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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.
155. And we see it very finely portrayed in this figure how Adam's soul turned itself with lust into the earthly Canaan of the earthly body, and turned away from God; therefore now the soul must go again into Egypt, into repentance to Joseph, viz. to Christ, and to King Pharaoh, viz. to God; and there it will be received as a child of grace, to be a bondservant, so that it will be obedient to God, and be his servant and minister, and must forsake the earthly Canaan, viz. the evil body, with its will and contrivances, as Israel must leave and forsake Canaan. 56. But after he should be dead, he would then have his body into the land of Canaan, that it should be buried there. Which signifies that the earthly body must be buried in its mother the earth, and come into its first mother again; and it signifies that the soul shall come again out of Egypt, viz. out of the bondage of the affliction of repentance, to the body into rest: for the heathen must be driven out of Canaan, when Israel enters thereinto. So also must the abominations in the property and condition of the body be consumed, and all false and wicked desires be killed, ere the soul come to the body again, and dwell therein.
257. And it is powerfully represented how the will of the soul shall and must in this lifetime break off from the earthly Canaan, viz. from the lusts of the body, and press into God again by earnest repentance, where then the soul must rightly be in Egypt, viz. a poor bondservant, in much anxiety and affliction; but in the end, when the body shall die, then it also desires to go along out of the house of bondage, viz. out of the torment of repentance, and will go again into the first Adamical pure image which God created: as Jacob would lie by his fathers, when as he might have lain as well in Egypt. But the spirit stood in the figure of the resurrection, showing how the whole man should go again into the first image created by God. 58. But that Jacob required an oath from Joseph, that he would bury him in Canaan with his fathers; it denotes the oath which God in Christ made with man, that God has with his Word of love incorporated himself with man, and engaged as by an eternal oath to him. Jacob requires this oath from Joseph, as from the figure of Christ, and desires he should lay his hand under his thigh and swear.
359. This is a figure signifying how Christ should lay his hand, that is, his power and might, viz. the eternal Word, which is the hand that has made all things, into the human essence in body and soul; and not only into that, but under the thigh, as under the human power, and to give himself to man for his own; and swear therein, that is, bind himself to it, that he will bring the whole man, when he is here dead in the temporal death, again into the first land of inheritance wherein Adam in innocency dwelt, viz. into Paradise, and bury the body and soul, with his oath, in God, as in the divine rest. 60. This is signified by the figure of Jacob, where the text says, Israel dwelt a long time in Egypt, and multiplied there. And when Jacob was to die, he had a desire to be carried, after his death, again into the land of Canaan, to his fathers . This [I say] signifies that a Christian or child of God must go into this Egypt, viz. into repentance, and into the exit from the earthly will, and continue therein the whole time of his temporal life, and bring forth much good fruit in that land. And then Christ, viz. the heavenly Joseph, shall bring him into the right country of his father to rest again, viz. into the right promised land, wherein the milk and honey of divine power flows (Exod. iii. 8).
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.
155. And we see it very finely portrayed in this figure how Adam's soul turned itself with lust into the earthly Canaan of the earthly body, and turned away from God; therefore now the soul must go again into Egypt, into repentance to Joseph, viz. to Christ, and to King Pharaoh, viz. to God; and there it will be received as a child of grace, to be a bondservant, so that it will be obedient to God, and be his servant and minister, and must forsake the earthly Canaan, viz. the evil body, with its will and contrivances, as Israel must leave and forsake Canaan. 56. But after he should be dead, he would then have his body into the land of Canaan, that it should be buried there. Which signifies that the earthly body must be buried in its mother the earth, and come into its first mother again; and it signifies that the soul shall come again out of Egypt, viz. out of the bondage of the affliction of repentance, to the body into rest: for the heathen must be driven out of Canaan, when Israel enters thereinto. So also must the abominations in the property and condition of the body be consumed, and all false and wicked desires be killed, ere the soul come to the body again, and dwell therein.
257. And it is powerfully represented how the will of the soul shall and must in this lifetime break off from the earthly Canaan, viz. from the lusts of the body, and press into God again by earnest repentance, where then the soul must rightly be in Egypt, viz. a poor bondservant, in much anxiety and affliction; but in the end, when the body shall die, then it also desires to go along out of the house of bondage, viz. out of the torment of repentance, and will go again into the first Adamical pure image which God created: as Jacob would lie by his fathers, when as he might have lain as well in Egypt. But the spirit stood in the figure of the resurrection, showing how the whole man should go again into the first image created by God. 58. But that Jacob required an oath from Joseph, that he would bury him in Canaan with his fathers; it denotes the oath which God in Christ made with man, that God has with his Word of love incorporated himself with man, and engaged as by an eternal oath to him. Jacob requires this oath from Joseph, as from the figure of Christ, and desires he should lay his hand under his thigh and swear.
359. This is a figure signifying how Christ should lay his hand, that is, his power and might, viz. the eternal Word, which is the hand that has made all things, into the human essence in body and soul; and not only into that, but under the thigh, as under the human power, and to give himself to man for his own; and swear therein, that is, bind himself to it, that he will bring the whole man, when he is here dead in the temporal death, again into the first land of inheritance wherein Adam in innocency dwelt, viz. into Paradise, and bury the body and soul, with his oath, in God, as in the divine rest. 60. This is signified by the figure of Jacob, where the text says, Israel dwelt a long time in Egypt, and multiplied there. And when Jacob was to die, he had a desire to be carried, after his death, again into the land of Canaan, to his fathers . This [I say] signifies that a Christian or child of God must go into this Egypt, viz. into repentance, and into the exit from the earthly will, and continue therein the whole time of his temporal life, and bring forth much good fruit in that land. And then Christ, viz. the heavenly Joseph, shall bring him into the right country of his father to rest again, viz. into the right promised land, wherein the milk and honey of divine power flows (Exod. iii. 8).
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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