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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.
115. All Speculation in the Wonders of God is very dangerous, for the Spirit of the Will may soon be captivated therewith, unless the Spirit of the Will goeth or walketh after the Spirit of God, and then it hath Power in the resigned Humility to behold the Wonders of God. 16. I do not say that a Man should search and learn nothing in natural Arts and Sciences ; no ; such Knowledge is useful to him ; but a Man must not begin with his own Reason. Man ought not only to govern his Life by the Light of outward Reason, which is good in itself, but should sink with that Light into the deepest Humility before God, and set the Spirit and Will of God foremost in all his searching, so that the Light of Reason may see and know Things through the Light of God. And though Reason "'may be very wise in its own Sphere, and help a Man to much Knowledge , yet must it not arrogate such Wisdom and Knowledge to itself as if they were in its ow?t Possession, but give the Glory thereof to God, to whom alone all Wisdom and Knowledge belong. 17. For the more deeply Reason sinketh itself down into simple PPumilityxw the Sight of God, and the more unworthy it accounts itself in His Sight ; the more truly it dieth from Self desire, and the more thoroughly the Spirit of GWpenetrateth it, and bringeth it’ into the Highest Knowledge , so that at length it may come to behold the great Mysteries and Wonders of God. For the Spirit
2, of Qod worketh only in resigned Humility , in that which neither 4 6 Fhe TV ay to Qhrist. seeketh nor desireth itself. The Spirit of Qod taketh hold of whatsoever desireth to be simple and lowly before Him, and bringeth it into His Wonders; He hath Pleasure only in those that fear and bow themselves before Him. 1 8. For God hath not created us for ourselves only, but to be Instruments of His Wonders , by which He desireth to manifest his Wonders . The resigned Will trusteth God, and expecteth all g;ood from Him alone ; but Self Will ruleth itself for it is broken off from God. All that Self Will doth is Sin, and against God ; for it is gone out of that Oi'der wherein He created it, into Disobedience , and desireth to be its own Lord and Master . 19. When a Man's own Will dieth from itself \ then it is free from Sin, for it desireth nothing but that which GOD desireth of His Creature ; it desireth only to do that for which GOD hath created it ; and that which God will do by it ; and, though" it is and must be the Doing , yet it is but the Instrument of the Doing \ by which God doth what He will.
320. For this is the true Faith in Man, viz,, to die from himself ; that is, from his own Desire ; and in all his Undertakings ' and Designs to bring his Desire into the Will of God, and arrogate the doing of nothing to himself, but esteem himself in all his doings to be but a Servant or Minister of God, and to think that all he doth and undertaketh, is for God. For in such a Disposition the Spirit of Godle&deXh him into true Uprightness and Faithfulness towards his Neighbour, For he thinketh thus with himself, 4 1 do my Work not for myself, but for God, who hath called 4 and appointed me to do it ; I am but a Servant in His Vineyard.' He listeneth continually after the Voice of his Master, who within him commandeth him what he shall do. The Lord speaketh in him, and biddeth him do what He would have to be done by him. 21. But JSV^doth what outward Reason from the Stars commandeth, into which Reason the Devil flieth with his Desire . AU whatever Self doth is without the Will of Qod, and is done altogether in the Phantasy, that the Anger of God may accom-v plish its Pastime therewith. 22. No work done without the Will of Qod can reach the Kingdom of Qod ; it is all but an unprofitable Imagery, ox self wrought Work , in this great Agitation of Mankind. For Nothing is
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.
115. All Speculation in the Wonders of God is very dangerous, for the Spirit of the Will may soon be captivated therewith, unless the Spirit of the Will goeth or walketh after the Spirit of God, and then it hath Power in the resigned Humility to behold the Wonders of God. 16. I do not say that a Man should search and learn nothing in natural Arts and Sciences ; no ; such Knowledge is useful to him ; but a Man must not begin with his own Reason. Man ought not only to govern his Life by the Light of outward Reason, which is good in itself, but should sink with that Light into the deepest Humility before God, and set the Spirit and Will of God foremost in all his searching, so that the Light of Reason may see and know Things through the Light of God. And though Reason "'may be very wise in its own Sphere, and help a Man to much Knowledge , yet must it not arrogate such Wisdom and Knowledge to itself as if they were in its ow?t Possession, but give the Glory thereof to God, to whom alone all Wisdom and Knowledge belong. 17. For the more deeply Reason sinketh itself down into simple PPumilityxw the Sight of God, and the more unworthy it accounts itself in His Sight ; the more truly it dieth from Self desire, and the more thoroughly the Spirit of GWpenetrateth it, and bringeth it’ into the Highest Knowledge , so that at length it may come to behold the great Mysteries and Wonders of God. For the Spirit
2, of Qod worketh only in resigned Humility , in that which neither 4 6 Fhe TV ay to Qhrist. seeketh nor desireth itself. The Spirit of Qod taketh hold of whatsoever desireth to be simple and lowly before Him, and bringeth it into His Wonders; He hath Pleasure only in those that fear and bow themselves before Him. 1 8. For God hath not created us for ourselves only, but to be Instruments of His Wonders , by which He desireth to manifest his Wonders . The resigned Will trusteth God, and expecteth all g;ood from Him alone ; but Self Will ruleth itself for it is broken off from God. All that Self Will doth is Sin, and against God ; for it is gone out of that Oi'der wherein He created it, into Disobedience , and desireth to be its own Lord and Master . 19. When a Man's own Will dieth from itself \ then it is free from Sin, for it desireth nothing but that which GOD desireth of His Creature ; it desireth only to do that for which GOD hath created it ; and that which God will do by it ; and, though" it is and must be the Doing , yet it is but the Instrument of the Doing \ by which God doth what He will.
320. For this is the true Faith in Man, viz,, to die from himself ; that is, from his own Desire ; and in all his Undertakings ' and Designs to bring his Desire into the Will of God, and arrogate the doing of nothing to himself, but esteem himself in all his doings to be but a Servant or Minister of God, and to think that all he doth and undertaketh, is for God. For in such a Disposition the Spirit of Godle&deXh him into true Uprightness and Faithfulness towards his Neighbour, For he thinketh thus with himself, 4 1 do my Work not for myself, but for God, who hath called 4 and appointed me to do it ; I am but a Servant in His Vineyard.' He listeneth continually after the Voice of his Master, who within him commandeth him what he shall do. The Lord speaketh in him, and biddeth him do what He would have to be done by him. 21. But JSV^doth what outward Reason from the Stars commandeth, into which Reason the Devil flieth with his Desire . AU whatever Self doth is without the Will of Qod, and is done altogether in the Phantasy, that the Anger of God may accom-v plish its Pastime therewith. 22. No work done without the Will of Qod can reach the Kingdom of Qod ; it is all but an unprofitable Imagery, ox self wrought Work , in this great Agitation of Mankind. For Nothing is
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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