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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.
114. But if the soul turneth its imagination into the centre, into the strong 2 astringency and bitterness, then its fair image is also captivated in the dark astringency, and infected with the astringent wrath. 15. And then this wrath is a turba, which possesseth the image, and destroyeth the similitude of God; for in God there is love, light, and meekness: but in this image there is darkness, astringency, and bitterness, and the essential 3 source is fire, proceeding from the essences of wrath; and then this image belongeth not to the kingdom of God, so long as it continueth in this 4 source and form in the darkness. 16. Further, fire is a similitude of the soul; the soul is an essential fire, and the flash of the fire is the life of it: The soul resembleth a globe, or an eye, of fire. 1 quality, or property. 2 Or harshness. 3 quality or property. 4 quality, condition, or property. 17. The burning fire in the source signifieth the first Principle and the life, yet the fire is not the life; but the spirit of the source which ariseth from the fire, and *proceedeth from the fire-like air, that is the true spirit of the source of the hfe of the fire, which continually bloweth the fire up again, and maketh it burn. 18. Now the fire shineth, and giveth hght out of the source, and dwelleth in the source where it shineth, and the source comprehendeth not the hght; and this signifieth the second Principle, wherein God dwelleth.
219. For we know that the * power is in the hght, and not in the fire; the fire only giveth essences to the light, and the life, or the light produceth meekness and substantiality, viz. water. 20. Now we understand that there is a 2 meek hfe in the hght, without 3 source, and yet itself is an imperceptible source; it is nothing but a longing or desire of love. 21. Which source we account a tincture, in which the budding and blossoming hath its original, yet the fire is the cause of it, and the meekness is a cause of the substantiahty; for the desire of love in the hght attracteth it, and keepeth it, so that it becometh a substance; but the desire of fire consumeth the substantiahty. 1 Or virtue. 2 Or amiable, loving. 3 Or pain. [* "proceedeth from the fire-like air" (vom Feuer ausgehet, als eine Lufl), "proceedeth from the fire, as an air" or "as a breath."] 22. Also we must conceive, that as the soul is purely and alone in the centre, it is an essential fire in the eye of eternity; and yet that eye desireth a figure and image of the wisdom of God. 23. And the image is in its desire, in its imagination; for the l Word Fiat hath * comprehended it, that it might be a simihtude of the eternal wisdom of God, wherein he dwelleth, and wherein he may manifest himself by his spirit, and whatever hath been in his eternal counsel.
324. Thus the Majesty of God flameth in the image, in the essential fire, if the essential fire f putteth its desire into the Majesty; but if not, then the image is 2 raw and naked without God, and the tincture is false. 25. For the image standeth in the tincture, and hath its original in the tincture, in the light, not in the source of the fire: and as the Heart or Word of God hath its original in the light of the Majesty, in the eternal tincture of the fire of the Father, so hath the image of the soul. 26. The image dwelleth in the fire of the soul, as light dwelleth in the fire; but it hath another Principle, as the light is such a source as is different from fire. 27. And so the true image of God dwelleth in the light of the fire of the soul; which light the fiery soul must create in the fountain of the love of God, in the Majesty, by putting and yielding its imagination into it. 1 Verbum Fiat. 2 void, or empty. * "comprehended" (ergj'iffen), "seized," "taken hold of." f "putteth" (einfuhrt), "introduceth." 28. And if the soul do not so, but putteth its imagination into itself, into its wrathful form of the source of the fire, and not into the fountain of love, into the light of God, then its own source of l sourness, astringency, and bitterness riseth up; and the image of God becometh a turba, and swalloweth up the image of God in the wrath.
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.
114. But if the soul turneth its imagination into the centre, into the strong 2 astringency and bitterness, then its fair image is also captivated in the dark astringency, and infected with the astringent wrath. 15. And then this wrath is a turba, which possesseth the image, and destroyeth the similitude of God; for in God there is love, light, and meekness: but in this image there is darkness, astringency, and bitterness, and the essential 3 source is fire, proceeding from the essences of wrath; and then this image belongeth not to the kingdom of God, so long as it continueth in this 4 source and form in the darkness. 16. Further, fire is a similitude of the soul; the soul is an essential fire, and the flash of the fire is the life of it: The soul resembleth a globe, or an eye, of fire. 1 quality, or property. 2 Or harshness. 3 quality or property. 4 quality, condition, or property. 17. The burning fire in the source signifieth the first Principle and the life, yet the fire is not the life; but the spirit of the source which ariseth from the fire, and *proceedeth from the fire-like air, that is the true spirit of the source of the hfe of the fire, which continually bloweth the fire up again, and maketh it burn. 18. Now the fire shineth, and giveth hght out of the source, and dwelleth in the source where it shineth, and the source comprehendeth not the hght; and this signifieth the second Principle, wherein God dwelleth.
219. For we know that the * power is in the hght, and not in the fire; the fire only giveth essences to the light, and the life, or the light produceth meekness and substantiality, viz. water. 20. Now we understand that there is a 2 meek hfe in the hght, without 3 source, and yet itself is an imperceptible source; it is nothing but a longing or desire of love. 21. Which source we account a tincture, in which the budding and blossoming hath its original, yet the fire is the cause of it, and the meekness is a cause of the substantiahty; for the desire of love in the hght attracteth it, and keepeth it, so that it becometh a substance; but the desire of fire consumeth the substantiahty. 1 Or virtue. 2 Or amiable, loving. 3 Or pain. [* "proceedeth from the fire-like air" (vom Feuer ausgehet, als eine Lufl), "proceedeth from the fire, as an air" or "as a breath."] 22. Also we must conceive, that as the soul is purely and alone in the centre, it is an essential fire in the eye of eternity; and yet that eye desireth a figure and image of the wisdom of God. 23. And the image is in its desire, in its imagination; for the l Word Fiat hath * comprehended it, that it might be a simihtude of the eternal wisdom of God, wherein he dwelleth, and wherein he may manifest himself by his spirit, and whatever hath been in his eternal counsel.
324. Thus the Majesty of God flameth in the image, in the essential fire, if the essential fire f putteth its desire into the Majesty; but if not, then the image is 2 raw and naked without God, and the tincture is false. 25. For the image standeth in the tincture, and hath its original in the tincture, in the light, not in the source of the fire: and as the Heart or Word of God hath its original in the light of the Majesty, in the eternal tincture of the fire of the Father, so hath the image of the soul. 26. The image dwelleth in the fire of the soul, as light dwelleth in the fire; but it hath another Principle, as the light is such a source as is different from fire. 27. And so the true image of God dwelleth in the light of the fire of the soul; which light the fiery soul must create in the fountain of the love of God, in the Majesty, by putting and yielding its imagination into it. 1 Verbum Fiat. 2 void, or empty. * "comprehended" (ergj'iffen), "seized," "taken hold of." f "putteth" (einfuhrt), "introduceth." 28. And if the soul do not so, but putteth its imagination into itself, into its wrathful form of the source of the fire, and not into the fountain of love, into the light of God, then its own source of l sourness, astringency, and bitterness riseth up; and the image of God becometh a turba, and swalloweth up the image of God in the wrath.
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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