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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.
139. And not the property of the Deity, which has neither beginning nor end, also does not possess either time or place, but is through all, and in all, from eternity to eternity, and has only manifested itself in the humanity as the fire doth through-heat and iron, and changes it wholly into fire; and yet the iron remains iron still. So also the man or the humanity which Mary brought forth out of her essence, and out of God's essence, in one only essence, is to be understood. 40. She brought forth the humanity, and God the Father has from eternity brought forth the Word which did manifest itself in the humanity, and filled the humanity, as the fire doth through-heat an iron, and the sun does illustrate or through-shine the water or glass. 41. She indeed has brought forth the heavenly body, but not from the power of her ens or seed, but from the power and ability of that ens which did manifest itself in her seed; as the essence or being of eternity manifested itself through time, and yet the time was not able or capable to receive the essence of eternity into its own might; but the essence of eternity assumed or took on it the essence of time; as the inward heaven and world has brought forth and assumed the outward heaven and world: so likewise the eternity assumed the essence, that it breathed into Adam, which died or disappeared in the seed of Mary, understand in her own human seed.
242. And this is the great name of Abraham in Christ, and the blessing of Abraham, wherewith God blessed Abraham and his children, and not a strange person, as some erroneously conceive, who understand not the three Principles. 43. The person was strange, but it is become an indweller in us. The heaven took on it the world, and made the world in it to heaven, and yet each remained dwelling in itself; viz. the formed word of the body, a creature, in itself; and the unformed Word in itself; God over all, and in all, and through all. Thus also we are to understand and consider of the heavenly living essence, which gave itself into Adam's and Abraham's ens, as filling all, in the person formatively, and without the person at once through all, and with the Word of power as a habitation or mansion of the power also through all, or everywhere, but not to be comprehended of anything; as the sun's power and influence, and the air, do penetrate through all things, and give life to every being: the like is here to be understood.
344. We must by no means abolish the creature in Christ's person, for that which he assumed, both from the soul and body of man, the same is creature; but that which he introduced out of the Deity into the humanity, that is neither nature nor creature, yet in our humanity formatively, but immense, uncircumscribed, not particular: like as the air and sunshine is whole or entire, so likewise it is here. And we are in like manner to understand it, as if the sunshine did introduce itself in something, into a form, and yet were wholly one thing with the shine or light without the form: thus likewise Christ's heavenly divine ens, which he introduced into our humanity, is to be understood. 45. God did of ten appear to Abraham, and spoke with him as one man speaks with another. Therefore reason says, How was it done? did God assume the form of a body? God appeared to Abraham in the ens and essence, wherewith he would manifest himself in his seed, viz. in Christ's person, and spoke from the Word of the Covenant in the limit, in Abraham's seed, even unto the mental tongue of Abraham, which moved itself in the Covenant, and this the sensual spirit in Abraham did understand. 46. For otherwise Abraham was not able to see God; but in the formed ens of the heavenly essence Abraham was able to see in the spirit of the Covenant, viz. in the same spirit which would manifest the represented type and essence in the human essence.
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.
139. And not the property of the Deity, which has neither beginning nor end, also does not possess either time or place, but is through all, and in all, from eternity to eternity, and has only manifested itself in the humanity as the fire doth through-heat and iron, and changes it wholly into fire; and yet the iron remains iron still. So also the man or the humanity which Mary brought forth out of her essence, and out of God's essence, in one only essence, is to be understood. 40. She brought forth the humanity, and God the Father has from eternity brought forth the Word which did manifest itself in the humanity, and filled the humanity, as the fire doth through-heat an iron, and the sun does illustrate or through-shine the water or glass. 41. She indeed has brought forth the heavenly body, but not from the power of her ens or seed, but from the power and ability of that ens which did manifest itself in her seed; as the essence or being of eternity manifested itself through time, and yet the time was not able or capable to receive the essence of eternity into its own might; but the essence of eternity assumed or took on it the essence of time; as the inward heaven and world has brought forth and assumed the outward heaven and world: so likewise the eternity assumed the essence, that it breathed into Adam, which died or disappeared in the seed of Mary, understand in her own human seed.
242. And this is the great name of Abraham in Christ, and the blessing of Abraham, wherewith God blessed Abraham and his children, and not a strange person, as some erroneously conceive, who understand not the three Principles. 43. The person was strange, but it is become an indweller in us. The heaven took on it the world, and made the world in it to heaven, and yet each remained dwelling in itself; viz. the formed word of the body, a creature, in itself; and the unformed Word in itself; God over all, and in all, and through all. Thus also we are to understand and consider of the heavenly living essence, which gave itself into Adam's and Abraham's ens, as filling all, in the person formatively, and without the person at once through all, and with the Word of power as a habitation or mansion of the power also through all, or everywhere, but not to be comprehended of anything; as the sun's power and influence, and the air, do penetrate through all things, and give life to every being: the like is here to be understood.
344. We must by no means abolish the creature in Christ's person, for that which he assumed, both from the soul and body of man, the same is creature; but that which he introduced out of the Deity into the humanity, that is neither nature nor creature, yet in our humanity formatively, but immense, uncircumscribed, not particular: like as the air and sunshine is whole or entire, so likewise it is here. And we are in like manner to understand it, as if the sunshine did introduce itself in something, into a form, and yet were wholly one thing with the shine or light without the form: thus likewise Christ's heavenly divine ens, which he introduced into our humanity, is to be understood. 45. God did of ten appear to Abraham, and spoke with him as one man speaks with another. Therefore reason says, How was it done? did God assume the form of a body? God appeared to Abraham in the ens and essence, wherewith he would manifest himself in his seed, viz. in Christ's person, and spoke from the Word of the Covenant in the limit, in Abraham's seed, even unto the mental tongue of Abraham, which moved itself in the Covenant, and this the sensual spirit in Abraham did understand. 46. For otherwise Abraham was not able to see God; but in the formed ens of the heavenly essence Abraham was able to see in the spirit of the Covenant, viz. in the same spirit which would manifest the represented type and essence in the human essence.
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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