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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 Jacob grew up and completed his elementary schooling, his father, not finding him sufficiently strong for agricultural work, apprenticed him to a Shoemaker at Qoeiditz , where after he had worked for some time another singular incident occurred tc? him. We are told that his Master having temporarily left him in charge of the shop, a man, who was a stranger to Jacob , entered, and desired to purchase a pair of shoes. Jacob , not venturing to sell anything in his Master’s absence, declined to serve him ; but the Stranger becoming importunate about it, Jacob offered thtm to him at such a price as would certainly save him harmless from his Master’s blame, and would probably deter the Stranger from purchasing. The Stranger, however, paid the price demanded and took the shoes ; and having left the shop, he called to the lad, “Jacob, come outside,” or, as some of his Biographers more dramatically render it, “ J acob , J acob , come forth !” which the lad did, so soon as he had recovered from his astonishment, when the Stranger thus addressed him : “Jacob, thou art as yet but little, but the time will come when thou shalt be great and become another man, and the world shall marvel at thee. Therefore, be pious, fear God, and reverence His Word ; especially read the Bible diligently where thou hast comfort and instruction, for thou must endure much misery and poverty, and suffer persecution. But be courageous and persevere, for God loves and is gracious unto thee.” The Stranger then pressed his hand, gave him a kind look, and departed — with the shoes.
2It is questionable whether these incidents were not visionary with, rather than of actual occurrence to, JACOB BOEHME ; but the result of them was that his thoughts assumed a deeply religious form — far deeper than that of the mere “ Lutherarir^ Faith” in which he had been brought up — which so operated 8 upon him in the years to come that his Spirit was able to penetrate into the innermost mysteries of Nature : to foresee and foretell what is now known as Electricity, with its immense possibilities ; and also to divine the three great Principles or first Laws of Nature — attraction, equal resistance producing orbicular Prefatory ^Memoir . y movement, resulting in gravitation : which Principles, Sir Isaac NEWTON, who was a diligent though unavowed Student of Boehme's works, by reducing to a Mathematical Form, established that grand Theory of the Universe — the Solar System : which THOMAS CARLYLE described as the most perfect approach to a Theory that has ever been propounded.* ■> ’
3Meanwhile, however, Jacob continued his shoemaking occupation, although we are told that at times he worked alm'ost unconsciously for days together, when his thoughts were in devout contemplation. At other times he did not hesitate to rebuke any loose conversation to which the other workmen might yield indulgence, which so irritated his Master that he discharged him from his service, and Jacob was obliged to set out as a travelling journeyman. In the year 1594 he returned to Qoerlits, vOiaere he became a Master shoemaker, and married Catherine, daughter of John Hunshman, a Butcher of Qoerlitz. About six years after marriage, Jacob's first Illumination occurred — the result, as he says, of strenuously clinging by Faith to.the Promise of the Spirit to those who seek it — in the following manner :
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 Jacob grew up and completed his elementary schooling, his father, not finding him sufficiently strong for agricultural work, apprenticed him to a Shoemaker at Qoeiditz , where after he had worked for some time another singular incident occurred tc? him. We are told that his Master having temporarily left him in charge of the shop, a man, who was a stranger to Jacob , entered, and desired to purchase a pair of shoes. Jacob , not venturing to sell anything in his Master’s absence, declined to serve him ; but the Stranger becoming importunate about it, Jacob offered thtm to him at such a price as would certainly save him harmless from his Master’s blame, and would probably deter the Stranger from purchasing. The Stranger, however, paid the price demanded and took the shoes ; and having left the shop, he called to the lad, “Jacob, come outside,” or, as some of his Biographers more dramatically render it, “ J acob , J acob , come forth !” which the lad did, so soon as he had recovered from his astonishment, when the Stranger thus addressed him : “Jacob, thou art as yet but little, but the time will come when thou shalt be great and become another man, and the world shall marvel at thee. Therefore, be pious, fear God, and reverence His Word ; especially read the Bible diligently where thou hast comfort and instruction, for thou must endure much misery and poverty, and suffer persecution. But be courageous and persevere, for God loves and is gracious unto thee.” The Stranger then pressed his hand, gave him a kind look, and departed — with the shoes.
2It is questionable whether these incidents were not visionary with, rather than of actual occurrence to, JACOB BOEHME ; but the result of them was that his thoughts assumed a deeply religious form — far deeper than that of the mere “ Lutherarir^ Faith” in which he had been brought up — which so operated 8 upon him in the years to come that his Spirit was able to penetrate into the innermost mysteries of Nature : to foresee and foretell what is now known as Electricity, with its immense possibilities ; and also to divine the three great Principles or first Laws of Nature — attraction, equal resistance producing orbicular Prefatory ^Memoir . y movement, resulting in gravitation : which Principles, Sir Isaac NEWTON, who was a diligent though unavowed Student of Boehme's works, by reducing to a Mathematical Form, established that grand Theory of the Universe — the Solar System : which THOMAS CARLYLE described as the most perfect approach to a Theory that has ever been propounded.* ■> ’
3Meanwhile, however, Jacob continued his shoemaking occupation, although we are told that at times he worked alm'ost unconsciously for days together, when his thoughts were in devout contemplation. At other times he did not hesitate to rebuke any loose conversation to which the other workmen might yield indulgence, which so irritated his Master that he discharged him from his service, and Jacob was obliged to set out as a travelling journeyman. In the year 1594 he returned to Qoerlits, vOiaere he became a Master shoemaker, and married Catherine, daughter of John Hunshman, a Butcher of Qoerlitz. About six years after marriage, Jacob's first Illumination occurred — the result, as he says, of strenuously clinging by Faith to.the Promise of the Spirit to those who seek it — in the following manner :
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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