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.
1formé l'enfant diversement dans le sein de îa mère. Car tel qu'est l'aspect de la constellation avec une autre dans sa roue intérieure , dans le tems de Pfw* miflcation de Tentant , lorsque la demeure des quatre élémens , et la maison de» étoiles se bâtit pat le FIAT dans la tête , dans le cerveau 5 telle est aussi la puissance dans le cerveau , aussi bien que dan» le coeur , dans Ife fiel , dans les poumons , et le foie: c'est aussi de ce côté qu'incline la région de l'air , et c'est de même , selon ce mode /que s'élève une teinture pour être une demeure de la vie ; ce qui s9 voit à la merveilleuse variété de» pensées de l'homme et de ses manièi^s d'être. ^ 04. Cependant nous pouvons dire ceci avec l ùp* pui de la vérité , que la constellation ne forme au^ cun homme , et qu'elle ne figure en lui , ni la simi^ litude de Dieu , «i une image de Dieu , mais un enimal , quant à la volonté , aux moeurs et aux sens. Elle n'a , en effet , ai>cune pi^issance , ni mlelliçenc* pour pouvoir figurer une similitude de Dieu; quand «lie s'élève au plus haut degré dans la volonté , vers la similitude de Dieu , alors elle n'engendre rien ^e plus dans l'homme aussi bien que dans les autre» créatures , qu'un animal aimable et rusé. Seulement le» éternelles essences , transmises par Adam i tous les hommes, demeurent dans l'homme , dan» rélément concentré dans lequel est l'image -, mais entièrement cachée, excepté dans le cas de la re^ naissance dans l'eau et l'esprit saint de Dieu. 25. Ainsi il arri\'e que dans cette habitation oîi est son. cerveau et son cœur, aussi bien que damî ( 34o ) CH. i6.
2tous les cinq sens, l'homme dans la région des étoiles est, tantôt comme un loup, c'est-à-dire, malicieux , rusé , féroce et dévorant; tantôt comme un lion, c'est-à-dire, terrible, colérique, fastueux, et ravageant dans la colère; tantôt comme un dogue , c'est-à<lire , hargneux , mordant , envieux , malin j tantôt comme une vipère et un serpent c'est-à-dire , subtil , piquant , contagieux dans sel paroles et dans ses œuvres , médisant et menteur , tel que le démon gui se montra en forme de serpent devant l'arbre de la tentation ; tantôt comme un lièvre , c'est-à-dire , inquiet , fantasque , et ea outre , toujours errant ; tantôt comme un crapaud , ( c'est-à-dire , avec une base affective si empestée que,par son imagination , il infecte une complexio» délicate , jusqu'à occasionner la mort temporelle , ce que font souvent des magiciens et des sorciers , car le premier fondement sert snffisamment ponr cela ) ; tantôt comme un animal apprivoisé , modéré et niais ; tantôt comme un animal enjoué , et ainsi de suite. Telle que dans l'homification de l^enfani a été la constellation dans la roue combattante , et sa puissance , qu'elle tient de la cinquième essence , telle se trouve aussi figurée dans sa région la base affective astrale , quoique l'heure de la naissance de l'homme puisse très fort altérer et contrarier ce qui éloit antérieur ; ce dont je traiterai ci-après en son lieu , lorsque je parlerai do la naissance de l'homme. 26. Enfin si du sein de cette base affective , du win de cette forme ou de toute autre non rapportée CH. 16. ( 341 )
3ici, l'éclair , au moyen des yeux, se voit être un, alors il compose sa propre forme de l'extrait de chaque chose ; d'autant que sa région astrale est toujours la plus puissante, à tous les momens du ciel, tant^dans le mauvais que dans le bon , tant dans ce qui est faux que dans ce qui est vrai. Cela est apporté devant le roi , où les cinq conseillers doivent l'approuver. Ils sont eux-mêmes d'insignes fripons , infectés par les étoiles et les élémens ; et c'est dans cet étal qu'ils régnent dans leur région: aussi ne désirent-ils rien au-delà du royaume de ce monde. Quelque soit la chose vers laquelle la maison astrale du cerveau et du cœur est le plus fortement inclinée , les conseillers donnent aussi leur avis en faveur de cette même chose 5 et ils veulent la posséder , soit que ce soit pour la pompe et l'orgueil f pour la richesse, la beauté , la volupté 5 soit que ce soit pour les arts et les vertus des choses terrestres r et dans ceci jil n'y a pas une seule pensée pour le pauvre Lazare. Là les conseillers sont très promptement d'accord; car dans leur propre forme ils sont tous les cinq recusables ou illégitimes devant Dieu ; mais , selon la région de ce monde , ils sont permanens. Ainsi ils conseillent le roi , et le roi envoio cela à l'esprit de l'ame, qui ramasse les essences , et les saisit avec les mains et la bouche. Mais s''il s'agit de les exprimer eu paroles , il les apporte [ces essences] dans la région de la bouche , où les cinq conseillers les partagent selon la volonté de hi base affective ; et de là il les apporte sur la langue , 011 les sens les subdivisent eu un clin d'œil. 1--I ( 34^ ) CH 1^
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.
