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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.
16. In this Coagulation, or Impression, or Desire, or Hunger, by any of which I might express it to the Understanding, I say, in this Compaction or comprehensive Complication, we are to understand two Things; 1. The free Lubet, which is the Wisdom, Power, and Virtue of the Colours; and 2. The Desire of the free Lubet in itself: For the free Lubet, viz. the Wisdom, is no Property; but it is free from all Inclination, and is one with God. But the Desire is a Property: Now the Desire arises from the Lubet; therefore the Desire conceives and comprehends the free Lubet all along in the Compaction, in the Impression, and brings it also in feeling and finding. 7. And understand us right, and punctually here: The Desire arises out of the Will to the free Lubet, and makes itself out of the free Lubet, and brings itself into a Desire; for the Desire is the Father's Property; and the free Lubet, viz. the Wisdom, is the Son's Property; although God, seeing he is a [or one] Spirit, is not called Father or Son in this Place, till the Manifestation through the Fire in the Light; and there he is called Father and Son ; but I set it down, by Reason of the Birth of Nature, for a better Understanding of the true Ground, that Man might understand to what Person in the Deity Nature, and to what the Power in Nature is to be ascribed. The Center of the Eternal Nature; how the Will of the Abyss brings itself into Nature and form.
2The centre of the eternal nature: How the Will of the Abyss brings itself into nature and form 8. The Desire proceeding from the Will of the Abyss is the first form ; and it is the Fiat, or, as it is expressed, Let there be; and the Power of the free Lubet is God; who governs the Fiat; and both together are named Verbum Fiat, that is, the Eternal Word, which creates where Nothing is, and [is] the Original of Nature and all Beings. 9. Saturn ( ). The first Property of the Desire is Astringent, harsh, eagerly-impressing, conceiving itself, overshadowing itself; and it makes, first, the great Darkness of the Abyss. Secondly, it makes itself substantial in a spiritual Manner, wholly rough, harsh, hard, and thick, and it is a Cause of Coldness, and all Keenness and Sharpness; also of all whatsoever is called Essence; and it is the Beginning of Perception, wherein the free Lubet finds and perceives itself, and introduces the Contemplation of itself; but the Desire in itself brings itself thereby into Pain and Source: Yet the free Lubet does only so receive finding [or Perception.]
310. Mercury ( ). The second form or Property is the Constringency of the Desire; that is, a Compunction, Stirring, or Motion; for each Desire is attractive and constringent; and it is the Beginning of Motion, Stirring and Life, and the true Original of the Mercurial Life of the painful [or tormenting] Source. For here arises the first Enmity between the Astringency or Hardness, and the Compunction or Sting of Stirring; for the Desire makes hard, thick, and congeals, as the Cold stiffens and freezes the Water: Thus the Astringency is a mere raw Coldness; and the Compunction, viz. the Attraction, is yet brought forth with the Impression (or close constringent Desire.] 11. It is even here as Father and Son: The Father would be still, and hard; and the Compunction, viz. his Son, stirs in the Father, and Causes Unquietness; and this the Father, viz. the Astringency, cannot endure; and therefore he attracts the more eagerly and earnestly, in the Desire, to hold, refrain, and keep under the disobedient Son; whereby the Son grows only more strong in the Compunction [Or Sting]. And this is the true Ground and Cause of Sense; which in the free Lubet is the Eternal Beginning of the Motion [or Manifestation] of the powers, Colours, and Virtue, of the Divine Kingdom of Joy: And in the dark Desire it is the Original of Enmity, Pain, and Torment; and the Eternal Original of God's Anger, and all Unquietness and Contrariety, [or Antipathy] .
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.
16. In this Coagulation, or Impression, or Desire, or Hunger, by any of which I might express it to the Understanding, I say, in this Compaction or comprehensive Complication, we are to understand two Things; 1. The free Lubet, which is the Wisdom, Power, and Virtue of the Colours; and 2. The Desire of the free Lubet in itself: For the free Lubet, viz. the Wisdom, is no Property; but it is free from all Inclination, and is one with God. But the Desire is a Property: Now the Desire arises from the Lubet; therefore the Desire conceives and comprehends the free Lubet all along in the Compaction, in the Impression, and brings it also in feeling and finding. 7. And understand us right, and punctually here: The Desire arises out of the Will to the free Lubet, and makes itself out of the free Lubet, and brings itself into a Desire; for the Desire is the Father's Property; and the free Lubet, viz. the Wisdom, is the Son's Property; although God, seeing he is a [or one] Spirit, is not called Father or Son in this Place, till the Manifestation through the Fire in the Light; and there he is called Father and Son ; but I set it down, by Reason of the Birth of Nature, for a better Understanding of the true Ground, that Man might understand to what Person in the Deity Nature, and to what the Power in Nature is to be ascribed. The Center of the Eternal Nature; how the Will of the Abyss brings itself into Nature and form.
2The centre of the eternal nature: How the Will of the Abyss brings itself into nature and form 8. The Desire proceeding from the Will of the Abyss is the first form ; and it is the Fiat, or, as it is expressed, Let there be; and the Power of the free Lubet is God; who governs the Fiat; and both together are named Verbum Fiat, that is, the Eternal Word, which creates where Nothing is, and [is] the Original of Nature and all Beings. 9. Saturn ( ). The first Property of the Desire is Astringent, harsh, eagerly-impressing, conceiving itself, overshadowing itself; and it makes, first, the great Darkness of the Abyss. Secondly, it makes itself substantial in a spiritual Manner, wholly rough, harsh, hard, and thick, and it is a Cause of Coldness, and all Keenness and Sharpness; also of all whatsoever is called Essence; and it is the Beginning of Perception, wherein the free Lubet finds and perceives itself, and introduces the Contemplation of itself; but the Desire in itself brings itself thereby into Pain and Source: Yet the free Lubet does only so receive finding [or Perception.]
310. Mercury ( ). The second form or Property is the Constringency of the Desire; that is, a Compunction, Stirring, or Motion; for each Desire is attractive and constringent; and it is the Beginning of Motion, Stirring and Life, and the true Original of the Mercurial Life of the painful [or tormenting] Source. For here arises the first Enmity between the Astringency or Hardness, and the Compunction or Sting of Stirring; for the Desire makes hard, thick, and congeals, as the Cold stiffens and freezes the Water: Thus the Astringency is a mere raw Coldness; and the Compunction, viz. the Attraction, is yet brought forth with the Impression (or close constringent Desire.] 11. It is even here as Father and Son: The Father would be still, and hard; and the Compunction, viz. his Son, stirs in the Father, and Causes Unquietness; and this the Father, viz. the Astringency, cannot endure; and therefore he attracts the more eagerly and earnestly, in the Desire, to hold, refrain, and keep under the disobedient Son; whereby the Son grows only more strong in the Compunction [Or Sting]. And this is the true Ground and Cause of Sense; which in the free Lubet is the Eternal Beginning of the Motion [or Manifestation] of the powers, Colours, and Virtue, of the Divine Kingdom of Joy: And in the dark Desire it is the Original of Enmity, Pain, and Torment; and the Eternal Original of God's Anger, and all Unquietness and Contrariety, [or Antipathy] .
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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