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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.
1existeth in the Father from eternity, without beginning: for the Father, without him, would be only an eternal stillness, without essence. 79. He is the essence of the will, as is mentioned concerning the fire, out of which the air ariseth, which goeth forth from the fire: and as you see that the human life, and its understanding, consisteth in the air, and that the air governeth the life: so you must understand us concerning the spirit of God; which is the outgoing and flowing virtue out of the Heart and Word of God. 80. For the Heart is the Word; and the spirit is the former of the Word; not that he maketh the Word, but he is the self-subsisting essence: when the wheel of the essences in the centre of the Father goeth on in triumph as a genetrix, then he is in the wheel, in the appearing [or shining] of the liberty, and openeth the genetrix in the darkness, and causeth the longing of the other [or second] will, to the centre of the Word. 81. He is the key, in the shining of the will in the essences, and openeth the matrix of the genetrix. He is not comprehended by the essences, nor by the centre of the Word; but he closeth with the Word and Heart, and openeth the Heart to the pressure or representation], that so the will of the Father may impress in the Heart; and then he is in that which is impressed, and formeth in his own centre, in that which is impressed, and goeth forth with
2the virtue of the Word, out from the Heart, and [expresseth or] bringeth forth the thoughts of the will. 82. For the thoughts are the hidden seals in the seven forms: and they open the spirit, that it may come to the will, that so out of one form of the genetrix, many wills may come, and go forth, without number infinitely, but yet in the opening and driving of the spirit: and all wonders without number stand in the opening of the spirit: he it is that manifesteth the Deity in nature: he spreadeth forth the glance of the majesty, so that it is seen in the wonders of nature. He himself is not the glauce, but the power of the glance, and leadeth the glance of the Majesty of God in triumph: he is the joy of the Deity, and maketh the holy sport, with his opening, in the hidden seals of the essences. 83. 1 give you a similitude of this, in the spirit and life of man: you see the body, which is in itself, a dark [or opaque] thing, void of understanding: it hath indeed the essences, but from the opening of the spirit, which openeth the essences, and bringeth them to the will, or else the body would be dead, still, and senseless. 84. So you see also, that the spirit is not the body, but it hath a government of its own: and when it departeth from the body, the body perisheth, for the essences [or the flowing faculties]
3remain in the dark death, and there is no understanding: for it is the spirit which openeth the thoughts, [and bringeth them forth] out of the essences. 85. And you see moreover, that the spirit is not the light itself, for the light hath its original in the tincture, which is the blossom of the fire, but the spirit is the blower up of the fire, as you see by the air, which bloweth up the human fire: and we may understand it well enough in our selves, if we do but open and know our selves, by our spirit, which shall here following be shewed us. 86. Understand us here rightly concerning the number Three [or Trinity] of the Deity: we mean but one God in three Persons, of one essence and will. But we give you to understand concerning the Ternary, that there are three centres therein, which are known in the eternal nature, but are not known without [or beyond] nature: for without the nature, the Deity is called Majesty, But in nature, it is called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Wonder, Counsel, Power. 87. For whatsoever is without nature, could not help me, I could not in eternity, either see, feel, or find it, because I am in nature, and generated from it. 88. But because the Majesty hath generated the nature, and so hath manifested itself therein in three Persons, therefore I rejoice in that manifestation, as being a creature inhabiting therein, in eternity.
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.
1existeth in the Father from eternity, without beginning: for the Father, without him, would be only an eternal stillness, without essence. 79. He is the essence of the will, as is mentioned concerning the fire, out of which the air ariseth, which goeth forth from the fire: and as you see that the human life, and its understanding, consisteth in the air, and that the air governeth the life: so you must understand us concerning the spirit of God; which is the outgoing and flowing virtue out of the Heart and Word of God. 80. For the Heart is the Word; and the spirit is the former of the Word; not that he maketh the Word, but he is the self-subsisting essence: when the wheel of the essences in the centre of the Father goeth on in triumph as a genetrix, then he is in the wheel, in the appearing [or shining] of the liberty, and openeth the genetrix in the darkness, and causeth the longing of the other [or second] will, to the centre of the Word. 81. He is the key, in the shining of the will in the essences, and openeth the matrix of the genetrix. He is not comprehended by the essences, nor by the centre of the Word; but he closeth with the Word and Heart, and openeth the Heart to the pressure or representation], that so the will of the Father may impress in the Heart; and then he is in that which is impressed, and formeth in his own centre, in that which is impressed, and goeth forth with
2the virtue of the Word, out from the Heart, and [expresseth or] bringeth forth the thoughts of the will. 82. For the thoughts are the hidden seals in the seven forms: and they open the spirit, that it may come to the will, that so out of one form of the genetrix, many wills may come, and go forth, without number infinitely, but yet in the opening and driving of the spirit: and all wonders without number stand in the opening of the spirit: he it is that manifesteth the Deity in nature: he spreadeth forth the glance of the majesty, so that it is seen in the wonders of nature. He himself is not the glauce, but the power of the glance, and leadeth the glance of the Majesty of God in triumph: he is the joy of the Deity, and maketh the holy sport, with his opening, in the hidden seals of the essences. 83. 1 give you a similitude of this, in the spirit and life of man: you see the body, which is in itself, a dark [or opaque] thing, void of understanding: it hath indeed the essences, but from the opening of the spirit, which openeth the essences, and bringeth them to the will, or else the body would be dead, still, and senseless. 84. So you see also, that the spirit is not the body, but it hath a government of its own: and when it departeth from the body, the body perisheth, for the essences [or the flowing faculties]
3remain in the dark death, and there is no understanding: for it is the spirit which openeth the thoughts, [and bringeth them forth] out of the essences. 85. And you see moreover, that the spirit is not the light itself, for the light hath its original in the tincture, which is the blossom of the fire, but the spirit is the blower up of the fire, as you see by the air, which bloweth up the human fire: and we may understand it well enough in our selves, if we do but open and know our selves, by our spirit, which shall here following be shewed us. 86. Understand us here rightly concerning the number Three [or Trinity] of the Deity: we mean but one God in three Persons, of one essence and will. But we give you to understand concerning the Ternary, that there are three centres therein, which are known in the eternal nature, but are not known without [or beyond] nature: for without the nature, the Deity is called Majesty, But in nature, it is called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Wonder, Counsel, Power. 87. For whatsoever is without nature, could not help me, I could not in eternity, either see, feel, or find it, because I am in nature, and generated from it. 88. But because the Majesty hath generated the nature, and so hath manifested itself therein in three Persons, therefore I rejoice in that manifestation, as being a creature inhabiting therein, in eternity.
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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