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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.
15. It is not good that the unregenerate man should know the language of nature, which containeth the secrets of the creation 87 5. A discourse according to the language of nature upon the word Schuff, which signifieth created . . 88 5. Further of the language of nature .... 93 5. As the mouth formeth the word Schuff, according to the language of nature, so was the creation formed. 101 8. Of the word Ternarius Sanctus, in the language of nature 3 9. How God separated the water and the earth. The word Meer [or Sea ] in the language of nature, is a scorn to devils 57 9. Out of what the seventy-two languages proceed, which signify Babel 78 16. Of the most excellent understanding which the Lord's Prayer hath in the language of nature ... 39 16. An exposition of the word Glauben [or Believing"] in the language of nature. In the power of God there is no consuming property 98 Lazarus. 16. Of Christ's prayer when he raised Lazarus . . 12 16. How Lazarus was raised; and how we shall hear the voice at the Last Judgment-Day: All souls are as it were one soul 13 Learned. Learning. 1. The learned have only the history of the saints . . 42 3. Why the learned contemn simple lowliness . . 51 3. Why the learned in reason contemn the commandments of God, and have gainsaid them .... 52 3. How laymen, or the vulgar, dance after the pipe of the learned 84 CHAP. Learned. Learning. VERSE 5. Of those who boast themselves to be masters and learned 75
213. How the conceits that are built upon the doctrine of the learned are deceitful 56 16. The doctor is admonished to seek what the true doctorship in the Holy Ghost is. Outward learning is but a shadow 63 Letters. 9. Of the four-and-twenty letters, their twofold property, evil and good 77 Liberty. 2. How both the liberty and the fierce strength are in the fire 24 2. The liberty without and beyond nature is God the Father. Also how God i s Almighty ... 26 9. What the liberty without nature i s: Also how the centre of the third Principle hath generated itself . 83 Lie. 11. They that go into a lie, go out from Christ into the devil 103 Life. 1. Life is a burning fire that goeth out if it have no fuel 3 1 . The divine life o f the soul needeth food ... 5 1 . Every life desireth its mother for food ... 6 1. Wherein the transitory life consisteth: The soul's life eternal .7 1 . Whence the life o f the soul proceedeth ... 8 1. The Threefold Life is not divided: How God the Father is all.. 9 1. A consideration whence life and death come, offered to the mind 36 2. Of the breaking and raising up of life ... 16 5. How the blossom of life springeth up in the tincture: Also how every life eateth of its own mother . 22 5. How the fierce mightmanageth its order after an heavenly manner. We have life and death before us 63 5. After this life there is no alteration till the end of this world's time .129 CHAP. Life. VERSE
35. That which proceedeth out of the centre of the eternal life continueth: Also how all words and works continue 132 6. Of a twofold property in the eternal life, joy and pain 65 6. How all ruleth in and over our earthly life . . 72 8. Of the temporary spirit's life, and of the eternal Spirit's life, and government i n this world ... 1 8. Of the fire of the life of eternity. Of the eternal earth, or substantiality 2 8. Of our ability to go out of this dangerous life into the eternal life 16 8. Of our longing after an incorruptible life ... 29 8. Every life desireth its mother, or the best that is in its own centre 30 8. What is the right life in every life: How nature reacheth after the liberty 31 8. The deep of the world hath such a life as the other creatures have 40 8. How the light or elementary life in beasts is simple . 50 8. How the elementary life in man is twofold . . 51 8. How there is another tincture or life in the life of this world 53 8. What the outward life desireth .... 54 8. Of the second motion or life in man .... 58 9. Whence every government in every life in this world proceedeth . 108 13. Of a twofold life that a child getteth in the conception, viz. the two tinctures corrupted in Adam . . 34
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.
15. It is not good that the unregenerate man should know the language of nature, which containeth the secrets of the creation 87 5. A discourse according to the language of nature upon the word Schuff, which signifieth created . . 88 5. Further of the language of nature .... 93 5. As the mouth formeth the word Schuff, according to the language of nature, so was the creation formed. 101 8. Of the word Ternarius Sanctus, in the language of nature 3 9. How God separated the water and the earth. The word Meer [or Sea ] in the language of nature, is a scorn to devils 57 9. Out of what the seventy-two languages proceed, which signify Babel 78 16. Of the most excellent understanding which the Lord's Prayer hath in the language of nature ... 39 16. An exposition of the word Glauben [or Believing"] in the language of nature. In the power of God there is no consuming property 98 Lazarus. 16. Of Christ's prayer when he raised Lazarus . . 12 16. How Lazarus was raised; and how we shall hear the voice at the Last Judgment-Day: All souls are as it were one soul 13 Learned. Learning. 1. The learned have only the history of the saints . . 42 3. Why the learned contemn simple lowliness . . 51 3. Why the learned in reason contemn the commandments of God, and have gainsaid them .... 52 3. How laymen, or the vulgar, dance after the pipe of the learned 84 CHAP. Learned. Learning. VERSE 5. Of those who boast themselves to be masters and learned 75
213. How the conceits that are built upon the doctrine of the learned are deceitful 56 16. The doctor is admonished to seek what the true doctorship in the Holy Ghost is. Outward learning is but a shadow 63 Letters. 9. Of the four-and-twenty letters, their twofold property, evil and good 77 Liberty. 2. How both the liberty and the fierce strength are in the fire 24 2. The liberty without and beyond nature is God the Father. Also how God i s Almighty ... 26 9. What the liberty without nature i s: Also how the centre of the third Principle hath generated itself . 83 Lie. 11. They that go into a lie, go out from Christ into the devil 103 Life. 1. Life is a burning fire that goeth out if it have no fuel 3 1 . The divine life o f the soul needeth food ... 5 1 . Every life desireth its mother for food ... 6 1. Wherein the transitory life consisteth: The soul's life eternal .7 1 . Whence the life o f the soul proceedeth ... 8 1. The Threefold Life is not divided: How God the Father is all.. 9 1. A consideration whence life and death come, offered to the mind 36 2. Of the breaking and raising up of life ... 16 5. How the blossom of life springeth up in the tincture: Also how every life eateth of its own mother . 22 5. How the fierce mightmanageth its order after an heavenly manner. We have life and death before us 63 5. After this life there is no alteration till the end of this world's time .129 CHAP. Life. VERSE
35. That which proceedeth out of the centre of the eternal life continueth: Also how all words and works continue 132 6. Of a twofold property in the eternal life, joy and pain 65 6. How all ruleth in and over our earthly life . . 72 8. Of the temporary spirit's life, and of the eternal Spirit's life, and government i n this world ... 1 8. Of the fire of the life of eternity. Of the eternal earth, or substantiality 2 8. Of our ability to go out of this dangerous life into the eternal life 16 8. Of our longing after an incorruptible life ... 29 8. Every life desireth its mother, or the best that is in its own centre 30 8. What is the right life in every life: How nature reacheth after the liberty 31 8. The deep of the world hath such a life as the other creatures have 40 8. How the light or elementary life in beasts is simple . 50 8. How the elementary life in man is twofold . . 51 8. How there is another tincture or life in the life of this world 53 8. What the outward life desireth .... 54 8. Of the second motion or life in man .... 58 9. Whence every government in every life in this world proceedeth . 108 13. Of a twofold life that a child getteth in the conception, viz. the two tinctures corrupted in Adam . . 34
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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