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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.
1, Eternity in the JPlace of this World, in his false Shape which he had gotten ; and therefore he seduced Man. 63. For when Adam and Eve were eating the Fruit, Evil, and Good, into the Body, then the Imagination of the Body received Vanity in the Fruit, and then Vanity awaked in the Flesh, and the dark World got the Upper hand and Dominion in the Vanity 7-2* The Way to Qhrist . Jts .. .. of the Earthliness ; upon which the fair Image of Hearten, that proceeded out of the Heavenly Divine World, instantly disappeared. 64.. Here Adam and Eve died to the Kingdom of Heaven, and awaked to the outward World, and then the 'fair Soul as it stood in the Love of God, disappeared as to the holy Power, Virtue, and Property ; and instead thereof, the wrathful Anger, vis., the dark Fire World, awoke in it, and so the Soul became in one Part, vis., in the iuivard Nature, a half Devil, and in the outward Part as related to the outward World, a Beast. 65. Here are the Bounds of Death and the Gates of Hell, for which Cause Qod became Man, that Jiie might destroy Death , defeat the Devil's Purpose, and change Hell into great Love again. 66. Let this be told you, Ye Children of Men ; it is tol$, in the Sound of a Trumpet, that you should instantly go forth from the abominable Vanity , for the Pire thereof burneth. Chapter III. Of the lamentable Fall of Man , and of the Means of his Deliverance.
2N OW when Adam and Eve fell into this Vanity , then the Wrath of Nature awoke in each Property, and in or through the Desire impressed the Vanity of the Earthliness and Wrath of Qod into itself. 68. And then the Flesh became gross and rough, as the Flesh of a Beast, and the Soul was captivated in the Essence therewith, and saw that its Body was become a Beast, and had gotten the Bestial Members for Multiplication, and the filthy Carcase into which the Desire would stuff the Loathsonfeness which it was ashamed of in the Presence of God ^ an d— therefore Adam and Eve hid themselves under the Trees of the Garden of Eden. Heat and Cold also seized on them. 69. And here the Heaven in Man trembled for Horror; as the Earth quaked in Wrath, when this Anger was destroyed on the Cross by the sweet Love of God ; there the Anger trembled before the sweet Love of God. 70. And for this Vanity's Sake which was thus awakened in Man, GOD cursed the Earth ; lest the holy Element should spring or shine forth any more through the outward Fruit, and bring forth Paradisaical Fruit. For there was then no Creature that Of j Regeneration . 73 could have enjoyed it ; neither was the earthly Man worthy of it any more. 7 1. GOD would not cast the precious Pearls before Beasts ; an ungodly Man in his JBody being but a mere gross Bestial Creature ; and though it be of a noble Essence , yet it is wholly poisoned and loathsome in the Sight of God.
372. Now when God saw that his fair Image was spoiled, he manifested himself to fallen Adam and Eve and had Pity on them, and promised himself to them for an everlasting Possession, and that with his great Love in the received Humanity he would destroy the Power of the Serpentine Property , viz., of the Vanity in the Wrath of Qod awakened in them. And this was the Breaking (ff the Head of the Serpent which he would perform, viz., he would destroy the dark Death , and subdue the Anger *vith his gre^at Love. 73. And this Covenant 0/ his Incarnation which was to come, he put into the Light of Life ; to which Covenant the Jewish Sacrifices pointed as to a Mark or Limit , to which God had promised himself with his Love ; for the Faith of the Jews entered into the Sacrifices and Offerings , and God's Imagination entered into the Covenant . 74. And the Offering was a Figure of the Restitution of that which Adam hath lost , and so God did expiate his Anger in the human Property , through the Offeidng in the Limit of the Covenant . 75. In which Covenant the most holy sweet Name Jesus , proceeding out of the holy Name and great Power Jehovah , had incorporated itself ; so that he would again move and manifest himself in the Substance of the Heavenly World which disappeared in Adam , and kindle the holy Divine Life therein again.
