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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.
1generated out of the Father's first will, which is in itself only a spirit, and a darkness, and yet is driven so far by the will as into seven forms, and out of seven infinitely: But the cause of nature consisteth in the first four forms, viz. (I) in sour or harsh desiring; (II) in the bitter sting; (III) in the flash of fire, where the life taketh its original; and the fourth (IV) in the crack or shriek of the matrix before the fire; where the sinking of the heavy death downwards, and the going of the fire-life upwards, is generated, where the centre then standeth in the midst, as a heart in the body; out of which the tincture (V) (as the fifth form of fire) ariseth, which is the love-desire: and that desire is a penetrating noise [or sound] (VI) in the sixth form; and the life of the tincture penetrateth through the sinking down of death, where then we understand the meekness of the tincture, which maketh the sinking down corporeal (VII), which is the seventh form: out of which corporeity, in the beginning of this world, the earth, stones, metals, and the whole centre of the globe of the earth, were generated; and in the six forms of nature standeth the globe of the earth, with its regimen, and the seventh form is the comprehensibility, or palpability, as is in earth and stones, and it is the body of the six forms, wherein they perform their work, as a spirit in the body. And the upper globe in the deep above the earth hath just such a regimen, in seven forms, where then the four elements keep the upper centre; and the constellations [keep] the wheel of the essences of the will; and the sun the tincture of fire, wherein
2every life in this [outward] world consisteth. 16. And just so also is the inward regimen in Ternario sancto, not separated from this world, but this [world] is separated only by a Principle: for there is no corner or place in this world, where the inward regimen is not. 17. For this world is become corporeal out of the Father's nature, out of the wrath, out of the seventh form, where the tincture of the sun maketh it lovely and pleasant again. 18. And therefore the devil is called a prince of this world, for he is the prince in the wrath of the Father's nature: and the angelical world is the Son's nature, in great love, joy, pleasantness, and humility, for the Word (or the Heart of God) is the centre therein. 19. And the flash (where light and darkness separate) maketh the Principle, and severeth it into two kingdoms: where one centre burneth in the fire [or anger], and the other in love, out of which the clear light shineth. And you must know, that the fierce flash is the mark or limit of separation: for that is the crack or shriek to life and to death, where wrath and love part; which I will explain to you hereafter. 20. Thus we give you to understand concerning the angelical world. The Father's property is no
3darkness, but the darkness is generated in the stern desire; and the Father's property is the light, clear, free eternity, which hath a will to nature, and that light will, in the nature, is the flash of the essences, and sharpeneth itself, in the stern hard wrath, and driveth itself on, to the fourth form, where the flash of the liberty in the sharpness shineth like fire: and there the flash of the liberty divideth itself into two Principles: one forward from it, with the strong might of the fire; the other in itself, in the free light eternity, and it giveth the glance [brightness] to the light liberty. 21. And in this separation the flash maketh the cross [horizontal and vertical line crossing], where it presseth so terribly through the dark wrath. And so the fierceness, with its centre, flieth upwards, for the fire driveth upwards: and the matrix of the sourness sinketh (as a thing that is killed, by the shriek) down into death; and the flash upon the cross standeth still essentially: for it hath discovered the matrix, and the matrix hath infected it, and holdeth it captive: and the fierce flash in the matrix turneth to meekness: for the flash in the terrified and overcome matrix getteth a terror or crack also, as when water is cast upon fire: where yet there is no water, but spirit [to be understood].
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.
1generated out of the Father's first will, which is in itself only a spirit, and a darkness, and yet is driven so far by the will as into seven forms, and out of seven infinitely: But the cause of nature consisteth in the first four forms, viz. (I) in sour or harsh desiring; (II) in the bitter sting; (III) in the flash of fire, where the life taketh its original; and the fourth (IV) in the crack or shriek of the matrix before the fire; where the sinking of the heavy death downwards, and the going of the fire-life upwards, is generated, where the centre then standeth in the midst, as a heart in the body; out of which the tincture (V) (as the fifth form of fire) ariseth, which is the love-desire: and that desire is a penetrating noise [or sound] (VI) in the sixth form; and the life of the tincture penetrateth through the sinking down of death, where then we understand the meekness of the tincture, which maketh the sinking down corporeal (VII), which is the seventh form: out of which corporeity, in the beginning of this world, the earth, stones, metals, and the whole centre of the globe of the earth, were generated; and in the six forms of nature standeth the globe of the earth, with its regimen, and the seventh form is the comprehensibility, or palpability, as is in earth and stones, and it is the body of the six forms, wherein they perform their work, as a spirit in the body. And the upper globe in the deep above the earth hath just such a regimen, in seven forms, where then the four elements keep the upper centre; and the constellations [keep] the wheel of the essences of the will; and the sun the tincture of fire, wherein
2every life in this [outward] world consisteth. 16. And just so also is the inward regimen in Ternario sancto, not separated from this world, but this [world] is separated only by a Principle: for there is no corner or place in this world, where the inward regimen is not. 17. For this world is become corporeal out of the Father's nature, out of the wrath, out of the seventh form, where the tincture of the sun maketh it lovely and pleasant again. 18. And therefore the devil is called a prince of this world, for he is the prince in the wrath of the Father's nature: and the angelical world is the Son's nature, in great love, joy, pleasantness, and humility, for the Word (or the Heart of God) is the centre therein. 19. And the flash (where light and darkness separate) maketh the Principle, and severeth it into two kingdoms: where one centre burneth in the fire [or anger], and the other in love, out of which the clear light shineth. And you must know, that the fierce flash is the mark or limit of separation: for that is the crack or shriek to life and to death, where wrath and love part; which I will explain to you hereafter. 20. Thus we give you to understand concerning the angelical world. The Father's property is no
3darkness, but the darkness is generated in the stern desire; and the Father's property is the light, clear, free eternity, which hath a will to nature, and that light will, in the nature, is the flash of the essences, and sharpeneth itself, in the stern hard wrath, and driveth itself on, to the fourth form, where the flash of the liberty in the sharpness shineth like fire: and there the flash of the liberty divideth itself into two Principles: one forward from it, with the strong might of the fire; the other in itself, in the free light eternity, and it giveth the glance [brightness] to the light liberty. 21. And in this separation the flash maketh the cross [horizontal and vertical line crossing], where it presseth so terribly through the dark wrath. And so the fierceness, with its centre, flieth upwards, for the fire driveth upwards: and the matrix of the sourness sinketh (as a thing that is killed, by the shriek) down into death; and the flash upon the cross standeth still essentially: for it hath discovered the matrix, and the matrix hath infected it, and holdeth it captive: and the fierce flash in the matrix turneth to meekness: for the flash in the terrified and overcome matrix getteth a terror or crack also, as when water is cast upon fire: where yet there is no water, but spirit [to be understood].
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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