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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.
18. Thus we recognize the eternal Unground out of Nature to be like a mirror. For it is like an eye which sees, and yet conducts nothing in the seeing wherewith it sees; for seeing is without essence, although it is generated from essence, viz. from the essential life. 9. We are able then to recognize that the eternal THE FIRST POINT 15 Unground out of Nature is a will, like an eye wherein Nature is hidden; like a hidden fire that bums not, which exists and also exists not. It is not a spirit, but a form of spu'it like the reflection in the mirror. For all the form of a spirit is seen in the reflection or in the mirror, and yet there is nothing which the eye or mirror sees; but its seeing is in itself, for there is nothing before it that were deeper there. It is Hke a mirror which is a container of the aspect of Nature, and yet comprehends not Nature, as Nature comprehends not the form of the image in the mirror. 10. And thus one is free from the other, and yet the mirror is truly the container of the image. It embraces the image, and yet is powerless in respect of the form, for it cannot retain it. For if the image depart from the mirror, the mirror is a clear brightness, and its brightness is a nothing; and yet all the form of Nature is hidden therein as a nothing; and yet veritably is, but not in essence.
211. And so it is to be understood concerning the hidden eternal wisdom of God, which resembles an eternal eye without essence. It is the unground, and yet sees all; all has been hidden in it from eternity, and therefrom it has its seeing. But it is not essential, as in the mirror the brightness is not essential, which yet embraces all that appears before it. 12. Secondly, this is to be understood also of the eternal will, which likewise is without essence, as also of the Spirit of God. For no seeing is without spirit, neither is any spirit without seeing. And 16 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS we understand thus, that seeing sliines forth from the spirit, and is its eye or mirror, wherein the will is revealed. For seeing makes a will, as the unground of the deep without number knows to find no ground nor limit; hence its mirror goeth into itself, and makes a ground in itself, that is a will. 13. Thus the miiTor of the eternal eye shines forth in the will, and generates to itself another eternal ground within itself. This is its centre or heart, from which the seeing continually takes its rise from eternity, and through wliich the will becomes moving and directive, namely of that which the centre brings forth.
314. For all is comprised in the will, and is an essence, which, in the eternal Unground, eternally takes its rise in itself, enters into itself, grasps itself in itself, and makes the centre in itself; but with that which is grasped passes out of itself, manifests itself in the brightness of the eye, and thus shines forth out of the essence in itself and from itself. It is its own, and j^et also in comparison to Nature is as a nothing (understand, in comparison to palpable being, so to speak) ; though it is all, and all arises from thence. 15. And herein we understand the eternal Essence of the triad of the Deity, with the unfathomable wisdom. For the eternal will, which comprehends the eye or the mirror, wherein lies the eternal seeing as its wisdom, is Father. And that which is eternally grasped in wisdom, the grasp comprehending a basis or centre in itself, passing out of the ungroundness into a ground. THE FIRST POINT 17 is Son or Heart; for it is the Word of life, or its _ essentiality, in which the will shines forth with lustre.
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.
18. Thus we recognize the eternal Unground out of Nature to be like a mirror. For it is like an eye which sees, and yet conducts nothing in the seeing wherewith it sees; for seeing is without essence, although it is generated from essence, viz. from the essential life. 9. We are able then to recognize that the eternal THE FIRST POINT 15 Unground out of Nature is a will, like an eye wherein Nature is hidden; like a hidden fire that bums not, which exists and also exists not. It is not a spirit, but a form of spu'it like the reflection in the mirror. For all the form of a spirit is seen in the reflection or in the mirror, and yet there is nothing which the eye or mirror sees; but its seeing is in itself, for there is nothing before it that were deeper there. It is Hke a mirror which is a container of the aspect of Nature, and yet comprehends not Nature, as Nature comprehends not the form of the image in the mirror. 10. And thus one is free from the other, and yet the mirror is truly the container of the image. It embraces the image, and yet is powerless in respect of the form, for it cannot retain it. For if the image depart from the mirror, the mirror is a clear brightness, and its brightness is a nothing; and yet all the form of Nature is hidden therein as a nothing; and yet veritably is, but not in essence.
211. And so it is to be understood concerning the hidden eternal wisdom of God, which resembles an eternal eye without essence. It is the unground, and yet sees all; all has been hidden in it from eternity, and therefrom it has its seeing. But it is not essential, as in the mirror the brightness is not essential, which yet embraces all that appears before it. 12. Secondly, this is to be understood also of the eternal will, which likewise is without essence, as also of the Spirit of God. For no seeing is without spirit, neither is any spirit without seeing. And 16 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS we understand thus, that seeing sliines forth from the spirit, and is its eye or mirror, wherein the will is revealed. For seeing makes a will, as the unground of the deep without number knows to find no ground nor limit; hence its mirror goeth into itself, and makes a ground in itself, that is a will. 13. Thus the miiTor of the eternal eye shines forth in the will, and generates to itself another eternal ground within itself. This is its centre or heart, from which the seeing continually takes its rise from eternity, and through wliich the will becomes moving and directive, namely of that which the centre brings forth.
314. For all is comprised in the will, and is an essence, which, in the eternal Unground, eternally takes its rise in itself, enters into itself, grasps itself in itself, and makes the centre in itself; but with that which is grasped passes out of itself, manifests itself in the brightness of the eye, and thus shines forth out of the essence in itself and from itself. It is its own, and j^et also in comparison to Nature is as a nothing (understand, in comparison to palpable being, so to speak) ; though it is all, and all arises from thence. 15. And herein we understand the eternal Essence of the triad of the Deity, with the unfathomable wisdom. For the eternal will, which comprehends the eye or the mirror, wherein lies the eternal seeing as its wisdom, is Father. And that which is eternally grasped in wisdom, the grasp comprehending a basis or centre in itself, passing out of the ungroundness into a ground. THE FIRST POINT 17 is Son or Heart; for it is the Word of life, or its _ essentiality, in which the will shines forth with lustre.
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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