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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.
1kernel [seed or fruit]; which is indeed the second birth out of the earth, whereby we understand our high descent; but before the Fall, paradise sprang up through all trees, and through all the fruits which God created for man. 16. But when the earth was cursed, the curse entered into all fruits, and then all was evil and good; death and corruption was in them all, which before was but in that one tree only, which was named [the Tree of] Good and Evil; and therefore it is that we eat death in all the fruits, and the spirit [ of] evil and good ruleth in us. The spirit of this world ruleth in us, and so doth the devil with the spirit of anger; and each of them shew forth their wonders in and by man. [Of the Great Strife about the Image of Man.] 17. There is a great strife about man's image, each kingdom would have it: hell, in the anger saith, It is mine by the right of nature, it is generated out of my root. Also the spirit of the world saith, I have it in my body, and I give it life and nourishment, I bring it up, and give it all my powers and wonders; it is mine. And the kingdom of God saith also, I have set my heart upon it, and have regenerated it, it is proceeded out of my kingdom, I have sought and found it again, it is mine, it must reveal my wonders. 18. Thus there is a vehement strife in and about
2man: Look upon his conversation and doings; his desire standeth especially in Three Things, and they are Three Kingdoms which rule him: and into which of them he falleth, there he lieth. 19. First, He desireth power, honour, and glory, that all might fear and honour him. This is even the poison of the devil, who hath also such an intention, which he satisfieth by doing as much as he can. 20. Secondly, He desireth riches, goods, and money, much eating and drinking, and careth not by what means he cometh by it; it is the spirit of this world which desireth only shelter and fullness as a beast doth. 21. And, Thirdly, he desireth the kingdom of heaven also, he desireth and panteth after that, but in much weakness, and is always in doubt [thinking] he is a sinner, [and that] God desireth not to have him: yet he sigheth and panteth after it, and would fain be saved: he prayeth and yet doubteth, he hopeth and yet feareth, he hopeth for amendment and deliverance from one day to another, and always supposeth it will be well to-morrow, to-morrow thou wilt have power to go from this [course of] life and enter into another: thus it is always with him. 22. This we do not speak concerning the swinelike men, who lie wallowing in the mire, who never seek for any amendment: but we speak concerning the poor sinners that are between heaven and hell, who have incitements to both of them, and yet are held back.
323. Yet observe what man doth: He followeth all these three [desires] ; he continually seeketh power and honour till his end; he continually hunts after covetousness, money, and goods, to eat and drink; and though he have superfluity, yet in his covetousness he hath not enough; he doth as if he were to live here for ever; and then, thirdly, he hath also panted [after the kingdom of heaven], for the poor soul is very much perplexed, and is ever afraid of the devil, and the anger of God, and would fain be released; but the first two kingdoms do press it down, and bar it up in their prison, insomuch that many a poor soul casteth itself away into the abyss, and despaireth of the kingdom of God. [Of the Devil, who changeth himself into an Angel of Light.] 24. They say, The devil cometh to man in the form of an angel, and it is true: Observe what he doth, that he is accounted an angel, and is accounted good; when the poor soul is thus disquieted, and many times presenteth to the body, death and the anger of God, he hindereth not that; he often lets the poor soul run with the body to the houses of stone [to the churches], or whither it will: He puts it on most willingly of all to go to the stone churches, and there saith to the soul, Now thou art godly and devout, thou goest diligently to church. 25. But what doth he then? When any teach of the temple of Christ, and of the New Birth, then he soweth other thoughts into the spirit of
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.
1kernel [seed or fruit]; which is indeed the second birth out of the earth, whereby we understand our high descent; but before the Fall, paradise sprang up through all trees, and through all the fruits which God created for man. 16. But when the earth was cursed, the curse entered into all fruits, and then all was evil and good; death and corruption was in them all, which before was but in that one tree only, which was named [the Tree of] Good and Evil; and therefore it is that we eat death in all the fruits, and the spirit [ of] evil and good ruleth in us. The spirit of this world ruleth in us, and so doth the devil with the spirit of anger; and each of them shew forth their wonders in and by man. [Of the Great Strife about the Image of Man.] 17. There is a great strife about man's image, each kingdom would have it: hell, in the anger saith, It is mine by the right of nature, it is generated out of my root. Also the spirit of the world saith, I have it in my body, and I give it life and nourishment, I bring it up, and give it all my powers and wonders; it is mine. And the kingdom of God saith also, I have set my heart upon it, and have regenerated it, it is proceeded out of my kingdom, I have sought and found it again, it is mine, it must reveal my wonders. 18. Thus there is a vehement strife in and about
2man: Look upon his conversation and doings; his desire standeth especially in Three Things, and they are Three Kingdoms which rule him: and into which of them he falleth, there he lieth. 19. First, He desireth power, honour, and glory, that all might fear and honour him. This is even the poison of the devil, who hath also such an intention, which he satisfieth by doing as much as he can. 20. Secondly, He desireth riches, goods, and money, much eating and drinking, and careth not by what means he cometh by it; it is the spirit of this world which desireth only shelter and fullness as a beast doth. 21. And, Thirdly, he desireth the kingdom of heaven also, he desireth and panteth after that, but in much weakness, and is always in doubt [thinking] he is a sinner, [and that] God desireth not to have him: yet he sigheth and panteth after it, and would fain be saved: he prayeth and yet doubteth, he hopeth and yet feareth, he hopeth for amendment and deliverance from one day to another, and always supposeth it will be well to-morrow, to-morrow thou wilt have power to go from this [course of] life and enter into another: thus it is always with him. 22. This we do not speak concerning the swinelike men, who lie wallowing in the mire, who never seek for any amendment: but we speak concerning the poor sinners that are between heaven and hell, who have incitements to both of them, and yet are held back.
323. Yet observe what man doth: He followeth all these three [desires] ; he continually seeketh power and honour till his end; he continually hunts after covetousness, money, and goods, to eat and drink; and though he have superfluity, yet in his covetousness he hath not enough; he doth as if he were to live here for ever; and then, thirdly, he hath also panted [after the kingdom of heaven], for the poor soul is very much perplexed, and is ever afraid of the devil, and the anger of God, and would fain be released; but the first two kingdoms do press it down, and bar it up in their prison, insomuch that many a poor soul casteth itself away into the abyss, and despaireth of the kingdom of God. [Of the Devil, who changeth himself into an Angel of Light.] 24. They say, The devil cometh to man in the form of an angel, and it is true: Observe what he doth, that he is accounted an angel, and is accounted good; when the poor soul is thus disquieted, and many times presenteth to the body, death and the anger of God, he hindereth not that; he often lets the poor soul run with the body to the houses of stone [to the churches], or whither it will: He puts it on most willingly of all to go to the stone churches, and there saith to the soul, Now thou art godly and devout, thou goest diligently to church. 25. But what doth he then? When any teach of the temple of Christ, and of the New Birth, then he soweth other thoughts into the spirit of
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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