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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.
1318. The turba taketh away the earthly source; the outward body from the earth remaineth in the earth; but the will taketh *its works along with itself, for they are in the new body, and follow it; therefore let a man consider what he doth whilst he is here in this life. The Ninth Form of Fire, the great 1 Earnestness. 319. Seeing then we understand that all things proceeded from the beginning, and that one thing thus proceedeth always out of another; and seeing we understand that the fire is a cause of the life, and that the life divideth itself into two parts, and yet doth not corrupt; only the outward life is that which corrupteth; it falleth into the turba, which destroyeth it: we are now, therefore, to consider wherein the inward eternal life consisteth, and what upholdeth it, that the body 2 fadeth not, seeing essentiality hath a beginning; and yet we can say with good ground, that it hath no end; for it must have a 3 ground, or else the turba will have it, and that findeth the limit. 1 Severity. 2 corrupteth, or breaketh not. 3 Or sure foundation to uphold it. * "its works" (seine Wesen) or "its essences." 320. The eternal body must not have a limit, but be free in the abyss, in the eternal nothing; or else another essence would again be in that essence, * which would divide it, and make a limit.
2321. We have told you before, that all which shall endure for ever must pass quite through the fire, for the turba taketh that which remaineth in the fire; now no spirit is created x for the fire, that it should remain in it. 322. Only the turba hath captivated many of them, but not from the will of God, for God's will is only love; but the turba is the will of his wrath, which by its vehement hunger hath gotten a great dominion, wherein it hath manifested its wonders, viz. the devils and wicked souls of men. 323. But the eternal life consisteth in meekness, and hath no death or turba in it; therefore we must say, that the soul and spirit are not in the turba, especially the 2 body of the soul; if it were, the turba would destroy it. 324. This is only to be understood, as it is mentioned before, that the will in the anguish source, in the fire (understand the will of the soul), sinketh down in itself as into death, and 3 should not live in the fire, and so 4 it falleth into another world, viz. into the beginning, or (as we may better say) into the free eternity, into the eternal nothing, wherein is no source, nor anything that 5 giveth or receiveth a source. iin. 2 Or image. 3 may not. 4 the will. 5 Or maketh. * "which would divide it, and make a limit," or "which would make for division and limitation."
3325. Now there is no dying in the will that is thus sunk down, for it is gone quite out from the fiery beginning, in the eye, and so bringeth its life into another Principle, and dwelleth in the hberty; and yet it hath all the forms of the essences which arise from the fire in it, but 1 unperceived; for it is gone quite out from the fire. 326. And therefore the hfe of its essences is in the hberty; and it is also desiring, and receiveth in the desire, in its essences, the power of the hght which shineth in the hberty, which is power without turba: for this fire is only love, which consumeth not, but yet always desireth and satiateth, so that the wiU of the soul 2 putteth on a body. 327. For the will is a spirit, and the soul is the great life of the spirit, which upholdeth the spirit, and so the soul is 3 clothed with power, and dwelleth in two Principles, as God himself doth, and as to the outward life in three Principles, and is the similitude of God. 328. The inward water in the spirit of the soul, is the water of eternal life, of which Christ said, He that drinketh the water that I will give him, he shall never thirst 4 : this is that water. 329. And the essentiality of the spirit which the soul putteth on is God's or Christ's body, of which he saith, He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, he is in me, and I in him 5 1 imperceptible. 2 getteth, or attracteth. 3 endued. 4 John iv. 14. 5 Or dwelleth. John vi. 56.
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.
1318. The turba taketh away the earthly source; the outward body from the earth remaineth in the earth; but the will taketh *its works along with itself, for they are in the new body, and follow it; therefore let a man consider what he doth whilst he is here in this life. The Ninth Form of Fire, the great 1 Earnestness. 319. Seeing then we understand that all things proceeded from the beginning, and that one thing thus proceedeth always out of another; and seeing we understand that the fire is a cause of the life, and that the life divideth itself into two parts, and yet doth not corrupt; only the outward life is that which corrupteth; it falleth into the turba, which destroyeth it: we are now, therefore, to consider wherein the inward eternal life consisteth, and what upholdeth it, that the body 2 fadeth not, seeing essentiality hath a beginning; and yet we can say with good ground, that it hath no end; for it must have a 3 ground, or else the turba will have it, and that findeth the limit. 1 Severity. 2 corrupteth, or breaketh not. 3 Or sure foundation to uphold it. * "its works" (seine Wesen) or "its essences." 320. The eternal body must not have a limit, but be free in the abyss, in the eternal nothing; or else another essence would again be in that essence, * which would divide it, and make a limit.
2321. We have told you before, that all which shall endure for ever must pass quite through the fire, for the turba taketh that which remaineth in the fire; now no spirit is created x for the fire, that it should remain in it. 322. Only the turba hath captivated many of them, but not from the will of God, for God's will is only love; but the turba is the will of his wrath, which by its vehement hunger hath gotten a great dominion, wherein it hath manifested its wonders, viz. the devils and wicked souls of men. 323. But the eternal life consisteth in meekness, and hath no death or turba in it; therefore we must say, that the soul and spirit are not in the turba, especially the 2 body of the soul; if it were, the turba would destroy it. 324. This is only to be understood, as it is mentioned before, that the will in the anguish source, in the fire (understand the will of the soul), sinketh down in itself as into death, and 3 should not live in the fire, and so 4 it falleth into another world, viz. into the beginning, or (as we may better say) into the free eternity, into the eternal nothing, wherein is no source, nor anything that 5 giveth or receiveth a source. iin. 2 Or image. 3 may not. 4 the will. 5 Or maketh. * "which would divide it, and make a limit," or "which would make for division and limitation."
3325. Now there is no dying in the will that is thus sunk down, for it is gone quite out from the fiery beginning, in the eye, and so bringeth its life into another Principle, and dwelleth in the hberty; and yet it hath all the forms of the essences which arise from the fire in it, but 1 unperceived; for it is gone quite out from the fire. 326. And therefore the hfe of its essences is in the hberty; and it is also desiring, and receiveth in the desire, in its essences, the power of the hght which shineth in the hberty, which is power without turba: for this fire is only love, which consumeth not, but yet always desireth and satiateth, so that the wiU of the soul 2 putteth on a body. 327. For the will is a spirit, and the soul is the great life of the spirit, which upholdeth the spirit, and so the soul is 3 clothed with power, and dwelleth in two Principles, as God himself doth, and as to the outward life in three Principles, and is the similitude of God. 328. The inward water in the spirit of the soul, is the water of eternal life, of which Christ said, He that drinketh the water that I will give him, he shall never thirst 4 : this is that water. 329. And the essentiality of the spirit which the soul putteth on is God's or Christ's body, of which he saith, He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, he is in me, and I in him 5 1 imperceptible. 2 getteth, or attracteth. 3 endued. 4 John iv. 14. 5 Or dwelleth. John vi. 56.
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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