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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‘ from whence we expect our Saviour Jesus Christ/ Now, if our Conversation be in Heaven , then Heaven must be in us; Christ dwelleth in Heaven , and then if we are his Temple , that Temple Heaven must be in us. 11. But for all this, seeing Sin tempteth us zvithin us, whereby the Devil hath within us an Access to us, therefore Hell also must be in us too, for the Devil dwelleth in Hell ; wheresoever he is, he is in Hell , and cannot come out of it. Yea, when he possesseth a Man, he dwelleth in Hell , viz., in the Anger of God in that Man. 12. Therefore we ought to consider well what Maji is, and how he is a Man ; and then we shall find that a true Christian is not a mere Historical New Ma?i , as if it were enough for us outwardly to confess Christ , and believe that he is the Son of Cjod , and hath paid the Ransom for us. For Righteousness availeth nothing, imputed from without, that is, by believing only that it is so imputed. But it is an inherent Righteousness bprn in us, by which we become the Children of Qod, that availeth.
213. And as the earthly Flesh must die , so also the Life "anti Will must die from Sin, and be as a Child that knoweth nothing, but longeth only after the Mother which brought it forth. So likewise must the Will of a Christian enter again into its Mother, viz., into the Spirit of Christ, and become a Child in itself, in its ozvn Will and Power , having its Will and Desire inclined and directed only towards its Mother. And a New Will and Obedience in Righteousness, which Willeth Sin no more, must rise from Death out of the Spirit of Christ in him . 14. For that Will is not born anew, which desireth and admitteth Vanity into itself ; and yet there remaineth a Will Of generation . which longeth after Vanity , and sinneth , even in the New-born or Regenerate Man. Therefore the Image or Nature of Man should be well understood, and how the New-Birth cometh to pass ; seeing it is qot wrought in the mortal Flesh , and yet is wrought truly and really in us, in Flesh and Blood , in Water and Spirit , as the Scripture saith. 15. We should therefore rightly understand what Kind of Man it is in us, that is the Member of Christ , and Temple of Qod who dwelleth in Heaven . And then also what Kind of Man it is, that the Devil ruleth and driveth ; for he cannot meddle with the Temple of Christ , nor doth he care much for the 7 tiortal Flesh ; and yet there are »not three Men in one another, for all make but tine Man.
316. Now if we will understand this rightly, we must consider 'Meme and Eternity, and how they are in one another ; also Light and Darkness , Cjood and Evil ; but especially the Original of Man, which may be thus apprehended. 17. The outward World with the Stars and four Elements, wherein Man and all Creatures live, neither is, nor is called Qod. Indeed Qod dwelleth in it, but the Substance of the outward World comprehendeth him not. 18. We see also that the Light shineth in Darkness, and the Darkness comprehendeth not the Light, and yet they both dwell in one another. The four Elements are also an Example of this; which in their Original are but one Element, which is neither hot nor cold, nor dry, nor moist, and yet by its stirring separateth itself into four Properties , viz., into Fire , Air, Water , and Earth . 19. Who would believe that Fire produceth or generateth Water? And that the Original of Fire could be in Water , if we did not see it with our Eyes in Tempests of Thunder, Lightning, and Rain ; and did not find also, that in living Creatures, the essential Fire of the Body dwelleth in the Blood \ and that the Blood is the Mother of the Fire, and the Fire is the Father of the Blood. 1 as God dwelleth in the World , and filleth all Things,
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‘ from whence we expect our Saviour Jesus Christ/ Now, if our Conversation be in Heaven , then Heaven must be in us; Christ dwelleth in Heaven , and then if we are his Temple , that Temple Heaven must be in us. 11. But for all this, seeing Sin tempteth us zvithin us, whereby the Devil hath within us an Access to us, therefore Hell also must be in us too, for the Devil dwelleth in Hell ; wheresoever he is, he is in Hell , and cannot come out of it. Yea, when he possesseth a Man, he dwelleth in Hell , viz., in the Anger of God in that Man. 12. Therefore we ought to consider well what Maji is, and how he is a Man ; and then we shall find that a true Christian is not a mere Historical New Ma?i , as if it were enough for us outwardly to confess Christ , and believe that he is the Son of Cjod , and hath paid the Ransom for us. For Righteousness availeth nothing, imputed from without, that is, by believing only that it is so imputed. But it is an inherent Righteousness bprn in us, by which we become the Children of Qod, that availeth.
213. And as the earthly Flesh must die , so also the Life "anti Will must die from Sin, and be as a Child that knoweth nothing, but longeth only after the Mother which brought it forth. So likewise must the Will of a Christian enter again into its Mother, viz., into the Spirit of Christ, and become a Child in itself, in its ozvn Will and Power , having its Will and Desire inclined and directed only towards its Mother. And a New Will and Obedience in Righteousness, which Willeth Sin no more, must rise from Death out of the Spirit of Christ in him . 14. For that Will is not born anew, which desireth and admitteth Vanity into itself ; and yet there remaineth a Will Of generation . which longeth after Vanity , and sinneth , even in the New-born or Regenerate Man. Therefore the Image or Nature of Man should be well understood, and how the New-Birth cometh to pass ; seeing it is qot wrought in the mortal Flesh , and yet is wrought truly and really in us, in Flesh and Blood , in Water and Spirit , as the Scripture saith. 15. We should therefore rightly understand what Kind of Man it is in us, that is the Member of Christ , and Temple of Qod who dwelleth in Heaven . And then also what Kind of Man it is, that the Devil ruleth and driveth ; for he cannot meddle with the Temple of Christ , nor doth he care much for the 7 tiortal Flesh ; and yet there are »not three Men in one another, for all make but tine Man.
316. Now if we will understand this rightly, we must consider 'Meme and Eternity, and how they are in one another ; also Light and Darkness , Cjood and Evil ; but especially the Original of Man, which may be thus apprehended. 17. The outward World with the Stars and four Elements, wherein Man and all Creatures live, neither is, nor is called Qod. Indeed Qod dwelleth in it, but the Substance of the outward World comprehendeth him not. 18. We see also that the Light shineth in Darkness, and the Darkness comprehendeth not the Light, and yet they both dwell in one another. The four Elements are also an Example of this; which in their Original are but one Element, which is neither hot nor cold, nor dry, nor moist, and yet by its stirring separateth itself into four Properties , viz., into Fire , Air, Water , and Earth . 19. Who would believe that Fire produceth or generateth Water? And that the Original of Fire could be in Water , if we did not see it with our Eyes in Tempests of Thunder, Lightning, and Rain ; and did not find also, that in living Creatures, the essential Fire of the Body dwelleth in the Blood \ and that the Blood is the Mother of the Fire, and the Fire is the Father of the Blood. 1 as God dwelleth in the World , and filleth all Things,
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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