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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.
116. For Joseph's face in the truth shall behold all Israel and Egypt; for Israel must go forth out of Canaan, and leave Babel in the number seventy. But the hunger in Babel says, I will first fill my sack, that I may have provision in the way: and knows not that Joseph has given Israel provision for expenses; and moreover chariots and apparel; so that they shall take only their cattle along with them, and leave their dwellings and household stuff behind. 17. The provision for expenses, which at present Israel gathers together in Babel, belongs all to the wrathful impression of God's anger: which shall devour it all when his fire burns. God has beforehand, by Joseph, clearly sent his children provision for expenses; they will have fully enough, if they do not contend upon this way: sumptuous apparel is prepared for them, that they may be at rest from this disquietness of the driver. 18. But Babel thinks, It is a long time yet; Israel must serve me, I will plague them, sure enough. But the deluge or flood, and the fire of Sodom, falls suddenly down upon them, so that there is no escaping. He that is awake, let him watch, and take care that he does not sleep; for the bridegroom calls everywhere; afterwards the foolish virgins will trim their lamps: but it is too late, the hunger of Babel lays hold and devours them in its jaws.
219. Moses says further, And he sent Judah before him to Joseph, that he might direct him to Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen. And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up towards Goshen to meet his father Israel. And when he saw him he fell about his neck, and wept a long while upon his neck. Then said Israel to Joseph, I will now readily die, now I have seen your face, that you yet live (Gen. xlvi. 28-30). This figure stands thus: 20. Judah signifies the incorporated Covenant of God in man, viz. the divine grace in Christ. Israel sends this, that is, the whole man, before to the heavenly Joseph, and unites it with him, so that the heavenly Joseph, in the incorporated grace, leads the kingdom of nature in man, viz. the old Jacob and Adam into Goshen, viz. on the way of conversion, into the rest of Christ; that he comes to the right goal or mark, where he finds food for the hungry conscience, viz. the right way to salvation: where there is right teaching and instruction there Goshen is near at hand, where the soul sits in fatness, and feeds in the fat pasture of Christ.
321. And when the heavenly Joseph, viz. Christ, sees that the old Jacob, that is, the Adamical man, has sent his Judah to him, and afterwards comes himself then he makes ready his chariot; that is, his operation with a powerful affection to entertainment, and goes to meet the natural man, and when they draw near together, then this Joseph falls about the neck of this Jacob's Adam, that is, he lays hold on his desire and longing, and fills it with his tears, which he shed in his sufferings, and in his victory brought through death into eternal joy. 22. With these tears of joy he kindles the soul of the old Jacob's Adam, so that Jacob for great joy weeps a long while on Joseph's neck, viz. in Christ's tears of joy, and mingles his inward joy with the tears of Christ. With which tears of joy the soul of the old Jacob (Adam) is mightily comforted, quickened and strengthened in himself; in that he finds that his heavenly Joseph in him yet lives, that he is not dead in the famine of sins, or quite departed from him. 23. Then says the natural man: Now I would willingly die and give up all my right and willing; now, having seen and known my loving son Joseph, that is, seeing I find that the new man in Christ is become manifest in me, therefore now I would willingly die to my willing of vanity, in his power of love: as Jacob said to Joseph.
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.
116. For Joseph's face in the truth shall behold all Israel and Egypt; for Israel must go forth out of Canaan, and leave Babel in the number seventy. But the hunger in Babel says, I will first fill my sack, that I may have provision in the way: and knows not that Joseph has given Israel provision for expenses; and moreover chariots and apparel; so that they shall take only their cattle along with them, and leave their dwellings and household stuff behind. 17. The provision for expenses, which at present Israel gathers together in Babel, belongs all to the wrathful impression of God's anger: which shall devour it all when his fire burns. God has beforehand, by Joseph, clearly sent his children provision for expenses; they will have fully enough, if they do not contend upon this way: sumptuous apparel is prepared for them, that they may be at rest from this disquietness of the driver. 18. But Babel thinks, It is a long time yet; Israel must serve me, I will plague them, sure enough. But the deluge or flood, and the fire of Sodom, falls suddenly down upon them, so that there is no escaping. He that is awake, let him watch, and take care that he does not sleep; for the bridegroom calls everywhere; afterwards the foolish virgins will trim their lamps: but it is too late, the hunger of Babel lays hold and devours them in its jaws.
219. Moses says further, And he sent Judah before him to Joseph, that he might direct him to Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen. And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up towards Goshen to meet his father Israel. And when he saw him he fell about his neck, and wept a long while upon his neck. Then said Israel to Joseph, I will now readily die, now I have seen your face, that you yet live (Gen. xlvi. 28-30). This figure stands thus: 20. Judah signifies the incorporated Covenant of God in man, viz. the divine grace in Christ. Israel sends this, that is, the whole man, before to the heavenly Joseph, and unites it with him, so that the heavenly Joseph, in the incorporated grace, leads the kingdom of nature in man, viz. the old Jacob and Adam into Goshen, viz. on the way of conversion, into the rest of Christ; that he comes to the right goal or mark, where he finds food for the hungry conscience, viz. the right way to salvation: where there is right teaching and instruction there Goshen is near at hand, where the soul sits in fatness, and feeds in the fat pasture of Christ.
321. And when the heavenly Joseph, viz. Christ, sees that the old Jacob, that is, the Adamical man, has sent his Judah to him, and afterwards comes himself then he makes ready his chariot; that is, his operation with a powerful affection to entertainment, and goes to meet the natural man, and when they draw near together, then this Joseph falls about the neck of this Jacob's Adam, that is, he lays hold on his desire and longing, and fills it with his tears, which he shed in his sufferings, and in his victory brought through death into eternal joy. 22. With these tears of joy he kindles the soul of the old Jacob's Adam, so that Jacob for great joy weeps a long while on Joseph's neck, viz. in Christ's tears of joy, and mingles his inward joy with the tears of Christ. With which tears of joy the soul of the old Jacob (Adam) is mightily comforted, quickened and strengthened in himself; in that he finds that his heavenly Joseph in him yet lives, that he is not dead in the famine of sins, or quite departed from him. 23. Then says the natural man: Now I would willingly die and give up all my right and willing; now, having seen and known my loving son Joseph, that is, seeing I find that the new man in Christ is become manifest in me, therefore now I would willingly die to my willing of vanity, in his power of love: as Jacob said to Joseph.
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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