Fetching
One moment.
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.
189. Et cette substance est l'éternel élément dans lequel toutes les essences dans la puissance divine , restent ouvertes et sont visibles, et où la belle et chaste vierge sophie de la sagesse divine , se contemple toujours selon le nombre de l'infinité , mille et mille fois répété, sans fin et sans nombre. Or, dans cetli^^ontemplalion , sortent de l'éternel élément , les couleurs , les sciences , les t'ertu* et la croissance du lys de Dieu , ce dont la divinité se réjouit sans cesse dans la vierge ou la sophie de la sagesse. Cette joie descend des éternelles essences et s'appelle le paradis , vu la vive génération de l'aimabU fruit du lys en infini , oîi alors les essences du lys s'élèvent en merveilles en plusieurs mille fois mille , sans nombre , comme lu en vois une image dans la terre florissante. go Toi , chère ame , vois, considère ceci. Maintenant ceci est Dieu , et sou céleste royaume avec
2Téternel élément et le paradis , et cela existe ainsi dans l'éternelle origine , d'éternités en éternités. Enfiu , ce qu'est là cette joie , ces délices et cette amabilité , je n'ai aucune plume pour le pouvoir écrire Je ne peux pas non plus le dire , car la langue ter^ restre est de beaucoup trop débile pour cela. Elle n'est que comme de la boue comparée à de l'or et encore beaucoup moins. Quoique la vierge ou sophie apporte cela dans l'intelligence , cependant tout est trop ténébreux et trop froid dans tout l'homme , pour qu'il ose seulement en exprimer une élincelle! Nous voulons réserver cela jusqu'à ce que nous soyons dans le sein de la vierge sophie. Nous avons seulement donné de ceci une courte explicatioa pour qu'on puisse entendre Tauleur de ce livre ; car, nous ne sommes qu'une étincelle de la fontaine de la sagesse de Dieu , et nous parlons comme une étincelle. Mais pour nous, êtres terrestres , c'est assez ici sur cette terre, pour notre foible connoissance. Car, dans cette vie , nous n'avons pas besoin que Dieu donne une plus haute çonnoissance de l'éternelle substance. Nous parlons donc simplement de ce qui a été dans l'éternité ^ ainsi c'est assez. «*^i^^»»^ <> ^^ ( ^2 ) CHAPITRE QUINZIEME. De l'intelligence de l'éternité dans la comiptibilité de l'essence de toutes les essences. I. ^j donc, nous coD$id(^rons ainsi l'étemelle VO' lonté de Dieu , et l'essence de toutes les essences , nous ne trouvons , dans l'origine , qu'une seule essence , comme cela a été exposé. De cette essence est née de toute éternité la seconde essence, ou l'essence divine , et nous trouvons que la double essence ' existe dans la puissance divine , mais non pas en une seule source ; car elles ne se mélangent point , et aucune ne peut non plus être détruite.
32. Mais elles ont chacune un double pencLanI en elles-mêmes , pour ce qui est à elles. Or, puisque l'essence divine est engendrée de soi-même de toute éternité , elle est ainsi disposée à secourir celle qui est foible , et s'appelle avec raison , misé-, ricorde , barmhertzigkeit. 3. Maintenant , comme la vierpe de l'éternelle sagesse ou la SOPHIE , s'est contemplée dans l'éternelle origine , et que dans l'éternelle base affective , dans l'essence aiguë du brisement des ténèbres , elle a trouvé dans l'éclair de feu , la profondeur de l'image de Dieu , et de quelle manière l'image de Dieu <•■• i5. ( ^93 ) «t là en éternelle origine, dès lors elle est désireuse de cette image,et ce désir fait Patiirement dans la volonté , et la volonté reste devant l'image • or dans /'««.w., de la volonté , le mx opéra la vo! Ion é dans l'image , d'où sont venus les anges tout à la fo.s. Ma.s alors les éternelles essences étoient dans 1 image j et la sagesse s'envisagea dans les essences en un nombre infini , de façon que les éter- •elles merveilles furent manifestées. Alors elles sor- ..ent selon chaque essence , comme d'une seule source, en plusieurs mille fois mille , ou à Pinfini 4- De là vint le nom de trône et de prince ,' le tout selon l'essence de la première et grande source» qu.,dans le coup d'œil de l'éternelle sagesse de Dieu sort de nouveau en plusieurs mille fois mille, o„ à Un^ru .cependant il jr a un nombre marqué. n>a.s dans le centre de Dieu, il n'y en a point! Ains. de chaque essence sont sorties des fontaines - premièrement des trônes ; et dans les trônes pl„; sieurs mille fois mille OB A ;';„>,i. ^ ^
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.
