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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.
1out of which (in the kindling) ariseth the consuming fire, and the pleasant refreshing light], viz. one in the fierceness of the fire, which flieth out aloft above the centre, with the four wrathful severe forms; and the other in the light of the meekness, which remaineth standing immoveably, and hath also all the power of the centre, in which power the spirit of the Deity and of the Majesty is known; wherein standeth the [rain-] bow with the cross of the Number Three; for the Majesty is here the brightness of the Deity; and here the eternal liberty without [or beyond] nature, (which hath but one only will), getteth the strength, power, majesty, and glory; for the eternity is thus revealed [or manifested], which otherwise would be as it were a still nothing, in the creature's esteem and account. 37. Above this still soft humility the devil leadeth the soul of man in its will out aloft in the fire-flash; for herein, according to the spirit of this world, consisteth the dominion of the sun, which giveth might and strength to the outward man, and also the light and power of the outward senses, so that reason cometh to see; and the outward spirit getteth great outward skill and wisdom, according to the dominion of this world. 38. Also herein all subtleties of the essences and senses disclose themselves, which the devil very well observeth: If any, in the upper dominion, according to the spirit of this world, be a child of the sun,
2then he [the devil], in the centre of nature without ceasing, slippeth into the fire-flash of the soul, where the fire and heat exist, and always bringeth in with him the other three poisonous forms in the original: He bringeth the soul out aloft over the cross above the meekness of the Majesty, in the wrathful fire-flash, so that it groweth proud, lascivious, and fierce; he maketh it to contemn meekness and humility, and so it flieth forth in its own wit, in the fierceness of the flash, above God and the kingdom of heaven, [and scorneth all that belongeth to God and to eternal life] . 39. And all this, (dear brethren in Babel), proceedeth from hence; that you are void of the divine wit and understanding, so that you fly above the wheel of nature in your own wit; you should stay in the cross in humility, and your soul should be inverted and inclined into the meek Majesty of God; but now you fly upon the wheel of the fire in your pride, aloft over the Deity; and this the devil doth to you in subtle craftiness, that he may thus lead you, that thereby the kingdom of God might not be known; you seek the kingdom of God in art; but art hath
3the six forms of the wheel of nature; the Deity hath another centre in the cross; for the divine spirit separateth itself from the fire, and yet is not quite asunder from it; but it maketh another Principle, which consisteth in meekness, in mere love and joy; the forms of nature are therein a mere power of love; for it is an accomplishment of the eternal will, out of which nature existeth, and the wrathful kingdom is an accomplishment of the eternal hunger and thirst, which cannot be otherwise in eternity, for the essence of all essences is thus. 40. For it is sufficiently known to us (seeing God is merely good) that he created nothing evil; for that which was not from eternity, was not in the creation. 41. God created no hell, nor any devils, but angels: Only Lucifer hath turned himself away from the meekness, and is flown out above the cross of the Number Three, and hath himself awakened the fire of anger in the flash, which had from eternity remained hidden in secret, which is now his hell and habitation; he can now be no otherwise than covetous, envious, anxious, and wrathful; there is no other property [quality or living faculty] or source in him; for his own mother, out of which he was brought forth and created, holdeth him now, so that he is a devil with all his legions. 42. Therefore, dear children, since we know that we are thus environed with hell and the devils, in the anger of God, it is very necessary for us
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.
1out of which (in the kindling) ariseth the consuming fire, and the pleasant refreshing light], viz. one in the fierceness of the fire, which flieth out aloft above the centre, with the four wrathful severe forms; and the other in the light of the meekness, which remaineth standing immoveably, and hath also all the power of the centre, in which power the spirit of the Deity and of the Majesty is known; wherein standeth the [rain-] bow with the cross of the Number Three; for the Majesty is here the brightness of the Deity; and here the eternal liberty without [or beyond] nature, (which hath but one only will), getteth the strength, power, majesty, and glory; for the eternity is thus revealed [or manifested], which otherwise would be as it were a still nothing, in the creature's esteem and account. 37. Above this still soft humility the devil leadeth the soul of man in its will out aloft in the fire-flash; for herein, according to the spirit of this world, consisteth the dominion of the sun, which giveth might and strength to the outward man, and also the light and power of the outward senses, so that reason cometh to see; and the outward spirit getteth great outward skill and wisdom, according to the dominion of this world. 38. Also herein all subtleties of the essences and senses disclose themselves, which the devil very well observeth: If any, in the upper dominion, according to the spirit of this world, be a child of the sun,
2then he [the devil], in the centre of nature without ceasing, slippeth into the fire-flash of the soul, where the fire and heat exist, and always bringeth in with him the other three poisonous forms in the original: He bringeth the soul out aloft over the cross above the meekness of the Majesty, in the wrathful fire-flash, so that it groweth proud, lascivious, and fierce; he maketh it to contemn meekness and humility, and so it flieth forth in its own wit, in the fierceness of the flash, above God and the kingdom of heaven, [and scorneth all that belongeth to God and to eternal life] . 39. And all this, (dear brethren in Babel), proceedeth from hence; that you are void of the divine wit and understanding, so that you fly above the wheel of nature in your own wit; you should stay in the cross in humility, and your soul should be inverted and inclined into the meek Majesty of God; but now you fly upon the wheel of the fire in your pride, aloft over the Deity; and this the devil doth to you in subtle craftiness, that he may thus lead you, that thereby the kingdom of God might not be known; you seek the kingdom of God in art; but art hath
3the six forms of the wheel of nature; the Deity hath another centre in the cross; for the divine spirit separateth itself from the fire, and yet is not quite asunder from it; but it maketh another Principle, which consisteth in meekness, in mere love and joy; the forms of nature are therein a mere power of love; for it is an accomplishment of the eternal will, out of which nature existeth, and the wrathful kingdom is an accomplishment of the eternal hunger and thirst, which cannot be otherwise in eternity, for the essence of all essences is thus. 40. For it is sufficiently known to us (seeing God is merely good) that he created nothing evil; for that which was not from eternity, was not in the creation. 41. God created no hell, nor any devils, but angels: Only Lucifer hath turned himself away from the meekness, and is flown out above the cross of the Number Three, and hath himself awakened the fire of anger in the flash, which had from eternity remained hidden in secret, which is now his hell and habitation; he can now be no otherwise than covetous, envious, anxious, and wrathful; there is no other property [quality or living faculty] or source in him; for his own mother, out of which he was brought forth and created, holdeth him now, so that he is a devil with all his legions. 42. Therefore, dear children, since we know that we are thus environed with hell and the devils, in the anger of God, it is very necessary for us
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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