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.
126. Quoique les étoiles dans la génération extérieure , changent les essences de l'une dans l'autre selon leur source, ily a cependant encore là l'élément qu'elles ne peuvent pas changer par leur puisssance , à moins que l'homme ne le fasse lui-même : elles n'ont que la région extérieure ; et aussi le démon jïi'ose pas graver ses traits avant le tems de l'intelligence , où l'homme peut s'incliner de lui-même au mal ou au bien. Néanmoins personne ne doit se reposer sur cela. Si les parens sont impies , Dieu peut aussi bien abandonner une semence impie ; car il ne veut pas que l'on jète les perles devant les p(^rceaux. Quoiqu'il soit disposé à secourir tous les hommes , cela n'est toutefois que pour ceux qui se tournent vers idi. Quoique l'enfant soit dans l'innocence , cependant la semence n'est pas dans l'innocence , et il lui faut bien le briseur de serpent. C'est pourquoi, vous, parens , pensez à ce que vous faites ; sur-tout vous , débauchés et prostituées , vous avez ici une dure leçon. Faites attention à vous , ce n'est point un jeu ; on vous annoncera cela en sou lieu, de manière que le ciel en éclatera. En vérité , le tems de la rose apporte cette lumière avec lui, et il est grand ca. i5. ( 3o3 ) tems de veiller 5 car le sommeil est passé. Il y aura un grand déchirement avant le lys 5 c'est pourquoi , chacun doit penser à ses affaires.
237. Si donc nous sondons la vie de l'hommed ans le sein de la mère par rapport à sa puissance , à son langage , à sa pensée , à son ame noble et précieuse y alors nous trouvons la cause pour laquelle nous avons fait d'abord une si longue description de l'éternelle génération ; car le langage , les pensées et la base affective ont aussi , dans l'homme , une semblable origine , et telle qu'elle a été exposée ci-dessus pour l'éternelle génération de Dieu ; or , c'est une précieuse porte. 28. Car , voyez. Quand les portes de ce monde sont à leur point , de façon que l'enfant sortant des essences soit une ame vivante , et qu'il voie enfin dans la lumière du soleil et non dans la lumière de Dieu j alors , le vrai maître ou le fiât , vient précisément à cet instant , et dans un clin d'oeil , lorsque la lumière de la vie s'enflamme , et il figure ce qui est sien : car le centre éclot dans tous les trois principes. Les essences astringentes sont les premières dans le fiât , dans la forte puissance de Dieu ; elles sont la propriété de l'enfant , le ver de son ame ; elles restent dans la maison de la grande angoisse comme dans l'origine : car la semence est semée da ns la volonté; la volonté reçoit le fiât dans la teinture ; le fiât tire à soi la volonté intérieurement, «t la semence extérieurement en une masse, attendu qu'il est là le maître à l'intérieur comme à Pextérieur. ( 3o4 ) CH. i5.
329. Knfiu , la volonté tire tellement à soi qu'elle devient enceinte intérieurement et extérieurement ; elle s'obscurcit et elle ne peut supporter cette situation ; c'est-à-dire , d'être ensevelie dans les ténèbres. C'est pourquoi elle ressent une grande ardeur pour la lumière ; car la matière extérieure est remplie par les élémens , et le sang est dans l'étouffement : alors la teinture s'éloigne ; et c'est là le vrai abîme de la mort. Ainsi l'intérieur est rempli par les essences de la puissance : or , dans cet intérieur s'élève une autre volonté de se porter de la forte puissance des essences , vers la lumière de la douceur ; et dans l'extérieur , il y a lo désir de se séparer ; savoir : l'impur d'avec le purj car c'est là ce que fait le fiât extérieur. 30. Nous devons considérer daus la puissance de la vierge sophie 5 que la volonté premièrement est triple, et que cbacune, dans son centre, est fixe et pure jcar elle sort de la teinture : i**. Dans le premier centre s'élève , entre les parens de l'enfant , le pencbant 5 et le bestial désir de l'acte charnel; cela est le centre extérieur élémentaire, et il est fixe en lui-même ; 2''. dans le second centre s'élève l'amour ardent pour la copulation , et quand même ils se seroieot regardés auparavant l'un et l'autre avec aversion , néanmoins , dans la copulation , le centre de l'amour s'élève ( quoique seulement dans la copulation ) , car une teinture pure saisit l'autre ; et , dans la copulation , la masse les reçoit toutes les deux. 3i. £nfîB^ l'amour inqualifie avec l'élément in« CH. i5. ( 3o5 )
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.
