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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.
197. Now understand aright what the ground of fire is, viz. cold from the compressure, and heat from the anguish; and the motion is the [1] Vulcan ; in these three the fire consists, but the shining of the light arises and proceeds from the conjunction of the Unity in the ground of fire, and yet the whole ground is but the outflown will [1]or striker of fire 98. Therefore in fire and light consists the life of all things, viz. in the will thereof, let them be [1] insensible, vegetable, or rational things; everything, as the fire, has its ground, either from the eternal, as the soul, or from the temporary, as astral elementary things; for the eternal is one fire, and the temporary is another, as shall be shown hereafter. [1] or inanimate, or dumb The Fifth Property ( Venus 9 ) 99. Now the Fifth property is the fire of love, or the [1] world of power and light; which in the darkness dwells in itself, and the darkness comprehends it not, as it is written, John i . The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehends it not: Also, the Word is in the light, and in the Word is the true understanding life of man, viz., the true spirit. [1] The power, and light-world 100. But this fire is the true soul of man, viz. the true spirit, which God breathed into man for a creaturely life.
2101. You must understand, in the spiritual fire of the will, the true desirous soul out of the eternal ground; and in the power and virtue of the light, the true understanding spirit, in which the Unity of God dwells and is manifest, as our Lord Christ says, [1] The kingdom of God is within you; and Paul says, [2] You are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who dwells in you; this is the place of the divine inhabiting and revelation. [1] Luke 17:21 [2] 1 Cor. 6:19 102. Also the soul comes to be damned thus: when the fiery will breaks itself off from the love and Unity of God, and enters into its own natural propriety, that is, into its evil properties. This ought further to be considered. 103. Zion, observe this ground, and thou art freed from BabeR 104. The second Principle (viz. the angelical world and the thrones) is meant by the fifth property: for it is the motion of the Unity, wherein all the properties of the fiery nature burn in love. 105. An example or similitude of this [1] ground may be seen in a candle that is lighted. The properties lie in one another in the candle, and none of them is more manifested than another, till the candle be lighted; and then we find fire, oil, light, air, and water from the air: all the four elements become manifest in it, which lay hidden before in one only ground. [1] or thing
3106. And so likewise it must be conceived to be in the eternal ground; for the temporary substance is flown forth from the eternal , therefore they are both of the same quality; but with this difference, that one is eternal and the other transitory, one spiritual and the other corporeal. 107. When the spiritual fire and light shall be kindled, which has indeed burned from eternity [in itself], then shall also the Mystery of the divine power and knowledge be always made manifest therein; for all the properties of the eternal nature becomes piritual in the fire, and yet nature remains as it is, inwardly in itself; and the going forth of the will becomes spiritual. 108. For in the [1] crack or flash of the fire the dark receptibility is consumed; and in that consuming, the pure bright fire-spirit, which is pierced through with the glance of the light, goes forth; in which going forth we find three several properties. [1] hissing or noise 109. The first is the going upwards of the fiery will; the second is the going downwards, or sinking of the watery spirit, viz. the meekness; and the third is the going out forwards of the oily spirit, in the midst, in the center of the fiery spirit of the will ; which oily spirit is the ens of the Unity of God, which is become a substance in the desire of nature; yet all is but spirit and power: but so it appears in the figure of the
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.
197. Now understand aright what the ground of fire is, viz. cold from the compressure, and heat from the anguish; and the motion is the [1] Vulcan ; in these three the fire consists, but the shining of the light arises and proceeds from the conjunction of the Unity in the ground of fire, and yet the whole ground is but the outflown will [1]or striker of fire 98. Therefore in fire and light consists the life of all things, viz. in the will thereof, let them be [1] insensible, vegetable, or rational things; everything, as the fire, has its ground, either from the eternal, as the soul, or from the temporary, as astral elementary things; for the eternal is one fire, and the temporary is another, as shall be shown hereafter. [1] or inanimate, or dumb The Fifth Property ( Venus 9 ) 99. Now the Fifth property is the fire of love, or the [1] world of power and light; which in the darkness dwells in itself, and the darkness comprehends it not, as it is written, John i . The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehends it not: Also, the Word is in the light, and in the Word is the true understanding life of man, viz., the true spirit. [1] The power, and light-world 100. But this fire is the true soul of man, viz. the true spirit, which God breathed into man for a creaturely life.
2101. You must understand, in the spiritual fire of the will, the true desirous soul out of the eternal ground; and in the power and virtue of the light, the true understanding spirit, in which the Unity of God dwells and is manifest, as our Lord Christ says, [1] The kingdom of God is within you; and Paul says, [2] You are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who dwells in you; this is the place of the divine inhabiting and revelation. [1] Luke 17:21 [2] 1 Cor. 6:19 102. Also the soul comes to be damned thus: when the fiery will breaks itself off from the love and Unity of God, and enters into its own natural propriety, that is, into its evil properties. This ought further to be considered. 103. Zion, observe this ground, and thou art freed from BabeR 104. The second Principle (viz. the angelical world and the thrones) is meant by the fifth property: for it is the motion of the Unity, wherein all the properties of the fiery nature burn in love. 105. An example or similitude of this [1] ground may be seen in a candle that is lighted. The properties lie in one another in the candle, and none of them is more manifested than another, till the candle be lighted; and then we find fire, oil, light, air, and water from the air: all the four elements become manifest in it, which lay hidden before in one only ground. [1] or thing
3106. And so likewise it must be conceived to be in the eternal ground; for the temporary substance is flown forth from the eternal , therefore they are both of the same quality; but with this difference, that one is eternal and the other transitory, one spiritual and the other corporeal. 107. When the spiritual fire and light shall be kindled, which has indeed burned from eternity [in itself], then shall also the Mystery of the divine power and knowledge be always made manifest therein; for all the properties of the eternal nature becomes piritual in the fire, and yet nature remains as it is, inwardly in itself; and the going forth of the will becomes spiritual. 108. For in the [1] crack or flash of the fire the dark receptibility is consumed; and in that consuming, the pure bright fire-spirit, which is pierced through with the glance of the light, goes forth; in which going forth we find three several properties. [1] hissing or noise 109. The first is the going upwards of the fiery will; the second is the going downwards, or sinking of the watery spirit, viz. the meekness; and the third is the going out forwards of the oily spirit, in the midst, in the center of the fiery spirit of the will ; which oily spirit is the ens of the Unity of God, which is become a substance in the desire of nature; yet all is but spirit and power: but so it appears in the figure of the
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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