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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.
1But that which I further said, 4 its Qreatness is greater than ‘ Qod,' is also true. For Love entereth into that where GOD dwelleth not , as when our beloved Lord Christ was in Hell , Hell was not God but Love was there and destroyed Death . Also, when thou art in Anguish and Trouble of Soul, GOP is not the Anguish or Trouble , but His Love is there, and bringeth thee out of Anguish into God. When God hideth Himself in thee, Love is there, and maketh Him manifest in thee. And that which I said, ‘ whosoever findeth it, findeth nothing ‘ and all Things is also true, for he findeth a Supernatural Supersensual Abyss having no Qround, where there is no Place to dwell in. He findeth also nothing that is like it, and therefore it may be compared to nothing; for it is deeper than any Thing, and is as nothing to all Things, for it is not comprehensible. And, because it is nothing , it is free from all Things, and is that onjv Qood which a Man cannot describe or express what it is. But that which I lastly said, ‘ he that findeth it, findeth all ‘ Things / is also true ; it hath been the Beginning of all Things, and it ruleth all Things. If thou findest it, thou comest into that Qround from whence all Things proceeded, and wherein they subsist ; and thou art in it a King over all the Works of God. 28. The Scholar. — Loving Master, pray ‘tell me where < dwelleth it in Man ? The Master. — Where Man dwelleth not , there it hath its Seat in Man.
229. The SCHOLAR. — Where is that in a Man’s Self where Man dwelleth not ? Of the Super-Sensual Life . 10,3 _ — . - — — — — 1 THE MASTER. — It is in the Soul that is resigned to the Ground, where the Soul dieth to its own Will, and Willeth no more of itself, but only what God Willeth. That is the Place in a Man’s Self where Man dwelleth not, and there Love dwelleth. For so much of the Soul as its own Will is dead to itself in, so much Place Love hath taken up therein ; for where its own Will sat before, there now is nothing , and where nothing is, there the Love of God is working alone. , 30. The Scholar, — B ut how may I comprehend or attain it without the dying of my Will ? The Master. — If thou wilt comprehend it in thy own Will, it flieth away from thee ^ but if thou yieldest thyself wholly up to it, then thou art dead to thyself in thy own Will, and Love will then be the Life of thy Nature. It killeth thee not, but quickeneth 'Ulee asco^ding to its Life, and then thou livest, yet not to thy own Will, but to its Will ; for thy Will becometh its Will, and then thou art dead to thyself, but alive unto Qod. 31. I* he Scholar. — How is it that so few find it, when all would so fain have it ?
3The Master. — Because they all seek it in something, viz., in an imaginary Opinion, in Self Desire, whereto almost all have a peculiar natural Lust or Inclination. And though Love should proffer itself to them, it could find no Harbour or Dwelling-place in them, because the Imaginativeness that is in their own Will, hath set itself in the Place thereof. And that Imaginativeness of Self-Lust would fain have the Love in it ; but Love flieth away, for it dwelleth only in nothing, and therefore such Souls find it not. 32. The Scholar. — What is the Office of it in nothing? The Master. — Its Office is to penetrate without Intermission into something ; and if it find a Place in something which standeth still, then its Office is to take Possession thereof, and to rejoice therein with its flaming Fire of Love, more than the Sun in this JVorld ; and without Intermission to kindle a Fire in something, and to consume the something, and to enflame itself therewith. 33> The Scholar. — O loving Master ! How shall I understand this ?
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.
1But that which I further said, 4 its Qreatness is greater than ‘ Qod,' is also true. For Love entereth into that where GOD dwelleth not , as when our beloved Lord Christ was in Hell , Hell was not God but Love was there and destroyed Death . Also, when thou art in Anguish and Trouble of Soul, GOP is not the Anguish or Trouble , but His Love is there, and bringeth thee out of Anguish into God. When God hideth Himself in thee, Love is there, and maketh Him manifest in thee. And that which I said, ‘ whosoever findeth it, findeth nothing ‘ and all Things is also true, for he findeth a Supernatural Supersensual Abyss having no Qround, where there is no Place to dwell in. He findeth also nothing that is like it, and therefore it may be compared to nothing; for it is deeper than any Thing, and is as nothing to all Things, for it is not comprehensible. And, because it is nothing , it is free from all Things, and is that onjv Qood which a Man cannot describe or express what it is. But that which I lastly said, ‘ he that findeth it, findeth all ‘ Things / is also true ; it hath been the Beginning of all Things, and it ruleth all Things. If thou findest it, thou comest into that Qround from whence all Things proceeded, and wherein they subsist ; and thou art in it a King over all the Works of God. 28. The Scholar. — Loving Master, pray ‘tell me where < dwelleth it in Man ? The Master. — Where Man dwelleth not , there it hath its Seat in Man.
229. The SCHOLAR. — Where is that in a Man’s Self where Man dwelleth not ? Of the Super-Sensual Life . 10,3 _ — . - — — — — 1 THE MASTER. — It is in the Soul that is resigned to the Ground, where the Soul dieth to its own Will, and Willeth no more of itself, but only what God Willeth. That is the Place in a Man’s Self where Man dwelleth not, and there Love dwelleth. For so much of the Soul as its own Will is dead to itself in, so much Place Love hath taken up therein ; for where its own Will sat before, there now is nothing , and where nothing is, there the Love of God is working alone. , 30. The Scholar, — B ut how may I comprehend or attain it without the dying of my Will ? The Master. — If thou wilt comprehend it in thy own Will, it flieth away from thee ^ but if thou yieldest thyself wholly up to it, then thou art dead to thyself in thy own Will, and Love will then be the Life of thy Nature. It killeth thee not, but quickeneth 'Ulee asco^ding to its Life, and then thou livest, yet not to thy own Will, but to its Will ; for thy Will becometh its Will, and then thou art dead to thyself, but alive unto Qod. 31. I* he Scholar. — How is it that so few find it, when all would so fain have it ?
3The Master. — Because they all seek it in something, viz., in an imaginary Opinion, in Self Desire, whereto almost all have a peculiar natural Lust or Inclination. And though Love should proffer itself to them, it could find no Harbour or Dwelling-place in them, because the Imaginativeness that is in their own Will, hath set itself in the Place thereof. And that Imaginativeness of Self-Lust would fain have the Love in it ; but Love flieth away, for it dwelleth only in nothing, and therefore such Souls find it not. 32. The Scholar. — What is the Office of it in nothing? The Master. — Its Office is to penetrate without Intermission into something ; and if it find a Place in something which standeth still, then its Office is to take Possession thereof, and to rejoice therein with its flaming Fire of Love, more than the Sun in this JVorld ; and without Intermission to kindle a Fire in something, and to consume the something, and to enflame itself therewith. 33> The Scholar. — O loving Master ! How shall I understand this ?
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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