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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.
1and the second dominion should continue in its own place (in the noble tincture) in paradise, and should open the great wonders in the third: And therefore man was made lord over all things; he had the tincture [or life] of the earth in his own hand [or power], and gold and silver were as easy for him to find as any other visible thing: The tincture of the earth was his ornament and sport, altogether child-like, without covetousness; he needed no other clothing; and as the gold was pure without dross so was his child-like mind also. 48. But the devil awakened unto him the sulphur [or gross matter] therein, and hath set the bestial spirit in the superior dominion in him; that which man should have ruled over, ruleth over him, and that is his Fall. 49. Thus now the devil hath gotten power, inasmuch as the outward dominion is generated out of the inward, [viz. the centre of nature], and that he dwelleth in the most innermost, and so he slideth out of the innermost into the outermost, and kindleth the outermost in the mind; from whence arise false lusts and inclinations, and evil concupiscence, so that two dominions [viz. the inward and the outward] strive against the soul; and so the poor soul is in the midst between the dominion of this world, and the dominion of the hellish source [or quality], and there it standeth before the gate of heaven, in a very great deep,
2in great danger; its root is the anger of God and hell-fire; and its superior or predominant spirit is the dominion of this world; and there it standeth in the tincture of the fire, in the midst; and whithersoever it inclineth, thither it entereth; if it goeth into the lust and pleasure of this world, then it standeth therein, and is captivated by the devil; but if it entereth into itself inwards into God, then the devil will buffet it, for then it is in his country. 50. But when it getteth the flesh of Christ for a new body, then it is not in his country: that is a tree before him, which is poison and death to him: at which he is vexed, and loath to touch it: But he stirreth up his servants and ministers against the outward body, that must bear reproach and scorn, that thereby he may cover and hide this tree, that it may not be known; else it might bring forth more branches, whereupon at last hell would be too narrow for him; therefore he will prevent it as long as he can. 51. And so now, when the poor soul breaketh away from him, and with its dear bridegroom Christ turneth to the love of God, so that through earnest Repentance and turning into God, it entereth into the will of God; yet then the devil hath seven cords still, with each of which he holdeth it fast, before he will let it go; and then it must get itself through all the seven, and leave his cords wholly to himself. [These seven
3bands are the seven spirits of nature hereafter mentioned.] 52. And eighthly, it must go through the fire, and there is the earnest severe proba, or hard trial; and when it is come through, it getteth the heavenly tincture in the ninth number, and in the tenth number, upon the cross, it getteth the body of Christ, and so is an angel in heaven, and a stranger and pilgrim upon earth, in this tabernacle. 53. The seven snares wherewith it is entangled, are the seven spirits of the outward nature of the dominion of this world: these it must wind through, and press quite through them, and cast them all behind it; and in the eighth number standeth Moses, with his Law; and there is first read to the soul, what a fine fowl it was; and there cometh the devil with his register or catalogue, and readeth what it is, and sheweth his right to it: and there it is directed to bow down and lay hold on the wounds and passion of Christ: and here it is necessary that the poor soul take hold on the merits and death of Christ, and wrap itself fast therein, for out of these swaddling bands the devil cannot pull the soul; nay, he dare not touch them: and here the devil must leave the soul, for Christ standeth in the fire of the Father's anger, and is the accomplishment of obedience; and there the soul is brought into the ninth form, into the tincture of the eternal
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.
1and the second dominion should continue in its own place (in the noble tincture) in paradise, and should open the great wonders in the third: And therefore man was made lord over all things; he had the tincture [or life] of the earth in his own hand [or power], and gold and silver were as easy for him to find as any other visible thing: The tincture of the earth was his ornament and sport, altogether child-like, without covetousness; he needed no other clothing; and as the gold was pure without dross so was his child-like mind also. 48. But the devil awakened unto him the sulphur [or gross matter] therein, and hath set the bestial spirit in the superior dominion in him; that which man should have ruled over, ruleth over him, and that is his Fall. 49. Thus now the devil hath gotten power, inasmuch as the outward dominion is generated out of the inward, [viz. the centre of nature], and that he dwelleth in the most innermost, and so he slideth out of the innermost into the outermost, and kindleth the outermost in the mind; from whence arise false lusts and inclinations, and evil concupiscence, so that two dominions [viz. the inward and the outward] strive against the soul; and so the poor soul is in the midst between the dominion of this world, and the dominion of the hellish source [or quality], and there it standeth before the gate of heaven, in a very great deep,
2in great danger; its root is the anger of God and hell-fire; and its superior or predominant spirit is the dominion of this world; and there it standeth in the tincture of the fire, in the midst; and whithersoever it inclineth, thither it entereth; if it goeth into the lust and pleasure of this world, then it standeth therein, and is captivated by the devil; but if it entereth into itself inwards into God, then the devil will buffet it, for then it is in his country. 50. But when it getteth the flesh of Christ for a new body, then it is not in his country: that is a tree before him, which is poison and death to him: at which he is vexed, and loath to touch it: But he stirreth up his servants and ministers against the outward body, that must bear reproach and scorn, that thereby he may cover and hide this tree, that it may not be known; else it might bring forth more branches, whereupon at last hell would be too narrow for him; therefore he will prevent it as long as he can. 51. And so now, when the poor soul breaketh away from him, and with its dear bridegroom Christ turneth to the love of God, so that through earnest Repentance and turning into God, it entereth into the will of God; yet then the devil hath seven cords still, with each of which he holdeth it fast, before he will let it go; and then it must get itself through all the seven, and leave his cords wholly to himself. [These seven
3bands are the seven spirits of nature hereafter mentioned.] 52. And eighthly, it must go through the fire, and there is the earnest severe proba, or hard trial; and when it is come through, it getteth the heavenly tincture in the ninth number, and in the tenth number, upon the cross, it getteth the body of Christ, and so is an angel in heaven, and a stranger and pilgrim upon earth, in this tabernacle. 53. The seven snares wherewith it is entangled, are the seven spirits of the outward nature of the dominion of this world: these it must wind through, and press quite through them, and cast them all behind it; and in the eighth number standeth Moses, with his Law; and there is first read to the soul, what a fine fowl it was; and there cometh the devil with his register or catalogue, and readeth what it is, and sheweth his right to it: and there it is directed to bow down and lay hold on the wounds and passion of Christ: and here it is necessary that the poor soul take hold on the merits and death of Christ, and wrap itself fast therein, for out of these swaddling bands the devil cannot pull the soul; nay, he dare not touch them: and here the devil must leave the soul, for Christ standeth in the fire of the Father's anger, and is the accomplishment of obedience; and there the soul is brought into the ninth form, into the tincture of the eternal
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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