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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.
132. And out of the Sidistance of the inward and outwardWorld Alan was created ; out of and in the Likeness of the Birth of all Substances. The Body is a Limbus (an Extract or a kind of Seed \ which containeth ail that which the Thing from whence it is taken hath) of the Earth , and also a Limbus of the Heavenly Sitbstance ; for the Earth is breathed forth outspoken, or created out of the dark and light World . In the Word Fiat (or creating Word) viz., in the eternal Desire Man was taken out of the Eai'th, and so created an Image out of Time and Eternity . 33. This Image was in the inward and spiritual Element, from whence the four Elements proceed and are produced. In that one Element was Paradise ; for the Properties of Nature from the Fire-dark-and-light-W orld were all in Harmony and Agreement in Number, Weight, and Measure. One of them was not manifested more eminently than another, therefore was there no Frailty therein. For no one Property was predominant over &r«afefe&r, neither was there any Strife or Contrariety among the Pozvers and Properties , 34. Into this created Image God breathed the Spirit and Breath of Understanding out of the three Worlds, as one only Soul, which, as to its Original Principle or Essence , is, or con - sisteth in, the inward dark Fire - World of the eternal spiritual 'Nature ; according to which God calleth himself a strong jealous God, and a consuming Fire .
2. 35, And this now is the eternal Creaturely great Soul, a Magical Breath of Fire, in which Fire consisteth the Original of Life , from the great Power of variation. Gqd’S Anger, or the ' 5—2 68 The TV ay to Qhrist . eternal Darkness , is in this Property , so far as Fire reacheth without giving Light. 36. The second Property of the Breath of God is the Spirit of the Source of Light , proceeding from the great fiery Desire of Love , from the great Meekness ; according to which God calleth himself a loving , merciful God ; in which consisteth the true Spirit of Understanding, and of Life in Power. 37. ' For as Light shineth from Poiver, and as the Power of Understanding is discerned in the Light, so the Breath of the Light was joined to the Breath of the Fire of God, and breathed into the Image of Man. 38. The third Property of the Breath of God was the outward Air with its Constellation or Astrum, wherein the Life and Constellation of the outward Substance and Body did consist. This he breathed into his Nostrils ; and as Time and BiieAiuy hang together, and as Time is produced out of Eternity, so the inward Breath of God hung to the outzvard.
339. This threefold Soul was at once breathed into Man ; and each Substance of the Body received the Spirit according to its Property. The outward Flesh received the outward Air and its Constellations, for a rational and vegetative Life, to the Manifestation of the Wonders of God ; and the Light Body or Heavenly Substance received the Breath of the fight of the great Divine Powers and Virtues ; which Breath is called the Holy Qhost. 40. Thus the Light pierced through the Darkness , viz., through the dark Breath of Fire, and also through the Breath of the outward Air and its Constellation or Astrum, and so deprived all the Properties of their Power, that neither the Anguish of the Breath of Fire in the inward Property of the Soul, nor Heat nor Cold, nor any of all the Properties of the outward Constellation, might or could be manifested. 41. The Properties of all the three Worlds in Soul and Body were in equal Agreement, Temperature, and Weight. That which was inward and Holy ruled through and over the oittffldrW', that is, the outward Parts of the outward Life, of the outward Stars or Constellations and the four Elements ; and that original and universal Power of the inward over the outward constituted the Holy Paradise. 42. And thus Man was both in Heaven and also in the out- _ ward World, and was Lord over all the Creatures of this World. Nothing could destroy him.
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.
132. And out of the Sidistance of the inward and outwardWorld Alan was created ; out of and in the Likeness of the Birth of all Substances. The Body is a Limbus (an Extract or a kind of Seed \ which containeth ail that which the Thing from whence it is taken hath) of the Earth , and also a Limbus of the Heavenly Sitbstance ; for the Earth is breathed forth outspoken, or created out of the dark and light World . In the Word Fiat (or creating Word) viz., in the eternal Desire Man was taken out of the Eai'th, and so created an Image out of Time and Eternity . 33. This Image was in the inward and spiritual Element, from whence the four Elements proceed and are produced. In that one Element was Paradise ; for the Properties of Nature from the Fire-dark-and-light-W orld were all in Harmony and Agreement in Number, Weight, and Measure. One of them was not manifested more eminently than another, therefore was there no Frailty therein. For no one Property was predominant over &r«afefe&r, neither was there any Strife or Contrariety among the Pozvers and Properties , 34. Into this created Image God breathed the Spirit and Breath of Understanding out of the three Worlds, as one only Soul, which, as to its Original Principle or Essence , is, or con - sisteth in, the inward dark Fire - World of the eternal spiritual 'Nature ; according to which God calleth himself a strong jealous God, and a consuming Fire .
2. 35, And this now is the eternal Creaturely great Soul, a Magical Breath of Fire, in which Fire consisteth the Original of Life , from the great Power of variation. Gqd’S Anger, or the ' 5—2 68 The TV ay to Qhrist . eternal Darkness , is in this Property , so far as Fire reacheth without giving Light. 36. The second Property of the Breath of God is the Spirit of the Source of Light , proceeding from the great fiery Desire of Love , from the great Meekness ; according to which God calleth himself a loving , merciful God ; in which consisteth the true Spirit of Understanding, and of Life in Power. 37. ' For as Light shineth from Poiver, and as the Power of Understanding is discerned in the Light, so the Breath of the Light was joined to the Breath of the Fire of God, and breathed into the Image of Man. 38. The third Property of the Breath of God was the outward Air with its Constellation or Astrum, wherein the Life and Constellation of the outward Substance and Body did consist. This he breathed into his Nostrils ; and as Time and BiieAiuy hang together, and as Time is produced out of Eternity, so the inward Breath of God hung to the outzvard.
339. This threefold Soul was at once breathed into Man ; and each Substance of the Body received the Spirit according to its Property. The outward Flesh received the outward Air and its Constellations, for a rational and vegetative Life, to the Manifestation of the Wonders of God ; and the Light Body or Heavenly Substance received the Breath of the fight of the great Divine Powers and Virtues ; which Breath is called the Holy Qhost. 40. Thus the Light pierced through the Darkness , viz., through the dark Breath of Fire, and also through the Breath of the outward Air and its Constellation or Astrum, and so deprived all the Properties of their Power, that neither the Anguish of the Breath of Fire in the inward Property of the Soul, nor Heat nor Cold, nor any of all the Properties of the outward Constellation, might or could be manifested. 41. The Properties of all the three Worlds in Soul and Body were in equal Agreement, Temperature, and Weight. That which was inward and Holy ruled through and over the oittffldrW', that is, the outward Parts of the outward Life, of the outward Stars or Constellations and the four Elements ; and that original and universal Power of the inward over the outward constituted the Holy Paradise. 42. And thus Man was both in Heaven and also in the out- _ ward World, and was Lord over all the Creatures of this World. Nothing could destroy him.
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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