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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.
1The First Point. Of the springing of the three Principles, etc. 13 Chapter I. Of the first growth and life from the first Principle, etc. 13 Chapter II. Of the proprium of the principle, etc. 31 The Second Point. Of the mixed tree of evil and good, etc. 47 Chapter III. 47 The Third Point. Of the origin of contrariety in growth, etc. 54 Chapter IV. 54 The Fourth Point. How the holy and good tree of eternal life grows through and out of all the growths of the three principles, etc. 64 Chapter V. 64 Chapter VI. 70 The Fifth Point. How a life may perish in the tree of life, etc. 76 Chapter VII. 76 Chapter VIII. Of the right human essence from God's essence 90 7 8 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS PAGE The Sixth Point. Of the life of darkness, wherein the devils dwell, etc. 99 Chapter IX. 99 Chapter X. Of the four elements of the devil and of the dark world, etc. 112 SIX MYSTICAL POINTS Preface 127 The First Point. On the blood and water of the soul 129 The Second Point. On the election of grace, etc. 131 The Third Point. On sin, etc. 135 The Fourth Point. How Christ will deliver up the kingdom to his Father 141 The Fifth Point. On Magic. What Magic is, etc. 143 The Sixth Point. On Mystery. What it is 148 ON THE EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY MYSTERY The First Text 153 The Second Text 154 The Third Text 155 The Fourth Text 156 The Fifth Text 159 The Sixth Text 162 The Seventh Text 164 The Eighth Text 168 The Ninth Text 172 CONTENTS 9 PAOI
2ON THE DIVINE INTUITION Chapter I. What God is, etc 177 Chapter II. Of the mind, will, and thoughts of human life, etc. 191 Chapter III. Of the natural ground, etc. 202 Chapter IV. Of the In and Out, etc. 219 SEX PUNCTA THEOSOPHICA OR HIGH AND DEEP GROUNDING OF SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS BY JACOB BOHME AN OPEN GATE OF ALL THE SECRETS OF LIFE WHEREIN THE CAUSES OF ALL BEINGS BECOME KNOWN Written in the year 1620 THE FIRST POINT Of the springing of the three principles What sort of tree or life each generates in itself and from itself. How we are to investigate and know the ground of nature CHAPTER I Of the first growth and life from the first Principle. That we are so to ponder and consider it, as if it stood alone and were not mixed with the other, — what its power might he. That, therefore, we are not to think of it as being such that it is one and united in a single figure or creation; hut [we are to think of it so'] that we learn to explore and fathom the centrum naturae, and to distinguish the divine Essence from Nature. 1. We see and find that every life is essential, and find moreover that it is based on will ; for will is the driving of the essences. 2. It is thus, as if a hidden fire lay in the will, and the will continually uplifting itself towards the fire wished to awaken and kindle it.
33. For we understand that every will without the awakening of the fiery essences is an impotency, as it were dumb without life, wherein is no feeling, 13 14 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS understanding or substantiality. It resembles only a shadow without substance; for it has no conductor, but sinks down and suffers itself to be driven and led like a dead thing, — such as is to be compared to a shadow, which is led along without essence. 4. Thus an essential will is a dumb existence without comprehension or life; and yet is a figure in the unfathomable eternal nothing, for it is attached to the corporeal things. 5. Now, as the will without essence is dumb and without being, so in the essence it is a being and image according to the essences, which is fashioned after the essences ; for the life of the will is generated from the essences. 6. Thus life is the essences' son, and the will, wherein life's figure stands, is the essences' father; for no essence can arise without will. For in the will is originated desire, in which the essences take their rise. 7. Seeing then the first will is an ungroundedness, to be regarded as an eternal nothing, we recognize it to be like a mirror, wherein one sees his own image; like a life, and yet it is no life, but a figure of life and of the image belonging to life.
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.
1The First Point. Of the springing of the three Principles, etc. 13 Chapter I. Of the first growth and life from the first Principle, etc. 13 Chapter II. Of the proprium of the principle, etc. 31 The Second Point. Of the mixed tree of evil and good, etc. 47 Chapter III. 47 The Third Point. Of the origin of contrariety in growth, etc. 54 Chapter IV. 54 The Fourth Point. How the holy and good tree of eternal life grows through and out of all the growths of the three principles, etc. 64 Chapter V. 64 Chapter VI. 70 The Fifth Point. How a life may perish in the tree of life, etc. 76 Chapter VII. 76 Chapter VIII. Of the right human essence from God's essence 90 7 8 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS PAGE The Sixth Point. Of the life of darkness, wherein the devils dwell, etc. 99 Chapter IX. 99 Chapter X. Of the four elements of the devil and of the dark world, etc. 112 SIX MYSTICAL POINTS Preface 127 The First Point. On the blood and water of the soul 129 The Second Point. On the election of grace, etc. 131 The Third Point. On sin, etc. 135 The Fourth Point. How Christ will deliver up the kingdom to his Father 141 The Fifth Point. On Magic. What Magic is, etc. 143 The Sixth Point. On Mystery. What it is 148 ON THE EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY MYSTERY The First Text 153 The Second Text 154 The Third Text 155 The Fourth Text 156 The Fifth Text 159 The Sixth Text 162 The Seventh Text 164 The Eighth Text 168 The Ninth Text 172 CONTENTS 9 PAOI
2ON THE DIVINE INTUITION Chapter I. What God is, etc 177 Chapter II. Of the mind, will, and thoughts of human life, etc. 191 Chapter III. Of the natural ground, etc. 202 Chapter IV. Of the In and Out, etc. 219 SEX PUNCTA THEOSOPHICA OR HIGH AND DEEP GROUNDING OF SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS BY JACOB BOHME AN OPEN GATE OF ALL THE SECRETS OF LIFE WHEREIN THE CAUSES OF ALL BEINGS BECOME KNOWN Written in the year 1620 THE FIRST POINT Of the springing of the three principles What sort of tree or life each generates in itself and from itself. How we are to investigate and know the ground of nature CHAPTER I Of the first growth and life from the first Principle. That we are so to ponder and consider it, as if it stood alone and were not mixed with the other, — what its power might he. That, therefore, we are not to think of it as being such that it is one and united in a single figure or creation; hut [we are to think of it so'] that we learn to explore and fathom the centrum naturae, and to distinguish the divine Essence from Nature. 1. We see and find that every life is essential, and find moreover that it is based on will ; for will is the driving of the essences. 2. It is thus, as if a hidden fire lay in the will, and the will continually uplifting itself towards the fire wished to awaken and kindle it.
33. For we understand that every will without the awakening of the fiery essences is an impotency, as it were dumb without life, wherein is no feeling, 13 14 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS understanding or substantiality. It resembles only a shadow without substance; for it has no conductor, but sinks down and suffers itself to be driven and led like a dead thing, — such as is to be compared to a shadow, which is led along without essence. 4. Thus an essential will is a dumb existence without comprehension or life; and yet is a figure in the unfathomable eternal nothing, for it is attached to the corporeal things. 5. Now, as the will without essence is dumb and without being, so in the essence it is a being and image according to the essences, which is fashioned after the essences ; for the life of the will is generated from the essences. 6. Thus life is the essences' son, and the will, wherein life's figure stands, is the essences' father; for no essence can arise without will. For in the will is originated desire, in which the essences take their rise. 7. Seeing then the first will is an ungroundedness, to be regarded as an eternal nothing, we recognize it to be like a mirror, wherein one sees his own image; like a life, and yet it is no life, but a figure of life and of the image belonging to life.
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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