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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.
132. Moses points in each degree in the lines, only upon one person, which he also sets into the line through which the spirit of wonders goes. Afterwards says Moses, and he yet lived such a time, and begat sons and daughters; of which he says nothing any further. Thereby he would intimate and signify unto us the spirit of the manifestation of the wonders of God in each line. Their age, which the spirit sets down, denotes the times how long each dominion and government, both the worldly and the spiritual [or ecclesiastical kingdom] should stand in its form and structure. That is to say, how long each prevailing monarchy of the secular and worldly power and domination should continue; and so likewise of the spiritual monarchy. 33. And these monarchies [Or monarchs] of the wonders are forthwith represented out of the first twigs, springing from the beginning of the human tree. That is, they are set forth in each line in seven numbers, from Adam through Cain even unto Lamech;
2and in the other line from Adam unto Jared. By which numbers and names the spirit points in each line especially at seven of the forthproceeding properties of the tree and powers of the wonders; intimating how the powers of the wonders should afterwards bring themselves into governments, and how one figure should arise out of the other, and how one should destroy and break down the other, and set forth out of the destruction another form, as it has been brought to pass in the spiritual and worldly governments [Ecclesiastical and temporal ]. For always the worldly government is to be understood with the spiritual; for the outward formed Word in the dominion and regiment of nature does evermore set forth its form by, with, and in the spiritual [or ecclesiastical] form [or manner of discipline] . Therefore observe and mark here, with precise exactness. 34. There are seven times appointed to proceed from the tree of life in the word of power. The first proceeds from the pure life of Adam; for before the creature the life was in the Word, whence it was brought pure into the image; this continued until the fall. From this pure life there springs forth a twig in the inward [kingdom], this same was Abel; but seeing the fall hung on him externally, this same pure life was carried through death into the holy world. This signifies and points at the kingdom of Christ, who should bring us through death into the pure life.
335. The second time begins with Seth. For Moses says, that Adam war a hundred and thirty years old, and begat a son in his own likeness, and called him Seth. Understand, he was such an image as Adam was after the fall, and was set in the spiritual line of the wonders; and Cain also with him, in a worldly natural line of the wonders, for both kingdoms [Secular, and ecclesiastical] go together. Seth's time continues till the deluge, and bears the supremacy, even to the deluge, or Noah's flood. 36. The third time begins with Enos, under Seth's time, and carries forth itself all along as a spiritual ministry, or knowledge of God, under Seth's time,as a hidden kingdom; and continued till Abraham, to whom the Covenant of Christ was established in the flesh. 37. The fourth time begins with Cainan, which is the spiritual form in prayers and spiritual offerings, wherein the Word formed itself in the wisdom, and carried itself forth all along, under Seth's and Enos's time, and manifested itself with Moses. Like as Enos's time was first truly manifested with Abraham, with the promise in the Covenant, this time of Cainan continued in its manifestation and dominion under Moses, till Christ in the flesh. 38. The fifth time begins with Mahalaleel, and 'tis the reception or formation of the angelical form, viz. of the new regeneration out of the Covenant;
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.
132. Moses points in each degree in the lines, only upon one person, which he also sets into the line through which the spirit of wonders goes. Afterwards says Moses, and he yet lived such a time, and begat sons and daughters; of which he says nothing any further. Thereby he would intimate and signify unto us the spirit of the manifestation of the wonders of God in each line. Their age, which the spirit sets down, denotes the times how long each dominion and government, both the worldly and the spiritual [or ecclesiastical kingdom] should stand in its form and structure. That is to say, how long each prevailing monarchy of the secular and worldly power and domination should continue; and so likewise of the spiritual monarchy. 33. And these monarchies [Or monarchs] of the wonders are forthwith represented out of the first twigs, springing from the beginning of the human tree. That is, they are set forth in each line in seven numbers, from Adam through Cain even unto Lamech;
2and in the other line from Adam unto Jared. By which numbers and names the spirit points in each line especially at seven of the forthproceeding properties of the tree and powers of the wonders; intimating how the powers of the wonders should afterwards bring themselves into governments, and how one figure should arise out of the other, and how one should destroy and break down the other, and set forth out of the destruction another form, as it has been brought to pass in the spiritual and worldly governments [Ecclesiastical and temporal ]. For always the worldly government is to be understood with the spiritual; for the outward formed Word in the dominion and regiment of nature does evermore set forth its form by, with, and in the spiritual [or ecclesiastical] form [or manner of discipline] . Therefore observe and mark here, with precise exactness. 34. There are seven times appointed to proceed from the tree of life in the word of power. The first proceeds from the pure life of Adam; for before the creature the life was in the Word, whence it was brought pure into the image; this continued until the fall. From this pure life there springs forth a twig in the inward [kingdom], this same was Abel; but seeing the fall hung on him externally, this same pure life was carried through death into the holy world. This signifies and points at the kingdom of Christ, who should bring us through death into the pure life.
335. The second time begins with Seth. For Moses says, that Adam war a hundred and thirty years old, and begat a son in his own likeness, and called him Seth. Understand, he was such an image as Adam was after the fall, and was set in the spiritual line of the wonders; and Cain also with him, in a worldly natural line of the wonders, for both kingdoms [Secular, and ecclesiastical] go together. Seth's time continues till the deluge, and bears the supremacy, even to the deluge, or Noah's flood. 36. The third time begins with Enos, under Seth's time, and carries forth itself all along as a spiritual ministry, or knowledge of God, under Seth's time,as a hidden kingdom; and continued till Abraham, to whom the Covenant of Christ was established in the flesh. 37. The fourth time begins with Cainan, which is the spiritual form in prayers and spiritual offerings, wherein the Word formed itself in the wisdom, and carried itself forth all along, under Seth's and Enos's time, and manifested itself with Moses. Like as Enos's time was first truly manifested with Abraham, with the promise in the Covenant, this time of Cainan continued in its manifestation and dominion under Moses, till Christ in the flesh. 38. The fifth time begins with Mahalaleel, and 'tis the reception or formation of the angelical form, viz. of the new regeneration out of the Covenant;
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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