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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.
1the human property. These five names do figure out and set forth, as in a type, the five head speeches of the spiritual tongue through the formed word, proceeding from the high name of God; out of which tongues the prophetical and apostolical spirit speaks. 1 1 Or spoke. 46. And though we could set down a form of the same, yet we should be but as senseless or dumb to the Reader who understands not the Language of Nature; and therefore we have but given a hint of it to our school-fellows. For the spirit does also, under the names, point at the kingdoms and dominions, and they are God's, who with his name does order, govern, guide and lead every kingdom, according to the property of his name. As the property of each kingdom is, even such is the tongue, language, phrase, and manners of the same; as it is written, Such as the nation is, such a God it also has. 47. Not that there is more than one God; only, we understand therein the divine manifestation, how God does give himself forth, in his manifestation in the formed Word, to all nations, according to every nation's and people's property; so that every nation and people does use or bear forth the same only Word according to its property; the external form and division of which is Babel; for (Gen. xi. 6) all people had only one tongue and language, and dwelt together.
248. The only tongue was the Language of Nature, out of which they all spoke; for they had it in one form, and understood in the language and speech the sense, viz. the ens, even how the will formed the ens; for so also was the spirit in the ens. of which we will give a short intimation and manuduction, to the understanding and illuminated mind to consider of, to prove, exercise and make trial of it in himself; not that a man can express it, and bring it into a certain form. No, that cannot be, for it is the spirit of the wisdom of God, his manifestation. 49. The spirits of the letters in the Alphabet are the form of the one spirit in the Language of Nature; the five vowels bear forth the holy tongue of the five holy languages out of the name Jehovah, from whence the Holy Spirit speaks; for the five vowels are the holy name of God, according to his holiness. For the name Jehova has nothing in it, save only the five vowels A, E, I, 0, V. The other letters signify and express the nature, even what the name of God in the formed word is in nature, both in love and anger, in darkness and light. But the five vowels do signify only and alone what he is in the light of holiness; for nature is tinctured with the five vowels, so that it becomes full of joy and delight. 1
350. But that the ancient wise men, skilful in this tongue, did interpose an H in the name JEOVA, and called it JEHOVA, the same was done with great understanding, for the H makes the holy name with the five vowels even manifest in the outward nature. It shows how the holy name of God does breath forth and manifest itself even in the creature. The five vowels are the hidden name of God, who dwells alone in himself; but the H signifies the divine lubet or wisdom, showing how the divine lubet doth breath forth itselfout of itself. 51. The inward understanding in the five vowels is this: I is the name JESUS. E is the name Engel 2 (Angel). O is the formed WISDOM or lubet or the I, viz. of JESUS, and is the centre or the HEART of God. V is the SPIRIT, viz. the sus 3 in JESUS, which proceeds forth out of the lubet. A is der Anfang 4 und das Ende (the beginning and the end), viz. the will of the whole comprehension, and it is the FATHER. 52. And these five do fold themselves up with the comprehension or formation into three, viz. into such a Word, AJ, that is, A, 0, V, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. The triangle denotes the Trinity of the properties of the Persons, and the V on the triangle denotes the spirit in the H, viz. in the breathing, where the universal God does manifest himself spiritually with his own proceeding forth or procession out of himself 5 1 Text, a kingdom of joy. 2 German. Engel. 3 Viz. the sweetness. 4 Germ. Anfang.
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.
1the human property. These five names do figure out and set forth, as in a type, the five head speeches of the spiritual tongue through the formed word, proceeding from the high name of God; out of which tongues the prophetical and apostolical spirit speaks. 1 1 Or spoke. 46. And though we could set down a form of the same, yet we should be but as senseless or dumb to the Reader who understands not the Language of Nature; and therefore we have but given a hint of it to our school-fellows. For the spirit does also, under the names, point at the kingdoms and dominions, and they are God's, who with his name does order, govern, guide and lead every kingdom, according to the property of his name. As the property of each kingdom is, even such is the tongue, language, phrase, and manners of the same; as it is written, Such as the nation is, such a God it also has. 47. Not that there is more than one God; only, we understand therein the divine manifestation, how God does give himself forth, in his manifestation in the formed Word, to all nations, according to every nation's and people's property; so that every nation and people does use or bear forth the same only Word according to its property; the external form and division of which is Babel; for (Gen. xi. 6) all people had only one tongue and language, and dwelt together.
248. The only tongue was the Language of Nature, out of which they all spoke; for they had it in one form, and understood in the language and speech the sense, viz. the ens, even how the will formed the ens; for so also was the spirit in the ens. of which we will give a short intimation and manuduction, to the understanding and illuminated mind to consider of, to prove, exercise and make trial of it in himself; not that a man can express it, and bring it into a certain form. No, that cannot be, for it is the spirit of the wisdom of God, his manifestation. 49. The spirits of the letters in the Alphabet are the form of the one spirit in the Language of Nature; the five vowels bear forth the holy tongue of the five holy languages out of the name Jehovah, from whence the Holy Spirit speaks; for the five vowels are the holy name of God, according to his holiness. For the name Jehova has nothing in it, save only the five vowels A, E, I, 0, V. The other letters signify and express the nature, even what the name of God in the formed word is in nature, both in love and anger, in darkness and light. But the five vowels do signify only and alone what he is in the light of holiness; for nature is tinctured with the five vowels, so that it becomes full of joy and delight. 1
350. But that the ancient wise men, skilful in this tongue, did interpose an H in the name JEOVA, and called it JEHOVA, the same was done with great understanding, for the H makes the holy name with the five vowels even manifest in the outward nature. It shows how the holy name of God does breath forth and manifest itself even in the creature. The five vowels are the hidden name of God, who dwells alone in himself; but the H signifies the divine lubet or wisdom, showing how the divine lubet doth breath forth itselfout of itself. 51. The inward understanding in the five vowels is this: I is the name JESUS. E is the name Engel 2 (Angel). O is the formed WISDOM or lubet or the I, viz. of JESUS, and is the centre or the HEART of God. V is the SPIRIT, viz. the sus 3 in JESUS, which proceeds forth out of the lubet. A is der Anfang 4 und das Ende (the beginning and the end), viz. the will of the whole comprehension, and it is the FATHER. 52. And these five do fold themselves up with the comprehension or formation into three, viz. into such a Word, AJ, that is, A, 0, V, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. The triangle denotes the Trinity of the properties of the Persons, and the V on the triangle denotes the spirit in the H, viz. in the breathing, where the universal God does manifest himself spiritually with his own proceeding forth or procession out of himself 5 1 Text, a kingdom of joy. 2 German. Engel. 3 Viz. the sweetness. 4 Germ. Anfang.
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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