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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.
148. It being unable then to flee or ascend, it turns as a wheel. And here the essences become mixed, and the plurality of essences enters into a mixed will, which is rightly called the eternal mind, where plurality in numberless essences is comprised in a mind, where always from an essence a will again may arise according to the property of that essence, whence the eternal wonders spring. 49. Seeing then the great and strong mind of the form of anguish goes thus in itself as a wheel, and continually breaks the stern attraction, and by the sting brings into plurality of essences; but in anguish, in the wheel disposes again into a one, as into a mind: therefore now the anguishful life is born, viz. Nature, where there is a moving, driving, fleeing and holding, as also a feeling, tasting and hearing. And yet it is not a right life, but only a Nature-life without a principle. For it has no growth, but is like a frenzy or madness, where something goes whirling in itself as a wheel, where indeed there is a bond of life, but without understanding or knowledge; for it knows not itself. 50. Further, we are to inquire concerning the other will of the eternal Father which is called God, which in the centre of its heart desires light and the manifestation of the triad in wisdom. This will is set or directed towards the centrum naturae, for through Nature must the splendour of Majesty arise. 51. Now, this other will in the Word of life has
226 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS freedom in itself; and the anguishful will in the sharpness of Nature desires freedom, that freedom might be revealed in the anguish of the fierce wrathful mind. 52. Whence then also anguish arises, that the first will wishes to be free from the dark sourness (astringency), and freedom desires manifestation; for it cannot find itself in itself without sharpness or pain. For the will of freedom, which is called Father, desires to manifest itself, and that it cannot do without properties. 53. It is therefore desirous of properties, which take their rise in anguish, in essences, in fire, thereby to manifest its wonders, power and colours, which without Nature cannot be. 54. Thus, the first will (which is called Father, and is itself freedom) desires Nature, and Nature with great longing desii-es freedom, that it may be released from the torment of anguish. And it receives freedom in its sharp fierceness in the imagination, at which it is terrified as a flash; for it is a terror of joy that it is released from the torment of anguish. 55. And in the terror arise two beings, a mortal one and a living one, to be understood thus : 56. The vdll which is called Father, which has freedom in itself, so generates itself in Nature, that it is susceptible of Nature, and that it is the universal power of Nature.
357. The terror of its Nature is a kindler of fire. For when the dark anguish, as the very fervent, stern being, receives freedom in itself, it is transTHE FIRST POINT 27 formed in the terror, in freedom, into a flash, and the flash embraces freedom or gentleness. Then the sting of death is broken; and there rises in Nature the other will of the Father, which he drew prior to Nature in the mirror of wisdom, viz. his heart of love, the desire of love, the kingdom of joy. 58. For in the Father's will fire is thus generated, to which the other will gives the power of gentleness and love. The fire takes the love-quality into its essence, and that is now its food, so that it burns, and gives from the consumption, from the terror, the joyous spirit. 59. That is, here, the Holy Spirit, who originally prior to Nature is the Father's Will-Spirit, becomes manifest, and receives here the power of wonders; and proceeds thus from the Father (viz. from the first will to Nature) , from the other will in Nature, from fire, or from the terror of joy in the source of love, into the substantiality of gentleness. 60. For gentleness is also become desirous of the fire's property, and the desire draws the gentleness of the kingdom of joy into itself. That is now the water of eternal life, which the fire drinks, and gives therefrom the light of Majesty.
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.
148. It being unable then to flee or ascend, it turns as a wheel. And here the essences become mixed, and the plurality of essences enters into a mixed will, which is rightly called the eternal mind, where plurality in numberless essences is comprised in a mind, where always from an essence a will again may arise according to the property of that essence, whence the eternal wonders spring. 49. Seeing then the great and strong mind of the form of anguish goes thus in itself as a wheel, and continually breaks the stern attraction, and by the sting brings into plurality of essences; but in anguish, in the wheel disposes again into a one, as into a mind: therefore now the anguishful life is born, viz. Nature, where there is a moving, driving, fleeing and holding, as also a feeling, tasting and hearing. And yet it is not a right life, but only a Nature-life without a principle. For it has no growth, but is like a frenzy or madness, where something goes whirling in itself as a wheel, where indeed there is a bond of life, but without understanding or knowledge; for it knows not itself. 50. Further, we are to inquire concerning the other will of the eternal Father which is called God, which in the centre of its heart desires light and the manifestation of the triad in wisdom. This will is set or directed towards the centrum naturae, for through Nature must the splendour of Majesty arise. 51. Now, this other will in the Word of life has
226 SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS freedom in itself; and the anguishful will in the sharpness of Nature desires freedom, that freedom might be revealed in the anguish of the fierce wrathful mind. 52. Whence then also anguish arises, that the first will wishes to be free from the dark sourness (astringency), and freedom desires manifestation; for it cannot find itself in itself without sharpness or pain. For the will of freedom, which is called Father, desires to manifest itself, and that it cannot do without properties. 53. It is therefore desirous of properties, which take their rise in anguish, in essences, in fire, thereby to manifest its wonders, power and colours, which without Nature cannot be. 54. Thus, the first will (which is called Father, and is itself freedom) desires Nature, and Nature with great longing desii-es freedom, that it may be released from the torment of anguish. And it receives freedom in its sharp fierceness in the imagination, at which it is terrified as a flash; for it is a terror of joy that it is released from the torment of anguish. 55. And in the terror arise two beings, a mortal one and a living one, to be understood thus : 56. The vdll which is called Father, which has freedom in itself, so generates itself in Nature, that it is susceptible of Nature, and that it is the universal power of Nature.
357. The terror of its Nature is a kindler of fire. For when the dark anguish, as the very fervent, stern being, receives freedom in itself, it is transTHE FIRST POINT 27 formed in the terror, in freedom, into a flash, and the flash embraces freedom or gentleness. Then the sting of death is broken; and there rises in Nature the other will of the Father, which he drew prior to Nature in the mirror of wisdom, viz. his heart of love, the desire of love, the kingdom of joy. 58. For in the Father's will fire is thus generated, to which the other will gives the power of gentleness and love. The fire takes the love-quality into its essence, and that is now its food, so that it burns, and gives from the consumption, from the terror, the joyous spirit. 59. That is, here, the Holy Spirit, who originally prior to Nature is the Father's Will-Spirit, becomes manifest, and receives here the power of wonders; and proceeds thus from the Father (viz. from the first will to Nature) , from the other will in Nature, from fire, or from the terror of joy in the source of love, into the substantiality of gentleness. 60. For gentleness is also become desirous of the fire's property, and the desire draws the gentleness of the kingdom of joy into itself. That is now the water of eternal life, which the fire drinks, and gives therefrom the light of Majesty.
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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