Sunday, May 25, 1958

THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE

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S y 2 5M G L een


The Most Famous and Influential
of a Series of German Protestant Mystics
(Continued from Page 14) p. 107 in the present edition) and whatever) is imperfect in places in
not to look for arguments. As of "the right hell-fire" (das rechte the Boehme text, so that occa-
Berdyaev notes, Boehme's method hollische Feuer, p. 109). "Most fre- sionally the eye is detained trying
of exposition is contemplative quently" on p. 82, line 11 should to tell a comma from a period. In
I think, be just "frequently" (of- general, the quality and interest of
rather than discursive. Berdyaev's ters). the Ann Arbor Paperbacks series
remark relates to Boehme's con- Within the unavoidable limits is well continued by this reprint.
cepts. But a similar point holds of paperback publishing, it is of
-concerning his assertions. In this course impossible to eliminate in-
felicities of this kind: the Earle
connection, perhaps "assertive" text (except for the title-pages)
would be a better contrast with has not been altered at all. Another
"discursive" than Berdyaev's term unfortunate result of these limita-
"contemplative" tions is that it would not have
The point is that the under- been possible to enter roonotes or
standing which Boehme is seeking better still to provide an introduc-
to give the reader is not the sort ion explaining various obscurities
which one gets from having a which might have been eased, if
point supported by an argument; not removed: e.g., the "turba" of
.Boehme rather attempts to give p. 137 (and extensvely in the
understanding simply by a series sequel) and the concern with sul-
well arranged assertions There istoorborrowgs fgae sus.OY V 1
very little argument in the book
at all and what there is is inti- THE TRANSLATION of the Ber-
mately interwoven with the rest dyaev essay reads very smooth- a re
of the exposition and usually re- ly. Berdyaev's rootnotes are omit-
lates to comparatively minor ted. "Apophiatic" and "cataphatic"
points. are unfamiliar, but can be found
in a sufficiently large dictionary. sold to Uri
THE DIFFIDENT tone of this They are used in connection with
review having been established, theology and seem to refer to what
I would like to comment on the is usually termed "negative the-
-translations. The rendering of the ologe" and the other sort. But the Y01UR BES
Boehme work must have been, reader will have difficulty with
of course, extremely difficult in "meontic" (which no doubt has
'view of its literary and philoso- something to do with Non-Being)*: U rich's
phical character. In order to cope surely we might have had a foot- se.l
with neologisms in the German, note here by the translator.
Earle was forced to invent words The book is, as might be ex- 600 CO l"clege 
like "Unground," "to imaginate" pected from the Press, well made
(usually into something), "to in- and attractively produced. The pu pOssi
qualify with," and a number of cover is a photographic reproduc-
other verbs with the prefix "in-": tion of an unnamed and not ob- of the books
"to inbreathe into," "to inspeak," viously relevant sculpture attrib-
and "to incentre in." The trans- uted to Ossip Zadkine. May I sug- iscontinued
lation appears to be very literal: gest that in future editions this
some apparent misplacings of cover be replaced by a reproduc-
"only" (pp. 36, 39) are actually tion of the emblematic title-page
justified by the German (of 1730). of the German edition of 1730? (5''fit
The literalness seems to be carried Another possibility is Boehme's
too far, however, when we read of portrait from the English edition
"the right coarse swinish beast" of 1764. There are no misprints
(das rechte grobe sauische Thier, But the type-face (or plate ar

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