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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.
1self-erected priests will cry out and say, Christ is in the wilderness: Another of them will say, He is not in the wilderness, he is in the chamber, or he is in the field; and another again will say, No, he is here or there, or he is in the Supper, or in the Baptism; and another will say he is not in them, they are only signs and symbols: But Christ saith, Believe them not, and go not forth; for as the lightning shinethfrom the east to the west, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be; for where the carcase is, thither the eagles gather together. 83. Christ saith, / am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, none cometh to the Father, but by me: I am the Door to the Sheepfold, and am a Good Shepherd; but all that came before me, in their own name, of themselves, are thieves and murderers, and seek only to rob and steal; for they seek their own honour, but I seek not my own honour, but my Father honoureth me, and they dishonour me: I am the Light of the World, whosoever followeth me, shall have the light of the eternal life; my Father will give the Holy Ghost to them that pray unto him for it; when he shall come, he shall lead you into all truth, for he shall receive of mine, and make it known unto you: Take no care of your life, for my Father careth for you: for where your heart is, there is your treasure also. [Therefore let your heart and mind be in the will of God, and then your treasure is there also.]
284. Which is as much as to say: Run not after the self-erected teachers, who teach from the history, without the spirit of God: If they can speak a little in a strange language, then they will be teachers, and teach out of art and vain-glory, to exercise their eloquence, wherein one flattering hypocrite helpeth forward the other, especially where much money and honour may be gotten in the office. Christ said, / seek not my own honour; my kingdom is not of this world: But they teach that Christ's kingdom is in the history, [viz. in art, in eloquence, in the universities, in synods and councils]. But Christ said to his disciples, The Holy Ghost will receive of mine, and make it known unto you, and bring into your mind all whatsoever I have spoken. 85. Thus, dear children of Christ, let none run after contentions, controversies, and disputations, they all say the truth one of another; for they are all grown out of one and the same tree, and they, are at variance about the booty and prey of Antichrist, whose end is at hand: Turn away your heart and mind from all contention, and go in very simply and humbly at the door of Christ, into Christ's sheepfold; seek that in your heart; you need not much disputation: Pray to God the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, upon his promise, that he would open your heart through his holy spirit, turn with all diligence into him, let all go whatsoever maketh a fine glistering holy
3show in the heaps of stone, and enter into the temple of Christ, and there the Holy Ghost will meet you: Yield yourself entirely up unto him, and he will open your heart, and bring into your mind all the merits and benefits of Christ; he will open your understanding, and bring into your mind whatsoever Christ hath spoken, for he shall receive from Christ, and make it known unto you.
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.
1self-erected priests will cry out and say, Christ is in the wilderness: Another of them will say, He is not in the wilderness, he is in the chamber, or he is in the field; and another again will say, No, he is here or there, or he is in the Supper, or in the Baptism; and another will say he is not in them, they are only signs and symbols: But Christ saith, Believe them not, and go not forth; for as the lightning shinethfrom the east to the west, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be; for where the carcase is, thither the eagles gather together. 83. Christ saith, / am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, none cometh to the Father, but by me: I am the Door to the Sheepfold, and am a Good Shepherd; but all that came before me, in their own name, of themselves, are thieves and murderers, and seek only to rob and steal; for they seek their own honour, but I seek not my own honour, but my Father honoureth me, and they dishonour me: I am the Light of the World, whosoever followeth me, shall have the light of the eternal life; my Father will give the Holy Ghost to them that pray unto him for it; when he shall come, he shall lead you into all truth, for he shall receive of mine, and make it known unto you: Take no care of your life, for my Father careth for you: for where your heart is, there is your treasure also. [Therefore let your heart and mind be in the will of God, and then your treasure is there also.]
284. Which is as much as to say: Run not after the self-erected teachers, who teach from the history, without the spirit of God: If they can speak a little in a strange language, then they will be teachers, and teach out of art and vain-glory, to exercise their eloquence, wherein one flattering hypocrite helpeth forward the other, especially where much money and honour may be gotten in the office. Christ said, / seek not my own honour; my kingdom is not of this world: But they teach that Christ's kingdom is in the history, [viz. in art, in eloquence, in the universities, in synods and councils]. But Christ said to his disciples, The Holy Ghost will receive of mine, and make it known unto you, and bring into your mind all whatsoever I have spoken. 85. Thus, dear children of Christ, let none run after contentions, controversies, and disputations, they all say the truth one of another; for they are all grown out of one and the same tree, and they, are at variance about the booty and prey of Antichrist, whose end is at hand: Turn away your heart and mind from all contention, and go in very simply and humbly at the door of Christ, into Christ's sheepfold; seek that in your heart; you need not much disputation: Pray to God the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, upon his promise, that he would open your heart through his holy spirit, turn with all diligence into him, let all go whatsoever maketh a fine glistering holy
3show in the heaps of stone, and enter into the temple of Christ, and there the Holy Ghost will meet you: Yield yourself entirely up unto him, and he will open your heart, and bring into your mind all the merits and benefits of Christ; he will open your understanding, and bring into your mind whatsoever Christ hath spoken, for he shall receive from Christ, and make it known unto you.
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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