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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.
1The Toaster. — When the Qround of the Will yieldeth itself up«to God, then it sinketh down from itself beyond all (ground and Place, where God only is manifest, worketh and Willeth, and then it becometh Nothing to itself, as to its own Willing , and so God worketh and Willeth in it. Yea, God dwelleth in this resigned Will*; by which means the Soul is Sanctified, and so cometh into Divine Rest . Now when the Body is dead, the Soul is throughly penetrated and saturated with the Love of GOD, and throughly enlightened with the Light of God ; even as the Fire throughly inflameth a red-hot Iron, whereby it loseth its Darkness. This is the Right Hand of Christ ; where the Loveoi God throughly possesseth the Soul all over, and is a shining Light and a new Life in it; and thus the Soul is in Heaven, and a Temple of the Holy Cjhost ; yea, it is indeed itself the very Heaven of God in which He dwelleth. But the Case of the wicked Soul is tlys: It will not in the Time of this Life enter into the Divine Resignation of its Will, but goeth on continually in its own Lust and Falsehood, in the Will of the Devil. It receiveth into itself nothing but Wickedness , Lies , Pride , Covetousness , Envy, and Anger, and yieldeth its Will unto them. By which Means the Hellish Element also becometh manifest and working in the Soul, and throughly penetrateth and possesseth it all over, as •Fire doth a burning hot Iron. Now such a Soul cannot come to * Divine Rest, for God’s Anger is manifested in it. And therefore when the Body parteth from it, then its eternal Qrief and Despair . begin. For it perceiveth and findeth, that it is become a mere self tormenting Abomination, and is ashamed to strive to enter with its false Will into God. Nay, it cannot ; for it is captivated
2jo6 The TV ay to Qhrist . — - • ■ ■ 1 ' f in the Wrath , and is itself Wrath , and hath shut itself up therein by its false and evil Desire , which it hath raised up in itself. And seeing the Light of God shineth not in it, and his Love toucheth it not, therefore it is a great Darkness and an aching anguishing Source of Fire, which carrieth Hell in itself, and cannot reach the Light of God. Thus it dwelleth in itself in Hell, and needeth no entering into it, for wheresoever it is, it is in Hell ; though it should cast itself many Hundred Thousand Miles from the Place it is in, yet it abideth still in the same Property and Source of Darkness . 39. The Scholar. — H ow cometh it therj that a Holy Soul in this Life-Time, doth not perfectly plrceive that Heavenly Light and foy , nor a wicked Soul feel Hell \ when both of them are thus in Man, and one of them of Necessity voorketh in him ?
3The Master. — T he Kingdom of Heaven in the Saints is working and sensible in their Faith ; they feel the Loveoi God in their Faith , by which the Will yieldeth itself up into God/ But the natural Life is environed with Flesh and Blood \ standeth in the Contrariety of God’s Anger , and is also compassed about and closely beset with the vain Lust of this outivard World. So that the poor Soul liveth in the Midst of its Enemies , having the World on one Side , the Devil on the other ; and on a third the Curse of the Anger of God in Flesh and Blood; which continually sift , try , and throughly penetrate the Life of Man, who is often brought into bitter Anguish, through these several Assaults of Hell, which would fain manifest itself in him. But the Soul sinketh down in the Hope of Divine Qrace , and standeth like a fair Rose in the midst of Thorns, until the Kingdom of this World falleth off from it in the Death of the Body ; and then doth it become first truly and really manifest in the Love of God, having nothing more to hinder or molest it. But during the Time of this Life in the Body it must walk with Christ , who will stand by it and deliver it out of its own Hell by throughly pevetrating it with his Love , and thus change its Hell into 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.
1The Toaster. — When the Qround of the Will yieldeth itself up«to God, then it sinketh down from itself beyond all (ground and Place, where God only is manifest, worketh and Willeth, and then it becometh Nothing to itself, as to its own Willing , and so God worketh and Willeth in it. Yea, God dwelleth in this resigned Will*; by which means the Soul is Sanctified, and so cometh into Divine Rest . Now when the Body is dead, the Soul is throughly penetrated and saturated with the Love of GOD, and throughly enlightened with the Light of God ; even as the Fire throughly inflameth a red-hot Iron, whereby it loseth its Darkness. This is the Right Hand of Christ ; where the Loveoi God throughly possesseth the Soul all over, and is a shining Light and a new Life in it; and thus the Soul is in Heaven, and a Temple of the Holy Cjhost ; yea, it is indeed itself the very Heaven of God in which He dwelleth. But the Case of the wicked Soul is tlys: It will not in the Time of this Life enter into the Divine Resignation of its Will, but goeth on continually in its own Lust and Falsehood, in the Will of the Devil. It receiveth into itself nothing but Wickedness , Lies , Pride , Covetousness , Envy, and Anger, and yieldeth its Will unto them. By which Means the Hellish Element also becometh manifest and working in the Soul, and throughly penetrateth and possesseth it all over, as •Fire doth a burning hot Iron. Now such a Soul cannot come to * Divine Rest, for God’s Anger is manifested in it. And therefore when the Body parteth from it, then its eternal Qrief and Despair . begin. For it perceiveth and findeth, that it is become a mere self tormenting Abomination, and is ashamed to strive to enter with its false Will into God. Nay, it cannot ; for it is captivated
2jo6 The TV ay to Qhrist . — - • ■ ■ 1 ' f in the Wrath , and is itself Wrath , and hath shut itself up therein by its false and evil Desire , which it hath raised up in itself. And seeing the Light of God shineth not in it, and his Love toucheth it not, therefore it is a great Darkness and an aching anguishing Source of Fire, which carrieth Hell in itself, and cannot reach the Light of God. Thus it dwelleth in itself in Hell, and needeth no entering into it, for wheresoever it is, it is in Hell ; though it should cast itself many Hundred Thousand Miles from the Place it is in, yet it abideth still in the same Property and Source of Darkness . 39. The Scholar. — H ow cometh it therj that a Holy Soul in this Life-Time, doth not perfectly plrceive that Heavenly Light and foy , nor a wicked Soul feel Hell \ when both of them are thus in Man, and one of them of Necessity voorketh in him ?
3The Master. — T he Kingdom of Heaven in the Saints is working and sensible in their Faith ; they feel the Loveoi God in their Faith , by which the Will yieldeth itself up into God/ But the natural Life is environed with Flesh and Blood \ standeth in the Contrariety of God’s Anger , and is also compassed about and closely beset with the vain Lust of this outivard World. So that the poor Soul liveth in the Midst of its Enemies , having the World on one Side , the Devil on the other ; and on a third the Curse of the Anger of God in Flesh and Blood; which continually sift , try , and throughly penetrate the Life of Man, who is often brought into bitter Anguish, through these several Assaults of Hell, which would fain manifest itself in him. But the Soul sinketh down in the Hope of Divine Qrace , and standeth like a fair Rose in the midst of Thorns, until the Kingdom of this World falleth off from it in the Death of the Body ; and then doth it become first truly and really manifest in the Love of God, having nothing more to hinder or molest it. But during the Time of this Life in the Body it must walk with Christ , who will stand by it and deliver it out of its own Hell by throughly pevetrating it with his Love , and thus change its Hell into 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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