Behmen's writings first became generally known in this country by translations of the most important of them by a gentleman of the name of Ellistone, and of minor ones by Mr. Humphrey Blunden and others. Ellistone dying before he had completed the translation of the great work upon _Genesis_, it was continued by his cousin, John Sparrow, a barrister in the Temple; who also translated and published the remainder of Behmen's writings in the English language. Respecting these individuals, William Law, in a letter written in reply to one received from a Mr. Stephen Penny, speaks in the following terms: "The translators of Jacob Behmen, Ellistone and Sparrow, are much to be honoured for their work; they had great piety and great abilities, and well apprehended their author, especially Ellistone: but the translation is _too much loaded with words_, and in many places _the sense is mistaken_.[2] "A new translator of Jacob Behmen is not to have it in intention to make his author more intelligible by softening or refining his language. His style is what it is, strange and uncommon; not because he wanted learning and skill in words, but because what he saw and conceived was quite new and strange, never seen or spoken of before; and therefore if he was to put it down in writing, words must be used to signify that which they had never done before. "If it shall please God that I undertake this work, I shall only endeavour to make Jacob Behmen speak as he would have spoken, had he wrote in English. Secondly, to guard the reader at certain places from wrong apprehensions of his meaning, by adding here and there a note, as occasion requires. Thirdly, and chiefly, by Prefaces or Introductions to prepare and direct the reader in the true use of these writings. This last is most of all necessary, and yet would be entirely needless, if the reader would but observe Jacob Behmen's own directions. For there is not an error, defect, or wrong turn, which the reader can fall into, in the use of these books, but is most plainly set before him by Jacob Behmen. "Many persons of learning in the last century read Jacob Behmen with great earnestness; but it was only, as it were, to steal from him certain mysteries of Nature, and to run away with the philosopher's stone; and yet nowhere could they see the folly and impossibility of their attempt so fully shown them, as by Jacob Behmen himself." A well-engraved portrait of John Sparrow may occasionally be met with in some of the small quarto English treatises of Behmen.