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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.
1149. Thus if the Preacher be one that is dead, and hath no true Life in him, but soweth only Venom and Reproach proceeding out of his evil Affections, then it is the Devil that teacheth , and the Devil that heareth. Such teaching is received into a wicked Heart, and bringeth forth wicked Fruits. By which means the World is become a mere Den of murdering Devils. So that if you look among the Herd of such Teachers and Hearers , there is little to be found but Revilings, Slanderings, and Reproachings ; together with Contention about Words, and Wrangling about the Husk. 1 50. But the Holy Qhosl teacheth in the Holy Teacher, and the Spirit of Christ heareth through the Soul, which is the Divine House of the Divine Sound or Voice in the Holy Hearer. 151. The Holy Man hath his Church in himself, wherein he Heareth and Teacheth „ But Babel hath a Heap of Stones, intbt vjhich she goeth with her seeming Holiness and real Hypocrisy. There she loveth to be seen in fine Clothes, and maketh a very devout and godly Show ; the Church of Stone is her Qod, iri which she putteth her Confidence. Of Regeneration ?s 152. But the Holy Man hath his Church about him everywhere, even in himself ; for he always standeth and walketh, sitteth and lieth down in his Church. He liveth in the true Christian Church ; yea, in the Temple of Christ ; the Holy Qhost preacheth to him out of every Creature. Whatsoever he looketh upon, he seeth a Preacher of God therein.
2153. Here now the Scoffer will say that I despise the Churck of Stone, where the Congregation meeteth ; but I say that' I do not. For I do but discover the Hypocritical Whore of Babylon, which committeth Whoredom with the Church of Stone, and termeth herself a Christian, but is indeed a Strumpet. 154. A true Christian bfings his Holy Church with him into the Congregation. For the Heart is the true Church, where a Man must practise the Service of (jod. If I should go a thousancF’Ttmes* to Church, and to the Sacrament every week, and hear Absolution declared to me every Day, and have not Christ in me, all would be false, an unprofitable Fiction and graven Image in Babel , and no forgiving of Sins. 1^5. A Holy Man doth Holy Works from the Holy Strength of his Mind. The Work is not the Atonement of Reconciliation, but it is the Building which the true Spirit buildeth in his Substance ; it is his Habitation. But the Fiction and Fancy is the Habitation of the false Christian, into which his Soul entereth with Dissimulation. The outward hearing reacheth but to the outward, and worketh in the outward only; but the inward Hearing goeth into the inward, and worketh in the inward.
3156. Dissemble, roar, cry, sing, preach, and teach as much as thou wilt ; yet if thine inward Teacher and Hearer be not open, all is nothing but a Babel, a Fiction, and a graven Image, whereby the Spirit of the outward World doth model and make to itself a graven Image in Resemblance of the inward; and maketh a Holy Show therewith, as if he performed some Divine or Holy Service to God. Whereas many Times in such Service and Worship, the Devil worketh mightily in the Imagination, and vety much tickleth the Heart with those Things wherein the Flesh delighteth. Which indeed not seldom happeneth to the Children of Qod, as to their outward Man, if they do not take great Heed to themselves ; so busily doth the Devil beset and sift them. 86 The JVay to Qhrist . Chapter VII. Of Unprofitable Opinions, and Strife ' about the Letter. A TRUE Christian, who is born anew of the Spirit of Christ, is in the Simplicity of Christ , and hath no Strife or Contention with any Man about Religion. He hath Strife enough in himself, with his own Bestial evil Flesh and Blood. He continually thinketh himself . a great Sinner, and is afraid of God : But the Love of Christ by degrees pierceth through, and expeheth that Fear, as the Day swalloweth up the Night. 159. But the Sins of the Impenitent Man rest in the Sleep of Death , bud forth in the Pit , and produce their Fruit'»in Ketl.
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.
1149. Thus if the Preacher be one that is dead, and hath no true Life in him, but soweth only Venom and Reproach proceeding out of his evil Affections, then it is the Devil that teacheth , and the Devil that heareth. Such teaching is received into a wicked Heart, and bringeth forth wicked Fruits. By which means the World is become a mere Den of murdering Devils. So that if you look among the Herd of such Teachers and Hearers , there is little to be found but Revilings, Slanderings, and Reproachings ; together with Contention about Words, and Wrangling about the Husk. 1 50. But the Holy Qhosl teacheth in the Holy Teacher, and the Spirit of Christ heareth through the Soul, which is the Divine House of the Divine Sound or Voice in the Holy Hearer. 151. The Holy Man hath his Church in himself, wherein he Heareth and Teacheth „ But Babel hath a Heap of Stones, intbt vjhich she goeth with her seeming Holiness and real Hypocrisy. There she loveth to be seen in fine Clothes, and maketh a very devout and godly Show ; the Church of Stone is her Qod, iri which she putteth her Confidence. Of Regeneration ?s 152. But the Holy Man hath his Church about him everywhere, even in himself ; for he always standeth and walketh, sitteth and lieth down in his Church. He liveth in the true Christian Church ; yea, in the Temple of Christ ; the Holy Qhost preacheth to him out of every Creature. Whatsoever he looketh upon, he seeth a Preacher of God therein.
2153. Here now the Scoffer will say that I despise the Churck of Stone, where the Congregation meeteth ; but I say that' I do not. For I do but discover the Hypocritical Whore of Babylon, which committeth Whoredom with the Church of Stone, and termeth herself a Christian, but is indeed a Strumpet. 154. A true Christian bfings his Holy Church with him into the Congregation. For the Heart is the true Church, where a Man must practise the Service of (jod. If I should go a thousancF’Ttmes* to Church, and to the Sacrament every week, and hear Absolution declared to me every Day, and have not Christ in me, all would be false, an unprofitable Fiction and graven Image in Babel , and no forgiving of Sins. 1^5. A Holy Man doth Holy Works from the Holy Strength of his Mind. The Work is not the Atonement of Reconciliation, but it is the Building which the true Spirit buildeth in his Substance ; it is his Habitation. But the Fiction and Fancy is the Habitation of the false Christian, into which his Soul entereth with Dissimulation. The outward hearing reacheth but to the outward, and worketh in the outward only; but the inward Hearing goeth into the inward, and worketh in the inward.
3156. Dissemble, roar, cry, sing, preach, and teach as much as thou wilt ; yet if thine inward Teacher and Hearer be not open, all is nothing but a Babel, a Fiction, and a graven Image, whereby the Spirit of the outward World doth model and make to itself a graven Image in Resemblance of the inward; and maketh a Holy Show therewith, as if he performed some Divine or Holy Service to God. Whereas many Times in such Service and Worship, the Devil worketh mightily in the Imagination, and vety much tickleth the Heart with those Things wherein the Flesh delighteth. Which indeed not seldom happeneth to the Children of Qod, as to their outward Man, if they do not take great Heed to themselves ; so busily doth the Devil beset and sift them. 86 The JVay to Qhrist . Chapter VII. Of Unprofitable Opinions, and Strife ' about the Letter. A TRUE Christian, who is born anew of the Spirit of Christ, is in the Simplicity of Christ , and hath no Strife or Contention with any Man about Religion. He hath Strife enough in himself, with his own Bestial evil Flesh and Blood. He continually thinketh himself . a great Sinner, and is afraid of God : But the Love of Christ by degrees pierceth through, and expeheth that Fear, as the Day swalloweth up the Night. 159. But the Sins of the Impenitent Man rest in the Sleep of Death , bud forth in the Pit , and produce their Fruit'»in Ketl.
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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