up in the light consists not in the water of the wood, but when the heat riseth up in the hard ness, then is the flash generated, which the sap in the wood first catcheth, whereby the water becomes shining. 58. The fierceness or bitterness is generated in the midst or centre of the hardness, and the heat is generated in the flash, and therein also it subsisteth; and so far as the flash, that is, the flame of the fire reacheth, so far also reacheth the fierceness of the bitterness, which is the son of the hardness and heat. 59. But thou must know this mystery, that the bitterness is already in the wood, else the fierce bitterness would not so suddenly generate itself like lightning in the natural fire. 60. For as, when wood is kindled, the body of the fire generateth itself, in such a manner likewise is the wood generated in and above the earth. 61. But if the fierceness should be generated in the shining light, then surely it would reach as far also as the splendour or shining of the light, but it doth not so.
362. But thus it is; the flash is the mother of the light; for the flash generateth the light, and is the father of the fierceness, for the fierceness abideth in the flash as a seed in the father; and that flash generateth also the tone or sound. 63. When it goeth from the hardness and heat, then the hardness maketh a thumping, knocking sound in the flash, and the heat ringeth forth, and the light in the flash maketh the ringing clear, and the water mitigateth or softeneth it, and then in the astringency and hardness it is caught and dried up, so that it is a corporeal spirit in all the qualities. 64. For every spirit in the seven spirits of God is impregnated with all the seven spirits, and they all are one in another as one spirit, not one of them is without the others. 65. Only the birth therein is thus, and so the one generateth the other, in and through itself, and the birth lasteth or continueth thus from eternity to eternity. 66. Here I will have the Reader warned that he rightly consider the divine birth. Thou must not think that one spirit standeth by another, asyou see the stars of heaven stand one by another. 67. But all the seven are one in another as one spirit; as this may be conceived in man, who hath several thoughts, because of the operation of the seven spirits of God, which keep and reside in the human body. 68. But you may say to me, Thou art foolish in this; for any member of the whole body hath the power of the other.*
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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