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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.
15. But seeing they go out from themselves, the beginning seeks the end, and the middle is the turha. For it is not in the Free-will of God; but it grows from itself, and elevates itself like a proud tree. 6. And as God is one only in will, one in the eternal Desire or in the eternal Magic (so that the craving of the eternal Magic yields itself up to the eternal Will, and draws therein its life), then the apostate will is a perjured whore, for it is a generatress of falsehood, and hangs not on the Free-will. 7. And here we understand a separation from God; a cause of all this being Lucifer, who made the Magic of Nature subject to false desire. Thus two eternal lives are born: one in the will of God, the other in the will of the devil and of the fierce wrath; and this is Babel with Antichrist on earth. 8. All that goes out from God's will into its own will belongs to Babel. This is seen in Jews and heathens, and in all peoples. 170 ON HEAVENLY MYSTERY 9. The heathen remained in their own magic. But those who from the itch of corruption passed out into the light of Nature because they did not know God, yet have lived in purity, — these were children of the Free-will, and in them has the Spirit of Freedom revealed great wonders in their mystery, as is to be seen by the wisdom they have bequeathed to us.
210. But the others, who have lived only in their own magical will from flesh and blood, — their will was drowned in the turha. And the turha streamed forth in their will, and gave them a spirit according to the essences of covetousness and fierceness. These have sought only the number of plurality, as dominions and kingdoms. 11. And when the turha could not on account of power advance, it grew furious and began hostilities. And from thence war has its origin, viz, from pride and greed of plurality, and belongs with its number to the Mystery of wrath. 12. Thus also were the Jews. God revealed himself to them, but they were attached also to two wills. One part to the commandment, with their will directed into God's will, as the patriarchs and all the pious hopers of Israel. The others performed with their hands the work of the law, and adhered with their will to their poisoned magic, viz. to covetousness, and sought only their numbers of plurality. Their mouth was a Jew, and their heart a Babylonish whore, a hypocrite and an antichrist, with fair words and a false covetous heart. 13. And in the same way in Christendom and THE EIGHTH TEXT 171 among all peoples the Babylonish whore with Antichrist is established. In one people dwell at once two kingdoms, and are not miscible in the inward spirit so as to become one, like as clay and iron are not miscible. They mix indeed by the body, but their spirits are two kinds (Dan. ii. 43).
314. Whosoever will know Antichrist, let him seek him thus ; he will find him in every house. But the worst of all is the crowned whore ; and her sponsors at the baptism of whoredom are the brawlers who lead out of the one will of God into many wills, that they may inherit only the number of plurality, and fatten earthly bellies. 15. And the other part of the Free-will of God proceeds with its magical will out of itself into Freedom, viz. into the one ungraspable will of God. These stand turned backward in the magical figure. Their life seeks bread, and goes forward; yet their will is not in the bread, but passes out of itself, out of the craving, into God. These live with the will in God, in one nmnber; these are children of the eternal true Magic. For God's Spirit dwells in their will, and reveals to them the eternal wonders of God; and their life's spirit reveals the wonders of this world. 16. These are free from Babel and Antichrist, even though they should sit in his lap. For the true image of God is in the spirit of the will, which is generated from the soul's spirit. THE NINTH TEXT
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.
15. But seeing they go out from themselves, the beginning seeks the end, and the middle is the turha. For it is not in the Free-will of God; but it grows from itself, and elevates itself like a proud tree. 6. And as God is one only in will, one in the eternal Desire or in the eternal Magic (so that the craving of the eternal Magic yields itself up to the eternal Will, and draws therein its life), then the apostate will is a perjured whore, for it is a generatress of falsehood, and hangs not on the Free-will. 7. And here we understand a separation from God; a cause of all this being Lucifer, who made the Magic of Nature subject to false desire. Thus two eternal lives are born: one in the will of God, the other in the will of the devil and of the fierce wrath; and this is Babel with Antichrist on earth. 8. All that goes out from God's will into its own will belongs to Babel. This is seen in Jews and heathens, and in all peoples. 170 ON HEAVENLY MYSTERY 9. The heathen remained in their own magic. But those who from the itch of corruption passed out into the light of Nature because they did not know God, yet have lived in purity, — these were children of the Free-will, and in them has the Spirit of Freedom revealed great wonders in their mystery, as is to be seen by the wisdom they have bequeathed to us.
210. But the others, who have lived only in their own magical will from flesh and blood, — their will was drowned in the turha. And the turha streamed forth in their will, and gave them a spirit according to the essences of covetousness and fierceness. These have sought only the number of plurality, as dominions and kingdoms. 11. And when the turha could not on account of power advance, it grew furious and began hostilities. And from thence war has its origin, viz, from pride and greed of plurality, and belongs with its number to the Mystery of wrath. 12. Thus also were the Jews. God revealed himself to them, but they were attached also to two wills. One part to the commandment, with their will directed into God's will, as the patriarchs and all the pious hopers of Israel. The others performed with their hands the work of the law, and adhered with their will to their poisoned magic, viz. to covetousness, and sought only their numbers of plurality. Their mouth was a Jew, and their heart a Babylonish whore, a hypocrite and an antichrist, with fair words and a false covetous heart. 13. And in the same way in Christendom and THE EIGHTH TEXT 171 among all peoples the Babylonish whore with Antichrist is established. In one people dwell at once two kingdoms, and are not miscible in the inward spirit so as to become one, like as clay and iron are not miscible. They mix indeed by the body, but their spirits are two kinds (Dan. ii. 43).
314. Whosoever will know Antichrist, let him seek him thus ; he will find him in every house. But the worst of all is the crowned whore ; and her sponsors at the baptism of whoredom are the brawlers who lead out of the one will of God into many wills, that they may inherit only the number of plurality, and fatten earthly bellies. 15. And the other part of the Free-will of God proceeds with its magical will out of itself into Freedom, viz. into the one ungraspable will of God. These stand turned backward in the magical figure. Their life seeks bread, and goes forward; yet their will is not in the bread, but passes out of itself, out of the craving, into God. These live with the will in God, in one nmnber; these are children of the eternal true Magic. For God's Spirit dwells in their will, and reveals to them the eternal wonders of God; and their life's spirit reveals the wonders of this world. 16. These are free from Babel and Antichrist, even though they should sit in his lap. For the true image of God is in the spirit of the will, which is generated from the soul's spirit. THE NINTH TEXT
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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