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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.
1thousand, and then there is no remedy more; for then it will be wholly one with itself again, and go into the first will again, and give itself into obedience, and become one thing again; and then it beginneth to number again; yet it is good at, first, so long as it remaineth in paucity [a small or little thing] : but that which hath a great deal of room is not easily quashed; but that which is squeezed into a narrow room, and shut up close, will always strive to get out above its limit, and easily surmises that its neighbour's dwelling doth also belong to it, and will always break the reins and bounds. And although, thus out of one thing there groweth another, yet being not agreeable to the first will, out of which it is grown originally, therefore it is not its true son, but is a wild twig [or branch], which is opposite to the mother, and loveth not the mother: for it groweth up in its malice, and therefore the mother taketh it not again into her first will, that it may subsist eternally, but letteth it run on to its limit [or end]. 51. But when the mother seeth that all her children thus break off from her, forsake her, and become strange to her, she falleth into sorrow and lamentation, she hopeth for amendment, and yet it cometh not, and then she herself seeketh the turba [or destruction], for she turneth her will again into herself, and seeketh the genetrix: and there she findeth a new child in the lily twig [the purity] and
2giveth the apostate children to the turba, so that they themselves devour and murder one another; also she poureth forth their own turba and poison upon them, that they may be divided and taken out of the way; that she may bring up her young son that may continue in her house, wherein she may have joy. 52. Thus it is spoken to thee, thou great and broad tree [of the generation of Adam], who in the beginning wast a little branch; thou wast created in one will only, all thy twigs should have that will of thine, but the devil grudged thee that, and strewed poison into thy will, out of which the turba grew: and so thou hast spoiled all thy children and twigs therewith, so that the turba is grown up also into every little twig: Thou didst enter into pride, and wentest forth from the first will, which God gave thee, into the great wonders of the great turba [or uproars, and commotions, contention and destruction in the four elementary worlds], wherewith all thy children were enamoured, and left thee [thy first will] . 53. Therefore saith the mother of the genetrix [the eternal nature], I am in anguish, I had planted me a little tree,
3and desired to eat of its good fruit; but it hath borne much wild fruit, which I have no mind to eat of; I will conceive, and bring forth a young son in my old age, which may continue in my house, and do my will, that I may have joy at last; since all my children leave me, I will take comfort in my young son, and he shall remain in my house while I live, and Satan shall not tempt him. I will put a child's garment upon him, and he shall dwell with me in a total childish simplicity: behold! I will generate him out of the first root, and will break the turba: for its number in the crown is accomplished. 54. What seek you so much, you wild branches? You say you are above the mother, [above the spirit of God] ; you have art, knowledge, and learning; what delight hath the mother in your wit and art? She desireth no art and wit; for she is altogether simple, and counteth but [the number] one; if you would please the mother, you must go from the multiplicity into one again; not through art and wit, but you must go forth out of your proud turba, out of self, into simple humility; you must leave the bravery and hypocrisy of your own wit that proceeds from the turba, and become as children, else you are not acceptable to your first mother, but the turba taketh you up; and then consider where you shall remain, when God shall judge the secrets of mankind, when all shall pass through the fire of his wrath, saith the spirit of the great wonders.
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.
1thousand, and then there is no remedy more; for then it will be wholly one with itself again, and go into the first will again, and give itself into obedience, and become one thing again; and then it beginneth to number again; yet it is good at, first, so long as it remaineth in paucity [a small or little thing] : but that which hath a great deal of room is not easily quashed; but that which is squeezed into a narrow room, and shut up close, will always strive to get out above its limit, and easily surmises that its neighbour's dwelling doth also belong to it, and will always break the reins and bounds. And although, thus out of one thing there groweth another, yet being not agreeable to the first will, out of which it is grown originally, therefore it is not its true son, but is a wild twig [or branch], which is opposite to the mother, and loveth not the mother: for it groweth up in its malice, and therefore the mother taketh it not again into her first will, that it may subsist eternally, but letteth it run on to its limit [or end]. 51. But when the mother seeth that all her children thus break off from her, forsake her, and become strange to her, she falleth into sorrow and lamentation, she hopeth for amendment, and yet it cometh not, and then she herself seeketh the turba [or destruction], for she turneth her will again into herself, and seeketh the genetrix: and there she findeth a new child in the lily twig [the purity] and
2giveth the apostate children to the turba, so that they themselves devour and murder one another; also she poureth forth their own turba and poison upon them, that they may be divided and taken out of the way; that she may bring up her young son that may continue in her house, wherein she may have joy. 52. Thus it is spoken to thee, thou great and broad tree [of the generation of Adam], who in the beginning wast a little branch; thou wast created in one will only, all thy twigs should have that will of thine, but the devil grudged thee that, and strewed poison into thy will, out of which the turba grew: and so thou hast spoiled all thy children and twigs therewith, so that the turba is grown up also into every little twig: Thou didst enter into pride, and wentest forth from the first will, which God gave thee, into the great wonders of the great turba [or uproars, and commotions, contention and destruction in the four elementary worlds], wherewith all thy children were enamoured, and left thee [thy first will] . 53. Therefore saith the mother of the genetrix [the eternal nature], I am in anguish, I had planted me a little tree,
3and desired to eat of its good fruit; but it hath borne much wild fruit, which I have no mind to eat of; I will conceive, and bring forth a young son in my old age, which may continue in my house, and do my will, that I may have joy at last; since all my children leave me, I will take comfort in my young son, and he shall remain in my house while I live, and Satan shall not tempt him. I will put a child's garment upon him, and he shall dwell with me in a total childish simplicity: behold! I will generate him out of the first root, and will break the turba: for its number in the crown is accomplished. 54. What seek you so much, you wild branches? You say you are above the mother, [above the spirit of God] ; you have art, knowledge, and learning; what delight hath the mother in your wit and art? She desireth no art and wit; for she is altogether simple, and counteth but [the number] one; if you would please the mother, you must go from the multiplicity into one again; not through art and wit, but you must go forth out of your proud turba, out of self, into simple humility; you must leave the bravery and hypocrisy of your own wit that proceeds from the turba, and become as children, else you are not acceptable to your first mother, but the turba taketh you up; and then consider where you shall remain, when God shall judge the secrets of mankind, when all shall pass through the fire of his wrath, saith the spirit of the great wonders.
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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