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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.
197. Là les trois principes sont en combat. Lo premier principe , ou*]e règne de l'âprelé dit : Hors d'ici ; allez au milieu de la forte puissance du feu ^ cela est indispensable. Alors le second , qui est dans la base affective, dit : Arrête, et fais attention ; Dieu e&t ici avec In vierge ou sothie; crains l'abime infernal. £t le troisième , ou le royaume de ce monde dit : Nous sommes chez nous ; nous devons nous occuper d'orner et de nourrir le corps, cela doit être. Alors il prend la région de l'air , c'est-à-dire , son esprit ^ il la conduit à la bouche , et il se conforme au par-< 4age fait selon le royaume de ce monde 28. C'est ainsi que des pensées et des âmes ter« restres,il sort le mensonge et la vériié [py^HUMBir^ cela dois être une faute ; il faut qu^ il y ait NjéM'* BMBiT ^folid]j la tromperie^ la fausseté, un pur désir de s'élever: ]es uns dans la puissance du fetj,sa-* Toir, par la force et la colère ; les autres, dans les arts et la vertu de ce monde , qui cependant aussi devant Dieu , est un trompeur et un filou, mais qui tient ferme jusqu'à ce qu'il l'emporte : celui-ci , avec les manières d'un animal paisible et privé , c^is très subtil, attirant à soi^ sous l'apparence du bien ^ celui*là , bouffi d'orgueil , de ses avantages corporels , et plein de prétentions , tandis qu'il est ^ne vraie bête diabolique , méprisant tout ce qui se compare à lui , et s'élèvant au-dessus de tout ce qui n'est que douceur et hujnilité , au-dessus de l'image de Dieu ; enfin les faux penchans sont si nombieux qtie je ne peux les compter. Chacun suit la région du cojcnbat ; ou la région astrale , eu ce a,. 16. ( 343 ) qui le peut servir dans sou ailract pour la vie
229. En somme , le régime des astres ne donne la sainteté à personne 5 quoiqu'un homme y puisse marcher sous un dehors saint , cet homme n est qu'un hâbleur qui veut être honoré par là ; son ame ne se porte pas moins vers les cupidités de l'orgueil , ainsi que dans l'attrait de la chair, dans de mauvaises passions et de coupables désirs. Ces sortes de gens qui marchent d'après l'impulsion de ce monde , ne sont devant Dieu que de vrais fripons, des orgueilleux , des voleurs pleins d'eux-mêmes , des filoux et des meurtriers. Il n'y en a pas un qui se rende juste par l'esprit de ce monde ; nous sommes tous ensemble des enfans de latromperieet de la fausseté^ et suivant cette image que nous avons reçue de ce monde , nous appartenons à l'éterneUe mort, et non point au paradis , à moins que nous no soyons engendrés de nouveau du centre de la chère vierge sophif, qui par ses rayons détourne l'amo des voies impies du péché et de la méchanceté. 3o. Si l'amour de Dieu qui a aimé l'image de l'homme jusqu'à se Caire homme lui-même , n'AVoit pas été dans le centre de l'ame, dans la limite de séparation , l'homme seroit un démon vtvant , comme il Test en effet quand il dédaigne la régénération , et marche selon sa nature engendrée du premier et troisième principe. 3i. Car, il ne reste plus élernellemenl que deux principes. Le troisième 4ans lequel il vit ici , passe. !or s'il ne veut point ici du second, alors U doit C 344 ) ci. 16.
