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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.
1apart in a several form; but we find that they are in one another, and yet each life hath its own working in its dominion, viz. in its mother: for as God the Father is all, because all cometh from him, and he is present every where, and is the fullness of every thing, and the thing doth not comprehend him; also the thing is not God, nor his spirit, nor the true divine essence; so that it cannot be said of any comprehensible thing, that it is God, or that God is here present more than in other places, and yet he is really present, he containeth the thing, and the thing containeth not him; he comprehendeth the thing, and the thing comprehendeth not him; for he dwelleth not in the thing, but in himself, in another Principle. 10. So also is the soul of man breathed in from God; it dwelleth in the body, and is environed with the spirit of the stars and elements, not only as a garment covereth the body, but it is infected with the spirit of the stars and elements, as the pestilence or other [infectious] disease infecteth the elementary spirit, so that it poisoneth its body, and so it decayeth and dieth, and then the source [or property] of the stars also breaketh itself off from the soul, and consumeth itself: whereby the elementary mother breaketh off, and so the spirit of the stars hath no more food, and therefore consumeth itself, but the soul remaineth naked [feeble,empty], because it liveth by another food.
211. Understand us here in this manner; though the soul be thus captivated with the spirit of the stars and elements, so that the source [or property] thereof dwelleth in the soul, yet the soul hath another food, and liveth in another Principle, and is another [thing or] being [substance]. 12. For its essences [or the faculties or powers of its substance] are not from the constellation, but have their beginning and corporeal union out of the Eternal Band, out of the eternal nature, which is God's, the Father's, before the light of his love, wherein he entereth into himself, and maketh to himself the second Principle in his love, out of which he continually generateth his eternal Word and Heart, from eternity to eternity; where the holy name of God continually ariseth [or discovered itself] and holdeth its divine nature, as a spirit in the second Principle, in itself, and dwelleth in nothing else, but merely in itself 13. For although the band of the eternal nature is in it, yet the divine spirit is not subjected under that band; for the spirit kindleth that band, so that it becometh enlightened and springing [sprouting] with the virtue of the light in the love, in the life of the Word and Heart of God, so that it is a holy habitation and paradise of that spirit, which is called God. 14. So also the soul of man is out of the band of the eternal original, eternally standing therein, and desireth in itself, in the second Principle, to press
3into God, and to satiate itself in the power of God; but because it cannot with its whole being (with its own essences) enter into the light and power of God; as little as the eternal nature can press into the light of God, so that it may have the light for its own in its own power, but the light shineth out of the love in its own Principle in the eternal nature, so that the light remaineth Lord in the eternal nature, because the eternal nature doth not comprehend it, but rejoiceth in the light, and bringeth forth its wonders in the power and understanding of the light, where then they are revealed. Thus also the soul cannot in its essences press into the light of God, and over-master it, but must in itself, in another Principle, press into God, into his love. 15. For you must here understand another new birth in the soul: For it must not only press forth out of the life of the stars and elements, but also out of its own source [or property] of life, and incline its will into the life of God, endeavouring to be therein: this [inclined or] created will is received of God, and God dwelleth in that will; and so cometh the divine life and light into the soul, and so it is a child of God: for it standeth in its source [or property] and life, as God the Father himself [doth] in the source [or property] of the eternal nature. 16. And here we understand, that without [beyond] the divine light (which is the second Principle) in 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.
1apart in a several form; but we find that they are in one another, and yet each life hath its own working in its dominion, viz. in its mother: for as God the Father is all, because all cometh from him, and he is present every where, and is the fullness of every thing, and the thing doth not comprehend him; also the thing is not God, nor his spirit, nor the true divine essence; so that it cannot be said of any comprehensible thing, that it is God, or that God is here present more than in other places, and yet he is really present, he containeth the thing, and the thing containeth not him; he comprehendeth the thing, and the thing comprehendeth not him; for he dwelleth not in the thing, but in himself, in another Principle. 10. So also is the soul of man breathed in from God; it dwelleth in the body, and is environed with the spirit of the stars and elements, not only as a garment covereth the body, but it is infected with the spirit of the stars and elements, as the pestilence or other [infectious] disease infecteth the elementary spirit, so that it poisoneth its body, and so it decayeth and dieth, and then the source [or property] of the stars also breaketh itself off from the soul, and consumeth itself: whereby the elementary mother breaketh off, and so the spirit of the stars hath no more food, and therefore consumeth itself, but the soul remaineth naked [feeble,empty], because it liveth by another food.
211. Understand us here in this manner; though the soul be thus captivated with the spirit of the stars and elements, so that the source [or property] thereof dwelleth in the soul, yet the soul hath another food, and liveth in another Principle, and is another [thing or] being [substance]. 12. For its essences [or the faculties or powers of its substance] are not from the constellation, but have their beginning and corporeal union out of the Eternal Band, out of the eternal nature, which is God's, the Father's, before the light of his love, wherein he entereth into himself, and maketh to himself the second Principle in his love, out of which he continually generateth his eternal Word and Heart, from eternity to eternity; where the holy name of God continually ariseth [or discovered itself] and holdeth its divine nature, as a spirit in the second Principle, in itself, and dwelleth in nothing else, but merely in itself 13. For although the band of the eternal nature is in it, yet the divine spirit is not subjected under that band; for the spirit kindleth that band, so that it becometh enlightened and springing [sprouting] with the virtue of the light in the love, in the life of the Word and Heart of God, so that it is a holy habitation and paradise of that spirit, which is called God. 14. So also the soul of man is out of the band of the eternal original, eternally standing therein, and desireth in itself, in the second Principle, to press
3into God, and to satiate itself in the power of God; but because it cannot with its whole being (with its own essences) enter into the light and power of God; as little as the eternal nature can press into the light of God, so that it may have the light for its own in its own power, but the light shineth out of the love in its own Principle in the eternal nature, so that the light remaineth Lord in the eternal nature, because the eternal nature doth not comprehend it, but rejoiceth in the light, and bringeth forth its wonders in the power and understanding of the light, where then they are revealed. Thus also the soul cannot in its essences press into the light of God, and over-master it, but must in itself, in another Principle, press into God, into his love. 15. For you must here understand another new birth in the soul: For it must not only press forth out of the life of the stars and elements, but also out of its own source [or property] of life, and incline its will into the life of God, endeavouring to be therein: this [inclined or] created will is received of God, and God dwelleth in that will; and so cometh the divine life and light into the soul, and so it is a child of God: for it standeth in its source [or property] and life, as God the Father himself [doth] in the source [or property] of the eternal nature. 16. And here we understand, that without [beyond] the divine light (which is the second Principle) in 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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