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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.
1as Rachel murmured, against Jacob, because it went not with her as she would, and was implacable with pressing Jacob, that he would give her children, or else she would die, at which Jacob was wrath. 20. So now the spirit represents the figure by Bilhah, Rachel's maid- servant, whom she gave to Jacob for a wife, who bare this Dan, who should be a judge and determiner of the anger and strife between Jacob and Rachel, when the self-will of Rachel would have children by force. 21. And it prefigures this to us, that the worldly office of a judge has its original from God's maid-servant, that is, from the kingdom and dominion of nature, and that God created man under no office of a judge; but the murmuring, stubborn and opposite self-will of man, which will not be obedient to God, nor endure to be judged and led by his spirit, that has caused, that Dan, viz. the power and authority to judge, is born in the lap of Rachel, viz. in the liberty of nature. 22. Therefore the spirit in the Covenant by Jacob pronounces so sharp and severe a sentence upon it, and says, this Dan, that is, this office of a judge, would be a serpent and adder in the way of righteousness, and would bite the just right, viz. the heels of his horse, that his rider, viz. justice and righteousness, might fall to the ground; and then nature shall wait for the salvation of God, viz. for the justice and right of Christ, by and through love: and then Dan's office shall cease.
223. Which ought well to be considered by you, Babel, seeing you boast of Christ, whether your salvation be in you or no; that you might judge yourself; and not need to have judges who must judge your unrighteousness, wherein you are no Christian, seeing you continually murmur with Rachel, and seek your will, therefore also the adder and serpent of Dan may well sting you; for your evil malice and wickedness causes that, viz. your own wilfulness. Therefore also has God given you up under Dan's fallen rider, so that you must go along as a slave and ridden horse, whom the serpent stings with his venomous sting, viz. with the power and authority of usurping self. 24. But that Dan's rider must fall backward, signifies that this Dan with his office shall fall backward in the conscience of a Christian, when he turns to Christ and works repentance; for in repentance Dan's government ceases, the rider, God's anger, falls backward. Therefore also every Christian is bound to forgive everyone from his heart, when repentance and confession and acknowledgement of sins comes, and so cast the office of a judge behind his back, for the office of a judge is the office concerning sin, that separates right from wrong, and always falls heavy upon that which is false and wicked; but the serpent often bites the horse in the heels, viz. favour, greatness, reward, gifts and bribes: these make Dan an adder and serpent.
325. And we see clearly that Dan, viz. the office of a judge in Israel, has its original from the murmuring, stubborn and opposite will, and that Dan is only a determiner of strife, and not, as he supposes to be his own lord in his office, but a divider, as Rachel says: God has judged my cause, viz. by this Dan, her maid- servant's son, and not her own son; to signify that a child of God needs no judge: he judges himself; and suffers with patience. VIII THE TESTAMENT of GAD 26. Gad stands prepared, he will lead a host, and retreat back again (Gen. xlix. 19). This figure does not prefigure that the children of Gad shall be captains of troops, as also Dan's children shall not be mere judges, but it represents the spiritual figure, which is to be seen by Leah, who gave her maid-servant also to Jacob, when she ceased to bear, and would make haste to prevent Rachel, for Gad was born of Zilpah, and should prevent Dan, for she said, readily, Turn you before him, and turn about to me again (Gen. xxx. 9-11). And it denotes human forecasting and carefulness, subtlety, policy and wicked craft and cunningness, that do with all subtlety prevent the right and justice, and would elevate themselves above all right and truth. 27. For Gad and Dan are both from the maid- servants, and are in the figure as a strife, for Rachel and Leah would one prevent the other, and therefore their ways were merely opposite: so this figure stands
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.
1as Rachel murmured, against Jacob, because it went not with her as she would, and was implacable with pressing Jacob, that he would give her children, or else she would die, at which Jacob was wrath. 20. So now the spirit represents the figure by Bilhah, Rachel's maid- servant, whom she gave to Jacob for a wife, who bare this Dan, who should be a judge and determiner of the anger and strife between Jacob and Rachel, when the self-will of Rachel would have children by force. 21. And it prefigures this to us, that the worldly office of a judge has its original from God's maid-servant, that is, from the kingdom and dominion of nature, and that God created man under no office of a judge; but the murmuring, stubborn and opposite self-will of man, which will not be obedient to God, nor endure to be judged and led by his spirit, that has caused, that Dan, viz. the power and authority to judge, is born in the lap of Rachel, viz. in the liberty of nature. 22. Therefore the spirit in the Covenant by Jacob pronounces so sharp and severe a sentence upon it, and says, this Dan, that is, this office of a judge, would be a serpent and adder in the way of righteousness, and would bite the just right, viz. the heels of his horse, that his rider, viz. justice and righteousness, might fall to the ground; and then nature shall wait for the salvation of God, viz. for the justice and right of Christ, by and through love: and then Dan's office shall cease.
223. Which ought well to be considered by you, Babel, seeing you boast of Christ, whether your salvation be in you or no; that you might judge yourself; and not need to have judges who must judge your unrighteousness, wherein you are no Christian, seeing you continually murmur with Rachel, and seek your will, therefore also the adder and serpent of Dan may well sting you; for your evil malice and wickedness causes that, viz. your own wilfulness. Therefore also has God given you up under Dan's fallen rider, so that you must go along as a slave and ridden horse, whom the serpent stings with his venomous sting, viz. with the power and authority of usurping self. 24. But that Dan's rider must fall backward, signifies that this Dan with his office shall fall backward in the conscience of a Christian, when he turns to Christ and works repentance; for in repentance Dan's government ceases, the rider, God's anger, falls backward. Therefore also every Christian is bound to forgive everyone from his heart, when repentance and confession and acknowledgement of sins comes, and so cast the office of a judge behind his back, for the office of a judge is the office concerning sin, that separates right from wrong, and always falls heavy upon that which is false and wicked; but the serpent often bites the horse in the heels, viz. favour, greatness, reward, gifts and bribes: these make Dan an adder and serpent.
325. And we see clearly that Dan, viz. the office of a judge in Israel, has its original from the murmuring, stubborn and opposite will, and that Dan is only a determiner of strife, and not, as he supposes to be his own lord in his office, but a divider, as Rachel says: God has judged my cause, viz. by this Dan, her maid- servant's son, and not her own son; to signify that a child of God needs no judge: he judges himself; and suffers with patience. VIII THE TESTAMENT of GAD 26. Gad stands prepared, he will lead a host, and retreat back again (Gen. xlix. 19). This figure does not prefigure that the children of Gad shall be captains of troops, as also Dan's children shall not be mere judges, but it represents the spiritual figure, which is to be seen by Leah, who gave her maid-servant also to Jacob, when she ceased to bear, and would make haste to prevent Rachel, for Gad was born of Zilpah, and should prevent Dan, for she said, readily, Turn you before him, and turn about to me again (Gen. xxx. 9-11). And it denotes human forecasting and carefulness, subtlety, policy and wicked craft and cunningness, that do with all subtlety prevent the right and justice, and would elevate themselves above all right and truth. 27. For Gad and Dan are both from the maid- servants, and are in the figure as a strife, for Rachel and Leah would one prevent the other, and therefore their ways were merely opposite: so this figure stands
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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