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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.
1* All this a Man must earnestly and seriously consider, and remember also that Gdd had originally created him in such a fair and glorious Image , even in His own Likeness , in which He Himself would dwell. That He created him out of His Goodness for Man's own eternal Bliss and Glory, to the end that he -might dwell with the holy Angels and Children <?/God in great Happiness > Power and Qlory ; in the eternal Light ; in the praiseful and melodious Harmony of the Angelical and Divine Kingdom of Joy . Where he should rejoice continually with the Children of God without Fear of any End. Where no evil Thoughts could touch him, neither Care nor Trouble , neither Heat nor Cold. Where no Jfight is known ; where there is no Day or limited Time any more, but an everlasting Blessedness , wherein Soul and Body tremble for Joy . And where he himself should rejoice at the infinite Wonders and Virtues appearing in the Brightness of Colours, and the Variety of Splendour opened and displayed by the Omnipotent Powers and Glories of God, upon the new Chrystalline Earth, which shall be as transparent Qlass. And that he doth so wilfully lose all this eternal Glory and Happiness for the sake of so short and poor a Time , which even in this State of Vanity and Corruption, in the evil Life of the voluptuous Flesh, is full of Misery , Fear and utter Vexation ; and wherein it goeth with the wicked as with the righteous, as the one must die so must the other ; only the Death of the Saints is an Entrance into the eternal Rest, while the Death of the wicked is an Introduction into the eternal Anguish.
2Eighthly , he must consider the Course of this World , that all Things in it are but a Play , wherewith he spendeth his Time in such Unquietness; and that it goeth with the Rich and Mighty ag with the Poor and the Beggar. That all of us equally live and move in the four Elements ; and that the hard-earned Morsel of the Poor is as relishing and savoury to him in his Labour , as the Dainties of the Rich are to him in his Cares . Also, that all of us subsist by one Breath, and that the rich Man hafch nothing but the Pleasures of the Palate and the Lust of the Eye for a little while, more than his poor Neighbour, for the End of both is the same. Yet for this short-lived Lusts Sake, many foolishly forego so inconceivable a Happiness, and bring themselves into so extreme*and eternal Misery. In the deep Consideration of these weighty Truths, Man shall come to feel in his Heart and Mind, especially if he at the same Time represent and set before his Eyes his own End , a hearty sighing and longing after the Mercy of God, and will begin to 8 The Way to Qhrist .
3bewail his, committed Sins ; and to be sorry he hath spent his Days so ill, and not observed or considered, that he standeth in this World as in a Field, in the growing to be a Fruity either in the Love or in the Anger of God. He will then first begin to find in himself that he hath not yet laboured at all in the Vine - yard of Christ , but that he is a dry fruitless Branch of the Vine. And thus in many a one, whom the Spirit of Christ touchfcth in such & Consideration, there ariseth abundant Sorrozu, Qnef of Heart , and imvard Lamentation over the Days of his Wickedness which he hath spent in Vanity, without any working in the Vineyard of Christ . Such a Man whom the Spirit of Christ thus bringeth into Sorrow and Repentance , so that his Heart is opened bcAh to know and bewail his Sins, is very easily to be helped. He needeth but to draw to himself the Promise of Christ , viz,, That God willeth not the Death of a Sinner , but that He wisheth them all to come unto Him , and He will refresh them ; and that there is great Joy in Heaven for one Sinner that repentcth . Let such a one but lay hold on the Words of Christ , and wrap himself up into His Meritorious Passion and Death .
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.
1* All this a Man must earnestly and seriously consider, and remember also that Gdd had originally created him in such a fair and glorious Image , even in His own Likeness , in which He Himself would dwell. That He created him out of His Goodness for Man's own eternal Bliss and Glory, to the end that he -might dwell with the holy Angels and Children <?/God in great Happiness > Power and Qlory ; in the eternal Light ; in the praiseful and melodious Harmony of the Angelical and Divine Kingdom of Joy . Where he should rejoice continually with the Children of God without Fear of any End. Where no evil Thoughts could touch him, neither Care nor Trouble , neither Heat nor Cold. Where no Jfight is known ; where there is no Day or limited Time any more, but an everlasting Blessedness , wherein Soul and Body tremble for Joy . And where he himself should rejoice at the infinite Wonders and Virtues appearing in the Brightness of Colours, and the Variety of Splendour opened and displayed by the Omnipotent Powers and Glories of God, upon the new Chrystalline Earth, which shall be as transparent Qlass. And that he doth so wilfully lose all this eternal Glory and Happiness for the sake of so short and poor a Time , which even in this State of Vanity and Corruption, in the evil Life of the voluptuous Flesh, is full of Misery , Fear and utter Vexation ; and wherein it goeth with the wicked as with the righteous, as the one must die so must the other ; only the Death of the Saints is an Entrance into the eternal Rest, while the Death of the wicked is an Introduction into the eternal Anguish.
2Eighthly , he must consider the Course of this World , that all Things in it are but a Play , wherewith he spendeth his Time in such Unquietness; and that it goeth with the Rich and Mighty ag with the Poor and the Beggar. That all of us equally live and move in the four Elements ; and that the hard-earned Morsel of the Poor is as relishing and savoury to him in his Labour , as the Dainties of the Rich are to him in his Cares . Also, that all of us subsist by one Breath, and that the rich Man hafch nothing but the Pleasures of the Palate and the Lust of the Eye for a little while, more than his poor Neighbour, for the End of both is the same. Yet for this short-lived Lusts Sake, many foolishly forego so inconceivable a Happiness, and bring themselves into so extreme*and eternal Misery. In the deep Consideration of these weighty Truths, Man shall come to feel in his Heart and Mind, especially if he at the same Time represent and set before his Eyes his own End , a hearty sighing and longing after the Mercy of God, and will begin to 8 The Way to Qhrist .
3bewail his, committed Sins ; and to be sorry he hath spent his Days so ill, and not observed or considered, that he standeth in this World as in a Field, in the growing to be a Fruity either in the Love or in the Anger of God. He will then first begin to find in himself that he hath not yet laboured at all in the Vine - yard of Christ , but that he is a dry fruitless Branch of the Vine. And thus in many a one, whom the Spirit of Christ touchfcth in such & Consideration, there ariseth abundant Sorrozu, Qnef of Heart , and imvard Lamentation over the Days of his Wickedness which he hath spent in Vanity, without any working in the Vineyard of Christ . Such a Man whom the Spirit of Christ thus bringeth into Sorrow and Repentance , so that his Heart is opened bcAh to know and bewail his Sins, is very easily to be helped. He needeth but to draw to himself the Promise of Christ , viz,, That God willeth not the Death of a Sinner , but that He wisheth them all to come unto Him , and He will refresh them ; and that there is great Joy in Heaven for one Sinner that repentcth . Let such a one but lay hold on the Words of Christ , and wrap himself up into His Meritorious Passion and Death .
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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