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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 self; speak; for in this terror the self of the will goes to the ground, for with this aspect arises the will of God up, and slays the soul's own will: as Joseph's brethren were so very much terrified before his face, that they could not speak a word more, all their ability failed them as if they had been dumb. And thus also will the wicked and ungodly at the last judgement be dumb before the face of God, and terrified to eternal death, that his life will be a mere anguish and terror of an evil conscience, which will be an eternal gnawing. 12. But Joseph said to his brethren, Draw near to me. And they drew near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. And now be not careful, nor think that I am angry for it, that you have sold me hither: for to preserve your life has God sent me hither before you (Gen. xlv. 4, 5). The holy figure stands thus:
213. When Christ with his revelation or manifestation thus terrifies the soul, that the soul's own will is terrified into the death of its willing and ability, then he speaks in or inspires his Word of grace into it, and gives it power [and virtue], and says, in the soulish essence, Draw near to me, and raise up your countenance from the terror of death; go in my power to me and into my will, I am no more angry with you, that I have been sold into your death. God has sent me hither before you, that I might nourish you in your hunger of misery, viz. in the hunger of God's anger, till you are freed from your earthly body, in which lies the great hunger and divine famine in the anger of God. 14. For to preserve your life has God sent me into your humanity and soul, for there will yet be five years of dearth (Gen. xlv. 6) in your flesh; that is, the divine hunger will yet remain in your five senses of the earthly reason; therefore has God sent me before hither, ere this world cease to be, to you, and into you, that he might deliver you
3in your earthly five senses with a powerful deliverance, that my power [and virtue] of the famine in the five earthly senses may deliver and feed the poor soul; God has set me as a lord and prince, and made me a father of your nature, that I should rule, as Joseph over the land of Egypt. I am become lord over all your house, and all that you have and art, that I should nourish you in your famine with the divine food of my flesh and blood: be no more afraid, I am with you in the necessity of the earthly life, I will deliver you and bring you to glory and honour. 15. And Joseph said further, Make haste now, and go up to my father and to your father, and tell him, Thus says Joseph your son, God has set me as lord over all Egypt: come away to me, delay not. you shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and be near by me, and your children, and your children 's children, your small and great cattle, and all that you have. I will there provide for you; for there are still five years of dearth and famine; that you may not perish, with your house, and all that which you have (Gen. xlv. 9-11). 16. Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that I speak to you with my own mouth. Make known to my father all my
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 self; speak; for in this terror the self of the will goes to the ground, for with this aspect arises the will of God up, and slays the soul's own will: as Joseph's brethren were so very much terrified before his face, that they could not speak a word more, all their ability failed them as if they had been dumb. And thus also will the wicked and ungodly at the last judgement be dumb before the face of God, and terrified to eternal death, that his life will be a mere anguish and terror of an evil conscience, which will be an eternal gnawing. 12. But Joseph said to his brethren, Draw near to me. And they drew near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. And now be not careful, nor think that I am angry for it, that you have sold me hither: for to preserve your life has God sent me hither before you (Gen. xlv. 4, 5). The holy figure stands thus:
213. When Christ with his revelation or manifestation thus terrifies the soul, that the soul's own will is terrified into the death of its willing and ability, then he speaks in or inspires his Word of grace into it, and gives it power [and virtue], and says, in the soulish essence, Draw near to me, and raise up your countenance from the terror of death; go in my power to me and into my will, I am no more angry with you, that I have been sold into your death. God has sent me hither before you, that I might nourish you in your hunger of misery, viz. in the hunger of God's anger, till you are freed from your earthly body, in which lies the great hunger and divine famine in the anger of God. 14. For to preserve your life has God sent me into your humanity and soul, for there will yet be five years of dearth (Gen. xlv. 6) in your flesh; that is, the divine hunger will yet remain in your five senses of the earthly reason; therefore has God sent me before hither, ere this world cease to be, to you, and into you, that he might deliver you
3in your earthly five senses with a powerful deliverance, that my power [and virtue] of the famine in the five earthly senses may deliver and feed the poor soul; God has set me as a lord and prince, and made me a father of your nature, that I should rule, as Joseph over the land of Egypt. I am become lord over all your house, and all that you have and art, that I should nourish you in your famine with the divine food of my flesh and blood: be no more afraid, I am with you in the necessity of the earthly life, I will deliver you and bring you to glory and honour. 15. And Joseph said further, Make haste now, and go up to my father and to your father, and tell him, Thus says Joseph your son, God has set me as lord over all Egypt: come away to me, delay not. you shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and be near by me, and your children, and your children 's children, your small and great cattle, and all that you have. I will there provide for you; for there are still five years of dearth and famine; that you may not perish, with your house, and all that which you have (Gen. xlv. 9-11). 16. Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that I speak to you with my own mouth. Make known to my father all my
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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