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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.
1256. 5 From magic cometh philosophy, which soundeth the magic, and seeking, findeth astrology therein eternally; and astrology again seeketh 6 its master and maker, viz. astronomy, the 7 Sulphur and Mercury, which hath its own Principle; and therein is the third magic, viz. the 8 physician; who seeketh the 9 corrupter and would heal it; but he findeth the fourth magic, viz. the 10 divine; who seeketh the 11 turba in all things, and would heal the turba; but he findeth the eye of the first magic, and there he seeth that all is the wonder of magic: then he leaveth off from seeking, and is a 12 magus in the first will; for he seeth he hath all power to find and to make what he will: and then he maketh himself an angel, and remaineth in himself, and so he is free from all other things, and continueth eternally: This is the highest ground of the Essence of all essences. i Or right eyes, viz. spiritual eyes. 2 Or of God." 3 the new-birth. 4 in magiam. 5 Out of the rnagia. 6 his cause and ruler. 7 Sulphur and Mer curium. 8 medicus. 9 Or disease which destroyeth the health. 10 theologus. 11 the curse of God. 12 magician: Mdyoq. Matt. ii. 1. * "All lieth in the will," etc. (es lieget alles am Wille), "it all depends upon the will."
2257. Although the whore of Babel will by no means relish it, yet we speak from good ground and say, that Babel and her children are * born of whoredom, in their 2 magic, philosophy, astrology, astronomy, physic, and divinity. [258.] Babel is the true child of none of these, she is a refractory proud bastard. *We have known her in the A and O, by searching of her philosophy and astrology, have 3 known her to be a whore in all 4 glasses; she committeth whoredom in all glasses. 259. She saith she is the eye, but she hath a 5 false eye f that glanceth out of her whoredom, in pride, envy, and anger; and her seat in the magic is tthe e av erse left eye: § she boasteth upon the cross, but she entereth not into the centre, she will not go through death into life. 1 adulterous. 2 magia, philosophia, astrologia, astronomia, medicina, theologia. 3 Or found. 4 specula, mirrors, or looking-glasses, or expositions, representations, illustrations, and similitudes in her teachings. 5 Or squint-eye. 6 Or back-turned. * "We have known her," etc. Lit., "we have known her [i.e. found her out] through research in philosophy and astrology." f "that glanceth" (das glintzet), "that glitters." % "the averse left eye," or "the averted (abgewandl) left eye." § "she boasteth" (sie prangel) , "she maketh a great show." St Martin translates aptly, elle se pavane. This word, in its literal sense, describes the strutting of the peacock with outspread tail.
3260. She saith, I live, and yet hath an unrighteous life; but that is her true hfe, if she will continue in it alone to herself; but she oppresseth the children that are born 1 upon the cross, and treadeth them under her feet. 261. Therefore the cross hath bent its bow, and will shoot away Babel from the cross: The spirit of the wonders declareth this in the magic. The Seventh Form of Fire. 262. One 2 magic always proceedeth from the other, and is the glass and the eye of the other, wherein the wonders are known and propagated; for in the abyss there is nothing, but in the 2 magic is all, each glass is a centre, but yet its own, for *the lust, 3 seeking, and desire bringeth it forth; it is the model of the first. 263. For when I search to the beginning of the essence, then I find the eye, which is God; which is a desiring will of eternity, which entereth into itself, and seeketh the abyss in itself 1 Or live in patience and resignation. 2 magia. 3 Or longing. * "the lust, seeking, and desire," etc., (des ersten Lust, Sucht und Begehren), "the longing, attraction and desire of the first [looking-glass or magic] bringeth it forth: it [each glass] is a model of the first." 264. It is in nothing, but it is the glass of the abyss; it seeketh itself and findeth itself; and that which is found seeketh again a model, wherein it can seek, find, and see itself; and that proceedeth so far, till it cometh to the number 1 Ten.
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.
1256. 5 From magic cometh philosophy, which soundeth the magic, and seeking, findeth astrology therein eternally; and astrology again seeketh 6 its master and maker, viz. astronomy, the 7 Sulphur and Mercury, which hath its own Principle; and therein is the third magic, viz. the 8 physician; who seeketh the 9 corrupter and would heal it; but he findeth the fourth magic, viz. the 10 divine; who seeketh the 11 turba in all things, and would heal the turba; but he findeth the eye of the first magic, and there he seeth that all is the wonder of magic: then he leaveth off from seeking, and is a 12 magus in the first will; for he seeth he hath all power to find and to make what he will: and then he maketh himself an angel, and remaineth in himself, and so he is free from all other things, and continueth eternally: This is the highest ground of the Essence of all essences. i Or right eyes, viz. spiritual eyes. 2 Or of God." 3 the new-birth. 4 in magiam. 5 Out of the rnagia. 6 his cause and ruler. 7 Sulphur and Mer curium. 8 medicus. 9 Or disease which destroyeth the health. 10 theologus. 11 the curse of God. 12 magician: Mdyoq. Matt. ii. 1. * "All lieth in the will," etc. (es lieget alles am Wille), "it all depends upon the will."
2257. Although the whore of Babel will by no means relish it, yet we speak from good ground and say, that Babel and her children are * born of whoredom, in their 2 magic, philosophy, astrology, astronomy, physic, and divinity. [258.] Babel is the true child of none of these, she is a refractory proud bastard. *We have known her in the A and O, by searching of her philosophy and astrology, have 3 known her to be a whore in all 4 glasses; she committeth whoredom in all glasses. 259. She saith she is the eye, but she hath a 5 false eye f that glanceth out of her whoredom, in pride, envy, and anger; and her seat in the magic is tthe e av erse left eye: § she boasteth upon the cross, but she entereth not into the centre, she will not go through death into life. 1 adulterous. 2 magia, philosophia, astrologia, astronomia, medicina, theologia. 3 Or found. 4 specula, mirrors, or looking-glasses, or expositions, representations, illustrations, and similitudes in her teachings. 5 Or squint-eye. 6 Or back-turned. * "We have known her," etc. Lit., "we have known her [i.e. found her out] through research in philosophy and astrology." f "that glanceth" (das glintzet), "that glitters." % "the averse left eye," or "the averted (abgewandl) left eye." § "she boasteth" (sie prangel) , "she maketh a great show." St Martin translates aptly, elle se pavane. This word, in its literal sense, describes the strutting of the peacock with outspread tail.
3260. She saith, I live, and yet hath an unrighteous life; but that is her true hfe, if she will continue in it alone to herself; but she oppresseth the children that are born 1 upon the cross, and treadeth them under her feet. 261. Therefore the cross hath bent its bow, and will shoot away Babel from the cross: The spirit of the wonders declareth this in the magic. The Seventh Form of Fire. 262. One 2 magic always proceedeth from the other, and is the glass and the eye of the other, wherein the wonders are known and propagated; for in the abyss there is nothing, but in the 2 magic is all, each glass is a centre, but yet its own, for *the lust, 3 seeking, and desire bringeth it forth; it is the model of the first. 263. For when I search to the beginning of the essence, then I find the eye, which is God; which is a desiring will of eternity, which entereth into itself, and seeketh the abyss in itself 1 Or live in patience and resignation. 2 magia. 3 Or longing. * "the lust, seeking, and desire," etc., (des ersten Lust, Sucht und Begehren), "the longing, attraction and desire of the first [looking-glass or magic] bringeth it forth: it [each glass] is a model of the first." 264. It is in nothing, but it is the glass of the abyss; it seeketh itself and findeth itself; and that which is found seeketh again a model, wherein it can seek, find, and see itself; and that proceedeth so far, till it cometh to the number 1 Ten.
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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