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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.
1121. The sixth property gives understanding in the voice or sound, viz. in the [1] speaking of the word; and the second property of nature is the producer, and also the house, tool , or instrument of the speech or voice: in the second property thep ower and virtue is painful; but in the sixth property it is joyful and pleasant; and the difference between the second and sixth property is in light and darkness, which are in one another, as fire and light; there is no other difference between them. [1] articulation The Seventh Property ( The Moon 3) ) 122. The Seventh property is the substance, that is, the subjectum or house of the other six, in which they all are substantially as the soul in the body: by this we understand especially, as to the light-world, the paradise or budding of the working power. 123. For every property makes unto itself a subject, or [1] object, by its own effluence; and in the seventh all the properties are in a temperature, as in one only substance: and as they all did proceed from the Unity, so they all return again into one ground. [1] or resemblance 124. And though they work in different kinds and manners, yet here there is but one only substance, whose power and virtue is called tincture; that is, a holy penetrating, growing or springing bud [essence or being]
2125. Not that the seventh property is the tincture, but it is the [1] body of it; the power and virtue of the fire and light is the tincture [2] in the substantial body: but the seventh property is the substance which the tincture penetrates and sanctifies; we mean, that it is thus according to the power and virtue of the divine manifestation; but as it is a property of nature, it is the substance of the attracted desire of all properties. [1] corpus aut substantia [2] or with 126. It is especially to be [1] observed, that always following the First and the Seventh property are accounted for one; and the Second and Sixth; also the Third and Fifth; and the Fourth is only the dividing mark or [2] bound. [1] See the table following [2] or limit 127. For according to the manifestation of the Trinity of God, there are but three properties of nature: the first is the desire which belongs to God the Father, yet it is only a spirit; but in the seventh property the desire is substantial. 128. The second is the divine power and virtue, and belongs to God the Son; in the second number it is only a spirit; but in the sixth it is the substantial power and virtue. 129. The third belongs to the Holy Ghost; and in the beginning of the third property it is only a fiery spirit; but in the fifth property the great love is manifested therein.
3130. Thus the effluence of the divine manifestation, as to the three properties in the first Principle before the light, [1] is natural; but in the second Principle in the light it is spiritual. [1] appears 131. Now these are the seven properties in one only ground; and all seven are equally eternal without beginning; none of them can be accounted the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or last; for they are equally eternal without beginning, and have also one eternal beginning from the Unity of God. 132. We must represent this in a typical way, that it may be understood how the one is born out of the other, the better to conceive what the Creator is, and what the life and substance of this world is. t> 9 O 9 d* 2.. 9 c •& of6 27ie Seven Forms of Spirits, mentioned Revel. Chap. 1. The Firet\ Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Harsh Desiring Will Bitter or Stinging Anguish, till the Flaah of Fire > Form Fire DtrV-Fito Light- Fin Light or Love, whence the water of EternaP Life fioweth j Noiaa, Sound, or Mercury I Substance or Nature 1. Dark-World; a similitude of it ia a candle, 2. Fire-World; a similitude of it is the firs of a candle. 3. Light- World ; a similitude of it is the light of a candle. The First Principle. The Dark-World: hence God the Father ia called' an Angry, Zealous, Jealous God, and a Consuming Fire. 1 W 3 The Second P>-inciple.
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.
1121. The sixth property gives understanding in the voice or sound, viz. in the [1] speaking of the word; and the second property of nature is the producer, and also the house, tool , or instrument of the speech or voice: in the second property thep ower and virtue is painful; but in the sixth property it is joyful and pleasant; and the difference between the second and sixth property is in light and darkness, which are in one another, as fire and light; there is no other difference between them. [1] articulation The Seventh Property ( The Moon 3) ) 122. The Seventh property is the substance, that is, the subjectum or house of the other six, in which they all are substantially as the soul in the body: by this we understand especially, as to the light-world, the paradise or budding of the working power. 123. For every property makes unto itself a subject, or [1] object, by its own effluence; and in the seventh all the properties are in a temperature, as in one only substance: and as they all did proceed from the Unity, so they all return again into one ground. [1] or resemblance 124. And though they work in different kinds and manners, yet here there is but one only substance, whose power and virtue is called tincture; that is, a holy penetrating, growing or springing bud [essence or being]
2125. Not that the seventh property is the tincture, but it is the [1] body of it; the power and virtue of the fire and light is the tincture [2] in the substantial body: but the seventh property is the substance which the tincture penetrates and sanctifies; we mean, that it is thus according to the power and virtue of the divine manifestation; but as it is a property of nature, it is the substance of the attracted desire of all properties. [1] corpus aut substantia [2] or with 126. It is especially to be [1] observed, that always following the First and the Seventh property are accounted for one; and the Second and Sixth; also the Third and Fifth; and the Fourth is only the dividing mark or [2] bound. [1] See the table following [2] or limit 127. For according to the manifestation of the Trinity of God, there are but three properties of nature: the first is the desire which belongs to God the Father, yet it is only a spirit; but in the seventh property the desire is substantial. 128. The second is the divine power and virtue, and belongs to God the Son; in the second number it is only a spirit; but in the sixth it is the substantial power and virtue. 129. The third belongs to the Holy Ghost; and in the beginning of the third property it is only a fiery spirit; but in the fifth property the great love is manifested therein.
3130. Thus the effluence of the divine manifestation, as to the three properties in the first Principle before the light, [1] is natural; but in the second Principle in the light it is spiritual. [1] appears 131. Now these are the seven properties in one only ground; and all seven are equally eternal without beginning; none of them can be accounted the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or last; for they are equally eternal without beginning, and have also one eternal beginning from the Unity of God. 132. We must represent this in a typical way, that it may be understood how the one is born out of the other, the better to conceive what the Creator is, and what the life and substance of this world is. t> 9 O 9 d* 2.. 9 c •& of6 27ie Seven Forms of Spirits, mentioned Revel. Chap. 1. The Firet\ Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Harsh Desiring Will Bitter or Stinging Anguish, till the Flaah of Fire > Form Fire DtrV-Fito Light- Fin Light or Love, whence the water of EternaP Life fioweth j Noiaa, Sound, or Mercury I Substance or Nature 1. Dark-World; a similitude of it ia a candle, 2. Fire-World; a similitude of it is the firs of a candle. 3. Light- World ; a similitude of it is the light of a candle. The First Principle. The Dark-World: hence God the Father ia called' an Angry, Zealous, Jealous God, and a Consuming Fire. 1 W 3 The Second P>-inciple.
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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