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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.
156. The first ens in the limus of the earth, which was coagulated in the Verbum Fiat, must be wholly renewed in the spirit of Christ, if it will possess the kingdom of God. But if it remains captivated in the Serpent's ens it shall never be any more manifest: understand the holy ens, which disappeared in Adam, and was captivated in the Serpent's ens, whereby death came into the flesh. 57. Therefore a man must consider what he speaks, thinks and doeth, lest he conceive his thoughts in the Serpent's ens, and frame a will in the mind, in the ens of the Serpent; for else the devil does set himself therein, and hatches a basilisk, viz. a hellish form in the word. 58. For all wrath which is conceived in man for revenge does primarily arise in its centre out of the nature and property of the dark world, viz. in God's anger, and forms itself further in the Serpent's ens to substance. Let it be what zeal it will, if it brings itself into a wrath to its own revenge it is formed in the ens of the Serpent, and is devilish. 59. And though the same were a prophet and an apostle, and yet would bring himself in the wrath to his own revenge, then this substance is formed from the anger of God in the Serpent's ens, and goes into the wrath of God;
2and the anger of God is therein zealous, which oftentimes does so stir up and form itself in the holy children of God, that they must, against their purposed will, bring down the turba upon the house of the wicked, also upon his body and soul. As may be seen by Moses, upon Chorah, Dathan and Abiram, whom the earth swallowed up; so also by Elias in the fire, concerning the two captains over fifties, whom the fire devoured; also by Elisha, and many other prophets. 60. And there are many remarkable examples to be found concerning this in the holy histories, how, oftentimes, the children of God have been forced to carry the sword of the turba in them. A great example whereof we see in Samson, and also in Joshua, with his wars, and likewise in Abraham; how the zeal of God did enkindle itself in them, that they, in their spirit of zeal, have oftentimes awakened the turba magna in the anger of God, and raised great rebukes, judgements and plagues upon whole countries; as Moses in Egypt did, with the plagues upon the Egyptians. 61. But we must here distinguish. If the zeal of God should awaken itself in a holy man without his purposed will, and give him the sword of God's anger, such a one differs much from those who in their own thoughts contrive and plot in the wrath, and introduce the conceived or purposed will into the Serpent's ens, and make it to substance; for that is sin, yea, though the most holy man should do it.
362. Therefore, in the new birth, Christ so emphatically and punctually teaches us love, humility and meekness; and would that a Christian should not at all revenge, also not be angry; for he says, that whosoever is angry with his brother is guilty of the judgement. For the anger is a conception in the Serpent's ens, which must be cut off by the judgement of God from the good being. And whosoever shall say unto his brother, Raca, shall he in danger of the council. For the desire of Raca [Or revenge] arises in the centre of the dark fiery wheel of the eternal nature; therefore in the fire- soul there is a form of the fire-word, [in manner] of a wheel, like a madness; and the soul's fiery-form stands in the Raca, as a mad furious wheel, which confounds the essence in the body, and destroys or shatters in pieces the understanding; for every Raca desires to destroy God's image. Thus the soul hangs on the wheel of the eternal nature, viz. on the centre of the horrible anxious birth; as is before mentioned concerning the centre of the birth of nature. 63. Moreover, Christ says, Whosoever says to his brother, you fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. This is thus wrought: when the conceived will has formed itself in the furious wrath of God's anger, and introduced it into the Serpent's ens, then it stands in the furious wheel, as mad;
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.
156. The first ens in the limus of the earth, which was coagulated in the Verbum Fiat, must be wholly renewed in the spirit of Christ, if it will possess the kingdom of God. But if it remains captivated in the Serpent's ens it shall never be any more manifest: understand the holy ens, which disappeared in Adam, and was captivated in the Serpent's ens, whereby death came into the flesh. 57. Therefore a man must consider what he speaks, thinks and doeth, lest he conceive his thoughts in the Serpent's ens, and frame a will in the mind, in the ens of the Serpent; for else the devil does set himself therein, and hatches a basilisk, viz. a hellish form in the word. 58. For all wrath which is conceived in man for revenge does primarily arise in its centre out of the nature and property of the dark world, viz. in God's anger, and forms itself further in the Serpent's ens to substance. Let it be what zeal it will, if it brings itself into a wrath to its own revenge it is formed in the ens of the Serpent, and is devilish. 59. And though the same were a prophet and an apostle, and yet would bring himself in the wrath to his own revenge, then this substance is formed from the anger of God in the Serpent's ens, and goes into the wrath of God;
2and the anger of God is therein zealous, which oftentimes does so stir up and form itself in the holy children of God, that they must, against their purposed will, bring down the turba upon the house of the wicked, also upon his body and soul. As may be seen by Moses, upon Chorah, Dathan and Abiram, whom the earth swallowed up; so also by Elias in the fire, concerning the two captains over fifties, whom the fire devoured; also by Elisha, and many other prophets. 60. And there are many remarkable examples to be found concerning this in the holy histories, how, oftentimes, the children of God have been forced to carry the sword of the turba in them. A great example whereof we see in Samson, and also in Joshua, with his wars, and likewise in Abraham; how the zeal of God did enkindle itself in them, that they, in their spirit of zeal, have oftentimes awakened the turba magna in the anger of God, and raised great rebukes, judgements and plagues upon whole countries; as Moses in Egypt did, with the plagues upon the Egyptians. 61. But we must here distinguish. If the zeal of God should awaken itself in a holy man without his purposed will, and give him the sword of God's anger, such a one differs much from those who in their own thoughts contrive and plot in the wrath, and introduce the conceived or purposed will into the Serpent's ens, and make it to substance; for that is sin, yea, though the most holy man should do it.
362. Therefore, in the new birth, Christ so emphatically and punctually teaches us love, humility and meekness; and would that a Christian should not at all revenge, also not be angry; for he says, that whosoever is angry with his brother is guilty of the judgement. For the anger is a conception in the Serpent's ens, which must be cut off by the judgement of God from the good being. And whosoever shall say unto his brother, Raca, shall he in danger of the council. For the desire of Raca [Or revenge] arises in the centre of the dark fiery wheel of the eternal nature; therefore in the fire- soul there is a form of the fire-word, [in manner] of a wheel, like a madness; and the soul's fiery-form stands in the Raca, as a mad furious wheel, which confounds the essence in the body, and destroys or shatters in pieces the understanding; for every Raca desires to destroy God's image. Thus the soul hangs on the wheel of the eternal nature, viz. on the centre of the horrible anxious birth; as is before mentioned concerning the centre of the birth of nature. 63. Moreover, Christ says, Whosoever says to his brother, you fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. This is thus wrought: when the conceived will has formed itself in the furious wrath of God's anger, and introduced it into the Serpent's ens, then it stands in the furious wheel, as mad;
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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