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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.
17. And then the craving seizes this (namely the muTor), brings it into its imagination, and finds that it is not of its hfe. Hence opposition arises and loathing, so that the craving would discard the THE FIFTH TEXT 161 mirror, and yet cannot. And therefore the craving seeks the limit of the beginning, and passes out of the mirror. Thus the mirror is broken, and the breaking is a turha, as a dying of the formed or comprehended hfe. 8. And it is highly recognizable by us how the imagination of the Eternal Nature has the turha in the craving, in the Mystery, but not awakenable, unless the creature, as the mirror of eternity, doth itself awaken this, viz. the fierce wrath, which in eternity is hidden in mystery. 9. And we see here, when the Eternal Nature put itself in motion once for all by the creation of the world, that the fierce wrath was awakened too, and also manifested itself in creatures. As indeed we find many evil beasts, likewise herbs and trees, as also worms, toads, serpents and the like, — of which the Eternal Nature hath a loathing, and the malignity and poison is nourished only in its own essence.
210. And therefore the Eternal Nature seeks the limit of the malignity, and would abandon it. Then it falls into the turha, as into a dying ; and yet there is no dying, but a spewing-out in the Mystery, where the malignity with its life must stand apart as in a darkness. For the Eternal Nature abandons it and casts it into shade, so that it stands thus by itself as an evil, poisonous, fierce mysterium, and is itself its own magic as a craving of the poisonful anguish. THE SIXTH TEXT 1 . When we consider and take cognizance of ourselves, we find the opposition of all essences, each being the loathing of the other, and enemy to the other. 2. For every will desires a purity without turba in the other essence ; and yet has itself the turba in it, and is also the loathing of the other. Then the power of the greater extends over the lesser and holds it in subjection, unless it escape from it; otherwise the strong rules over the weak. Therefore the weak doth run, and seeks the limit of the driver or oppressor, and would be free from compulsion. And thus the limit, which is hidden in mystery, is sought by all creatures.
33. And hence arises all the power of this world, that one rules over the other. And this was not in the beginning commanded or ordained by the highest good, but grew out of the turba. Afterward Nature acknowledged it as her own being, which was born from her, and gave it laws, to generate itself further in the framed government. Where then this birth has climbed to regal prerogative, and has moreover sought the abyss, as the One, till it is become monarchy or empire. And there it is climbing still, and will be one and not many. And though it be in many, yet will the first source, from which all is generated, rule over all, and will alone be a lord over all governments. 162 THE SIXTH TEXT 163 4. And as this craving was in the beginning one government, but in time divided itself into many according to the essences ; therefore the plurahty again seeks the One, and it is certainly born in the sixth number of the crown, in the six thousandth year in the figure ; not at the end, but in the hour of the day in which the creation of the wonders was completed. 5. That is, when the wonders of the turba are in the end, a Lord is born who governs the whole world, but by many forms of administration. 6. And then the self-grown authority and the oppressor will be sought; for the lesser, who hath lain under, has run to the limit. Then everything separates itself, for it is at the limit, and there is no staying or revoking.
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.
17. And then the craving seizes this (namely the muTor), brings it into its imagination, and finds that it is not of its hfe. Hence opposition arises and loathing, so that the craving would discard the THE FIFTH TEXT 161 mirror, and yet cannot. And therefore the craving seeks the limit of the beginning, and passes out of the mirror. Thus the mirror is broken, and the breaking is a turha, as a dying of the formed or comprehended hfe. 8. And it is highly recognizable by us how the imagination of the Eternal Nature has the turha in the craving, in the Mystery, but not awakenable, unless the creature, as the mirror of eternity, doth itself awaken this, viz. the fierce wrath, which in eternity is hidden in mystery. 9. And we see here, when the Eternal Nature put itself in motion once for all by the creation of the world, that the fierce wrath was awakened too, and also manifested itself in creatures. As indeed we find many evil beasts, likewise herbs and trees, as also worms, toads, serpents and the like, — of which the Eternal Nature hath a loathing, and the malignity and poison is nourished only in its own essence.
210. And therefore the Eternal Nature seeks the limit of the malignity, and would abandon it. Then it falls into the turha, as into a dying ; and yet there is no dying, but a spewing-out in the Mystery, where the malignity with its life must stand apart as in a darkness. For the Eternal Nature abandons it and casts it into shade, so that it stands thus by itself as an evil, poisonous, fierce mysterium, and is itself its own magic as a craving of the poisonful anguish. THE SIXTH TEXT 1 . When we consider and take cognizance of ourselves, we find the opposition of all essences, each being the loathing of the other, and enemy to the other. 2. For every will desires a purity without turba in the other essence ; and yet has itself the turba in it, and is also the loathing of the other. Then the power of the greater extends over the lesser and holds it in subjection, unless it escape from it; otherwise the strong rules over the weak. Therefore the weak doth run, and seeks the limit of the driver or oppressor, and would be free from compulsion. And thus the limit, which is hidden in mystery, is sought by all creatures.
33. And hence arises all the power of this world, that one rules over the other. And this was not in the beginning commanded or ordained by the highest good, but grew out of the turba. Afterward Nature acknowledged it as her own being, which was born from her, and gave it laws, to generate itself further in the framed government. Where then this birth has climbed to regal prerogative, and has moreover sought the abyss, as the One, till it is become monarchy or empire. And there it is climbing still, and will be one and not many. And though it be in many, yet will the first source, from which all is generated, rule over all, and will alone be a lord over all governments. 162 THE SIXTH TEXT 163 4. And as this craving was in the beginning one government, but in time divided itself into many according to the essences ; therefore the plurahty again seeks the One, and it is certainly born in the sixth number of the crown, in the six thousandth year in the figure ; not at the end, but in the hour of the day in which the creation of the wonders was completed. 5. That is, when the wonders of the turba are in the end, a Lord is born who governs the whole world, but by many forms of administration. 6. And then the self-grown authority and the oppressor will be sought; for the lesser, who hath lain under, has run to the limit. Then everything separates itself, for it is at the limit, and there is no staying or revoking.
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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