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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.
151. These are most wonderful and hidden sayings: Cain shall be revenged sevenfold and Lamech seventy-and-sevenfoldl Wherefore shall Lamech be avenged seventy-and-sevenfold, and Cain sevenfold? Who has done anything to Lamech? Here the spirit points out of the centre of the human life upon the time which was to come, intimating, how it would afterwards go with man, in this wound, when, as men should multiply and increase, and make unto themselves kings and princes, dominions and governments, that the wrath of God would also forcibly exercise itself in man's will, and even in the human life and dominion open and display itself. 52. Now, if a man would understand what Lamech says concerning the revenge, then he must look upon the centre, for the life of all creatures consists in seven degrees or properties, as it is above clearly mentioned. Now Adam was the stock, for Adam and Eve are one tree, from the parting and division of which evil and good did arise. And Cain was the first twig which sprang forth from this tree, wherein the seven properties of life did put themselves forth out of the right divine order and harmony in the life, and destroyed the image of God; which was long of the devil, who egged him on also in the divided properties to the brother- slaughter, so that he slew Abel. Now God said, Cain shall he avenged sevenfold, if anyone slay him. And he set a mark on Cain, that none should kill him.
253. The devil had folded up himself in the wrath of God, and cunningly insinuated himself into the seven properties of life, seeing they were departed from their mutual harmonious accord; and he would be lord in the place of the spirit of God in the life of man, and would wholly murder and slay the life, as to the kingdom of God. Therefore God set a mark, with the promise of the Covenant therein, so that none could slay it. 54. For Cain did not cry out only for fear of the outward life, but he feared that his right eternal life might be slain, that his life should be wholly blotted out from the face of God; for he cried also, and said, Lot you drive me out this day from off the earth; and I must hide myself from your face; and I must be a fugitive, and a vagabond in the earth; and it will now come to pass that whosoever finds me will slay me. He cried out for fear of being killed, and was sore afraid. And yet there was no man besides him upon the earth, save only his father, Adam, and without doubt his sister, whom he took to wife. 55. Cain feared the spirits who had moved him to slay his brother, that they would also kill him; for he says, / must be hid from your face.
3Now this was not in any external manner, but in an internal, for God dwells not in the view of the outward eyes, but in the inward spiritual [vision]. Therefore God said, Whosoever kills Cain's internal life, vengeance shall he taken on him sevenfold. And he set the mark of the Covenant on his life, so that no spirit in the wrath could murder it; for he was a twig out of the tree of life. 56. Although the seven properties of nature in him were departed from their mutual accord in each other, yet he was not the sole cause of it, for he had so received his life from father and mother in the divided property. And therefore the grace passed as well upon him as upon Abel; except only that Abel proceeded out of the other line. But the centre of the soul was alike to them both. But the motion in the seed was unlike; for they were the two types of the world; viz. Cain the type of the selfhood in the wrath, and Abel the type of the resignation of life, where, from the resignation, another world springs forth through death out of the centre. 57. Not that Cain was born to destruction, but that evil awakened property in the dissimility, viz. the soul of the outward world, brake forth forcibly in the seed; and took the [centre of ] life into its power, and therein God set a mark, viz. his Covenant, that the murderers should not slay the soul's life.
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.
151. These are most wonderful and hidden sayings: Cain shall be revenged sevenfold and Lamech seventy-and-sevenfoldl Wherefore shall Lamech be avenged seventy-and-sevenfold, and Cain sevenfold? Who has done anything to Lamech? Here the spirit points out of the centre of the human life upon the time which was to come, intimating, how it would afterwards go with man, in this wound, when, as men should multiply and increase, and make unto themselves kings and princes, dominions and governments, that the wrath of God would also forcibly exercise itself in man's will, and even in the human life and dominion open and display itself. 52. Now, if a man would understand what Lamech says concerning the revenge, then he must look upon the centre, for the life of all creatures consists in seven degrees or properties, as it is above clearly mentioned. Now Adam was the stock, for Adam and Eve are one tree, from the parting and division of which evil and good did arise. And Cain was the first twig which sprang forth from this tree, wherein the seven properties of life did put themselves forth out of the right divine order and harmony in the life, and destroyed the image of God; which was long of the devil, who egged him on also in the divided properties to the brother- slaughter, so that he slew Abel. Now God said, Cain shall he avenged sevenfold, if anyone slay him. And he set a mark on Cain, that none should kill him.
253. The devil had folded up himself in the wrath of God, and cunningly insinuated himself into the seven properties of life, seeing they were departed from their mutual harmonious accord; and he would be lord in the place of the spirit of God in the life of man, and would wholly murder and slay the life, as to the kingdom of God. Therefore God set a mark, with the promise of the Covenant therein, so that none could slay it. 54. For Cain did not cry out only for fear of the outward life, but he feared that his right eternal life might be slain, that his life should be wholly blotted out from the face of God; for he cried also, and said, Lot you drive me out this day from off the earth; and I must hide myself from your face; and I must be a fugitive, and a vagabond in the earth; and it will now come to pass that whosoever finds me will slay me. He cried out for fear of being killed, and was sore afraid. And yet there was no man besides him upon the earth, save only his father, Adam, and without doubt his sister, whom he took to wife. 55. Cain feared the spirits who had moved him to slay his brother, that they would also kill him; for he says, / must be hid from your face.
3Now this was not in any external manner, but in an internal, for God dwells not in the view of the outward eyes, but in the inward spiritual [vision]. Therefore God said, Whosoever kills Cain's internal life, vengeance shall he taken on him sevenfold. And he set the mark of the Covenant on his life, so that no spirit in the wrath could murder it; for he was a twig out of the tree of life. 56. Although the seven properties of nature in him were departed from their mutual accord in each other, yet he was not the sole cause of it, for he had so received his life from father and mother in the divided property. And therefore the grace passed as well upon him as upon Abel; except only that Abel proceeded out of the other line. But the centre of the soul was alike to them both. But the motion in the seed was unlike; for they were the two types of the world; viz. Cain the type of the selfhood in the wrath, and Abel the type of the resignation of life, where, from the resignation, another world springs forth through death out of the centre. 57. Not that Cain was born to destruction, but that evil awakened property in the dissimility, viz. the soul of the outward world, brake forth forcibly in the seed; and took the [centre of ] life into its power, and therein God set a mark, viz. his Covenant, that the murderers should not slay the soul's life.
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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