189. And this substance is the eternal element in which all the essences in the divine power, remain open and are visible, and where the fair and chaste virgin Sophia of the divine wisdom, contemplates herself always according to the number of the infinity, a thousand and a thousand times repeated, without end and without number. Now, in this contemplation, there go forth from the eternal element, the colours, the sciences, the virtues and the growth of the lily of God, whereof the divinity rejoices itself without ceasing in the virgin or the Sophia of the wisdom. This joy descends from the eternal essences and is called paradise, in view of the lively generation of the amiable fruit of the lily in infinity, where then the essences of the lily rise in marvels into several thousand times a thousand, without number, as thou seest an image thereof in the flowering earth. go Thou, dear soul, see, consider this. Now this is God, and his celestial kingdom with
2the eternal element and paradise, and that exists thus in the eternal origin, from eternities to eternities. Finally, what that joy, those delights and that amiability are there, I have no pen wherewith to write it. I cannot either say it, for the terrestrial tongue is by much too debile for that. It is only as mud compared to gold, and yet much less. Although the virgin or Sophia brings that into the intelligence, nevertheless all is too tenebrous and too cold in all man, for him to dare only to express a spark of it! We will reserve that until we be in the bosom of the virgin Sophia. We have only given of this a short explication so that one may understand the author of this book; for, we are but a spark of the fountain of the wisdom of God, and we speak as a spark. But for us, terrestrial beings, it is enough here upon this earth, for our feeble knowledge. For, in this life, we have no need that God give a higher knowledge of the eternal substance. We speak then simply of what has been in eternity; thus it is enough. «*^i^^»»^ <> ^^ ( ^2 ) CHAPTER FIFTEENTH. Of the intelligence of eternity in the corruptibility of the essence of all the essences. I. If then, we consider thus the eternal will of God, and the essence of all the essences, we find, in the origin, but one single essence, as this has been exposed. Of this essence is born from all eternity the second essence, or the divine essence, and we find that the double essence exists in the divine power, but not in one single source; for they mingle not, and neither can either be destroyed.
32. But they have each a double inclination in themselves, for what is theirs. Now, since the divine essence is begotten of itself from all eternity, it is thus disposed to succour that which is feeble, and is called with reason, mercy, barmhertzigkeit. 3. Now, as the virgin of the eternal wisdom or the SOPHIA, has contemplated herself in the eternal origin, and that in the eternal affective base, in the sharp essence of the breaking of the darknesses, she has found in the flash of fire, the profundity of the image of God, and in what manner the image of God <•■• i5. ( ^93 ) is there in eternal origin, thenceforth she is desirous of this image, and this desire makes the attraction in the will, and the will remains before the image; now in the essence of the will, the fiat operated the will in the image, whence the angels are come all at once. But then the eternal essences were in 1the image; and the wisdom envisaged itself in the essences in an infinite number, so that the eternal marvels were manifested. Then they went forth according to each essence, as from one single source, into several thousand times a thousand, or to infinity. 4- Thence came the name of throne and of prince, the whole according to the essence of the first and great source, which, in the glance of the eternal wisdom of God, goes forth anew into several thousand times a thousand, or to infinity; nevertheless there is a marked number, but in the centre of God, there is none. Thus of each essence are gone forth fountains — firstly thrones; and in the thrones several thousand times a thousand or to infinity
Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.
Saint-Martin's French rendering of Boehme's 'Von den drei Principien göttlichen Wesens'. The same work stands in this estate in English as boehme:2. The title page also advertises 'L'Aurore naissante, du même Auteur' from the same booksellers — Saint-Martin's translation of the Aurora, whose English counterpart the estate holds as boehme:1. Reading the two versions against each other shows what a Martinist made of a German shoemaker's theosophy.
→ boehme:2
This work carries, in the author's own voice, both a set of hostile comparisons drawn against named peoples and an explicit refusal of any such boundary, and the Press publishes both rather than either alone. At Ch.25 §85 he calls the Jews blind; at Ch.17 §106 he warns of a coming visitation of the Jews and the Turks; and at Ch.26 §32-33, asked whence the Turks are grown, he answers "From thy perverted sense" — laying the rise of Mahomet at the door of christian pride and disputation. Against these stands Ch.25 §72, which opens the grace with no boundary at all: all men are invited to it, of whatever race, "whether Turks, Jews, Pagans, Christians", and no one is excluded. The same chapter that indicts turns the indictment inward at §105-106 — each believes not to dwell in Babel, and the author includes himself — and §33 concludes that God should be as near the one as the other. The contradiction is the author's, it is not resolved by him, and removing either half would misrepresent the work. Operator ruling, 2026-08-29.
This work carries, in the author's own voice, both a set of hostile comparisons drawn against named peoples and an explicit refusal of any such boundary, and the Press publishes both rather than either alone. At Ch.25 §85 he calls the Jews blind; at Ch.17 §106 he warns of a coming visitation of the Jews and the Turks; and at Ch.26 §32-33, asked whence the Turks are grown, he answers "From thy perverted sense" — laying the rise of Mahomet at the door of christian pride and disputation. Against these stands Ch.25 §72, which opens the grace with no boundary at all: all men are invited to it, of whatever race, "whether Turks, Jews, Pagans, Christians", and no one is excluded. The same chapter that indicts turns the indictment inward at §105-106 — each believes not to dwell in Babel, and the author includes himself — and §33 concludes that God should be as near the one as the other. The contradiction is the author's, it is not resolved by him, and removing either half would misrepresent the work. Operator ruling, 2026-08-29.
This work carries, in the author's own voice, both a set of hostile comparisons drawn against named peoples and an explicit refusal of any such boundary, and the Press publishes both rather than either alone. At Ch.25 §85 he calls the Jews blind; at Ch.17 §106 he warns of a coming visitation of the Jews and the Turks; and at Ch.26 §32-33, asked whence the Turks are grown, he answers "From thy perverted sense" — laying the rise of Mahomet at the door of christian pride and disputation. Against these stands Ch.25 §72, which opens the grace with no boundary at all: all men are invited to it, of whatever race, "whether Turks, Jews, Pagans, Christians", and no one is excluded. The same chapter that indicts turns the indictment inward at §105-106 — each believes not to dwell in Babel, and the author includes himself — and §33 concludes that God should be as near the one as the other. The contradiction is the author's, it is not resolved by him, and removing either half would misrepresent the work. Operator ruling, 2026-08-29.