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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.
188. Christ in the human Essence hath broken up and opened the Qates of our inward Heavenly Humanity , which was shut up in Adam. *So that nothing is now wanting, but that the Soul draw its Will out from the Vanity of the corrupted Flesh, and bring it into this open Qate in the Spirit of Christ. 89. Qreat and strong Earnestness is required here ; and not only a learning and knowing, but a real Hunger and Thirst after the Spirit of Christ. For to know only, is not Faith; but an Hunger and Thirst after that which I want, so that I draw it in thereby to myself, and lay hold on it with the Desire and Imagination, and, make it my own ; this is the Truth and Essence of a Christians Faith. 90. The Will must go forth from the Vanity of the Flesh, and willingly yield itself up to the Suffering and Death of Christ, and to all the Reproach of Vanity, which derideth it because it goeth forth from its own House wherein it was born, and regarded Vanity no more, but merely desireth the Love of God in Christ Jesus. • 91. In such a Hunger and Desire the Will receiveth and impressed into itself the Spirit of Christ with his Heavenly Corporeality ; that is, the Soul in its great Hunger and Desire taketh • hold of, and draweth the Body of Christ, viz., the Heavenly Substantiality, into its disappeared Image, within which the Word of the Power of God is the Working. j6 The Way to Qhrist .
292. The Hunger of the Soul bringeth its Desire quite through the bruised Property of its Humanity in the Heavenly Part, which disappeared in Adam ; which Humanity, the sweet Fire of Love in the Death of Christ did bruise , when the Death of that Heavenly Humanity was destroyed. 93. And so the Hunger of the Soul received into it, into its disappeared Corporeality , through the Desire , the holy Heavenly Substance , viz,, Christ's Heavenly Corporeality , which filleth the Father all over, and is nigh unto all, and through all Things ; and through that the disappeared Heavenly Body riseth in the Power of God, in the sweet Name Jesus . 94. And this raised Heavenly Spiritual Body is the Member of Christ \ and the Temple of the Holy Q/iost , a true Mansion of the Holy Trinity according to Christ's Promise , saying, 4 We will 4 come to you, and make our Abode in you.’ 95. The Essence of that Life eatetfi the Flesh of Christ , and drinketh his Blood ’ For the Spirit of Christ , viz, , the Word ’ which made itself visible with the Humanity of Christ out of and in our disappeared Humanity , through the outward Man of the Substance of this World, swalloweth its holy Substance into its fiery ; for every Spirit eateth of its own Body .
396. Now if the Soul eat of this sweet, holy, and Heavenly Food, then it kindleth itself with the great Love in the Name and Power of Jesus ; whence its Fire of Anguish becometh a great Triumph of Joy and (Jlory , and the true Sun ariseth to it, wherein it is born to another Will. 97. And here cometh to pass the Wedding of the Lamb, which we heartily wish that the Titular and Lip-Christians might once find by Experience in themselves, and so pass from the History into the Substance . 98. But the Soul obtaineth not this Pearl of the Divine Wisdom and Virtue for its own Property during the Time of this Life; because it hath the outward Bestial Flesh sticking to its outward Man . 99. The Poiver of which Pearl of Divine Wisdom esp«©usetfc itself in this Wedding of the Lamb , and sinketh itself down into the Heavenly Image , viz., into the Substance of the Heavenly Man , who is the Temple of Christ ; and not into the Fire-breath of the Soul, which is yet, during this whole lifetime, fast bound to the outward Kingdom , to the Bond of Vanity , witluthe Breath of the Air, and is in great Danger. 100. It darteth its Beams of Love indeed very often into the Soul, whereby the Soul receiveth Light ; but the Spirit of Christ* yieldeth not itself up to the Fire-breath in this Life’s Time, but to the Breath of Light only which was extinguished in Adam, Of generation. in which the Temple of Christ is, for that is the true and holy Heaven.
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.
188. Christ in the human Essence hath broken up and opened the Qates of our inward Heavenly Humanity , which was shut up in Adam. *So that nothing is now wanting, but that the Soul draw its Will out from the Vanity of the corrupted Flesh, and bring it into this open Qate in the Spirit of Christ. 89. Qreat and strong Earnestness is required here ; and not only a learning and knowing, but a real Hunger and Thirst after the Spirit of Christ. For to know only, is not Faith; but an Hunger and Thirst after that which I want, so that I draw it in thereby to myself, and lay hold on it with the Desire and Imagination, and, make it my own ; this is the Truth and Essence of a Christians Faith. 90. The Will must go forth from the Vanity of the Flesh, and willingly yield itself up to the Suffering and Death of Christ, and to all the Reproach of Vanity, which derideth it because it goeth forth from its own House wherein it was born, and regarded Vanity no more, but merely desireth the Love of God in Christ Jesus. • 91. In such a Hunger and Desire the Will receiveth and impressed into itself the Spirit of Christ with his Heavenly Corporeality ; that is, the Soul in its great Hunger and Desire taketh • hold of, and draweth the Body of Christ, viz., the Heavenly Substantiality, into its disappeared Image, within which the Word of the Power of God is the Working. j6 The Way to Qhrist .
292. The Hunger of the Soul bringeth its Desire quite through the bruised Property of its Humanity in the Heavenly Part, which disappeared in Adam ; which Humanity, the sweet Fire of Love in the Death of Christ did bruise , when the Death of that Heavenly Humanity was destroyed. 93. And so the Hunger of the Soul received into it, into its disappeared Corporeality , through the Desire , the holy Heavenly Substance , viz,, Christ's Heavenly Corporeality , which filleth the Father all over, and is nigh unto all, and through all Things ; and through that the disappeared Heavenly Body riseth in the Power of God, in the sweet Name Jesus . 94. And this raised Heavenly Spiritual Body is the Member of Christ \ and the Temple of the Holy Q/iost , a true Mansion of the Holy Trinity according to Christ's Promise , saying, 4 We will 4 come to you, and make our Abode in you.’ 95. The Essence of that Life eatetfi the Flesh of Christ , and drinketh his Blood ’ For the Spirit of Christ , viz, , the Word ’ which made itself visible with the Humanity of Christ out of and in our disappeared Humanity , through the outward Man of the Substance of this World, swalloweth its holy Substance into its fiery ; for every Spirit eateth of its own Body .
396. Now if the Soul eat of this sweet, holy, and Heavenly Food, then it kindleth itself with the great Love in the Name and Power of Jesus ; whence its Fire of Anguish becometh a great Triumph of Joy and (Jlory , and the true Sun ariseth to it, wherein it is born to another Will. 97. And here cometh to pass the Wedding of the Lamb, which we heartily wish that the Titular and Lip-Christians might once find by Experience in themselves, and so pass from the History into the Substance . 98. But the Soul obtaineth not this Pearl of the Divine Wisdom and Virtue for its own Property during the Time of this Life; because it hath the outward Bestial Flesh sticking to its outward Man . 99. The Poiver of which Pearl of Divine Wisdom esp«©usetfc itself in this Wedding of the Lamb , and sinketh itself down into the Heavenly Image , viz., into the Substance of the Heavenly Man , who is the Temple of Christ ; and not into the Fire-breath of the Soul, which is yet, during this whole lifetime, fast bound to the outward Kingdom , to the Bond of Vanity , witluthe Breath of the Air, and is in great Danger. 100. It darteth its Beams of Love indeed very often into the Soul, whereby the Soul receiveth Light ; but the Spirit of Christ* yieldeth not itself up to the Fire-breath in this Life’s Time, but to the Breath of Light only which was extinguished in Adam, Of generation. in which the Temple of Christ is, for that is the true and holy Heaven.
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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