Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
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.
17. They which are in the dark World bear the Name (or the Names) of the great Anger of God, according to the Properties of the Eternal Nature in the Wrath; and they which are in the Light bear the Names of the holy God, viz. of the divine Powers; and they which are in the Creation of the Wonders of the outward World, bear the Names of the manifested Powers of the outward World, viz. of the Planets, Stars, and four Elements. 8. They which are in the dark World, domineer in the Nature of the manifested Wrath, viz. in the Properties of God's Anger, and have their princely Dominions therein; and they which are in the holy World rule in the Powers of the triumphant World, viz. in the great holy Kingdom of Joy, in the Wonders of the holy Wisdom; and they which are in the outward World reign over the Powers of the Stars, and four Elements, and have also their princely Dominion over the World, and their Kingdoms and Principalities, for Defence against the Destroyer in the Wrath. 9. Each Country has its princely Angel-Protector, with its Legions; also there are Angels over the four Elements, over the Fire, and over the Air, over the Water, and over the Earth ; and they are altogether only ministering Spirits of the Great God, sent forth for the Service of those which shall obtain Salvation; as it is written, The Angel of the Lord encamps about them that fear him. They are the Officers and Servants of God in his Dominion, who are active and full of Motion.
210. For God never moves himself but only in himself. But seeing his Manifestation of the eternal and external Nature is in Combat; thereupon the Spirits of the dark World are against the Spirits of the holy World, but especially against Man, who is manifest both in Good and Evil. God has set the one against the other, that his Glory might be manifest both in his Love and in his Anger. 11. For as we Men have Dominions upon the Earth; so likewise the superior Hosts under the Astrum [starry Sky] have their Dominions; so also the oily Spirits in the Element Air; the whole Deep between the Stars and the Earth is inhabited, and not void and empty. Each Dominion has its own Principle: Which seems somewhat ridiculous to us Men, because we see them not with our Eyes; not considering that our Eyes are not of their Essence and Property, so that we are neither able to see nor perceive them; for we live not in their Principle, therefore we cannot see them. 12. As in the Divine Manifestation of the Divine Powers one Degree proceeds in order forth from another, even to the most external Manifestation, the like also is to be understood of the Angels or Spirits: They are not all holy which dwell in the Elements; for as the Wrath of the Eternal Nature is manifest in the dark World, so likewise in the outward World, in its Property.
313. Also the Spirits of the external World are not all eternal, but some are only inchoative [having a beginning and an end, temporal], which take their Original naturally in the Spirit of the external World, and pass away through Nature, and only their Shadow remains, as of all other Beasts upon the Earth. 14. Whatsoever reaches not the holy Element and the eternal Fireworld, that is void of an eternal Life; for it arises out of Time : And that which proceeds out of Time, is consumed and eaten up of Time; except it has an Eternal [Being, Essence, Property, Life and Principle] in its Temporal; that the Eternal upholds the Temporal. 15. For the Eternal dwells not in Time; and although it be cloathed with the Essence of Time, yet the Eternal dwells in the Eternal in itself, and the Temporal in the Temporal as it is to be understood with the Soul and Body of Man; where the Soul is from the Eternal, and the external Body from Time; and yet there is an Eternal in the Temporal Body, which verily disappeared in Adam as to the Eternal Light, which must be born again through Christ.
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.
17. They which are in the dark World bear the Name (or the Names) of the great Anger of God, according to the Properties of the Eternal Nature in the Wrath; and they which are in the Light bear the Names of the holy God, viz. of the divine Powers; and they which are in the Creation of the Wonders of the outward World, bear the Names of the manifested Powers of the outward World, viz. of the Planets, Stars, and four Elements. 8. They which are in the dark World, domineer in the Nature of the manifested Wrath, viz. in the Properties of God's Anger, and have their princely Dominions therein; and they which are in the holy World rule in the Powers of the triumphant World, viz. in the great holy Kingdom of Joy, in the Wonders of the holy Wisdom; and they which are in the outward World reign over the Powers of the Stars, and four Elements, and have also their princely Dominion over the World, and their Kingdoms and Principalities, for Defence against the Destroyer in the Wrath. 9. Each Country has its princely Angel-Protector, with its Legions; also there are Angels over the four Elements, over the Fire, and over the Air, over the Water, and over the Earth ; and they are altogether only ministering Spirits of the Great God, sent forth for the Service of those which shall obtain Salvation; as it is written, The Angel of the Lord encamps about them that fear him. They are the Officers and Servants of God in his Dominion, who are active and full of Motion.
210. For God never moves himself but only in himself. But seeing his Manifestation of the eternal and external Nature is in Combat; thereupon the Spirits of the dark World are against the Spirits of the holy World, but especially against Man, who is manifest both in Good and Evil. God has set the one against the other, that his Glory might be manifest both in his Love and in his Anger. 11. For as we Men have Dominions upon the Earth; so likewise the superior Hosts under the Astrum [starry Sky] have their Dominions; so also the oily Spirits in the Element Air; the whole Deep between the Stars and the Earth is inhabited, and not void and empty. Each Dominion has its own Principle: Which seems somewhat ridiculous to us Men, because we see them not with our Eyes; not considering that our Eyes are not of their Essence and Property, so that we are neither able to see nor perceive them; for we live not in their Principle, therefore we cannot see them. 12. As in the Divine Manifestation of the Divine Powers one Degree proceeds in order forth from another, even to the most external Manifestation, the like also is to be understood of the Angels or Spirits: They are not all holy which dwell in the Elements; for as the Wrath of the Eternal Nature is manifest in the dark World, so likewise in the outward World, in its Property.
313. Also the Spirits of the external World are not all eternal, but some are only inchoative [having a beginning and an end, temporal], which take their Original naturally in the Spirit of the external World, and pass away through Nature, and only their Shadow remains, as of all other Beasts upon the Earth. 14. Whatsoever reaches not the holy Element and the eternal Fireworld, that is void of an eternal Life; for it arises out of Time : And that which proceeds out of Time, is consumed and eaten up of Time; except it has an Eternal [Being, Essence, Property, Life and Principle] in its Temporal; that the Eternal upholds the Temporal. 15. For the Eternal dwells not in Time; and although it be cloathed with the Essence of Time, yet the Eternal dwells in the Eternal in itself, and the Temporal in the Temporal as it is to be understood with the Soul and Body of Man; where the Soul is from the Eternal, and the external Body from Time; and yet there is an Eternal in the Temporal Body, which verily disappeared in Adam as to the Eternal Light, which must be born again through Christ.
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.
No commentary for this page.