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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.
129. And as Abraham would take a wife unto his son Isaac of his kindred, and sent out his chief officer to take a wife unto his son, and yet did not beforehand name the same unto him, and tell him who she should be; but bade him go only to his father's house, and to his kindred, and see what woman God would bring unto him for his son Isaac to take; so likewise God has sent his officer (who rules chief in his whole house, that is, dominion, which is the voice of his revealed Word) into the world, to the right Adamical man, and not to the Canaanitish Serpent's ens; but to the disappeared virginlike image of God, and to the living soul, which is of God the Father's house, that is, property; and looks out, about a virgin, for a wife to his Son, Jesus Christ; that is, he woos for the heavenly virginity in man, which disappeared in Adam; for this virgin God's officer of nature does woo, by his servants which he sends forth, and bids them make suit for this virginity, for a wife to his Son; and join it with him in marriage.
230. And as Abraham did not name aforehand the virgin unto his officer, but commanded him to go unto his father's house, and there look up unto God, and see where he should bid him make suit, and take that virgin which God should choose and bring unto him; so likewise God has sent his officer, viz. his holy word, by his servants, into the world to the true man; not to the Serpent-beasts, for these hear not God's word; they have no hearing in them thereto; like as the Canaanites in the Serpent's ens were even wholly bestial, and half dead as to the divine hearing, by reason of their iniquity and self will. 31. And he causes his servants, viz. officers, to sit down by the fountain of his holy word; with command, that they should in their office and charge committed unto them, call upon God, and pray, and teach his word, until God draws the virgin's heart, and brings her to the fountain of his word, to draw water out of the wellspring of God's word.
332. And when this virgin, understand the inward divine image, which was obscured in Adam, draws water in the fountain of the divine word, then the officer, Abraham's servant, viz. the Father's will, speaks in the soul, saying, Give me to drink of your sweet water of the eternal virginity; and the precious virgin says to the will of God, Drink, my Lord; I will also draw [water] for your camels. Understand by the camels the essences of the human nature proceeding from the Father's property; and by the virgin, understand the nature and property of the light in the love, viz. the essence of the divine ens of the angelical world, which disappeared in Adam, and now comes again to draw water for its bridegroom the soul. 33. And now when the officer, viz. God's will, with his camels, viz. the essences of nature, is refreshed with drink by the virgin; then the forth-sent will of the Father, in the essence of nature, gives thanks unto the true Deity; that God has brought this virgin unto him; that he should take this virgin of the love and humanity of Jesus Christ for a wife.
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.
129. And as Abraham would take a wife unto his son Isaac of his kindred, and sent out his chief officer to take a wife unto his son, and yet did not beforehand name the same unto him, and tell him who she should be; but bade him go only to his father's house, and to his kindred, and see what woman God would bring unto him for his son Isaac to take; so likewise God has sent his officer (who rules chief in his whole house, that is, dominion, which is the voice of his revealed Word) into the world, to the right Adamical man, and not to the Canaanitish Serpent's ens; but to the disappeared virginlike image of God, and to the living soul, which is of God the Father's house, that is, property; and looks out, about a virgin, for a wife to his Son, Jesus Christ; that is, he woos for the heavenly virginity in man, which disappeared in Adam; for this virgin God's officer of nature does woo, by his servants which he sends forth, and bids them make suit for this virginity, for a wife to his Son; and join it with him in marriage.
230. And as Abraham did not name aforehand the virgin unto his officer, but commanded him to go unto his father's house, and there look up unto God, and see where he should bid him make suit, and take that virgin which God should choose and bring unto him; so likewise God has sent his officer, viz. his holy word, by his servants, into the world to the true man; not to the Serpent-beasts, for these hear not God's word; they have no hearing in them thereto; like as the Canaanites in the Serpent's ens were even wholly bestial, and half dead as to the divine hearing, by reason of their iniquity and self will. 31. And he causes his servants, viz. officers, to sit down by the fountain of his holy word; with command, that they should in their office and charge committed unto them, call upon God, and pray, and teach his word, until God draws the virgin's heart, and brings her to the fountain of his word, to draw water out of the wellspring of God's word.
332. And when this virgin, understand the inward divine image, which was obscured in Adam, draws water in the fountain of the divine word, then the officer, Abraham's servant, viz. the Father's will, speaks in the soul, saying, Give me to drink of your sweet water of the eternal virginity; and the precious virgin says to the will of God, Drink, my Lord; I will also draw [water] for your camels. Understand by the camels the essences of the human nature proceeding from the Father's property; and by the virgin, understand the nature and property of the light in the love, viz. the essence of the divine ens of the angelical world, which disappeared in Adam, and now comes again to draw water for its bridegroom the soul. 33. And now when the officer, viz. God's will, with his camels, viz. the essences of nature, is refreshed with drink by the virgin; then the forth-sent will of the Father, in the essence of nature, gives thanks unto the true Deity; that God has brought this virgin unto him; that he should take this virgin of the love and humanity of Jesus Christ for a wife.
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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