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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.
1and goes secretly all along under the ministry of Enos, under Seth and Cainan, in the Word of the Promise, through all the three times; and did manifest itself with the fulfilling of the Covenant in the humanity of Christ, where the true Mahalaleel and angelical image, which did disappear in Adam, was again manifest in the humanity of Christ. 39. The sixth time begins with Jared, which is the spiritual priesthood under the external, where outwardly Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel were in their times in their orders [or outward forms], as the ministry and preaching of Enos concerning God and his being and will; so likewise the preaching of Abraham concerning the Covenant and circumcision; also Moses with the Book of the Law. Under all these the inward priest Jared went along hiddenly. Inwardly this spiritual priesthood is Christ in the new man; and outwardly in the selt-elected priests it is Babel. 40. This sixth time began in the kingdom of Christ after the death of the Apostles, when as men chose themselves teachers out of favour and outward respects. That is, it did even then first open itself out of the hiddenness [veil] of the shadow, and put itself forth in the churches of stone, where the church stood in stead of the holy temple of Christ: then indeed the holy Jared, viz. Christ's voice, ruled in Christ's children internally;
2but externally the Cherub with the sword [did alone bear rule] . For the outward authority which these self-elected priests do manage is the sword of the Cherub; which is signified in the name Jared; which powerfully forces itself forth all along in the word, in the Language of nature. [That is, in the word Jared the Language of Nature does emphatically express, that the sword of the Cherub should domineer the whole time of the sixth Seal among the priests, who should have taught the love of Jesus: but by this sword they fall. Amen. ] 41. This sixth time is hidden and manifest; it is known, and also not known: for Christ said, My kingdom is not of this world. So that this time has been fain to pass away, as it were, in a mystery under Anti-christ, where inwardly, in the children of God, Christ's kingdom has been manifest. But in the rest (who have also lived under this time, and have been called Christians) only Babel and the Antichrist has been manifest, both in the priests, and [in] their hearers, for they which have been born of God have heard the true Jared, viz. Christ's voice in them; but the others have heard only the outward voice in Babel, viz. disputation and contention about Christ's kingdom.
342. For all war which the Christians manage, is only the sword of the Cherub proceeding from Babel. True Christians wage no war; for they have broken the sword of the Cherub in the death of Christ, and are dead with Christ, and risen again in him, and they live no longer to the external might and dominion; for their kingdom is manifest in Christ, and is not of this world. 43. This sixth kingdom [or seal] begins after the death of the Apostles, and continues with its outward government even to Mount Zion, till translated Enoch doth again appear in spirit and power. For Enoch is the prophetical root, and holds in his dominion [Or regiment] Noah, Moses, and the sword of Elias. At the end of this sixth time the outward Jared falls, and with him that same outward building, viz. the city, Babel. 44. The sign of the end is deciphered [ Or stands with such a figure] with such a figure: [Received by Abr. von Somervelt, as delineated in the author's manuscript]
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.
1and goes secretly all along under the ministry of Enos, under Seth and Cainan, in the Word of the Promise, through all the three times; and did manifest itself with the fulfilling of the Covenant in the humanity of Christ, where the true Mahalaleel and angelical image, which did disappear in Adam, was again manifest in the humanity of Christ. 39. The sixth time begins with Jared, which is the spiritual priesthood under the external, where outwardly Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel were in their times in their orders [or outward forms], as the ministry and preaching of Enos concerning God and his being and will; so likewise the preaching of Abraham concerning the Covenant and circumcision; also Moses with the Book of the Law. Under all these the inward priest Jared went along hiddenly. Inwardly this spiritual priesthood is Christ in the new man; and outwardly in the selt-elected priests it is Babel. 40. This sixth time began in the kingdom of Christ after the death of the Apostles, when as men chose themselves teachers out of favour and outward respects. That is, it did even then first open itself out of the hiddenness [veil] of the shadow, and put itself forth in the churches of stone, where the church stood in stead of the holy temple of Christ: then indeed the holy Jared, viz. Christ's voice, ruled in Christ's children internally;
2but externally the Cherub with the sword [did alone bear rule] . For the outward authority which these self-elected priests do manage is the sword of the Cherub; which is signified in the name Jared; which powerfully forces itself forth all along in the word, in the Language of nature. [That is, in the word Jared the Language of Nature does emphatically express, that the sword of the Cherub should domineer the whole time of the sixth Seal among the priests, who should have taught the love of Jesus: but by this sword they fall. Amen. ] 41. This sixth time is hidden and manifest; it is known, and also not known: for Christ said, My kingdom is not of this world. So that this time has been fain to pass away, as it were, in a mystery under Anti-christ, where inwardly, in the children of God, Christ's kingdom has been manifest. But in the rest (who have also lived under this time, and have been called Christians) only Babel and the Antichrist has been manifest, both in the priests, and [in] their hearers, for they which have been born of God have heard the true Jared, viz. Christ's voice in them; but the others have heard only the outward voice in Babel, viz. disputation and contention about Christ's kingdom.
342. For all war which the Christians manage, is only the sword of the Cherub proceeding from Babel. True Christians wage no war; for they have broken the sword of the Cherub in the death of Christ, and are dead with Christ, and risen again in him, and they live no longer to the external might and dominion; for their kingdom is manifest in Christ, and is not of this world. 43. This sixth kingdom [or seal] begins after the death of the Apostles, and continues with its outward government even to Mount Zion, till translated Enoch doth again appear in spirit and power. For Enoch is the prophetical root, and holds in his dominion [Or regiment] Noah, Moses, and the sword of Elias. At the end of this sixth time the outward Jared falls, and with him that same outward building, viz. the city, Babel. 44. The sign of the end is deciphered [ Or stands with such a figure] with such a figure: [Received by Abr. von Somervelt, as delineated in the author's manuscript]
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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