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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.
1tnally in him ; therefore whatsoever (/Wa? an y shall do to such a Christian in his bodily Necessities , it is done to Christ Himself who dwelleth in him. For such a Christian is not his own , but is wholly resigned to Christ , and become //& peculiar Possession , and consequently the good Deed is done to Christ Himself. Therefore also whosoever shall withhold their Help from such a needy Christian , and forbear to serve him in his Necessity , they thrust Christ away from themselves, and despise Him in His Members. When a poor Person that belongeth thus to Christ asketh any Thing of thee, and thou deniest it him in his Necessity , thou deniest it to Christ Himself And whatsoever Hurt any shall do to such a Christian , they do it to Christ Himself. When any mock, scorn, revile, reject, or thrust away such a one, they do all that to Christ ; but he that receiveth him, giveth him **Meat wa^f)rink, or Apparel , and assisteth him in his Necessities , doth it likewise to Christy and to a Fellow-Member of his own Body . Nay, he doth it to himself if he be a Christian; for we all are fine in Christ , as a Tree and its Branches are One.
2{ 5. The SCHOLAR. — How then will those subsist in the Day of that Fierce Judgment \ who afflict and vex the poor and distressed , and deprive them of their very Sweat ; necessitating and constraining them by Force to be subject to their Wills , and trampling upon them, as their Foot-stools , only that they themselves may live in Pomp and Power, and spend the Fruits of this poor People’s Sweat and Labour in Voluptuousness , Pride , and Vanity ? The MASTER. — Christ suffereth in the Persecution of His Members. Therefore all the Wrong that such hard Exactors do to the poor Wretches under their Control, is done to Christ Himself ; and falleth under His severe Sentence and Judgment. And besides that, they help the Devil to augment his Kingdom ; for by such Oppression of the Poor they draw them off from Cfirist , and make them seek unlawful Ways to fill their Bellies, Nay, they work for and with the Devil himself, doing the very same Thing which he doth ; who, without Intermission, opposeth the Kingdom of Christ, which consisteth only in Love . All these Oppressors, if they do not turn with their whole Hearts to Christ , and minister to, or serve, Him, must go into. Hell-fire, which is fed and kept alive by nothing else but such m.ere Self as that ^vhich they have*exercised over the Poor here.
356. The SCHOLAR. — But how will it fare with those , and how will they be able to stand that severe Trial who in this Time do so fiercely contend about the Kingdom of Christ , and slander , revile , and persecute one another for their Religion ; as they do ? The Master. — A ll such have not yet known Christ ; and are 8 1 . 1 4 The TV ay to Qhrist . but as a Type or Figure of Heaven and Hell, striving with each other for the Victory. All rising, swelling Pride , which contendeth about Opinions , is an Image of Self. And whosoever hath not Faith and Humility , nor liveth in the Spirit of Christy which is Love , is only armed with the Anger of God, and helpeth forward the Victory of the Imaginary Self that is, the Kingdom of Darkness , and the Anger of God. For at the Day of Judgment all Self shall be * given to the Darkness ; as shall also all the unprofitable Contentions of Men ; in which they seek not after Love , but merely after their Imaginary Self that they may exalt themselves by exalting and establishing their Opinions ; stirring up Princes to Wars for the sake of the same, and by that means occasioning the Desolation of whole Countries of People. All such Things belong to the Judgment , which will separate the fah e* from th^. true ; and then all Images or Opinions shall cease, and all the Children of Qod shall dwell for ever in the Love of Christ , and , That in them. °
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.
1tnally in him ; therefore whatsoever (/Wa? an y shall do to such a Christian in his bodily Necessities , it is done to Christ Himself who dwelleth in him. For such a Christian is not his own , but is wholly resigned to Christ , and become //& peculiar Possession , and consequently the good Deed is done to Christ Himself. Therefore also whosoever shall withhold their Help from such a needy Christian , and forbear to serve him in his Necessity , they thrust Christ away from themselves, and despise Him in His Members. When a poor Person that belongeth thus to Christ asketh any Thing of thee, and thou deniest it him in his Necessity , thou deniest it to Christ Himself And whatsoever Hurt any shall do to such a Christian , they do it to Christ Himself. When any mock, scorn, revile, reject, or thrust away such a one, they do all that to Christ ; but he that receiveth him, giveth him **Meat wa^f)rink, or Apparel , and assisteth him in his Necessities , doth it likewise to Christy and to a Fellow-Member of his own Body . Nay, he doth it to himself if he be a Christian; for we all are fine in Christ , as a Tree and its Branches are One.
2{ 5. The SCHOLAR. — How then will those subsist in the Day of that Fierce Judgment \ who afflict and vex the poor and distressed , and deprive them of their very Sweat ; necessitating and constraining them by Force to be subject to their Wills , and trampling upon them, as their Foot-stools , only that they themselves may live in Pomp and Power, and spend the Fruits of this poor People’s Sweat and Labour in Voluptuousness , Pride , and Vanity ? The MASTER. — Christ suffereth in the Persecution of His Members. Therefore all the Wrong that such hard Exactors do to the poor Wretches under their Control, is done to Christ Himself ; and falleth under His severe Sentence and Judgment. And besides that, they help the Devil to augment his Kingdom ; for by such Oppression of the Poor they draw them off from Cfirist , and make them seek unlawful Ways to fill their Bellies, Nay, they work for and with the Devil himself, doing the very same Thing which he doth ; who, without Intermission, opposeth the Kingdom of Christ, which consisteth only in Love . All these Oppressors, if they do not turn with their whole Hearts to Christ , and minister to, or serve, Him, must go into. Hell-fire, which is fed and kept alive by nothing else but such m.ere Self as that ^vhich they have*exercised over the Poor here.
356. The SCHOLAR. — But how will it fare with those , and how will they be able to stand that severe Trial who in this Time do so fiercely contend about the Kingdom of Christ , and slander , revile , and persecute one another for their Religion ; as they do ? The Master. — A ll such have not yet known Christ ; and are 8 1 . 1 4 The TV ay to Qhrist . but as a Type or Figure of Heaven and Hell, striving with each other for the Victory. All rising, swelling Pride , which contendeth about Opinions , is an Image of Self. And whosoever hath not Faith and Humility , nor liveth in the Spirit of Christy which is Love , is only armed with the Anger of God, and helpeth forward the Victory of the Imaginary Self that is, the Kingdom of Darkness , and the Anger of God. For at the Day of Judgment all Self shall be * given to the Darkness ; as shall also all the unprofitable Contentions of Men ; in which they seek not after Love , but merely after their Imaginary Self that they may exalt themselves by exalting and establishing their Opinions ; stirring up Princes to Wars for the sake of the same, and by that means occasioning the Desolation of whole Countries of People. All such Things belong to the Judgment , which will separate the fah e* from th^. true ; and then all Images or Opinions shall cease, and all the Children of Qod shall dwell for ever in the Love of Christ , and , That in them. °
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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