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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.
112. How the Antichrist hath ascribed the miracles that have been wrought to the opinion of those that wrought them 23 Moon. 9. Why women are talkative; how the moon governeth their matrix; also why the moon runneth her course so soon 113 Mystery. Mysteries. Mysterium. 1. Of his labour in vain who seeketh for the mystery in the stars 47 2 . Pride forbiddeth searching after mysteries ... 3 3. Why these deep hidden mysteries are written down . 5 3. Of the seventh form of the eternal nature. We need not read many books or go to the universities to understand the Mysteries 29 3. When the seventh seal is opened, the great mysteries of God shall be revealed 78 CHAP. Mystery. Mysteries. Mysterium. VERSE 4. That in the seventh seal the Mysteries might stand open, nothing should here be omitted ... 2 10. It is a narrow way that the Mysterium Magnum is found in 2 11. By disputation and debate men may perceive that the world hath lost the Mysterium Magnum . . 87 12. How we shall be crowned with the crown, Mysterium Magnum; of the author's simplicity in the Mystery before the tenth number: Here he mentioneth his struggling in the attaining of this knowledge . . 45 16. A complaint of the great depth of the Mystery: A petition to the mercy of God, with a lamentation . 94 Nature. 1. In the eternal nature without the light of God is the pain and torment. Only the angels and souls proceed from the eternal nature; why outward things
2are transitory; the cause of the Fall of our souls . 16 2. Nature consisteth of four forms .... 31 2. Without nature there would be no Word to create in the genetrix 79 2. Without nature there is no brightness. How the sprout [or word] of love is born out of nature ... 83 3. Whence kindness in the father's nature and in this world cometh 26 4. What the vanquisher of nature is ... 22 4. How the fierceness of the nature of God would also be creaturely. The fallen angels have kindled the matrix, which is now their eternal habitation . 42 4. How the divine nature is free from the fierce darkness 70 4. That which is without nature cannot help us, because we are in nature 87 4. The eternal divine nature is our mother and food; our soul is God's food 89 5. Nature in the spirit of man, and in the spirit of God, i s one substance 94 9. The description of the wheel of nature; how God is totally every where 67 9. A portraiture of the wheel of nature .... 68 9. A further exposition of the centre of nature . . 81 9. How the outward nature longeth to be delivered from vanity 9 4 9. How nature vehemently longeth to be freed from vanity. . 114 CHAP. Nature. VERSE 13. How the mother, the eternal nature, lamenteth for the evil children whom she hath given up to be devoured, and chooseth a new son . 51 13. How the eternal nature desireth not art, but obedience 54 14. How we lie captive in the outward nature, and of our precious jewel hidden therein .... 2
315. The mother of nature beareth a young son, who will shorten the days o f wickedness .... 4 Opinion. Opinions. 11. Of the distressed soul that knoweth not what opinion to choose 82 12. How far opinions are tolerable that are held in God, and not t o b e rejected 24 12. Of the opinions about the Cup and Person of Christ in Germany. Those that are zealous in an opinion hang to the tail of Antichrist .... 31 Paradise. 5. Of paradise. Adam was in this world in paradise . 69 5. Paradise is both within and without this world. God i s every where 116 5. Where paradise is, into which the souls of the holy children of God enter 125 5. What souls go into paradise, and what into hell 127, 128 7. How long Adam was in paradise before he fell asleep. 29 7. How young people set the garland of paradise upon the serpent 51 Pardon. 11. Of praying. Also of the wrong meaning of pardon of sins . 53 Patience. 16. How the soul in patience remaineth under the cross . 91 Perfection. 2. The divine mind in the Heart of God is only perfection, and how we comprehend that which is perfect in our mind 67 CHAP. Person. Persons. VERSE 1. Of the second Person, the brightness of the Father . 50 2. Why the Father is the first Person. The desire in the will is the first 10 2. The working of the three Persons . . . 61-63 4. The light consisteth in meekness, and dwelleth in the liberty. Also of the three Persons ... 63 4. Why the Father and Son are called two Persons . 69
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.
