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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.
118. Now says Moses, Ishmae lfell in the presence of all his brethren. This was nothing else but a spiritual fall of the human selfness before God, for as to this world they were famous, renowned people, as their princely dominions do testify; whereas on the contrary Isaac's generation were a long time only strangers among the nations; which signifies that Christ's kingdom and dominion is not in this world's nature; and yet the kingdoms of this world shall fall before Christ, and be in subjection to Christ. 19. Afterwards, the spirit of Moses describes Isaac's children by Rebecca, and says, that she was harren, and Isaac intreated the Lord for hit wife, and God war intreated of him; and Rebecca conceived with two sons, which strove together in the womb. Here now the figure of the kingdom of nature, and also of the kingdom of Christ in the new birth, is clearly set forth: for Rebecca's two sons which she brought forth, viz. Esau and Jacob, point at two lines; viz. Esau proceeds from Abraham's own Adamical corrupt nature; and Jacob arises in the ens of faith, in which Abraham's faith's ens had incorporated itself into his Adamical nature, in which also the Covenant and the line of Christ stood, who should bruise the Serpent's head in the Adamical nature.
220. And here is deciphered and held forth how the two kingdoms in the two brothers, viz. the devil's kingdom in the corrupt nature of Esau, in Adam's own nature of the introduced Serpent's ens; and also the kingdom of Christ in Jacob in the ens of faith, did both strive together while they were children even in the womb; where then the kingdom of nature in Esau began to fall before the kingdom of Christ in Jacob; for here the woman's seed already bruised the head of the Serpent's ens, its might, in Esau; and the Serpent already stung the woman's seed, viz. the ens of faith in Jacob, on the heel, and therefore they struggled together in the womb. 21. Also we have here a very emphatical pregnant figure in Rebecca, in that she was shut up and could not be opened to conceive of Isaac's seed, until Isaac had intreated the Lord, that he would open the withholdmentl in the Covenant in Rebecca; where then the Lord was intreated in the Covenant concerning the barrenness of Rebecca, so that he did open the tincture in the woman's seed to this impregnation or conception. 1 Stop, or strong bar; barrenness. The inward figure stands thus:
322. The seed of faith was in Isaac inherited from his father Abraham, but Rebecca had not this ens. Indeed she was in the Covenant, but the ens of faith was not in her in the essence, but only in the Covenant; and therefore her matrix was shut up, and was not capable of the ens of faith, so long, till Isaac immersed his believing desire into the Lord (understand into the centre of nature in Rebecca), so that the spirit of the Lord did move itself in the Covenant in Rebecca, and moved also the Covenant, together with her Adamical nature, so that the barrenness in her matrix was disclosed, both in the shut-up ens in the Covenant, and then likewise the Adamical matrix, whereupon she conceived two sons, of the property of two kingdoms. 23. And this is the meaning of the saying, The Lord was intreated, when Isaac brought his faith's desire, through the eternal and temporal nature, into the Lord; and therewith did earnestly press for his wife Rebecca, that the Lord would be pleased to open her through his prayer and faith's desire, that so she might be with child by him. Which faith's desire, together with the Adamical nature's desire, gave in themselves into the barrenness of the matrix in Rebecca, and opened her. Whereupon she conceived both natures' properties, from a twofold seed of Isaac.
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.
118. Now says Moses, Ishmae lfell in the presence of all his brethren. This was nothing else but a spiritual fall of the human selfness before God, for as to this world they were famous, renowned people, as their princely dominions do testify; whereas on the contrary Isaac's generation were a long time only strangers among the nations; which signifies that Christ's kingdom and dominion is not in this world's nature; and yet the kingdoms of this world shall fall before Christ, and be in subjection to Christ. 19. Afterwards, the spirit of Moses describes Isaac's children by Rebecca, and says, that she was harren, and Isaac intreated the Lord for hit wife, and God war intreated of him; and Rebecca conceived with two sons, which strove together in the womb. Here now the figure of the kingdom of nature, and also of the kingdom of Christ in the new birth, is clearly set forth: for Rebecca's two sons which she brought forth, viz. Esau and Jacob, point at two lines; viz. Esau proceeds from Abraham's own Adamical corrupt nature; and Jacob arises in the ens of faith, in which Abraham's faith's ens had incorporated itself into his Adamical nature, in which also the Covenant and the line of Christ stood, who should bruise the Serpent's head in the Adamical nature.
220. And here is deciphered and held forth how the two kingdoms in the two brothers, viz. the devil's kingdom in the corrupt nature of Esau, in Adam's own nature of the introduced Serpent's ens; and also the kingdom of Christ in Jacob in the ens of faith, did both strive together while they were children even in the womb; where then the kingdom of nature in Esau began to fall before the kingdom of Christ in Jacob; for here the woman's seed already bruised the head of the Serpent's ens, its might, in Esau; and the Serpent already stung the woman's seed, viz. the ens of faith in Jacob, on the heel, and therefore they struggled together in the womb. 21. Also we have here a very emphatical pregnant figure in Rebecca, in that she was shut up and could not be opened to conceive of Isaac's seed, until Isaac had intreated the Lord, that he would open the withholdmentl in the Covenant in Rebecca; where then the Lord was intreated in the Covenant concerning the barrenness of Rebecca, so that he did open the tincture in the woman's seed to this impregnation or conception. 1 Stop, or strong bar; barrenness. The inward figure stands thus:
322. The seed of faith was in Isaac inherited from his father Abraham, but Rebecca had not this ens. Indeed she was in the Covenant, but the ens of faith was not in her in the essence, but only in the Covenant; and therefore her matrix was shut up, and was not capable of the ens of faith, so long, till Isaac immersed his believing desire into the Lord (understand into the centre of nature in Rebecca), so that the spirit of the Lord did move itself in the Covenant in Rebecca, and moved also the Covenant, together with her Adamical nature, so that the barrenness in her matrix was disclosed, both in the shut-up ens in the Covenant, and then likewise the Adamical matrix, whereupon she conceived two sons, of the property of two kingdoms. 23. And this is the meaning of the saying, The Lord was intreated, when Isaac brought his faith's desire, through the eternal and temporal nature, into the Lord; and therewith did earnestly press for his wife Rebecca, that the Lord would be pleased to open her through his prayer and faith's desire, that so she might be with child by him. Which faith's desire, together with the Adamical nature's desire, gave in themselves into the barrenness of the matrix in Rebecca, and opened her. Whereupon she conceived both natures' properties, from a twofold seed of Isaac.
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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