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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.
136. Moreover, in this name there is hidden, under the angel, the praise of the children who should be subject to this might, and live under the same, as under the divine ordinance. But this angel's name in divine power does first form itself in the fleshly selfhood; for the syllable Me-, which begins the word of the name, does first form [or conceive] itself in the outward world's birth, in the minehood; and shows that this ordinance doth not arise out of the kingdom of heaven in God's holiness, but out of the first Principle, which forms itself in the third Principle, viz. in the outward world's nature, into such an order; and therefore it shall and must be abolished, and proved through the judgement of God. 37. And Moses goes on to write, and says, Methusael hegat Lantech. Now in this name the hidden mystery of the divine ordinance by the angelical counsel is contained; and it signifies in the Language of Nature in this place as much as a sending of the angel over the dominion of the humanity, viz. over the regions of the world, over the fleshly life, which should be subject to the supreme governing prince in nature. 38. For here the wound which Adam received is sought: in that two superior princes do reign over the human life, viz. the ordained good angel, and the incorporated evil angel in the flesh. Also hereby is understood the powerful assault of the evil angel from without and from within;
2for the inward spirit in the name goes forth out of the Covenant of God, and passes into the outward world. Which denotes how man would become lewd and profane, and also vilify the Covenant of God, and yet with the assuming goes again into selfhood, and forms itself in the forth-proceeding angel's name. Which denotes a hypocritical whoredom in an angel's form, which enters again into the external, and at last casts away the Covenant, together with the angel's name, quite from itself. 39. Further, Moses writes, Lantech took two wives: the one was called Adah, and the other Zillah (Gen. iv. 19). Hereby is understood in the generation of the life's tree thus much, viz. that the human life knew the wound which was arisen in its stock [stem or body] ; and thenceforward took two wives, that is) a twofold essence and will, viz. Adah signifies how the soul goes with the will through the mind, and forms itselfwith the desire in the first stock of Adam, and would fain be honest again. But the life had also taken to itself Zillah for wife of the pregnatress, viz. fleshly joy and pleasure. 40. The wife or will, Adah, would exercise a good dominion, and rule and maintain itself upon the earth according to God's command; and she bare Jabal: Jabal betokens the simple, plain man, such as are countrymen, and the like; for Moses says, that from him proceeded such as dwell in tents and such as keep cattle (Gen. iv. 20).
341. But the other brother, says Moses, was named Jubal, who was the father of all those that handle the harp and organ (Gen. iv. 21); for the other will proceeded from the spirit of the outward world into temporal pleasure and joy; and devised all kinds of joyful sport and pastime for the recreation of its life. And this signifies Jubal, viz. an external jocund angel, with whom the inward spirit sported before itself in a likeness. 42. And Zillah, says Moses, she also bare Tubal-cain, a master in all brass and ironwork (Gen. iv. 22). That is, Zillah is the fiery desire which forms itself in the human property into a substance of Sulphur and Mercury, and brings itself forth with its spirit out of the substance into a contemplation and visible ken, in which understanding man has found out the arts of metals. 43. For the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. Here lies the precious pearl, dear masters. Naamah is heavenly in her property, clothed with the external vesture, so that you do not know her, for the earthly man is not worthy of it; for her essence is virginal, a virgin of purity. It points in one part at the inward new man, viz. the sister of the sulphurean man; and on the other part it signifies the gross metal of the earth, and also the precious metal, viz. gold and silver.
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.
136. Moreover, in this name there is hidden, under the angel, the praise of the children who should be subject to this might, and live under the same, as under the divine ordinance. But this angel's name in divine power does first form itself in the fleshly selfhood; for the syllable Me-, which begins the word of the name, does first form [or conceive] itself in the outward world's birth, in the minehood; and shows that this ordinance doth not arise out of the kingdom of heaven in God's holiness, but out of the first Principle, which forms itself in the third Principle, viz. in the outward world's nature, into such an order; and therefore it shall and must be abolished, and proved through the judgement of God. 37. And Moses goes on to write, and says, Methusael hegat Lantech. Now in this name the hidden mystery of the divine ordinance by the angelical counsel is contained; and it signifies in the Language of Nature in this place as much as a sending of the angel over the dominion of the humanity, viz. over the regions of the world, over the fleshly life, which should be subject to the supreme governing prince in nature. 38. For here the wound which Adam received is sought: in that two superior princes do reign over the human life, viz. the ordained good angel, and the incorporated evil angel in the flesh. Also hereby is understood the powerful assault of the evil angel from without and from within;
2for the inward spirit in the name goes forth out of the Covenant of God, and passes into the outward world. Which denotes how man would become lewd and profane, and also vilify the Covenant of God, and yet with the assuming goes again into selfhood, and forms itself in the forth-proceeding angel's name. Which denotes a hypocritical whoredom in an angel's form, which enters again into the external, and at last casts away the Covenant, together with the angel's name, quite from itself. 39. Further, Moses writes, Lantech took two wives: the one was called Adah, and the other Zillah (Gen. iv. 19). Hereby is understood in the generation of the life's tree thus much, viz. that the human life knew the wound which was arisen in its stock [stem or body] ; and thenceforward took two wives, that is) a twofold essence and will, viz. Adah signifies how the soul goes with the will through the mind, and forms itselfwith the desire in the first stock of Adam, and would fain be honest again. But the life had also taken to itself Zillah for wife of the pregnatress, viz. fleshly joy and pleasure. 40. The wife or will, Adah, would exercise a good dominion, and rule and maintain itself upon the earth according to God's command; and she bare Jabal: Jabal betokens the simple, plain man, such as are countrymen, and the like; for Moses says, that from him proceeded such as dwell in tents and such as keep cattle (Gen. iv. 20).
341. But the other brother, says Moses, was named Jubal, who was the father of all those that handle the harp and organ (Gen. iv. 21); for the other will proceeded from the spirit of the outward world into temporal pleasure and joy; and devised all kinds of joyful sport and pastime for the recreation of its life. And this signifies Jubal, viz. an external jocund angel, with whom the inward spirit sported before itself in a likeness. 42. And Zillah, says Moses, she also bare Tubal-cain, a master in all brass and ironwork (Gen. iv. 22). That is, Zillah is the fiery desire which forms itself in the human property into a substance of Sulphur and Mercury, and brings itself forth with its spirit out of the substance into a contemplation and visible ken, in which understanding man has found out the arts of metals. 43. For the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. Here lies the precious pearl, dear masters. Naamah is heavenly in her property, clothed with the external vesture, so that you do not know her, for the earthly man is not worthy of it; for her essence is virginal, a virgin of purity. It points in one part at the inward new man, viz. the sister of the sulphurean man; and on the other part it signifies the gross metal of the earth, and also the precious metal, viz. gold and silver.
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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