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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.
134. * What is the lamentable and horrible condition of the damned souls? 35. What is the Enochian life, and how long doth it continue? 36. What is the soul of the Messiah, or Christ? 37. fWliat is the Spirit of Christ, which he willingly commended into his Father's hand? 38. Of the things which shall come to pass at the end of the world? 39. What, and where is paradise, with its inhabitants? 40. Whether is it mutable, and what shall it be afterwards? * Lit., "What is the lamentable, horrible, and wretched condition," etc. f Lit., "What is the spirit of Christ, which was obedient, and which he commended into his Father's hand?" Summary appendix TO THE READER
2IF we knew the preciousness of our own souls, we would confess and acknowledge with an inward feelingness, the answer to Christ's Question, when he said: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own Soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? The soul is so precious, that nothing can truly be valued at so high a Rate. To save it is the greatest gain, to lose it is the greatest loss: then who will not highly prize the study and understanding of the way to save it? Christ saith, He that will save his soul shall lose it, and he that will lose his soul shall save it: But who understandeth this? We know it is the earnest desire of every soul to be saved, and to be happy and glorious, but the way is very unknown to us poor fallen souls, for we can hardly suppose that losing will be the saving of ourselves: Christ also taught that the way to Glory was through many tribulations and Death; this way he entered into Glory, and so have all the blessed from the beginning of the world, and can no otherwise to the end thereof. But how shall a soul know the way to lose and deny itself, so that it may assuredly attain Eternal Salvation? Let it listen, in its heart and Conscience, inwardly to that Teacher, which it shall find there, who is God himself: we have the Testimony of Moses for this, who told the Israelites, The Word, the Commandment is nigh thee, in thy heart and in thy mouth (not the outward, but the Inward heart and mouth); as also the Apostle Paul saith to the Romans, that Christ the Eternal Essential word of God, the word of Faith which they, the Apostles, preached, is nigh us, in our hearts and in our mouths; and in another place he saith, Do you not know that Christ is in you, except you be past reproof, adoKipoi improbi? Furthermore, the Apostle John saith, that God is Love, and he that loveth, God dwelleth in him, and he in God; which we all perceive is true, for in him we live, and move, and have our being. And this may be known, though the Apostle Paul had not said so much, for one of the Poets of old spake what he knew, and said, We are all of his Offspring, as the Apostle mentioneth it: Nay, we all know, that he that doth well is the servant of God, but he
3that doth evil is the servant of the Devil who ruleth in his heart: and though there is none that doth good, no not one, nor can do of himself, while he is in this mortal life, yet through Christ in him, he can desire to do well, and be sorry when he hath been drawn away to do evil by the lusts of his own heart, by which the Devil tempteth us to do evil; but if we will resist the Devil, he will fly from us; if we will leave off to do evil, and desire, try, and learn to do well, without doubt we shall be able, through God that dwelleth in us; and then he will teach us all things, and lead us into all truth by his Spirit. All this we shall fully understand, and all Mysteries, when God shall manifest himself in us, if we earnestly desire it with all humility, self-denial, losing of our souls, and being nothing in ourselves; for then God will be All in All, and nothing is impossible with God: All this, and much more, hath the Author of this Answer to these Questions concerning the soul, found true; and hath out of his inward Mystery manifested many things in this, and other Writings of his, the knowing whereof will be exceeding useful to the furtherance of the salvation of every soul; which when I had read I was very much satisfied in my own soul, and do desire that others may be made partakers of them, so far as heth in me. I have therefore taken in hand to put this Treatise into English, which I chose to do rather out of the Original than out of any Translations, because they many times come short of the Author's own meaning, and because I found many errors in some of them. And he is so deep in his writings, that we have need to desire that our souls may be put into such a condition as his was in, else they cannot be fully understood; but the same God that satisfied his desires, will satisfy ours, if we cast ourselves upon him in our souls, and let him do with us what he pleaseth.
