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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.
16. All this, yea, and much more, he hath conceived in his will, and therewith the image of the spirit of the soul hath been filled, and all this standeth in his figure; and whenever the body 2 dieth, then the turba compriseth all this in the spirit. 7. And then if the spirit would now enter into itself, the turba goeth with it and seeketh the ground, viz. the root of the soul, and so the fire is but 3 kindled by it. 1 had gotten an office. 2 Or returns to earth. 3 inflamed. 8. And you must know, that the souls of the wicked have no mitigation, their best ease and joy is when they climb up in the will, in their l works which they did here, and continually desire to do them more still; it grieveth them that they did not afflict the honest more than they did; their will is just as it was here. 9. They are spirits of pride, like the devil, also of covetousness, and so they swallow down their abominations which they committed here; their joy is only to think how they will contemn God, and be their own lords; this is their recreation and refreshment, and no other. 10. For how should they receive any other refreshment? They dare not for shame lift up their eyes to God, nor dare they fly to the saints, whom they have here scorned; they are ashamed to do that, for their falsehood continually smiteth them on the face, and their malice and falsehood rise up from eternity to eternity.
211. When but the least thought of the last day cometh into their minds, then fear and horror stir in them; they had rather let that thought alone, and recreate themselves in haughtiness. 12. And this is also a wonder, and the greatest wonder of all, that an 2 angel should become such a furious 3 devil; and so the power of God's anger cometh to be manifested: for God hath manifested himself according to both 4 eyes, in love and anger; and it is left free to man, he may go into which of them he will; God throweth none into wrath, the soul casteth itself into it. 1 employment or office. 2 Or an image of love. 3 Or mad, senseless image of anger and wrath. 4 the eye of love, and the eye of wrath. 13. But you must know that the wrath hath set its 1 throat wide open, and draweth mightily, and desireth to devour all; for it is the covetousness and the pride insulting over humility. 14. And so also love and humility have opened their mouth, and draw with all their powers, and would draw man into love, into heaven. 15. Now into which of these the soul entereth, in that it remaineth and groweth, whether in love or in anger; in that tree it standeth, and there is no deliverance in eternity from thence; here in this life the soul stands in a balance in the angle, and may (though it hath been evil) be born again in love, but when the balance breaketh, then it is gone; it is afterwards in its own country, in its Principle.
316. Who shall break that which is eternal, where no breaker can be found? for it is its own maker: Whence then shall another turba come, when a thing is in the eternity where no limit is? 17. But that you may yet see that God willeth not evil, and maketh his will known unto you; he sendeth you prophets and teachers, and giveth them his spirit, that they may give you warning: Now if you refuse to obey, then you stay still willingly in the anger, which is your 2 wages and kingdom. 18. God 3 afflicteth you to break you off from your own will, from your voluptuous, proud, and dissolute hfe: But if you go on, you shall hereafter surely taste the hellish dregs. 1 Or jaws. 2 dwelling, or prison. 3 sends you crosses. 19. We teach you the cross, and the devil teacheth you pleasure: Now you may take which you will, and that you shall have, be it love or wrath. 20. We labour for you, but you contemn us; what should we do more for you? We are even your very slaves; if you will not accept us, be it at your peril, and get you gone with that which is your own, and we will take that which is ours, and so we are parted for ever. 21. We will still work in our day-labour, and do what is commanded us; at the harvest we shall appear before one another, and then you will know us, and do that to yourselves there which you have here done to us; we will not hide this from you, but speak what we see.
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.
16. All this, yea, and much more, he hath conceived in his will, and therewith the image of the spirit of the soul hath been filled, and all this standeth in his figure; and whenever the body 2 dieth, then the turba compriseth all this in the spirit. 7. And then if the spirit would now enter into itself, the turba goeth with it and seeketh the ground, viz. the root of the soul, and so the fire is but 3 kindled by it. 1 had gotten an office. 2 Or returns to earth. 3 inflamed. 8. And you must know, that the souls of the wicked have no mitigation, their best ease and joy is when they climb up in the will, in their l works which they did here, and continually desire to do them more still; it grieveth them that they did not afflict the honest more than they did; their will is just as it was here. 9. They are spirits of pride, like the devil, also of covetousness, and so they swallow down their abominations which they committed here; their joy is only to think how they will contemn God, and be their own lords; this is their recreation and refreshment, and no other. 10. For how should they receive any other refreshment? They dare not for shame lift up their eyes to God, nor dare they fly to the saints, whom they have here scorned; they are ashamed to do that, for their falsehood continually smiteth them on the face, and their malice and falsehood rise up from eternity to eternity.
211. When but the least thought of the last day cometh into their minds, then fear and horror stir in them; they had rather let that thought alone, and recreate themselves in haughtiness. 12. And this is also a wonder, and the greatest wonder of all, that an 2 angel should become such a furious 3 devil; and so the power of God's anger cometh to be manifested: for God hath manifested himself according to both 4 eyes, in love and anger; and it is left free to man, he may go into which of them he will; God throweth none into wrath, the soul casteth itself into it. 1 employment or office. 2 Or an image of love. 3 Or mad, senseless image of anger and wrath. 4 the eye of love, and the eye of wrath. 13. But you must know that the wrath hath set its 1 throat wide open, and draweth mightily, and desireth to devour all; for it is the covetousness and the pride insulting over humility. 14. And so also love and humility have opened their mouth, and draw with all their powers, and would draw man into love, into heaven. 15. Now into which of these the soul entereth, in that it remaineth and groweth, whether in love or in anger; in that tree it standeth, and there is no deliverance in eternity from thence; here in this life the soul stands in a balance in the angle, and may (though it hath been evil) be born again in love, but when the balance breaketh, then it is gone; it is afterwards in its own country, in its Principle.
316. Who shall break that which is eternal, where no breaker can be found? for it is its own maker: Whence then shall another turba come, when a thing is in the eternity where no limit is? 17. But that you may yet see that God willeth not evil, and maketh his will known unto you; he sendeth you prophets and teachers, and giveth them his spirit, that they may give you warning: Now if you refuse to obey, then you stay still willingly in the anger, which is your 2 wages and kingdom. 18. God 3 afflicteth you to break you off from your own will, from your voluptuous, proud, and dissolute hfe: But if you go on, you shall hereafter surely taste the hellish dregs. 1 Or jaws. 2 dwelling, or prison. 3 sends you crosses. 19. We teach you the cross, and the devil teacheth you pleasure: Now you may take which you will, and that you shall have, be it love or wrath. 20. We labour for you, but you contemn us; what should we do more for you? We are even your very slaves; if you will not accept us, be it at your peril, and get you gone with that which is your own, and we will take that which is ours, and so we are parted for ever. 21. We will still work in our day-labour, and do what is commanded us; at the harvest we shall appear before one another, and then you will know us, and do that to yourselves there which you have here done to us; we will not hide this from you, but speak what we see.
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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