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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.
1265. Then the last findeth the first again in itself, and so the last becometh the model and glass of the first, and the first of the last, and so it becometh an eternal band, and standeth in the will, in the desiring, seeking and finding, and the 2 Mysterium magnum is included in this essence. 266. But now the middlemost in the desire willeth to have a 3 fulfilling, wherein it may rest, or else all would be in an anguishing source: and the desiring draweth forth the middlemost of all forms, wherewith it satiateth its hunger, wherewith also it is in joy in itself in perfection; and so out of the anguish there cometh a love, a satiating of the source, and the middlemost is Sulphur, wherewith the spirit 4 refresheth itself in the will, for Sulphur hath two forms in it, viz. 5 power and light. 267. And this together is the essence born out of all forms, it is 6 matter, essentiality, corporality, the divine body, Christ's heavenly flesh, and it is the full satiating of the spirit in the O J also it is the rest, and the manifestation of the Deity; it subsisteth in the virgin of Wisdom. i X. 10. 2 great Mystery. 3 Or satiating. 4 Or quickeneth or enliveneth. 5 Phur, Power; Sul, light. 6 materia, substantiality. 268. The cross is its * limit; and it is the essentiahty, which by sinking entereth into death, as is mentioned before, where the wrath remaineth in death; and it is
22 still as a death or a nothing, and the life sprouteth up out of it, in another Principle. 269. Itself is not the Principle, but the Principle is born in it, all glasses of the 3 magic are manifested in it, and all the wonders of the 4 genetrix; it containeth the Mysterium magnum, and out of it the spirit openeth the wonders of eternity: the spirit giveth it the essences, for it is the food for the hunger of the spirit. 270. It is an essence of wonders, without number and end; also it hath no beginning, for the spirit in the desire maketh it begin from eternity, and it continueth 5 to eternity: it is 6 the body of the Ternary (which is called God), and 6 the body of angels; so that the spirit subsisteth in an image, or else it would not be known. 271. Thus it knoweth itself in the image, and seeketh the best 7 magic, and it findeth what it seeketh, and eateth it, and thereby giveth its will to the divine body, so that there is a unity in the holy Principle. 272. For the wonders arise in the will of the corporeal spirit; which wonders take hold of the spirit of eternity, viz. of the Holy Ghost, and thus there is a sound and song proceeding from the eternal wonders, for the will of the corporeal spirit is therein. 1 Or end, pitch, bounds. 2 Or quiet. 3 magia. 4 Or bearer. 5 Or in. 6 Or a. 7 magia, unity.
3273. And in these seven forms, the joy of the Deity is increased and perfected, for it is a satiating of the eternal desire, and it is the eternal food. 274. But seeing all essences arise from fire, therefore we will clearly set before you the Mysterium magnum, and shew you paradise; if any to whom this is told and discovered, will be blind, let him * l adventure it with Babel. 275. You know that every life consisteth in fire and water, and the essentiality is its body, and the body proceedeth from the power of the spirit; for it is the food of the spirit, and the spirit again is the food of the body, and the highest and greatest 2 nutriment is in itself; for the outward body could not sustain it, if the true life were not in itself. 276. Now then fire is the first cause of life; and light is the second cause; and the spirit the third cause; and yet there is but one essence, which closeth itself in one only body, and manifesteth itself, and so findeth by seeking. 277. And every essence 3 consisteth 4 of two essences, viz. of an inward and an outward, one seeketh and findeth the other; the outward is nature, the inward is spirit above nature; and yet there is no separation, but in that which is included in a time; there the time parteth the limit, so that the end findeth the beginning. 1 to perish. 2 Or nourishment. 3 is. * "adventure, perish" (hinfahren), "depart."
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.
1265. Then the last findeth the first again in itself, and so the last becometh the model and glass of the first, and the first of the last, and so it becometh an eternal band, and standeth in the will, in the desiring, seeking and finding, and the 2 Mysterium magnum is included in this essence. 266. But now the middlemost in the desire willeth to have a 3 fulfilling, wherein it may rest, or else all would be in an anguishing source: and the desiring draweth forth the middlemost of all forms, wherewith it satiateth its hunger, wherewith also it is in joy in itself in perfection; and so out of the anguish there cometh a love, a satiating of the source, and the middlemost is Sulphur, wherewith the spirit 4 refresheth itself in the will, for Sulphur hath two forms in it, viz. 5 power and light. 267. And this together is the essence born out of all forms, it is 6 matter, essentiality, corporality, the divine body, Christ's heavenly flesh, and it is the full satiating of the spirit in the O J also it is the rest, and the manifestation of the Deity; it subsisteth in the virgin of Wisdom. i X. 10. 2 great Mystery. 3 Or satiating. 4 Or quickeneth or enliveneth. 5 Phur, Power; Sul, light. 6 materia, substantiality. 268. The cross is its * limit; and it is the essentiahty, which by sinking entereth into death, as is mentioned before, where the wrath remaineth in death; and it is
22 still as a death or a nothing, and the life sprouteth up out of it, in another Principle. 269. Itself is not the Principle, but the Principle is born in it, all glasses of the 3 magic are manifested in it, and all the wonders of the 4 genetrix; it containeth the Mysterium magnum, and out of it the spirit openeth the wonders of eternity: the spirit giveth it the essences, for it is the food for the hunger of the spirit. 270. It is an essence of wonders, without number and end; also it hath no beginning, for the spirit in the desire maketh it begin from eternity, and it continueth 5 to eternity: it is 6 the body of the Ternary (which is called God), and 6 the body of angels; so that the spirit subsisteth in an image, or else it would not be known. 271. Thus it knoweth itself in the image, and seeketh the best 7 magic, and it findeth what it seeketh, and eateth it, and thereby giveth its will to the divine body, so that there is a unity in the holy Principle. 272. For the wonders arise in the will of the corporeal spirit; which wonders take hold of the spirit of eternity, viz. of the Holy Ghost, and thus there is a sound and song proceeding from the eternal wonders, for the will of the corporeal spirit is therein. 1 Or end, pitch, bounds. 2 Or quiet. 3 magia. 4 Or bearer. 5 Or in. 6 Or a. 7 magia, unity.
3273. And in these seven forms, the joy of the Deity is increased and perfected, for it is a satiating of the eternal desire, and it is the eternal food. 274. But seeing all essences arise from fire, therefore we will clearly set before you the Mysterium magnum, and shew you paradise; if any to whom this is told and discovered, will be blind, let him * l adventure it with Babel. 275. You know that every life consisteth in fire and water, and the essentiality is its body, and the body proceedeth from the power of the spirit; for it is the food of the spirit, and the spirit again is the food of the body, and the highest and greatest 2 nutriment is in itself; for the outward body could not sustain it, if the true life were not in itself. 276. Now then fire is the first cause of life; and light is the second cause; and the spirit the third cause; and yet there is but one essence, which closeth itself in one only body, and manifesteth itself, and so findeth by seeking. 277. And every essence 3 consisteth 4 of two essences, viz. of an inward and an outward, one seeketh and findeth the other; the outward is nature, the inward is spirit above nature; and yet there is no separation, but in that which is included in a time; there the time parteth the limit, so that the end findeth the beginning. 1 to perish. 2 Or nourishment. 3 is. * "adventure, perish" (hinfahren), "depart."
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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