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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.
111. How evil men kindle the elements: Also how the anger willeth to devour; which the prophets foretold 39 13. How the substantiality of the earth proceedeth from the other three elements 26 Employment. 17. Man may use what innocent employment he will to get his living with 16 Enemies. 12. Our worst enemy is in our bosom: Also direction how we ought to walk .. 44 12. How men may defend themselves against their enemies, and not displease God 42 16. How the soul is begirt with enemies .... 5 CHAP. Essences. VERSE 1. Whence multiplicity of essences or faculties ariseth . 31 2. How the wheel of the essences standeth trembling . 70 3. Of the wheel of the essences, whence the fire proceedeth 9 3. How all essences which have laid hold of the light, stand in the first generating will .... 11 Eternal. Eternity. 6. What is eternal, and what is not eternal ... 42 18. That which is proceeded out of the eternity, is of an eternal kind 16 14. How the eternity is revealed 36 Eve. 7. What moved Eve to eat of the fruit .... 48 13. How mother Eve was deceived in her opinion . . 55 Evil. 3. In these writings may be found, whence evil proceedeth 25 9. The evil as well as the good is useful. ... 13 13. How the good oil is poison to the evil ... 50 14. God created nothing evil .... 40 15. Delight in evil is the devil's chain and fetters . . 6 18. How by the striking of the right hammer the good overcometh the evil 49 Excommunication.
212. Of those that are cursed with excommunication deservedly : Also of those that are cursed for the truth's sake 8 13. Of the Church's reproof and excommunication: He that reproveth and excommunieatetk in the wrong is himself excommunicate 9 Exposition. 2. The exposition of the word Sulphur .... 19 2. The exposition of the words Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal 41, 42, 43 2. An exposition of these words: In the beginning was the Word 60 5. An exposition of that text: We have piped to you, and you have not danced 8 CHAP. Exposition. VERSE 11. A plain exposition of these words of Christ: When the unclean spirit goeth out of a man he wandereth through dry places, etc 58 14. An exposition of those words of Christ: A camel may sooner go through the eye of a needle, than a rich man enter into the kingdom of heaven: Also what the devil's triumphant chariot is .... 45 16. To what this exposition tendeth .... 1 16. The author's exposition of these words: Before they called, I heard them 11 16. An exposition of the word vom, or from. How the soul groweth as a stalk out of the root: A wonderful description o f the soul 84 16. Further exposition of nature and of the soul, by the similitude of fire 85, 86 Faith. 10. Concerning the lies of those that speak from their own conceit: Also whence the strife about faith and religion proceedeth 3 2
311. A saying to the sophisters, who of opinions make articles of faith: There is heresy in every opinion: Men must cleave to the living Word ... 80 14. Of the dead faith, and of the true faith . . .8,9 16. What -we attain in prayer: What the syllable men in Amen signifieth: What faith i s: How prayer comprehendeth two things 97 Fall. 5. What the heavy fall of Adam was . . . .120 11. Of Adam's wisdom, ornament, clothing, and members before his fall: How he went out from God, and caused the creation of the Tree of Good and Evil . 21 11. How the devil stirred up Adam's lust. Adam's condition after the fall 22 Father. 1. The speaker is the Father of the Word. The abyss of hell standeth in the centre of the Father . . 39 2. Of the Father's will to generate his Son or Word . 61 2. How God the Father is without name ... 76 2. How God the Father comprehendeth his will out of nothing, but only out of himself. How the genetrix is to be understood, wherein the essence is generated 77 CHAP. Father. VERSE 4. Whence the Father hath the name Father . . 64 4. The mind in the Father in nature, but not in the liberty, is like the mind of man .... 65 5. Whither the Father speaketh or generateth the Word 40 7. How God the Father is all in nature, both love and wrath 62 16. How we should go with earnestness to the Father of the lost Prodigal Son .... 19 16. How the Father rejoiceth at the finding of the lost son 22
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.
