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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.
19. And then Christ looks into it, and lays fast hold upon it with the strict hand of God's anger; but his love and grace hides itself therein, and that is it which stirs up the sins of the poor soul, and disturbs them, so that it is terrified and afraid in the presence of God. When the soul stands and cries to God, then says Christ in the conscience, Who are you? behold yourself now, whether you are worthy of me: as Joseph did here, when he said, Who are you? and set himself roughly and strangely towards them. 10. And Joseph thought on the dreams which he had dreamed concerning them, and said to them, You are spies, and are come to see where the land is open (Gen. xlii. 9). That is, Christ thinks on his mercy, and on his bitter passion and death, and says to the soul, you are a spy, and comes to me only to see where the gate of my grace is open: but that shall not help you, you must do otherwise, you must first enter into the gate of my suffering and death, or else you are but a spy, and will see the gate of my grace stand open that you may cover yourself with it as with a mantle; you must be in earnest, or else you will be but treacherous to me, and take my grace into your mouth.
211. And Joseph's brethren answered him and said, No, my lord, your servants are come to buy food. We are all one man's sons; we are honest and true men, we your servants were never spies (Gen. xlii. 10-11). That is thus much in the figure: before the properties of the soul in their vanity rightly know themselves, when the anger of God is presented before their eyes, viz. passes into their essence, then the soul thinks it is wrong that is done to it; for it thinks if it comfort itself with the merits of Jesus Christ, and believes on Christ, that he is the son of God, and has satisfied for the soul, then it ought not to be blamed for a divine spy and unrighteous hypocrite; it is righteous through the justification of Christ, seeing it believes the same, that it is applied to it for its benefit. 12. But as Joseph said to his brethren, No, but you are come to see where the land is open, thus also the spirit of Christ blames the essences of the soul; for it proves them that they are not yet broken, and have still self desires in them, and will instantly lay hold on grace, viz. the open gate, which avails not the soul; it must first enter into Christ's suffering and death, and put them on first through earnest repentance and conversion of its will, and then it may enter through the open gate, through Christ's wounds and death, into his resurrection.
313. Further, Joseph's brethren say, We your servants are twelve brethren, sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and the youngest is still with our father, but one is not in being. Joseph said to them, That is it which I told you; you are spies. In this will I prove you: By the life of Pharaoh you shall not go from hence except your youngest brother come hither. Send one of you hence, that may fetch your brother, but you shall be prisoners: so will I prove your saying, whether your ways be in truth or not; for if not then are you spies, by the life of Pharaoh. And they put them together in wardfor the space of three days (Gen. xlii. 13-17). The inward precious figure stands thus: 14. When the soul does thus draw near to Christ, and will instantly put on his resurrection, then says the spirit of Christ in the soul's essence, This is that which I told you, your essences are spies, by the life of God: in this will I prove them whether they come to me in a faithful and right path: whether they bring with them to me their youngest brother, viz. the true Joseph's brother; that is, the incorporated line of the Covenant of grace, in their (in Adam) faded heavenly substantiality, viz. the incorporated ground of grace which was effected in Paradise; so that the soul's essences, with their most inward ground, turn in to me and in me, else they come but as hypocrites and spies of the gate of grace.
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.
19. And then Christ looks into it, and lays fast hold upon it with the strict hand of God's anger; but his love and grace hides itself therein, and that is it which stirs up the sins of the poor soul, and disturbs them, so that it is terrified and afraid in the presence of God. When the soul stands and cries to God, then says Christ in the conscience, Who are you? behold yourself now, whether you are worthy of me: as Joseph did here, when he said, Who are you? and set himself roughly and strangely towards them. 10. And Joseph thought on the dreams which he had dreamed concerning them, and said to them, You are spies, and are come to see where the land is open (Gen. xlii. 9). That is, Christ thinks on his mercy, and on his bitter passion and death, and says to the soul, you are a spy, and comes to me only to see where the gate of my grace is open: but that shall not help you, you must do otherwise, you must first enter into the gate of my suffering and death, or else you are but a spy, and will see the gate of my grace stand open that you may cover yourself with it as with a mantle; you must be in earnest, or else you will be but treacherous to me, and take my grace into your mouth.
211. And Joseph's brethren answered him and said, No, my lord, your servants are come to buy food. We are all one man's sons; we are honest and true men, we your servants were never spies (Gen. xlii. 10-11). That is thus much in the figure: before the properties of the soul in their vanity rightly know themselves, when the anger of God is presented before their eyes, viz. passes into their essence, then the soul thinks it is wrong that is done to it; for it thinks if it comfort itself with the merits of Jesus Christ, and believes on Christ, that he is the son of God, and has satisfied for the soul, then it ought not to be blamed for a divine spy and unrighteous hypocrite; it is righteous through the justification of Christ, seeing it believes the same, that it is applied to it for its benefit. 12. But as Joseph said to his brethren, No, but you are come to see where the land is open, thus also the spirit of Christ blames the essences of the soul; for it proves them that they are not yet broken, and have still self desires in them, and will instantly lay hold on grace, viz. the open gate, which avails not the soul; it must first enter into Christ's suffering and death, and put them on first through earnest repentance and conversion of its will, and then it may enter through the open gate, through Christ's wounds and death, into his resurrection.
313. Further, Joseph's brethren say, We your servants are twelve brethren, sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and the youngest is still with our father, but one is not in being. Joseph said to them, That is it which I told you; you are spies. In this will I prove you: By the life of Pharaoh you shall not go from hence except your youngest brother come hither. Send one of you hence, that may fetch your brother, but you shall be prisoners: so will I prove your saying, whether your ways be in truth or not; for if not then are you spies, by the life of Pharaoh. And they put them together in wardfor the space of three days (Gen. xlii. 13-17). The inward precious figure stands thus: 14. When the soul does thus draw near to Christ, and will instantly put on his resurrection, then says the spirit of Christ in the soul's essence, This is that which I told you, your essences are spies, by the life of God: in this will I prove them whether they come to me in a faithful and right path: whether they bring with them to me their youngest brother, viz. the true Joseph's brother; that is, the incorporated line of the Covenant of grace, in their (in Adam) faded heavenly substantiality, viz. the incorporated ground of grace which was effected in Paradise; so that the soul's essences, with their most inward ground, turn in to me and in me, else they come but as hypocrites and spies of the gate of grace.
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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