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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.
165. Another will have the outward body, and Christ's image therein, and the divine spirit of love will shine in the spirit of his soul; which the word Fiat clotheth again with the true and pure Adamical image. 1 the transitory, and eternal body. 2 Life in four copies; but it may be body, by the sense. 66. For the pure image hath been hidden in God, in the Word which became man: and now when the soul cometh to the limit it obtaineth that again, and also the fair and excellent l virgin of the wisdom of God. 67. For the noble image was destroyed in Adam when the woman was taken out of him, so that he retained only the tincture of the fire, and the woman had the tincture of the spirit; but 2 now both return to them wholly again. 68. For the woman shall receive the tincture of the fire, in the divine fire, so that she shall be as Adam was, neither man nor woman; but a virgin, full of chastity, without the 3 shape or members of man or woman. 69. And then they shall no more say, Thou art my husband, or, Thou art my wife, but they are brethren: indeed there shall be some remaining tokens of the difference, in the divine magical wonders, but none will regard that; for they are all of them merely the children of God, hving the life of children in the delighting sport of love.
270. All this will be done before the sentence, for the trial will be the first, and the sentence the last, day of judgment; and those that are then alive shall not die, but shall be presented with the other by the voice of God before the 4 judgment of God. 1 See the book of the Three Principles, Ch. xii. ver. 53. 2 in the resurrection. 3 form, or distinction. 4 Or righteousness. 71. The word Fiat will bring all thither, and all shall be presented in their own order by the Fiat; as first, emperors and kings, and then their subjects over whom they reigned, princes, noblemen, governors, magistrates, and superiors; every one in his 1 condition. 72. And here, all those that have taken upon them to be Christ's shepherds, without 2 the calling of God, shall stand in the midst of their flock of sheep, and give an account of their 3 course of life and doctrine, and whether they have been Christ's shepherds, and have fed the sheep, or no. Or whether they have been 4 servants, or ministers to their own bellies. And here the spirit will make inquiry into their calling, whether they have entered into the sheepfold by his election and power, or by man's favour, without the spirit and election of God.
373. For the Judge will say unto them, Now give an account of your life, works, words, deeds, and ways: then the turba of every one will declare what he hath been; for now all things shall appear in the figure, within them and without them, so that there shall be no 5 denial; for the spirit 6 by the turba proveth the soul, spirit, and flesh: here all will be manifested. 74. Kings and princes shall be constrained to give an account of their subjects; how they have ruled and protected them; what kind of government they have used; why they have taken away the lives of many by tyranny, and why they have shed innocent blood; also, why they have made war for their covetousness, and their pleasure's sake. 1 Or office, or employment. 2 the divine calling, or true Jus Divinum. 3 doings, or works and teaching. 4 For livings, or money, as hirelings. 5 Or lying. 6 of the judge. 75. In like manner, all other superiors will be called to an account, why they have intruded themselves into office, and made themselves l lords over the simple, and afflicted, oppressed, and squeezed them, and taken away their sweat, and spent it in pride.
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.
165. Another will have the outward body, and Christ's image therein, and the divine spirit of love will shine in the spirit of his soul; which the word Fiat clotheth again with the true and pure Adamical image. 1 the transitory, and eternal body. 2 Life in four copies; but it may be body, by the sense. 66. For the pure image hath been hidden in God, in the Word which became man: and now when the soul cometh to the limit it obtaineth that again, and also the fair and excellent l virgin of the wisdom of God. 67. For the noble image was destroyed in Adam when the woman was taken out of him, so that he retained only the tincture of the fire, and the woman had the tincture of the spirit; but 2 now both return to them wholly again. 68. For the woman shall receive the tincture of the fire, in the divine fire, so that she shall be as Adam was, neither man nor woman; but a virgin, full of chastity, without the 3 shape or members of man or woman. 69. And then they shall no more say, Thou art my husband, or, Thou art my wife, but they are brethren: indeed there shall be some remaining tokens of the difference, in the divine magical wonders, but none will regard that; for they are all of them merely the children of God, hving the life of children in the delighting sport of love.
270. All this will be done before the sentence, for the trial will be the first, and the sentence the last, day of judgment; and those that are then alive shall not die, but shall be presented with the other by the voice of God before the 4 judgment of God. 1 See the book of the Three Principles, Ch. xii. ver. 53. 2 in the resurrection. 3 form, or distinction. 4 Or righteousness. 71. The word Fiat will bring all thither, and all shall be presented in their own order by the Fiat; as first, emperors and kings, and then their subjects over whom they reigned, princes, noblemen, governors, magistrates, and superiors; every one in his 1 condition. 72. And here, all those that have taken upon them to be Christ's shepherds, without 2 the calling of God, shall stand in the midst of their flock of sheep, and give an account of their 3 course of life and doctrine, and whether they have been Christ's shepherds, and have fed the sheep, or no. Or whether they have been 4 servants, or ministers to their own bellies. And here the spirit will make inquiry into their calling, whether they have entered into the sheepfold by his election and power, or by man's favour, without the spirit and election of God.
373. For the Judge will say unto them, Now give an account of your life, works, words, deeds, and ways: then the turba of every one will declare what he hath been; for now all things shall appear in the figure, within them and without them, so that there shall be no 5 denial; for the spirit 6 by the turba proveth the soul, spirit, and flesh: here all will be manifested. 74. Kings and princes shall be constrained to give an account of their subjects; how they have ruled and protected them; what kind of government they have used; why they have taken away the lives of many by tyranny, and why they have shed innocent blood; also, why they have made war for their covetousness, and their pleasure's sake. 1 Or office, or employment. 2 the divine calling, or true Jus Divinum. 3 doings, or works and teaching. 4 For livings, or money, as hirelings. 5 Or lying. 6 of the judge. 75. In like manner, all other superiors will be called to an account, why they have intruded themselves into office, and made themselves l lords over the simple, and afflicted, oppressed, and squeezed them, and taken away their sweat, and spent it in pride.
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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