112. How the Antichrist hath ascribed the miracles that have been wrought to the opinion of those that wrought them 23 Moon. 9. Why women are talkative; how the moon governeth their matrix; also why the moon runneth her course so soon 113 Mystery. Mysteries. Mysterium. 1. Of his labour in vain who seeketh for the mystery in the stars 47 2 . Pride forbiddeth searching after mysteries ... 3 3. Why these deep hidden mysteries are written down . 5 3. Of the seventh form of the eternal nature. We need not read many books or go to the universities to understand the Mysteries 29 3. When the seventh seal is opened, the great mysteries of God shall be revealed 78 CHAP. Mystery. Mysteries. Mysterium. VERSE 4. That in the seventh seal the Mysteries might stand open, nothing should here be omitted ... 2 10. It is a narrow way that the Mysterium Magnum is found in 2 11. By disputation and debate men may perceive that the world hath lost the Mysterium Magnum . . 87 12. How we shall be crowned with the crown, Mysterium Magnum; of the author's simplicity in the Mystery before the tenth number: Here he mentioneth his struggling in the attaining of this knowledge . . 45 16. A complaint of the great depth of the Mystery: A petition to the mercy of God, with a lamentation . 94 Nature. 1. In the eternal nature without the light of God is the pain and torment. Only the angels and souls proceed from the eternal nature; why outward things
2are transitory; the cause of the Fall of our souls . 16 2. Nature consisteth of four forms .... 31 2. Without nature there would be no Word to create in the genetrix 79 2. Without nature there is no brightness. How the sprout [or word] of love is born out of nature ... 83 3. Whence kindness in the father's nature and in this world cometh 26 4. What the vanquisher of nature is ... 22 4. How the fierceness of the nature of God would also be creaturely. The fallen angels have kindled the matrix, which is now their eternal habitation . 42 4. How the divine nature is free from the fierce darkness 70 4. That which is without nature cannot help us, because we are in nature 87 4. The eternal divine nature is our mother and food; our soul is God's food 89 5. Nature in the spirit of man, and in the spirit of God, i s one substance 94 9. The description of the wheel of nature; how God is totally every where 67 9. A portraiture of the wheel of nature .... 68 9. A further exposition of the centre of nature . . 81 9. How the outward nature longeth to be delivered from vanity 9 4 9. How nature vehemently longeth to be freed from vanity. . 114 CHAP. Nature. VERSE 13. How the mother, the eternal nature, lamenteth for the evil children whom she hath given up to be devoured, and chooseth a new son . 51 13. How the eternal nature desireth not art, but obedience 54 14. How we lie captive in the outward nature, and of our precious jewel hidden therein .... 2
315. The mother of nature beareth a young son, who will shorten the days o f wickedness .... 4 Opinion. Opinions. 11. Of the distressed soul that knoweth not what opinion to choose 82 12. How far opinions are tolerable that are held in God, and not t o b e rejected 24 12. Of the opinions about the Cup and Person of Christ in Germany. Those that are zealous in an opinion hang to the tail of Antichrist .... 31 Paradise. 5. Of paradise. Adam was in this world in paradise . 69 5. Paradise is both within and without this world. God i s every where 116 5. Where paradise is, into which the souls of the holy children of God enter 125 5. What souls go into paradise, and what into hell 127, 128 7. How long Adam was in paradise before he fell asleep. 29 7. How young people set the garland of paradise upon the serpent 51 Pardon. 11. Of praying. Also of the wrong meaning of pardon of sins . 53 Patience. 16. How the soul in patience remaineth under the cross . 91 Perfection. 2. The divine mind in the Heart of God is only perfection, and how we comprehend that which is perfect in our mind 67 CHAP. Person. Persons. VERSE 1. Of the second Person, the brightness of the Father . 50 2. Why the Father is the first Person. The desire in the will is the first 10 2. The working of the three Persons . . . 61-63 4. The light consisteth in meekness, and dwelleth in the liberty. Also of the three Persons ... 63 4. Why the Father and Son are called two Persons . 69
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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