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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.
1Eternal Nature, and is the Congealing of the Eternal Nothing into Something; it is the Cause of Essences; also of Cold and Heat; so likewise of the Water and Air; and the Formation of the Powers; and a Cause of the Taste, a Mother of all Salts. II. Form. Bitter; Compunctive. 15. The Motion of the Desire, viz. the Attraction, is the other form of Nature, a Cause of all Life and Stirring; so also of the Senses, and Distinction. III. Form. Anguish; Perception. 16. The Anguish, viz. the Sensibility, is the third form, a Cause of the Mind, wherein the Senses are moved and acted. IV. Fire; Spirit; Reason; Desire. 17. The Fire is a Cause of the true Spiritual Life, wherein the holy Powers of the Free Lubet are delivered from the astringent, undigested Roughness; for the Fire in its Essence devours the dark Substance of the Impression, and works it forth out of itself, out of the Light, into Spiritual Powers. V. Form. Light; Love. 18. The Holy Spiritual Love-desire, where the holy Will of God has exacuated itself in the harsh Impression, and manifested itself through the Fire with the Power of the Omnipotence, that now brings itself forth through the Fire in the Light; and so in the Powers it is introduced into Life and Motion, in the Desire; and herein the Holy Generation, and the Triumphant Kingdom of the great Love of God consist, and are manifest. VI. Form. Sound; Voice; Word.
219. The Sixth is the Sound of the divine Word proceeding from the divine Powers, which is formed in the Love-desire, and introduced into a manifest Word of all Powers; wherein the Manifestation of the divine Kingdom of Joy, in the Free Lubet of God's Wisdom, consists. VII. Form. Essence; Being; Action. 20. The Seventh is the formed Essence of the Powers, viz. a Manifestation of the Powers: What the first fix are in the Spirit, that the Seventh is in a comprehensible Essence, as a Mansion and House of all the Rest, or as a Body of the Spirit, wherein the Spirit works, and plays with itself; also it is a Food of the Fire, whence the Fire draws Essence for its Sustenance, wherein it burns; and the Seventh is the Kingdom of the divine Glory; and the Seven are thus named or expressed. 21. The Out-Birth or Manifestation is this: The Seven Spirits of God, or Powers of Nature as they show and manifest themselves in Love and Anger, both in the Heavenly and Hellish Kingdom, and also in the Kingdom of this World. Anger 1. Astringent, Desire. 2. Attraction or Compunction of Sense. 3. Anguish or Mind. Hellish 1. Hardness, Cold, Covetousness. 2. Compunction, Envy. 3. Enmity. World 1. Cold, Hardness, Bone, Salt. 2. Poison, Life, Growth, Senses. 3. Sulphur, Perception, Pain. 4. Fire or Spirit. Pride, Anger. Love Fire. 4. Spirit, Reason, Desire. Love 5. Light or LoveDesire. 6. Sound or Understanding. 7. Body or Essence. Heavenly 5. Meekness.
36. Divine Joy. 7. Heaven. Earthly Kingdom 5. Venus-Sport, Life's-Light. 6. Speaking, Crying, Distinguishing. 7. Body, Wood, Stone, Earth, Metal, Herb This was received from the Author in such a form by Abraham von Somerveldt. 22. Courteous Reader, understand the Sense right and well; the Meaning is not to be understood so, as if the seven Properties were divided, and one were near by another, or sooner manifest than another; all seven are but as one; and none is the first, second, or last; for the last is again the first; as the first introduces itself into a Spiritual Essence, so the last into a Corporeal Essence; the last is the Body of the first: We must speak thus apart, to write it down and describe it to the Consideration of the Reader: They are altogether only the Manifestation of God, according to Love and Anger, Eternity and Time. 23. But this we are to observe, that each Property is also essential; and this Essence is jointly as one Essence in the Kingdom of Heaven, and it is a Mysterium, whence heavenly Plants spring forth out of each Power's Property; as the Earth is a Mysterium of all Trees and Herbs, so also of the Grass and Worms; and the four Elements are a Mysterium of all Animals; and the Astrum a Mysterium of all Operations in Animals and Vegetables.
