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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.
1286. Yet the outward hfe findeth not the inward, unless it hath the spirit of the inward; and then it findeth by the inward spirit, and so the outward Hfe speaketh of the inward, and knoweth it not; but the inward spirit filleth the outward, so that the outward is as it were a mouth, and the inward hath, and produceth the word, and so the inward kingdom is manifest in the outward by the sound; which is a wonder. 287. The inward is a prophet, and the outward apprehendeth it not; but if it do come to apprehend it, then it hath the essentiality of God in it, that is, the divine flesh, Christ's flesh, the flesh of the virgin; and yet the prophet is in the spirit, but that flesh receiveth its power and virtue, and assureth the outward man that he doth nothing but what his Maker will have done; and such a condition this pen is in, and no otherwise. 1 Or form. 288. And thus we know the 1 ground of this world, that it is a figure of the inward, according to both the mothers, that is, according to both the fires, viz. according to the fire of wrath, and according to the fire of light: The sun is a 2 model or glass of the light of eternity; and the outward fire is a glass of the wrath; and the essentiality of them both is water and earth: The 3 earth is the essentiality of wrath; and the 4 water, of the light; and the 5 air, of the eternal spirit, which is called God the Holy Ghost.
2289. Yet you must know, that this world is not the essence of eternity, but a figure, or a glass of it; therefore it is said to be a peculiar 6 Principle, because it hath its own life, and yet consisteth only in the magic seeking of the inward. 290. The 7 Word Fiat is the 8 master of the outward; for it keepeth the outward in its conceived glass: The outward is not the glass, but it is a similitude in which its spirit doth 9 express itself, in works of wonder; that it might see the wonders of both fires, viz. of the wrath, and of the light; and so continually bringeth the end of all essences into the beginning: Therefore this world 10 turneth round; for the end continually seeketh the beginning; and when it findeth wonders, then the end giveth the wonders to the beginning; and this is the cause of the creation of this world. 291. The life of every creature was a wonder before the beginning; for the abyss knew nothing of it: and the beginning of the eye findeth all, and setteth the model in itself; so that it hath an eternal number, and recreateth itself in the number of the wonders. 1 foundation. 2 Or idea, or instance. 3 resembleth the Father. 4 the Son. 5 the Holy Ghost. 6 Or third Principle. 7 Verbum Fiat. 8 Or maker, or ruler, or orderer, as an artificer. 9 Or contriveth, formeth, appeareth. 10 Or is like a wheel, sphere, globe, or orb, that turneth round. The Eighth Form of Fire.
3292. Seeing then there is one essence in two forms, the one of which taketh an 1 unsearchable beginning into itself, and keepeth it eternally; and the other of them is the model of the eternal, * 2 framed, and the body of it included in a limit: therefore the turba must be considered, which destroyeth the included, framed life again, and setteth the model of the framed wonders in the beginning again, and presenteth such a thing to the beginning as was not from eternity, but only in the 3 framed time. 293. My beloved Friend, such things as these are shewn to you, and such as you are, who seek the beginning: for your mind is our Mystery; you should seek it in Us, not in me; I (the outward man) have it not; but the inward, in the virgin (wherein God dwelleth) hath it, which 4 speaketh of itself in the plural number. 1 abyssal, bottomless. 2 Or contrived, conceived, or formed. 3 comprised. 4 Or calleth itself twofold. * "framed" (gefasset), "compacted." 294. My outward man is not worthy of the Mystery; but * God hath so prepared it, that he might reveal himself to you by that means, that you should know him by some other means, and not say, it is from my own wit and understanding. 295. Because you are a very learned person, therefore you shall know that God also loveth the simple, and such as are contemned of the world, if they seek God as I have done; and you shall know also, that the true invention consisteth not in art, but in the spirit and will of God.
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.
1286. Yet the outward hfe findeth not the inward, unless it hath the spirit of the inward; and then it findeth by the inward spirit, and so the outward Hfe speaketh of the inward, and knoweth it not; but the inward spirit filleth the outward, so that the outward is as it were a mouth, and the inward hath, and produceth the word, and so the inward kingdom is manifest in the outward by the sound; which is a wonder. 287. The inward is a prophet, and the outward apprehendeth it not; but if it do come to apprehend it, then it hath the essentiality of God in it, that is, the divine flesh, Christ's flesh, the flesh of the virgin; and yet the prophet is in the spirit, but that flesh receiveth its power and virtue, and assureth the outward man that he doth nothing but what his Maker will have done; and such a condition this pen is in, and no otherwise. 1 Or form. 288. And thus we know the 1 ground of this world, that it is a figure of the inward, according to both the mothers, that is, according to both the fires, viz. according to the fire of wrath, and according to the fire of light: The sun is a 2 model or glass of the light of eternity; and the outward fire is a glass of the wrath; and the essentiality of them both is water and earth: The 3 earth is the essentiality of wrath; and the 4 water, of the light; and the 5 air, of the eternal spirit, which is called God the Holy Ghost.
2289. Yet you must know, that this world is not the essence of eternity, but a figure, or a glass of it; therefore it is said to be a peculiar 6 Principle, because it hath its own life, and yet consisteth only in the magic seeking of the inward. 290. The 7 Word Fiat is the 8 master of the outward; for it keepeth the outward in its conceived glass: The outward is not the glass, but it is a similitude in which its spirit doth 9 express itself, in works of wonder; that it might see the wonders of both fires, viz. of the wrath, and of the light; and so continually bringeth the end of all essences into the beginning: Therefore this world 10 turneth round; for the end continually seeketh the beginning; and when it findeth wonders, then the end giveth the wonders to the beginning; and this is the cause of the creation of this world. 291. The life of every creature was a wonder before the beginning; for the abyss knew nothing of it: and the beginning of the eye findeth all, and setteth the model in itself; so that it hath an eternal number, and recreateth itself in the number of the wonders. 1 foundation. 2 Or idea, or instance. 3 resembleth the Father. 4 the Son. 5 the Holy Ghost. 6 Or third Principle. 7 Verbum Fiat. 8 Or maker, or ruler, or orderer, as an artificer. 9 Or contriveth, formeth, appeareth. 10 Or is like a wheel, sphere, globe, or orb, that turneth round. The Eighth Form of Fire.
3292. Seeing then there is one essence in two forms, the one of which taketh an 1 unsearchable beginning into itself, and keepeth it eternally; and the other of them is the model of the eternal, * 2 framed, and the body of it included in a limit: therefore the turba must be considered, which destroyeth the included, framed life again, and setteth the model of the framed wonders in the beginning again, and presenteth such a thing to the beginning as was not from eternity, but only in the 3 framed time. 293. My beloved Friend, such things as these are shewn to you, and such as you are, who seek the beginning: for your mind is our Mystery; you should seek it in Us, not in me; I (the outward man) have it not; but the inward, in the virgin (wherein God dwelleth) hath it, which 4 speaketh of itself in the plural number. 1 abyssal, bottomless. 2 Or contrived, conceived, or formed. 3 comprised. 4 Or calleth itself twofold. * "framed" (gefasset), "compacted." 294. My outward man is not worthy of the Mystery; but * God hath so prepared it, that he might reveal himself to you by that means, that you should know him by some other means, and not say, it is from my own wit and understanding. 295. Because you are a very learned person, therefore you shall know that God also loveth the simple, and such as are contemned of the world, if they seek God as I have done; and you shall know also, that the true invention consisteth not in art, but in the spirit and will of God.
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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