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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.
114. How those must do, (to whom the devil sets all the sins they have committed before their eyes), that the devil may be faint and weak .... 64 14. How the devil betrayeth the soul. Man is the devil's best beloved lodging 65 14. Where is it that the devil hath power outwardly . 66 16. How the devil overwhelmeth the soul terribly . . 7 16. In what manner the devil assaulteth the soul in its security 16 17. One man is a devil to another 22 2. How the devils lost the light of God, and now are in the four forms 48 2. How the devils came into the abyss of hell in a moment 54 4. The devils stand in the wonders of God ... 90 7. Why the devils are not transitory .... 16 7. How the devils are eternal spirits in the fierce matrix, and are a looking-glass for angels and men . . 17 7. Whence the original of the devils is, wherein all corporeity doth consist 69 8. How the devils have lost the tincture of meeknetjs: They have no palpable body 39 10. Where the devils dwell: How the world scorneth all revelation 22 Divines. 2. Physicians now understand not the centre of Sulphur, Mercury, and Sal; nor do the divines understand the spirit of the Holy Scriptures .... 17 Doctrine. 12. Of the seed which the Antichristian devil hath sown into the doctrine of Christ 16 Doings. 17. All our doings are acceptable to God, if they be not false or wicked 15
2Doubt. Doubtful. Doubting. 7. How the soul is kept in doubt by leaning to opinions . 6 7. It is good to see with our own eyes, others' eyes make us but doubt 55 CHAP. Doubt. Doubtful. Doubting. VERSE 9. It is a great sin to doubt of the grace of God . . 35 11. That men should not doubt in prayer: plain instruction 55 11. How poor souls fall into distrust and doubt . . 97 17. Why the soul i s doubtful in prayer .... 3 4. The mind searchetb after the most inward ground, which is here shewn: Also how doubting cometh . 60 11. Whence doubting in prayer ariseth: fair instruction . 56 16. In the word Erden, which signifieth earth, lie many hidden mysteries: Also concerning our doubting i n prayer; and our misery .... 58, 5 9 17. How the devil, bringeth doubting into the soul, and maketh a severe judge of God .... 4 Driver. 11. A song concerning the fall of the Driver, who hath set us at odds 113 Die. Dieth. Dying. 18. How a child in the mother's womb is at first old enough to die. Our limit is hidden in us . . 13 18. The author must speak by way of similitude, how one is when he dieth 16 12. How the simple dying man knoweth not whither his soul shall go 26 12. Where the simple dying man's soul remaineth; whence purgatory is framed; where the souls of the deceivers remain. Note, it is wonderful . . 27 Earth. 5. Out of what the earth, stones, and metals come . . 98 6. What the earth signifieth 64 9. How the earth springeth in its own life ... 58
310. Where the devil dwells; also of the wheeling of the globe of the earth, and of the other planets . 21-26 11. Of the longing of the earth, why it wheeleth, or is wheeled about 5 11. How the budding forth of the earth springeth towards the sun; also of the indurability of the fruits of the earth 6 11. Of the matrix of the earth, being a corrupted matrix; what it was before the Fall 8 12. Whence the divisions among all people of the earth have arisen 18 CHAP. Eat. VERSE 13. He that hungereth, let him eat; and he that thirsteth, let him drink, without money .... 55 Elders. 5. Of the Glassy Sea before the seats of the elders . . 10 9. What the seven spirits are, (where the Son of Man standeth), and also the four-and-twenty elders before the throne of God 80 Election. 7. Whence the election of the children of God cometh . 35 7. Of the election among the children of Jesse . . 45 7. The election is not ordained from eternity in God . 46 Element. Elements. 5. Out of what the element of water is created . . 13 5. How the fruit getteth its ornament, and how all is like a wrestling, viz. in the pure element .... 54 5. Out of what the four elements have proceeded . . 105 5. How God's spirit drave forth the four Elements that have appeared as a peculiar Principle . . .106 5. How the four elements are in one pure element . .118 5. Why all that live in the four elements must corrupt . 121 6. Whence the stirring of the elements ariseth . . 50
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.
