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.
1du premier principe avec sa racine , de la quintessence , au travers de l'élément , ce qui sera exposé en un autre endroit , et ici il y en a assez. Cela veut aussi être caché : celui qui le sait le tait de même que relèvement des étoiles et des planètes , car le docteur voudroit bien avoir ceci dans son école , tandis que , dans la lumière de la nature, le plus petit le saisit; cela est réservé au tems du lys. Là tout sera ouvert j et c'est la teinture de la lumière du monde. SS. Or, on voit très particulièrement ici comment le troisième principe s*unit au premier , et comment ils n'ont presque qu'une seule volonté ; car l'un sort de l'autre , et si le second principe n'étoit pas au milieu , le tout ne seroit qu'une seule chose ; mais , puisque nous parlons ici de la teinture de la vie , nous voulons montrer dans ]a lumière de la nature le vrai fondement de toutes les trois générations. : 5(5. La noble teinture est la demeure de l'esprit , et a trois formes. La première forme est éternelle et impérissable ; la seconde est passagère : cependant elle est éternellement permanente chez les saints , mais elle est passagère chez les impies , et elle s'envole dans l'Elher ; la troisième est périssable , c'est-à-dire , elle est dans la mort. 57. La première teinture du premier principe est proprement la station dans l'éclair de feu : elle est la source dans le fiel ; elle fait sa demeure dans l'esprit de souffre ( ou dans le ver indissoluble de l'ame , qui domine puissamment dans le^ es* ( 3i8 ) en. 15.
2sences aiguës , qui est le mobile du corps , et le pousse là où le veut la base aO'eciive dans le second centre. ) Celle teinture se compare à la sévère et forte puissance de Dieu ; elle euilamme tout le corps , et fait qu'il est chaud , et ne se roidit pas , et elle entretient la roue dans Texplosiou qui se fait dans les essences , d'où dérive Touïe. Elle est aiguë et essaie l'odeur de toutes choses dau» les essences ; elle fait l'ouïe , quoiqu'elle ne soit ni l'ouïe ni l'odorat , mais la poiie qui laisse pas^ ser le bien et le mal : comme elle fait la langue , elle fait aussi l'oreille. Bile fait tout cela parce que cette teinture a sa base dans 1« premier principe • et que l'enfla mmement de la vie arrive dans l'aigu, dans le brisement, au travers de la porte des é ter-* selles ténèbres. 58, C'est pour cela que les essences de l'esprit de l'ame sont ainsi aiguës et ignées , et qu'une semblable leinlnre aiguë et ignée sort des essences. Là -dedans maintenant sont les cinq sens ; savoir : I. la vue ; 2. l'ouïe ; 3. l'odoi:at -, 4. le goût ; 5. le tact. Car l'aigu colérique de la teinture du premier principe éprouve dans ses propres essences y c'est-à-dire , dans celles de l'ame ou du ver de l'ame , à ce même lieu ainsi justement nommé ; il éprouve, dis- je , les étoiles et les élémens; c'estr À-dire, l'extra-génération provenant du premier principe : et ce qui sympathise avec lui , il l'adopte dans ses essences du ver de l'ame , co.nme particulièrement tput ce qui là est astringent , amer, fort et igné y ,lo^t ce qui s'élève en colérique î
3tout ce qui est une propriété des essences 5 ce qui s'élève en concours dans la source de feu , et ce qui s'élève dans le brisement de la porte des ténèbres , et bouillonne au-dessus de la douceur • tout ce qui se compare à l'austère et aiguë éternité , et inqualifie avec l'aiguë et âpre colère du Dieu de l'éternité, dans quoi il a retenu prisonnier le royaume du démon. ( O ! homme , pense à foi ici : c'est là le fondement certain j il est connu de l'auteur, dans la lumière de la nature, dans la volonté de Dieu. ) 59. Le démon attaque l'homme dans cette teinture du premier principe ; car c'est sa source dans laquelle il vit aussi. Il l'atteint là-dedans jusqu'au cœur , dans ses essences de l'ame : il le fait passer de Dieu dans le désir de vivre dans les «ssences aiguës 5 savoir : de s'élever dans l'igné , au-dessus de l'humihté et de la douceur du cœur de Dieu, et au-dessus de l'amour et de la douceur le partage des créatures , pour t^tre un ver beau et brillant seulement dans l'éclair de feu , et pour dominer au-dessus du second principe : il rend l'ame de l'homme folle et fière jusqu'à ne pouvoir se concilier en rien avec l'aménité, et seulement avec tout ce qui vit dans une semblable qnalité (infernale). 60. Dans cette qualité amère il rend le ver de l'ame piquant, ennemi, envieux , ne trouvant rien de bien dans personne ; comme en efifet , l'amertume ne s'arrange amicalement avec rien , maiç pique et brisQ , tempête et ronge , comme l'abîm^ ( 320 ) CH. l5. de l'enfer ; et c'est la vraie maison de mort , ou le vrai sépulchre de la vie de rameur.
