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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.
1spirit cannot triumph thus, but must lay down its splendour. 43. Therefore it is that all seven spirits are in full power, every one of them hath the reins in its hand, that it may hold in and check the generated spirit from triumphing any higher than is fit for it. 44. But the seven spirits, which are in an angel, and which generate the light and understanding, are bound and united with the whole God, that they should not qualify any other way, either higher or more vehemently, than God himself; but that there should be one and the same manner and way between them both. 45. Seeing they are but a part or piece of the whole, and not the whole itself, for God hath therefore created them out of himself, that they should qualify, operate or act in such a manner, form and way as God himself doth. 46. But now the qualifying or fountain spirits in Lucifer did not so; but they, seeing that they sat in the highest primacy or rank, moved themselves so hard and strongly that the spirit which they generated was very fiery, and climbed up in the fountain of the heart, like a proud damsel or virgin. 47. If the qualifying or fountain spirits had moved, qualified or acted gently and lovely, as they did before they became creaturely (as they were universally in God, before the creation), then had they generated also a gentle, lovely, mild and meek son in themselves, which would have been like to the Son of God; and then the light in Lucifer and the light of the Son of God had been one thing, one qualifying, operating, acting and affecting, one and the same lovely
2kissing, embracing and struggling. 48. For the great light, which is the Heart of God, would have played meekly, mildly and lovingly with the small light in Lucifer, as with a young son, for the little son in Lucifer should have been the dear little brother of the Heart of God. 49. To this end God the Father hath created the angels, that as he is manifold and various in his qualities, and in his alteration or variegation * is incomprehensible in his loveplay, so the little spirits also, or the little lights of the angels, which are as the Son of God, should play or sport very gently or lovely in the great light before the Heart of God, that the joy in the Heart of God might here be increased, and that so there might be a holy sport, scene or play in God. * " alteration or variegation " ( Veränderung), " transformation," i.e. power of transformation. 50. The seven spirits of nature in an angel should play and rise up gently in God their Father, as they had done before their creaturely being, and rejoice in their newborn son, which they have generated out of themselves, which is the light and understanding of their body. 51. That light should rise very gently or mildly in the Heart of God, and rejoice in the light of God, as a child with its mother; and so there should be a hearty loving and friendly kissing, a very meek and pleasant taste or relish. 52. In this the tone should rise up and sound, with singing and ringing forth, in praising and jubilating: also all the qualities should rejoice therein, and every spirit should exercise or prac
3tise its divine work or labour, as God the Father himself doth. 53. For the seven spirits had this in perfect knowledge, for they were united and actuated with God the Father, so that they could all see, feel, taste, smell and hear what God their Father did, or wrought and made. 54. But when they elevated themselves in a sharp or strong kindling, then they did against nature's right otherwise than God their Father did, and this was a stirring quality or rising up against or contrary to the whole Deity. 55. For they kindled the Salitter of the body, and generated a high triumphing son, which in the astringent quality was hard, rugged or rough, dark and cold, and in the sweet was burning, bitter and fiery; the tone was a hard fiery noise; the love was a lofty enmity against God. 56. Here now stood the kindled bride in the seventh naturespirit, like a proud beast; now she supposed she was beyond or above God, nothing was like her now: Love grew cold, the Heart of God could not touch it, for there was a contrary will or opposition between them. The Heart of God moved very meekly and lovingly, and the heart of the angel moved very darkly, hard, cold and fiery. 57. The Heart of God should now unite and qualify with the heart of the angel, but that could not be; for there was now hard against soft, and sour against sweet, and dark against light, and fire against a pleasant gentle warmth, and a hard knocking * or rumbling against a loving melodious song.
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.
1spirit cannot triumph thus, but must lay down its splendour. 43. Therefore it is that all seven spirits are in full power, every one of them hath the reins in its hand, that it may hold in and check the generated spirit from triumphing any higher than is fit for it. 44. But the seven spirits, which are in an angel, and which generate the light and understanding, are bound and united with the whole God, that they should not qualify any other way, either higher or more vehemently, than God himself; but that there should be one and the same manner and way between them both. 45. Seeing they are but a part or piece of the whole, and not the whole itself, for God hath therefore created them out of himself, that they should qualify, operate or act in such a manner, form and way as God himself doth. 46. But now the qualifying or fountain spirits in Lucifer did not so; but they, seeing that they sat in the highest primacy or rank, moved themselves so hard and strongly that the spirit which they generated was very fiery, and climbed up in the fountain of the heart, like a proud damsel or virgin. 47. If the qualifying or fountain spirits had moved, qualified or acted gently and lovely, as they did before they became creaturely (as they were universally in God, before the creation), then had they generated also a gentle, lovely, mild and meek son in themselves, which would have been like to the Son of God; and then the light in Lucifer and the light of the Son of God had been one thing, one qualifying, operating, acting and affecting, one and the same lovely
2kissing, embracing and struggling. 48. For the great light, which is the Heart of God, would have played meekly, mildly and lovingly with the small light in Lucifer, as with a young son, for the little son in Lucifer should have been the dear little brother of the Heart of God. 49. To this end God the Father hath created the angels, that as he is manifold and various in his qualities, and in his alteration or variegation * is incomprehensible in his loveplay, so the little spirits also, or the little lights of the angels, which are as the Son of God, should play or sport very gently or lovely in the great light before the Heart of God, that the joy in the Heart of God might here be increased, and that so there might be a holy sport, scene or play in God. * " alteration or variegation " ( Veränderung), " transformation," i.e. power of transformation. 50. The seven spirits of nature in an angel should play and rise up gently in God their Father, as they had done before their creaturely being, and rejoice in their newborn son, which they have generated out of themselves, which is the light and understanding of their body. 51. That light should rise very gently or mildly in the Heart of God, and rejoice in the light of God, as a child with its mother; and so there should be a hearty loving and friendly kissing, a very meek and pleasant taste or relish. 52. In this the tone should rise up and sound, with singing and ringing forth, in praising and jubilating: also all the qualities should rejoice therein, and every spirit should exercise or prac
3tise its divine work or labour, as God the Father himself doth. 53. For the seven spirits had this in perfect knowledge, for they were united and actuated with God the Father, so that they could all see, feel, taste, smell and hear what God their Father did, or wrought and made. 54. But when they elevated themselves in a sharp or strong kindling, then they did against nature's right otherwise than God their Father did, and this was a stirring quality or rising up against or contrary to the whole Deity. 55. For they kindled the Salitter of the body, and generated a high triumphing son, which in the astringent quality was hard, rugged or rough, dark and cold, and in the sweet was burning, bitter and fiery; the tone was a hard fiery noise; the love was a lofty enmity against God. 56. Here now stood the kindled bride in the seventh naturespirit, like a proud beast; now she supposed she was beyond or above God, nothing was like her now: Love grew cold, the Heart of God could not touch it, for there was a contrary will or opposition between them. The Heart of God moved very meekly and lovingly, and the heart of the angel moved very darkly, hard, cold and fiery. 57. The Heart of God should now unite and qualify with the heart of the angel, but that could not be; for there was now hard against soft, and sour against sweet, and dark against light, and fire against a pleasant gentle warmth, and a hard knocking * or rumbling against a loving melodious song.
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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