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.
1, Eternity in the JPlace of this World, in his false Shape which he had gotten ; and therefore he seduced Man. 63. For when Adam and Eve were eating the Fruit, Evil, and Good, into the Body, then the Imagination of the Body received Vanity in the Fruit, and then Vanity awaked in the Flesh, and the dark World got the Upper hand and Dominion in the Vanity 7-2* The Way to Qhrist . Jts .. .. of the Earthliness ; upon which the fair Image of Hearten, that proceeded out of the Heavenly Divine World, instantly disappeared. 64.. Here Adam and Eve died to the Kingdom of Heaven, and awaked to the outward World, and then the 'fair Soul as it stood in the Love of God, disappeared as to the holy Power, Virtue, and Property ; and instead thereof, the wrathful Anger, vis., the dark Fire World, awoke in it, and so the Soul became in one Part, vis., in the iuivard Nature, a half Devil, and in the outward Part as related to the outward World, a Beast. 65. Here are the Bounds of Death and the Gates of Hell, for which Cause Qod became Man, that Jiie might destroy Death , defeat the Devil's Purpose, and change Hell into great Love again. 66. Let this be told you, Ye Children of Men ; it is tol$, in the Sound of a Trumpet, that you should instantly go forth from the abominable Vanity , for the Pire thereof burneth. Chapter III. Of the lamentable Fall of Man , and of the Means of his Deliverance.
2N OW when Adam and Eve fell into this Vanity , then the Wrath of Nature awoke in each Property, and in or through the Desire impressed the Vanity of the Earthliness and Wrath of Qod into itself. 68. And then the Flesh became gross and rough, as the Flesh of a Beast, and the Soul was captivated in the Essence therewith, and saw that its Body was become a Beast, and had gotten the Bestial Members for Multiplication, and the filthy Carcase into which the Desire would stuff the Loathsonfeness which it was ashamed of in the Presence of God ^ an d— therefore Adam and Eve hid themselves under the Trees of the Garden of Eden. Heat and Cold also seized on them. 69. And here the Heaven in Man trembled for Horror; as the Earth quaked in Wrath, when this Anger was destroyed on the Cross by the sweet Love of God ; there the Anger trembled before the sweet Love of God. 70. And for this Vanity's Sake which was thus awakened in Man, GOD cursed the Earth ; lest the holy Element should spring or shine forth any more through the outward Fruit, and bring forth Paradisaical Fruit. For there was then no Creature that Of j Regeneration . 73 could have enjoyed it ; neither was the earthly Man worthy of it any more. 7 1. GOD would not cast the precious Pearls before Beasts ; an ungodly Man in his JBody being but a mere gross Bestial Creature ; and though it be of a noble Essence , yet it is wholly poisoned and loathsome in the Sight of God.
372. Now when God saw that his fair Image was spoiled, he manifested himself to fallen Adam and Eve and had Pity on them, and promised himself to them for an everlasting Possession, and that with his great Love in the received Humanity he would destroy the Power of the Serpentine Property , viz., of the Vanity in the Wrath of Qod awakened in them. And this was the Breaking (ff the Head of the Serpent which he would perform, viz., he would destroy the dark Death , and subdue the Anger *vith his gre^at Love. 73. And this Covenant 0/ his Incarnation which was to come, he put into the Light of Life ; to which Covenant the Jewish Sacrifices pointed as to a Mark or Limit , to which God had promised himself with his Love ; for the Faith of the Jews entered into the Sacrifices and Offerings , and God's Imagination entered into the Covenant . 74. And the Offering was a Figure of the Restitution of that which Adam hath lost , and so God did expiate his Anger in the human Property , through the Offeidng in the Limit of the Covenant . 75. In which Covenant the most holy sweet Name Jesus , proceeding out of the holy Name and great Power Jehovah , had incorporated itself ; so that he would again move and manifest himself in the Substance of the Heavenly World which disappeared in Adam , and kindle the holy Divine Life therein again.
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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