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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.
130. When Noah entered into the ark, Moses said, The Lord shut him in (Gen. vii. 16). The intimate signification of the spirit here is: He shut up the second time or age of the world, which was at the end, seeing the fire would fain have moved itself: Therefore the Lord shut it up with water, and herewith also [he opened] the gate of his entrance to go forth in the third time, and begin the second monarchy in the outward world: for the first time was in Paradise; the second, under Seth's manifestation: in the third, Enos's manifestation should be opened and set forth. 31. And Moses says further, And the waters stood upon the earth one hundred and fifty days. Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged. And the fountains of the deep and the windows also of heaven were stopped (Gen. viii. 1-3). Moses says, God remembered Noah. Now reason thinks, had he then forgotten him? whereas he is present to all things, and is himself through all, and in all things. The spirit in Moses does here hang a veil before the Mystery, that the natural man does not understand it.
232. God's remembrance here is the beginning of the third time, even the beginning of the second monarchy in the four elements with the creatures. For in the Covenant made with Noah the second monarchy was comprehended, which went forth out of the centre of the generatress through the divine wisdom in nature. 33. And Moses speaks further: When the waters were abated the ark set itself down upon the mount Ararat (Gen. viii. 4). This name [Ararat] does plainly hint unto us, in the Language of Nature, a mountain, or a compacting and an amassing of an essence out of the centre of nature, even out of the wrathfulness, seeing the anger of God had then reposed itself there. The ark stood upon the allayed anger. But the last syllable in this word Ara-RAT, does signify that the wrath of the eternal nature proceeding from the centre has betook or formed itself into an active dominion; and would thence-forward ride through nature, as a warrior, and mightily exercise its power and violence in the human property, whereby they would undertake wars, and advance themselves in pride, pomp and power, and butcher and slay one another, eagerly contending about this mountain of the wrath's might [or severe human authority] . 34. This mountain, Ararat, denotes the houses of the great ones or domineering potentates upon the earth, viz. the great castles, forts and bulwarks, the mighty mountains of the power, violence and strength of the rich;
3and also the high nobility, sprung up from the mystery of the great world; upon which kingdom the ark of Noah has set down itself: But the Covenant with Noah, viz. the kingdom of Christ, has set itself to be an eternal Lord over this mountain of the warlike might and force of arms sprung up from the anger of God; which dominion and reigning power of Christ shall abolish and take away the kingdom of this mountain, and quite suppress it. And it denotes unto us truly, fundamentally and exactly, that this power and authority upon the earth would take upon it, in its own power, the ark of Noah, viz. the divine Covenant, and carry it; yea, put it on as a garment, and proudly perch up itself therein, as if it had the kingdom of Christ in its own power. 35. [And also it shows and denotes unto us] how that this mountain of the wrathful anger of God in the human property [or in man's nature] would beautify, trim up and adorn itself with the ark of Noah; and would proclaim it to be the holy ark of Christ; and yet it would be founded only upon the wrathful anger, and be only an antichristian kingdom. Which indeed would carry the ark, viz. the name of divine holiness in the mouth but its heart would be only this mountain, a vessel and confused heap of God's wrath; and yet it would make devout shows of holiness, and glory in having the ark upon itself but the aim and intent of the heart would be set upon the strongholds, the preferment, power and riches of the world.
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.
130. When Noah entered into the ark, Moses said, The Lord shut him in (Gen. vii. 16). The intimate signification of the spirit here is: He shut up the second time or age of the world, which was at the end, seeing the fire would fain have moved itself: Therefore the Lord shut it up with water, and herewith also [he opened] the gate of his entrance to go forth in the third time, and begin the second monarchy in the outward world: for the first time was in Paradise; the second, under Seth's manifestation: in the third, Enos's manifestation should be opened and set forth. 31. And Moses says further, And the waters stood upon the earth one hundred and fifty days. Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged. And the fountains of the deep and the windows also of heaven were stopped (Gen. viii. 1-3). Moses says, God remembered Noah. Now reason thinks, had he then forgotten him? whereas he is present to all things, and is himself through all, and in all things. The spirit in Moses does here hang a veil before the Mystery, that the natural man does not understand it.
232. God's remembrance here is the beginning of the third time, even the beginning of the second monarchy in the four elements with the creatures. For in the Covenant made with Noah the second monarchy was comprehended, which went forth out of the centre of the generatress through the divine wisdom in nature. 33. And Moses speaks further: When the waters were abated the ark set itself down upon the mount Ararat (Gen. viii. 4). This name [Ararat] does plainly hint unto us, in the Language of Nature, a mountain, or a compacting and an amassing of an essence out of the centre of nature, even out of the wrathfulness, seeing the anger of God had then reposed itself there. The ark stood upon the allayed anger. But the last syllable in this word Ara-RAT, does signify that the wrath of the eternal nature proceeding from the centre has betook or formed itself into an active dominion; and would thence-forward ride through nature, as a warrior, and mightily exercise its power and violence in the human property, whereby they would undertake wars, and advance themselves in pride, pomp and power, and butcher and slay one another, eagerly contending about this mountain of the wrath's might [or severe human authority] . 34. This mountain, Ararat, denotes the houses of the great ones or domineering potentates upon the earth, viz. the great castles, forts and bulwarks, the mighty mountains of the power, violence and strength of the rich;
3and also the high nobility, sprung up from the mystery of the great world; upon which kingdom the ark of Noah has set down itself: But the Covenant with Noah, viz. the kingdom of Christ, has set itself to be an eternal Lord over this mountain of the warlike might and force of arms sprung up from the anger of God; which dominion and reigning power of Christ shall abolish and take away the kingdom of this mountain, and quite suppress it. And it denotes unto us truly, fundamentally and exactly, that this power and authority upon the earth would take upon it, in its own power, the ark of Noah, viz. the divine Covenant, and carry it; yea, put it on as a garment, and proudly perch up itself therein, as if it had the kingdom of Christ in its own power. 35. [And also it shows and denotes unto us] how that this mountain of the wrathful anger of God in the human property [or in man's nature] would beautify, trim up and adorn itself with the ark of Noah; and would proclaim it to be the holy ark of Christ; and yet it would be founded only upon the wrathful anger, and be only an antichristian kingdom. Which indeed would carry the ark, viz. the name of divine holiness in the mouth but its heart would be only this mountain, a vessel and confused heap of God's wrath; and yet it would make devout shows of holiness, and glory in having the ark upon itself but the aim and intent of the heart would be set upon the strongholds, the preferment, power and riches of the world.
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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