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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.
19. But since the lovers desire a Clavis, or key of my writings, I am ready and willing to pleasure them in it, and will set down a short description of the ground of those strange words; some of which are taken from nature and [1] sense, and some are the words of strange [2] masters, I have tried according to sense, and found them good and fit. [1] ex sensu [2] artists or mystical authors 10. Reason will stumble, when it sees heathenish terms and words used in the explanation of natural things, supposing we should use none but scripture phrase (or words borrowed from the Bible); but such words will not always ply and square themselves to the fundamental exposition of the properties of nature, neither can a man express the ground with them: also the wise heathen and jews have hidden the deep ground of nature under such words, as having well understood that the knowledge of [1] nature is not for every one, but it belongs to those only, whom God by nature has chosen for it. [1] naturally inclined to it 11. But none need stumble at it; for when God reveals his Mysteries to any man, he then also brings him into a mind and faculty how to express them, as God knows to be most necessary and profitable in every [1] age, for the setting of the confused tongues and opinions upon the true ground again: Men must not think that it comes by chance, or is done by human reason. [1] or seculum
212. The [1] revelations of divine things are opened by the inward ground of the spiritual world, and brought into visible forms, just as the Creator will manifest them. [1] or manifestations 13. I will write but a short description of the divine [1]manifestation, yet as much as I can comprehend in brief; and expound the strange words for the better understanding of ourbooks; and set down here the sum of those writings, or a modelor epitome of them, for the consideration and help of beginners: The further exposition of [2] it is to be found in the other books or revelation. [1] or revelations [2] the divine manifestation or revelation THE CLAVIS or An explanation of some principal points and expressions How God is to be considered without nature and creature 14. MOSES says, The Lord our God is but one only God. In another place it is said, Of him, through him, and in him are all things: in another, Am not I he that fills all things? And ina nother, Through his Word are all things made, that are made. Therefore we may say that he is the original of all things: He is the eternal unmeasurable Unity. 15. For example, when I think what would be in the place of this world, if the four elements and the starry firmament, and also nature itself, should perish and cease to be, so that no nature or creature were to be found any more; I find there would remain this eternal Unity, from which nature and creature have received their original.
316. So likewise, when I think with myself what is many hundredthousand miles above the starry firmament, or what is in that place where no creature is, I find the eternal unchangeable Unity is there, which is that only Good, which has nothing either before or after it, that can add anything to it, or take anything away from it, or from which this Unity could have its original: There is neither ground, time, nor place, but there is the only eternal God, or that only Good, which a man cannot express. A further Consideration, How this one God is Threefold 17. The Holy Scripture shows us that this only God is threefold, viz. one only [1] threefold essence, having three manners of workings, and yet is but one only essence, as may be seen in the outflown power and virtue which is in all things, if any do but observe it: but it is especiall y represented to us in fire, light, and air; which are three several [2] sorts of workings, and yet but in one only ground and substance. [1] or triune [2] subsistent forms 18. And as we see that fire, light, and air, arise from a candle (though the candle is none of the three, but a cause of them), so likewise the eternal Unity is the cause and ground of the eternal[1] Trinity, which manifests itself from the Unity, and brings forth itself, First, in desire, or will; Secondly, pleasure, or delight; Thirdly, proceeding, or outgoing. [1] Father, Son, Holy Spirit
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.
19. But since the lovers desire a Clavis, or key of my writings, I am ready and willing to pleasure them in it, and will set down a short description of the ground of those strange words; some of which are taken from nature and [1] sense, and some are the words of strange [2] masters, I have tried according to sense, and found them good and fit. [1] ex sensu [2] artists or mystical authors 10. Reason will stumble, when it sees heathenish terms and words used in the explanation of natural things, supposing we should use none but scripture phrase (or words borrowed from the Bible); but such words will not always ply and square themselves to the fundamental exposition of the properties of nature, neither can a man express the ground with them: also the wise heathen and jews have hidden the deep ground of nature under such words, as having well understood that the knowledge of [1] nature is not for every one, but it belongs to those only, whom God by nature has chosen for it. [1] naturally inclined to it 11. But none need stumble at it; for when God reveals his Mysteries to any man, he then also brings him into a mind and faculty how to express them, as God knows to be most necessary and profitable in every [1] age, for the setting of the confused tongues and opinions upon the true ground again: Men must not think that it comes by chance, or is done by human reason. [1] or seculum
212. The [1] revelations of divine things are opened by the inward ground of the spiritual world, and brought into visible forms, just as the Creator will manifest them. [1] or manifestations 13. I will write but a short description of the divine [1]manifestation, yet as much as I can comprehend in brief; and expound the strange words for the better understanding of ourbooks; and set down here the sum of those writings, or a modelor epitome of them, for the consideration and help of beginners: The further exposition of [2] it is to be found in the other books or revelation. [1] or revelations [2] the divine manifestation or revelation THE CLAVIS or An explanation of some principal points and expressions How God is to be considered without nature and creature 14. MOSES says, The Lord our God is but one only God. In another place it is said, Of him, through him, and in him are all things: in another, Am not I he that fills all things? And ina nother, Through his Word are all things made, that are made. Therefore we may say that he is the original of all things: He is the eternal unmeasurable Unity. 15. For example, when I think what would be in the place of this world, if the four elements and the starry firmament, and also nature itself, should perish and cease to be, so that no nature or creature were to be found any more; I find there would remain this eternal Unity, from which nature and creature have received their original.
316. So likewise, when I think with myself what is many hundredthousand miles above the starry firmament, or what is in that place where no creature is, I find the eternal unchangeable Unity is there, which is that only Good, which has nothing either before or after it, that can add anything to it, or take anything away from it, or from which this Unity could have its original: There is neither ground, time, nor place, but there is the only eternal God, or that only Good, which a man cannot express. A further Consideration, How this one God is Threefold 17. The Holy Scripture shows us that this only God is threefold, viz. one only [1] threefold essence, having three manners of workings, and yet is but one only essence, as may be seen in the outflown power and virtue which is in all things, if any do but observe it: but it is especiall y represented to us in fire, light, and air; which are three several [2] sorts of workings, and yet but in one only ground and substance. [1] or triune [2] subsistent forms 18. And as we see that fire, light, and air, arise from a candle (though the candle is none of the three, but a cause of them), so likewise the eternal Unity is the cause and ground of the eternal[1] Trinity, which manifests itself from the Unity, and brings forth itself, First, in desire, or will; Secondly, pleasure, or delight; Thirdly, proceeding, or outgoing. [1] Father, Son, Holy Spirit
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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