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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.
168. But that the warning hereof came so long ago, declares that the time of the sixth seal, in its manifestation, is the most wonderful of all the six seals; till the seventh number, 2 which is yet more wonderful; for it is the end of this world, and the Last judgement. 69. Let this be declared unto you, Babel, I' lIII , 3 under the voice of the open seal of this sixth time, although you contemn and deride it, it hits you, and has already struck you with the obdurate obstinacy of wrath, which has thoroughly sifted you in the appearance of the message of these two angels, and shall now be hinted only to some few, which shall go out, and be delivered with Lot's daughters. 70. The hardened, surprised and apprehended crew is already judged; for the doleful sifting sword has taken hold of them; they run now in a raving raging manner, as mad people, in pride, covetousness and envy, and contemn what the angel's trumpet sounds. 71. The cry which the angel's trumpet sounds is this; Go out from Babel; Go out from Babel; Go out from Babel. She stands apprehended and captivated in the flaming sword. Amen. 1 Or, judgement. 2 Or, seal. 3 A mystical mark whereby the Author shows to Babel the pouring forth of the sixth seal in wrath on the mystery of iniquity, and also the time. The Forty-Fourth Chapter How Lot departed out of Sodom, and of the Terrible Overthrow of this whole Region in Ham's Generation; of the circumstances thereof, and how it was effected
21. When, as the wrath of the judgement was now set on fire, and the day appeared, that the sun shone bright, and every man thought, all is in peace and quiet, there is no danger, The Angels commanded Lot to make haste, and said, Arise, take your wife, and your two daughters, which are here; lest you also perish in the iniquity of this city. And while Lot lingered, the men took him, and his wife, and his two daughters, by the hand (the Lord being merciful to him), and they brought him forth, and set him without the city (Gen. xix. 15, 16). 2. The internal figure stands thus: The spirit in Moses sets the figure so clearly, that a man may easily take it; for he says, When the morning came, and the sun was risen, they took him by the hand, and brought him, and his wife, and his two daughters, forth out of the city. And now as the figure was externally, in the arisen light of the day and the sun, so it was also internally, in God's truth and judgement. 3. Namely, in the truth the figure was internally thus: In Lot, and his two daughters, the light of the understanding concerning the Messiah was arisen in God's truth; which Lot's daughters knew very well; that it [viz. the light of the sun of righteousness] in God's truth had moved itself in their father Lot; from which cause afterwards, when they were gone out from Sodom, and the night approached, they made their father drink sweet wine to the full, and lay with him,
3that they might receive seed, viz. the holy seed from him. For the spirit, both in Lot and his daughters, did also signify thus much, in their risen light, and showed it to them. 4. And now as the sun was externally risen, and it seemed to be a very lovely pleasant day, so also internally, in God's truth, the sun of the Covenant, viz. the holy Sun-Day, was risen according to the probation in their essence, for they were now passed through the judgement. And likewise on the contrary, the sun of the dark world's property, viz. the working of God's anger, was risen now in the children of Sodom, and forced mightily into God's righteousness. Therefore the angels bade Lot make haste; for the sun of anger was already risen, and had apprehended the children of iniquity. 5. Like as the holy sun in God's truth (which had apprehended Lot and his daughters in the essence of faith) took Lot and his daughters by the hand, and brought them forth from them; so likewise the wrath had already taken the children of Sodom by the hand of their essence, and brought them into the judgement of execution. And we will signify and apply (O Babel) this figure unto the time of your seal: mark and observe it, ye daughters, children of Lot: it concerns you.
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.
168. But that the warning hereof came so long ago, declares that the time of the sixth seal, in its manifestation, is the most wonderful of all the six seals; till the seventh number, 2 which is yet more wonderful; for it is the end of this world, and the Last judgement. 69. Let this be declared unto you, Babel, I' lIII , 3 under the voice of the open seal of this sixth time, although you contemn and deride it, it hits you, and has already struck you with the obdurate obstinacy of wrath, which has thoroughly sifted you in the appearance of the message of these two angels, and shall now be hinted only to some few, which shall go out, and be delivered with Lot's daughters. 70. The hardened, surprised and apprehended crew is already judged; for the doleful sifting sword has taken hold of them; they run now in a raving raging manner, as mad people, in pride, covetousness and envy, and contemn what the angel's trumpet sounds. 71. The cry which the angel's trumpet sounds is this; Go out from Babel; Go out from Babel; Go out from Babel. She stands apprehended and captivated in the flaming sword. Amen. 1 Or, judgement. 2 Or, seal. 3 A mystical mark whereby the Author shows to Babel the pouring forth of the sixth seal in wrath on the mystery of iniquity, and also the time. The Forty-Fourth Chapter How Lot departed out of Sodom, and of the Terrible Overthrow of this whole Region in Ham's Generation; of the circumstances thereof, and how it was effected
21. When, as the wrath of the judgement was now set on fire, and the day appeared, that the sun shone bright, and every man thought, all is in peace and quiet, there is no danger, The Angels commanded Lot to make haste, and said, Arise, take your wife, and your two daughters, which are here; lest you also perish in the iniquity of this city. And while Lot lingered, the men took him, and his wife, and his two daughters, by the hand (the Lord being merciful to him), and they brought him forth, and set him without the city (Gen. xix. 15, 16). 2. The internal figure stands thus: The spirit in Moses sets the figure so clearly, that a man may easily take it; for he says, When the morning came, and the sun was risen, they took him by the hand, and brought him, and his wife, and his two daughters, forth out of the city. And now as the figure was externally, in the arisen light of the day and the sun, so it was also internally, in God's truth and judgement. 3. Namely, in the truth the figure was internally thus: In Lot, and his two daughters, the light of the understanding concerning the Messiah was arisen in God's truth; which Lot's daughters knew very well; that it [viz. the light of the sun of righteousness] in God's truth had moved itself in their father Lot; from which cause afterwards, when they were gone out from Sodom, and the night approached, they made their father drink sweet wine to the full, and lay with him,
3that they might receive seed, viz. the holy seed from him. For the spirit, both in Lot and his daughters, did also signify thus much, in their risen light, and showed it to them. 4. And now as the sun was externally risen, and it seemed to be a very lovely pleasant day, so also internally, in God's truth, the sun of the Covenant, viz. the holy Sun-Day, was risen according to the probation in their essence, for they were now passed through the judgement. And likewise on the contrary, the sun of the dark world's property, viz. the working of God's anger, was risen now in the children of Sodom, and forced mightily into God's righteousness. Therefore the angels bade Lot make haste; for the sun of anger was already risen, and had apprehended the children of iniquity. 5. Like as the holy sun in God's truth (which had apprehended Lot and his daughters in the essence of faith) took Lot and his daughters by the hand, and brought them forth from them; so likewise the wrath had already taken the children of Sodom by the hand of their essence, and brought them into the judgement of execution. And we will signify and apply (O Babel) this figure unto the time of your seal: mark and observe it, ye daughters, children of Lot: it concerns you.
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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