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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.
1speak the hidden Mystical Wisdom of God , which God ordained before the World unto our Glory : Which none of the Princes of this World knew : For had they known it , they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But , as it is written , Eye hath not seen, nor Ear heard , neither hath it entered into, the Heart of Mah,‘ to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his , Spirit : For the Spirit searcheth all Things, yea, the deep Things of God. For what Man knoweth the Things of a Man save the Spirit of a Man which is in him ? even so the Things of God knoweth no Man, but the Spirit of God. Now, we have received, not the Spirit of the World, but the Spirit which is of God ; that we might know the Things which are freely given us of God. Which Things also we speak, not in the Words which Man's Wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth ; comparing spiritual Things with spiritual. But the natural Man receiveth not the Things of the Spirit of God: For they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth, or discerneth, all Things . — i Corinthians ii. 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15. OF THE SUPER-SENSUAL LIFE, OR THE Life which is above Sense . In a Dialogue between a Scholar or Disciple and Jiis Master,
2T HE Scholar said to his Master; How may I come to the Super- sensual Life , that I may see God and hear him speak ? '• His Master said, When thou canst throw thyself for a Moment into that where no Creature dwelleth, then thou hearest what Got) speaketh. 2 . THE SCHOLAR. — Is That near at Hand, or far off? The Master. — It is in thee, and if thou canst for a while cease from all thy Thinking and Willing , thou shalt hear unspeakable Words of Gto. 3. The Scholar. — How can I hear when I stand still from Thinking and Willing ? The Master. — When thou standest still from the Thinking and Willing of Self then the eternal Hearmg, Seeing , and Speaking , will be revealed in thee; and so God heareth and seeth through thee. Thine own Hearing, Willing, and Seeing hindereth thee, that thou dost not see nor hear God. 4. The Scholar. — Wherewithal shall I hear and see God ; seeing he is above Nature and Creature ? The Master. — When thou art quiet or silent , then thou art That which God was before Nature and Creature , and whereof he made thy Nature and Creature ; then thou hearest and seest with That wherewith God saw and heard in thee before thy own Willing, Seeing, and Hearing began. 5. The Scholar. — What hindereth or keepeth me back that I cannot come to T/iat ?
3• * The Master. — Thy own Willing, Hearing, and Seeing; and because thou strivest against That out of which thou art come, thou breakest thyself off with thy own Willing from (foci's Willing, and with thy own Seeing thou seest in thy own Willing only, and thy Willing stoppeth thy Hearing with thy own thinking of ^The Way to Qhrist. ? earthly natural Things , and bringeth thee into a Qround-oi essential State, and darkeneth thee with that which thou Wiliest, so that thou canst not come to That which is Supernatural and Super-sensual, 6. THE Scholar. — S eeing I am in Nature, how may I come through Nature into the Super-sensual Qround, without destroying Nature ? The Master. — Three Things are requisite here ; the first is, thou must resign thy Will to God, and sink thyself down to the Ground in his Mercy. The second is, thou must hate thy own Will, and not do that whereto thy own Will driveth thee. The • third is, thou must submit thyself under the Cross, that thou mayest be able to bear the Temptations of Nature and Creature. If thou dost so, God will speak into thee, and bring thy resigned Will into himself, into the Supernatural Qround-, and then tjhop shalt hear what the Lord speaketh in thee. ' *' 7. The Scholar. — If I should do thus, I must forsake the World and my Life too. *
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.
1speak the hidden Mystical Wisdom of God , which God ordained before the World unto our Glory : Which none of the Princes of this World knew : For had they known it , they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But , as it is written , Eye hath not seen, nor Ear heard , neither hath it entered into, the Heart of Mah,‘ to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his , Spirit : For the Spirit searcheth all Things, yea, the deep Things of God. For what Man knoweth the Things of a Man save the Spirit of a Man which is in him ? even so the Things of God knoweth no Man, but the Spirit of God. Now, we have received, not the Spirit of the World, but the Spirit which is of God ; that we might know the Things which are freely given us of God. Which Things also we speak, not in the Words which Man's Wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth ; comparing spiritual Things with spiritual. But the natural Man receiveth not the Things of the Spirit of God: For they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth, or discerneth, all Things . — i Corinthians ii. 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15. OF THE SUPER-SENSUAL LIFE, OR THE Life which is above Sense . In a Dialogue between a Scholar or Disciple and Jiis Master,
2T HE Scholar said to his Master; How may I come to the Super- sensual Life , that I may see God and hear him speak ? '• His Master said, When thou canst throw thyself for a Moment into that where no Creature dwelleth, then thou hearest what Got) speaketh. 2 . THE SCHOLAR. — Is That near at Hand, or far off? The Master. — It is in thee, and if thou canst for a while cease from all thy Thinking and Willing , thou shalt hear unspeakable Words of Gto. 3. The Scholar. — How can I hear when I stand still from Thinking and Willing ? The Master. — When thou standest still from the Thinking and Willing of Self then the eternal Hearmg, Seeing , and Speaking , will be revealed in thee; and so God heareth and seeth through thee. Thine own Hearing, Willing, and Seeing hindereth thee, that thou dost not see nor hear God. 4. The Scholar. — Wherewithal shall I hear and see God ; seeing he is above Nature and Creature ? The Master. — When thou art quiet or silent , then thou art That which God was before Nature and Creature , and whereof he made thy Nature and Creature ; then thou hearest and seest with That wherewith God saw and heard in thee before thy own Willing, Seeing, and Hearing began. 5. The Scholar. — What hindereth or keepeth me back that I cannot come to T/iat ?
3• * The Master. — Thy own Willing, Hearing, and Seeing; and because thou strivest against That out of which thou art come, thou breakest thyself off with thy own Willing from (foci's Willing, and with thy own Seeing thou seest in thy own Willing only, and thy Willing stoppeth thy Hearing with thy own thinking of ^The Way to Qhrist. ? earthly natural Things , and bringeth thee into a Qround-oi essential State, and darkeneth thee with that which thou Wiliest, so that thou canst not come to That which is Supernatural and Super-sensual, 6. THE Scholar. — S eeing I am in Nature, how may I come through Nature into the Super-sensual Qround, without destroying Nature ? The Master. — Three Things are requisite here ; the first is, thou must resign thy Will to God, and sink thyself down to the Ground in his Mercy. The second is, thou must hate thy own Will, and not do that whereto thy own Will driveth thee. The • third is, thou must submit thyself under the Cross, that thou mayest be able to bear the Temptations of Nature and Creature. If thou dost so, God will speak into thee, and bring thy resigned Will into himself, into the Supernatural Qround-, and then tjhop shalt hear what the Lord speaketh in thee. ' *' 7. The Scholar. — If I should do thus, I must forsake the World and my Life too. *
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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