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.
134. * What is the lamentable and horrible condition of the damned souls? 35. What is the Enochian life, and how long doth it continue? 36. What is the soul of the Messiah, or Christ? 37. fWliat is the Spirit of Christ, which he willingly commended into his Father's hand? 38. Of the things which shall come to pass at the end of the world? 39. What, and where is paradise, with its inhabitants? 40. Whether is it mutable, and what shall it be afterwards? * Lit., "What is the lamentable, horrible, and wretched condition," etc. f Lit., "What is the spirit of Christ, which was obedient, and which he commended into his Father's hand?" Summary appendix TO THE READER
2IF we knew the preciousness of our own souls, we would confess and acknowledge with an inward feelingness, the answer to Christ's Question, when he said: What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own Soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? The soul is so precious, that nothing can truly be valued at so high a Rate. To save it is the greatest gain, to lose it is the greatest loss: then who will not highly prize the study and understanding of the way to save it? Christ saith, He that will save his soul shall lose it, and he that will lose his soul shall save it: But who understandeth this? We know it is the earnest desire of every soul to be saved, and to be happy and glorious, but the way is very unknown to us poor fallen souls, for we can hardly suppose that losing will be the saving of ourselves: Christ also taught that the way to Glory was through many tribulations and Death; this way he entered into Glory, and so have all the blessed from the beginning of the world, and can no otherwise to the end thereof. But how shall a soul know the way to lose and deny itself, so that it may assuredly attain Eternal Salvation? Let it listen, in its heart and Conscience, inwardly to that Teacher, which it shall find there, who is God himself: we have the Testimony of Moses for this, who told the Israelites, The Word, the Commandment is nigh thee, in thy heart and in thy mouth (not the outward, but the Inward heart and mouth); as also the Apostle Paul saith to the Romans, that Christ the Eternal Essential word of God, the word of Faith which they, the Apostles, preached, is nigh us, in our hearts and in our mouths; and in another place he saith, Do you not know that Christ is in you, except you be past reproof, adoKipoi improbi? Furthermore, the Apostle John saith, that God is Love, and he that loveth, God dwelleth in him, and he in God; which we all perceive is true, for in him we live, and move, and have our being. And this may be known, though the Apostle Paul had not said so much, for one of the Poets of old spake what he knew, and said, We are all of his Offspring, as the Apostle mentioneth it: Nay, we all know, that he that doth well is the servant of God, but he
3that doth evil is the servant of the Devil who ruleth in his heart: and though there is none that doth good, no not one, nor can do of himself, while he is in this mortal life, yet through Christ in him, he can desire to do well, and be sorry when he hath been drawn away to do evil by the lusts of his own heart, by which the Devil tempteth us to do evil; but if we will resist the Devil, he will fly from us; if we will leave off to do evil, and desire, try, and learn to do well, without doubt we shall be able, through God that dwelleth in us; and then he will teach us all things, and lead us into all truth by his Spirit. All this we shall fully understand, and all Mysteries, when God shall manifest himself in us, if we earnestly desire it with all humility, self-denial, losing of our souls, and being nothing in ourselves; for then God will be All in All, and nothing is impossible with God: All this, and much more, hath the Author of this Answer to these Questions concerning the soul, found true; and hath out of his inward Mystery manifested many things in this, and other Writings of his, the knowing whereof will be exceeding useful to the furtherance of the salvation of every soul; which when I had read I was very much satisfied in my own soul, and do desire that others may be made partakers of them, so far as heth in me. I have therefore taken in hand to put this Treatise into English, which I chose to do rather out of the Original than out of any Translations, because they many times come short of the Author's own meaning, and because I found many errors in some of them. And he is so deep in his writings, that we have need to desire that our souls may be put into such a condition as his was in, else they cannot be fully understood; but the same God that satisfied his desires, will satisfy ours, if we cast ourselves upon him in our souls, and let him do with us what he pleaseth.
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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