126. Although the stars in the exterior generation, change the essences of the one into the other according to their source, there is nevertheless yet there the element which they cannot change by their power, unless man do it himself: they have only the exterior region; and also the demon dares not engrave his traits before the time of the intelligence, where man can incline of himself to evil or to good. Nevertheless no one must repose upon that. If the parents be impious, God may as well abandon an impious seed; for he wills not that one cast the pearls before swine. Although he be disposed to succour all men, that is nevertheless only for those who turn themselves toward him. Although the child be in innocence, nevertheless the seed is not in innocence, and it needs indeed the bruiser of the serpent. That is why, you, parents, think upon what you do; above all you, debauchees and prostitutes, you have here a hard lesson. Take heed to yourselves, it is not a game; one will announce that to you in its place, in such manner that the heaven will burst with it. In truth, the time of the rose brings this light with it, and it is great ca. i5. ( 3o3 ) time to watch 5 for the sleep is past. There will be a great rending before the lily 5 that is why, each one must think upon his affairs.
237. If then we sound the life of man in the bosom of the mother in relation to his power, to his language, to his thought, to his noble and precious soul, then we find the cause for which we have made first so long a description of the eternal generation; for the language, the thoughts and the affective base have also, in man, a like origin, and such as it has been exposed above for the eternal generation of God; now, it is a precious gate. 28. For, see. When the gates of this world are at their point, so that the child going forth from the essences may be a living soul, and that it may see at last in the light of the sun and not in the light of God; then, the true master or the fiat, comes precisely at this instant, and in the twinkling of an eye, when the light of the life kindles itself, and it figures what is its own: for the centre breaks forth in all the three principles. The astringent essences are the first in the fiat, in the strong power of God; they are the property of the child, the worm of its soul; they remain in the house of the great anguish as in the origin: for the seed is sown in the will; the will receives the fiat in the tincture; the fiat draws to itself the will interiorly, and the seed exteriorly into a mass, seeing that it is there the master within as without. ( 3o4 ) CH. i5.
329. Finally, the will draws so much to itself that it becomes with child interiorly and exteriorly; it obscures itself and it cannot bear this situation; that is to say, to be buried in the darknesses. That is why it feels a great ardour for the light; for the exterior matter is filled by the elements, and the blood is in the stifling: then the tincture withdraws; and that is the true abyss of the death. Thus the interior is filled by the essences of the power: now, in this interior rises another will to carry itself from the strong power of the essences, toward the light of the sweetness; and in the exterior, there is the desire to separate; to wit: the impure from the pure; for that is what the exterior fiat does. 30. We must consider in the power of the virgin Sophia 5 that the will firstly is triple, and that each one, in its centre, is fixed and pure; for it goes forth from the tincture: i**. In the first centre rises, between the parents of the child, the inclination 5 and the bestial desire of the carnal act; that is the exterior elementary centre, and it is fixed in itself; 2''. in the second centre rises the ardent love for the copulation, and even though they had looked at one another beforehand with aversion, nevertheless, in the copulation, the centre of the love rises ( although only in the copulation ), for one pure tincture seizes the other; and, in the copulation, the mass receives them both. 3i. Finally, the love inqualifies with the in- CH. i5. ( 3o5 )
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.