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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 to thy Question, why do ?iot the wicked feel Hell in the Time of this Life ? I answer, he hath it indeed, and sometimes feeleth it in his evil Conscience , but not perfectly, nor doth he know that it is Hell. For he possesseth earthly Vanity as yet, with which he is enamoured, and in which he taketh Delight and Pleasure; also the outward Life hath yet the Light of the outward Nature, and so the Hellish Pain cannot be fully manifested and felt. But when the Body dieth, and the Soul can no longer enjoy temporal Pleasure , or be cheered with the Light of this outward World , then it standeth in eternal Hunger and Thirst after such Vanity , as it was in Love withal here. Yet it can reach Of the Super-Sensual Life. 107 ~ • ' * nothing but that evil Will which it had impressed in itself, and too much gratified in this Life, though it was not, nor indeed could be, satisfied with such Gratification of it. However there it cannot gratify it a t all, which maketh it to be in everlasting and fruitless Hunger and Thirst after Vanity, Wickedness, and vile Lewdness . It would fain do more Evil still, but hath not wherein or wherewith to perform it, and therefore performeth it only in itself, in its Will : And this Hellish Hunger and Thirst cannot be fully manifested in it, till the Body dieth, wherewith the Soul hath played the Wanton in Voluptuousness, and which hath ministered to the Soul what it lusted after.
240. The Scholar. — Heaven and Hell being in us in Strife in this Life-Time, and God being also thus near us, where do the Angels and Devils dwell ? Where fihe Angels and Devils dwell in this World's Time ; how far Heaven and Hell are asunder ; and what and whence the Angels and human Souls are . The Master. — Where thou dost not dwell as to thyself and thy own Will, there the Angels dwell with thee and everywhere all over the»Universe ; but where thou dwellest as to thyself and thy own Will, there the Devils dwell with thee, and everywhere all over the Universe. 41. The SCHOLAR. — I understand not this. The Master. — Where the Will of Qod Willeth in any Being, there God is manifested in that Being ; and in that Manifestation the Angels also dwell : but where Goi) in any Being Willeth not with the Will of the Being, there God is not manifested in it, but dwelleth in Himself without the co-operating of the Being. In that Being its own Will is without Qod's Will, and there the Devil dwelleth, and all whatever is without God. 42. The Scholar. — How far then are Heaven and Hell from each other ?
3The Master. — As far as Day and Night, Something and Nothing are from one another ; they are in each other, and they cause Joy and Trouble one to the other. Heaven is through the whole World, and without the World all over the universal System •of Nature, withbut being divided or included in a Place, and worketh through the Divine Manifestation, but only in itself, and in that which cometh into it, or in that wherein it becometh manifest ; and there God is revealed. For Heaven is nothing but a Manifestation of tli t Eternal One, wherein all worketh and Willeth in quiet Love. io8 Phe Way to florist . i Hell also is through the whole World , and dwelleth and worketh only also in itself, and in that wherein the Foundation of Hell is manifested , viz., in Self and in the false and evil Will The visible World hath both Heaven and Hell in* it. Man, as to his temporal Life ; is only of the visible World , and therefore during the Time of this Life he seeth not the spiritual World , ’ For the outward World with its Substance is a Cover to the Spiritual Worlf, as the Body is to the Soul. But when the outward Man dieth, then the spiritual World is manifested in and to the Soul, either in the eternal Light with the holy Angels , or in the eternal Darkness with the Devils . 43. The Scholar. — What is an Angel or the Soul of a Man , that they may be manifested thus, either in God's Love or Anger?
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 to thy Question, why do ?iot the wicked feel Hell in the Time of this Life ? I answer, he hath it indeed, and sometimes feeleth it in his evil Conscience , but not perfectly, nor doth he know that it is Hell. For he possesseth earthly Vanity as yet, with which he is enamoured, and in which he taketh Delight and Pleasure; also the outward Life hath yet the Light of the outward Nature, and so the Hellish Pain cannot be fully manifested and felt. But when the Body dieth, and the Soul can no longer enjoy temporal Pleasure , or be cheered with the Light of this outward World , then it standeth in eternal Hunger and Thirst after such Vanity , as it was in Love withal here. Yet it can reach Of the Super-Sensual Life. 107 ~ • ' * nothing but that evil Will which it had impressed in itself, and too much gratified in this Life, though it was not, nor indeed could be, satisfied with such Gratification of it. However there it cannot gratify it a t all, which maketh it to be in everlasting and fruitless Hunger and Thirst after Vanity, Wickedness, and vile Lewdness . It would fain do more Evil still, but hath not wherein or wherewith to perform it, and therefore performeth it only in itself, in its Will : And this Hellish Hunger and Thirst cannot be fully manifested in it, till the Body dieth, wherewith the Soul hath played the Wanton in Voluptuousness, and which hath ministered to the Soul what it lusted after.
240. The Scholar. — Heaven and Hell being in us in Strife in this Life-Time, and God being also thus near us, where do the Angels and Devils dwell ? Where fihe Angels and Devils dwell in this World's Time ; how far Heaven and Hell are asunder ; and what and whence the Angels and human Souls are . The Master. — Where thou dost not dwell as to thyself and thy own Will, there the Angels dwell with thee and everywhere all over the»Universe ; but where thou dwellest as to thyself and thy own Will, there the Devils dwell with thee, and everywhere all over the Universe. 41. The SCHOLAR. — I understand not this. The Master. — Where the Will of Qod Willeth in any Being, there God is manifested in that Being ; and in that Manifestation the Angels also dwell : but where Goi) in any Being Willeth not with the Will of the Being, there God is not manifested in it, but dwelleth in Himself without the co-operating of the Being. In that Being its own Will is without Qod's Will, and there the Devil dwelleth, and all whatever is without God. 42. The Scholar. — How far then are Heaven and Hell from each other ?
3The Master. — As far as Day and Night, Something and Nothing are from one another ; they are in each other, and they cause Joy and Trouble one to the other. Heaven is through the whole World, and without the World all over the universal System •of Nature, withbut being divided or included in a Place, and worketh through the Divine Manifestation, but only in itself, and in that which cometh into it, or in that wherein it becometh manifest ; and there God is revealed. For Heaven is nothing but a Manifestation of tli t Eternal One, wherein all worketh and Willeth in quiet Love. io8 Phe Way to florist . i Hell also is through the whole World , and dwelleth and worketh only also in itself, and in that wherein the Foundation of Hell is manifested , viz., in Self and in the false and evil Will The visible World hath both Heaven and Hell in* it. Man, as to his temporal Life ; is only of the visible World , and therefore during the Time of this Life he seeth not the spiritual World , ’ For the outward World with its Substance is a Cover to the Spiritual Worlf, as the Body is to the Soul. But when the outward Man dieth, then the spiritual World is manifested in and to the Soul, either in the eternal Light with the holy Angels , or in the eternal Darkness with the Devils . 43. The Scholar. — What is an Angel or the Soul of a Man , that they may be manifested thus, either in God's Love or Anger?
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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