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.
1of the first principle with its root, of the quintessence, through the element, which will be exposed in another place, and here there is enough of it. That also wills to be hidden: he who knows it keeps silence of it just as of the raising of the stars and of the planets, for the doctor would indeed have this in his school, whilst, in the light of nature, the least seizes it; that is reserved to the time of the lily. There all will be opened; and it is the tincture of the light of the world. SS. Now, one sees here very particularly how the third principle unites itself to the first, and how they have almost but one single will; for the one goes forth from the other, and if the second principle were not in the midst, the whole would be but one single thing; but, since we speak here of the tincture of the life, we will show in the light of nature the true foundation of all the three generations. : 5(5. The noble tincture is the dwelling of the spirit, and has three forms. The first form is eternal and imperishable; the second is passing: nevertheless it is eternally permanent with the saints, but it is passing with the impious, and it flies away into the Ether; the third is perishable, that is to say, it is in the death. 57. The first tincture of the first principle is properly the station in the flash of fire: it is the source in the gall; it makes its dwelling in the spirit of sulphur ( or in the indissoluble worm of the soul, which rules powerfully in the es- ( 3i8 ) en. 15.
2sences sharp, which is the mobile of the body, and pushes it there where the affective base wills it in the second centre. ) This tincture is compared to the severe and strong power of God; it kindles all the body, and makes that it is warm, and stiffens not, and it maintains the wheel in the explosion which is made in the essences, whence derives the hearing. It is sharp and essays the odour of all things in the essences; it makes the hearing, although it be neither the hearing nor the smell, but the gate which lets pass the good and the evil: as it makes the tongue, it makes also the ear. It does all that because this tincture has its base in 1the first principle; and that the inflaming of the life happens in the sharp, in the breaking, through the gate of the eternal darknesses. 58, It is for that that the essences of the spirit of the soul are thus sharp and fiery, and that a like sharp and fiery tincture goes forth from the essences. Therein now are the five senses; to wit: I. the sight; 2. the hearing; 3. the smell; 4. the taste; 5. the touch. For the choleric sharp of the tincture of the first principle proves in its own essences, that is to say, in those of the soul or of the worm of the soul, at this same place thus justly named; it proves, I say, the stars and the elements; that is to say, the extra-generation proceeding from the first principle: and what sympathises with it, it adopts into its essences of the worm of the soul, as particularly all that there is astringent, bitter, strong and fiery, all that which rises in choleric;
3all that which is a property of the essences 5 what rises in concurrence in the source of fire, and what rises in the breaking of the gate of the darknesses, and boils above the sweetness; all that which is compared to the austere and sharp eternity, and inqualifies with the sharp and harsh anger of the God of eternity, wherein he has retained prisoner the kingdom of the demon. ( O! man, think upon thyself here: that is the certain foundation; it is known to the author, in the light of nature, in the will of God. ) 59. The demon attacks man in this tincture of the first principle; for it is his source in which he lives also. He reaches him therein even to the heart, in his essences of the soul: he makes him pass from God into the desire to live in the sharp essences 5 to wit: to rise into the fiery, above the humility and the sweetness of the heart of God, and above the love and the sweetness which is the portion of the creatures, to be a worm fair and shining only in the flash of fire, and to rule above the second principle: he renders the soul of man mad and proud even to being unable to reconcile itself in anything with amenity, and only with all that lives in a like quality ( infernal ). 60. In this bitter quality he renders the worm of the soul stinging, hostile, envious, finding nothing good in anyone; as in effect, the bitterness arranges itself amicably with nothing, but stings and breaks, storms and gnaws, like the abyss ( 320 ) CH. l5. of hell; and it is the true house of death, or the true sepulchre of the life of the love.
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.