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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. Adam was also God's natural son, which he created out of his essence. But he lost the childship and the inheritance, and was cast out, and with him all his children; as Ishmael was cast out from the childlike or filial inheritance. 56. For in Abraham the inheritance of the true sonship was again manifested; but Ishmael was not born of the inheritance of the sonship, but of the rejected seed. But now God offered again, out of free grace, his holy inheritance in Abraham, that he would generate the rejected seed in this new mother, which gave in itself into Abraham's seed, again in himself to a childlike seed. 57. Not that the rebellious runagate Adamical will in the selfhood in Ishmael should be received into this mother; no, the same is wholly cast out with Ishmael in all respects from the filial inheritance. He cannot be born anew, unless he die to his self and [to his] own willing, and come, in a converted will, to God in Christ, as the lost son, who neither wills nor desires anything from a natural proper right, but only that the Lord of the goods would have mercy on him, and receive him again to be a day-labourer. This converted will God does take in, 1 to his gracious, free-given inheritance, viz. into the goods of Abraham in Christ, and makes it to be heir in Isaac's goods, viz. in Isaac's freely given inheritance in Christ.
258. Ishmael was cast out from Abraham's, viz. From God's, goods, that he might come unto his son, to whom he gave the whole inheritance, and entreat him for the filial inheritance; for the natural Adamical man had lost it; and that which was lost was again freely given to the Covenant of Abraham, viz. to the blessed seed, that is, to the man, Christ; and he now does freely give it unto them who come unto him. 59. All men who come unto God the Father, and pray unto him for the eternal adoption, 2 unto all them he gives the adoption in his son, Christ, unto whom he has freely granted the whole inheritance, viz. the hierarchy of mankind, viz. the possession of the throne of the angelical world, [even] in the place of this world; and given unto him all the power of rule and dominion; as he said: All power in heaven and in earth is given to me of my Father (Matt, xxviii. 18). 60. For God the Father rules the place of this world in his Son, Christ; and all men who now come unto God, they come to him in Christ, who is the Lord, viz. the mouth of his Father. 61. Christ is the staft wherewith God [guides and] feeds his sheep: in Christ's voice all poor sinners who turn to God are born to a new will and life; and in the filial birth in Christ's voice they die wholly unto the own will of selfhood in Christ's death.
362. For Christ is dead to the human selfhood in the Father's anger, and buried with the will of self in the eternal death; and is risen again in his Father's will, and lives and rules to all eternity in his Father's will. 1 Text, engraft, or in-linage. 2 Or sonship. 63. God the Father introduced his voice and word, viz. his manifestation, into the seed of Abraham, viz. into man's will of self; and brought that will of the human selfhood, with his own introduced voice, into the death and into hell, which death and hell were manifest in the selfhood of man's own will; and in the power of his manifested voice, he did destroy the death and hell in the voice and word of man's selfhood; so that man should not any more will to himself, but what he now wills, the same he must will in the manifested voice of God. 64. So long as Ishmael willed 1 in the voice of his scorning contemning self, he could not be heir of these introduced, free-given goods: but when he has turned to God, and forsaken the will of self, then God also sends the angel to him, even while he is in his mother's womb; and says, Return again to the free; and humble yourself under her hand, and you shall live (Gen. xvi. 9).
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. Adam was also God's natural son, which he created out of his essence. But he lost the childship and the inheritance, and was cast out, and with him all his children; as Ishmael was cast out from the childlike or filial inheritance. 56. For in Abraham the inheritance of the true sonship was again manifested; but Ishmael was not born of the inheritance of the sonship, but of the rejected seed. But now God offered again, out of free grace, his holy inheritance in Abraham, that he would generate the rejected seed in this new mother, which gave in itself into Abraham's seed, again in himself to a childlike seed. 57. Not that the rebellious runagate Adamical will in the selfhood in Ishmael should be received into this mother; no, the same is wholly cast out with Ishmael in all respects from the filial inheritance. He cannot be born anew, unless he die to his self and [to his] own willing, and come, in a converted will, to God in Christ, as the lost son, who neither wills nor desires anything from a natural proper right, but only that the Lord of the goods would have mercy on him, and receive him again to be a day-labourer. This converted will God does take in, 1 to his gracious, free-given inheritance, viz. into the goods of Abraham in Christ, and makes it to be heir in Isaac's goods, viz. in Isaac's freely given inheritance in Christ.
258. Ishmael was cast out from Abraham's, viz. From God's, goods, that he might come unto his son, to whom he gave the whole inheritance, and entreat him for the filial inheritance; for the natural Adamical man had lost it; and that which was lost was again freely given to the Covenant of Abraham, viz. to the blessed seed, that is, to the man, Christ; and he now does freely give it unto them who come unto him. 59. All men who come unto God the Father, and pray unto him for the eternal adoption, 2 unto all them he gives the adoption in his son, Christ, unto whom he has freely granted the whole inheritance, viz. the hierarchy of mankind, viz. the possession of the throne of the angelical world, [even] in the place of this world; and given unto him all the power of rule and dominion; as he said: All power in heaven and in earth is given to me of my Father (Matt, xxviii. 18). 60. For God the Father rules the place of this world in his Son, Christ; and all men who now come unto God, they come to him in Christ, who is the Lord, viz. the mouth of his Father. 61. Christ is the staft wherewith God [guides and] feeds his sheep: in Christ's voice all poor sinners who turn to God are born to a new will and life; and in the filial birth in Christ's voice they die wholly unto the own will of selfhood in Christ's death.
362. For Christ is dead to the human selfhood in the Father's anger, and buried with the will of self in the eternal death; and is risen again in his Father's will, and lives and rules to all eternity in his Father's will. 1 Text, engraft, or in-linage. 2 Or sonship. 63. God the Father introduced his voice and word, viz. his manifestation, into the seed of Abraham, viz. into man's will of self; and brought that will of the human selfhood, with his own introduced voice, into the death and into hell, which death and hell were manifest in the selfhood of man's own will; and in the power of his manifested voice, he did destroy the death and hell in the voice and word of man's selfhood; so that man should not any more will to himself, but what he now wills, the same he must will in the manifested voice of God. 64. So long as Ishmael willed 1 in the voice of his scorning contemning self, he could not be heir of these introduced, free-given goods: but when he has turned to God, and forsaken the will of self, then God also sends the angel to him, even while he is in his mother's womb; and says, Return again to the free; and humble yourself under her hand, and you shall live (Gen. xvi. 9).
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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