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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.
116. Thus Abel was the figure of the Second Adam, Christ, and therefore he must be slain for the Covenant's sake; for Christ should kill the exalted haughty natural will, and bring forth a new one. And therefore Abel also should not beget any natural child, else it had been strange to nature; for they should all proceed forth out of one stock; and the Word would spring forth anew through the only tree in the Covenant, that so the children of grace might be brought forth out of the tree of nature, as the dew out of the day-break. 17. For thus also the figure of the new birth was represented out of the stem; namely, the line went forth out of Adam. He was the first, Abel the second, Seth the third, Enos the fourth, where men began to teach of the spiritual kingdom; Kenan [or Cainan] the fifth, which signifies in the Language of nature, a forth-going, reconceived [re-apprehended] lubet or desire of the divine contemplation, in which the taught word did form itself; viz. in prayer, and in the will's desire and also in their offerings. 18. Mahalaleel was the sixth, and signifies in the Language of Nature an angelical form of an angelical kingdom, where the spirit did typify and portray the kingdom of Christ in this name.
219. Jared was the seventh. By this name is understood, in the Language of nature, a priest or prince of the spiritual kingdom. For as Irad should be the regent or ruler in the kingdom of nature, so Jared should be the regent in the spiritual kingdom; for out of Jared came the office of Moses; and out of Irad proceeded the kingdom of worldly principalities, and framed governments and dominions. 20. But the Language of Nature shows very clearly that Jared is only a type of a spiritual kingdom; for the name carries forth the Cherub along with it through the word; for the spiritual kingdom upon the earth was all along captivated in the wrath of God, until Christ, who destroyed the anger. 21. The office of this Jared is twofold, viz. externally it is the figure of the spiritual kingdom, bound with the wrath of God; and internally it is the true holy kingdom, which the penitent man receives or takes possession of : outwardly it is Moses; and inwardly Christ. 22. From this outward kingdom the great mother of the Babylonical whoredom is arisen in the kingdom of Moses among the Pharisees; and in the kingdom of Christ among the verbal and titular Christians; [literalists] who do all only boast, and gloriously set up themselves in the figure as an idol, and appear as if they were the holy spiritual kingdom. But the Cherub carries forth the sound through their word, as a consonant of the wrathful anger of God.
323. And therefore they must contend about the kingdom of God's will; for they have not the spirit of the inward spiritual heavenly kingdom; but only the voice out of the figure, where evil and good are in contest. They have and use the letter, but as an empty, unprofitable instrument, as a figure of the spiritual form, for thus also the spirit did represent it by the name Jared, as a mixed kingdom upon the earth, whereby the inward spiritual new born children should be exercised and proved. 24. And by this form it did signify and foretell how that the greatest part in this spiritual office would be taken in the sword of the Cherub, and that their office would be cut off by the Cherub from God's holiness, and given to the spiritual eternal kingdom of the anger. 25. For as Lamech in Cain's line took two wives, viz. two wills, and confirmed his kingdom therein, and at last brought forth [or pronounced] the seventy-and-sevenfold Racha proceeding from the centre of nature (even from the seven properties) upon the murder of the free will, which would murder and slay his life in many: even so likewise Jared carries two wills in his nature's name, viz. one into God's love and mercy in the Covenant, and the other into the figure in which the anger of God arises up and carries the abominable idol (the belly-god) along with it; which is here deciphered and painted forth to the 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.
116. Thus Abel was the figure of the Second Adam, Christ, and therefore he must be slain for the Covenant's sake; for Christ should kill the exalted haughty natural will, and bring forth a new one. And therefore Abel also should not beget any natural child, else it had been strange to nature; for they should all proceed forth out of one stock; and the Word would spring forth anew through the only tree in the Covenant, that so the children of grace might be brought forth out of the tree of nature, as the dew out of the day-break. 17. For thus also the figure of the new birth was represented out of the stem; namely, the line went forth out of Adam. He was the first, Abel the second, Seth the third, Enos the fourth, where men began to teach of the spiritual kingdom; Kenan [or Cainan] the fifth, which signifies in the Language of nature, a forth-going, reconceived [re-apprehended] lubet or desire of the divine contemplation, in which the taught word did form itself; viz. in prayer, and in the will's desire and also in their offerings. 18. Mahalaleel was the sixth, and signifies in the Language of Nature an angelical form of an angelical kingdom, where the spirit did typify and portray the kingdom of Christ in this name.
219. Jared was the seventh. By this name is understood, in the Language of nature, a priest or prince of the spiritual kingdom. For as Irad should be the regent or ruler in the kingdom of nature, so Jared should be the regent in the spiritual kingdom; for out of Jared came the office of Moses; and out of Irad proceeded the kingdom of worldly principalities, and framed governments and dominions. 20. But the Language of Nature shows very clearly that Jared is only a type of a spiritual kingdom; for the name carries forth the Cherub along with it through the word; for the spiritual kingdom upon the earth was all along captivated in the wrath of God, until Christ, who destroyed the anger. 21. The office of this Jared is twofold, viz. externally it is the figure of the spiritual kingdom, bound with the wrath of God; and internally it is the true holy kingdom, which the penitent man receives or takes possession of : outwardly it is Moses; and inwardly Christ. 22. From this outward kingdom the great mother of the Babylonical whoredom is arisen in the kingdom of Moses among the Pharisees; and in the kingdom of Christ among the verbal and titular Christians; [literalists] who do all only boast, and gloriously set up themselves in the figure as an idol, and appear as if they were the holy spiritual kingdom. But the Cherub carries forth the sound through their word, as a consonant of the wrathful anger of God.
323. And therefore they must contend about the kingdom of God's will; for they have not the spirit of the inward spiritual heavenly kingdom; but only the voice out of the figure, where evil and good are in contest. They have and use the letter, but as an empty, unprofitable instrument, as a figure of the spiritual form, for thus also the spirit did represent it by the name Jared, as a mixed kingdom upon the earth, whereby the inward spiritual new born children should be exercised and proved. 24. And by this form it did signify and foretell how that the greatest part in this spiritual office would be taken in the sword of the Cherub, and that their office would be cut off by the Cherub from God's holiness, and given to the spiritual eternal kingdom of the anger. 25. For as Lamech in Cain's line took two wives, viz. two wills, and confirmed his kingdom therein, and at last brought forth [or pronounced] the seventy-and-sevenfold Racha proceeding from the centre of nature (even from the seven properties) upon the murder of the free will, which would murder and slay his life in many: even so likewise Jared carries two wills in his nature's name, viz. one into God's love and mercy in the Covenant, and the other into the figure in which the anger of God arises up and carries the abominable idol (the belly-god) along with it; which is here deciphered and painted forth to the 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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