111. How evil men kindle the elements: Also how the anger willeth to devour; which the prophets foretold 39 13. How the substantiality of the earth proceedeth from the other three elements 26 Employment. 17. Man may use what innocent employment he will to get his living with 16 Enemies. 12. Our worst enemy is in our bosom: Also direction how we ought to walk .. 44 12. How men may defend themselves against their enemies, and not displease God 42 16. How the soul is begirt with enemies .... 5 CHAP. Essences. VERSE 1. Whence multiplicity of essences or faculties ariseth . 31 2. How the wheel of the essences standeth trembling . 70 3. Of the wheel of the essences, whence the fire proceedeth 9 3. How all essences which have laid hold of the light, stand in the first generating will .... 11 Eternal. Eternity. 6. What is eternal, and what is not eternal ... 42 18. That which is proceeded out of the eternity, is of an eternal kind 16 14. How the eternity is revealed 36 Eve. 7. What moved Eve to eat of the fruit .... 48 13. How mother Eve was deceived in her opinion . . 55 Evil. 3. In these writings may be found, whence evil proceedeth 25 9. The evil as well as the good is useful. ... 13 13. How the good oil is poison to the evil ... 50 14. God created nothing evil .... 40 15. Delight in evil is the devil's chain and fetters . . 6 18. How by the striking of the right hammer the good overcometh the evil 49 Excommunication.
212. Of those that are cursed with excommunication deservedly : Also of those that are cursed for the truth's sake 8 13. Of the Church's reproof and excommunication: He that reproveth and excommunieatetk in the wrong is himself excommunicate 9 Exposition. 2. The exposition of the word Sulphur .... 19 2. The exposition of the words Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal 41, 42, 43 2. An exposition of these words: In the beginning was the Word 60 5. An exposition of that text: We have piped to you, and you have not danced 8 CHAP. Exposition. VERSE 11. A plain exposition of these words of Christ: When the unclean spirit goeth out of a man he wandereth through dry places, etc 58 14. An exposition of those words of Christ: A camel may sooner go through the eye of a needle, than a rich man enter into the kingdom of heaven: Also what the devil's triumphant chariot is .... 45 16. To what this exposition tendeth .... 1 16. The author's exposition of these words: Before they called, I heard them 11 16. An exposition of the word vom, or from. How the soul groweth as a stalk out of the root: A wonderful description o f the soul 84 16. Further exposition of nature and of the soul, by the similitude of fire 85, 86 Faith. 10. Concerning the lies of those that speak from their own conceit: Also whence the strife about faith and religion proceedeth 3 2
311. A saying to the sophisters, who of opinions make articles of faith: There is heresy in every opinion: Men must cleave to the living Word ... 80 14. Of the dead faith, and of the true faith . . .8,9 16. What -we attain in prayer: What the syllable men in Amen signifieth: What faith i s: How prayer comprehendeth two things 97 Fall. 5. What the heavy fall of Adam was . . . .120 11. Of Adam's wisdom, ornament, clothing, and members before his fall: How he went out from God, and caused the creation of the Tree of Good and Evil . 21 11. How the devil stirred up Adam's lust. Adam's condition after the fall 22 Father. 1. The speaker is the Father of the Word. The abyss of hell standeth in the centre of the Father . . 39 2. Of the Father's will to generate his Son or Word . 61 2. How God the Father is without name ... 76 2. How God the Father comprehendeth his will out of nothing, but only out of himself. How the genetrix is to be understood, wherein the essence is generated 77 CHAP. Father. VERSE 4. Whence the Father hath the name Father . . 64 4. The mind in the Father in nature, but not in the liberty, is like the mind of man .... 65 5. Whither the Father speaketh or generateth the Word 40 7. How God the Father is all in nature, both love and wrath 62 16. How we should go with earnestness to the Father of the lost Prodigal Son .... 19 16. How the Father rejoiceth at the finding of the lost son 22
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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