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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.
125. For all things, which are come to an essence, proceeded out of the eternal genetrix, not at several times, but all at once; yet stood [or were manifested] in several times, in the forming of the essence or substance (in the wrestling of the centre) in the figure, and were seen by the Heart of God in the light, which at length created it; where the time took its beginning. 26. For the Deity hath had a longing to see the wonders of the eternal nature, and of the innumerable essences, in substance, and in corporeal things; and we give you to understand this highly and exactly: that God hath created all for the light, and not the darkness. 27. For he hath awakened the tincture, to the death in the centre (viz. to the body or corporeal substance of the earth), and that is its lustre and light, wherein its life doth consist. And, to the deep above the centre, he hath given the sun, which is a tincture of the fire, and reacheth with its virtue into the liberty, beyond nature, wherein also it retaineth its glance and lustre; and it [the sun] is the life of the whole wheel of the stars, and an opener of death, in the chamber of anguish [or in
2the wrathful nature] . For all the stars are its children, not that they have their essences from it, but it is their life, and in the beginning, they proceeded from its centre: it is the centre of the uppermost in the liberty of the life, and the earth is the centre of the nethermost in the death; and yet there is no dying in either of them, but an altering of one thing [being, essence, substance] into another. 28. For this world dieth not, but it shall be changed into such a substance as it was not before (understand its essences): but the shadow of all things remains standing for ever as a. figure, to the honour, joy, [and manifestation] of God's works of wonder. 29. And further we give you to understand, that the spirits also were all created unto the light; for they are the essences [or proceeding powers] out of the life; not out of the corporeity of the death, but out of the centre of the essences in the original of the tincture, which reacheth the liberty of God the Father, which is light, joy, or a habitation of eternity, wherein the Word with the angelical world hath its dominion. They all are created out of the sharpness of the twinkling in the wheel of the essences; and they stand in the liberty before the Heart of God, and they are the wonders in the divine delight, which are discovered by the Heart, in the wonders of the power, and therefore it set the will in the Fiat, and created them.
330. And we understand by the word Schuff, [which signifieth created], a separation of the essences, in the centre, in the sour matrix: and therefore there is also such great diversity in the spirits, as there is great diversity in the will of the essences; whereof we have an example and similitude in the will [and purpose] of our mind, out of which spring so many various thoughts, where every thought hath again a centre to a will: that so out of a conceived thought [imagination], a substance may be [produced] . [For example, a woman with child can with her thoughts set a mark on, or make some monstrous alteration in, the fruit of her womb, which is a substantial thing.] 31. In such a manner are all spirits created out of the eternal Mind, and therefore they are also eternal; for all whatsoever is generated out of the eternal mind, is eternal. 32. For before God had conceived the Fiat, the wheel of the eternal essences went forth without substance, into the wonders: but when God set the will in the Fiat, then the wheel of the eternal essences went forth into a substance, and there the time had its beginning, which was not from eternity. 33. And we give you highly to understand 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.
125. For all things, which are come to an essence, proceeded out of the eternal genetrix, not at several times, but all at once; yet stood [or were manifested] in several times, in the forming of the essence or substance (in the wrestling of the centre) in the figure, and were seen by the Heart of God in the light, which at length created it; where the time took its beginning. 26. For the Deity hath had a longing to see the wonders of the eternal nature, and of the innumerable essences, in substance, and in corporeal things; and we give you to understand this highly and exactly: that God hath created all for the light, and not the darkness. 27. For he hath awakened the tincture, to the death in the centre (viz. to the body or corporeal substance of the earth), and that is its lustre and light, wherein its life doth consist. And, to the deep above the centre, he hath given the sun, which is a tincture of the fire, and reacheth with its virtue into the liberty, beyond nature, wherein also it retaineth its glance and lustre; and it [the sun] is the life of the whole wheel of the stars, and an opener of death, in the chamber of anguish [or in
2the wrathful nature] . For all the stars are its children, not that they have their essences from it, but it is their life, and in the beginning, they proceeded from its centre: it is the centre of the uppermost in the liberty of the life, and the earth is the centre of the nethermost in the death; and yet there is no dying in either of them, but an altering of one thing [being, essence, substance] into another. 28. For this world dieth not, but it shall be changed into such a substance as it was not before (understand its essences): but the shadow of all things remains standing for ever as a. figure, to the honour, joy, [and manifestation] of God's works of wonder. 29. And further we give you to understand, that the spirits also were all created unto the light; for they are the essences [or proceeding powers] out of the life; not out of the corporeity of the death, but out of the centre of the essences in the original of the tincture, which reacheth the liberty of God the Father, which is light, joy, or a habitation of eternity, wherein the Word with the angelical world hath its dominion. They all are created out of the sharpness of the twinkling in the wheel of the essences; and they stand in the liberty before the Heart of God, and they are the wonders in the divine delight, which are discovered by the Heart, in the wonders of the power, and therefore it set the will in the Fiat, and created them.
330. And we understand by the word Schuff, [which signifieth created], a separation of the essences, in the centre, in the sour matrix: and therefore there is also such great diversity in the spirits, as there is great diversity in the will of the essences; whereof we have an example and similitude in the will [and purpose] of our mind, out of which spring so many various thoughts, where every thought hath again a centre to a will: that so out of a conceived thought [imagination], a substance may be [produced] . [For example, a woman with child can with her thoughts set a mark on, or make some monstrous alteration in, the fruit of her womb, which is a substantial thing.] 31. In such a manner are all spirits created out of the eternal Mind, and therefore they are also eternal; for all whatsoever is generated out of the eternal mind, is eternal. 32. For before God had conceived the Fiat, the wheel of the eternal essences went forth without substance, into the wonders: but when God set the will in the Fiat, then the wheel of the eternal essences went forth into a substance, and there the time had its beginning, which was not from eternity. 33. And we give you highly to understand 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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