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.
1"vlenl l'exlérieure colère des étoiles , qui Patlire en concours avec le fiât, et s'établit 80Uiferaine ; alors , la volonlé intérieure dans l'amour , ainsi que l'élémeul et le paradis s'obscurcissent : l'amour s'en va dans le paradis , dans son Ëther. Il s'éleint dans la teinture de la semence, et le centre céleste disparoîl 5 car il passe d^ns son principe. 37. Alors vient la femme avec son sang étouffé, avec les étoiles et lesélémens, et elles'instale. C'est ici la mort du paradis, oii Adam mourut à son corps vivant; c'est-à-dire , qu'il mourut au paradis etûu pur et saint élément , et qu'il vécut au soleil , aux étoiles et aux élémens extérieurs , dont Dieu lui avoit dit : Le jour où lu mangeras du bon et du mauvais , tu mourras de mort. Et c'est là la porte de la première mort dans le paradis , dans laquelle maintenant l'homme vit dans la corruptibilité, dans la femme élémentaire de ce monde. 38. Et il nous faut essentiellement reconnoître et savoir que quand la semence est semée dans la matrice , elle est attirée par le fiât , tandis que les astres et les élémens extérieurs s'établissent souverains , et que l'amour et la douceur s'éteignent. Car il se forme *ine substance colérique dans l'élouffement de la teinture, de façon qu'avant r enfla mm ement de la lumière de la vie , il n'j a aucune^ créature céleste dans l'enfant : et quoique la créature soit figurée avec toutes les formes du corps , cependant l'image céleste n'est pas dedans , mais la bestiale jet si ce même corps périt avant renflammement de l'esprit .de l'aide dans l'élève-; cw. iç; ( ^9 ) ment de la vie , il n'y a que l'ombre et la fîguro de cette image qui paroissent devant Dieu au jour de la réintégration 3 car elle n'a encore jamais e» aucun esprit. •
239. Cette figure ne va point dans l'abîme , comme plusieurs pensent 5 seulement , tels qu'ont été les parens , telle est aussi celte figure ; car elle est encore la figure des parens jusqu'à l'enflammemenù de sa vie ; alors elle n'est plus la propriété des parens , mais la sienne propre. La mère lui fournit seulement le logement et la Dourriture; [ Passage retiré par l’éditeur. ] 40. Ainsi donc les étoiles et les élémens s'em-. parent de la maison après la disparution de l'amoup. dans la teinture, et la remplissent le premier mois. Dans le second , ils partagent les membres par. l'âpre FIAT , comme cela a été dit : et , dans la troisième, commence le combat dans la région des étoiles et des élémens où alors iU se séparent; et chaque élément se fait sa maison et sa région , savoir : le cœur , le foie , les poumons , la vessi© et l'estomac , aussi bien que la télé pour la maison des étoiles; là elles ont leur région et leur siège de prince , comme on le verra plus loin. 41. Or, après que les étoiles et les élémens oiit préparé leur région, et la maison où ils doivent demeurer , comme cela a été dit ci-dessus , alors commence le puissant combat dans une grand* angoisse , au sujet du roi de la vie j car l'enceinti^ ( 3io J cÈ. i5. où l'édifice se construit est dans une très grande angoisse ; et nous devons ici nous reiracer l'origine ée l'essence de toutes les essences , la généra lion éternelle , et la racine de toutes choses ; savoir : que dans la maison d'angoisse il y a d'abord une seule essence^ et celle même essence est le mélange de toutes les essences ; et elle a d'abord la volonté d'engendrer la lumière, et celte même volonlé est al tirante.
