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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. But that we say of God, he is Father, Son, and holy Spirit, that is very rightly said, only we must explain it, else the un-illuminated Mind apprehends it not. The Father is first the Will of the Abyss; he is without all Nature or Beginnings; the Will to something, which conceives itself into a Lubet to its own Manifestation. 7. And the Lubet is the conceived Power of the Will, or of the Father; and it is his Son, Heart, and Seat; the first Eternal Beginning in the Will: And he is therefore called a Son, because he receives an Eternal Beginning in the Will, with the Will's own Conception. 8. Now the Will speaks forth itself by the Conception out of itself, as a Spiration, or Manifestation; and this Egress from the Will in the Speaking or Spiration is the Spirit of the Deity, or the third Person, as the Ancients have called it. 9. And that which is spirated, or spoken forth, is the Wisdom, viz. the Power of the Colours, and the Virtue of the Will, which it eternally conceives to a Life's-center, or Heart for its Habitation, and does again eternally speak it forth out of the Conception, as from its own eternal form, and yet eternally conceives [or comprehends] it for his Heart's Center.
210. Thus the Conception of the Will, viz. of the Father, is from Eternity to Eternity, which conceives his Speaking Word from Eternity, and speaks it forth from Eternity to Eternity : The Speaking is the Mouth of the Will's Manifestation : And the Egress from the Speaking or Generation is the Spirit of the formed Word : And that which is spoken forth is the Power, Colours, and Virtue of the Deity, viz. the Wisdom. 11. Here we cannot say with any Ground, that God is three Persons; but he is threefold in his Eternal Generation; he begetteth himself in Trinity; and yet there is but only one Essence and Generation to be understood in this Eternal Generation, neither Father, Son, nor Spirit, but the only Eternal Life, or Good. 12. The Trinity is first rightly understood in his Eternal Manifestation; where he manifests himself through the Eternal Nature, through the Fire in the Light.
313. Where we understand three Properties in one only Essence, viz. the Father with the Fire- world; and the Son with the Love-desire in the Light, viz. with the Light-world, or with the great Meekness in the Fire; and the holy Spirit with the moving Life in the Tincture, in the oily and watery Life and Dominion; who is manifest in the Fire and Light, viz. according to the Property of the Free Lubet, that is, the Divine Property, he is manifest in a great fiery Flame of Light, and Love; and then, according to the Property of the dark Fire- world, in a wrathful, painful, sourcive Property. And yet he is the only one; in the Light he is the Love-fire Flame; and in the enkindled Fire in Nature he is a consuming Fire, according to which God is called a consuming Fire; and in the dark wrathful Source he is an angry zealous Avenger, in which Property the Spirits of the dark World consist. 14. The Father is only called an holy God in the Son, that is, in the Power of the Light, in the divine Kingdom of Joy, viz. in the great Meekness and Love; for that is his proper Manifestation, wherein he is called God. In the Fire he is called an angry God; but in the Light, or Love-fire, he is called the holy God; and in the dark Nature he is not called God.
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. But that we say of God, he is Father, Son, and holy Spirit, that is very rightly said, only we must explain it, else the un-illuminated Mind apprehends it not. The Father is first the Will of the Abyss; he is without all Nature or Beginnings; the Will to something, which conceives itself into a Lubet to its own Manifestation. 7. And the Lubet is the conceived Power of the Will, or of the Father; and it is his Son, Heart, and Seat; the first Eternal Beginning in the Will: And he is therefore called a Son, because he receives an Eternal Beginning in the Will, with the Will's own Conception. 8. Now the Will speaks forth itself by the Conception out of itself, as a Spiration, or Manifestation; and this Egress from the Will in the Speaking or Spiration is the Spirit of the Deity, or the third Person, as the Ancients have called it. 9. And that which is spirated, or spoken forth, is the Wisdom, viz. the Power of the Colours, and the Virtue of the Will, which it eternally conceives to a Life's-center, or Heart for its Habitation, and does again eternally speak it forth out of the Conception, as from its own eternal form, and yet eternally conceives [or comprehends] it for his Heart's Center.
210. Thus the Conception of the Will, viz. of the Father, is from Eternity to Eternity, which conceives his Speaking Word from Eternity, and speaks it forth from Eternity to Eternity : The Speaking is the Mouth of the Will's Manifestation : And the Egress from the Speaking or Generation is the Spirit of the formed Word : And that which is spoken forth is the Power, Colours, and Virtue of the Deity, viz. the Wisdom. 11. Here we cannot say with any Ground, that God is three Persons; but he is threefold in his Eternal Generation; he begetteth himself in Trinity; and yet there is but only one Essence and Generation to be understood in this Eternal Generation, neither Father, Son, nor Spirit, but the only Eternal Life, or Good. 12. The Trinity is first rightly understood in his Eternal Manifestation; where he manifests himself through the Eternal Nature, through the Fire in the Light.
313. Where we understand three Properties in one only Essence, viz. the Father with the Fire- world; and the Son with the Love-desire in the Light, viz. with the Light-world, or with the great Meekness in the Fire; and the holy Spirit with the moving Life in the Tincture, in the oily and watery Life and Dominion; who is manifest in the Fire and Light, viz. according to the Property of the Free Lubet, that is, the Divine Property, he is manifest in a great fiery Flame of Light, and Love; and then, according to the Property of the dark Fire- world, in a wrathful, painful, sourcive Property. And yet he is the only one; in the Light he is the Love-fire Flame; and in the enkindled Fire in Nature he is a consuming Fire, according to which God is called a consuming Fire; and in the dark wrathful Source he is an angry zealous Avenger, in which Property the Spirits of the dark World consist. 14. The Father is only called an holy God in the Son, that is, in the Power of the Light, in the divine Kingdom of Joy, viz. in the great Meekness and Love; for that is his proper Manifestation, wherein he is called God. In the Fire he is called an angry God; but in the Light, or Love-fire, he is called the holy God; and in the dark Nature he is not called God.
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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