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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.
150. For through his voice all the aforementioned voices of the wonderful lines, whence the kingdoms of this world have had their rise, shall be changed into one voice and knowledge, and transplanted into one kingdom, viz. into the first tree of Adam, which is no longer called Adam, but Christ in Adam. All nations, tongues and speeches hear this voice; for it is the first word, whence the life of mankind proceeded; for all wonders do join again together in the word into one body, and that body is the formed divine Word, which at first with Adam did introduce itself into one only stem; and through him into a tree of manifold boughs, branches and fruits, to the contemplation of the divine wisdom, in the wonders of the powers, colours and virtues, according to evil and good. 51. This high tree does disclose and clearly open itself, what it has been in time, and what it shall be eternally; and in its manifestation [disclosure], Moses puts away his veil, and Christ his parables in his doctrine. And then the prophetical mouth of this tree of wonders does express in divine power all the voices of the powers of the tree, whereby Babel takes her end: and this is a wonder. And in this same wonder all numbers and names are made manifest, and this no man can hinder. 52. for that which is lost in the spirits of the letters shall be again found, and the spirit of the letter shall be found again in the formed word of the creation;
2and in the creation shall be found and known the Being of all Beings; and in the Being of all Beings the eternal understanding of the holy Trinity. Even then the contentions about the knowledge of God, his being and will, do cease. When the branches shall know that they stand in the tree they will never say that they are peculiar and singular trees; but they will rejoice in their stem, and they will see that they are altogether boughs and branches of one tree, and that they do all receive power and life from one only stem. 53. And here Moses shall keep sheep, and every sheep eats his own pasture. Therefore observe: when this approaches near to be fulfilled, then Noah denounces the deluge, and Elias brings the flaming sword upon the false Israel; and the turba in the fire of the wrath devours the wild tree, with its fruits and branches. Let this be told you, Babel. 54. For as concerning Enoch's divine time, our speech is taken from us, seeing Babel is not worthy of it, and also shall not see it. And likewise we must be silent concerning the discovery of the times of The Ancient, whose number shall stand open in the rose of the lily. The Thirty-First Chapter Of Enoch 's Wonderful Line 1. MOSES writes, Enoch begat Methusalah (Gen. v. 21). This name signifies, in the Language of Nature, as much as a forthproceeding [outgoing] voice, which intimates and denotes the spirit of Enoch;
3which voice doth form itself into a body, viz. into nature, and goes forth in strong might through the word; and when the conceived or formed word is proceeded forth, it does then contemplate itself: for the syllable -SA- is a fiery glimpse of light; and the syllable -LAH- is the forth-proceeded word, which beholds the property, of what kind of ens it is, wherein the word has formed (or comprehended) itself: The divine sound beholds itself in the human ens and word, contemplating how the free will, proceeding from the human ens, has introduced the divine voice or breath into a form of the spirit. 2. Now says Moses, And Methusalah begat Lantech. The spirit did now put itself forth by Methusalah, even out of the ens into another twig;
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.
150. For through his voice all the aforementioned voices of the wonderful lines, whence the kingdoms of this world have had their rise, shall be changed into one voice and knowledge, and transplanted into one kingdom, viz. into the first tree of Adam, which is no longer called Adam, but Christ in Adam. All nations, tongues and speeches hear this voice; for it is the first word, whence the life of mankind proceeded; for all wonders do join again together in the word into one body, and that body is the formed divine Word, which at first with Adam did introduce itself into one only stem; and through him into a tree of manifold boughs, branches and fruits, to the contemplation of the divine wisdom, in the wonders of the powers, colours and virtues, according to evil and good. 51. This high tree does disclose and clearly open itself, what it has been in time, and what it shall be eternally; and in its manifestation [disclosure], Moses puts away his veil, and Christ his parables in his doctrine. And then the prophetical mouth of this tree of wonders does express in divine power all the voices of the powers of the tree, whereby Babel takes her end: and this is a wonder. And in this same wonder all numbers and names are made manifest, and this no man can hinder. 52. for that which is lost in the spirits of the letters shall be again found, and the spirit of the letter shall be found again in the formed word of the creation;
2and in the creation shall be found and known the Being of all Beings; and in the Being of all Beings the eternal understanding of the holy Trinity. Even then the contentions about the knowledge of God, his being and will, do cease. When the branches shall know that they stand in the tree they will never say that they are peculiar and singular trees; but they will rejoice in their stem, and they will see that they are altogether boughs and branches of one tree, and that they do all receive power and life from one only stem. 53. And here Moses shall keep sheep, and every sheep eats his own pasture. Therefore observe: when this approaches near to be fulfilled, then Noah denounces the deluge, and Elias brings the flaming sword upon the false Israel; and the turba in the fire of the wrath devours the wild tree, with its fruits and branches. Let this be told you, Babel. 54. For as concerning Enoch's divine time, our speech is taken from us, seeing Babel is not worthy of it, and also shall not see it. And likewise we must be silent concerning the discovery of the times of The Ancient, whose number shall stand open in the rose of the lily. The Thirty-First Chapter Of Enoch 's Wonderful Line 1. MOSES writes, Enoch begat Methusalah (Gen. v. 21). This name signifies, in the Language of Nature, as much as a forthproceeding [outgoing] voice, which intimates and denotes the spirit of Enoch;
3which voice doth form itself into a body, viz. into nature, and goes forth in strong might through the word; and when the conceived or formed word is proceeded forth, it does then contemplate itself: for the syllable -SA- is a fiery glimpse of light; and the syllable -LAH- is the forth-proceeded word, which beholds the property, of what kind of ens it is, wherein the word has formed (or comprehended) itself: The divine sound beholds itself in the human ens and word, contemplating how the free will, proceeding from the human ens, has introduced the divine voice or breath into a form of the spirit. 2. Now says Moses, And Methusalah begat Lantech. The spirit did now put itself forth by Methusalah, even out of the ens into another twig;
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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