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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.
1and annihilate it in the mortification of death, viz. in the anger-fire of God, that the human will might become pure before God's will, and so might enter into God's love-will. And therefore God's lovedesire did itself enkindle the offering of Abel and Moses, that so the holy- and-love-fire might devour and swallow up the turba in the human free soul's-will, in the anger-fire of the eternal nature, in the Father's property. 18. But that there must be an earthly offering thereunto is thus to be understood: The body of man as to one part is a limus of the earth, and as to the other part a limus of heaven; and into this body the free will was inspired, and body and soul is only one man. 19. But seeing in the fall the earthliness and false subtlety of the Serpent (by the insinuation of the devil's desire) was awakened in the flesh of man, and so the earthly bestial property got the upper hand in his ens, and devoured the right human will in the bestial property, that is, took it captive, thereupon the earthly will which was from the limus of the earth must also be offered up in the fire.
220. For the limus of the earth shall arise again out of earth; but for to make it an offering it must also be offered in an earthly elemental fire of its likeness; so that a heavenly fire, and an earthly elemental fire, might be in one another; and each will in the offering might respectively find a place for its own comprehension and capacity, viz. the will proceeded from the earthly limus of the earth from the kingdom of this world, and the heavenly will, out of the heavenly limus, viz. out of the ens of the Verbum Domini [of the seminal and central love of the Word of the Lord] ; each property of the free will went into the offering, and from the offering into the fire, where the atonement was. 21. For the Covenant of the Promise touching the Serpent-Stroyer did manifest itself by the holy fire, which holy fire enkindled the elemental fire, for the holy fire shall awaken and raise up from death the elemental man out of the limus of the earth; and in the holy fire man (who has taken his original from time) shall be purged and tried in the Resurrection; who verily must first go through the fire of the anger, but the power and might of the holy fire shall bring him through the anger-fire, and cleanse and purge away his introduced abomination of sin (in the Serpent's and devil's ens [in him]) from the limus of the earth, that the limus of the earth may be no more earthly, but as a fine purified gold, which subsists in the fire.
322. Even thus the earthly man shall be purified in the Resurrection, through the fire, of which the offerings were a type, and yet they did really subsist in their power, as to the spirit. But the body must die, and the true corporality and regeneration must come forth [or begin to spring afresh] in the opened body of Christ, who, with his entrance into and manifestation in the humanity, did again open the heavenly disappeared limus in the human ens, which did disappear [or fade] in Adam and Eve. 23. Thus understand us aright: Abel and Moses offered the fat of beasts, and enkindled that with the holy fire, which fire was first enkindled by God; for the bestial property became manifest in the outward earthly man of the limus of the earth. The human limus of the earth was turned to a beast, and was moreover sinful and evil, full of the Serpent's poison and cunning subtlety. 24. The free will did immass itself in the Serpent's craft and devil's desire; and formed to itself such a figure in the ens of the flesh as the desire was; whereupon the body was more vain in God's sight than a beast. 25. But seeing the heavenly ens lay hidden and shut up in the earthly property, God would not utterly forsake the whole image; which Abel and Moses did understand, in the spirit of God, by their offerings. And therefore they offered the fat, viz. the oil of the beasts,
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.
1and annihilate it in the mortification of death, viz. in the anger-fire of God, that the human will might become pure before God's will, and so might enter into God's love-will. And therefore God's lovedesire did itself enkindle the offering of Abel and Moses, that so the holy- and-love-fire might devour and swallow up the turba in the human free soul's-will, in the anger-fire of the eternal nature, in the Father's property. 18. But that there must be an earthly offering thereunto is thus to be understood: The body of man as to one part is a limus of the earth, and as to the other part a limus of heaven; and into this body the free will was inspired, and body and soul is only one man. 19. But seeing in the fall the earthliness and false subtlety of the Serpent (by the insinuation of the devil's desire) was awakened in the flesh of man, and so the earthly bestial property got the upper hand in his ens, and devoured the right human will in the bestial property, that is, took it captive, thereupon the earthly will which was from the limus of the earth must also be offered up in the fire.
220. For the limus of the earth shall arise again out of earth; but for to make it an offering it must also be offered in an earthly elemental fire of its likeness; so that a heavenly fire, and an earthly elemental fire, might be in one another; and each will in the offering might respectively find a place for its own comprehension and capacity, viz. the will proceeded from the earthly limus of the earth from the kingdom of this world, and the heavenly will, out of the heavenly limus, viz. out of the ens of the Verbum Domini [of the seminal and central love of the Word of the Lord] ; each property of the free will went into the offering, and from the offering into the fire, where the atonement was. 21. For the Covenant of the Promise touching the Serpent-Stroyer did manifest itself by the holy fire, which holy fire enkindled the elemental fire, for the holy fire shall awaken and raise up from death the elemental man out of the limus of the earth; and in the holy fire man (who has taken his original from time) shall be purged and tried in the Resurrection; who verily must first go through the fire of the anger, but the power and might of the holy fire shall bring him through the anger-fire, and cleanse and purge away his introduced abomination of sin (in the Serpent's and devil's ens [in him]) from the limus of the earth, that the limus of the earth may be no more earthly, but as a fine purified gold, which subsists in the fire.
322. Even thus the earthly man shall be purified in the Resurrection, through the fire, of which the offerings were a type, and yet they did really subsist in their power, as to the spirit. But the body must die, and the true corporality and regeneration must come forth [or begin to spring afresh] in the opened body of Christ, who, with his entrance into and manifestation in the humanity, did again open the heavenly disappeared limus in the human ens, which did disappear [or fade] in Adam and Eve. 23. Thus understand us aright: Abel and Moses offered the fat of beasts, and enkindled that with the holy fire, which fire was first enkindled by God; for the bestial property became manifest in the outward earthly man of the limus of the earth. The human limus of the earth was turned to a beast, and was moreover sinful and evil, full of the Serpent's poison and cunning subtlety. 24. The free will did immass itself in the Serpent's craft and devil's desire; and formed to itself such a figure in the ens of the flesh as the desire was; whereupon the body was more vain in God's sight than a beast. 25. But seeing the heavenly ens lay hidden and shut up in the earthly property, God would not utterly forsake the whole image; which Abel and Moses did understand, in the spirit of God, by their offerings. And therefore they offered the fat, viz. the oil of the beasts,
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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