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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.
111. For the seven fat kine in the pasture signify, in the inward ground, the seven properties of the eternal nature in the holy, good substance or essence, viz. in the kingdom of heaven, where the divine power is substantial. And the seven lean, ill-favoured, meagre kine signify, in the inward ground, the seven properties of the eternal nature in the wrath of God, viz. in the kingdom of hunger and thirst, where nature is without the divine substance of the good power of God: and the seven thick, fat and full ears, and also the seven dry, blasted ears signify the same also. 12. But that this dream appeared twofold to Pharaoh, it signifies in this figure, First, the ground of the eternal nature in its seven properties, what God would show thereby. Secondly, as to the second appearance, it signifies the human ground, which in its substance has its creaturely original out of the seven properties. Moreover, it denotes the twofold man, according to the outward body and the outward spirit, and then according to the inward soulish [or animal] spirit and according to the inward holy substance of the divine substantial power; and stands in the figure 3 of a holy divine man, who is fair, and full of divine power and virtue, who walks and feeds in the true heavenly pasture of the substance of the substantial wisdom of God. 1 Or, scheme, 2 Or, representation to the outward man. 3 Condition, quality or property.
213. And it denotes secondly a wicked and ungodly man, who is withered, meagre, lean and ill-favoured as to that divine substance, and yet is even the same nature's property as the divine is: But he is withered and corrupted as to its good substance; the wrath of the eternal nature in the seven properties has consumed its substance, so that it is now as a hungry fire-spirit. 14. Thus the great God represents before Pharaoh what at this time stood in the figure of the Egyptians, for he would visit them: First, he shows them his great grace, in giving them Joseph, a prophet and wise prince to govern them: also he shows them in this vision, that in his grace in the kingdom of the inward and the outward nature in the seven properties, there is mere blessing and good things. If they would walk therein, they would be as the seven fat kine and ears: 15. But if not, then his wrath would come upon them, and consume their good things in body and soul, and make them lean, dry and withered. As was done to the devils, when of angels they became devils; then their good things, viz. the substantial divine wisdom in them, faded, and their seven properties of the eternal nature became so ill-favoured, lean and dry, as the seven withered kine, and the seven blasted ears, wherein was no more power and virtue.
316. And so the seven withered kine, and the seven dry ears, devoured the good fat kine and ears, and were yet more lean and illfavoured than before, that a man could not discern that they had devoured them. Thereby the great God also signifies that the wicked man, with his seven properties of Nature enkindled in the anger of God, devours the good and fair image of God in him, by introducing himself into self-desire; in which self and wicked desire nature becomes painful, and falls into unquietness and disturbance of its peace; and yet afterwards is still ill-favoured, abominable, loathsome and dry: as a covetous, churlish, hungry dog, though he devour much his covetous nature in his envy consumes him; even his flesh, so that he has not that which he will not afford to other dogs. 17. Thus the great God represents by this, before the Egyptians, seven good fat years, and seven dry barren years which devoured the other seven, so that a man could not know the good any more: under which yet very powerful things are prefigured, as shall be mentioned hereafter. 18. But that Pharaoh was troubled at this vision, and yet understood it not, neither could his wise men interpret it, this signifies that God himself would interpret it by his power and virtue in Joseph, and that the time of this visitation was at hand: therefore was Pharaoh so moved in himself that he would fain know it.
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.
111. For the seven fat kine in the pasture signify, in the inward ground, the seven properties of the eternal nature in the holy, good substance or essence, viz. in the kingdom of heaven, where the divine power is substantial. And the seven lean, ill-favoured, meagre kine signify, in the inward ground, the seven properties of the eternal nature in the wrath of God, viz. in the kingdom of hunger and thirst, where nature is without the divine substance of the good power of God: and the seven thick, fat and full ears, and also the seven dry, blasted ears signify the same also. 12. But that this dream appeared twofold to Pharaoh, it signifies in this figure, First, the ground of the eternal nature in its seven properties, what God would show thereby. Secondly, as to the second appearance, it signifies the human ground, which in its substance has its creaturely original out of the seven properties. Moreover, it denotes the twofold man, according to the outward body and the outward spirit, and then according to the inward soulish [or animal] spirit and according to the inward holy substance of the divine substantial power; and stands in the figure 3 of a holy divine man, who is fair, and full of divine power and virtue, who walks and feeds in the true heavenly pasture of the substance of the substantial wisdom of God. 1 Or, scheme, 2 Or, representation to the outward man. 3 Condition, quality or property.
213. And it denotes secondly a wicked and ungodly man, who is withered, meagre, lean and ill-favoured as to that divine substance, and yet is even the same nature's property as the divine is: But he is withered and corrupted as to its good substance; the wrath of the eternal nature in the seven properties has consumed its substance, so that it is now as a hungry fire-spirit. 14. Thus the great God represents before Pharaoh what at this time stood in the figure of the Egyptians, for he would visit them: First, he shows them his great grace, in giving them Joseph, a prophet and wise prince to govern them: also he shows them in this vision, that in his grace in the kingdom of the inward and the outward nature in the seven properties, there is mere blessing and good things. If they would walk therein, they would be as the seven fat kine and ears: 15. But if not, then his wrath would come upon them, and consume their good things in body and soul, and make them lean, dry and withered. As was done to the devils, when of angels they became devils; then their good things, viz. the substantial divine wisdom in them, faded, and their seven properties of the eternal nature became so ill-favoured, lean and dry, as the seven withered kine, and the seven blasted ears, wherein was no more power and virtue.
316. And so the seven withered kine, and the seven dry ears, devoured the good fat kine and ears, and were yet more lean and illfavoured than before, that a man could not discern that they had devoured them. Thereby the great God also signifies that the wicked man, with his seven properties of Nature enkindled in the anger of God, devours the good and fair image of God in him, by introducing himself into self-desire; in which self and wicked desire nature becomes painful, and falls into unquietness and disturbance of its peace; and yet afterwards is still ill-favoured, abominable, loathsome and dry: as a covetous, churlish, hungry dog, though he devour much his covetous nature in his envy consumes him; even his flesh, so that he has not that which he will not afford to other dogs. 17. Thus the great God represents by this, before the Egyptians, seven good fat years, and seven dry barren years which devoured the other seven, so that a man could not know the good any more: under which yet very powerful things are prefigured, as shall be mentioned hereafter. 18. But that Pharaoh was troubled at this vision, and yet understood it not, neither could his wise men interpret it, this signifies that God himself would interpret it by his power and virtue in Joseph, and that the time of this visitation was at hand: therefore was Pharaoh so moved in himself that he would fain know it.
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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