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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.
133. And therefore they bear the Names of the several Degrees in the manifested Voice of God; and one Degree is more holy in the Power than another. Therefore the Angels also in their Choirs are differenced in the Power of the Divine Might; and one has a more holy Function to discharge than another; an Example whereof we have by the Priests in the Old Testament in their Ordinances, which were instituted after an angelical Manner. 34. Although it was earthly, yet there was even such an angelical Understanding and Meaning couched therein; which God did represent upon Jesus which was to come into the humane Property, and so alluded with Israel in the Type at the Eternal which was to come, which Jesus out of Jehova Restored, and introduced into the humane Property; which the earthly Reason has neither apprehended, or understood. But seeing the Time is born [or manifest], and the Beginning has again found the End, it shall be manifest, for a Witness unto all Nations, to show the Spirit of Wonders. The Ninth Chapter Of the Fall of Lucifer, with his Legions 1. Although Self-reason might here cavil at us, and say we were not by when this was done, yet we say that we in a magical Manner according to the Right of Eternity, were really there, and saw this; but not I, who am I, have seen it; for I was not as yet a Creature; but we have seen it in the Essence of the Soul which God breathed into Adam.
22. Now then, if God dwells in this same Essence, and has from all Eternity dwelt therein, and manifests himself in his own Mirror, and looks back through the Essence of the Soul into the Beginning of all Beings, what then has Reason to do, to taunt and cavil at me about that wherein itself is blind? I must warn Reason, that it would once behold itself in the Looking-glass [mirror] of the Understanding, and consider what itself is, and leave off from the Building of mad Babel; it will be time. 3. The Fall of Lucifer came not to pass from God's Purpose or Appointment; indeed it was known in the Wrath of God, according to the Property of the dark World, how it could or would come to pass; but in God's Holiness, viz. in the Light, there was no such Desire manifest in any such Property; otherwise the holy God must have a devilish or hellish wrathful Desire in his Love; which is nothing so, but in the Center of the Eternal Nature, viz. in the forms to Fire, there is verily such a Property in the dark Impression. 4. Every good Angel has the Center in him, and is manifest in a creaturely Property in one Degree or other in the Center; what Property is greatest [most predominant or manifest] in the Creature, according to that it has its Office and Dominion. 5. Yet the Angels, which were created out of the Degrees of the Center, were created for and to the Light; the Light was manifest in All; and they had Free Will from the manifested Will of God's Will.
36. Lucifer had still been an Angel, if his own Will had not introduced him into the Fire's Might, desiring to domineer in the strong Fierymight, above and in all Things, as an absolute sole God in Darkness and Light; had he but continued in the Harmony wherein God had created him; [for what would have cast him out of the Light ?) 7. Now Reason says, He could not. Then tell me, Who compelled him? Was be not the most glorious Prince in Heaven? Had he introduced his Will into the Divine Meekness, then he could [have been able to stand;] but if he [in his own Will,which was from the Eternal Will, was both the Possibility and Ability] would not, then he could not: For his own Desire went into the Center; he would himself be God; he entered with his Will into Self; and in Self is the Center of Nature, viz. those Properties wherein his Will would be Lord and Master in the House. 8. But God created him for his Harmony, to play with his Love-spirit in him, as upon the musical Instrument of his manifested and formed Word; and this the Self-will would not.
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.
133. And therefore they bear the Names of the several Degrees in the manifested Voice of God; and one Degree is more holy in the Power than another. Therefore the Angels also in their Choirs are differenced in the Power of the Divine Might; and one has a more holy Function to discharge than another; an Example whereof we have by the Priests in the Old Testament in their Ordinances, which were instituted after an angelical Manner. 34. Although it was earthly, yet there was even such an angelical Understanding and Meaning couched therein; which God did represent upon Jesus which was to come into the humane Property, and so alluded with Israel in the Type at the Eternal which was to come, which Jesus out of Jehova Restored, and introduced into the humane Property; which the earthly Reason has neither apprehended, or understood. But seeing the Time is born [or manifest], and the Beginning has again found the End, it shall be manifest, for a Witness unto all Nations, to show the Spirit of Wonders. The Ninth Chapter Of the Fall of Lucifer, with his Legions 1. Although Self-reason might here cavil at us, and say we were not by when this was done, yet we say that we in a magical Manner according to the Right of Eternity, were really there, and saw this; but not I, who am I, have seen it; for I was not as yet a Creature; but we have seen it in the Essence of the Soul which God breathed into Adam.
22. Now then, if God dwells in this same Essence, and has from all Eternity dwelt therein, and manifests himself in his own Mirror, and looks back through the Essence of the Soul into the Beginning of all Beings, what then has Reason to do, to taunt and cavil at me about that wherein itself is blind? I must warn Reason, that it would once behold itself in the Looking-glass [mirror] of the Understanding, and consider what itself is, and leave off from the Building of mad Babel; it will be time. 3. The Fall of Lucifer came not to pass from God's Purpose or Appointment; indeed it was known in the Wrath of God, according to the Property of the dark World, how it could or would come to pass; but in God's Holiness, viz. in the Light, there was no such Desire manifest in any such Property; otherwise the holy God must have a devilish or hellish wrathful Desire in his Love; which is nothing so, but in the Center of the Eternal Nature, viz. in the forms to Fire, there is verily such a Property in the dark Impression. 4. Every good Angel has the Center in him, and is manifest in a creaturely Property in one Degree or other in the Center; what Property is greatest [most predominant or manifest] in the Creature, according to that it has its Office and Dominion. 5. Yet the Angels, which were created out of the Degrees of the Center, were created for and to the Light; the Light was manifest in All; and they had Free Will from the manifested Will of God's Will.
36. Lucifer had still been an Angel, if his own Will had not introduced him into the Fire's Might, desiring to domineer in the strong Fierymight, above and in all Things, as an absolute sole God in Darkness and Light; had he but continued in the Harmony wherein God had created him; [for what would have cast him out of the Light ?) 7. Now Reason says, He could not. Then tell me, Who compelled him? Was be not the most glorious Prince in Heaven? Had he introduced his Will into the Divine Meekness, then he could [have been able to stand;] but if he [in his own Will,which was from the Eternal Will, was both the Possibility and Ability] would not, then he could not: For his own Desire went into the Center; he would himself be God; he entered with his Will into Self; and in Self is the Center of Nature, viz. those Properties wherein his Will would be Lord and Master in the House. 8. But God created him for his Harmony, to play with his Love-spirit in him, as upon the musical Instrument of his manifested and formed Word; and this the Self-will would not.
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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