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.
1Eternal Nature, and is the Congealing of the Eternal Nothing into Something; it is the Cause of Essences; also of Cold and Heat; so likewise of the Water and Air; and the Formation of the Powers; and a Cause of the Taste, a Mother of all Salts. II. Form. Bitter; Compunctive. 15. The Motion of the Desire, viz. the Attraction, is the other form of Nature, a Cause of all Life and Stirring; so also of the Senses, and Distinction. III. Form. Anguish; Perception. 16. The Anguish, viz. the Sensibility, is the third form, a Cause of the Mind, wherein the Senses are moved and acted. IV. Fire; Spirit; Reason; Desire. 17. The Fire is a Cause of the true Spiritual Life, wherein the holy Powers of the Free Lubet are delivered from the astringent, undigested Roughness; for the Fire in its Essence devours the dark Substance of the Impression, and works it forth out of itself, out of the Light, into Spiritual Powers. V. Form. Light; Love. 18. The Holy Spiritual Love-desire, where the holy Will of God has exacuated itself in the harsh Impression, and manifested itself through the Fire with the Power of the Omnipotence, that now brings itself forth through the Fire in the Light; and so in the Powers it is introduced into Life and Motion, in the Desire; and herein the Holy Generation, and the Triumphant Kingdom of the great Love of God consist, and are manifest. VI. Form. Sound; Voice; Word.
219. The Sixth is the Sound of the divine Word proceeding from the divine Powers, which is formed in the Love-desire, and introduced into a manifest Word of all Powers; wherein the Manifestation of the divine Kingdom of Joy, in the Free Lubet of God's Wisdom, consists. VII. Form. Essence; Being; Action. 20. The Seventh is the formed Essence of the Powers, viz. a Manifestation of the Powers: What the first fix are in the Spirit, that the Seventh is in a comprehensible Essence, as a Mansion and House of all the Rest, or as a Body of the Spirit, wherein the Spirit works, and plays with itself; also it is a Food of the Fire, whence the Fire draws Essence for its Sustenance, wherein it burns; and the Seventh is the Kingdom of the divine Glory; and the Seven are thus named or expressed. 21. The Out-Birth or Manifestation is this: The Seven Spirits of God, or Powers of Nature as they show and manifest themselves in Love and Anger, both in the Heavenly and Hellish Kingdom, and also in the Kingdom of this World. Anger 1. Astringent, Desire. 2. Attraction or Compunction of Sense. 3. Anguish or Mind. Hellish 1. Hardness, Cold, Covetousness. 2. Compunction, Envy. 3. Enmity. World 1. Cold, Hardness, Bone, Salt. 2. Poison, Life, Growth, Senses. 3. Sulphur, Perception, Pain. 4. Fire or Spirit. Pride, Anger. Love Fire. 4. Spirit, Reason, Desire. Love 5. Light or LoveDesire. 6. Sound or Understanding. 7. Body or Essence. Heavenly 5. Meekness.
36. Divine Joy. 7. Heaven. Earthly Kingdom 5. Venus-Sport, Life's-Light. 6. Speaking, Crying, Distinguishing. 7. Body, Wood, Stone, Earth, Metal, Herb This was received from the Author in such a form by Abraham von Somerveldt. 22. Courteous Reader, understand the Sense right and well; the Meaning is not to be understood so, as if the seven Properties were divided, and one were near by another, or sooner manifest than another; all seven are but as one; and none is the first, second, or last; for the last is again the first; as the first introduces itself into a Spiritual Essence, so the last into a Corporeal Essence; the last is the Body of the first: We must speak thus apart, to write it down and describe it to the Consideration of the Reader: They are altogether only the Manifestation of God, according to Love and Anger, Eternity and Time. 23. But this we are to observe, that each Property is also essential; and this Essence is jointly as one Essence in the Kingdom of Heaven, and it is a Mysterium, whence heavenly Plants spring forth out of each Power's Property; as the Earth is a Mysterium of all Trees and Herbs, so also of the Grass and Worms; and the four Elements are a Mysterium of all Animals; and the Astrum a Mysterium of all Operations in Animals and Vegetables.
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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