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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.
186. And in this hour is the very last day of the Judgment; when the Judge shall say, 1 Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning; for I was hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and in prison, and you have administered to me. 87. And to the wicked company: 2 Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, I know you not; for I have been hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and in prison, and you administered not to me. 88. And then they will excuse themselves before the presence of the Judge, and say, We knew thee not, Lord; but he shall say, Seeing you have not done this to my poor children, you have not done it to me. 89. And here the spirit of God will first move himself to justice in all the three Principles, and stir up the 3 centre of nature, so that it shall burn in the fire of anger; for all, both heaven and earth, and the firmament, will be set on fire together. 90. And the turba will swallow up the earthly world in the fire, and restore it to that which it was before the creation, only the 4 wonders remain standing in two Principles; the third Principle passeth quite away, all but the wonders, which shall be brought into the beginning. 91. And then the earthly life and the earthly body will fall away, and the fire will consume them. 1 Matt. xxv. 34-36. 2 Matt. xxv. 41-45. 3 Or ground. 4 Viz. all whatsoever grew, was born, made, or done, by word or deed, from the beginning of the world to the end.
292. And the glorious bright paradisical body of the righteous shall pass through the fire, with its own wonders, which shall follow it, and whatsoever is false shall remain in the fire. 93. And so they shall be carried through the fire in the twinkling of an eye, and the fire comprehendeth them not; for as little as the fire can retain the light or wind, so little can 1 it retain the hght of the holy men; for they can dwell in the fire without feeling any pain. 94. Then instantly, by the kindling of the fire, the divine Majesty and paradisical life *is made ready, and thither they enter as children, and live eternally with their father in one love, in a simple child-like life; and this is a communion of saints. 95. There is no day or night there; for the sun passeth away, and the stars pass away, but their 2 wonders only stand in the great 3 magia, to the glory of God; thus they sever themselves. 96. The wicked also must go into the fire, and their earthly life will also fall away, and their 4 monstrous image will appear in the spirit, according to the shape of all hideous abominable beasts, hke the devils. 97. For they dwell in one and the same Principle, and Lucifer is their great prince, whom indeed they served here, though they depended on their hypocrites ffor a false paradise. 1 the fire of wrath. 2 Or operations. 3 See in the Small Six Points what the magia is. 4 Or vizard.
3* "is made ready," or "made apparent," "manifest," or, as St Martin has it, la majeste de Dieu se developpera. f "for a false paradise" (Narrenfreude). St Martin has, desjoies insensees. 98. Thus, my beloved Friend, you have a brief description and information of the Last Judgment-day; for whatsoever is of this world shall pass away. 99. The earth, and all stony rocks and elements, will melt away, and that only will remain which God would have, and for the sake of which he created this world. 100. Both the good and the evil were clearly l foreseen in eternity, and were only made essential in this world that they might be a wonder; and hereafter they remain so to eternity. 1 God hath foreseen the good according to his love (according to which he is called God); and according to his wrath, or nature (according to which he is called an angry, jealous God, and a consuming fire), he hath foreseen the evil, but not ordained it. THE THIRTY-FIRST QUESTION What Kind of New glorified Bodies shall the Holy Souls have? 1. THIS hath been already sufficiently declared; for * as every one shall be clothed with the power of love, righteousness, and purity, and as his excellent works of faith have been, so shall he gloriously shine. 2. Yet there will be very much difference, for the works of many f will all remain in the fire, and he himself will hardly escape; he will not shine as the * saints.
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.
186. And in this hour is the very last day of the Judgment; when the Judge shall say, 1 Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning; for I was hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and in prison, and you have administered to me. 87. And to the wicked company: 2 Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, I know you not; for I have been hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and in prison, and you administered not to me. 88. And then they will excuse themselves before the presence of the Judge, and say, We knew thee not, Lord; but he shall say, Seeing you have not done this to my poor children, you have not done it to me. 89. And here the spirit of God will first move himself to justice in all the three Principles, and stir up the 3 centre of nature, so that it shall burn in the fire of anger; for all, both heaven and earth, and the firmament, will be set on fire together. 90. And the turba will swallow up the earthly world in the fire, and restore it to that which it was before the creation, only the 4 wonders remain standing in two Principles; the third Principle passeth quite away, all but the wonders, which shall be brought into the beginning. 91. And then the earthly life and the earthly body will fall away, and the fire will consume them. 1 Matt. xxv. 34-36. 2 Matt. xxv. 41-45. 3 Or ground. 4 Viz. all whatsoever grew, was born, made, or done, by word or deed, from the beginning of the world to the end.
292. And the glorious bright paradisical body of the righteous shall pass through the fire, with its own wonders, which shall follow it, and whatsoever is false shall remain in the fire. 93. And so they shall be carried through the fire in the twinkling of an eye, and the fire comprehendeth them not; for as little as the fire can retain the light or wind, so little can 1 it retain the hght of the holy men; for they can dwell in the fire without feeling any pain. 94. Then instantly, by the kindling of the fire, the divine Majesty and paradisical life *is made ready, and thither they enter as children, and live eternally with their father in one love, in a simple child-like life; and this is a communion of saints. 95. There is no day or night there; for the sun passeth away, and the stars pass away, but their 2 wonders only stand in the great 3 magia, to the glory of God; thus they sever themselves. 96. The wicked also must go into the fire, and their earthly life will also fall away, and their 4 monstrous image will appear in the spirit, according to the shape of all hideous abominable beasts, hke the devils. 97. For they dwell in one and the same Principle, and Lucifer is their great prince, whom indeed they served here, though they depended on their hypocrites ffor a false paradise. 1 the fire of wrath. 2 Or operations. 3 See in the Small Six Points what the magia is. 4 Or vizard.
3* "is made ready," or "made apparent," "manifest," or, as St Martin has it, la majeste de Dieu se developpera. f "for a false paradise" (Narrenfreude). St Martin has, desjoies insensees. 98. Thus, my beloved Friend, you have a brief description and information of the Last Judgment-day; for whatsoever is of this world shall pass away. 99. The earth, and all stony rocks and elements, will melt away, and that only will remain which God would have, and for the sake of which he created this world. 100. Both the good and the evil were clearly l foreseen in eternity, and were only made essential in this world that they might be a wonder; and hereafter they remain so to eternity. 1 God hath foreseen the good according to his love (according to which he is called God); and according to his wrath, or nature (according to which he is called an angry, jealous God, and a consuming fire), he hath foreseen the evil, but not ordained it. THE THIRTY-FIRST QUESTION What Kind of New glorified Bodies shall the Holy Souls have? 1. THIS hath been already sufficiently declared; for * as every one shall be clothed with the power of love, righteousness, and purity, and as his excellent works of faith have been, so shall he gloriously shine. 2. Yet there will be very much difference, for the works of many f will all remain in the fire, and he himself will hardly escape; he will not shine as the * saints.
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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