Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
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.
1136. His court, province, place, region or quarters, wherein he dwelt with his whole army or company, and wherein he is become a creature, and which was his kingdom, is the created heaven and this world, wherein we dwell with our King JESUS CHRIST. 137. For our King sitteth in divine omnipotence, where king Lucifer sat, and on the kingly throne of expulsed Lucifer, and the kingdom of king Lucifer is now become HIS: O prince Lucifer, how dost thou relish that? 138. Now as God the Father is bound and united in great love with his Son, so was king Lucifer also bound with king Michael in great love, as one heart or one God, for the fountain or wellspring of the Son of God hath reached even into the heart of Lucifer. 139. Only, the light which he had in his body, he had for his own propriety, and while it shone with or agreeable to the light of the Son of God, which was externally without or distinct from him, they both qualified, incorporated and united together as one thing, though they were two, yet they were bound or united together, as body and soul. 140. And as the light of God reigneth in all the powers of the Father, so he also reigned in all his angels, as a mighty king of God, and wore on his head the fairest crown of heaven. 141. Here at present I will leave him a little scope, because I shall have so much to do concerning him in the next chapter. Let him make a show a little yet here in the crown, it shall suddenly be plucked away from him.
2Of the third Angelical King, called URIEL. 142. This gracious, amiable, blessed prince and king hath his name from the light, or from the flash or going forth of the light, which signifieth rightly God the Holy Ghost. 143. For as the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the light, and formeth, figureth and imageth all, and reigneth in all, such also is the power and gracious, amiable blessedness of a Cherubim, who is the king and heart of all his angels; that is, when his angels do but behold him they are all then infected and touched with the will of their king. 144. For as the will of the heart infects and stirs all the members of the body, so that the whole body doth as the heart hath decreed or concluded; or as the Holy Ghost riseth up in the centre of the heart, and enlighteneth all the members in the whole body; so the Cherubim with his whole glance or lustre and will infects all his angels, so that they all are together as one body, and the king is the heart therein. 145. Now this glorious and beautiful prince is imaged and framed according to the kind and quality of the Holy Ghost, and is indeed a glorious and fair prince of God, and is united with the other princes in love, as one heart. 146. These are now the three princes of God in the heaven. And when the flash of life, that is, the Son of God, riseth up in the middle or central circle in the qualifying or fountain spirits of God, and sheweth itself triumphantly, then the Holy Ghost also riseth upwards triumphantly: In this rising up the Holy Trinity also riseth up in the heart of these three kings, and each of
3them triumpheth also according to his kind and quality. 147. In this rising up the armies or companies of all the angels of the whole heaven become triumphant and joyful, and that melodious TE DEUM LAUDAMUS (WE PRAISE THEE O GOD) riseth up. 148. In this rising up of the heart, the Mercurius in the heart is stirred up or awakened, as also in the whole Salitter of heaven there riseth up in the Deity the miraculous, wonderful and fair beautiful imaging of heaven, in several manifold various colours and manners, and each spirit presenteth itself in its own peculiar form. 149.* I can compare this to nothing, except to the finest of precious stones, such as the ruby, the emerald, the topaz, the onyx, the sapphire, the diamond, the jasper, the jacinth, the amethyst, the beryl, the sardonyx, the carbuncle and the like. * A new translation of this par. has been substituted for Sparrow's rendering. 150. In such manner and colours the heaven of God's nature sheweth or presenteth itself in the rising up of the spirits of God: Now when the light of the Son of God shineth therein, then it is like a bright clear sea of the colours of the abovementioned precious stones or jewels. Of the wonderful Proportion, Alteration or Variation, and Rising up of the Qualities in the heavenly Nature. 151. Seeing then the spirit bringeth into knowledge the form and manner of heaven, I
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.
1136. His court, province, place, region or quarters, wherein he dwelt with his whole army or company, and wherein he is become a creature, and which was his kingdom, is the created heaven and this world, wherein we dwell with our King JESUS CHRIST. 137. For our King sitteth in divine omnipotence, where king Lucifer sat, and on the kingly throne of expulsed Lucifer, and the kingdom of king Lucifer is now become HIS: O prince Lucifer, how dost thou relish that? 138. Now as God the Father is bound and united in great love with his Son, so was king Lucifer also bound with king Michael in great love, as one heart or one God, for the fountain or wellspring of the Son of God hath reached even into the heart of Lucifer. 139. Only, the light which he had in his body, he had for his own propriety, and while it shone with or agreeable to the light of the Son of God, which was externally without or distinct from him, they both qualified, incorporated and united together as one thing, though they were two, yet they were bound or united together, as body and soul. 140. And as the light of God reigneth in all the powers of the Father, so he also reigned in all his angels, as a mighty king of God, and wore on his head the fairest crown of heaven. 141. Here at present I will leave him a little scope, because I shall have so much to do concerning him in the next chapter. Let him make a show a little yet here in the crown, it shall suddenly be plucked away from him.
2Of the third Angelical King, called URIEL. 142. This gracious, amiable, blessed prince and king hath his name from the light, or from the flash or going forth of the light, which signifieth rightly God the Holy Ghost. 143. For as the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the light, and formeth, figureth and imageth all, and reigneth in all, such also is the power and gracious, amiable blessedness of a Cherubim, who is the king and heart of all his angels; that is, when his angels do but behold him they are all then infected and touched with the will of their king. 144. For as the will of the heart infects and stirs all the members of the body, so that the whole body doth as the heart hath decreed or concluded; or as the Holy Ghost riseth up in the centre of the heart, and enlighteneth all the members in the whole body; so the Cherubim with his whole glance or lustre and will infects all his angels, so that they all are together as one body, and the king is the heart therein. 145. Now this glorious and beautiful prince is imaged and framed according to the kind and quality of the Holy Ghost, and is indeed a glorious and fair prince of God, and is united with the other princes in love, as one heart. 146. These are now the three princes of God in the heaven. And when the flash of life, that is, the Son of God, riseth up in the middle or central circle in the qualifying or fountain spirits of God, and sheweth itself triumphantly, then the Holy Ghost also riseth upwards triumphantly: In this rising up the Holy Trinity also riseth up in the heart of these three kings, and each of
3them triumpheth also according to his kind and quality. 147. In this rising up the armies or companies of all the angels of the whole heaven become triumphant and joyful, and that melodious TE DEUM LAUDAMUS (WE PRAISE THEE O GOD) riseth up. 148. In this rising up of the heart, the Mercurius in the heart is stirred up or awakened, as also in the whole Salitter of heaven there riseth up in the Deity the miraculous, wonderful and fair beautiful imaging of heaven, in several manifold various colours and manners, and each spirit presenteth itself in its own peculiar form. 149.* I can compare this to nothing, except to the finest of precious stones, such as the ruby, the emerald, the topaz, the onyx, the sapphire, the diamond, the jasper, the jacinth, the amethyst, the beryl, the sardonyx, the carbuncle and the like. * A new translation of this par. has been substituted for Sparrow's rendering. 150. In such manner and colours the heaven of God's nature sheweth or presenteth itself in the rising up of the spirits of God: Now when the light of the Son of God shineth therein, then it is like a bright clear sea of the colours of the abovementioned precious stones or jewels. Of the wonderful Proportion, Alteration or Variation, and Rising up of the Qualities in the heavenly Nature. 151. Seeing then the spirit bringeth into knowledge the form and manner of heaven, I
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.
No commentary for this page.