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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.
1and will often lead you into the wilderness of the world, and pass before thy soul into thy fleshly heart, and bar it up). And then great earnestness is required, to break asunder the centre of the devil: you shall many times not see Christ, the devil will deny him to you, [insinuating] that he is not become man in you: for you stand thus, as a light in the centre, begirt with darkness, and you are a sprout in the light of God, [sprung] out of the dark stern nature. 35. Therefore consider; look to it; and stand fast; as Christ did: Do not as Adam did, who suffered himself to be brought into lust, by the spirit of this world, and brought us into the fleshly darkness. 36. You must, with Christ, be persecuted, scorned, and contemned, if you will move in the wonders of God: and if you continue in him, he continueth in you: and then you may seek what you will, you will find whatsoever you desire: else you seek in the Deity in vain; and when you have brought things to the highest, you find only that which is in this world. Take this, that is set down, for a warning; and so you will seek, find and know, that which is hereafter written, concerning the seven seals of God and of the Lamb. 37. But because we may hardly be understood by the Reader (though very easily understood by those that are born of God) and our intention
2being no other than to shew the way to the blind: therefore we will shew you the Revelation of John (which is the Revelation of Jesus Christ) with the seven spirits, and seven seals of God: wherein the whole Deity (in the humanity) hath revealed itself; and together with the person of the wisdom, hath shewn the essence of the Number Three in Ternario Sancto: whereby the Deity is seen not only in Ternario, but also in the angelical world. 38. And those that be born of God, will here have their eyes rightly opened: therefore let none be wilfully blind: for the time cometh, and is already, wherein the seven seals are broken open, and the Book of him that sitteth upon the throne is opened, which the Lamb of the house of Israel hath broken open, wrhich was slain, and liveth eternally. 39. And although, hitherto, the Revelation hath continued sealed, and hath not been understood in the ground, by any man; yet none should conceive and think that such a thing hath been in the power of man; for it is the Revelation of God, and it hath seven seals, which were sealed up, till the anger of God was accomplished: and they are the seven spirits of God the Father, as is mentioned before, concerning the forms of the birth of the eternal nature, which is God's. 40. And now this world, with all that belongs to it, as well as man, is created as an out-birth, out of the eternal nature; understand, out of the seven
3seals of the eternal nature: and God hath created this world for no other cause, but that he would, in his eternal wisdom, manifest the wonders, which are in the eternal nature; for they must come to essence, and appear in the light, to his joy, honour, and glory, not only in this time of secrecy [or hidden mysteriousness], but after this time also. 41. For this time [from the beginning of the world to the end] is as the soil [or ground], and is the seventh seal of the eternal nature, wherein the six seals, with their powers and wonders, disclose themselves, and pour forth their wrath: from whence were generated and found out, in this world, the natural wisdom, voices, thunders, and strife: wherein men have always sought the Heart of God, and yet found the wonders, out of which have arisen strife and compulsion [of conscience], where one seal hath been opened after another: but human reason hath not understood the powers of the seals. 42. For when, after the times of the Apostles, men departed from the true love and humility towards God, and sought after wisdom for their own ends, and made of the kingdom of Christ a kingdom of pomp, might, and the glory of this world; then the candlesticks withdrew from these men, that is, went (in the Father's nature) into the seven seals of God, and forsook the seven golden candlesticks, the seven seals of the Heart of God, which are the seven seals of the Lamb, which shine
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.
1and will often lead you into the wilderness of the world, and pass before thy soul into thy fleshly heart, and bar it up). And then great earnestness is required, to break asunder the centre of the devil: you shall many times not see Christ, the devil will deny him to you, [insinuating] that he is not become man in you: for you stand thus, as a light in the centre, begirt with darkness, and you are a sprout in the light of God, [sprung] out of the dark stern nature. 35. Therefore consider; look to it; and stand fast; as Christ did: Do not as Adam did, who suffered himself to be brought into lust, by the spirit of this world, and brought us into the fleshly darkness. 36. You must, with Christ, be persecuted, scorned, and contemned, if you will move in the wonders of God: and if you continue in him, he continueth in you: and then you may seek what you will, you will find whatsoever you desire: else you seek in the Deity in vain; and when you have brought things to the highest, you find only that which is in this world. Take this, that is set down, for a warning; and so you will seek, find and know, that which is hereafter written, concerning the seven seals of God and of the Lamb. 37. But because we may hardly be understood by the Reader (though very easily understood by those that are born of God) and our intention
2being no other than to shew the way to the blind: therefore we will shew you the Revelation of John (which is the Revelation of Jesus Christ) with the seven spirits, and seven seals of God: wherein the whole Deity (in the humanity) hath revealed itself; and together with the person of the wisdom, hath shewn the essence of the Number Three in Ternario Sancto: whereby the Deity is seen not only in Ternario, but also in the angelical world. 38. And those that be born of God, will here have their eyes rightly opened: therefore let none be wilfully blind: for the time cometh, and is already, wherein the seven seals are broken open, and the Book of him that sitteth upon the throne is opened, which the Lamb of the house of Israel hath broken open, wrhich was slain, and liveth eternally. 39. And although, hitherto, the Revelation hath continued sealed, and hath not been understood in the ground, by any man; yet none should conceive and think that such a thing hath been in the power of man; for it is the Revelation of God, and it hath seven seals, which were sealed up, till the anger of God was accomplished: and they are the seven spirits of God the Father, as is mentioned before, concerning the forms of the birth of the eternal nature, which is God's. 40. And now this world, with all that belongs to it, as well as man, is created as an out-birth, out of the eternal nature; understand, out of the seven
3seals of the eternal nature: and God hath created this world for no other cause, but that he would, in his eternal wisdom, manifest the wonders, which are in the eternal nature; for they must come to essence, and appear in the light, to his joy, honour, and glory, not only in this time of secrecy [or hidden mysteriousness], but after this time also. 41. For this time [from the beginning of the world to the end] is as the soil [or ground], and is the seventh seal of the eternal nature, wherein the six seals, with their powers and wonders, disclose themselves, and pour forth their wrath: from whence were generated and found out, in this world, the natural wisdom, voices, thunders, and strife: wherein men have always sought the Heart of God, and yet found the wonders, out of which have arisen strife and compulsion [of conscience], where one seal hath been opened after another: but human reason hath not understood the powers of the seals. 42. For when, after the times of the Apostles, men departed from the true love and humility towards God, and sought after wisdom for their own ends, and made of the kingdom of Christ a kingdom of pomp, might, and the glory of this world; then the candlesticks withdrew from these men, that is, went (in the Father's nature) into the seven seals of God, and forsook the seven golden candlesticks, the seven seals of the Heart of God, which are the seven seals of the Lamb, which shine
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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