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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.
1then let my book alone, and meddle not with it, but stick to thy old matters, else thou wilt receive but evil wages for thy pains: Be not deceived, God will not be mocked.[Gal vi. 7.] 28. Truly it is a narrow and strait passage or entrance, through the gates of hell, for them that will press in to God; they must endure many pangs, crushings and squeezings from the devil. 29. For the human flesh is very young and tender, and the devil is rough and hard, also dark, hot, bitter, astringent and cold, and so these two are very ill matched. 30. Therefore I seriously exhort the Reader, and would have him faithfully warned, as it were with a Preface to this great Mystery, that if he do not understand it, and yet longeth and would fain have the meaning or understanding thereof, that he would pray to God for his Holy Spirit, and that he would enlighten him with the same. 31. For without the illumination thereof you will not understand this Mystery; for there is a strong lock and bar before it in the spirit of man, that must be first unlocked or opened; and that, no man can do, for the Holy Ghost is the only key to do it withal. 32. Therefore if thou wilt have an open gate into the Deity, then thou must move, stir and walk in God's love; this I have set down here for thy consideration. Now observe: 33. Every angel is created in the seventh quali fying or fountain spirit [or faculty], which is NATURE, out of which his body is compacted or incorporated
2together, and his body is given him for a propriety, and the same is free to itself, as the whole Deity is free. 34. He hath no impulse or driving, without or distinct from himself; his impulse and mobility standeth in his body, which is of such a kind and manner as the whole God is; and his light and knowledge, as also his life, is generated in that manner as the whole divine being is generated. 35. For the body is the incorporated or compacted spirit of nature, and encompasseth or encloseth the other six spirits; these generate themselves in the body, just as it is in the Deity. 36. Now Lucifer had the fairest, most beautiful and most powerful body in heaven, of or among all the princes of God, and his light, which he hath, and which is continually generated in his body, that [light] hath incorporated itself with the Heart or Son of God, as if they were one thing. 37. But when he saw that he was so fair and beautiful, and found or felt his inward birth and great power or authority, then his spirit, which he had generated in his body, and which is his ANIMAL (or animated) or lifespirit, or son or heart, exalted itself, intending to triumph over the divine birth, and to lift up or extol itself above the Heart of God. [Note, The author calls the soulish birth the ANIMAL birth, from anima, which signifieth the soul; but seeing the Scripture otherwise understandeth by the word animal the perished or corrupted soul, or animalem hominem, the animal man, or the corrupted natural man, that is, the Adamical bestial man, and so he being advertised of it, he altered that expression, and used it no more any further.] *
3* The Note is printed by Gichtel in the 1682 edition, and is reproduced as a footnote by Schiebler. In the editions of 1715 and 1730 it is absent; but whenever the expression "animal spirit" occurs in the text, in this particular sense, it is invariably printed "animalischer (seelischer) Geist." See Ch. 15, pars. 4249. In par. 42 Bohme himself has added a note on the meaning of this term. Here observe the Depth. 38. In the middle or central fountain or wellspring, which is the heart, where the birth riseth up, the astringent or harsh quality rubs itself with the bitter and the hot; and there the light kindleth, which is the son, and of the son the light is always impregnated in its body, and that enlighteneth and maketh it living. 39. Now that light in Lucifer was so fair, bright and beautiful, that he excelled the bright form of heaven, and in that light was perfect understanding; for all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits generate that same light. 40. But now the seven qualifying or fountain spirits are the father of the light, and may permit or suffer the birth of as much light as they please; and the light cannot exalt or raise itself higher than the qualifying or fountain spirits will permit or give it leave. 41. But when the light is generated, then it enlighteneth all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, so that all seven are [become] understanding, and all seven do give their will to the birth of the light. 42. But now, every one hath power and might to alter its will in the birth of the light, according as there is need: Now if that be so, then the
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.
1then let my book alone, and meddle not with it, but stick to thy old matters, else thou wilt receive but evil wages for thy pains: Be not deceived, God will not be mocked.[Gal vi. 7.] 28. Truly it is a narrow and strait passage or entrance, through the gates of hell, for them that will press in to God; they must endure many pangs, crushings and squeezings from the devil. 29. For the human flesh is very young and tender, and the devil is rough and hard, also dark, hot, bitter, astringent and cold, and so these two are very ill matched. 30. Therefore I seriously exhort the Reader, and would have him faithfully warned, as it were with a Preface to this great Mystery, that if he do not understand it, and yet longeth and would fain have the meaning or understanding thereof, that he would pray to God for his Holy Spirit, and that he would enlighten him with the same. 31. For without the illumination thereof you will not understand this Mystery; for there is a strong lock and bar before it in the spirit of man, that must be first unlocked or opened; and that, no man can do, for the Holy Ghost is the only key to do it withal. 32. Therefore if thou wilt have an open gate into the Deity, then thou must move, stir and walk in God's love; this I have set down here for thy consideration. Now observe: 33. Every angel is created in the seventh quali fying or fountain spirit [or faculty], which is NATURE, out of which his body is compacted or incorporated
2together, and his body is given him for a propriety, and the same is free to itself, as the whole Deity is free. 34. He hath no impulse or driving, without or distinct from himself; his impulse and mobility standeth in his body, which is of such a kind and manner as the whole God is; and his light and knowledge, as also his life, is generated in that manner as the whole divine being is generated. 35. For the body is the incorporated or compacted spirit of nature, and encompasseth or encloseth the other six spirits; these generate themselves in the body, just as it is in the Deity. 36. Now Lucifer had the fairest, most beautiful and most powerful body in heaven, of or among all the princes of God, and his light, which he hath, and which is continually generated in his body, that [light] hath incorporated itself with the Heart or Son of God, as if they were one thing. 37. But when he saw that he was so fair and beautiful, and found or felt his inward birth and great power or authority, then his spirit, which he had generated in his body, and which is his ANIMAL (or animated) or lifespirit, or son or heart, exalted itself, intending to triumph over the divine birth, and to lift up or extol itself above the Heart of God. [Note, The author calls the soulish birth the ANIMAL birth, from anima, which signifieth the soul; but seeing the Scripture otherwise understandeth by the word animal the perished or corrupted soul, or animalem hominem, the animal man, or the corrupted natural man, that is, the Adamical bestial man, and so he being advertised of it, he altered that expression, and used it no more any further.] *
3* The Note is printed by Gichtel in the 1682 edition, and is reproduced as a footnote by Schiebler. In the editions of 1715 and 1730 it is absent; but whenever the expression "animal spirit" occurs in the text, in this particular sense, it is invariably printed "animalischer (seelischer) Geist." See Ch. 15, pars. 4249. In par. 42 Bohme himself has added a note on the meaning of this term. Here observe the Depth. 38. In the middle or central fountain or wellspring, which is the heart, where the birth riseth up, the astringent or harsh quality rubs itself with the bitter and the hot; and there the light kindleth, which is the son, and of the son the light is always impregnated in its body, and that enlighteneth and maketh it living. 39. Now that light in Lucifer was so fair, bright and beautiful, that he excelled the bright form of heaven, and in that light was perfect understanding; for all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits generate that same light. 40. But now the seven qualifying or fountain spirits are the father of the light, and may permit or suffer the birth of as much light as they please; and the light cannot exalt or raise itself higher than the qualifying or fountain spirits will permit or give it leave. 41. But when the light is generated, then it enlighteneth all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, so that all seven are [become] understanding, and all seven do give their will to the birth of the light. 42. But now, every one hath power and might to alter its will in the birth of the light, according as there is need: Now if that be so, then the
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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