342. Car , le désir est Pattirement de ce que la volonté désire , et celte volonté est simple et pure , n'étant ni ténèbres , ni lumière ; car elle demeure en elle-même , et elle est la porte même de la puissance divine qui remplit tout. Or , le pouvoir qui attire, remplit la volonté avec les choses que la volonté désire 5 et quoiqu'elle soit pure et ne désire que la lumière, cependant il n'y a aucune lumière dans l'angoisse ténébreuse qu'elle puisse attirer , mais elle attire en soi l'esprit ou les essences des étoiles et des élémens , dont la volonté de la puissance divine se remplit , ce qui fait que tout devient rude et ténébreux. Ainsi la volonté est établie dans les ténèbres 5 cela se passe dans le cœur. 43 Si donc maintenant, la volonté existe dans la ténébreuse angoisse, elle se forme de nouveau une seconde volonté de s'envoler hors de l'angoisse , et d'engendrer la lumière ; et celle seconde volonté est la base aflective d'où s'élèvent les pensées de ne pas demeurer dans cette angoisse. Or, la volonté se contemple dans les essences de Tastringence , ou dans la colérique Aprelé de la mort j son coup d'oeil en. iS, ( î^ii )
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.
1there comes the exterior anger of the stars, which attracts it in concurrence with the fiat, and establishes itself 80sovereign; then, the interior will in the love, as well as the element and paradise obscure themselves: the love goes away into paradise, into its Ether. It is extinguished in the tincture of the seed, and the celestial centre disappears 5 for it passes into its principle. 37. Then comes the woman with her stifled blood, with the stars and the elements, and she installs herself. It is here the death of paradise, where Adam died to his living body; that is to say, that he died to paradise and to the pure and holy element, and that he lived to the sun, to the stars and to the exterior elements, whereof God had said to him: The day whereon thou shalt eat of the good and of the evil, thou shalt die the death. And that is the gate of the first death in paradise, in which now man lives in the corruptibility, in the elementary woman of this world. 38. And we must essentially recognise and know that when the seed is sown in the matrix, it is drawn by the fiat, whilst the stars and the exterior elements establish themselves sovereign, and that the love and the sweetness are extinguished. For there is formed a choleric substance in the stifling of the tincture, so that before the inflaming of the light of the life, there is no celestial creature in the child: and although the creature be figured with all the forms of the body, nevertheless the celestial image is not therein, but the bestial; and if this same body perish before the inflaming of the spirit of the aid in the raising cw. iç; ( ^9 ) of the life, there are only the shadow and the figure of this image which appear before God at the day of the reintegration 3 for it has as yet never had any spirit.
239. This figure goes not into the abyss, as several think 5 only, such as the parents have been, such also is this figure; for it is still the figure of the parents until the inflaming of its life; then it is no more the property of the parents, but its own. The mother furnishes it only the lodging and the nourishment; [ Passage withheld by the editor. ] 40. Thus then the stars and the elements take possession of the house after the disappearing of the love in the tincture, and fill it the first month. In the second, they divide the members by the harsh FIAT, as this has been said: and, in the third, begins the combat in the region of the stars and of the elements where then they separate themselves; and each element makes for itself its house and its region, to wit: the heart, the liver, the lungs, the bladder and the stomach, as well as the head for the house of the stars; there they have their region and their seat of prince, as one will see further on. 41. Now, after that the stars and the elements have prepared their region, and the house where they must dwell, as this has been said above, then begins the powerful combat in a great anguish, touching the king of the life; for the enclosure ( 3io J cÈ. i5. where the edifice is constructed is in a very great anguish; and we must here retrace to ourselves the origin of the essence of all the essences, the eternal generation, and the root of all things; to wit: that in the house of anguish there is at first one single essence, and this same essence is the mixture of all the essences; and it has at first the will to beget the light, and this same will is attracting.
342. For, the desire is the attraction of what the will desires, and this will is simple and pure, being neither darkness, nor light; for it dwells in itself, and it is the gate itself of the divine power which fills all. Now, the power which attracts, fills the will with the things that the will desires 5 and although it be pure and desire only the light, nevertheless there is no light in the tenebrous anguish that it can attract, but it attracts into itself the spirit or the essences of the stars and of the elements, wherewith the will of the divine power fills itself, which makes that all becomes rude and tenebrous. Thus the will is established in the darknesses 5 that comes to pass in the heart. 43 If then now, the will exists in the tenebrous anguish, it forms for itself anew a second will to fly away out of the anguish, and to beget the light; and this second will is the affective base whence rise the thoughts of not dwelling in this anguish. Now, the will contemplates itself in the essences of the astringency, or in the choleric harshness of the death; its glance en. iS, ( î^ii )
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.