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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.
1Heathen, Jews, and Turks, should persevere in their blindness? Answer. 73. No; but this I say; How can he see, that hath no eyes? For what doth the poor lay or vulgar man know of the tumults which the priests have in their drunkenness? He goeth on in his simplicity, and generateth anxiously in his spiritual birth. Question. But then thou sayest, Hath God blinded the Turks, Jews, and Heathen? Answer. 74. No; but when God kindled the light for them, then they lived after the pleasures, voluptuousness and lusts of their own hearts, and would not be led or directed by the spirit, and so the outward light extinguished. 75. But it is not therefore so totally extinguished that it could not be generated in man; for man is out of or from God, and liveth in God, be it either in love or in wrath. 76. Now if man be in a longing, should he not be impregnated in his longing? And so if he be impregnated once, then he can generate also. But as long as the outward light doth not shine to him, therefore he doth not know his [man's] Son, whom he hath generated. 77. But when the light shall arise on the last Judgment Day, then he will see HIM [Christ]. 78. Behold, I tell thee a mystery: The time is already that the Bridegroom crowneth his bride! 79. Guess, Friend, where lieth the crown?
2Towards the north; for in the centre of the astringent quality the light will be clear and bright. 80. But from whence cometh the Bridegroom? From the midst or centre, where the heat eenerateth the light, and goeth towards the north into the astringent quality; there the light groweth bright. 81. What do these towards the south? They are in the heat fallen asleep, but a stormy tempest will awaken them; among these many will be terrified to death. 82. Then what do those in the west? Their bitter quality will rub itself with the others, but when they taste the sweet water, then will their spirit be mild and meek. 83. But what do these in the east? Thou art a lofty proud bride from the beginning; the crown was always offered to thee from the beginning, but thou thoughtest thyself too fair already; thou livest as the rest do. Of the Operation and Property of the Divine and Heavenly Nature. 84. Now if thou wilt know what kind or manner of nature there is in heaven, and what kind of nature the holy angels have; also what kind of nature Adam had before his fall, and what, properly, the holy, heavenly or divine nature is; then observe the circumstances exactly concerning this seventh qualifying or fountain spirit of God, as followeth. 85. The seventh qualifying or fountain spirit
3of God is the qualifying or fountain spirit of nature: for the other six do generate the seventh; and the seventh, when it is generated, is then as it were the mother of the seven, which encompasseth the other six, and generateth them again: for the corporeal and natural being consisteth in the seventh. Observe here the Sense. 86. The six rise up in a full or a complete birth according to the power and condition of each of them, and when they are risen up, then is their power mingled one in another, and the hardness drieth it [the whole], and is as it were the whole being. 87. This corporeal exsiccation or drying, I call in this book the divine SALITTER, for it is therein [in the seventh fountain spirit of nature] the seed of the whole Deity, and it [the seventh spirit] is as it were a mother, which receiveth the seed, and always generateth fruit again, according to all the qualities of the seed. 88. Now in this rising up of the six spirits, there riseth up also the Mercurius, tone or sound of all the six spirits, and in the seventh naturespirit it subsisteth as in the mother; and then the seventh generateth all manner of fruits and colours, according to the operation of the six. [89. " By the word SALITTER, in this " book, is understood how, out of the eternal centre " of nature, the second Principle groweth and " springeth up out of the first, just as the light " springeth up out of the fire, wherein two spirits " are understood, viz. first, a hot, second, an " aerial one; whereas in the aerial life the true " vegetation or growing consisteth, and in the " firelife is the cause of the 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.
1Heathen, Jews, and Turks, should persevere in their blindness? Answer. 73. No; but this I say; How can he see, that hath no eyes? For what doth the poor lay or vulgar man know of the tumults which the priests have in their drunkenness? He goeth on in his simplicity, and generateth anxiously in his spiritual birth. Question. But then thou sayest, Hath God blinded the Turks, Jews, and Heathen? Answer. 74. No; but when God kindled the light for them, then they lived after the pleasures, voluptuousness and lusts of their own hearts, and would not be led or directed by the spirit, and so the outward light extinguished. 75. But it is not therefore so totally extinguished that it could not be generated in man; for man is out of or from God, and liveth in God, be it either in love or in wrath. 76. Now if man be in a longing, should he not be impregnated in his longing? And so if he be impregnated once, then he can generate also. But as long as the outward light doth not shine to him, therefore he doth not know his [man's] Son, whom he hath generated. 77. But when the light shall arise on the last Judgment Day, then he will see HIM [Christ]. 78. Behold, I tell thee a mystery: The time is already that the Bridegroom crowneth his bride! 79. Guess, Friend, where lieth the crown?
2Towards the north; for in the centre of the astringent quality the light will be clear and bright. 80. But from whence cometh the Bridegroom? From the midst or centre, where the heat eenerateth the light, and goeth towards the north into the astringent quality; there the light groweth bright. 81. What do these towards the south? They are in the heat fallen asleep, but a stormy tempest will awaken them; among these many will be terrified to death. 82. Then what do those in the west? Their bitter quality will rub itself with the others, but when they taste the sweet water, then will their spirit be mild and meek. 83. But what do these in the east? Thou art a lofty proud bride from the beginning; the crown was always offered to thee from the beginning, but thou thoughtest thyself too fair already; thou livest as the rest do. Of the Operation and Property of the Divine and Heavenly Nature. 84. Now if thou wilt know what kind or manner of nature there is in heaven, and what kind of nature the holy angels have; also what kind of nature Adam had before his fall, and what, properly, the holy, heavenly or divine nature is; then observe the circumstances exactly concerning this seventh qualifying or fountain spirit of God, as followeth. 85. The seventh qualifying or fountain spirit
3of God is the qualifying or fountain spirit of nature: for the other six do generate the seventh; and the seventh, when it is generated, is then as it were the mother of the seven, which encompasseth the other six, and generateth them again: for the corporeal and natural being consisteth in the seventh. Observe here the Sense. 86. The six rise up in a full or a complete birth according to the power and condition of each of them, and when they are risen up, then is their power mingled one in another, and the hardness drieth it [the whole], and is as it were the whole being. 87. This corporeal exsiccation or drying, I call in this book the divine SALITTER, for it is therein [in the seventh fountain spirit of nature] the seed of the whole Deity, and it [the seventh spirit] is as it were a mother, which receiveth the seed, and always generateth fruit again, according to all the qualities of the seed. 88. Now in this rising up of the six spirits, there riseth up also the Mercurius, tone or sound of all the six spirits, and in the seventh naturespirit it subsisteth as in the mother; and then the seventh generateth all manner of fruits and colours, according to the operation of the six. [89. " By the word SALITTER, in this " book, is understood how, out of the eternal centre " of nature, the second Principle groweth and " springeth up out of the first, just as the light " springeth up out of the fire, wherein two spirits " are understood, viz. first, a hot, second, an " aerial one; whereas in the aerial life the true " vegetation or growing consisteth, and in the " firelife is the cause of the 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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