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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.
1viz. the ground of the love-desire, did stand in Eve's matrix; but in her fall it disappeared as to the creature; therefore the divine Word did reinhest [ espouse, betroth or promise] itself therein to a centre of regeneration. 23. Now Cain and Abel were the two twigs which grew out of this tree from the property of both Principles, viz. of the fire, and of the light; and they were a type of the whole tree, with its fruit which it would bring forth. But seeing Abel was a type of Christ (who was to be conceived without the help of man, only and barely of the incorporated Word in the seed of the woman, who should suffer death for man), therefore Abel must pass through without branches and fruit. For the fruit which Christ should bring forth was to generate anew the human tree; and not produce other twigs out of his loins. Therefore Abel also, being the type of him, should not generate any twig out of his loins. For the line of the Abelical seed remained in the Covenant, and pointed at Christ, who should spring forth out of the Abelical line, and again manifest the spiritual world's essence.
224. Therefore Adam must bring forth another branch by his Eve out of the vital tree; which was to be like Adam in his image; viz. Seth. Which name doth signify, in the Language of Nature, a forthrunning, or leap, where a glance or aspect of a love-will arises out of the fiery will; which, notwithstanding, is withheld and hindered by the outward world's being, essence and substance, viz. by the corrupt house of flesh. 25. Now Christ must come to help this captivated, forestalled and obscured will, which, notwithstanding, has its first ground out of God's love, and free it from the band of wrath wherewith the divine ens was captivated, for this was Christ's office: not that he should beget, but give himself into the generation of Seth, and redeem Seth and his branches from the wrath, and regenerate him anew in himself: He was not to beget children to this world, but to bring forth Seth out of this world, and bring him in himself into the spiritual world. 26. Now in Seth the line of the Covenant went forth, in which Christ would manifest himself according to the human tree. But in Cain the line of the wonders, viz. of nature and its government went forth; for Moses says, that unto Cain was born Enoch, and he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch (Gen. iv. 17). Now Cain was the first man born of woman, and Abel the second, whom he slew.
327. Now Moses says that Cain built a city, whereas, indeed, if we would go merely upon reason, there were not men who might be able to build a city, and inhabit it; for the spirit in Moses doth here make a veil before the understanding, which lies in the word city; for he says, Cain's son was called Enoch, and also the city. Now this is verily true; but the spirit in Moses looks upon the root of Cain and Adam; how the tree, evil and good, has opened and displayed itself into its boughs and branches; for by the name of Enoch the spirit looks upon the property of the branch, viz. of Cain's son, intimating what kind of people would arise from thence, viz. a city [or commonwealth] and dominion of the outward world in selfhood; for in the Language of Nature it is to be understood in the name. 28. Enoch signifies a forth-breathing of life, and a reassuming to a selfish contemplation; a child of self; which in nature does introduce itself into a self-full dominion and will, so that it does imagine and frame in its mind a dominion or region, country or city, desiring and aspiring in its will to be a tree or prince of men. For when the human life departed from the Spirit of God into selfhood, then it would be a peculiar selfish lord, which will's son was Enoch, viz. a city or amassed substance to a self-full domination and government.
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.
1viz. the ground of the love-desire, did stand in Eve's matrix; but in her fall it disappeared as to the creature; therefore the divine Word did reinhest [ espouse, betroth or promise] itself therein to a centre of regeneration. 23. Now Cain and Abel were the two twigs which grew out of this tree from the property of both Principles, viz. of the fire, and of the light; and they were a type of the whole tree, with its fruit which it would bring forth. But seeing Abel was a type of Christ (who was to be conceived without the help of man, only and barely of the incorporated Word in the seed of the woman, who should suffer death for man), therefore Abel must pass through without branches and fruit. For the fruit which Christ should bring forth was to generate anew the human tree; and not produce other twigs out of his loins. Therefore Abel also, being the type of him, should not generate any twig out of his loins. For the line of the Abelical seed remained in the Covenant, and pointed at Christ, who should spring forth out of the Abelical line, and again manifest the spiritual world's essence.
224. Therefore Adam must bring forth another branch by his Eve out of the vital tree; which was to be like Adam in his image; viz. Seth. Which name doth signify, in the Language of Nature, a forthrunning, or leap, where a glance or aspect of a love-will arises out of the fiery will; which, notwithstanding, is withheld and hindered by the outward world's being, essence and substance, viz. by the corrupt house of flesh. 25. Now Christ must come to help this captivated, forestalled and obscured will, which, notwithstanding, has its first ground out of God's love, and free it from the band of wrath wherewith the divine ens was captivated, for this was Christ's office: not that he should beget, but give himself into the generation of Seth, and redeem Seth and his branches from the wrath, and regenerate him anew in himself: He was not to beget children to this world, but to bring forth Seth out of this world, and bring him in himself into the spiritual world. 26. Now in Seth the line of the Covenant went forth, in which Christ would manifest himself according to the human tree. But in Cain the line of the wonders, viz. of nature and its government went forth; for Moses says, that unto Cain was born Enoch, and he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch (Gen. iv. 17). Now Cain was the first man born of woman, and Abel the second, whom he slew.
327. Now Moses says that Cain built a city, whereas, indeed, if we would go merely upon reason, there were not men who might be able to build a city, and inhabit it; for the spirit in Moses doth here make a veil before the understanding, which lies in the word city; for he says, Cain's son was called Enoch, and also the city. Now this is verily true; but the spirit in Moses looks upon the root of Cain and Adam; how the tree, evil and good, has opened and displayed itself into its boughs and branches; for by the name of Enoch the spirit looks upon the property of the branch, viz. of Cain's son, intimating what kind of people would arise from thence, viz. a city [or commonwealth] and dominion of the outward world in selfhood; for in the Language of Nature it is to be understood in the name. 28. Enoch signifies a forth-breathing of life, and a reassuming to a selfish contemplation; a child of self; which in nature does introduce itself into a self-full dominion and will, so that it does imagine and frame in its mind a dominion or region, country or city, desiring and aspiring in its will to be a tree or prince of men. For when the human life departed from the Spirit of God into selfhood, then it would be a peculiar selfish lord, which will's son was Enoch, viz. a city or amassed substance to a self-full domination and government.
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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