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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.
1* " But you must say [admit], unless you be foolish, thateach one of the members of the whole body hath the power of the other." 69. Yet in what quality soever thou excitest or awakenest the spirit, and makest it operative or qualifying, according to that same quality the thoughts rise up, and govern the mind. 70. If thou stirrest or awakest the spirit in the fire, then there riseth up in thee the bitter and harsh anger; for as soon as the fire is kindled, which is done in the hardness and fierceness, then springeth up the bitter fierceness or wrath in the flash. 71.* For when thou, in thy body, liftest thyself against anything whatsoever, be it in love or wrath, thou kindlest the quality of that against which thou liftest thyself; and that [kindled quality] burneth in the corporeal whole of thy spirit; but in the flash this same fountainspirit awakeneth. * A new translation of this par. has been substituted for Sparrow's rendering. " QuellGeist " (fountainspirit) has, in this particular par., been translated by St M. " spiritsource." 72. For when thou lookest upon anything which doth not please thee, but is against or contrary to thee, then thou raisest up the fountain of thy heart, as when thou takest a stone, and therewith strikest fire on a steel, and so when the spark catcheth fire in the heart, then the fire kindleth. 73. At first it gloweth, but when thou stirrest the source or fountain of the heart more violently, then it is as when thou blowest the fire, so that the flame is kindled; and then it is high time to quench it, else the fire will be too great, and then it burneth and consumeth, and doth hurt to its
2neighbour. Question. 74. Thou askest, How can a man quench this kindled fire? Answer. 75. Hearken, thou hast the sweet water in thee, pour that into the fire, and then the fire goeth out: If thou lettest it burn, then it consumeth in thee the sap that is in all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, so that thou wilt become dry. 76. When that is done, then thou art a hellish firebrand, and a billet or faggot to lay upon the hellish fire, and then there is no remedy for thee eternally. 77. But when thou lookest upon a thing which pleaseth thee, and awakenest the spirit in thine heart, then thou kindlest the fire in thine heart, which burneth first in the sweet water like a glowing coal. 78. Whilst it is but glimmering it is only a gentle, soft, longing delight or pleasing lust in thee, and doth not consume thee; but if thou exhaltest thy heart still more, and thou kindlest the sweet quality or fountain, so that it becomes a burning flame, then thou kindlest all the qualifying or fountain spirits, and then the whole body bumeth, and so mouth and hands fall on to work. 79. This fire is the most dangerous and hurtful, and hath spoiled most since the world began, and it is a very hard matter to quench it; for when it is kindled it bumeth in the sweet water in the flash of life, and must be quenched through bitterness, which is scarce a water,* but much
3rather is a fire. * "scarce a water" (gar ein elend Waster), "but poor [as] water." The word " elend " implies weakness and wretchedness. 80. Therefore also there followeth a heavy, sad, sorrowful mind, when one is to forsake that which burneth in his lovefire in the sweet fountain water. 81. But thou must know, that thou, in the government of thy mind, art thine own lord and master, there will rise up no fire to thee in the circle or whole circumference of thy body and spirit, unless thou awakenest it thyself. 82. It is true that all thy spirits spring and move in thee, and rise up in thee, and indeed always one spirit hath more power in thee than [in] another [man]. 83. For if the government of the spirits were the same in one man as in another, then we should all have one will and form; but all seven are in the power of thy compacted incorporated spirit, which spirit is the SOUL. [" 84. It hath in it the first Principle; the " spirit of the soul hath the second; and the astral " or starry spirit in the elements hath the third, " viz. this world."] 85. Now if a fire riseth up in one qualifying or fountain spirit, then that is not concealed or hidden from the soul, and it may instantly awaken the other qualifying or fountain spirits, which are contrary to the kindled fire, and may quench it.
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.
1* " But you must say [admit], unless you be foolish, thateach one of the members of the whole body hath the power of the other." 69. Yet in what quality soever thou excitest or awakenest the spirit, and makest it operative or qualifying, according to that same quality the thoughts rise up, and govern the mind. 70. If thou stirrest or awakest the spirit in the fire, then there riseth up in thee the bitter and harsh anger; for as soon as the fire is kindled, which is done in the hardness and fierceness, then springeth up the bitter fierceness or wrath in the flash. 71.* For when thou, in thy body, liftest thyself against anything whatsoever, be it in love or wrath, thou kindlest the quality of that against which thou liftest thyself; and that [kindled quality] burneth in the corporeal whole of thy spirit; but in the flash this same fountainspirit awakeneth. * A new translation of this par. has been substituted for Sparrow's rendering. " QuellGeist " (fountainspirit) has, in this particular par., been translated by St M. " spiritsource." 72. For when thou lookest upon anything which doth not please thee, but is against or contrary to thee, then thou raisest up the fountain of thy heart, as when thou takest a stone, and therewith strikest fire on a steel, and so when the spark catcheth fire in the heart, then the fire kindleth. 73. At first it gloweth, but when thou stirrest the source or fountain of the heart more violently, then it is as when thou blowest the fire, so that the flame is kindled; and then it is high time to quench it, else the fire will be too great, and then it burneth and consumeth, and doth hurt to its
2neighbour. Question. 74. Thou askest, How can a man quench this kindled fire? Answer. 75. Hearken, thou hast the sweet water in thee, pour that into the fire, and then the fire goeth out: If thou lettest it burn, then it consumeth in thee the sap that is in all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, so that thou wilt become dry. 76. When that is done, then thou art a hellish firebrand, and a billet or faggot to lay upon the hellish fire, and then there is no remedy for thee eternally. 77. But when thou lookest upon a thing which pleaseth thee, and awakenest the spirit in thine heart, then thou kindlest the fire in thine heart, which burneth first in the sweet water like a glowing coal. 78. Whilst it is but glimmering it is only a gentle, soft, longing delight or pleasing lust in thee, and doth not consume thee; but if thou exhaltest thy heart still more, and thou kindlest the sweet quality or fountain, so that it becomes a burning flame, then thou kindlest all the qualifying or fountain spirits, and then the whole body bumeth, and so mouth and hands fall on to work. 79. This fire is the most dangerous and hurtful, and hath spoiled most since the world began, and it is a very hard matter to quench it; for when it is kindled it bumeth in the sweet water in the flash of life, and must be quenched through bitterness, which is scarce a water,* but much
3rather is a fire. * "scarce a water" (gar ein elend Waster), "but poor [as] water." The word " elend " implies weakness and wretchedness. 80. Therefore also there followeth a heavy, sad, sorrowful mind, when one is to forsake that which burneth in his lovefire in the sweet fountain water. 81. But thou must know, that thou, in the government of thy mind, art thine own lord and master, there will rise up no fire to thee in the circle or whole circumference of thy body and spirit, unless thou awakenest it thyself. 82. It is true that all thy spirits spring and move in thee, and rise up in thee, and indeed always one spirit hath more power in thee than [in] another [man]. 83. For if the government of the spirits were the same in one man as in another, then we should all have one will and form; but all seven are in the power of thy compacted incorporated spirit, which spirit is the SOUL. [" 84. It hath in it the first Principle; the " spirit of the soul hath the second; and the astral " or starry spirit in the elements hath the third, " viz. this world."] 85. Now if a fire riseth up in one qualifying or fountain spirit, then that is not concealed or hidden from the soul, and it may instantly awaken the other qualifying or fountain spirits, which are contrary to the kindled fire, and may quench it.
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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