1formed the child diversely in the bosom of the mother. For such as is the aspect of one constellation with another in its interior wheel, in the time of the homification of the child, when the dwelling of the four elements, and the house of the stars is built by the FIAT in the head, in the brain 5 such is also the power in the brain, as well as in the heart, in the gall, in the lungs, and the liver: it is also on that side that the region of the air inclines, and it is likewise, according to this mode, that there rises a tincture to be a dwelling of the life; which i9s seen in the marvellous variety of the thoughts of man and of his manners of being. 04. Nevertheless we can say this with the support of the truth, that the constellation forms no man, and that it figures in him, neither the similitude of God, nor an image of God, but an animal, as to the will, to the morals and to the senses. It has, in effect, no power, nor intelligence to be able to figure a similitude of God; when it rises to the highest degree in the will, toward the similitude of God, then it begets nothing more in man as well as in the other creatures, than an amiable and crafty animal. Only the eternal essences, transmitted by Adam to all men, dwell in man, in the element concentrated in which is the image; but entirely hidden, except in the case of the new birth in the water and the holy spirit of God. 25. Thus it happens that in this habitation where is his brain and his heart, as well as in ( 34o ) CH. i6.
2all the five senses, man in the region of the stars is, sometimes like a wolf, that is to say, malicious, crafty, ferocious and devouring; sometimes like a lion, that is to say, terrible, choleric, ostentatious, and ravaging in the anger; sometimes like a mastiff, that is to say, snarling, biting, envious, malign; sometimes like a viper and a serpent, that is to say, subtle, stinging, contagious in his words and in his works, slanderous and lying, such as the demon who showed himself in the form of a serpent before the tree of the temptation; sometimes like a hare, that is to say, restless, fantastic, and besides, always wandering; sometimes like a toad, ( that is to say, with an affective base so pestilential that, by his imagination, he infects a delicate complexion, even to occasioning the temporal death, which magicians and sorcerers often do, for the first foundation serves sufficiently for that ); sometimes like a tame animal, moderate and simple; sometimes like a playful animal, and so forth. Such as in the homification of the child the constellation has been in the combating wheel, and its power, which it holds of the fifth essence, such is also figured in its region the astral affective base, although the hour of the birth of man may very strongly alter and contradict what was anterior; whereof I shall treat hereafter in its place, when I shall speak of the birth of man. 26. Finally if from the bosom of this affective base, from the bosom of this form or of any other not reported CH. 16. ( 341 )
3here, the flash, by means of the eyes, sees itself to be one, then it composes its own form of the extract of each thing; the more that its astral region is always the most powerful, at all the moments of the heaven, as much in the evil as in the good, as much in what is false as in what is true. That is brought before the king, where the five counsellors must approve it. They are themselves notable rogues, infected by the stars and the elements; and it is in that state that they reign in their region: also they desire nothing beyond the kingdom of this world. Whatever be the thing toward which the astral house of the brain and of the heart is the most strongly inclined, the counsellors give also their advice in favour of that same thing 5 and they will possess it, whether it be for pomp and pride, for riches, beauty, voluptuousness 5 whether it be for the arts and the virtues of terrestrial things: and in this there is not one single thought for poor Lazarus. There the counsellors are very promptly in accord; for in their own form they are all five challengeable or illegitimate before God; but, according to the region of this world, they are permanent. Thus they counsel the king, and the king sends that to the spirit of the soul, which gathers the essences, and seizes them with the hands and the mouth. But if it be a question of expressing them in words, it brings them [these essences] into the region of the mouth, where the five counsellors divide them according to the will of the affective base; and thence it brings them upon the tongue, 011where the senses subdivide them in the twinkling of an eye. 1--I ( 34^ ) CH 1^
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.