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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.
1sake, and put it into its ether, before the accomplishment of its time, that cannot be; for the wonders that were foreseen from eternity in the wisdom, without substance, they must come to have a substance, and so in time must the forms of nature also. 19. For God is Threefold in Persons, and would also move himself three times, according to the property of each Person, and no more at all in eternity. 20. First, The centre of the Father's nature moved itself to the creation of angels, and further, of this world. 21. Secondly, The Son's nature moved itself; where the Heart of God became man, which shall never be more done in eternity: and where it is now done, [viz. where men become united with the Heart of God, as branches on their vine], it is done by that only (man) who is God, through many, and in many.
222. And, Thirdly, The Holy Ghost's nature will move itself at the end of the world, when the world shall enter into its ether again, and the dead shall rise again: where the Holy Ghost will be the mover, and will set the great wonders (which shall have been done in this world) all in the eternal substantiality, to the glory and manifestation of God's deeds of wonder, and to the joy of the creatures, [viz. angels and men]. He will be the eternal mover of the creatures, (viz. angels and men), for through him paradise springeth up again, which we here have lost. Thus you must know, that the great wonders of this world, which must have been done, and must pass away, lie in our way. 23. This world is a great wonder; but it would not have been known in the wisdom of God by the angels: and therefore the Father's nature moved itself to the creation of a being, that the great wonders might be manifested; and then, [when they shall all once be manifested and become substantial], it will be known in eternity, by angels and men, what power and virtue every thing hath had. 24. Also the image of the Number Three, [or Trinity], (viz. the eternal virgin, which stood in Ternario sancto, in the eternal wisdom, in the substantiality, as a figure), would not have been known in eternity by the angels, if the Heart of God had not become man; there the angels saw the glory of the Majesty in a living image, wherein the whole trinity was included.
325. So also the centre of nature would not in eternity have been manifested to the angels, much less the government of the Holy Ghost, if this world, with the stars and elements, had not been created; but so [by this means] the angels and we men (also) know the eternal being, and all forms, by this [created] world; and therefore God hath placed the image of the Number Three (viz. man) in this world, that he should open all wonders, and know the eternal God. 26. But the image doted on it, and put its imagination into it, as Lucifer did into the wrathful matrix of nature, and so it was also captivated: for Adam was to be a lord over the stars and elements, nothing should touch him, he had power over them all, he could have removed mountains with a word, he was lord over fire, air, water and earth. 27. For there was no death in him, the light shone in him, he was in paradise, paradisical fruit grew for him, he was one [single] man, and not two, he was the man, and also the woman, and he should have propagated an angelical kingdom out of himself, and that was possible. For he had no such flesh and blood as after the Fall, whereof he was ashamed before the Majesty of God: he had flesh and blood that was heavenly, his essences [or faculties] were holy: he could bring forth out of himself (without rending of his body) an image like himself.
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.
1sake, and put it into its ether, before the accomplishment of its time, that cannot be; for the wonders that were foreseen from eternity in the wisdom, without substance, they must come to have a substance, and so in time must the forms of nature also. 19. For God is Threefold in Persons, and would also move himself three times, according to the property of each Person, and no more at all in eternity. 20. First, The centre of the Father's nature moved itself to the creation of angels, and further, of this world. 21. Secondly, The Son's nature moved itself; where the Heart of God became man, which shall never be more done in eternity: and where it is now done, [viz. where men become united with the Heart of God, as branches on their vine], it is done by that only (man) who is God, through many, and in many.
222. And, Thirdly, The Holy Ghost's nature will move itself at the end of the world, when the world shall enter into its ether again, and the dead shall rise again: where the Holy Ghost will be the mover, and will set the great wonders (which shall have been done in this world) all in the eternal substantiality, to the glory and manifestation of God's deeds of wonder, and to the joy of the creatures, [viz. angels and men]. He will be the eternal mover of the creatures, (viz. angels and men), for through him paradise springeth up again, which we here have lost. Thus you must know, that the great wonders of this world, which must have been done, and must pass away, lie in our way. 23. This world is a great wonder; but it would not have been known in the wisdom of God by the angels: and therefore the Father's nature moved itself to the creation of a being, that the great wonders might be manifested; and then, [when they shall all once be manifested and become substantial], it will be known in eternity, by angels and men, what power and virtue every thing hath had. 24. Also the image of the Number Three, [or Trinity], (viz. the eternal virgin, which stood in Ternario sancto, in the eternal wisdom, in the substantiality, as a figure), would not have been known in eternity by the angels, if the Heart of God had not become man; there the angels saw the glory of the Majesty in a living image, wherein the whole trinity was included.
325. So also the centre of nature would not in eternity have been manifested to the angels, much less the government of the Holy Ghost, if this world, with the stars and elements, had not been created; but so [by this means] the angels and we men (also) know the eternal being, and all forms, by this [created] world; and therefore God hath placed the image of the Number Three (viz. man) in this world, that he should open all wonders, and know the eternal God. 26. But the image doted on it, and put its imagination into it, as Lucifer did into the wrathful matrix of nature, and so it was also captivated: for Adam was to be a lord over the stars and elements, nothing should touch him, he had power over them all, he could have removed mountains with a word, he was lord over fire, air, water and earth. 27. For there was no death in him, the light shone in him, he was in paradise, paradisical fruit grew for him, he was one [single] man, and not two, he was the man, and also the woman, and he should have propagated an angelical kingdom out of himself, and that was possible. For he had no such flesh and blood as after the Fall, whereof he was ashamed before the Majesty of God: he had flesh and blood that was heavenly, his essences [or faculties] were holy: he could bring forth out of himself (without rending of his body) an image like himself.
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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