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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.
131. He says, Out of the land of Canaan, and, they are herdsmen: thus he would tell Pharaoh, that they might dwell in the land of Goshen. That, in the figure, is thus much: Christ shows, with his inspeaking of love into the word of his Father, that his brethren are come to him out of the vanity of the Canaanites, out of the wild bestial property; and that they from their youth up, from the time of Adam hitherto, have been only herdsmen. That is, the word of the human life ought to have dwelt in this fleshly Canaan in flesh and blood, and must and ought to have the keeping and ordering of the bestial property of the flesh. 32. For the animal soul in spiritu mundi [in the spirit of the world] in man has many hundred beasts, which it has awakened and manifested in itself; with the false and wicked lust. These beasts now must the word of the human life keep always, from Adam to this time, and must be conversant with such cattle, and manage these beasts and
2take care of them. Therefore now said Joseph, That they might dwell with their cattle in the land of Goshen; that is, in a peculiar place by itself; and not with Pharaoh. For herdsmen, says the spirit, were an abomination to the Egyptians; that is, the bestial property in man is an abomination to God. Therefore Christ brings only the inward paradisical ground (this time of the beast) before the face of God: but he brings the beast into Goshen; that is, into the outspoken or expressed creaturely substance of this world, into a place blessed of God. 33. The bestial man cannot dwell with Pharaoh, that is, in God's majesty and holy power and virtue: Joseph, or JESUS, leaves him in the outward nature, in the kingdom of this world, and sets him in a blessing, that he should dwell near God; but a Principle is the distinction as between time and eternity. 34. And Joseph said circumspectly, he would say they had brought along with them their small and great cattle; to signify that the whole man with all his works were brought into the grace and fat blessed habitation before God, that Christ's children with all their earthly works were placed in Goshen, viz. in a state and condition of grace.
335. And he said to his brethren, When Pharaoh shall ask what is your trade and employment, then shall you say, your servants have been herdsmen from our youth up. That is thus much: when God's spirit shall search and try what you are in mind and thought, whether you be angels and ministers of God, then humble yourselves before God; and say not concerning yourselves before the face of God, We sit in your office, and are lords or potentates and rulers of the world, or rich, noble, excellent, learned, understanding persons, or such like. Do not esteem yourselves good in the sight of God; say not, We are your dear ministers and servants in your power; but say, We your servants are herdsmen, from Adam to this time; we keep and manage our bestial property, viz. the works of your wonders which you have made; we cannot subsist before you, O holy God; for we are unfit, unworthy and ignorant herdsmen of your wonders; let us but find grace in your sight, that we may dwell before you in this Goshen. O Lord, we know not what we shall do before you; do you direct and teach us how we shall manage these your herds, for we are your servants, and will serve before you as your herdsmen.
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.
131. He says, Out of the land of Canaan, and, they are herdsmen: thus he would tell Pharaoh, that they might dwell in the land of Goshen. That, in the figure, is thus much: Christ shows, with his inspeaking of love into the word of his Father, that his brethren are come to him out of the vanity of the Canaanites, out of the wild bestial property; and that they from their youth up, from the time of Adam hitherto, have been only herdsmen. That is, the word of the human life ought to have dwelt in this fleshly Canaan in flesh and blood, and must and ought to have the keeping and ordering of the bestial property of the flesh. 32. For the animal soul in spiritu mundi [in the spirit of the world] in man has many hundred beasts, which it has awakened and manifested in itself; with the false and wicked lust. These beasts now must the word of the human life keep always, from Adam to this time, and must be conversant with such cattle, and manage these beasts and
2take care of them. Therefore now said Joseph, That they might dwell with their cattle in the land of Goshen; that is, in a peculiar place by itself; and not with Pharaoh. For herdsmen, says the spirit, were an abomination to the Egyptians; that is, the bestial property in man is an abomination to God. Therefore Christ brings only the inward paradisical ground (this time of the beast) before the face of God: but he brings the beast into Goshen; that is, into the outspoken or expressed creaturely substance of this world, into a place blessed of God. 33. The bestial man cannot dwell with Pharaoh, that is, in God's majesty and holy power and virtue: Joseph, or JESUS, leaves him in the outward nature, in the kingdom of this world, and sets him in a blessing, that he should dwell near God; but a Principle is the distinction as between time and eternity. 34. And Joseph said circumspectly, he would say they had brought along with them their small and great cattle; to signify that the whole man with all his works were brought into the grace and fat blessed habitation before God, that Christ's children with all their earthly works were placed in Goshen, viz. in a state and condition of grace.
335. And he said to his brethren, When Pharaoh shall ask what is your trade and employment, then shall you say, your servants have been herdsmen from our youth up. That is thus much: when God's spirit shall search and try what you are in mind and thought, whether you be angels and ministers of God, then humble yourselves before God; and say not concerning yourselves before the face of God, We sit in your office, and are lords or potentates and rulers of the world, or rich, noble, excellent, learned, understanding persons, or such like. Do not esteem yourselves good in the sight of God; say not, We are your dear ministers and servants in your power; but say, We your servants are herdsmen, from Adam to this time; we keep and manage our bestial property, viz. the works of your wonders which you have made; we cannot subsist before you, O holy God; for we are unfit, unworthy and ignorant herdsmen of your wonders; let us but find grace in your sight, that we may dwell before you in this Goshen. O Lord, we know not what we shall do before you; do you direct and teach us how we shall manage these your herds, for we are your servants, and will serve before you as your herdsmen.
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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