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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.
1from God's 3 essences: Now all that which for the most part is hidden from us here, that is enclosed in the Word Fiat, in the beginning and end, and it lieth therein as a great Mystery. 29. But now the spirit of the first creation will move all the three Principles; yet, before that be brought to pass, the Word of God 4 conceiveth itself with this spirit, like an elevation or manifestation of the Deity. 30. For the spirit stirreth the turba of all essences in all the three Principles; and then in one hour all will stand manifested, whatever is in heaven, hell, or in this world. 1 inanimate. 2 life, or sense. 3 Or wonders. 4 formeth itself by the spirit. 31. For the turba stirreth up *all essences and all creatures, and all whatsoever is in heaven and hell will be made visible, and every one shall see the works of his own heart, be they good or evil. 32. In this hour also the Judge Christ will appear upon the bow of the Ternary, as upon a rainbow; according to the Principle of this world it is a natural rainbow, but according to the Principle of God it is the Ternary, the cross with a twofold rainbow, having one part turned into the internal Principle, that is, in the abyss of the anger; and there he sitteth upon the anger of God: This the devils, and all wicked men, shall see. 33. For this bow is included in all the three Principles, and this Judge Christ sitteth upon and in the omnipotency of eternity, above all that 1 is called essence.
234. Then the miserable horror of all devils, and wicked men, will arise, and they will howl, lament, yell, and cry, 2 and say unto the wise virgins, give us some of your 3 oil. O! comfort us we entreat you, we beseech you teach us what we shall do; give us some of your holiness, that we may be able to stand before the angry countenance of God; for the eye of hell standeth wide open; whither shall we fly from this anger? 35. And the wise virgins, viz. the children of God, will say, 4 away to 5 your merchants, and buy oil for yourselves, lest there be not enough for us and you; we have but enough for ourselves: away to your hypocrites and deceivers, who have tickled your ears with 6 flattering dissimulation for your money; there buy for yourselves. What, have you need of us now? Have not we been your fools? Away now with the flourishing show of your deceit and hypocrisy, we will not make ourselves partakers with you, lest we suffer what will come upon you. 1 Or ever had a being. 2 Matt. xxv. 8. 3 oil of joy and gladness. Isa. lxi. 3. Heb. i. 9. 4 Matt. xxv. 9. 5 those that sell. 6 seeming holiness and purity. * "all essences and all creatures" (pile Wesen alley Creature?}), "all the essences of all creatures."
336. They shall then stand in great horror and trembling, yelhng, and crying to the Judge Christ; but his wrathful eye, l with their turba, entereth into the very heart, piercing through spirit and flesh, through marrow and bones; *for the soul in the turba, by the moving of God, is stirred up already beforehand in the fierce wrath. 37. And then they will fall to the ground for very anguish, and some of them will bite or gnaw their blasphemous tongues; and the proud will say, 2 O ye mountains, Fall on us, and ye hills, Cover us from the eye of this wrathfulness: they will creep into the caves and clefts of the rocks, and endeavour to bury themselves in the mountains: they would willingly kill themselves, but there is no death more; they will endeavour to deprive themselves of life with weapons, yet there is no dying, but wrath and anger left. 38. In this horror, all the buildings in the world will fall down; for the earth will tremble, as if it were shaken with thunder; and the horror will be in all living things, in everything according to its 3 source; a beast hath no such source as the soul hath, only it is afraid of the turba. 1 Or by. 2 Luke xxiii. 30. Isa. ii. 19. Hos. x. 8. Rev. vi. 15, 16. 3 property or condition. * "for the soul," etc., lit., "for, by the moving of God, the soul in the turba is already stirred up."
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.
1from God's 3 essences: Now all that which for the most part is hidden from us here, that is enclosed in the Word Fiat, in the beginning and end, and it lieth therein as a great Mystery. 29. But now the spirit of the first creation will move all the three Principles; yet, before that be brought to pass, the Word of God 4 conceiveth itself with this spirit, like an elevation or manifestation of the Deity. 30. For the spirit stirreth the turba of all essences in all the three Principles; and then in one hour all will stand manifested, whatever is in heaven, hell, or in this world. 1 inanimate. 2 life, or sense. 3 Or wonders. 4 formeth itself by the spirit. 31. For the turba stirreth up *all essences and all creatures, and all whatsoever is in heaven and hell will be made visible, and every one shall see the works of his own heart, be they good or evil. 32. In this hour also the Judge Christ will appear upon the bow of the Ternary, as upon a rainbow; according to the Principle of this world it is a natural rainbow, but according to the Principle of God it is the Ternary, the cross with a twofold rainbow, having one part turned into the internal Principle, that is, in the abyss of the anger; and there he sitteth upon the anger of God: This the devils, and all wicked men, shall see. 33. For this bow is included in all the three Principles, and this Judge Christ sitteth upon and in the omnipotency of eternity, above all that 1 is called essence.
234. Then the miserable horror of all devils, and wicked men, will arise, and they will howl, lament, yell, and cry, 2 and say unto the wise virgins, give us some of your 3 oil. O! comfort us we entreat you, we beseech you teach us what we shall do; give us some of your holiness, that we may be able to stand before the angry countenance of God; for the eye of hell standeth wide open; whither shall we fly from this anger? 35. And the wise virgins, viz. the children of God, will say, 4 away to 5 your merchants, and buy oil for yourselves, lest there be not enough for us and you; we have but enough for ourselves: away to your hypocrites and deceivers, who have tickled your ears with 6 flattering dissimulation for your money; there buy for yourselves. What, have you need of us now? Have not we been your fools? Away now with the flourishing show of your deceit and hypocrisy, we will not make ourselves partakers with you, lest we suffer what will come upon you. 1 Or ever had a being. 2 Matt. xxv. 8. 3 oil of joy and gladness. Isa. lxi. 3. Heb. i. 9. 4 Matt. xxv. 9. 5 those that sell. 6 seeming holiness and purity. * "all essences and all creatures" (pile Wesen alley Creature?}), "all the essences of all creatures."
336. They shall then stand in great horror and trembling, yelhng, and crying to the Judge Christ; but his wrathful eye, l with their turba, entereth into the very heart, piercing through spirit and flesh, through marrow and bones; *for the soul in the turba, by the moving of God, is stirred up already beforehand in the fierce wrath. 37. And then they will fall to the ground for very anguish, and some of them will bite or gnaw their blasphemous tongues; and the proud will say, 2 O ye mountains, Fall on us, and ye hills, Cover us from the eye of this wrathfulness: they will creep into the caves and clefts of the rocks, and endeavour to bury themselves in the mountains: they would willingly kill themselves, but there is no death more; they will endeavour to deprive themselves of life with weapons, yet there is no dying, but wrath and anger left. 38. In this horror, all the buildings in the world will fall down; for the earth will tremble, as if it were shaken with thunder; and the horror will be in all living things, in everything according to its 3 source; a beast hath no such source as the soul hath, only it is afraid of the turba. 1 Or by. 2 Luke xxiii. 30. Isa. ii. 19. Hos. x. 8. Rev. vi. 15, 16. 3 property or condition. * "for the soul," etc., lit., "for, by the moving of God, the soul in the turba is already stirred up."
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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