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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.
1seven spirits of nature; no, that cannot be; all standeth in the seven spirits of the Father's nature; yea, even the Heart of God itself [standing therein] ; only, the seals of death, in the fierce wrath, are broke open, by the light of the Heart of God, in the centre of the human soul. 59. For which, we thank God the Father in Jesus Christ, who became man, and regenerated us in him to the light, and redeemed us from the fierce wrathful source [or torment] in the zeal of the anger, in eternity. 60. But because we men did not acknowledge such great grace and light, neither did esteem it, but were pleased with the flesh of Adam and the lust of this world, (and though indeed we saw, that God, in the man Christ, as also in his disciples, and in all those that earnestly clave to him, in the New Regeneration, did great wonders and miracles; yet we ourselves put away our candlestick, and lived in hypocrisy, and in our own seeming holiness, and in tyranny, and persecuted Christ) therefore he left us also sealed up, so that we knew his light no more; but we sought out for ourselves ways to God, and would by our own contrived opinions come to God. The kingdom of this world was more acceptable to us than the kingdom of God: we practised before him nothing
2but hypocrisy, and our heart was far from him: Therefore we must also, in the nature of the Father, remain under the seals, till the spirit Mercurius [that is, the wrathful spirit in the anger of God, according to which God calleth himself a consuming fire] hath manifested all its wonders in us. 61. And the Revelation sheweth very clearly how the spirit Mercurius hath opened one seal after another, and hath poured forth all plagues and abominations in us, and hath brought forth mere contention, wars and malice, mere cunning crafty subtlety, deceit, and falsehood, with wonders and powers in us; as indeed he very finely portrayeth us, as an abominable beast, like a dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and our formal demure spirituality [clergy, ministry] sitteth aloft upon the dragon, finely and stately trimmed and adorned with a crown. 62. And there you may behold yourself, you fair bride upon the dragon, do but see what you ride upon: Is that Christ's ass in lowliness, or is it the devil from the abyss? Your own authority, and the climbing up of your tyrannical power (which you yourself have erected), is your beast; in that you have set up a wicked compulsion, forcing and oppressing of poor people; and have lived only in pomp, state and pride: your spiritual heart is the beautiful glistering bride upon the beast. 63. Behold, I must tell it you ! behold yourself,
3you dainty bride, full of abominations and desolations ; since you account yourself so fair: behold, what have you built? Great glistering houses of stone, into which you enter, and there practise whoredom, hypocrisy, and dissimulation: you give God fine words, and your heart hangeth to the dragon: you devour the fat of the earth, and your hypocrites must fall down before your beast and dragon, viz. your tyrannical power, and worship you, or else your dragon will devour them; whatsoever you set up [ordain, preach, teach] must be accounted divine. 64. O how finely are you deciphered: do but behold yourself, it is high time: do you not see how the angel throweth you, together with the dragon, into the abyss, into the lake of [fire and] brimstone? Or do you not know your self yet? 65. Do you not know, that we must be born of God, in Christ, and live in the conversation of Jesus Christ? Do you not know that the Word is become man? We must be new-born in Christ, that so the soul may be a member of Christ: we must all be generated out of one body, which is Christ; or else we cannot behold the seven candlesticks [or lights] of God in us. 66. To what purpose do you so much play the hypocrite with your seeming holiness? Why do you usurp divine power in your seeming holiness?
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.
1seven spirits of nature; no, that cannot be; all standeth in the seven spirits of the Father's nature; yea, even the Heart of God itself [standing therein] ; only, the seals of death, in the fierce wrath, are broke open, by the light of the Heart of God, in the centre of the human soul. 59. For which, we thank God the Father in Jesus Christ, who became man, and regenerated us in him to the light, and redeemed us from the fierce wrathful source [or torment] in the zeal of the anger, in eternity. 60. But because we men did not acknowledge such great grace and light, neither did esteem it, but were pleased with the flesh of Adam and the lust of this world, (and though indeed we saw, that God, in the man Christ, as also in his disciples, and in all those that earnestly clave to him, in the New Regeneration, did great wonders and miracles; yet we ourselves put away our candlestick, and lived in hypocrisy, and in our own seeming holiness, and in tyranny, and persecuted Christ) therefore he left us also sealed up, so that we knew his light no more; but we sought out for ourselves ways to God, and would by our own contrived opinions come to God. The kingdom of this world was more acceptable to us than the kingdom of God: we practised before him nothing
2but hypocrisy, and our heart was far from him: Therefore we must also, in the nature of the Father, remain under the seals, till the spirit Mercurius [that is, the wrathful spirit in the anger of God, according to which God calleth himself a consuming fire] hath manifested all its wonders in us. 61. And the Revelation sheweth very clearly how the spirit Mercurius hath opened one seal after another, and hath poured forth all plagues and abominations in us, and hath brought forth mere contention, wars and malice, mere cunning crafty subtlety, deceit, and falsehood, with wonders and powers in us; as indeed he very finely portrayeth us, as an abominable beast, like a dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and our formal demure spirituality [clergy, ministry] sitteth aloft upon the dragon, finely and stately trimmed and adorned with a crown. 62. And there you may behold yourself, you fair bride upon the dragon, do but see what you ride upon: Is that Christ's ass in lowliness, or is it the devil from the abyss? Your own authority, and the climbing up of your tyrannical power (which you yourself have erected), is your beast; in that you have set up a wicked compulsion, forcing and oppressing of poor people; and have lived only in pomp, state and pride: your spiritual heart is the beautiful glistering bride upon the beast. 63. Behold, I must tell it you ! behold yourself,
3you dainty bride, full of abominations and desolations ; since you account yourself so fair: behold, what have you built? Great glistering houses of stone, into which you enter, and there practise whoredom, hypocrisy, and dissimulation: you give God fine words, and your heart hangeth to the dragon: you devour the fat of the earth, and your hypocrites must fall down before your beast and dragon, viz. your tyrannical power, and worship you, or else your dragon will devour them; whatsoever you set up [ordain, preach, teach] must be accounted divine. 64. O how finely are you deciphered: do but behold yourself, it is high time: do you not see how the angel throweth you, together with the dragon, into the abyss, into the lake of [fire and] brimstone? Or do you not know your self yet? 65. Do you not know, that we must be born of God, in Christ, and live in the conversation of Jesus Christ? Do you not know that the Word is become man? We must be new-born in Christ, that so the soul may be a member of Christ: we must all be generated out of one body, which is Christ; or else we cannot behold the seven candlesticks [or lights] of God in us. 66. To what purpose do you so much play the hypocrite with your seeming holiness? Why do you usurp divine power in your seeming holiness?
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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