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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.
1that two words are generated in nature: one is the first centre of the genetrix, in the stern wrath, to express the strong might of the mother of the first sour wrathfulness in the fire: which is here called the nature of God the Father, which he thus generateth in his still joy, in the conception of his will, without touching the liberty of the light. 81. And the other Word, [is that] which he [God the Father] generated out of nature, out of the meekness; understand [that] wherein the eternal liberty of the fight is, which is called God, which is [arises] out of nature, and so the dark nature disappeareth, [which is] still in the fire of the sharpness, as is mentioned before, and yet the sour astringency (in its own dark propriety) is terrified, and loseth its eager propriety. 82. For the flash maketh the dark stern might thin again, and so a sprout springeth up therein out of the innumerable essences, and this is the virtue or power of the second centre: for in this springing up there is a love-desire, and the eternal light catcheth hold of the liberty without nature; so that the liberty without nature kindleth in this love, and becometh a burning light, wherein the glance or brightness ariseth. 83. For there is no glance without nature, though indeed there is a light pleasant habitation: but the glance ariseth first from the sharpness:
2and yet in the springing up of love there is no sharpness that is perceptible, though indeed it is really; and so it is a birth of joy, and a right fulfilling of the first will, which is God's, which he putteth into desiring, and so generateth nature, and out of nature [he generateth] the sprout [or word] of love. 84. Thus the second sprout (or Word) of love dwelleth in the first will, and is its right fulfilling which it desireth: for it [the love] is meek, pleasant and friendly, and is the virtue and heart of the first will, from whence the eternal desire continually4 is sprouting and subsisting. 85. And thus the light breaketh open the gates of darkness, and the loving sprout [or second Word, which is the Heart of God] springeth up out of the dark nature, and dwelleth in the eternal stillness of the Father, and is called his Son: for the Father generateth him out of his eternal will; and herein is the glance [lustre, glory, or majesty] of the Father manifested, which otherwise (in the first will in the dark nature) appeareth only in Fire; but in the second centre, [it appeareth] in the love in the light; and here love and enmity ought to be considered, and how they oppose one another. 86. For love is death to wrathfulness, and by its shining taketh away the power of the wrathfulness. And here the power of God in love and anger is rightly to be considered.
387. But that the love may thus be generated is caused by the first will from the still habitation; for the still and clear habitation, which is without a source, desireth no fierceness, and yet causeth fierceness: and if the fierceness were not, there would be no sharpness; and so the second centre (of love) would not be generated, out of which the supernatural light shineth, where then the name of God the Father and of God the Son existeth. 88. For if the eternal liberty did not generate the being of nature, there would be no Father, but a mere nothing: but since it doth generate the being of nature, therefore the generator, whence it is generated, is called Father. 89. Thus the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not, as John saith; and thus light and darkness are opposite one to the other, and so the light is lord over the darkness: and it is an eternal band, where one would not be without the other: and here we are rightly to consider the enmity against the virtue of the light of God, how each of them taketh its original. 90. For the darkness holdeth in its centre sour fierceness; stinging anguish in the brimstonespirit; woe in the flash of fire; great fire in the breaking wheel; ascending of the essences in the
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.
1that two words are generated in nature: one is the first centre of the genetrix, in the stern wrath, to express the strong might of the mother of the first sour wrathfulness in the fire: which is here called the nature of God the Father, which he thus generateth in his still joy, in the conception of his will, without touching the liberty of the light. 81. And the other Word, [is that] which he [God the Father] generated out of nature, out of the meekness; understand [that] wherein the eternal liberty of the fight is, which is called God, which is [arises] out of nature, and so the dark nature disappeareth, [which is] still in the fire of the sharpness, as is mentioned before, and yet the sour astringency (in its own dark propriety) is terrified, and loseth its eager propriety. 82. For the flash maketh the dark stern might thin again, and so a sprout springeth up therein out of the innumerable essences, and this is the virtue or power of the second centre: for in this springing up there is a love-desire, and the eternal light catcheth hold of the liberty without nature; so that the liberty without nature kindleth in this love, and becometh a burning light, wherein the glance or brightness ariseth. 83. For there is no glance without nature, though indeed there is a light pleasant habitation: but the glance ariseth first from the sharpness:
2and yet in the springing up of love there is no sharpness that is perceptible, though indeed it is really; and so it is a birth of joy, and a right fulfilling of the first will, which is God's, which he putteth into desiring, and so generateth nature, and out of nature [he generateth] the sprout [or word] of love. 84. Thus the second sprout (or Word) of love dwelleth in the first will, and is its right fulfilling which it desireth: for it [the love] is meek, pleasant and friendly, and is the virtue and heart of the first will, from whence the eternal desire continually4 is sprouting and subsisting. 85. And thus the light breaketh open the gates of darkness, and the loving sprout [or second Word, which is the Heart of God] springeth up out of the dark nature, and dwelleth in the eternal stillness of the Father, and is called his Son: for the Father generateth him out of his eternal will; and herein is the glance [lustre, glory, or majesty] of the Father manifested, which otherwise (in the first will in the dark nature) appeareth only in Fire; but in the second centre, [it appeareth] in the love in the light; and here love and enmity ought to be considered, and how they oppose one another. 86. For love is death to wrathfulness, and by its shining taketh away the power of the wrathfulness. And here the power of God in love and anger is rightly to be considered.
387. But that the love may thus be generated is caused by the first will from the still habitation; for the still and clear habitation, which is without a source, desireth no fierceness, and yet causeth fierceness: and if the fierceness were not, there would be no sharpness; and so the second centre (of love) would not be generated, out of which the supernatural light shineth, where then the name of God the Father and of God the Son existeth. 88. For if the eternal liberty did not generate the being of nature, there would be no Father, but a mere nothing: but since it doth generate the being of nature, therefore the generator, whence it is generated, is called Father. 89. Thus the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not, as John saith; and thus light and darkness are opposite one to the other, and so the light is lord over the darkness: and it is an eternal band, where one would not be without the other: and here we are rightly to consider the enmity against the virtue of the light of God, how each of them taketh its original. 90. For the darkness holdeth in its centre sour fierceness; stinging anguish in the brimstonespirit; woe in the flash of fire; great fire in the breaking wheel; ascending of the essences in the
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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