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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.
18. Even then began the first hour of the first day: and the power of nature did mutually rule in great joy in the expressed Word, out of which power of joy the sun was created on the fourth day in the princely place: so that this power, whereout the sun was created, ruled the first hour of the beginning of the world; and so it began its dominion, which continues even unto the end of the world: and therefore the sun rules the first hour on Sunday; and the day is rightly so called. 9. The words of Moses concerning the creation are exceedingly clear, yet unapprehensive to reason, for he writes thus: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, and it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And out of the evening and morning was the first day 1) (Gen. i. 1-5). 10. The whole understanding is couched in these words: for the beginning is the first motion, which came to pass when prince Michael fought with the Dragon, when he was spewed out with the creation of the earth. For even then the enkindled essence, which with the enkindling did coagulate itself into earth and stones, was cast out of the internal into the external.
211. And he, the Dragon, fell from heaven, viz. out of the holy world, upon the wrath of the earth, as lightning, as it is written: / saw Satan fall from heaven as lightning, says Christ. Moreover, it was wholly dark in the deep above the earth, and the austere endkindled wrath was manifest. For hell was prepared for him, whereinto he fell, viz. into the great darkness of the first Principle, wherein he lives. 1 The evening and morning were the first day. 12. Here now lies the veil before reason, that it cannot look into the eyes of Moses, for he says: And the earth was without form and void. Yea, without form indeed. Had not the Spirit of God moved upon the internal water (which was amassed with the Fiat in the heaven), and had not God said, Let there he light, the earth would have been yet without form and void. 13. With the Word, when God said, Let there be light, the essence of the ens did powerfully move itself in the light's property, not only in the earth, but also in the whole deep: whence 1) on the fourth day the sun was created, that is, enkindled in its place. And in this word Fiat the earth's mass, and also the very power which is called heaven, amassed itself in the essence; all which before was only a spirit, a spiritual essence.
314. And with the speaking, as God spoke, Let there be light, the holy power, which was amassed in the wrath, moved itself, and became light in the same essence in the power. And with this coming to be light, the devil's might and strength was wholly withdrawn from him in the essence, for here the light shone in the now anew awakened power, in the darkness; which [light] the prince of wrath could not comprehend; 2) it was also of no benefit to him, for it was the light of nature, which is useless to him. 15. And Moses said, God divided the light from the darkness, which is thus to be understood. The darkness remained in the wrathful property, not only in the earth, but also in the whole deep: but in the light's essence the light of nature did arise [or spring forth] from heaven, viz. from the quintessence, whence the astrum was created; which essence is everywhere in the earth, and above the earth. 16. Thus the darkness remained in the wrath's property in the essence of the earth, and also in the whole deep of this world. And the nature-light remained in the light's essence, as a working life, through which the holy element did operate and work; in which operation Paradise budded 3) through the earth, and bore fruit until the curse of God. And then the holy bloomings or growth ceased, and the holy element remained as an inward heaven, steadfast, retired in itself.
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.
18. Even then began the first hour of the first day: and the power of nature did mutually rule in great joy in the expressed Word, out of which power of joy the sun was created on the fourth day in the princely place: so that this power, whereout the sun was created, ruled the first hour of the beginning of the world; and so it began its dominion, which continues even unto the end of the world: and therefore the sun rules the first hour on Sunday; and the day is rightly so called. 9. The words of Moses concerning the creation are exceedingly clear, yet unapprehensive to reason, for he writes thus: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, and it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And out of the evening and morning was the first day 1) (Gen. i. 1-5). 10. The whole understanding is couched in these words: for the beginning is the first motion, which came to pass when prince Michael fought with the Dragon, when he was spewed out with the creation of the earth. For even then the enkindled essence, which with the enkindling did coagulate itself into earth and stones, was cast out of the internal into the external.
211. And he, the Dragon, fell from heaven, viz. out of the holy world, upon the wrath of the earth, as lightning, as it is written: / saw Satan fall from heaven as lightning, says Christ. Moreover, it was wholly dark in the deep above the earth, and the austere endkindled wrath was manifest. For hell was prepared for him, whereinto he fell, viz. into the great darkness of the first Principle, wherein he lives. 1 The evening and morning were the first day. 12. Here now lies the veil before reason, that it cannot look into the eyes of Moses, for he says: And the earth was without form and void. Yea, without form indeed. Had not the Spirit of God moved upon the internal water (which was amassed with the Fiat in the heaven), and had not God said, Let there he light, the earth would have been yet without form and void. 13. With the Word, when God said, Let there be light, the essence of the ens did powerfully move itself in the light's property, not only in the earth, but also in the whole deep: whence 1) on the fourth day the sun was created, that is, enkindled in its place. And in this word Fiat the earth's mass, and also the very power which is called heaven, amassed itself in the essence; all which before was only a spirit, a spiritual essence.
314. And with the speaking, as God spoke, Let there be light, the holy power, which was amassed in the wrath, moved itself, and became light in the same essence in the power. And with this coming to be light, the devil's might and strength was wholly withdrawn from him in the essence, for here the light shone in the now anew awakened power, in the darkness; which [light] the prince of wrath could not comprehend; 2) it was also of no benefit to him, for it was the light of nature, which is useless to him. 15. And Moses said, God divided the light from the darkness, which is thus to be understood. The darkness remained in the wrathful property, not only in the earth, but also in the whole deep: but in the light's essence the light of nature did arise [or spring forth] from heaven, viz. from the quintessence, whence the astrum was created; which essence is everywhere in the earth, and above the earth. 16. Thus the darkness remained in the wrath's property in the essence of the earth, and also in the whole deep of this world. And the nature-light remained in the light's essence, as a working life, through which the holy element did operate and work; in which operation Paradise budded 3) through the earth, and bore fruit until the curse of God. And then the holy bloomings or growth ceased, and the holy element remained as an inward heaven, steadfast, retired in itself.
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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