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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.
134. And forthwith the will of God the Father, takes the precious jewels which God did incorporate into Adam's soul, even into the light of his life, in Paradise, with the precious name Jesus; yea, which jewels were incorporated in the centre of the soul before the foundation of the world was laid (Eph. i. 4), which have been wholly hidden to the soul; which jewels are the holy fire of the hidden love-desire, and hangs the same on the noble virgin of the heavenly world's essence; as a golden ear-ring 1 of half a shekel weight. 1 Or, jewel for the forehead. 35. This golden jewel [or ear-ring of half a shekel weight] is the new heavenly essentiality which came down or proceeded from heaven; as Christ said, That he was come from heaven (John iii. 13); there he means the ens proceeding or coming from thence, which was the half-holy humanity, viz. the holy ens in the word, which did unite itself to the disappeared heavenly ens in the humanity; so that this golden jewel of half a shekel weight belongs to the divine sound or word, which comes into the humanity, and is hung upon the heavenly virginity in man. 36. And now when the marriage is celebrated, and the virginlike ens betrothed to this holy ens, so that the virginity receives this jewel proffered unto it; then it is a whole shekel of gold; half of the Deity, and half of the humanity.
237. And the two bracelets, which Abraham's servants, viz. the will of the Father in the soul's nature, puts on the virgin, which are of ten shekels weight of gold, they are the ten forms of the holy fire which are hung with the new introduced humanity of Jesus Christ, his divine ens, on the disappeared virginity; whereby it again receives its true life. 38. And when this virgin has thus received this jewel and bracelets, then it rejoices, and runs to her brother Laban, viz. to the third Principle of the outward humanity, proceeding from the limus of the earth; that is, to the outward soul; and tells this unto him; that is, when the virgin's image does receive the ens of Christ, viz. this fair and precious jewel of half a shekel, together with the holy fire of the word, then it penetrates, with its voice of the divine essence, through the outward man (viz. its brother), and declares the divine power; whereby the outward man (understand the third Principle) is glad, and exceedingly rejoices with the virgin of the inward man, and runs also unto the fountain of the word of God, and prays God that he would be pleased to come in unto him with his word. As here Laban prayed Abraham's servant to come in to him; which Abraham's servant, viz. God's will, does willingly, and turns in unto the outward man.
339. As Abraham's servant did, thus does the human nature likewise, when it hears the voice of Christ sounding in the inward man, and sees the ornament which the holy Spirit has put on the virgin's image. Then Laban, viz. the brother of the inward image, does earnestly entreat the will of God to come in. 40. And when the will of God (here typified by Abraham's servant) is come in unto Bethuel and Laban, viz. into the third Principle of the humanity, then the officer of God, viz. the word of God which comes into man, says, I will not eat of your food (understand of the outward life's essence) except I obtain my errand: that you give my master, viz. my master's son (that is, the humanity of Jesus Christ) your sister, viz. the heavenly virginity, to wife. And he relates the mission or errand of God to the human nature; that is, he opens to it the divine understanding, so that even the natural man does learn to understand the will of God, in which, before, it was blind. 41. And then the poor nature with the soul gives up itself into God's will. And then thus speak Laban and Bethuel, This comes from the Lord; we shall not speak anything against it; behold, here is your place, do with me and with my inward [ground] as you please. Here is Rebecca, viz. the formed word of the heavenly property; take it, and marry it to your master's son, viz. to the humanity of Jesus Christ, according to your good-liking, as the Lord has spoken.
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.
134. And forthwith the will of God the Father, takes the precious jewels which God did incorporate into Adam's soul, even into the light of his life, in Paradise, with the precious name Jesus; yea, which jewels were incorporated in the centre of the soul before the foundation of the world was laid (Eph. i. 4), which have been wholly hidden to the soul; which jewels are the holy fire of the hidden love-desire, and hangs the same on the noble virgin of the heavenly world's essence; as a golden ear-ring 1 of half a shekel weight. 1 Or, jewel for the forehead. 35. This golden jewel [or ear-ring of half a shekel weight] is the new heavenly essentiality which came down or proceeded from heaven; as Christ said, That he was come from heaven (John iii. 13); there he means the ens proceeding or coming from thence, which was the half-holy humanity, viz. the holy ens in the word, which did unite itself to the disappeared heavenly ens in the humanity; so that this golden jewel of half a shekel weight belongs to the divine sound or word, which comes into the humanity, and is hung upon the heavenly virginity in man. 36. And now when the marriage is celebrated, and the virginlike ens betrothed to this holy ens, so that the virginity receives this jewel proffered unto it; then it is a whole shekel of gold; half of the Deity, and half of the humanity.
237. And the two bracelets, which Abraham's servants, viz. the will of the Father in the soul's nature, puts on the virgin, which are of ten shekels weight of gold, they are the ten forms of the holy fire which are hung with the new introduced humanity of Jesus Christ, his divine ens, on the disappeared virginity; whereby it again receives its true life. 38. And when this virgin has thus received this jewel and bracelets, then it rejoices, and runs to her brother Laban, viz. to the third Principle of the outward humanity, proceeding from the limus of the earth; that is, to the outward soul; and tells this unto him; that is, when the virgin's image does receive the ens of Christ, viz. this fair and precious jewel of half a shekel, together with the holy fire of the word, then it penetrates, with its voice of the divine essence, through the outward man (viz. its brother), and declares the divine power; whereby the outward man (understand the third Principle) is glad, and exceedingly rejoices with the virgin of the inward man, and runs also unto the fountain of the word of God, and prays God that he would be pleased to come in unto him with his word. As here Laban prayed Abraham's servant to come in to him; which Abraham's servant, viz. God's will, does willingly, and turns in unto the outward man.
339. As Abraham's servant did, thus does the human nature likewise, when it hears the voice of Christ sounding in the inward man, and sees the ornament which the holy Spirit has put on the virgin's image. Then Laban, viz. the brother of the inward image, does earnestly entreat the will of God to come in. 40. And when the will of God (here typified by Abraham's servant) is come in unto Bethuel and Laban, viz. into the third Principle of the humanity, then the officer of God, viz. the word of God which comes into man, says, I will not eat of your food (understand of the outward life's essence) except I obtain my errand: that you give my master, viz. my master's son (that is, the humanity of Jesus Christ) your sister, viz. the heavenly virginity, to wife. And he relates the mission or errand of God to the human nature; that is, he opens to it the divine understanding, so that even the natural man does learn to understand the will of God, in which, before, it was blind. 41. And then the poor nature with the soul gives up itself into God's will. And then thus speak Laban and Bethuel, This comes from the Lord; we shall not speak anything against it; behold, here is your place, do with me and with my inward [ground] as you please. Here is Rebecca, viz. the formed word of the heavenly property; take it, and marry it to your master's son, viz. to the humanity of Jesus Christ, according to your good-liking, as the Lord has spoken.
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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