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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.
1in one substance, and if it cannot keep down the other, (though it maketh never so much opposition,) then each of them increaseth in itself to its highest number [ degree, or pitch of its strength or limit], and is always in strife against the other: And if it come to pass that it be grown to its highest number, that it can go no farther, then it entereth into itself, and vieweth itself to see why it can grow no farther, and so it seeth the end of the number, and setteth its will in the end of the number, and desireth to break the band or limit asunder, and in that will (which it puts into the end of the number, wherewith it will break it) the prophet is born, and he is its own prophet, and prophesieth of the errors in the will, that they cannot go further, and of the breaking of them, for he is born in the highest number of the crown, at the end of the limit, and speaketh of the Turba [disturbance] in its kingdom, how it shall have an end, and what the cause is that it cannot go beyond its own number, and then he prophesieth of a new [kingdom or government], which shall be again generated out of the breaking; for he [the prophet] is the mouth of that kingdom [or government], and pointeth at the contrary will, how it is grown from one will, and how with its own desire it is gone out of itself into many wills, and discovereth the pride of the kingdom [or government], and the covetousness and envy of it, and in that the kingdom had but one root, out of which it was grown; therefore he sheweth the evil twigs or branches which are grown out of the root, which
2are the distraction and disturbance, or turba of the kingdom, which destroy the old tree, and take away its virtue and sap, so that it must wither away. 47. And then he sheweth also the falsehood of the twigs and branches, which have taken away the virtue of the tree, and thrown it to the ground. They say they are a new tree, and a good kingdom [or government], and vaunt it, as if they were strange guests, with great wit and seeming devotion, and yet they are grown out of the old tree, and are its children, and so devour their own father: And therefore saith the prophet, They are no children, but wolves, they are come to murder and devour, and to set up themselves in the stead of the old tree; which pride of theirs thus also driveth on till the limit, and then it will again be devoured by their children. 48. This is their own prophet, which is grown upon their crown; for he declareth the evilness of the root out of which the first tree was grown: He sheweth the poison wherewith the root was poisoned, so that out of one will many wills are grown, out of which the strife and malice is sprung. 49. And so then, if the turba in a thing be grown up with it, which of one maketh many, where the multiplicity is at enmity with itself, then the turba also breaketh the multiplicity; for
3the first will to a thing desireth only that one thing which is its body and delight: But the multiplicity in a thing maketh enmity: for the one will always rise up above the other; and yet the other will not endure it; and thence cometh envy and falsehood, out of which grow anger and strife, so that one desireth to break off, and throw down the other; and although the first will be judge, yet the turba is also sprung up in all the twigs and branches, which destroyeth obedience; and so each will go its own way, and will not be judged or ruled, but taketh upon itself, and contemneth the father, and all the [other] children, which yet are its brothers and sisters; and saith itself alone is the tree and the virtue of it, whereas it is but a broken self-willed proud murderer, which opposeth itself against the first will, viz. the root. 50. And now, when the father seeth his evil disobedient child, he seeketh a remedy, to heal that which is broken, and poureth oil into the wounds: but he findeth that the oil is poison to them, for they have turned away their will from the first will, as from the root, out of which the oil floweth, and the turba hath generated another oil in them: so that there is no remedy to heal this kingdom [government or dominion] : it must be devoured in and by itself as an evil kingdom: and yet it groweth to its highest number, as to the number thousand, till the end: for the crown hath the number
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.
1in one substance, and if it cannot keep down the other, (though it maketh never so much opposition,) then each of them increaseth in itself to its highest number [ degree, or pitch of its strength or limit], and is always in strife against the other: And if it come to pass that it be grown to its highest number, that it can go no farther, then it entereth into itself, and vieweth itself to see why it can grow no farther, and so it seeth the end of the number, and setteth its will in the end of the number, and desireth to break the band or limit asunder, and in that will (which it puts into the end of the number, wherewith it will break it) the prophet is born, and he is its own prophet, and prophesieth of the errors in the will, that they cannot go further, and of the breaking of them, for he is born in the highest number of the crown, at the end of the limit, and speaketh of the Turba [disturbance] in its kingdom, how it shall have an end, and what the cause is that it cannot go beyond its own number, and then he prophesieth of a new [kingdom or government], which shall be again generated out of the breaking; for he [the prophet] is the mouth of that kingdom [or government], and pointeth at the contrary will, how it is grown from one will, and how with its own desire it is gone out of itself into many wills, and discovereth the pride of the kingdom [or government], and the covetousness and envy of it, and in that the kingdom had but one root, out of which it was grown; therefore he sheweth the evil twigs or branches which are grown out of the root, which
2are the distraction and disturbance, or turba of the kingdom, which destroy the old tree, and take away its virtue and sap, so that it must wither away. 47. And then he sheweth also the falsehood of the twigs and branches, which have taken away the virtue of the tree, and thrown it to the ground. They say they are a new tree, and a good kingdom [or government], and vaunt it, as if they were strange guests, with great wit and seeming devotion, and yet they are grown out of the old tree, and are its children, and so devour their own father: And therefore saith the prophet, They are no children, but wolves, they are come to murder and devour, and to set up themselves in the stead of the old tree; which pride of theirs thus also driveth on till the limit, and then it will again be devoured by their children. 48. This is their own prophet, which is grown upon their crown; for he declareth the evilness of the root out of which the first tree was grown: He sheweth the poison wherewith the root was poisoned, so that out of one will many wills are grown, out of which the strife and malice is sprung. 49. And so then, if the turba in a thing be grown up with it, which of one maketh many, where the multiplicity is at enmity with itself, then the turba also breaketh the multiplicity; for
3the first will to a thing desireth only that one thing which is its body and delight: But the multiplicity in a thing maketh enmity: for the one will always rise up above the other; and yet the other will not endure it; and thence cometh envy and falsehood, out of which grow anger and strife, so that one desireth to break off, and throw down the other; and although the first will be judge, yet the turba is also sprung up in all the twigs and branches, which destroyeth obedience; and so each will go its own way, and will not be judged or ruled, but taketh upon itself, and contemneth the father, and all the [other] children, which yet are its brothers and sisters; and saith itself alone is the tree and the virtue of it, whereas it is but a broken self-willed proud murderer, which opposeth itself against the first will, viz. the root. 50. And now, when the father seeth his evil disobedient child, he seeketh a remedy, to heal that which is broken, and poureth oil into the wounds: but he findeth that the oil is poison to them, for they have turned away their will from the first will, as from the root, out of which the oil floweth, and the turba hath generated another oil in them: so that there is no remedy to heal this kingdom [government or dominion] : it must be devoured in and by itself as an evil kingdom: and yet it groweth to its highest number, as to the number thousand, till the end: for the crown hath the number
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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