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.
121. Car les trois engendremens sont produits ensemble pour chaque homme , dans le corps de la mère ; et personne ne peut dire : Je ne suis pas un élu. C'est un mensonge qui renie l'élément pwr , dans lequel l'homme vit aussi 5 en outre , c'est renier la vierge de la sagesse ou la sophie que Dieu donne à chacun de ceux qui la cherchent avec sincérité et humilité. Ainsi la puissance de chercher est aussi dans chacun; et est engendrée en lui parle tout puissant élément caché; ei il n'y a pas d'autre ( 3oo ) CH. i5^ «ause de la perdition de Phomme , que celle qu'a offert Lucifer dont la volonlé étoit libre ; il pouvoit se tourner vers Dieu , dans Thumilité , la* chasteté et la douceur ; il ponvoit aussi se tourner vers l'ame ténébreuse , dans la méchanceté et Tàprcté qui s'y élèvent, et qui ne sont pas , h la vérité, dans leur source , un désir de s'élever au-dessus de Dieu , . mais tendent seulement au-dessus de la douceur , dans l'éclair de feu , dans la sévère renaissance. Seulement les démons vouloient, comme créatures, être supérieurs et les seuls souverains 5 il en est de même de l'homme ici bas.
222. La f^anîeé de la nature pousse véritablement un homme plus fortement que le» autres; mais elle n'en contraint aucun d'être orgueilleux ; et quoiqu'il j ait violence , l'homme n'a cependant au sujet des honneurs temporels et de la cupidité, qu'à laisser avec une ferme volonté le démon dans les éternelles essences; celui-ci voit surle-champ comment l'homme est poussé par l'esprit de ce monde , aussi il le tente dans le même sens. Pour peu qu» l'homme le laisse entrer , c'est un hôte difficile à expulser. Cependant cela est très possible. Si rhomm« se propose absolument et entièrement de se convertir et de vivre dans la volonlé de Dieu , la vierge ou sophie est toujours toute prêle à )ui aider. 33. Les attaques, redoublent lorsque je noble grain de sénevé doit être semé ; car le démon s'y oppose fortement. Mais celui qui s'opiniâlre ù résisier^ éprouvera bienlôt ce qui est écrit dans ce livre,, et quand même il ne pourroit pas êlre délivié des. CH. i5. ( 3ot ) imperfections et des impulsions des élémens externes , cependant la noble semence lui reste dans le limbus de Dieu ; elle croît et pousse , et finalement elle devient un arbre qui n'agrée point au démon , mais il tourne autour de l'arbre comme un dogue plein de ruses ; il jète son infection sur l'arbre ; il l'accable en outre de toutes sortes d'adversités par ses ministres ; il en expulse aussi plusieurs de leur maison , par ses cabales , afin qu'ils ne puissent plus lui uuire, mais c'est un profit pour eux , et ils vont dans la terre des vivants.
324. Ainsi nous disons maintenant , d'après notre haute connoissance , que la source de tous les trois principes s'imprime à la fois dans Vhomification de l'enfant dans le sein de la mère. Car , après que l'homme a été figuré des étoiles et des élémens par le FIAT, de façon que les élémens ont pris possession de leur région 5 savoir :1e cœur, le foie, les poumom, la vessie et l'estomac dans lesquels ils ont leur demeure ; alors il faut que le maître s'élève de tous les élémens dans sa double formecar il y a maintenant là: i»., l'image de Dieu ; il y a aussi là 2". , limage dece monde , et aussi 3o. , l'image du démon. Or donc , il en coûte un combat et une victoire, et il faut que le briseur de serpent se trouve aussi dans le corps de la mère. 25. C'est pourquoi , vous , pères et mères , soyez craignant Dieu et pieux , pour que le briseur de serpent soit aussi dans votre fruit. Car Christ dit : Un bon arbre ne peut pas porter de mauvais fruits ^ ( 3o2 ) CH. i5. tt un arbre mauvais ne peut pas porter de bons fruits. Or , quoique ceci se rapporte à la base affective ou à l'ame qui est née , et qui jouit de son intelligence , de façon qu'une ame mauvaise ne porte pas de bons fruits ; ni une bonne , de mauvais : cependant cela est véritablement essentiel pour l'enfant , puisque l'enfant est engendré de l'essence des parens.
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.
121. For the three begettings are produced together for each man, in the body of the mother; and no one can say: I am not an elect. It is a lie which denies the pure element, in which man also lives 5 besides, it is to deny the virgin of the wisdom or the Sophia that God gives to each of those who seek her with sincerity and humility. Thus the power of seeking is also in each one; and is begotten in him by the all-powerful hidden element; and there is no other ( 3oo ) CH. i5^ cause of the perdition of man, than that which Lucifer offered, whose will was free; he could turn himself toward God, in humility, chastity and sweetness; he could also turn himself toward the tenebrous soul, in the wickedness and the harshness which rise therein, and which are not, in truth, in their source, a desire to raise themselves above God, but tend only above the sweetness, in the flash of fire, in the severe new birth. Only the demons would, as creatures, be superior and the sole sovereigns 5 it is the same with man here below.
222. The vanity of nature pushes truly one man more strongly than the others; but it constrains none to be proud; and although there be violence, man has nevertheless, touching temporal honours and cupidity, only to leave with a firm will the demon in the eternal essences; this one sees forthwith how man is pushed by the spirit of this world, also he tempts him in the same sense. Let man but let him enter, he is a guest hard to expel. Nevertheless that is very possible. If man propose to himself absolutely and entirely to convert himself and to live in the will of God, the virgin or Sophia is always quite ready to help him. 33. The attacks redouble when the noble grain of mustard-seed must be sown; for the demon opposes himself strongly to it. But he who obstinately resists, will soon prove what is written in this book, and even though he could not be delivered from the CH. i5. ( 3ot ) imperfections and the impulsions of the external elements, nevertheless the noble seed remains to him in the limbus of God; it grows and pushes forth, and finally it becomes a tree which pleases not the demon, but he goes about the tree like a mastiff full of ruses; he casts his infection upon the tree; he overwhelms it besides with all sorts of adversities by his ministers; he expels also several of them from their house, by his cabals, so that they may no more harm him, but it is a profit for them, and they go into the land of the living.
324. Thus we say now, according to our high knowledge, that the source of all the three principles imprints itself at once in the homification of the child in the bosom of the mother. For, after that man has been figured of the stars and of the elements by the FIAT, so that the elements have taken possession of their region 5 to wit: 1the heart, the liver, the lungs, the bladder and the stomach in which they have their dwelling; then the master must rise from all the elements in his double form. For there is now there: i»., the image of God; there is also there 2". , the image of this world, and also 3o. , the image of the demon. Now then, it costs a combat and a victory, and the bruiser of the serpent must be found also in the body of the mother. 25. That is why, you, fathers and mothers, be God-fearing and pious, so that the bruiser of the serpent may be also in your fruit. For Christ says: A good tree cannot bear evil fruits, ( 3o2 ) CH. i5. and an evil tree cannot bear good fruits. Now, although this relates to the affective base or to the soul which is born, and which enjoys its intelligence, so that an evil soul bears not good fruits; nor a good one, evil: nevertheless that is truly essential for the child, since the child is begotten of the essence of the parents.
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.