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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.
16. And it shows that mankind should come through Christ's humanity into the society of the angels (Matt. xxii. 30). And this is clearly signified here, in that the angels of God do ascend and descend on this ladder. Also that the heaven in man should be again opened through this entrance of the divine essence into the humanity, and that the children of God should have the angels for companions in this world; which God showed to Jacob, in that the angels came up and down to him on this ladder (John i, 51). 7. Which shall be a very great comfort to the children of God, who turn themselves from their father's house, viz. from this world's vanity, to this Jacob's ladder; for they shall certainly know that God's angels do come unto them upon this ladder to which they have turned themselves, and are willingly about them [to serve them]. 8. For this ladder signifies properly the pilgrim's path of Christ through this world into God's kingdom) in that the kingdom of the corrupt Adamical nature does always yet cleave unto the children of God, and hinders them in flesh and blood in the spirit of this world; and therefore they must, according to the inward man in Christ's spirit, continually ascend up in much crosses and tribulation on this ladder, and follow Christ under his cross and red banner.
29. On the contrary, the world lives in the pleasure of their father Adam's house, in scorn, jeering and mocking, in envy, spite and malice; whatsoever they can do to cross and vex these Jacob's children, that they joy and take delight in, and laugh and fleer at them. As we have an example of it in Esau; how that he took, in contempt, disdain, and spite to his father and mother, Ishmaelitish wives, who were of the line of mockery or reviling, which were mere bitterness of spirit, and griefofheart, both to Isaac and Rebecca. 10. Where we clearly see that the devil has his power in the kingdom of this world in the corrupt human property, and does continually resist God's children, and vexes and plagues them, and fights with them for his kingdom, which he has lost, and does not willingly beteem it them. 11. And we see very finely how the Lord stands above upon this ladder of the pilgrimage of Christ, as with Jacob; and without ceasing calls the children of Christ, and comforts them, that they should cheerfully ascend upon it. He will not leave them, but come to them and bless them, so that their seed and fruit shall grow, increase, and be as the dust upon the earth (Gen. xxviii. 14). That is, that they in their toil, labour and anxiety, shall spring up and flourish in the inward divine kingdom.
312. For, so much as the children of Christ go out from this world, and forsake it in their mind, so much they spring up in the inward kingdom of Christ; where then God stands above upon this ladder, and continually inspires or inspeaks his blessing and power into them, so that they grow as branches on his vine (John xv. 5), which he has planted (Ps. lxxx. 15) again in our humanity, in this Jacob's blessing, in Christ. 13. And we hereby clearly see that this whole type, from Abraham to Jacob, contains mere figures of the kingdom and person of Christ and his children. For here God renews the promised Covenant of Abraham concerning the seed of the woman, with Jacob also; that out of his seed (v. 14), as out of the line of the Covenant, He should come who should bless all nations. For which cause also Jacob was led from his father's house, God having set before him outwardly the kingdom of Christ in the figure; for whose sake he caused his wrath to cease from the children of unbelief and did not destroy them, but afforded them time to repent; and so appeased his wrath in this type, which pointed at the fulfilling which was to come.
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.
16. And it shows that mankind should come through Christ's humanity into the society of the angels (Matt. xxii. 30). And this is clearly signified here, in that the angels of God do ascend and descend on this ladder. Also that the heaven in man should be again opened through this entrance of the divine essence into the humanity, and that the children of God should have the angels for companions in this world; which God showed to Jacob, in that the angels came up and down to him on this ladder (John i, 51). 7. Which shall be a very great comfort to the children of God, who turn themselves from their father's house, viz. from this world's vanity, to this Jacob's ladder; for they shall certainly know that God's angels do come unto them upon this ladder to which they have turned themselves, and are willingly about them [to serve them]. 8. For this ladder signifies properly the pilgrim's path of Christ through this world into God's kingdom) in that the kingdom of the corrupt Adamical nature does always yet cleave unto the children of God, and hinders them in flesh and blood in the spirit of this world; and therefore they must, according to the inward man in Christ's spirit, continually ascend up in much crosses and tribulation on this ladder, and follow Christ under his cross and red banner.
29. On the contrary, the world lives in the pleasure of their father Adam's house, in scorn, jeering and mocking, in envy, spite and malice; whatsoever they can do to cross and vex these Jacob's children, that they joy and take delight in, and laugh and fleer at them. As we have an example of it in Esau; how that he took, in contempt, disdain, and spite to his father and mother, Ishmaelitish wives, who were of the line of mockery or reviling, which were mere bitterness of spirit, and griefofheart, both to Isaac and Rebecca. 10. Where we clearly see that the devil has his power in the kingdom of this world in the corrupt human property, and does continually resist God's children, and vexes and plagues them, and fights with them for his kingdom, which he has lost, and does not willingly beteem it them. 11. And we see very finely how the Lord stands above upon this ladder of the pilgrimage of Christ, as with Jacob; and without ceasing calls the children of Christ, and comforts them, that they should cheerfully ascend upon it. He will not leave them, but come to them and bless them, so that their seed and fruit shall grow, increase, and be as the dust upon the earth (Gen. xxviii. 14). That is, that they in their toil, labour and anxiety, shall spring up and flourish in the inward divine kingdom.
312. For, so much as the children of Christ go out from this world, and forsake it in their mind, so much they spring up in the inward kingdom of Christ; where then God stands above upon this ladder, and continually inspires or inspeaks his blessing and power into them, so that they grow as branches on his vine (John xv. 5), which he has planted (Ps. lxxx. 15) again in our humanity, in this Jacob's blessing, in Christ. 13. And we hereby clearly see that this whole type, from Abraham to Jacob, contains mere figures of the kingdom and person of Christ and his children. For here God renews the promised Covenant of Abraham concerning the seed of the woman, with Jacob also; that out of his seed (v. 14), as out of the line of the Covenant, He should come who should bless all nations. For which cause also Jacob was led from his father's house, God having set before him outwardly the kingdom of Christ in the figure; for whose sake he caused his wrath to cease from the children of unbelief and did not destroy them, but afforded them time to repent; and so appeased his wrath in this type, which pointed at the fulfilling which was to come.
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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