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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.
127. As in Abraham in love: for here the formed word, which began to be taught in the days of Enos, did now manifest itself in the formed pregnant and grown ens or being in Abraham, with the promised and holy seed of faith. And in the children of iniquity, who were of the generation of cursed Ham, the property of the anger did here manifest itself out of Enos, his preaching, wherein he threatened God's judgement and rebuke: this same was now grown up in the children of iniquity, and brought to substance. 28. And now, seeing the seal of this Enos did open itself seeing his mystery was at the end, and was forthwith to be manifest according to love and anger, thereupon each property set forth its substance to the divine contemplation; viz. whatsoever the word in the love ens had wrought under the sound or voice or Enos, and also what the sound of the denunciation of the anger of God had wrought: Here now the essences of both properties did open themselves, and set themselves into the judgement, to the final sentence of the righteousness of God. Now in this final arbitration or determination of the divine justice, viz. in Abraham, there stood Christ in the judgement of Enos, his preaching of repentance; and in Enos, his threatenings of plagues and punishment, the earnest and severe judgement of God, viz. prince Lucifer, did there stand (in the judgement in the children of the curse in Ham), to execute the same in the wrath of God, as a
2servant of the house of darkness. 29. For God said to the people of Israel on Mount Sinai, / will visit and punish the iniquities of the parents upon the children, even unto the third and fourth generation (Exod. xx. 5), which is here to be seen in Ham, Noah's son. Here came first the curse of Noah into judgement. 30. And here two angels were sent (that is, in the power and might of the judgement) in Christ's stead, seeing Christ was not yet in the flesh, and in office; for Christ's office continued in Abraham before the Lord, and prayed for the rebellious men of Sodom and Gomorrah. 31. But when they were tried in the judgement (viz. in the office of the love of Christ before the Lord), whether there were any men of Sodom who were capable of the office of Christ, in the love, and yet none were found, then the office of Christ in Abraham remained behind, and went not unto Sodom. But the office of divine righteousness and truth went in the form of two angels to Sodom, and looked very intimately into their essence and being, and proved the same in itself as it is to be seen, that as soon as these two angels came into the city, the property of the people did open and manifest itself; and they would have these men brought forth among them.
332. For these two angels had stirred up or moved their properties, and set them in open view before the Lord, to see what was in them; and they found that they were only bestial, unchaste, lewd murderers; which brought them into judgement; and now they must be judged according to their essence. 33. But that the spirit in Moses signifies, that Lot sat at the gate, and knew these angels, and entreated them earnestly to turn in unto him, that so he might wash their feet, and bake them cakes, and that they did eat; and yet at first did deny to turn in unto him. The same is a very hidden mystery, for it is the spirit of truth and righteousness, which Lot knew very well, for it was moved in the essence, and entered first with the trial into Lot; and when as he humbled and bowed himself before the Lord, he was proved and found upright in himself. 34. But the truth did first refuse to go into his house with the righteousness, viz. with the judgement, and would remain in the street, for it was because of Lot's wife, who, when she was proved, and the judgement passed through her, was cast as to her temporal life. For she continued in the judgement, as a first matter, 1 viz. as a Sulphur, Mercurius, that is, an impressed 2 matter of the judgement, as a transmutation into the first essence out of which the body was created. 1 Prima Materia. 2 The hard astringent.
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.
127. As in Abraham in love: for here the formed word, which began to be taught in the days of Enos, did now manifest itself in the formed pregnant and grown ens or being in Abraham, with the promised and holy seed of faith. And in the children of iniquity, who were of the generation of cursed Ham, the property of the anger did here manifest itself out of Enos, his preaching, wherein he threatened God's judgement and rebuke: this same was now grown up in the children of iniquity, and brought to substance. 28. And now, seeing the seal of this Enos did open itself seeing his mystery was at the end, and was forthwith to be manifest according to love and anger, thereupon each property set forth its substance to the divine contemplation; viz. whatsoever the word in the love ens had wrought under the sound or voice or Enos, and also what the sound of the denunciation of the anger of God had wrought: Here now the essences of both properties did open themselves, and set themselves into the judgement, to the final sentence of the righteousness of God. Now in this final arbitration or determination of the divine justice, viz. in Abraham, there stood Christ in the judgement of Enos, his preaching of repentance; and in Enos, his threatenings of plagues and punishment, the earnest and severe judgement of God, viz. prince Lucifer, did there stand (in the judgement in the children of the curse in Ham), to execute the same in the wrath of God, as a
2servant of the house of darkness. 29. For God said to the people of Israel on Mount Sinai, / will visit and punish the iniquities of the parents upon the children, even unto the third and fourth generation (Exod. xx. 5), which is here to be seen in Ham, Noah's son. Here came first the curse of Noah into judgement. 30. And here two angels were sent (that is, in the power and might of the judgement) in Christ's stead, seeing Christ was not yet in the flesh, and in office; for Christ's office continued in Abraham before the Lord, and prayed for the rebellious men of Sodom and Gomorrah. 31. But when they were tried in the judgement (viz. in the office of the love of Christ before the Lord), whether there were any men of Sodom who were capable of the office of Christ, in the love, and yet none were found, then the office of Christ in Abraham remained behind, and went not unto Sodom. But the office of divine righteousness and truth went in the form of two angels to Sodom, and looked very intimately into their essence and being, and proved the same in itself as it is to be seen, that as soon as these two angels came into the city, the property of the people did open and manifest itself; and they would have these men brought forth among them.
332. For these two angels had stirred up or moved their properties, and set them in open view before the Lord, to see what was in them; and they found that they were only bestial, unchaste, lewd murderers; which brought them into judgement; and now they must be judged according to their essence. 33. But that the spirit in Moses signifies, that Lot sat at the gate, and knew these angels, and entreated them earnestly to turn in unto him, that so he might wash their feet, and bake them cakes, and that they did eat; and yet at first did deny to turn in unto him. The same is a very hidden mystery, for it is the spirit of truth and righteousness, which Lot knew very well, for it was moved in the essence, and entered first with the trial into Lot; and when as he humbled and bowed himself before the Lord, he was proved and found upright in himself. 34. But the truth did first refuse to go into his house with the righteousness, viz. with the judgement, and would remain in the street, for it was because of Lot's wife, who, when she was proved, and the judgement passed through her, was cast as to her temporal life. For she continued in the judgement, as a first matter, 1 viz. as a Sulphur, Mercurius, that is, an impressed 2 matter of the judgement, as a transmutation into the first essence out of which the body was created. 1 Prima Materia. 2 The hard astringent.
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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