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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.
1108. Thus we understand here in the word, three Principles; whereas in the original there is but one: for we understand by the kindling, the centre of nature, in the centre of the globe of the earth, and that in the matrix of the genetrix, there is a very earnest stern dominion, out of which earth and stones are proceeded, and therein one Principle consisteth. 109. And then, secondly, we understand, that there is a dominion of meekness, which overcometh the wrath, and holdeth it captive, as we see in the source [or property] of water, that it captivateth the fire, and yet the property of the fire remaineth therein, with its whole dominion of all forms of the dry hunger, wherein consisteth the abyss of hell, in the anger of God. Also we understand, that there is the firmament [or closure] (between these two Principles) which is called heaven, by the shut mouth, both in the word and in the outward substance [essence, being, thing]. For the spirit, the air, giveth life to the outward meek water, as it goeth forth with the pressure from the heart through the teeth in the word, and so there is a dominion and life externally, which yet ariseth from the internal, and yet the outward captivateth the inward.
2110. And thus the spirits of the darkness lie in the abyss, captivated in the [property, or] source of the anger, and have no power of their own in this world; and here the subtlety of the devil in the might of the fire is cast down to the ground, in the sinking. 111. Open the eyes of your minds, ye seekers, and seek here the abyss, wherein the devils dwell in the elements, and not afar off, as if they were far absent, as ye have done hitherto. Mark this. 112. And we understand, that there is the third Principle in the word, and also in the power of creating: for the tongue inclineth to the nether gums, and letteth the two dominions go away through the teeth, and holdeth its dominion without any awakening of the heart. 113. Thus observe the ground [scope or meaning]; the second Principle (viz. the kingdom of God), is in the midst in both the Principles, that is, is not awakened or enkindled with the kindling: for it remaineth as it was from eternity, and is not altered therein, neither increased nor diminished; in the creation there is nothing added nor taken away from it: and this [second] Principle hath the right spirit of wisdom and of understanding; which hath severed the fierce wrathful and the meek [Principles asunder], and each of them hath its life awakened in it.
3114. And we give you to understand, that it is neither captivated nor shut up by the inward or the outward: it sprouteth in both, for it is the might of both: In the inward it sprouteth in angry zeal [Or jealousy], with great wonders and powers, where all forms are working, and therefore in those creatures stick all wit and cunning, craft and subtlety, as in the devils, who bring to pass all wonders in the wrathful matrix: as the histories in the world, concerning the children of wrath, do testify. 115. And in the outward it sprouteth through the meekness, with the power [and virtue] of life, which goeth forth from the Heart of God, through the spirit of God; and that sprouting [or vegetation] is called paradise, and is a sprout in the children of God, together with which the soul also sprouteth: for in this sprouting the new body of the soul groweth in the [one] element, in the substantiality, before the Number Three in Ternario sancto. 116. And here we give you to understand in a true ground, as we certainly know it, that the paradise is in this world, and also without this world; and that God dwelleth in this world, and yet is every where; and the source [or property] only maketh [or is] the difference. 117. For the angelical world is manifested in the paradise, but it is apprehended only in the paradisical source [or property] viz. in the [one] element, and not in the going forth, in the dominion of the four elements.
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.
1108. Thus we understand here in the word, three Principles; whereas in the original there is but one: for we understand by the kindling, the centre of nature, in the centre of the globe of the earth, and that in the matrix of the genetrix, there is a very earnest stern dominion, out of which earth and stones are proceeded, and therein one Principle consisteth. 109. And then, secondly, we understand, that there is a dominion of meekness, which overcometh the wrath, and holdeth it captive, as we see in the source [or property] of water, that it captivateth the fire, and yet the property of the fire remaineth therein, with its whole dominion of all forms of the dry hunger, wherein consisteth the abyss of hell, in the anger of God. Also we understand, that there is the firmament [or closure] (between these two Principles) which is called heaven, by the shut mouth, both in the word and in the outward substance [essence, being, thing]. For the spirit, the air, giveth life to the outward meek water, as it goeth forth with the pressure from the heart through the teeth in the word, and so there is a dominion and life externally, which yet ariseth from the internal, and yet the outward captivateth the inward.
2110. And thus the spirits of the darkness lie in the abyss, captivated in the [property, or] source of the anger, and have no power of their own in this world; and here the subtlety of the devil in the might of the fire is cast down to the ground, in the sinking. 111. Open the eyes of your minds, ye seekers, and seek here the abyss, wherein the devils dwell in the elements, and not afar off, as if they were far absent, as ye have done hitherto. Mark this. 112. And we understand, that there is the third Principle in the word, and also in the power of creating: for the tongue inclineth to the nether gums, and letteth the two dominions go away through the teeth, and holdeth its dominion without any awakening of the heart. 113. Thus observe the ground [scope or meaning]; the second Principle (viz. the kingdom of God), is in the midst in both the Principles, that is, is not awakened or enkindled with the kindling: for it remaineth as it was from eternity, and is not altered therein, neither increased nor diminished; in the creation there is nothing added nor taken away from it: and this [second] Principle hath the right spirit of wisdom and of understanding; which hath severed the fierce wrathful and the meek [Principles asunder], and each of them hath its life awakened in it.
3114. And we give you to understand, that it is neither captivated nor shut up by the inward or the outward: it sprouteth in both, for it is the might of both: In the inward it sprouteth in angry zeal [Or jealousy], with great wonders and powers, where all forms are working, and therefore in those creatures stick all wit and cunning, craft and subtlety, as in the devils, who bring to pass all wonders in the wrathful matrix: as the histories in the world, concerning the children of wrath, do testify. 115. And in the outward it sprouteth through the meekness, with the power [and virtue] of life, which goeth forth from the Heart of God, through the spirit of God; and that sprouting [or vegetation] is called paradise, and is a sprout in the children of God, together with which the soul also sprouteth: for in this sprouting the new body of the soul groweth in the [one] element, in the substantiality, before the Number Three in Ternario sancto. 116. And here we give you to understand in a true ground, as we certainly know it, that the paradise is in this world, and also without this world; and that God dwelleth in this world, and yet is every where; and the source [or property] only maketh [or is] the difference. 117. For the angelical world is manifested in the paradise, but it is apprehended only in the paradisical source [or property] viz. in the [one] element, and not in the going forth, in the dominion of the four elements.
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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