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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.
111. And thus without much seeking, you may find the cause of the contrariety, that is between the flesh and the spirit: for the inward spirit hath the 3 divine body from the meek essentiality; and the outward spirit hath the body of the glass of the wrathful fire, viz. the body of the glass of the soul, which would always awaken the 4 wrathfulness, viz. the great wonders which he 5 in the arcanum, in the 6 eagerness of the soul; but that the inward spirit of love hindereth it, lest it should elevate itself, and inflame the soul, and so it would lose * the 7 fruition of love and the image, and the wrathfulness of the soul would destroy it; and thus contrariety ariseth. 1 Or kingly. 2 Or quality. 3 Or God's body. 4 vehemency, or fierceness. 5 in the secret, or hidden Mystery of eternity. 6 sternness, or fierceness, or strength. 7 the habitation, or sweet taste. * "the fruition of love," lit., "its dear joy." 12. The inward spirit would be master, for it subdueth the outward; and so also the outward would be master, for it saith, I have the great wonders, and the arcanum: thus it braggeth of the Mystery, and yet it is but a glass of the Mystery. 13. It is not the essence of the Mystery, but a 1 desire, like a palpable glass, in which the Mystery is beheld; but it would be master, seeing it hath attained a Principle, and is a life of itself; but it is a fool in respect of the Mystery.
214. Therefore, beloved Brother, if you would seek the Mystery, seek it not in the outward spirit, you will be deceived, and attain nothing, but a glimpse of the Mystery: enter in even to the cross, then seek gold, and you will not be deceived; you must seek in another world for the pure child that is without spot: in this world you find only the drossy child, that is altogether imperfect; but go about it in a right manner. 15. Go back from the cross into the fourth form, and there you have 2 Sol and Luna together, bring that in anguish into death, and * drive on that composed magical body so long, till it becometh again that which it was before the centre in the will, and then it becometh 3 magical and hungry after nature. 1 seeking, or longing. 2 sun and moon. 3 desirous. * "drive" (zertreiben) "to work," implies a taking to pieces, recasting and transforming. St Martin aptly translates this "forgez." 16. It is a 1 longing in the eternal longing, and would fain have a body, therefore give it Sol, viz. the soul, 2 that it may have a body, and then it will soon make a body according to the soul; for the will springeth up in paradise, with fair heavenly fruit without blemish. 17. There you have the noble child; ye covetous gripers, we must indeed tell this to you, seeing it is born with the time, but those only that are ours will understand us.
318. For we mean not here a 3 glass or heaven, but gold, wherewith you vaunt, which for so long a time hath been your idol god; and your blind 4 owl-eyes are so quite put out, that you see less than before: But the children shall see, eat and be satisfied, that they may praise God. 19. We speak here wonderfully, yet we speak nothing but what we must speak: Let none marvel, that he knoweth the Mystery, who hath not learnt it from any man; doth not a herb grow without your 5 counsel? Neither doth it inquire for your art: yea, the Mystery is grown also without your art, it hath its own school; like the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, who spake with many languages and tongues, without premeditation and art; and so is this simplicity in like manner. 20. And this foretelleth thy fall, O Babel, 6 that thou mayest know it: no wrath nor anger will help you; the star is born which leadeth the 7 wisemen out of the East country; but seek thou only where thou art, and find thyself; and cast the 8 turba from thee, and then thou shaft live with the children: this we tell thee in good earnest, there is no other remedy; thy anger is thy fire, which will destroy thyself. 1 Or seeking, or desire. 2 Or for a body. 3 Or similitude, figure, or parable. 4 Or cow's eyes. 5 Or direction. 6 that you may be warned of it. 7 Magi. 8 wrangling, malice, and tyranny.
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.
111. And thus without much seeking, you may find the cause of the contrariety, that is between the flesh and the spirit: for the inward spirit hath the 3 divine body from the meek essentiality; and the outward spirit hath the body of the glass of the wrathful fire, viz. the body of the glass of the soul, which would always awaken the 4 wrathfulness, viz. the great wonders which he 5 in the arcanum, in the 6 eagerness of the soul; but that the inward spirit of love hindereth it, lest it should elevate itself, and inflame the soul, and so it would lose * the 7 fruition of love and the image, and the wrathfulness of the soul would destroy it; and thus contrariety ariseth. 1 Or kingly. 2 Or quality. 3 Or God's body. 4 vehemency, or fierceness. 5 in the secret, or hidden Mystery of eternity. 6 sternness, or fierceness, or strength. 7 the habitation, or sweet taste. * "the fruition of love," lit., "its dear joy." 12. The inward spirit would be master, for it subdueth the outward; and so also the outward would be master, for it saith, I have the great wonders, and the arcanum: thus it braggeth of the Mystery, and yet it is but a glass of the Mystery. 13. It is not the essence of the Mystery, but a 1 desire, like a palpable glass, in which the Mystery is beheld; but it would be master, seeing it hath attained a Principle, and is a life of itself; but it is a fool in respect of the Mystery.
214. Therefore, beloved Brother, if you would seek the Mystery, seek it not in the outward spirit, you will be deceived, and attain nothing, but a glimpse of the Mystery: enter in even to the cross, then seek gold, and you will not be deceived; you must seek in another world for the pure child that is without spot: in this world you find only the drossy child, that is altogether imperfect; but go about it in a right manner. 15. Go back from the cross into the fourth form, and there you have 2 Sol and Luna together, bring that in anguish into death, and * drive on that composed magical body so long, till it becometh again that which it was before the centre in the will, and then it becometh 3 magical and hungry after nature. 1 seeking, or longing. 2 sun and moon. 3 desirous. * "drive" (zertreiben) "to work," implies a taking to pieces, recasting and transforming. St Martin aptly translates this "forgez." 16. It is a 1 longing in the eternal longing, and would fain have a body, therefore give it Sol, viz. the soul, 2 that it may have a body, and then it will soon make a body according to the soul; for the will springeth up in paradise, with fair heavenly fruit without blemish. 17. There you have the noble child; ye covetous gripers, we must indeed tell this to you, seeing it is born with the time, but those only that are ours will understand us.
318. For we mean not here a 3 glass or heaven, but gold, wherewith you vaunt, which for so long a time hath been your idol god; and your blind 4 owl-eyes are so quite put out, that you see less than before: But the children shall see, eat and be satisfied, that they may praise God. 19. We speak here wonderfully, yet we speak nothing but what we must speak: Let none marvel, that he knoweth the Mystery, who hath not learnt it from any man; doth not a herb grow without your 5 counsel? Neither doth it inquire for your art: yea, the Mystery is grown also without your art, it hath its own school; like the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, who spake with many languages and tongues, without premeditation and art; and so is this simplicity in like manner. 20. And this foretelleth thy fall, O Babel, 6 that thou mayest know it: no wrath nor anger will help you; the star is born which leadeth the 7 wisemen out of the East country; but seek thou only where thou art, and find thyself; and cast the 8 turba from thee, and then thou shaft live with the children: this we tell thee in good earnest, there is no other remedy; thy anger is thy fire, which will destroy thyself. 1 Or seeking, or desire. 2 Or for a body. 3 Or similitude, figure, or parable. 4 Or cow's eyes. 5 Or direction. 6 that you may be warned of it. 7 Magi. 8 wrangling, malice, and tyranny.
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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