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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.
1in Christ Jesus, who hath opened again the hidden seals, wherewith we in Adam were sealed in the eternal death; and then you are in Christ, born in God, and attain the divine will. 54. We give you further to understand, according to our apprehension and knowledge, in the wonders of God, (because eveiything that liveth and moveth is created for the honour [the manifestation] of God's works of wonder), that there are many spirits in shape and figure which have not their original out of the eternal wellspring, but out of the beginning [anxious] will; such as are in the water, the air, the earth, and the fire; especially under the firmament, those ascendants, of which there are multitudes in great hosts, and have also their government; yet they are mutable, but their shadow remaineth; and there are several pure spirits which do not propagate out of themselves, but are generated at several times, by the working of nature, by the tincture of heaven; understand, the superior [spirits] . 55. But the terrestrial have their centre from the inferior globe; and the watery, out of the matrix of the water; and they have several heavens for their government, yet they all pass away at their time, and stand to the [manifestation of the] wonders of God. 56. And we give you to understand, that before the time of the angelical world, from eternity, there
2hath been such a government; where the knowledge and understanding was only in God; but by the angelical world is also come into the creatures. The Gate in Ternarium Sanctum, [into the Trinity] 57. Now having shewn this concerning the corporeity and the spirits; (and indeed the spirits are creaturely and substantial, though incomprehensible to us), therefore we 'will further shew you the kingdom of heaven, with its spirits and forms, and after that, the human kingdom: whereby the great wonders of God shall be brought to light. Let none be wilfully blind, it may be demonstrated in everything, in whatever you look upon; especially in man, for he is the image and similitude of everything, and therefore is called the similitude of God. 58. There is no creature, either in heaven, or in this world, wherein all the Three Principles stand open, as in man: and if his soul be born in God, he excelleth the angels, in the wonders, as I will shew you hereafter. 59. But if this text [or matter] happen to be difficult for the Reader to understand, we would have him admonished to read it patiently and diligently: and though he be not able to comprehend it [presently], yet it will be very useful to him hereafter, when the Threefold Life of Man shall be written of, and then first rightly come into his understanding, so that he himself will then esteem it for a great jewel. 60. For the mind doth not leave off searching,
3till it comes to the innermost ground, which is here shewn. But if it reach not the ground, it sinketh down in the ground, and cannot apprehend it; and then cometh doubting, unbelief, and contempt, into the mind, [as if this writing were not worth the troubling one's head about it], therefore we would have the Reader admonished not to jest with the high hidden Mysteries; for thereby the spirit of God is blasphemed. 61. And it is with the mind, as with Lucifer. When he saw the greatest hidden Mysteries of the Deity stand in such humility, he took offence at it, and entered into the fierce might of the fire, and would domineer with his own self, wit, and reason, over [the Heart of] God; he would that God should be in subjection under him, he would be the framer and creator in nature, and therefore he became a devil. 62. For in the meekness and lowliness consisteth the kingdom of heaven, with the angelical world, and the virtue of the Heart of God. 63. For the light consisteth in meekness: and though it hath its original out of the centre of the fire, viz. out of the sharpness of God, yet it placeth its centre in very great meekness; for the liberty without nature is the end of nature: and the light
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.
1in Christ Jesus, who hath opened again the hidden seals, wherewith we in Adam were sealed in the eternal death; and then you are in Christ, born in God, and attain the divine will. 54. We give you further to understand, according to our apprehension and knowledge, in the wonders of God, (because eveiything that liveth and moveth is created for the honour [the manifestation] of God's works of wonder), that there are many spirits in shape and figure which have not their original out of the eternal wellspring, but out of the beginning [anxious] will; such as are in the water, the air, the earth, and the fire; especially under the firmament, those ascendants, of which there are multitudes in great hosts, and have also their government; yet they are mutable, but their shadow remaineth; and there are several pure spirits which do not propagate out of themselves, but are generated at several times, by the working of nature, by the tincture of heaven; understand, the superior [spirits] . 55. But the terrestrial have their centre from the inferior globe; and the watery, out of the matrix of the water; and they have several heavens for their government, yet they all pass away at their time, and stand to the [manifestation of the] wonders of God. 56. And we give you to understand, that before the time of the angelical world, from eternity, there
2hath been such a government; where the knowledge and understanding was only in God; but by the angelical world is also come into the creatures. The Gate in Ternarium Sanctum, [into the Trinity] 57. Now having shewn this concerning the corporeity and the spirits; (and indeed the spirits are creaturely and substantial, though incomprehensible to us), therefore we 'will further shew you the kingdom of heaven, with its spirits and forms, and after that, the human kingdom: whereby the great wonders of God shall be brought to light. Let none be wilfully blind, it may be demonstrated in everything, in whatever you look upon; especially in man, for he is the image and similitude of everything, and therefore is called the similitude of God. 58. There is no creature, either in heaven, or in this world, wherein all the Three Principles stand open, as in man: and if his soul be born in God, he excelleth the angels, in the wonders, as I will shew you hereafter. 59. But if this text [or matter] happen to be difficult for the Reader to understand, we would have him admonished to read it patiently and diligently: and though he be not able to comprehend it [presently], yet it will be very useful to him hereafter, when the Threefold Life of Man shall be written of, and then first rightly come into his understanding, so that he himself will then esteem it for a great jewel. 60. For the mind doth not leave off searching,
3till it comes to the innermost ground, which is here shewn. But if it reach not the ground, it sinketh down in the ground, and cannot apprehend it; and then cometh doubting, unbelief, and contempt, into the mind, [as if this writing were not worth the troubling one's head about it], therefore we would have the Reader admonished not to jest with the high hidden Mysteries; for thereby the spirit of God is blasphemed. 61. And it is with the mind, as with Lucifer. When he saw the greatest hidden Mysteries of the Deity stand in such humility, he took offence at it, and entered into the fierce might of the fire, and would domineer with his own self, wit, and reason, over [the Heart of] God; he would that God should be in subjection under him, he would be the framer and creator in nature, and therefore he became a devil. 62. For in the meekness and lowliness consisteth the kingdom of heaven, with the angelical world, and the virtue of the Heart of God. 63. For the light consisteth in meekness: and though it hath its original out of the centre of the fire, viz. out of the sharpness of God, yet it placeth its centre in very great meekness; for the liberty without nature is the end of nature: and the light
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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