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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.
16. When God will punish a land, he first sends them messengers, and exhorts them to repentance, and declares unto them his grace. Soon after he sends them the angel of righteousness, who tries and sifts them whether they be capable of the grace that is tendered unto them; and sets judgement before them, with threats of their ruin; denouncing great war and plagues upon them to blot and root them out if they will not return and repent; and shows them also by his messengers the light and way of righteousness; and suffers them to run on in the light that is tendered to them, till they be weary and glutted with it, and hold it only for a common customary thing, and a history, and again become a Sodom. 7. And then he sends them both angels together, to wit, the angel of righteousness, and the angel of truth; and first threatens them severely, and exhorts them, and sets the judgement before them; but when they grow [are] wholly a Sodom, he leaves off from the outward figure, and lets them fill up their measure; and then it seems as if the sun were risen upon their Sodom, and now it should be good and prosperous. But even then says the angel of truth in his children, Hasten and go out, the punishment and ruin is at hand.
28. Thus we declare unto you, Babel, that God has already long since sent you messengers, and with the declaration of the Gospel has tendered you his grace; and therewith also has mightily threatened to punish you with ruin. But you have made only a contentious disputing Babel of the light of the Gospel, and aet now the well-fatted Sodom. 9. And know for certain, that the Lord for a farewell has now sent you two angels, one has the truth in him, and bids Lot with his daughters to go out from Sodom; and the other has the severe judgement, and has now at last sifted you, and turned your inward signature outwards, and set it before the Lord; and your murderous 1 cry is come up before the presence of the Most High; and it is exceeding great; he has sent his angel to destroy you, and to overturn the cities. 1 Your Cain-like crying ruin upon others. 10. Your signature wherewith you are now outwardly marked is the great covetousness and envy, together with your ammunitionmoney; and the great wrathful severity of your oppression of the poor and miserable, in that your covetousness has served itself so high, that it desires to devour all into itself whence your great enhancement of man's necessaries 2 is risen. 2 The scarcity and dearness of commodities, and all oppression arises from the covetousness and pride of man, who seeks to maintain it by the sword. 11. But you say, Now it is a good and a prosperous time; the
3sun is risen upon me, and shines on my purse, so that I can fill it as I please; it is a good and a fine time for me; it shall now be a good and a golden time, sure enough; I shall certainly enjoy it, and arise in high power and authority, and be respected. 12. But hear now, what at present the sound of the trumpet declares. It says, Go out from Sodom; the sun is risen in love and anger, this we will not hide from you. The angel of truth has now already taken Lot's daughters, with the father, and his wife, by the hand; and bids them go; it is time; this you shall soon see by woeful experience. 13. For the angel of anger has also taken you into judgement, and therefore you are so wrathful, covetous, murderous, and wicked. Do but behold yourself whether we speak truth. You get yourself much to spend in your signature; and you have indeed a storehouse full of provision in the abyss: He that can see, let him see; in whom there is but the least inkling of the trumpet's sound, let him go out of Sodom: there is no longer any tarrying. 14. And Moses speaks further: And when he had brought Lot forth, he said, Escape for your life; look not behind you, and stay not also in this whole plain; escape unto the mountain, lest you be consumed. But Lot said unto him, Oh, not so, my Lord: Behold now, seeing your servant has found grace in Your sight, be pleased to magnify your
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.
16. When God will punish a land, he first sends them messengers, and exhorts them to repentance, and declares unto them his grace. Soon after he sends them the angel of righteousness, who tries and sifts them whether they be capable of the grace that is tendered unto them; and sets judgement before them, with threats of their ruin; denouncing great war and plagues upon them to blot and root them out if they will not return and repent; and shows them also by his messengers the light and way of righteousness; and suffers them to run on in the light that is tendered to them, till they be weary and glutted with it, and hold it only for a common customary thing, and a history, and again become a Sodom. 7. And then he sends them both angels together, to wit, the angel of righteousness, and the angel of truth; and first threatens them severely, and exhorts them, and sets the judgement before them; but when they grow [are] wholly a Sodom, he leaves off from the outward figure, and lets them fill up their measure; and then it seems as if the sun were risen upon their Sodom, and now it should be good and prosperous. But even then says the angel of truth in his children, Hasten and go out, the punishment and ruin is at hand.
28. Thus we declare unto you, Babel, that God has already long since sent you messengers, and with the declaration of the Gospel has tendered you his grace; and therewith also has mightily threatened to punish you with ruin. But you have made only a contentious disputing Babel of the light of the Gospel, and aet now the well-fatted Sodom. 9. And know for certain, that the Lord for a farewell has now sent you two angels, one has the truth in him, and bids Lot with his daughters to go out from Sodom; and the other has the severe judgement, and has now at last sifted you, and turned your inward signature outwards, and set it before the Lord; and your murderous 1 cry is come up before the presence of the Most High; and it is exceeding great; he has sent his angel to destroy you, and to overturn the cities. 1 Your Cain-like crying ruin upon others. 10. Your signature wherewith you are now outwardly marked is the great covetousness and envy, together with your ammunitionmoney; and the great wrathful severity of your oppression of the poor and miserable, in that your covetousness has served itself so high, that it desires to devour all into itself whence your great enhancement of man's necessaries 2 is risen. 2 The scarcity and dearness of commodities, and all oppression arises from the covetousness and pride of man, who seeks to maintain it by the sword. 11. But you say, Now it is a good and a prosperous time; the
3sun is risen upon me, and shines on my purse, so that I can fill it as I please; it is a good and a fine time for me; it shall now be a good and a golden time, sure enough; I shall certainly enjoy it, and arise in high power and authority, and be respected. 12. But hear now, what at present the sound of the trumpet declares. It says, Go out from Sodom; the sun is risen in love and anger, this we will not hide from you. The angel of truth has now already taken Lot's daughters, with the father, and his wife, by the hand; and bids them go; it is time; this you shall soon see by woeful experience. 13. For the angel of anger has also taken you into judgement, and therefore you are so wrathful, covetous, murderous, and wicked. Do but behold yourself whether we speak truth. You get yourself much to spend in your signature; and you have indeed a storehouse full of provision in the abyss: He that can see, let him see; in whom there is but the least inkling of the trumpet's sound, let him go out of Sodom: there is no longer any tarrying. 14. And Moses speaks further: And when he had brought Lot forth, he said, Escape for your life; look not behind you, and stay not also in this whole plain; escape unto the mountain, lest you be consumed. But Lot said unto him, Oh, not so, my Lord: Behold now, seeing your servant has found grace in Your sight, be pleased to magnify your
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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