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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.
13. Men must he scorned: Also how all may be found that is desired 3 6 4. All consisteth in the will. The will carrieth and leadeth us 6 4. The essence of all essences is a continual hunger and satiating: Also how all changeth, and yet remaineth still 7 4. Whence all that is come to be hath proceeded: Also where time began 25 9. How all is become substantial 45 15. All shall be tried in the fire 13 5. Why all things are come to a corporeal substance . 123 17. God hath given all to us 23 10. How in the will of God we are able to do all things . 32 2 . How God i s almighty 26 4. Nature consisteth of endless forms: No number is found i n the almightiness 9 Amen. 16. How in the Amen is understood the seeking of the eternal nature 95 16. How the whole alphabet proceedeth out of the A: Also of the syllable men: If God were not become man, we could not attain him .... 96 Angels. 14. How the angels often assist the virtuous in necessity . 58 14. How the angels often deliver Christians ... 57 14. What the condition of the holy angels is . . 61 14. What condition they are of that want the assistance and society of angels 62 14. The angels accept of no honour nor worship from us . 63 14. The angels strive with the devils about the soul of man 67 Anger. 3. The anger of God is not a thing without God, neither i s i t the mere Deity 19 CHAP. Anguish. Verse 2. What the desire of the anguish is ... 30
23. That which maketh anguish in the dark centre, maketh joy in the light 15 Antichrist. Antichristian. 6. The spirit which hath blinded us in the Antichrist . 11 6. How Antichrist rideth over heaven, earth, and God . 13 11. Here the proud covetous Antichrist is told where its poor soul shall remain 48 11. Of the very Antichrist: his mysticalness: every man carrieth him in his heart 51 11. The Antichrist hurteth not the ignorant: God will manifest him, and he shall lose his sting in the children o f God .52 11. The Antichrist is a cause of the falling away of the Asians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Moors, Grecians and Africans: The Indians are better than the Antichrist 89 11. They that will slay the Antichrist, are the very beast whereupon he rideth: Also what contention effecteth 93 11. How the Antichrist pronounceth people happy for money 96 11. A speech to Antichrist concerning the business between Peter and Ananias 98 11. It were often better not to be hearers of the lies of Antichrist 100 11. Antichrist is born of lies: Also where he feedeth his sheep 101 11. How Antichrist is to be slain and pulled down . .105 12. How by the business of Cain and Abel, Antichrist may b e discerned .17 12. A speech to the Antichrist concerning his leading people astray .29 12. Who are the bears and wolves of Antichrist: Also when the Mystery of the kingdom of God shall be manifest . 30
312. Advice to princes: Antichrist sticketh in all covetousness 32 12. The marks of the last Antichrist: Admonition to the children of God .34 6. How the Antichristian spirit shall be rightly shewn to us 12 Art. 3. How men bind true understanding to art and study . 83 4. Without the will of God all that is done in natural art is but a graven image 46 7. Art, eloquence, aud an university avail nothing . . 5 CHAP. Asia. VERSE 12. Why Asia, Africa, and Greece, are to be accounted happy 25 Author. 1. Who those are that can understand the author . . 22 1 . The end of the author's writing 41 1. The author will shew what we are in body and soul: Also what God, heaven, and hell are; and saith we are blinder than the heathen .... 44 2. The author speaketh of his knowledge . . 18 2. The Deity subject to no alteration. The author speaketh but in part 66 3. The author will shew that which hath been hidden since the Fall o f Adam 6 3. Advice to the children of Christ. The author doth not forbid going to the churches of stone . . 90 3. The author hath not sought after the sophisters, but after the Heart of God 92 4. If the author did not see and understand, he would hold his peace 3 4. The author writes these things down for a Memorial to himself 4 5. The author speaketh as a child speaketh of its mother 23 5. To those that are not born of God, the author is dumb 25 5. The author speaketh from two languages ... 26
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.
13. Men must he scorned: Also how all may be found that is desired 3 6 4. All consisteth in the will. The will carrieth and leadeth us 6 4. The essence of all essences is a continual hunger and satiating: Also how all changeth, and yet remaineth still 7 4. Whence all that is come to be hath proceeded: Also where time began 25 9. How all is become substantial 45 15. All shall be tried in the fire 13 5. Why all things are come to a corporeal substance . 123 17. God hath given all to us 23 10. How in the will of God we are able to do all things . 32 2 . How God i s almighty 26 4. Nature consisteth of endless forms: No number is found i n the almightiness 9 Amen. 16. How in the Amen is understood the seeking of the eternal nature 95 16. How the whole alphabet proceedeth out of the A: Also of the syllable men: If God were not become man, we could not attain him .... 96 Angels. 14. How the angels often assist the virtuous in necessity . 58 14. How the angels often deliver Christians ... 57 14. What the condition of the holy angels is . . 61 14. What condition they are of that want the assistance and society of angels 62 14. The angels accept of no honour nor worship from us . 63 14. The angels strive with the devils about the soul of man 67 Anger. 3. The anger of God is not a thing without God, neither i s i t the mere Deity 19 CHAP. Anguish. Verse 2. What the desire of the anguish is ... 30
23. That which maketh anguish in the dark centre, maketh joy in the light 15 Antichrist. Antichristian. 6. The spirit which hath blinded us in the Antichrist . 11 6. How Antichrist rideth over heaven, earth, and God . 13 11. Here the proud covetous Antichrist is told where its poor soul shall remain 48 11. Of the very Antichrist: his mysticalness: every man carrieth him in his heart 51 11. The Antichrist hurteth not the ignorant: God will manifest him, and he shall lose his sting in the children o f God .52 11. The Antichrist is a cause of the falling away of the Asians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Moors, Grecians and Africans: The Indians are better than the Antichrist 89 11. They that will slay the Antichrist, are the very beast whereupon he rideth: Also what contention effecteth 93 11. How the Antichrist pronounceth people happy for money 96 11. A speech to Antichrist concerning the business between Peter and Ananias 98 11. It were often better not to be hearers of the lies of Antichrist 100 11. Antichrist is born of lies: Also where he feedeth his sheep 101 11. How Antichrist is to be slain and pulled down . .105 12. How by the business of Cain and Abel, Antichrist may b e discerned .17 12. A speech to the Antichrist concerning his leading people astray .29 12. Who are the bears and wolves of Antichrist: Also when the Mystery of the kingdom of God shall be manifest . 30
312. Advice to princes: Antichrist sticketh in all covetousness 32 12. The marks of the last Antichrist: Admonition to the children of God .34 6. How the Antichristian spirit shall be rightly shewn to us 12 Art. 3. How men bind true understanding to art and study . 83 4. Without the will of God all that is done in natural art is but a graven image 46 7. Art, eloquence, aud an university avail nothing . . 5 CHAP. Asia. VERSE 12. Why Asia, Africa, and Greece, are to be accounted happy 25 Author. 1. Who those are that can understand the author . . 22 1 . The end of the author's writing 41 1. The author will shew what we are in body and soul: Also what God, heaven, and hell are; and saith we are blinder than the heathen .... 44 2. The author speaketh of his knowledge . . 18 2. The Deity subject to no alteration. The author speaketh but in part 66 3. The author will shew that which hath been hidden since the Fall o f Adam 6 3. Advice to the children of Christ. The author doth not forbid going to the churches of stone . . 90 3. The author hath not sought after the sophisters, but after the Heart of God 92 4. If the author did not see and understand, he would hold his peace 3 4. The author writes these things down for a Memorial to himself 4 5. The author speaketh as a child speaketh of its mother 23 5. To those that are not born of God, the author is dumb 25 5. The author speaketh from two languages ... 26
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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