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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.
112. But in its glorification he cannot help it; for that shineth forth out of its own essence and will: The soul of a neighbour goeth no further than death with him (yet it is not the [neighbour's] soul, but the spirit and will of his soul that doth this), and there the anger parteth, and then it is released from the wrath; and then the spirit entereth again into its own soul. 1 Or tedious while. 2 Pfaffe. 13. In Popery, much juggling hath been invented about this, with l masses for souls, and that for money only: but this hath been a great cheat of the 2 priests of Babel; for there is earnestness required to strive with the anger of God, and overcome it. 14. Yet we confess, and acknowledge readily, that the Church of Christ hath great power to ransom such a soul, if with fervency and earnestness it doth it, as it was done in the primitive Church, when they had holy people, and holy 3 priests, who performed their ministry in real earnestness. 15. They indeed effected somewhat, but not in such a way as the 4 Pope boasteth of, saying, that he hath the key, and that he can let out a soul with his 5 blessing when he will, if a man will but give him money: This is a he. 16. If he be holy, then he beareth the 6 great Mystery, and is a shepherd of Christ over his lambs: but then he must, with the congregation, in great earnestness, press into God in great humility, and come to the place of the poor soul, but not for money.
217. There is always covetousness in money, and it never reacheth the earnest 7 Principle; the prayer of the covetous goeth into his chest; we say, that all service which is done in the Church of Christ for money, belongeth to Antichrist in Babel, for 2 their hearts depend upon it: It were better men gave them meat and drink, and necessaries, but no money; and then they should not set their hearts so much upon it. 1 Seele-Messen, soul's-meals. 2 Pfaffen. 3 Priester. 4 Pabst. 5 Or pardon. 6 Mysterium magnum. 7 The first most inward ground. 8 Or they set their hearts upon it. 18. What can a spirit seek and find in the Mystery, when itself is not in the Mystery? O! there is a great deceit in that; when it is day, you will see that it is so: you are still in darkness in the Mystery, so egregiously hath Babel bhnded you. 19. And therefore it is that you have regarded art and favour, and not the spirit of God. Are not notorious delusions come upon you? so that you believe lying spirits, who speak delusions in l hypocrisy; on these you depend, and stick to them, and commit hypocrisy with error: Observe well what the Revelations of John and Daniel telleth you; It is day; the reward will shortly follow.
320. You have teachers now, that wholly 2 suppress the spirit of the primitive Church; try them, and you shall find them to be the whore's wolves, which at first sprang up in the primitive Church when men slept; and these are they that will devour the whore themselves. 21. But try them, they are wolves sent from the 3 turba; they must do it; God permits it so to come to pass, and will have it so, that he may sweep out one besom with another: yet they are besoms, and after the accomplishment of the 4 wonders of the anger, they shall both be delivered to the 5 turba together. 1 fine outside, seeming holiness. 2 Or cast to the ground. 3 sin, malice, and the anger of God, for the destruction of the world. 4 Or workings. 5 Or punishment. 22. Let this spirit tell you this: it is your own prophet; he is born out of your 1 turba, upon the 2 crown: Awake, or else you must be devoured by one another. 23. For it is no stranger that consumeth you, but your own 3 turba, which is come to the hmit. 0! boast not so much as you do of a golden time; it is a time of wonders. 1 dispute, or contention. 2 finishing of the sixth seal. 3 Or sin, or malice. THE TWENTY-FIFTH QUESTION What is the Hand of God, and the Bosom of Abraham?
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.
112. But in its glorification he cannot help it; for that shineth forth out of its own essence and will: The soul of a neighbour goeth no further than death with him (yet it is not the [neighbour's] soul, but the spirit and will of his soul that doth this), and there the anger parteth, and then it is released from the wrath; and then the spirit entereth again into its own soul. 1 Or tedious while. 2 Pfaffe. 13. In Popery, much juggling hath been invented about this, with l masses for souls, and that for money only: but this hath been a great cheat of the 2 priests of Babel; for there is earnestness required to strive with the anger of God, and overcome it. 14. Yet we confess, and acknowledge readily, that the Church of Christ hath great power to ransom such a soul, if with fervency and earnestness it doth it, as it was done in the primitive Church, when they had holy people, and holy 3 priests, who performed their ministry in real earnestness. 15. They indeed effected somewhat, but not in such a way as the 4 Pope boasteth of, saying, that he hath the key, and that he can let out a soul with his 5 blessing when he will, if a man will but give him money: This is a he. 16. If he be holy, then he beareth the 6 great Mystery, and is a shepherd of Christ over his lambs: but then he must, with the congregation, in great earnestness, press into God in great humility, and come to the place of the poor soul, but not for money.
217. There is always covetousness in money, and it never reacheth the earnest 7 Principle; the prayer of the covetous goeth into his chest; we say, that all service which is done in the Church of Christ for money, belongeth to Antichrist in Babel, for 2 their hearts depend upon it: It were better men gave them meat and drink, and necessaries, but no money; and then they should not set their hearts so much upon it. 1 Seele-Messen, soul's-meals. 2 Pfaffen. 3 Priester. 4 Pabst. 5 Or pardon. 6 Mysterium magnum. 7 The first most inward ground. 8 Or they set their hearts upon it. 18. What can a spirit seek and find in the Mystery, when itself is not in the Mystery? O! there is a great deceit in that; when it is day, you will see that it is so: you are still in darkness in the Mystery, so egregiously hath Babel bhnded you. 19. And therefore it is that you have regarded art and favour, and not the spirit of God. Are not notorious delusions come upon you? so that you believe lying spirits, who speak delusions in l hypocrisy; on these you depend, and stick to them, and commit hypocrisy with error: Observe well what the Revelations of John and Daniel telleth you; It is day; the reward will shortly follow.
320. You have teachers now, that wholly 2 suppress the spirit of the primitive Church; try them, and you shall find them to be the whore's wolves, which at first sprang up in the primitive Church when men slept; and these are they that will devour the whore themselves. 21. But try them, they are wolves sent from the 3 turba; they must do it; God permits it so to come to pass, and will have it so, that he may sweep out one besom with another: yet they are besoms, and after the accomplishment of the 4 wonders of the anger, they shall both be delivered to the 5 turba together. 1 fine outside, seeming holiness. 2 Or cast to the ground. 3 sin, malice, and the anger of God, for the destruction of the world. 4 Or workings. 5 Or punishment. 22. Let this spirit tell you this: it is your own prophet; he is born out of your 1 turba, upon the 2 crown: Awake, or else you must be devoured by one another. 23. For it is no stranger that consumeth you, but your own 3 turba, which is come to the hmit. 0! boast not so much as you do of a golden time; it is a time of wonders. 1 dispute, or contention. 2 finishing of the sixth seal. 3 Or sin, or malice. THE TWENTY-FIFTH QUESTION What is the Hand of God, and the Bosom of Abraham?
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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