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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. The second property of your hunger covered with Christ's mantle is covetousness, viz. the devourer, who devours himself and gets from others their sweat, and flesh from their bones, and devours it: and yet has nothing, but always lies like poison, sucking out itself. This has devoured all truth, righteousness, patience, love, hope, faith, and the fear of God, and yet is but a mere hunger: at present it has eaten all silver from the copper, and yet looks as if it had devoured nothing, for nothing is to be seen in it. But that it is more hungry than before it has devoured all good times into itself, and still always devours all provisions, which God of his grace bestows, and yet is every day more hungry with devouring: and though he could devour heaven, he would devour hell also, and yet remains a mere hunger still. 37. The third property of this hunger covered with Christ's mantle is envy, viz. the son of covetousness, and pride is his grandfather. This stings and pricks and rages in the hunger, as poison in the flesh; it stings in words and works, and poisons all; it lies and cheats, and is never quiet. The more greedy covetousness is to devour the greater is this its son, envy; it will possess all alone to itself and yet has no place of rest, either in heaven, this world, or hell: It can remain neither in heaven, nor in hell, it stands only in the hunger of covetousness, and is the life of covetousness.
238. The fourth property of hunger covered under Christ's mantle is anger, which is the son of envy, and covetousness is its grandfather: what envy cannot sting to death, that will anger strike and fell to death. It is so evil and wicked that it breaks and shatters the bones to pieces. It always thirsts after murder, only that its father and grandfather, viz. covetousness, envy and pride, may have room enough. It destroys body and soul in their kind of fatness, and wastes country and city, and is further so wicked that it would destroy heaven and hell, and yet has nowhere any rest. 39. These are the four elements of hunger, which devour and swallow up the seven fat kine and ears of Pharaoh, and yet are as they were before. At present Joseph has seen and manifested them in Pharaoh's dream, so that they are become manifest in the world, and are set before the eyes of the watchmen who sit in council for judgment, what is to be done more with these dry ill-favoured kine, for God has given them the seven fat kine of the manifestation of his grace; but they devour all, and yet are so very hungry that hell dwells in their four elements, and the kingdom of the devil stands in their figure. 1
340. O Egypt of Christendom! you hope for good, and yet desire only to work wickedness. No good shall come to you; except you die from this hunger, you will burst yourself asunder in it. Whence shall good be interpreted to you by Joseph, when you thus hunger the more? Nature generates in you such a thing as your hunger and desire is. You ought to hope for nothing, except you convert and put on Joseph's new garment. And then the Lord will give you his spirit, so that you will see and understand your images, and put them away, and stand with Joseph before the face of God, as Joseph before the face of Pharaoh, and will be able to see and interpret the wonders of God. 41. And then the Lord will set you with Joseph over the kingdom of his mysteries, that you will rightly understand the magic ground of faith, and will search no more in the images of the outward natural magic, as you have done for a long time. But you will see the inward ground, and with Joseph rule over Egypt, that is, over the mysteries, and will therein praise the Lord, and draw in his fountain, and drink water of life. 42. For the word, which you shall now learn and understand, is near you, namely in your mouth and heart (Rom. x. 8; Deut. xxx. 14); you are God's formed word, you must learn to read your own book,
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. The second property of your hunger covered with Christ's mantle is covetousness, viz. the devourer, who devours himself and gets from others their sweat, and flesh from their bones, and devours it: and yet has nothing, but always lies like poison, sucking out itself. This has devoured all truth, righteousness, patience, love, hope, faith, and the fear of God, and yet is but a mere hunger: at present it has eaten all silver from the copper, and yet looks as if it had devoured nothing, for nothing is to be seen in it. But that it is more hungry than before it has devoured all good times into itself, and still always devours all provisions, which God of his grace bestows, and yet is every day more hungry with devouring: and though he could devour heaven, he would devour hell also, and yet remains a mere hunger still. 37. The third property of this hunger covered with Christ's mantle is envy, viz. the son of covetousness, and pride is his grandfather. This stings and pricks and rages in the hunger, as poison in the flesh; it stings in words and works, and poisons all; it lies and cheats, and is never quiet. The more greedy covetousness is to devour the greater is this its son, envy; it will possess all alone to itself and yet has no place of rest, either in heaven, this world, or hell: It can remain neither in heaven, nor in hell, it stands only in the hunger of covetousness, and is the life of covetousness.
238. The fourth property of hunger covered under Christ's mantle is anger, which is the son of envy, and covetousness is its grandfather: what envy cannot sting to death, that will anger strike and fell to death. It is so evil and wicked that it breaks and shatters the bones to pieces. It always thirsts after murder, only that its father and grandfather, viz. covetousness, envy and pride, may have room enough. It destroys body and soul in their kind of fatness, and wastes country and city, and is further so wicked that it would destroy heaven and hell, and yet has nowhere any rest. 39. These are the four elements of hunger, which devour and swallow up the seven fat kine and ears of Pharaoh, and yet are as they were before. At present Joseph has seen and manifested them in Pharaoh's dream, so that they are become manifest in the world, and are set before the eyes of the watchmen who sit in council for judgment, what is to be done more with these dry ill-favoured kine, for God has given them the seven fat kine of the manifestation of his grace; but they devour all, and yet are so very hungry that hell dwells in their four elements, and the kingdom of the devil stands in their figure. 1
340. O Egypt of Christendom! you hope for good, and yet desire only to work wickedness. No good shall come to you; except you die from this hunger, you will burst yourself asunder in it. Whence shall good be interpreted to you by Joseph, when you thus hunger the more? Nature generates in you such a thing as your hunger and desire is. You ought to hope for nothing, except you convert and put on Joseph's new garment. And then the Lord will give you his spirit, so that you will see and understand your images, and put them away, and stand with Joseph before the face of God, as Joseph before the face of Pharaoh, and will be able to see and interpret the wonders of God. 41. And then the Lord will set you with Joseph over the kingdom of his mysteries, that you will rightly understand the magic ground of faith, and will search no more in the images of the outward natural magic, as you have done for a long time. But you will see the inward ground, and with Joseph rule over Egypt, that is, over the mysteries, and will therein praise the Lord, and draw in his fountain, and drink water of life. 42. For the word, which you shall now learn and understand, is near you, namely in your mouth and heart (Rom. x. 8; Deut. xxx. 14); you are God's formed word, you must learn to read your own book,
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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