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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.
198. And we mean here the stern Fiat, (viz. the mother of nature), the sourness and hardness, which was kindled in its stern might, and hath in the centre of nature, attracted together the substantiality of the stern matrix out of the numberless essences, whence earth, stones, and metals, have come to be. 99. For the centre was Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal [See Boehme's work Clavis on this site, vs. 82 for more explanation], and it [the centre] was but a spirit, but in the stern Fiat (in the stern fierce attraction) it came to be such hard stones, metals, and earth; all according to the forms of the essences: It is all become material: that which [before the time] in the nature of the dark wrathful substantiality, was only as a raised dust, became in the attraction wholly gross, dry, and hard; and God would not have it so particularly before the Majesty (to speak in a creaturely manner); and therefore it was suddenly, in that instant, together created [concreted] to a proper centre of its own. 100. And here ariseth the distinction of the Three Principles, which before was not known: for they were in one only being, and were only known in the wisdom [or the light], before the Majesty, with their distinction. 101. Observe the meaning rightly: as the mouth formeth the word Schuff [which signifieth created], just so was the creation formed: for the
2lips open, and the upper gums with the teeth touch the nether lip, and the spirit [or breath] hisseth through the teeth: And it is thus, As the lips (viz. the outward inclosure) open, so hath the matrix of the genetrix opened itself, viz. in the kindling: The hissing is the fire, and out of the fire [goeth] the air, as a spirit of the matrix, which was now awakened, and was not before in the centre, but only in the wisdom of the Number Three. 102. The air [wind or breath] is not the spirit of the Number Three, but the awakened spirit out of the matrix, viz. out of the centre of nature: for the spirit of the Number Three is a cause of nature, and hath in it the wisdom; but this [spirit of the air] is without understanding, as the substantiality is. 103. And as the fire hath its original from the eternal liberty, wherein it attaineth the sharpness of the wrathfulness, so also the air-spirit from the Holy Spirit, which giveth life and mobility to nature; so nature again sendeth forth the spirit, viz. the air, out of its virtue, viz. out of the inanimate [senseless] substantiality, and hath its original in the fire. 104. And observe further, how in the word Schuff, [which signifieth created], the spirit [or breath] thrusteth the impression or pressure from the heart, which overtaketh the kindled fire, and holdeth it captive: and so the water-source overtaketh the fire, and holdeth it captive.
3105. For the water ariseth from the substantiality, and from the being overcome; and the fire, air, water, and earth, are all gone forth out of the centre of nature, and before the kindling, were all in one being, but with the kindling were known in four forms, which are called four elements, and yet are in one another as one, and there is no more but one; there are not four elements in heaven, but one: yet all the four forms lie hidden therein, and with the kindling they become active, and now they stand in the outward substance, comprehensible to the creatures. 106. Observe also further, that as the nether lip toucheth the upper teeth, and the spirit stayeth in the mouth, and thrusteth the word Schuff through the teeth, where the tongue draweth back towards the nether gums, and will not frame the word Schuff, but letteth the spirit thrust it through the teeth: So, observe, the spirit of God hath driven forth the four elements, which are the four forms, which appeared in the substance, ex Ternario sancto, out of the Holy Ternary, into the outward, and made an enclosure therein, [or a. firmament], which is called heaven: and the Holy Spirit stayeth in heaven, and leaveth the four forms to their own dominion, and then they appear as a Principle, having power of their own. 107. For the tongue signifieth the spirit of God, and the four elements [signify] the spirit of the centre, together with the centre itself.
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.
198. And we mean here the stern Fiat, (viz. the mother of nature), the sourness and hardness, which was kindled in its stern might, and hath in the centre of nature, attracted together the substantiality of the stern matrix out of the numberless essences, whence earth, stones, and metals, have come to be. 99. For the centre was Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal [See Boehme's work Clavis on this site, vs. 82 for more explanation], and it [the centre] was but a spirit, but in the stern Fiat (in the stern fierce attraction) it came to be such hard stones, metals, and earth; all according to the forms of the essences: It is all become material: that which [before the time] in the nature of the dark wrathful substantiality, was only as a raised dust, became in the attraction wholly gross, dry, and hard; and God would not have it so particularly before the Majesty (to speak in a creaturely manner); and therefore it was suddenly, in that instant, together created [concreted] to a proper centre of its own. 100. And here ariseth the distinction of the Three Principles, which before was not known: for they were in one only being, and were only known in the wisdom [or the light], before the Majesty, with their distinction. 101. Observe the meaning rightly: as the mouth formeth the word Schuff [which signifieth created], just so was the creation formed: for the
2lips open, and the upper gums with the teeth touch the nether lip, and the spirit [or breath] hisseth through the teeth: And it is thus, As the lips (viz. the outward inclosure) open, so hath the matrix of the genetrix opened itself, viz. in the kindling: The hissing is the fire, and out of the fire [goeth] the air, as a spirit of the matrix, which was now awakened, and was not before in the centre, but only in the wisdom of the Number Three. 102. The air [wind or breath] is not the spirit of the Number Three, but the awakened spirit out of the matrix, viz. out of the centre of nature: for the spirit of the Number Three is a cause of nature, and hath in it the wisdom; but this [spirit of the air] is without understanding, as the substantiality is. 103. And as the fire hath its original from the eternal liberty, wherein it attaineth the sharpness of the wrathfulness, so also the air-spirit from the Holy Spirit, which giveth life and mobility to nature; so nature again sendeth forth the spirit, viz. the air, out of its virtue, viz. out of the inanimate [senseless] substantiality, and hath its original in the fire. 104. And observe further, how in the word Schuff, [which signifieth created], the spirit [or breath] thrusteth the impression or pressure from the heart, which overtaketh the kindled fire, and holdeth it captive: and so the water-source overtaketh the fire, and holdeth it captive.
3105. For the water ariseth from the substantiality, and from the being overcome; and the fire, air, water, and earth, are all gone forth out of the centre of nature, and before the kindling, were all in one being, but with the kindling were known in four forms, which are called four elements, and yet are in one another as one, and there is no more but one; there are not four elements in heaven, but one: yet all the four forms lie hidden therein, and with the kindling they become active, and now they stand in the outward substance, comprehensible to the creatures. 106. Observe also further, that as the nether lip toucheth the upper teeth, and the spirit stayeth in the mouth, and thrusteth the word Schuff through the teeth, where the tongue draweth back towards the nether gums, and will not frame the word Schuff, but letteth the spirit thrust it through the teeth: So, observe, the spirit of God hath driven forth the four elements, which are the four forms, which appeared in the substance, ex Ternario sancto, out of the Holy Ternary, into the outward, and made an enclosure therein, [or a. firmament], which is called heaven: and the Holy Spirit stayeth in heaven, and leaveth the four forms to their own dominion, and then they appear as a Principle, having power of their own. 107. For the tongue signifieth the spirit of God, and the four elements [signify] the spirit of the centre, together with the centre itself.
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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