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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.
135. Yet not so soon before the execution of the judgement. But when Lot went with her out of Sodom, and the judgement began, she drew the judgement back again on her, as is to be seen in the judgement, which then laid hold on her, for it had taken herin the probation. 36. Yet the command was given her not to look back, and so she might have overcome, if she had forthwith entered into repentance, and broken the evil earthly will, and fallen down with Lot, at the Lord's feet: and this was the cause that the two angels refused to turn in unto Lot. 37. And by Lot's wife the earthly matrix is signified, which shall not go along through the judgement, although it must help to work and bring forth fruit, as an instrument. Yet it is not in its outward form chosen unto the kingdom of heaven; for it was adjoined to Eve in the sleep in Adam's fall, and shall remain in the judgement, and be changed again into its first matter out of which it was created. It is not condemned into the abyss, but it shall pass into the mystery, viz. into Sulphur, and Mercurius, which in the Grand Mystery is a Salt-spirit, viz. a cause of all corporality; as it shall be mentioned hereafter concerning Lot's daughters, who for this very cause were to be gotten with child of their father. 3 In Mysterio Magno.
238. Thus understand the figure further, internally: Lot baked cakes of unleavened dough, and made them a feast, and they did eat. Now the angels do not use any such food; but they were only formed angels in an angelical shape, for Abraham and Lot also called them, Lord: it was God's judgement, and truth. 39. This feast was eaten in manner as the offerings of Abraham, and Moses, as is before mentioned; for the will's desire forms 4 itself therein into a substance: God eats only the word of the will, but the food is consumed in the outward spirit in which it is wrought. 4 Amasses, conceives. 40. For Lot's faith's desire was the divine food of these men; but with the feast, which Lot gave them out of his good love- will, Lot's will was formed into a substance that so he might be preserved in this judgement outwardly as to the earthly life, and inwardly as to the will of faith. 41. For these angels did eat of Lot's food as if they had eaten of his body and spirit, which was therein apprehended, in manner as it is to be understood in the offerings; 1 as is before sufficiently explained concerning the offerings 1 of Cain and Abel. For the unleavened cakes were (or did signify) the informing [or impression], as may be seen everywhere in Moses, and they denote the Body of Christ, whereinto the imagination of God entered, as into a type, and yet was only conceived or apprehended in the faith. 1 Or, sacrifices.
342. Furthermore, the spirit in Moses says: And before the men lay down, the men of the city, Sodom, came and encompassed the house round about, young and old, even all the people from every quarter; and called for Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men that came in unto you the last night? bring them out that we may know them (Gen. xix. 4,5). 43. This is now the figure, as it is before mentioned: The judgment (after that it had bound itself with Lot in the feast) did now penetrate and press in the probation of their essence and being, into all; that they came pell-mell on heaps, running as mad enraged people, driven, forced and compelled to the judgement. 44. For the zeal of the Lord, which longed after them, drew them to itself: It hungered earnestly to devour their vanity; therefore they ran altogether, young and old, and would know the mouth which hungered after them, for they in their blindness knew not what they did; thus the anger drew them to itself. 45. And Lot went out unto them at the door, and shut the door after him. And said, ah! 1 pray, dear brethren, do not so wickedly. I have two daughters which have never known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do with them what seems good in your eyes: but unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. But they said, Come hither, thou art the only stranger among us, and thou wilt rule; well, we will deal worse with thee than with them.
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.
135. Yet not so soon before the execution of the judgement. But when Lot went with her out of Sodom, and the judgement began, she drew the judgement back again on her, as is to be seen in the judgement, which then laid hold on her, for it had taken herin the probation. 36. Yet the command was given her not to look back, and so she might have overcome, if she had forthwith entered into repentance, and broken the evil earthly will, and fallen down with Lot, at the Lord's feet: and this was the cause that the two angels refused to turn in unto Lot. 37. And by Lot's wife the earthly matrix is signified, which shall not go along through the judgement, although it must help to work and bring forth fruit, as an instrument. Yet it is not in its outward form chosen unto the kingdom of heaven; for it was adjoined to Eve in the sleep in Adam's fall, and shall remain in the judgement, and be changed again into its first matter out of which it was created. It is not condemned into the abyss, but it shall pass into the mystery, viz. into Sulphur, and Mercurius, which in the Grand Mystery is a Salt-spirit, viz. a cause of all corporality; as it shall be mentioned hereafter concerning Lot's daughters, who for this very cause were to be gotten with child of their father. 3 In Mysterio Magno.
238. Thus understand the figure further, internally: Lot baked cakes of unleavened dough, and made them a feast, and they did eat. Now the angels do not use any such food; but they were only formed angels in an angelical shape, for Abraham and Lot also called them, Lord: it was God's judgement, and truth. 39. This feast was eaten in manner as the offerings of Abraham, and Moses, as is before mentioned; for the will's desire forms 4 itself therein into a substance: God eats only the word of the will, but the food is consumed in the outward spirit in which it is wrought. 4 Amasses, conceives. 40. For Lot's faith's desire was the divine food of these men; but with the feast, which Lot gave them out of his good love- will, Lot's will was formed into a substance that so he might be preserved in this judgement outwardly as to the earthly life, and inwardly as to the will of faith. 41. For these angels did eat of Lot's food as if they had eaten of his body and spirit, which was therein apprehended, in manner as it is to be understood in the offerings; 1 as is before sufficiently explained concerning the offerings 1 of Cain and Abel. For the unleavened cakes were (or did signify) the informing [or impression], as may be seen everywhere in Moses, and they denote the Body of Christ, whereinto the imagination of God entered, as into a type, and yet was only conceived or apprehended in the faith. 1 Or, sacrifices.
342. Furthermore, the spirit in Moses says: And before the men lay down, the men of the city, Sodom, came and encompassed the house round about, young and old, even all the people from every quarter; and called for Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men that came in unto you the last night? bring them out that we may know them (Gen. xix. 4,5). 43. This is now the figure, as it is before mentioned: The judgment (after that it had bound itself with Lot in the feast) did now penetrate and press in the probation of their essence and being, into all; that they came pell-mell on heaps, running as mad enraged people, driven, forced and compelled to the judgement. 44. For the zeal of the Lord, which longed after them, drew them to itself: It hungered earnestly to devour their vanity; therefore they ran altogether, young and old, and would know the mouth which hungered after them, for they in their blindness knew not what they did; thus the anger drew them to itself. 45. And Lot went out unto them at the door, and shut the door after him. And said, ah! 1 pray, dear brethren, do not so wickedly. I have two daughters which have never known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do with them what seems good in your eyes: but unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. But they said, Come hither, thou art the only stranger among us, and thou wilt rule; well, we will deal worse with thee than with them.
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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