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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.
1in the Covenant of grace in the incorporated name JESUS, wrestled with God the Father's righteousness in the anger of the judgement, viz. in the great night of the darkness of God's anger, wherein the poor soul lay captive, and was so hard tied and bound 2 and put thereinto; and that the anger in the righteousness will not give over, unless it give itself into the love of grace, that the love may break through the anger, as the shining of light does out of the fire, or as the morning breaks out of the dark night, and changes the dark night into day. 2 Coarcted. 22. For the Covenant of grace in the love, and the soul, stood at present in one person. Therefore at present the soul of Jacob must, in Christ's figure and type, wrestle with God's righteousness about the heavenly ens, viz. about the substantial wisdom, which the name Jesus brought along with the poor soul in its heavenly substantiality, which faded in Adam; whereby Adam's faded [substantiality] sprang forth again in this living [substantiality], as a new birth. 23. Therefore the spirit of God says to Jacob, you have wrestled with God and man (viz. with God's love in the Covenant, and with the future heavenly substantiality, which substantiality became man in the seed of Mary), and have prevailed. For Christ, in whose figure Jacob stood, should thus, in our assumed humanity, wrestle with God's righteousness, and conquer.
224. And the spirit in Moses says here, And when he saw that he prevailed not against him (understand, God's righteousness in the anger of the judgement prevailed not against the grace) then he touched the ham of his thigh, and the ham of his thigh was displaced by the wrestling with him. 25. This signifies the destruction and displacing of the Adamical humanity: that when Christ would stand out this victory, then would the human self-might and own- will be displaced, and broken and killed. But as Jacob died not by this wrestling (though the ham of his thigh was indeed displaced), so also our humanity should not die eternally, but be only displaced, that is, be changed. 26. This signifies especially how the repentant man must enter upon this combat of Jacob, and so wrestle with God and man, in the spirit of Christ in God's righteousness, in the anger. And when he overcomes, then will the ham of his fleshly self-will be broken, that he must go up and down in this world as one half lame, that cannot well walk in the way of the world, but goes halting, as if his limbs were half broken, with which the wantonness and vanity of this world is driven on. For the spirit in the victory of Christ touches his thigh, that he is half lame in the pride and malice of this world, and never regards it more; but goes up and down as a despised lame man,
3who in the pride of the world in their hale or frolic jollity [the world] little regard, but hold him for a lame halting man, who cannot follow the garb of the antic tricks, conceited jests and lasciviousness of this world. But he has wrestled with God and man, and is with this victory touched and marked. 27. This, the pride and wantonness of this world understands not, for it goes up and down still in God's severe righteousness, in the kingdom of nature, in the might of the fire, in self-will, and thinks itself very well, till the judgement possesses its place; then must the poor soul stand in the eternal judgement, and live in pain and torment. 28. And as Jacob stood in the wrestling, and had his thigh touched that he halted, then the man said to him, Let me go; for the daybreak dawns. But he answered, I will not let you go, except you bless me. 29. This is first the figure of Christ, when he yielded himself up in the righteousness of God in the Father's anger, so that the anger according to our humanity slew him. Then said the righteousness, Now let me go, for at present the eternal morning breaks forth in me. But Christ had taken hold of the righteousness, and said, I will not let you go, except you bless the humanity again; that the judgement may cease; except you bring the morning of your inward power forth through the humanity, that the curse may cease, and that man may wholly stand in the divine working again, in the blessing.
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.
1in the Covenant of grace in the incorporated name JESUS, wrestled with God the Father's righteousness in the anger of the judgement, viz. in the great night of the darkness of God's anger, wherein the poor soul lay captive, and was so hard tied and bound 2 and put thereinto; and that the anger in the righteousness will not give over, unless it give itself into the love of grace, that the love may break through the anger, as the shining of light does out of the fire, or as the morning breaks out of the dark night, and changes the dark night into day. 2 Coarcted. 22. For the Covenant of grace in the love, and the soul, stood at present in one person. Therefore at present the soul of Jacob must, in Christ's figure and type, wrestle with God's righteousness about the heavenly ens, viz. about the substantial wisdom, which the name Jesus brought along with the poor soul in its heavenly substantiality, which faded in Adam; whereby Adam's faded [substantiality] sprang forth again in this living [substantiality], as a new birth. 23. Therefore the spirit of God says to Jacob, you have wrestled with God and man (viz. with God's love in the Covenant, and with the future heavenly substantiality, which substantiality became man in the seed of Mary), and have prevailed. For Christ, in whose figure Jacob stood, should thus, in our assumed humanity, wrestle with God's righteousness, and conquer.
224. And the spirit in Moses says here, And when he saw that he prevailed not against him (understand, God's righteousness in the anger of the judgement prevailed not against the grace) then he touched the ham of his thigh, and the ham of his thigh was displaced by the wrestling with him. 25. This signifies the destruction and displacing of the Adamical humanity: that when Christ would stand out this victory, then would the human self-might and own- will be displaced, and broken and killed. But as Jacob died not by this wrestling (though the ham of his thigh was indeed displaced), so also our humanity should not die eternally, but be only displaced, that is, be changed. 26. This signifies especially how the repentant man must enter upon this combat of Jacob, and so wrestle with God and man, in the spirit of Christ in God's righteousness, in the anger. And when he overcomes, then will the ham of his fleshly self-will be broken, that he must go up and down in this world as one half lame, that cannot well walk in the way of the world, but goes halting, as if his limbs were half broken, with which the wantonness and vanity of this world is driven on. For the spirit in the victory of Christ touches his thigh, that he is half lame in the pride and malice of this world, and never regards it more; but goes up and down as a despised lame man,
3who in the pride of the world in their hale or frolic jollity [the world] little regard, but hold him for a lame halting man, who cannot follow the garb of the antic tricks, conceited jests and lasciviousness of this world. But he has wrestled with God and man, and is with this victory touched and marked. 27. This, the pride and wantonness of this world understands not, for it goes up and down still in God's severe righteousness, in the kingdom of nature, in the might of the fire, in self-will, and thinks itself very well, till the judgement possesses its place; then must the poor soul stand in the eternal judgement, and live in pain and torment. 28. And as Jacob stood in the wrestling, and had his thigh touched that he halted, then the man said to him, Let me go; for the daybreak dawns. But he answered, I will not let you go, except you bless me. 29. This is first the figure of Christ, when he yielded himself up in the righteousness of God in the Father's anger, so that the anger according to our humanity slew him. Then said the righteousness, Now let me go, for at present the eternal morning breaks forth in me. But Christ had taken hold of the righteousness, and said, I will not let you go, except you bless the humanity again; that the judgement may cease; except you bring the morning of your inward power forth through the humanity, that the curse may cease, and that man may wholly stand in the divine working again, in the blessing.
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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