114. How those must do, (to whom the devil sets all the sins they have committed before their eyes), that the devil may be faint and weak .... 64 14. How the devil betrayeth the soul. Man is the devil's best beloved lodging 65 14. Where is it that the devil hath power outwardly . 66 16. How the devil overwhelmeth the soul terribly . . 7 16. In what manner the devil assaulteth the soul in its security 16 17. One man is a devil to another 22 2. How the devils lost the light of God, and now are in the four forms 48 2. How the devils came into the abyss of hell in a moment 54 4. The devils stand in the wonders of God ... 90 7. Why the devils are not transitory .... 16 7. How the devils are eternal spirits in the fierce matrix, and are a looking-glass for angels and men . . 17 7. Whence the original of the devils is, wherein all corporeity doth consist 69 8. How the devils have lost the tincture of meeknetjs: They have no palpable body 39 10. Where the devils dwell: How the world scorneth all revelation 22 Divines. 2. Physicians now understand not the centre of Sulphur, Mercury, and Sal; nor do the divines understand the spirit of the Holy Scriptures .... 17 Doctrine. 12. Of the seed which the Antichristian devil hath sown into the doctrine of Christ 16 Doings. 17. All our doings are acceptable to God, if they be not false or wicked 15
2Doubt. Doubtful. Doubting. 7. How the soul is kept in doubt by leaning to opinions . 6 7. It is good to see with our own eyes, others' eyes make us but doubt 55 CHAP. Doubt. Doubtful. Doubting. VERSE 9. It is a great sin to doubt of the grace of God . . 35 11. That men should not doubt in prayer: plain instruction 55 11. How poor souls fall into distrust and doubt . . 97 17. Why the soul i s doubtful in prayer .... 3 4. The mind searchetb after the most inward ground, which is here shewn: Also how doubting cometh . 60 11. Whence doubting in prayer ariseth: fair instruction . 56 16. In the word Erden, which signifieth earth, lie many hidden mysteries: Also concerning our doubting i n prayer; and our misery .... 58, 5 9 17. How the devil, bringeth doubting into the soul, and maketh a severe judge of God .... 4 Driver. 11. A song concerning the fall of the Driver, who hath set us at odds 113 Die. Dieth. Dying. 18. How a child in the mother's womb is at first old enough to die. Our limit is hidden in us . . 13 18. The author must speak by way of similitude, how one is when he dieth 16 12. How the simple dying man knoweth not whither his soul shall go 26 12. Where the simple dying man's soul remaineth; whence purgatory is framed; where the souls of the deceivers remain. Note, it is wonderful . . 27 Earth. 5. Out of what the earth, stones, and metals come . . 98 6. What the earth signifieth 64 9. How the earth springeth in its own life ... 58
310. Where the devil dwells; also of the wheeling of the globe of the earth, and of the other planets . 21-26 11. Of the longing of the earth, why it wheeleth, or is wheeled about 5 11. How the budding forth of the earth springeth towards the sun; also of the indurability of the fruits of the earth 6 11. Of the matrix of the earth, being a corrupted matrix; what it was before the Fall 8 12. Whence the divisions among all people of the earth have arisen 18 CHAP. Eat. VERSE 13. He that hungereth, let him eat; and he that thirsteth, let him drink, without money .... 55 Elders. 5. Of the Glassy Sea before the seats of the elders . . 10 9. What the seven spirits are, (where the Son of Man standeth), and also the four-and-twenty elders before the throne of God 80 Election. 7. Whence the election of the children of God cometh . 35 7. Of the election among the children of Jesse . . 45 7. The election is not ordained from eternity in God . 46 Element. Elements. 5. Out of what the element of water is created . . 13 5. How the fruit getteth its ornament, and how all is like a wrestling, viz. in the pure element .... 54 5. Out of what the four elements have proceeded . . 105 5. How God's spirit drave forth the four Elements that have appeared as a peculiar Principle . . .106 5. How the four elements are in one pure element . .118 5. Why all that live in the four elements must corrupt . 121 6. Whence the stirring of the elements ariseth . . 50
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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