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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.
1himself God's child ; but in this coat man does only his will for him, so that all that the devil cannot or may not do in the external kingdom, that man does for him in his service. The devil may not kill any one, and man does it readily to please him. Neither can the devil use God's creatures, and man misuses them willingly to please him, thereby to mock God. With this he practises pride and covetousness, also falsehood and malice, and accomplishes by them all that the devil would have; he shines also therewith as if he were God. 8. The external kingdom is therefore become a perpetual murderous den of the devil. The false and pretended man (who calls himself a man, but is not) does butchery, and increases God's wrath, and kindles the dark world in this outer world, so that God's wrath continually burns in this world. 9. Thus God's kingdom is hindered, and the devil's will done; and the devil remains a prince on earth, whereas othervrise he could accomplish nothing on earth. The pretended man is in his service, and does his will. Two species of men, then, dwell together on earth. The one are real true men, who serve God in the coat of humiHty and misery, whom the devil derides and torments them with the other species, and in their case brings all his wonders to pass by means of those who serve him.
210. The other species also calls itself men, walk also in human form, but they are evil beasts. They put on the garment of their King, that is to say. Falsehood; and live in the power of the four 116 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS elements of their king, viz. in pride, covetousness, envy and anger. 11. Pride is the first virtue. It snatches the bread from the mouth of the real man, and coerces the wretched, that it may satisfy itself. It insists that nothing shall be on a level with it; it will be alone the fairest child in the house. It has put on the coat of dissimulation, and would be called righteous; people must honour it and bow themselves before it. Nothing must compare itself to it. It will be lord, and says: I am modest in my demeanour.
312. But its heart is covetousness. That is the wolf, and devours the sweat and labour of the wretched. Pride mounts up above all. It explores daily the wonders of God, to see how it may dissemble and play the hypocrite. It affects to be friendly and chaste, as if it were a virgin full of modesty; and yet is a strumpet full of flaws, and at heart hates all virtue, chastity and righteousness. It is a perpetual enemy of love and humility. Whatever is simple, that it despises ; and yet forces the simple under its yoke. It says to the real true man: Thou art my dog, I will hunt thee whither I list. Thou art foolish, and I am wise; and it is itself the biggest fool. It forfeits God and the kingdom of heaven for a little while's delight of the eyes ; it plunges itself into darkness, and puts on the coat of anxiety. 13. The second virtue of this King Falsehood is covetousness. This draws all to itself, and darkens the shining adornment of pride. It draws THE SIXTH POINT 117
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.
1himself God's child ; but in this coat man does only his will for him, so that all that the devil cannot or may not do in the external kingdom, that man does for him in his service. The devil may not kill any one, and man does it readily to please him. Neither can the devil use God's creatures, and man misuses them willingly to please him, thereby to mock God. With this he practises pride and covetousness, also falsehood and malice, and accomplishes by them all that the devil would have; he shines also therewith as if he were God. 8. The external kingdom is therefore become a perpetual murderous den of the devil. The false and pretended man (who calls himself a man, but is not) does butchery, and increases God's wrath, and kindles the dark world in this outer world, so that God's wrath continually burns in this world. 9. Thus God's kingdom is hindered, and the devil's will done; and the devil remains a prince on earth, whereas othervrise he could accomplish nothing on earth. The pretended man is in his service, and does his will. Two species of men, then, dwell together on earth. The one are real true men, who serve God in the coat of humiHty and misery, whom the devil derides and torments them with the other species, and in their case brings all his wonders to pass by means of those who serve him.
210. The other species also calls itself men, walk also in human form, but they are evil beasts. They put on the garment of their King, that is to say. Falsehood; and live in the power of the four 116 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS elements of their king, viz. in pride, covetousness, envy and anger. 11. Pride is the first virtue. It snatches the bread from the mouth of the real man, and coerces the wretched, that it may satisfy itself. It insists that nothing shall be on a level with it; it will be alone the fairest child in the house. It has put on the coat of dissimulation, and would be called righteous; people must honour it and bow themselves before it. Nothing must compare itself to it. It will be lord, and says: I am modest in my demeanour.
312. But its heart is covetousness. That is the wolf, and devours the sweat and labour of the wretched. Pride mounts up above all. It explores daily the wonders of God, to see how it may dissemble and play the hypocrite. It affects to be friendly and chaste, as if it were a virgin full of modesty; and yet is a strumpet full of flaws, and at heart hates all virtue, chastity and righteousness. It is a perpetual enemy of love and humility. Whatever is simple, that it despises ; and yet forces the simple under its yoke. It says to the real true man: Thou art my dog, I will hunt thee whither I list. Thou art foolish, and I am wise; and it is itself the biggest fool. It forfeits God and the kingdom of heaven for a little while's delight of the eyes ; it plunges itself into darkness, and puts on the coat of anxiety. 13. The second virtue of this King Falsehood is covetousness. This draws all to itself, and darkens the shining adornment of pride. It draws THE SIXTH POINT 117
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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