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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.
139. And in this * elevation and commotion all waters will rise above the height of all mountains, so that there will be no l breathing upon the earth; they will rise so high, that they will be as it were consumed: All things will be so comprehended in the anger, in the turba, that there will be nothing but mere anguish in the elements. 40. All high mountains and rocks will crumble and fall down; the 2 stars will fall to the earth with their strong influence and virtue: All this will be brought to pass in several days; for, as the world was created, so it shall have its end; for the 3 longing of the earth in its anguish will draw the stars to it, as it hath always done 4 in this time; so that the earthly body hath drawn the f 5 seeking of the stars to it. 41. For the stars are a magical f 5 seeking, which hath awakened life; therefore, now, when the earth is awakened in the great turba, it will then become so thirsty and hungry that it will draw down the stars to it, there will be such an anguish upon the earth. 42. But the children of God shall lift up their eyes and hands to Christ, and rejoice that 6 the day of their deliverance is at hand; for the anguish doth not touch them. 1 Or respiration. 2 That is, those properties which are in the firmament: or a magic desire, as ver. 41, following. 3 seeking, or earnest desire. 4 Or all this while. 5 desire, or longing. 6 Luke xxi. 28. Rom. viii. 23.
2* "elevation" (Erheben), "upheaval." f "seeking" (Sucht), "attraction." 43. And in those days (but how many are appointed for it, are only known to God; for in six days the world and all its hosts were created; but this is now hidden from us) the water will return again to its own place, and fill all the deeps more than before. 44. For now death cometh with it; and in that hour all creatures, except man, shall die: and all men that have crept into the rocks and mountains shall come forth, but with anguish of their conscience; * though now the turba hath permitted that the horror standeth in death, for the falling of the water doth captivate the turba. 45. And then the voice of the Holy Ternary will open itself according to all the three Principles, and say by the mouth of Christ the Judge: Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment. 46. This voice is the original eternal spirit, which upholdeth every life, and which also hath always ruled in all the three Principles; for it is that spirit whence the life of every thing hath existed, and in which it standeth to eternity: It hath been the life and motion of all things, in which the beginning, and also the end of every life hath stood, and the eternity; for it is from eternity, and the Creator of all things. * "though now the turba," etc., lit., "though now the turba hath given way [subsided or abated], so that the horror standeth [disappeareth] in death; for the falling of the water seizes upon the turba."
347. It hath two eternal beginnings, viz. one in the fire, and one in the light; and the third beginning hath been a 1 glass of the eternal, viz. the spirit of this world; it hath been as a wonder in this world, and the wonders have been made manifest by it, and that it is which possesseth the Last Judgment, its motion is the last. 48. For in the creation it moved the Father; and in the incarnation of the Word, the Son, and now the last moving, and the Judgment, is its own; * it will reduce everything to its eternal abode; and this is done by the voice of the word proceeding from the mouth of Christ. 49. For the spirit goeth forth in two Principles in God; that is, in the anger or fire, it goeth forth as the earnest wrath of the fire-life; in the light of the love it goeth forth as a flame of the divine Majesty; and in the spirit of this world, it goeth forth as a wonder of hfe; and all this is undeniable. 50. And if perhaps some person would arrogate such exceeding high learning to himself, as to deny it, to him we offer to demonstrate it in everything, we will except nothing in this world; everything will afford an evident testimony of it, let him come to us when he will: he ought not to forbear, and say we are mad; for if these words will not satisfy him, we will so evidence it to him, that he himself shall find and see who himself is: and though the devil himself should burst for very anger, yet we would set it down plainly before his eyes.
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.
139. And in this * elevation and commotion all waters will rise above the height of all mountains, so that there will be no l breathing upon the earth; they will rise so high, that they will be as it were consumed: All things will be so comprehended in the anger, in the turba, that there will be nothing but mere anguish in the elements. 40. All high mountains and rocks will crumble and fall down; the 2 stars will fall to the earth with their strong influence and virtue: All this will be brought to pass in several days; for, as the world was created, so it shall have its end; for the 3 longing of the earth in its anguish will draw the stars to it, as it hath always done 4 in this time; so that the earthly body hath drawn the f 5 seeking of the stars to it. 41. For the stars are a magical f 5 seeking, which hath awakened life; therefore, now, when the earth is awakened in the great turba, it will then become so thirsty and hungry that it will draw down the stars to it, there will be such an anguish upon the earth. 42. But the children of God shall lift up their eyes and hands to Christ, and rejoice that 6 the day of their deliverance is at hand; for the anguish doth not touch them. 1 Or respiration. 2 That is, those properties which are in the firmament: or a magic desire, as ver. 41, following. 3 seeking, or earnest desire. 4 Or all this while. 5 desire, or longing. 6 Luke xxi. 28. Rom. viii. 23.
2* "elevation" (Erheben), "upheaval." f "seeking" (Sucht), "attraction." 43. And in those days (but how many are appointed for it, are only known to God; for in six days the world and all its hosts were created; but this is now hidden from us) the water will return again to its own place, and fill all the deeps more than before. 44. For now death cometh with it; and in that hour all creatures, except man, shall die: and all men that have crept into the rocks and mountains shall come forth, but with anguish of their conscience; * though now the turba hath permitted that the horror standeth in death, for the falling of the water doth captivate the turba. 45. And then the voice of the Holy Ternary will open itself according to all the three Principles, and say by the mouth of Christ the Judge: Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment. 46. This voice is the original eternal spirit, which upholdeth every life, and which also hath always ruled in all the three Principles; for it is that spirit whence the life of every thing hath existed, and in which it standeth to eternity: It hath been the life and motion of all things, in which the beginning, and also the end of every life hath stood, and the eternity; for it is from eternity, and the Creator of all things. * "though now the turba," etc., lit., "though now the turba hath given way [subsided or abated], so that the horror standeth [disappeareth] in death; for the falling of the water seizes upon the turba."
347. It hath two eternal beginnings, viz. one in the fire, and one in the light; and the third beginning hath been a 1 glass of the eternal, viz. the spirit of this world; it hath been as a wonder in this world, and the wonders have been made manifest by it, and that it is which possesseth the Last Judgment, its motion is the last. 48. For in the creation it moved the Father; and in the incarnation of the Word, the Son, and now the last moving, and the Judgment, is its own; * it will reduce everything to its eternal abode; and this is done by the voice of the word proceeding from the mouth of Christ. 49. For the spirit goeth forth in two Principles in God; that is, in the anger or fire, it goeth forth as the earnest wrath of the fire-life; in the light of the love it goeth forth as a flame of the divine Majesty; and in the spirit of this world, it goeth forth as a wonder of hfe; and all this is undeniable. 50. And if perhaps some person would arrogate such exceeding high learning to himself, as to deny it, to him we offer to demonstrate it in everything, we will except nothing in this world; everything will afford an evident testimony of it, let him come to us when he will: he ought not to forbear, and say we are mad; for if these words will not satisfy him, we will so evidence it to him, that he himself shall find and see who himself is: and though the devil himself should burst for very anger, yet we would set it down plainly before his eyes.
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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