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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.
134. Observe it, ye children of God, this is a sign of the last Antichrist: In his kingdom and opinions, they deny the [spiritual] body and blood [spirit] of Christ, [ see bread and wine symbolisml in which we are born in God: Lift up your heads, and behold, for your redemption draweth near: Be not so led astray, and lulled asleep, look not with strange eyes, but open your own eyes, and fly from Antichrist into the spirit of Christ: There are no more ways but one to enter into the kingdom of Christ, which is set down thus, [as followeth] . A Gate, [shewing] which Way we must walk through this world, into the Kingdom of God. 35. You must go out from your reason out of the fleshly spirit, and bring your heart, mind, and thoughts, wholly into the obedience of God, and yield your will into God's will; and do not feign ways of your own reason, or ask, Where is Christ? Direct your way into Christ, and know for certain that Christ is in your heart: Submit yourself to him in great humility, cast all your purposes and doings into his will and pleasure, and consider that you always stand before the clear countenance of God, and that Christ sitteth on the rainbow at the right hand of God in you, and consider that you stand every moment before the holy Number Three, and that God, the holy Number Three,
2always examineth, and seeth the abyss of your heart; and take heed that you enter into no deep thought or searching, but merely into his love and mercy, and resolve never to go out from it any more, but ever to continue therein.
336. And then, secondly, consider that you do what is pleasing in the sight of God the most high, when you seek with your love your brethren and sisters in this world, whosoever they are, and by what name soever they are called, and what opinion soever they are of. Embrace them in your heart, help to pray for them, and help them to wrestle against the devil, and as far as is possible instruct them with all humility; but if they will not receive it, then put on the garment of Christ, and be a good example unto them; be serviceable and helpful to them, forgive them when they hurt and wrong you: When they curse you, do you bless them; when they do you injury, if you cannot turn it into good and avoid, them, let it pass, and consider you are but a pilgrim here: Withdraw your love from none, for your God, in whom you live, withdraweth himself from none that do but seek him; be readily yielding to your adversary, if he once offer to turn his mind: In all your affairs and conversation love righteousness, and always have a care that you do your work for God: We must in this world, in this troublesome valley of misery, compass our affairs with labour and pains: We should not go into holes, cloisters, cells and corners; for Christ saith, Let your light shine
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.
134. Observe it, ye children of God, this is a sign of the last Antichrist: In his kingdom and opinions, they deny the [spiritual] body and blood [spirit] of Christ, [ see bread and wine symbolisml in which we are born in God: Lift up your heads, and behold, for your redemption draweth near: Be not so led astray, and lulled asleep, look not with strange eyes, but open your own eyes, and fly from Antichrist into the spirit of Christ: There are no more ways but one to enter into the kingdom of Christ, which is set down thus, [as followeth] . A Gate, [shewing] which Way we must walk through this world, into the Kingdom of God. 35. You must go out from your reason out of the fleshly spirit, and bring your heart, mind, and thoughts, wholly into the obedience of God, and yield your will into God's will; and do not feign ways of your own reason, or ask, Where is Christ? Direct your way into Christ, and know for certain that Christ is in your heart: Submit yourself to him in great humility, cast all your purposes and doings into his will and pleasure, and consider that you always stand before the clear countenance of God, and that Christ sitteth on the rainbow at the right hand of God in you, and consider that you stand every moment before the holy Number Three, and that God, the holy Number Three,
2always examineth, and seeth the abyss of your heart; and take heed that you enter into no deep thought or searching, but merely into his love and mercy, and resolve never to go out from it any more, but ever to continue therein.
336. And then, secondly, consider that you do what is pleasing in the sight of God the most high, when you seek with your love your brethren and sisters in this world, whosoever they are, and by what name soever they are called, and what opinion soever they are of. Embrace them in your heart, help to pray for them, and help them to wrestle against the devil, and as far as is possible instruct them with all humility; but if they will not receive it, then put on the garment of Christ, and be a good example unto them; be serviceable and helpful to them, forgive them when they hurt and wrong you: When they curse you, do you bless them; when they do you injury, if you cannot turn it into good and avoid, them, let it pass, and consider you are but a pilgrim here: Withdraw your love from none, for your God, in whom you live, withdraweth himself from none that do but seek him; be readily yielding to your adversary, if he once offer to turn his mind: In all your affairs and conversation love righteousness, and always have a care that you do your work for God: We must in this world, in this troublesome valley of misery, compass our affairs with labour and pains: We should not go into holes, cloisters, cells and corners; for Christ saith, Let your light shine
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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