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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.
114. But that which walked in the Garden, and re-called Adam, was another voice, which brake forth out of the anger, and walked [or moved] in the Garden, for the word der im Garten ging is the difference, or note of distinction, and signifies the voice JESUS, proceeding from JEHOVAH; the voice was TETRAGRAMMA. But that which walked in the Garden was TON, viz. the centre of the light world; and the voice TETRAGRAMMA is the centre to the fireworld, viz. the First Principle, and the TON, the Second Principle. As fire and light are one, but they sever themselves in their coming forth to manifestation into a twofold source: the like also is to be considered concerning this. 15. The voice of the fire-world entered into the essence of Adam and Eve; the same they heard, therefore they were afraid, and crept among the trees: but the voice of the light- world is this, whereof Moses spoke, Der im Garten ging; the holy voice walked in the Garden of Paradise, for the word Der denotes the Person of Christ, who walked in the spirit, in the Garden, and went forth from the fire's centre, who took possession of Paradise, and would invest Adam again with it. 16. Therefore says Moses now: and the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? (Gen. ill. 9). Wherefore said he not, Adam and Eve where are ye? No, he called to Adam, viz. to the first image which he created in Paradise, and not unto the man and woman;
2for he that called was he which walked in the Garden, viz. the Word of the light-world, the voice of the Second Principle, which called back again in [and from] the enkindled anger, and espoused itself again unto the disappeared heavenly ens, that it would arise and stir up itself again therein, in the name JESUS, viz. in the deepest love of the Deity, and unite and manifest itself; in the fullness of time, in the disappeared ens, with the introducement of the holy divine ens of the heavenly world's essence thereinto, and open Paradise again; and in the meantime bruise the head of the Serpent's ens; this Serpent-Bruiser said to Adam, Where art thou? 17. Now says reason, He saw him well enough, wherefore said he then, Where art thou? He did indeed see Adam, but Adam did not see him; for his eyes were departed from Adonai, from the divine world, into time, viz. into the outward world, into the Serpent's ens, [both] evil and good, into the death and corruptibility. Out of these monstrous eyes Adam saw in the property of the fire's tincture; but the property of the light's tincture, which he had wretchedly lost, said upon him, Where art thou, Adam? Which is as much as if he had said, Seek me, and see me again: I am come to give myself again unto you. And Adam said, I heard your voice in the Garden, and was afraid, for I am naked(Gen.iii. 10).
318. This calling him was nothing else but the voice or sound of the holy word introducing itself again into the vital light, else Adam could not have heard this voice: therefore he said, I am naked, and afraid. 19. Of what was he afraid? He felt in him the world of God's anger, and feared that it would wholly enkindle itself and devour him, as happened to Lucifer. Therefore he trembled at the call of the holy voice, as the anger trembleth at the love, as may be seen on the Cross of Christ, for even here was the fear and dread of the Serpent; for it knew the voice which called into Adam's ens, and feared before the face of God; for it knew [or perceived] the falsehood which was in it, which it would hide. 20. And God said, Who told you that you art naked? (Gen. iii. 11). That is, the Serpent's ens has told you, that you shouldest imagine after the bestial property, and awaken the same.
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.
114. But that which walked in the Garden, and re-called Adam, was another voice, which brake forth out of the anger, and walked [or moved] in the Garden, for the word der im Garten ging is the difference, or note of distinction, and signifies the voice JESUS, proceeding from JEHOVAH; the voice was TETRAGRAMMA. But that which walked in the Garden was TON, viz. the centre of the light world; and the voice TETRAGRAMMA is the centre to the fireworld, viz. the First Principle, and the TON, the Second Principle. As fire and light are one, but they sever themselves in their coming forth to manifestation into a twofold source: the like also is to be considered concerning this. 15. The voice of the fire-world entered into the essence of Adam and Eve; the same they heard, therefore they were afraid, and crept among the trees: but the voice of the light- world is this, whereof Moses spoke, Der im Garten ging; the holy voice walked in the Garden of Paradise, for the word Der denotes the Person of Christ, who walked in the spirit, in the Garden, and went forth from the fire's centre, who took possession of Paradise, and would invest Adam again with it. 16. Therefore says Moses now: and the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? (Gen. ill. 9). Wherefore said he not, Adam and Eve where are ye? No, he called to Adam, viz. to the first image which he created in Paradise, and not unto the man and woman;
2for he that called was he which walked in the Garden, viz. the Word of the light-world, the voice of the Second Principle, which called back again in [and from] the enkindled anger, and espoused itself again unto the disappeared heavenly ens, that it would arise and stir up itself again therein, in the name JESUS, viz. in the deepest love of the Deity, and unite and manifest itself; in the fullness of time, in the disappeared ens, with the introducement of the holy divine ens of the heavenly world's essence thereinto, and open Paradise again; and in the meantime bruise the head of the Serpent's ens; this Serpent-Bruiser said to Adam, Where art thou? 17. Now says reason, He saw him well enough, wherefore said he then, Where art thou? He did indeed see Adam, but Adam did not see him; for his eyes were departed from Adonai, from the divine world, into time, viz. into the outward world, into the Serpent's ens, [both] evil and good, into the death and corruptibility. Out of these monstrous eyes Adam saw in the property of the fire's tincture; but the property of the light's tincture, which he had wretchedly lost, said upon him, Where art thou, Adam? Which is as much as if he had said, Seek me, and see me again: I am come to give myself again unto you. And Adam said, I heard your voice in the Garden, and was afraid, for I am naked(Gen.iii. 10).
318. This calling him was nothing else but the voice or sound of the holy word introducing itself again into the vital light, else Adam could not have heard this voice: therefore he said, I am naked, and afraid. 19. Of what was he afraid? He felt in him the world of God's anger, and feared that it would wholly enkindle itself and devour him, as happened to Lucifer. Therefore he trembled at the call of the holy voice, as the anger trembleth at the love, as may be seen on the Cross of Christ, for even here was the fear and dread of the Serpent; for it knew the voice which called into Adam's ens, and feared before the face of God; for it knew [or perceived] the falsehood which was in it, which it would hide. 20. And God said, Who told you that you art naked? (Gen. iii. 11). That is, the Serpent's ens has told you, that you shouldest imagine after the bestial property, and awaken the same.
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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