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.
15. C'est pourquoi faurois beau parler et écrira du pur ciel , et de tout ce qu'il y a dans la clairo divinité , je serois cependant moet pour le lecteur, qui n'auroit pas la connoissance et le don. Je veux néanmoins écrire d'une manière aussi bien créatu-^. relie que divine, pour tâcher d'allumer dans quelques uns le désir de contempler ces choses •levées ; el pour.que , s'ils s'aperçoivent qu'ils na le peuvent pas , ils tâchent de chercher et de frapper dau» leur désir ^ et de prier Dieu par t» 'f ( la ) 'CH. 2i ton esprit saint qu'il d'aigne leur ouvrir la porte du second principe 5 car le christ nous dit *, de* mandez , cherchez et frappez , et on vous ouvrira. Et il dit : Tout ce que vous demanderez à mon père , €n mon nom , il voua P accordera. Demandez et voua recevrez , cherchez et voue trouverez , frappez et on 4fOus ouvrira, 6. Puis donc que c'est en cherchant et en frappant que ma connoissance est venue , j'écris ceci comme un mémorial , pour voir si quelqu'un désirera de chercher à son tour , afin que mon talent me produise avec usure et ne demeure point enfoui dans la terre ; mais je n'ai point écrit pour les savans cî-dessus qui savent tout , et cependant re savent et ne connoissent rien ; car ils sont d'avance rassasiés et riches ( pauvres ). Je n'écris que pour les simples tels que moi , afin que je puisse me réjouir avec mes pareils.
27. Poursuivons au sujet du souffre , du mercure,; et du sel , et au sujet de l'essence divine. Le mot eut signifie et est l'ame d'une chose , car il est, dans le mot sulphurj l'huile ou la lumière qui est engenfirée de la syllabe phur; il est ce qu'il y a de beau et de bienfaisant dans une chose : c'est son amour , ou ce qu'elle a de plus aimable. Il y a dans une créature la lumière, d'où la créature voit , et oîli se trouve l'intelligence et les pensées , et c'est l'esprit qui est engendré de la sy]\ahephur. Le mot ou la syllabe phur est la madère ou substance première , et contient en soi , dans le troisième principe , le macrocosmô d'où le règne ou la subsI t CH. a. ( i3 ) tance élémentaire est engendrée. Mais dans le premier principe c'estâ'essence de la première génération , d'où Dieu le père engendre son fils de toute éternité , et dont l'esprit saint resuite. ( Entendez du sut et du phur). Dans l'homme , c'est aussi la lumière qui est engendrée de l'esprit sydérique dans le second centre du microcosme ; mais dans le epiracU ou l'esprit de l'ame , dans le centre intérieur , c'est la lumière de Dieu , laquelle, cette même ame ne possède qu'autant qu'elle est dans l'amour de Dieu , car celte lumière ne peut être allumée et soufflée que par l'esprit saint.
38. Maintenant observez la profondeur de la génération divine. Dans Dieu il n'y a aucun sulphur mais de lui et en lui est engendrée un puissance semblable j car la syllabe phur est la force la plus intérieure de la source originelle de la colère, de l'âpreté , ou de la mobilité , comme cela a été représenté dans le chap. i. Et elle a en so^ une quadruple forme 5 savoir : i*'. l'astringence , z^. l'amertume, 3^. le feu , et 4'^. l'eau. L'astringent attire À soi , est rude , froid et aigu , et rend tout dur , serré , et angoisseux j or , cet attirement est un aiguillon amer tout-à-fait effrayant , et dans cette même angoisse se produit le premier élèvemené ou la première expansion. Cependant , comme il ne |)eut pas monter plus haut hors de son siège, jnais qu'il est toujours engendré de dessous, n se change en une roue tournante ( comme une rapide pensée ) , et en une grande angoisse , dans iaquelle il devient un éclair étincelani , eonune l.- < i4 ) xm. 2. quand on frolfè fortrment une pierre et de l'acier l'an contre l'autre. •
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.
15. It is why I might well speak and write of the pure heaven, and of all there is in the clear divinity, I should nevertheless be dead for the reader who had not the knowledge and the gift. I will nevertheless write in a manner as much creaturely as divine, to endeavour to kindle in some the desire to contemplate these elevated things; and in order that, if they perceive that they cannot, they may endeavour to seek and to knock in their desire, and to pray God by t» 'f ( la ) 'CH. 2i his holy spirit that he deign to open them the gate of the second principle 5 for the christ tells us: ask, seek and knock, and it shall be opened to you. And he says: All that you shall ask of my father, in my name, he will grant it you. Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall4 be opened to you. 6. Since then it is by seeking and by knocking that my knowledge has come, I write this as a memorial, to see whether someone will desire to seek in his turn, in order that my talent may produce for me with usury and remain not buried in the earth; but I have not written for the learned above who know all, and nevertheless know and recognise nothing; for they are beforehand sated and rich ( poor ). I write only for the simple such as myself, in order that I may rejoice with my like.
27. Let us pursue upon the subject of the sulphur, of the mercury, and of the salt, and upon the subject of the divine essence. The word sul signifies and is the soul of a thing, for it is, in the word sulphur, the oil or the light which is begotten of the syllable phur; it is what there is of the fair and of the beneficent in a thing: it is its love, or what it has of the most lovable. There is in a creature the light, whence the creature sees, and where are found the intelligence and the thoughts, and it is the spirit which is begotten of the syllable phur. The word or the syllable phur is the first matter or substance, and contains in itself, in the third principle, the macrocosm whence the elementary reign or subI t CH. a. ( i3 ) stance is begotten. But in the first principle it is the essence of the first generation, whence God the father begets his son from all eternity, and whence the holy spirit results. ( Understand of the sul and of the phur ). In man, it is also the light which is begotten of the sidereal spirit in the second centre of the microcosm; but in the spiraculum or the spirit of the soul, in the interior centre, it is the light of God, which that same soul possesses only so far as it is in the love of God, for that light can be kindled and breathed only by the holy spirit.
38. Now observe the depth of the divine generation. In God there is no sulphur, but of him and in him is begotten a like power; for the syllable phur is the most interior force of the original source of the anger, of the harshness, or of the mobility, as that has been represented in chap. i. And it has in itself a quadruple form 5 to wit: i*'. the astringency, z^. the bitterness, 3^. the fire, and 4'^. the water. The astringent attracts to itself, is rude, cold and sharp, and renders all hard, tight, and anguishing; now, that attraction is a bitter sting altogether frightful, and in that same anguish is produced the first raising or the first expansion. Nevertheless, as it cannot mount higher out of its seat, but is always begotten from beneath, it changes itself into a turning wheel ( like a rapid thought ), and into a great anguish, wherein it becomes a sparkling flash, as l.- < i4 ) xm. 2. when one rubs strongly a stone and steel one against the other.
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.