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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.
1will in the darkness, yet the will cannot be captivated, for its own propriety is to be meek and quiet, and that propriety it cannot lose in the two forms, for it is incomprehensible; and yet it must be in the two forms, and dwelleth in the sting, and is the flash thereof; for the two forms are dark in themselves, but the will is not [so], for it is free in itself; but the two forms take it into their property, for it is their father, and it sharpeneth itself in their properties, so that it shineth as a flash [of lightning] . 23. For the sour astringency maketh dark; and the bitter sting (in the wheel) dissipateth the darkness: and so the liberty of the still will shineth in the wheel in the whirring as a flash [of lightning] : for the will so sharpeneth itself from the sour astringency, that it becometh very strong; for it is as when steel and a stone are knocked one against another to strike fire. 24. For there is understood to be in the fire, two things; viz. the liberty without nature, and the sour strongness of nature; as you have an' example in a stone, out of which you strike fire. For when you strike upon the sharp of the stone, the bitter sting of nature sharpeneth itself, and is stirred [vexed or angered] in the highest degree. For nature is dissipated or broken asunder in the sharpness, so that the liberty shineth as a flash [of lightning] : and that you may here see to be true: for as soon
2as the liberty shineth, it consumeth the darkness, and thence it cometh that the sharpness of God the Father is a consuming fire. For as soon as the flash in the sharpness seizeth on any thing that is essential, it consumeih it instantly, so that there is no nature more left. 25. And the cause of the flash going out so suddenly is that the sharpness cannot retain it: for the flash is free from nature and is only seen in the breaking. 26. And we give you to understand that this liberty without the nature is God the Father: and the nature is thus generated in him, so that he is omnipotent over nature, even as the mind of man is above the senses; for it hath all one original, as we will shew you hereafter following. 27. Further concerning the birth of nature, we give you to understand this by way of similitude: When the flash shineth thus in the sour anguish, then there is a very great crack, which the sourness captivateth, and terrifieth much more, for its dark propriety in the sour death is killed in a moment, so that it loseth its sour propriety and sinketh back, and can no more attract so strongly; and then the flash goeth directly through the sting of the raging of the whirring wheel: where the sting must spread forth on each side, and the flash goeth through the midst; and so the wheel cometh to be a cross, and can no more whirl about, but standeth shivering in the sharp might of the will of the eternal liberty, which is God the Father.
328. And now when the strong sourness hath captivated the flash of the liberty, that it loseth its propriety, then the fourth form (viz. the saltspirit) is generated: for the stern harshness becometh pliant from the fire and the crack; and yet retaineth the sharpness: and so this form is like a sharp water-spirit: and the flash (viz. the crack) is the third form, and maketh in itself in the sour killed anguish a brimstone- spirit. 29. For if the stern sourness loseth its first dry propriety, it must be soft, and yet it cannot, for it is terribly sharp: and here is the mark [goal, limit, butt] of eternal death: for the desire out of the free will cannot attract so any more: for it standeth in the anguish of the crack, and yet retaineth its propriety in the attracting. 30. For every anguish hath a desire to go forth from the source [or pain] : and it is the natural right of the anguish to expel from itself, and yet it cannot, but the pain is thereby more stirred and greater: as may be understood in a raging swelling sore, where the member in the essences [humours] laboureth to be rid of the pain, and by the labouring of the essences the sore becometh bigger, and the source (in the brimstone-spirit) is swelled up: and the more the essences strive the greater is the wheel of the anguish.
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.
1will in the darkness, yet the will cannot be captivated, for its own propriety is to be meek and quiet, and that propriety it cannot lose in the two forms, for it is incomprehensible; and yet it must be in the two forms, and dwelleth in the sting, and is the flash thereof; for the two forms are dark in themselves, but the will is not [so], for it is free in itself; but the two forms take it into their property, for it is their father, and it sharpeneth itself in their properties, so that it shineth as a flash [of lightning] . 23. For the sour astringency maketh dark; and the bitter sting (in the wheel) dissipateth the darkness: and so the liberty of the still will shineth in the wheel in the whirring as a flash [of lightning] : for the will so sharpeneth itself from the sour astringency, that it becometh very strong; for it is as when steel and a stone are knocked one against another to strike fire. 24. For there is understood to be in the fire, two things; viz. the liberty without nature, and the sour strongness of nature; as you have an' example in a stone, out of which you strike fire. For when you strike upon the sharp of the stone, the bitter sting of nature sharpeneth itself, and is stirred [vexed or angered] in the highest degree. For nature is dissipated or broken asunder in the sharpness, so that the liberty shineth as a flash [of lightning] : and that you may here see to be true: for as soon
2as the liberty shineth, it consumeth the darkness, and thence it cometh that the sharpness of God the Father is a consuming fire. For as soon as the flash in the sharpness seizeth on any thing that is essential, it consumeih it instantly, so that there is no nature more left. 25. And the cause of the flash going out so suddenly is that the sharpness cannot retain it: for the flash is free from nature and is only seen in the breaking. 26. And we give you to understand that this liberty without the nature is God the Father: and the nature is thus generated in him, so that he is omnipotent over nature, even as the mind of man is above the senses; for it hath all one original, as we will shew you hereafter following. 27. Further concerning the birth of nature, we give you to understand this by way of similitude: When the flash shineth thus in the sour anguish, then there is a very great crack, which the sourness captivateth, and terrifieth much more, for its dark propriety in the sour death is killed in a moment, so that it loseth its sour propriety and sinketh back, and can no more attract so strongly; and then the flash goeth directly through the sting of the raging of the whirring wheel: where the sting must spread forth on each side, and the flash goeth through the midst; and so the wheel cometh to be a cross, and can no more whirl about, but standeth shivering in the sharp might of the will of the eternal liberty, which is God the Father.
328. And now when the strong sourness hath captivated the flash of the liberty, that it loseth its propriety, then the fourth form (viz. the saltspirit) is generated: for the stern harshness becometh pliant from the fire and the crack; and yet retaineth the sharpness: and so this form is like a sharp water-spirit: and the flash (viz. the crack) is the third form, and maketh in itself in the sour killed anguish a brimstone- spirit. 29. For if the stern sourness loseth its first dry propriety, it must be soft, and yet it cannot, for it is terribly sharp: and here is the mark [goal, limit, butt] of eternal death: for the desire out of the free will cannot attract so any more: for it standeth in the anguish of the crack, and yet retaineth its propriety in the attracting. 30. For every anguish hath a desire to go forth from the source [or pain] : and it is the natural right of the anguish to expel from itself, and yet it cannot, but the pain is thereby more stirred and greater: as may be understood in a raging swelling sore, where the member in the essences [humours] laboureth to be rid of the pain, and by the labouring of the essences the sore becometh bigger, and the source (in the brimstone-spirit) is swelled up: and the more the essences strive the greater is the wheel of the anguish.
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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