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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.
136. In the third day's work the sulphureous, mercurial, and saltish life out of the centre was opened out of the anguish in the outward world's property; and yet there is no anguish to be understood until the fire, but only a senseless forth-driving life, viz. a growth: for the fire-blaze arises out of the anguish, viz. out of the third form of nature: and this is the salnitral flagrat, which severises the powers in the properties, which was moved in the third day's work, where the properties opened themselves, and were mutually unfolded in the salnitral flagrat, each out of itself; which the impression did again receive into itself and made them corporeal in the water. And thence arose and proceeded trees, herbs and grass: each property became excressive 1) in the salniter, and did manifest itself with fruit: as we see plainly how the property of the dark world did mightily force itself along in the outward power: whereupon some herbs and plants are so venomous and malignant; for the earth proceeded out of both the inward worlds to a compaction. 1 Or putting or budding forth.
237. Now Mars on Tuesday has the first hour of the day in dominion, which day is the third in the creation. And this salnitral fire-flagrat is even the property of Mars: as he is wrathful and fiery, so likewise is this property in the sulphur, where we then do understand the salnitral flagrat for the poisonful Mars; which is the cause of motion and stirring and the compunction in the first impression in the eternal nature, viz. in the dark world. 38. In the third day's work God moved the third property of nature, viz. the sulphurous source, in which the fire enkindled, and in the fire-flagrat is the division of the powers; where each property became manifest in itself: Now when God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, herb and trees, that is nothing else, but that when he moved the expressed Word of the powers in the properties, the properties found and felt the light of nature in them; whereupon they became hungry, and were impressed, that is, amassed and compacted or coagulated. Now when as the light of nature found itself in a perceivance, and the nature did feel itself in the sweet light, thereby arose in the coagulation the dominion of joy, viz. the pullulation and growth. For all growth consists in the light and water; when the light penetrates the Sulphur and water-source, then Mars springs up for great joy in the Sulphur.
339. This opening began on the third day, and continues unto the end of the world. On the first day the earth was without form and void, for the possibility 1) to the growth was not yet opened. Here the earth was moved and the properties opened, and not only the earth, but the whole deep in the centre of the outward nature made itself external, and yet remained also internal. 1 Or ability. The Thirteenth Chapter Of The Creation of the Fourth Day 1. The fourth day Mercurius has the first hour of the day, who causes the sensitive life. Here we understand very fully and exactly the ground of the manifestation of the inward nature into the external; for on the fourth day the sun and stars were created, which are the right mercurial life. Here the fire's property opened itself in the sulphurous-source through the water, and the first essence became manifest through the light of nature, which is a Mercurius Salnitri, an incentive Mercurius, a quick perceptive Mercurius. 2. In the third form of nature there is a senseless life in sulphur and Mercurius, but in the fourth there is a feeling life; for the properties are made painful in the fire; and in the oleous [life] they become meek, pleasant and full of joy: therefore now the motion in the oily is feeling from the painfulness.
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.
136. In the third day's work the sulphureous, mercurial, and saltish life out of the centre was opened out of the anguish in the outward world's property; and yet there is no anguish to be understood until the fire, but only a senseless forth-driving life, viz. a growth: for the fire-blaze arises out of the anguish, viz. out of the third form of nature: and this is the salnitral flagrat, which severises the powers in the properties, which was moved in the third day's work, where the properties opened themselves, and were mutually unfolded in the salnitral flagrat, each out of itself; which the impression did again receive into itself and made them corporeal in the water. And thence arose and proceeded trees, herbs and grass: each property became excressive 1) in the salniter, and did manifest itself with fruit: as we see plainly how the property of the dark world did mightily force itself along in the outward power: whereupon some herbs and plants are so venomous and malignant; for the earth proceeded out of both the inward worlds to a compaction. 1 Or putting or budding forth.
237. Now Mars on Tuesday has the first hour of the day in dominion, which day is the third in the creation. And this salnitral fire-flagrat is even the property of Mars: as he is wrathful and fiery, so likewise is this property in the sulphur, where we then do understand the salnitral flagrat for the poisonful Mars; which is the cause of motion and stirring and the compunction in the first impression in the eternal nature, viz. in the dark world. 38. In the third day's work God moved the third property of nature, viz. the sulphurous source, in which the fire enkindled, and in the fire-flagrat is the division of the powers; where each property became manifest in itself: Now when God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, herb and trees, that is nothing else, but that when he moved the expressed Word of the powers in the properties, the properties found and felt the light of nature in them; whereupon they became hungry, and were impressed, that is, amassed and compacted or coagulated. Now when as the light of nature found itself in a perceivance, and the nature did feel itself in the sweet light, thereby arose in the coagulation the dominion of joy, viz. the pullulation and growth. For all growth consists in the light and water; when the light penetrates the Sulphur and water-source, then Mars springs up for great joy in the Sulphur.
339. This opening began on the third day, and continues unto the end of the world. On the first day the earth was without form and void, for the possibility 1) to the growth was not yet opened. Here the earth was moved and the properties opened, and not only the earth, but the whole deep in the centre of the outward nature made itself external, and yet remained also internal. 1 Or ability. The Thirteenth Chapter Of The Creation of the Fourth Day 1. The fourth day Mercurius has the first hour of the day, who causes the sensitive life. Here we understand very fully and exactly the ground of the manifestation of the inward nature into the external; for on the fourth day the sun and stars were created, which are the right mercurial life. Here the fire's property opened itself in the sulphurous-source through the water, and the first essence became manifest through the light of nature, which is a Mercurius Salnitri, an incentive Mercurius, a quick perceptive Mercurius. 2. In the third form of nature there is a senseless life in sulphur and Mercurius, but in the fourth there is a feeling life; for the properties are made painful in the fire; and in the oleous [life] they become meek, pleasant and full of joy: therefore now the motion in the oily is feeling from the painfulness.
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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