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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.
185. And thus the perished soul of Adam, in the body of Mary, was again set in the eternal humanity, for the Word dwelt in Christ's flesh, and assumed the soul in him. 86. Not that the soul and the Word is one and the same substance: No, the soul is out of the centre of nature, generated out of the essences, and it belongeth to the body: for it goeth forth from the essences of the body, and it attracteth corporeity to it: But the Word is out of the centre of the Majesty, and attracteth Majesty to it. 87. The Word is without substance, and the soul is out of the substance, it is the spirit of the substance, out of the centre of the Father; or else it could not in Adam have gone forth from the Word; not that the word and the soul stand one by another like two persons; No, the Word penetrateth through the soul: and out of the Word, the Majesty shineth, viz. the light of life: And the soul is free of itself, for it is a creature.
288. 1 give you an earthly similitude of this. Behold a bright flaming piece of iron, which of itself is dark and black, and the fire so penetrateth and shineth through the iron, that it giveth light. Now, the iron doth not cease to be; it is iron still: and the source [or property] of the fire retaineth its own propriety: it doth not take the iron into it, but it penetrateth [and shineth] through the iron; and it is iron then as well as before, free in itself: and so also is the source [or property] of the fire: in such a manner is the soul set in the Deity: the Deity penetrateth through the soul, and dwelleth in the soul, yet the soul doth not comprehend the Deity, but the Deity comprehendeth the soul, but doth not alter it [from being a soul], but only giveth it the divine source [or property] of the Majesty. 89. And so if the soul inclineth itself to the divine source [or property,] then it stayeth in the Majesty of God, for the source [or property] betokeneth the Word, and the glance [betokeneth] the Majesty: and that which proceedeth from the source [or property], as heat out of the fire, that betokeneth the Holy Spirit. 90. But now, if the flaming iron be cast, or fall, into the water, then the property of the fire, the. glance and the heat which proceedeth from it, are all quenched together; thus it is also with Adam: he cast himself out from the Majesty of God (with his will) into the spirit of this world, and so he went from God.
391. Not that God went out [was extinguished] in him, like the flaming of the iron: No, that cannot be; it [the glance or Majesty] shineth eternally: God continueth in his Principle, and Adam went out from it: If Adam 's will had continued in God, he would have continued the child of God, and God would have continued in his will, and so the majesty would have shone through the will. 92. But he went out from the will of God, into this world, and so was captivated by the world, death, devils, and hell, and they dwelt in Adam. 93. Adam was in this world, dwelling in the elements, and God breathed the air also into his nostrils: but he should not have put his will into it, to eat of earthly fruit, which maketh earthly flesh. That was his Fall, that he did eat earthly fruit; and therefore his essences also became earthly; and the soul became captivated by the earthly dominion. 94. And there the Word of the Lord said to the soul, Adam, where art thou? And his body did hide itself; so very much ashamed was the poor soul: and Adam said, I am naked; the precious heavenly virgin (which he was clothed withal) was lost, as also, the light of the Majesty; and Adam was without the Word.
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.
185. And thus the perished soul of Adam, in the body of Mary, was again set in the eternal humanity, for the Word dwelt in Christ's flesh, and assumed the soul in him. 86. Not that the soul and the Word is one and the same substance: No, the soul is out of the centre of nature, generated out of the essences, and it belongeth to the body: for it goeth forth from the essences of the body, and it attracteth corporeity to it: But the Word is out of the centre of the Majesty, and attracteth Majesty to it. 87. The Word is without substance, and the soul is out of the substance, it is the spirit of the substance, out of the centre of the Father; or else it could not in Adam have gone forth from the Word; not that the word and the soul stand one by another like two persons; No, the Word penetrateth through the soul: and out of the Word, the Majesty shineth, viz. the light of life: And the soul is free of itself, for it is a creature.
288. 1 give you an earthly similitude of this. Behold a bright flaming piece of iron, which of itself is dark and black, and the fire so penetrateth and shineth through the iron, that it giveth light. Now, the iron doth not cease to be; it is iron still: and the source [or property] of the fire retaineth its own propriety: it doth not take the iron into it, but it penetrateth [and shineth] through the iron; and it is iron then as well as before, free in itself: and so also is the source [or property] of the fire: in such a manner is the soul set in the Deity: the Deity penetrateth through the soul, and dwelleth in the soul, yet the soul doth not comprehend the Deity, but the Deity comprehendeth the soul, but doth not alter it [from being a soul], but only giveth it the divine source [or property] of the Majesty. 89. And so if the soul inclineth itself to the divine source [or property,] then it stayeth in the Majesty of God, for the source [or property] betokeneth the Word, and the glance [betokeneth] the Majesty: and that which proceedeth from the source [or property], as heat out of the fire, that betokeneth the Holy Spirit. 90. But now, if the flaming iron be cast, or fall, into the water, then the property of the fire, the. glance and the heat which proceedeth from it, are all quenched together; thus it is also with Adam: he cast himself out from the Majesty of God (with his will) into the spirit of this world, and so he went from God.
391. Not that God went out [was extinguished] in him, like the flaming of the iron: No, that cannot be; it [the glance or Majesty] shineth eternally: God continueth in his Principle, and Adam went out from it: If Adam 's will had continued in God, he would have continued the child of God, and God would have continued in his will, and so the majesty would have shone through the will. 92. But he went out from the will of God, into this world, and so was captivated by the world, death, devils, and hell, and they dwelt in Adam. 93. Adam was in this world, dwelling in the elements, and God breathed the air also into his nostrils: but he should not have put his will into it, to eat of earthly fruit, which maketh earthly flesh. That was his Fall, that he did eat earthly fruit; and therefore his essences also became earthly; and the soul became captivated by the earthly dominion. 94. And there the Word of the Lord said to the soul, Adam, where art thou? And his body did hide itself; so very much ashamed was the poor soul: and Adam said, I am naked; the precious heavenly virgin (which he was clothed withal) was lost, as also, the light of the Majesty; and Adam was without the Word.
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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