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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.
1of this world in thy voice? That cannot be, unless it were already awakened in the hearer, who heareth the voice of the Holy Ghost in all words which are spoken of the wonders [or works] of God. 46. And, if an ass could speak, and should speak of God's word, the hammer of the awakener would then strike in the soul which is in God: Whosoever is of God, heareth God's word, saith Christ; Ye therefore hear not, because you are not of God, but of the devil, and of the spirit of this world. 47. In some there is no word or spirit of God at all to be awakened; for the wrathful matrix hath captivated them; which is plain and manifest in some to whom Christ himself spake: He had the hammer indeed, but his spirit entereth not into the malicious obstinate soul, but into those who would fain be virtuous, honest, and godly, if they could: And when once the hammer thus awakeneth the spirit of the soul, that the soul turneth and casteth itself into God, then it can. 48. The old man [the old Adam] should not have the dominion, but the spirit of God should have it; else there is no ability, but a keeping back by the wrath; for there is a twofold longing or seeking in the soul: One is the fire's greedy covetous fierce longing, which always seeketh after earthly matters; and the other is from the spirit, which is brought forth out of the fire, wherein the right life of the soul in the image of God is understood, that is, God's
2longing, which seeketh the kingdom of heaven. 49. And so, when the right hammer (viz. the spirit of God) striketh in it. then that longing is so strong, that it overcometh the fire-source and longing, and maketh it meek, so that it desireth the longing of love, viz. the longing of the soul's spirit; and there is good to be done: Such a soul is easy to be awakened, so as to subdue the outward dominion, especially when the hammer of the Holy Ghost soundeth through the ears into the heart, then the tincture of the soul receiveth it instantly; and there it goeth forth through the whole soul, through both the longings, for it casteth itself into one will; for two wills do not subsist in eternity, there must be but one; one of them must beimpotent, or of no might; and the other omnipotent, or almighty, or else there is disunion, and no agreement. 50. For that is the right [or true property] of eternity, and of the eternal subsistence, to have but one only will: If it had two, one would break or destroy the other, and so there would be strife: Indeed the eternity consisteth in many powers and wonders, but its life is merely and only the love, out of which goeth forth light and majesty: All creatures in heaven have but one will, and that is inclined into the Heart of God, and goeth into God's spirit, even into the centre of multiplicity in the springing and blossoming: but God's spirit is the life in every thing.
351. The centre of nature affordeth the substance, and the Majesty affordeth power; and the Holy Ghost is the bringer forth: He hath the predominancy; and it hath been so from eternity, but in an invisible substance before [or to] the creatures: There is nothing new in heaven that was not before, but only that the substance is become palpable and comprehensible: God himself hath shewn forth himself in similitudes and images, else all had been but merely and only God: The devil is God's; he is his wrath or fierceness in the most inward centre, which is also the most outward, for his kingdom is the darkness in nature, as is before mentioned, 52. Therefore man should have a care of him self, and endeavour to propagate or put forth himself [ bring forth, or regenerate himself] for he is a root in the soil of God, and hath gotten the spirit of understanding: He must bring forth fruit out of the spirit of the soul, in the power of the Holy Ghost; not according to the form and manner of darkness, but out of the power of the light; for whatsoever groweth out of the power of the light, that belongeth to God's table; and whatsoever groweth out from the darkness, which remaineth a fruit in darkness, belongeth to the darkness in the abyss in the wrathful matrix [or in the fierce genetrix]. 53. After this [life] time there is no recalling;
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.
1of this world in thy voice? That cannot be, unless it were already awakened in the hearer, who heareth the voice of the Holy Ghost in all words which are spoken of the wonders [or works] of God. 46. And, if an ass could speak, and should speak of God's word, the hammer of the awakener would then strike in the soul which is in God: Whosoever is of God, heareth God's word, saith Christ; Ye therefore hear not, because you are not of God, but of the devil, and of the spirit of this world. 47. In some there is no word or spirit of God at all to be awakened; for the wrathful matrix hath captivated them; which is plain and manifest in some to whom Christ himself spake: He had the hammer indeed, but his spirit entereth not into the malicious obstinate soul, but into those who would fain be virtuous, honest, and godly, if they could: And when once the hammer thus awakeneth the spirit of the soul, that the soul turneth and casteth itself into God, then it can. 48. The old man [the old Adam] should not have the dominion, but the spirit of God should have it; else there is no ability, but a keeping back by the wrath; for there is a twofold longing or seeking in the soul: One is the fire's greedy covetous fierce longing, which always seeketh after earthly matters; and the other is from the spirit, which is brought forth out of the fire, wherein the right life of the soul in the image of God is understood, that is, God's
2longing, which seeketh the kingdom of heaven. 49. And so, when the right hammer (viz. the spirit of God) striketh in it. then that longing is so strong, that it overcometh the fire-source and longing, and maketh it meek, so that it desireth the longing of love, viz. the longing of the soul's spirit; and there is good to be done: Such a soul is easy to be awakened, so as to subdue the outward dominion, especially when the hammer of the Holy Ghost soundeth through the ears into the heart, then the tincture of the soul receiveth it instantly; and there it goeth forth through the whole soul, through both the longings, for it casteth itself into one will; for two wills do not subsist in eternity, there must be but one; one of them must beimpotent, or of no might; and the other omnipotent, or almighty, or else there is disunion, and no agreement. 50. For that is the right [or true property] of eternity, and of the eternal subsistence, to have but one only will: If it had two, one would break or destroy the other, and so there would be strife: Indeed the eternity consisteth in many powers and wonders, but its life is merely and only the love, out of which goeth forth light and majesty: All creatures in heaven have but one will, and that is inclined into the Heart of God, and goeth into God's spirit, even into the centre of multiplicity in the springing and blossoming: but God's spirit is the life in every thing.
351. The centre of nature affordeth the substance, and the Majesty affordeth power; and the Holy Ghost is the bringer forth: He hath the predominancy; and it hath been so from eternity, but in an invisible substance before [or to] the creatures: There is nothing new in heaven that was not before, but only that the substance is become palpable and comprehensible: God himself hath shewn forth himself in similitudes and images, else all had been but merely and only God: The devil is God's; he is his wrath or fierceness in the most inward centre, which is also the most outward, for his kingdom is the darkness in nature, as is before mentioned, 52. Therefore man should have a care of him self, and endeavour to propagate or put forth himself [ bring forth, or regenerate himself] for he is a root in the soil of God, and hath gotten the spirit of understanding: He must bring forth fruit out of the spirit of the soul, in the power of the Holy Ghost; not according to the form and manner of darkness, but out of the power of the light; for whatsoever groweth out of the power of the light, that belongeth to God's table; and whatsoever groweth out from the darkness, which remaineth a fruit in darkness, belongeth to the darkness in the abyss in the wrathful matrix [or in the fierce genetrix]. 53. After this [life] time there is no recalling;
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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