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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.
17. And as Jacob was promised this Rachel for a spouse, for which he consented to keep the sheep seven years, and loved her dearly 2 (Gen. xxix. 19, 20), and yet afterwards, at the wedding, the other sister, with her tender eyes, was laid by him, which he desired not. So it goes also with Christ's children, when they turn to God and apply themselves to be shepherds of Christ's sheep, to take care of them,3 then is the most amiable and beautiful Sophia promised and presented to them, whereat they find joy within them. 1 Or, family. 2 At his heart. 3 Or, provide for them. 8. But when it comes to pass that the soul thinks it will embrace this bride in its arms, and have perfect joy with her, then the other sister, viz. Leah, that is, the cross of Christ, is laid by it, and the beautiful Sophia hides herself and it must first take the cross of Christ for a spouse, and keep the sheep of Christ seven years more for Rachel, viz. For the noble Sophia, before he obtains her for his spouse. 9. For the humanity of Christ does not presently give itself to the fiery soul for its own; but stays indeed in the betrothingl in the inward ground, in the image of the heavenly world's substance, which disappeared in Adam. But God the Father gives the soul instead thereof, the other sister, viz. tenderness of heart, that the soul in this time may not sport in the garden of roses, but be in trouble and calamity, that it may be tried and humble, and always
2keep the sheep of Christ, and not in this marriage solace themselves in pleasures and pride, as Lucifer did. 10. And though it be so that this noble Rachel or Sophia be given in marriage to the soul, as is done to the stable children of Christ, so that the soul keeps this great wedding of joy with this bride (which they alone understand who have been guests at this wedding), yet afterwards the noble Sophia is as it were barren, the wedding joy passes away, and the soul is as if the love of this bride were taken from it. 11. In the meanwhile (Gen. xxix. 31 et seq.) Leah, under the cross of Christ, breaks forth and bears fruit; that is as much as to say, when the soul receives 2 the spirit of Christ, then begins the great joy of this marriage, concerning which Christ says, There is more joy in heaven for one sinner that repents, than for ninety-nine righteous that need not this repentance (Luke xv. 7). 12. For that is the wedding of the Lamb, that God and man is married, and Christ is born; and then he stands in our poor and simple form3 in our most inward ground, and hides his great sweetness, which the soul tasted in the marriage, and covers it with his cross; and then must the poor soul in the meanwhile take the tender Leah, viz. patience, and labour with her for fruit in the vineyard of Christ.
313. And it is very well that the soul faulters with this Leah, and then this Rachel in the inward ground of the soul is a stranger, and is as a stranger towards it. As Rachel towards Jacob, when she said to him, Give me4 children, or else I die (Gen. xxx. I). So also the noble Sophia says indeed to the soul, Work [or bring forth] in my lovedesire divine fruit, or else I will depart from you; whereas yet the soul cannot do it in its own power. 1 Or, promise of marriage. 2 As a conception. 3 Condition or disposition. 4 Create. 14. But this is therefore done that the soul may the more earnestly apply itself to prayer, and pray to God for the divine working of the divine fruit. As Jacob prayed to God, so that Rachel was fruitful, and did bear unto him Joseph (Gen. xxx. 22-24), the prince of all the land of Egypt, who preserved, fed, and nourished them in the famine. 15. So also when the noble Sophia seems barren to the soul, as if it could not bring forth the power of God in the soul, and yet the soul mourns to God in patience [praying] that he would work in it and bless it; whereupon the soul often converts in very great repentance, and casts itself upon God's mercy, till this noble Sophia become stirring, fruitful, and pregnant; and so it certainly generates the true Joseph, viz. a lowly, humble, chaste, temperate and modest
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.
17. And as Jacob was promised this Rachel for a spouse, for which he consented to keep the sheep seven years, and loved her dearly 2 (Gen. xxix. 19, 20), and yet afterwards, at the wedding, the other sister, with her tender eyes, was laid by him, which he desired not. So it goes also with Christ's children, when they turn to God and apply themselves to be shepherds of Christ's sheep, to take care of them,3 then is the most amiable and beautiful Sophia promised and presented to them, whereat they find joy within them. 1 Or, family. 2 At his heart. 3 Or, provide for them. 8. But when it comes to pass that the soul thinks it will embrace this bride in its arms, and have perfect joy with her, then the other sister, viz. Leah, that is, the cross of Christ, is laid by it, and the beautiful Sophia hides herself and it must first take the cross of Christ for a spouse, and keep the sheep of Christ seven years more for Rachel, viz. For the noble Sophia, before he obtains her for his spouse. 9. For the humanity of Christ does not presently give itself to the fiery soul for its own; but stays indeed in the betrothingl in the inward ground, in the image of the heavenly world's substance, which disappeared in Adam. But God the Father gives the soul instead thereof, the other sister, viz. tenderness of heart, that the soul in this time may not sport in the garden of roses, but be in trouble and calamity, that it may be tried and humble, and always
2keep the sheep of Christ, and not in this marriage solace themselves in pleasures and pride, as Lucifer did. 10. And though it be so that this noble Rachel or Sophia be given in marriage to the soul, as is done to the stable children of Christ, so that the soul keeps this great wedding of joy with this bride (which they alone understand who have been guests at this wedding), yet afterwards the noble Sophia is as it were barren, the wedding joy passes away, and the soul is as if the love of this bride were taken from it. 11. In the meanwhile (Gen. xxix. 31 et seq.) Leah, under the cross of Christ, breaks forth and bears fruit; that is as much as to say, when the soul receives 2 the spirit of Christ, then begins the great joy of this marriage, concerning which Christ says, There is more joy in heaven for one sinner that repents, than for ninety-nine righteous that need not this repentance (Luke xv. 7). 12. For that is the wedding of the Lamb, that God and man is married, and Christ is born; and then he stands in our poor and simple form3 in our most inward ground, and hides his great sweetness, which the soul tasted in the marriage, and covers it with his cross; and then must the poor soul in the meanwhile take the tender Leah, viz. patience, and labour with her for fruit in the vineyard of Christ.
313. And it is very well that the soul faulters with this Leah, and then this Rachel in the inward ground of the soul is a stranger, and is as a stranger towards it. As Rachel towards Jacob, when she said to him, Give me4 children, or else I die (Gen. xxx. I). So also the noble Sophia says indeed to the soul, Work [or bring forth] in my lovedesire divine fruit, or else I will depart from you; whereas yet the soul cannot do it in its own power. 1 Or, promise of marriage. 2 As a conception. 3 Condition or disposition. 4 Create. 14. But this is therefore done that the soul may the more earnestly apply itself to prayer, and pray to God for the divine working of the divine fruit. As Jacob prayed to God, so that Rachel was fruitful, and did bear unto him Joseph (Gen. xxx. 22-24), the prince of all the land of Egypt, who preserved, fed, and nourished them in the famine. 15. So also when the noble Sophia seems barren to the soul, as if it could not bring forth the power of God in the soul, and yet the soul mourns to God in patience [praying] that he would work in it and bless it; whereupon the soul often converts in very great repentance, and casts itself upon God's mercy, till this noble Sophia become stirring, fruitful, and pregnant; and so it certainly generates the true Joseph, viz. a lowly, humble, chaste, temperate and modest
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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