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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.
114. But the Devil is entered into its seven Forms of Life of the Centre , viz., into its own Self conceited Reason , and continually bringeth his Desire into this trimmed Virgin, which the Stars receive. He is her Beast on which she rideth, well adorned with her own Powers of Life, as may be seen in the Revelation of St.John . Thus hath this Child of Self taken into its Possession the outward Q/ance of Divine Holiness , viz., the Light of Reason , and supposeth itself to be the fair Child in the House, though the Devil hath his Lodging within it all the while. 1 5. And thus it is with all those that have been once enlightened by GOD, and afterwards go forth again from true Resignation , and wean themselves from the pure Milk of their Mother, viz., true Humility . Chapter II. H ERE Reason will object and say, ‘Is it not right for a ‘ Man to attain the Light of God, and also the Light ‘of the outward Nature and Reason, that he may be ‘able to order his Life wisely, as the Scripture ‘ directeth ?’ 2. Yes, it is very right ; nothing can be mc/re profitable to A Man, neither is he Capable of any Thing better ; nay, it is a Treasure above all Earthly Treasures for a Man to have the Light of Qod and of Time , for it is the Eye of Time and of Eternity. 3. But mark, how thou oughtest to use it ; when the Light of Qod first manifesteth itself in the Soul, it shineth forth as Light Of \ True Resignation. 43
2from a Candle, and kindleth the outward Light of Reason immediately ; yet it yieldeth not itself wholly up to Reason, so as to be under the Dominion of the outward Man. No, the outward Man beholdeth himself in this through-shining Lustre, as he doth his Likeness in a Looking-Glass ; whereby he presently learneth to know himself ; which is good and profitable for him. 4. Now when he doth so, Reason, which is the Creaturely Self, cannot do better than to behold itself in the Self of the CreUture , and not enter with the Will of the Desire into the Centre in seeking itself. If it doth, it breaketh itself off from the Substance of God, (which riseth together with the Light of God, of which the Soul ought to eat, and refresh itself therewith,) and eateth of the outward Substance and Light, and thereby draweth the Venom into itself again. 5. *The WJll of the Creature ought to sink wholly into itself with all its Reason and Desire, accounting itself an unworthy Child that is no w'hit worthy of this so high a Qrace ; nor should it arrogate any Knowledge or Understanding to itself or desire of Gob to have any Understanding in its Creaturely Self ; but sincerely and simply sink down into the Qrace and Love of God in Christ fesus, and desire to be as it were dead to itself and its own Reason, in the Divine Life, and wholly resign itself to the Spirit of God in Love, that He may do how and what he will with it, as with His own Instrument.
36. Its own Reason ought not to enter upon any Speculation in Divine or in the Qround of human Matters ; nor to will and desire any thing but the Qrace of God in Christ. And as a Child continually longeth after the Breasts of the Mother, so must its Hunger be continually entering into the Love of God, and not suffer itself to be broken off from that Hunger by any Means. When the outward Reason triumpheth in the Light, saying, I have the true Child, then the Will of the Desire must bow itself down to £he Earth, and bring itself into the deepest Humility and most simple Ignorance, and say, ‘ Thou art foolish, and hast nothing ‘but the Grace of God.’ Thou must wrap thyself up in that Belief with great Humility, and become nothing at all in thyself, and neither know nor love thyself. All that thou hast, or is in thee, must ‘esteem itself as nothing but a mere Instrument of God ; and thou must bring thy Desire only into God’s Mercy, and go forth from all thy* own knowing and willing ; and esteem it as nothing at all, nor ever entertain any Will to enter into it again. • 7. As soon as this is done, the natural Will becometh weak and faint, and then the Devil is not able to sift it thus any more with his evil Desire , for the Places of his Rest become very power44 T/fo Way to Qhrist . L i
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.
114. But the Devil is entered into its seven Forms of Life of the Centre , viz., into its own Self conceited Reason , and continually bringeth his Desire into this trimmed Virgin, which the Stars receive. He is her Beast on which she rideth, well adorned with her own Powers of Life, as may be seen in the Revelation of St.John . Thus hath this Child of Self taken into its Possession the outward Q/ance of Divine Holiness , viz., the Light of Reason , and supposeth itself to be the fair Child in the House, though the Devil hath his Lodging within it all the while. 1 5. And thus it is with all those that have been once enlightened by GOD, and afterwards go forth again from true Resignation , and wean themselves from the pure Milk of their Mother, viz., true Humility . Chapter II. H ERE Reason will object and say, ‘Is it not right for a ‘ Man to attain the Light of God, and also the Light ‘of the outward Nature and Reason, that he may be ‘able to order his Life wisely, as the Scripture ‘ directeth ?’ 2. Yes, it is very right ; nothing can be mc/re profitable to A Man, neither is he Capable of any Thing better ; nay, it is a Treasure above all Earthly Treasures for a Man to have the Light of Qod and of Time , for it is the Eye of Time and of Eternity. 3. But mark, how thou oughtest to use it ; when the Light of Qod first manifesteth itself in the Soul, it shineth forth as Light Of \ True Resignation. 43
2from a Candle, and kindleth the outward Light of Reason immediately ; yet it yieldeth not itself wholly up to Reason, so as to be under the Dominion of the outward Man. No, the outward Man beholdeth himself in this through-shining Lustre, as he doth his Likeness in a Looking-Glass ; whereby he presently learneth to know himself ; which is good and profitable for him. 4. Now when he doth so, Reason, which is the Creaturely Self, cannot do better than to behold itself in the Self of the CreUture , and not enter with the Will of the Desire into the Centre in seeking itself. If it doth, it breaketh itself off from the Substance of God, (which riseth together with the Light of God, of which the Soul ought to eat, and refresh itself therewith,) and eateth of the outward Substance and Light, and thereby draweth the Venom into itself again. 5. *The WJll of the Creature ought to sink wholly into itself with all its Reason and Desire, accounting itself an unworthy Child that is no w'hit worthy of this so high a Qrace ; nor should it arrogate any Knowledge or Understanding to itself or desire of Gob to have any Understanding in its Creaturely Self ; but sincerely and simply sink down into the Qrace and Love of God in Christ fesus, and desire to be as it were dead to itself and its own Reason, in the Divine Life, and wholly resign itself to the Spirit of God in Love, that He may do how and what he will with it, as with His own Instrument.
36. Its own Reason ought not to enter upon any Speculation in Divine or in the Qround of human Matters ; nor to will and desire any thing but the Qrace of God in Christ. And as a Child continually longeth after the Breasts of the Mother, so must its Hunger be continually entering into the Love of God, and not suffer itself to be broken off from that Hunger by any Means. When the outward Reason triumpheth in the Light, saying, I have the true Child, then the Will of the Desire must bow itself down to £he Earth, and bring itself into the deepest Humility and most simple Ignorance, and say, ‘ Thou art foolish, and hast nothing ‘but the Grace of God.’ Thou must wrap thyself up in that Belief with great Humility, and become nothing at all in thyself, and neither know nor love thyself. All that thou hast, or is in thee, must ‘esteem itself as nothing but a mere Instrument of God ; and thou must bring thy Desire only into God’s Mercy, and go forth from all thy* own knowing and willing ; and esteem it as nothing at all, nor ever entertain any Will to enter into it again. • 7. As soon as this is done, the natural Will becometh weak and faint, and then the Devil is not able to sift it thus any more with his evil Desire , for the Places of his Rest become very power44 T/fo Way to Qhrist . L i
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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