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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.
139. And it further denotes, how Christ should take the true Adamical created man by his heel, that is, by the mind of his conversation, and put him back again into the first mother, whence he did arise; and how the spirit of Christ should follow after the earthly man in this lifetime. When as the devil would be the earthly man's chief guide in the anger of God, then Christ should come after him, and take the inward property of the poor, fallen and captivated man, viz. the poor corrupt mind of the soul, into his arms, and draw it back again out of the devil's nets and snares, as Christ said, That he was as a vine-dresser who gleaned. For in this lifetime the Adamical nature's image stands before, and the image of Christ [stands] behind; therefore the natural man must die, and Christ must arise and put himself forth eminently in him.
240. And it shows further, how the spirit of Christ in Jacob's line should take Esau in this lifetime by his heel, and hold and rebuke him; and by his children labour to hinder and suppress his evil conversation and wicked walkings. But the Esauitish generation would contemn, despise and only trample it underfoot; and lay about them as an evil, malicious, fiery beast. As it even so comes to pass, when God sends his prophets, that they must reprove and rebuke men; then they even spurn them away from them as dogs, and will by no means endure them. But Jacob, that is, the spirit of God, holds them yet by the heel, and makes them naked and bare, so long till Jacob's footstep or impression is known. 41. Jacob signifies, in the formation of the name in the high tongue, a strong lubet or desire out of the mental tongue, viz. out of the name JEHOVA, brought into a compaction or ens; where the I takes the A, and exalts itself in the A, and takes the sensual tongue into the mental, viz. into the COB, so that the O is set for the centre of the word; where then the profound name of God is conceived or brought into the O, and therein it is rightly understood how the Father's nature, viz. the spirit of sense in A, C and B, does form itself into the I and O, for I is the centre of the highest love, and O is the centre of the perceptive Word in the Deity, which is understood [to be] without or beyond all nature.
342. This the spirit has understood in Isaac, therefore they call him JACOB, so long till this name was moved through the I in the ens of faith, so that the I opened the C and B, and put forth the formed or conceived ens in the O, seeing the I had formed itself with the O in nature, through nature as a holy blossom, and then the name was called JESUS: for the I brought itself again into the enclosed shut- up Engels-Eigenschaft (angel's property) in Adam's nature, and than the A was put into E: for the Father gave his nature in the humanity to the son, viz. to the I, and the Son made again thereout an Engel (angel) of it through the I. For the I entered into the deepest humility and lowliness. And then the figure stood thus IE, out of which the fiery lovespirit went forth, and made itself predominant; and set forth before it its character with the S and V, for the S is the character of the holy fire, and the V is the character of the efflux, issuing forth or emanation, out of the fire. 43. Thus the name Jacob was in the fullness of time in the ens of Mary changed into the name Jesus, which understanding has been as dumb and dead both to the Jews and Christians; seeing no nation
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.
139. And it further denotes, how Christ should take the true Adamical created man by his heel, that is, by the mind of his conversation, and put him back again into the first mother, whence he did arise; and how the spirit of Christ should follow after the earthly man in this lifetime. When as the devil would be the earthly man's chief guide in the anger of God, then Christ should come after him, and take the inward property of the poor, fallen and captivated man, viz. the poor corrupt mind of the soul, into his arms, and draw it back again out of the devil's nets and snares, as Christ said, That he was as a vine-dresser who gleaned. For in this lifetime the Adamical nature's image stands before, and the image of Christ [stands] behind; therefore the natural man must die, and Christ must arise and put himself forth eminently in him.
240. And it shows further, how the spirit of Christ in Jacob's line should take Esau in this lifetime by his heel, and hold and rebuke him; and by his children labour to hinder and suppress his evil conversation and wicked walkings. But the Esauitish generation would contemn, despise and only trample it underfoot; and lay about them as an evil, malicious, fiery beast. As it even so comes to pass, when God sends his prophets, that they must reprove and rebuke men; then they even spurn them away from them as dogs, and will by no means endure them. But Jacob, that is, the spirit of God, holds them yet by the heel, and makes them naked and bare, so long till Jacob's footstep or impression is known. 41. Jacob signifies, in the formation of the name in the high tongue, a strong lubet or desire out of the mental tongue, viz. out of the name JEHOVA, brought into a compaction or ens; where the I takes the A, and exalts itself in the A, and takes the sensual tongue into the mental, viz. into the COB, so that the O is set for the centre of the word; where then the profound name of God is conceived or brought into the O, and therein it is rightly understood how the Father's nature, viz. the spirit of sense in A, C and B, does form itself into the I and O, for I is the centre of the highest love, and O is the centre of the perceptive Word in the Deity, which is understood [to be] without or beyond all nature.
342. This the spirit has understood in Isaac, therefore they call him JACOB, so long till this name was moved through the I in the ens of faith, so that the I opened the C and B, and put forth the formed or conceived ens in the O, seeing the I had formed itself with the O in nature, through nature as a holy blossom, and then the name was called JESUS: for the I brought itself again into the enclosed shut- up Engels-Eigenschaft (angel's property) in Adam's nature, and than the A was put into E: for the Father gave his nature in the humanity to the son, viz. to the I, and the Son made again thereout an Engel (angel) of it through the I. For the I entered into the deepest humility and lowliness. And then the figure stood thus IE, out of which the fiery lovespirit went forth, and made itself predominant; and set forth before it its character with the S and V, for the S is the character of the holy fire, and the V is the character of the efflux, issuing forth or emanation, out of the fire. 43. Thus the name Jacob was in the fullness of time in the ens of Mary changed into the name Jesus, which understanding has been as dumb and dead both to the Jews and Christians; seeing no nation
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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