3rester ëternellement dans le premier principe originel avec ]es démons. En effet,après ce tems, il n'y a pas autre chose ; il n'y a aucune source qui vienne à son secours , attendu que le royaume de Dieu ne rétrograde point dans l'abîme ; maisil monfeetprocède éternellement devant soi dans la lumière de la douceur. Ce que nous disons est important, et n'est point un badinage , cela est connu dans la lumière de la nature , dans le rayon de la noble vierge SOPHIE. Za porte de séparation entre V homme et la hête. 32. Ma chère et aimable raison , compte ici \e% cmq sens, et contemple-toi dans les choses ci-dessus exposées: vois ce que tu es , comment tuas été^ créée une image de Dieu , comment tP t'es laissé infecter en Adam par le démon, et comment tu as laissé usurper ton paradis par l'esprit decemondequî mamtenant est établi à laplace de Ion lieu de délices Diras-lu que tu as été aussi créée pour ce monde en Adam , au commencement ? Eh bien ! regardc^toi , et considère-toi dans ta base affective et dans tonlangage , et tu trouveras une autre image. 33. Chaque animal a un penchant dont dérive une volonté ; dans cette volonté sont les cinq sens , pour qu'ilj puisse discerner là ce qui lui est bon ou mauvais. Mais où demeurent les pensées dans la volonté qui source des portes de la profondeur , là où la volonté se contemple dans le premier principe en mfimté, et qui engendre l'intelligence , pour qu'un CH. i6.- ( 345 )
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.
197. There the three principles are in combat. The first principle, or the reign of the harshness says: Out of here; go into the midst of the strong power of the fire, that is indispensable. Then the second, which is in the affective base, says: Stop, and take heed; God is here with the virgin or Sophia; fear the infernal abyss. And the third, or the kingdom of this world says: We are at home; we must occupy ourselves with adorning and nourishing the body, that must be. Then it takes the region of the air, that is to say, its spirit; it conducts it to the mouth, and it conforms itself to the divi-< 4sion made according to the kingdom of this world 28. It is thus that of thoughts and of terrestrial souls, there goes forth the lie and the truth [py^HUMBir^ this must be an error; there must be NjéM'* BMBiT ^folid]; the deceit, the falsehood, a pure desire to raise oneself: some in the power of the fire, to wit, by force and anger; the others, in the arts and the virtue of this world, which nevertheless also before God, is a deceiver and a sharper, but which holds firm until it carry it off: this one, with the manners of a peaceable and tame animal, is very subtle, drawing to itself, under the appearance of the good; that one, puffed up with pride, with his corporeal advantages, and full of pretensions, whilst he is a true diabolical beast, despising all that compares itself to him, and raising himself above all that is only sweetness and humility, above the image of God; finally the false inclinations are so numerous that I cannot count them. Each follows the region of the combat; or the astral region, in what a,. 16. ( 343 ) can serve him in his attract for the life
229. In sum, the régime of the stars gives holiness to no one 5 although a man may walk therein under a holy exterior, this man is but a braggart who will be honoured thereby; his soul carries itself none the less toward the cupidities of pride, as well as into the attraction of the flesh, into evil passions and culpable desires. These sorts of people who walk according to the impulsion of this world, are before God only true rogues, proud men, thieves full of themselves, sharpers and murderers. There is not one who renders himself just by the spirit of this world; we are all together children of deceit and of falsehood, and following this image that we have received of this world, we belong to the eternal death, and not at all to paradise, unless we be begotten anew of the centre of the dear virgin Sophia, who by her rays turns the soul away from the impious ways of sin and of wickedness. 3o. If the love of God which has loved the image of man even to making itself man, had not been in the centre of the soul, in the limit of separation, man would be a living demon, as he is in effect when he disdains the regeneration, and walks according to his nature begotten of the first and third principle. 3i. For, there remains eternally no more than two principles. The third 4in which he lives here, passes. Now if he will not here of the second, then he must C 344 ) ci. 16.
3remain eternally in the first original principle with the demons. In effect, after this time, there is nothing else; there is no source which comes to his succour, seeing that the kingdom of God retrogrades not into the abyss; but it mounts and proceeds eternally before itself in the light of the sweetness. What we say is important, and is not at all a jest, it is known in the light of nature, in the ray of the noble virgin SOPHIA. The gate of separation between man and the beast. 32. My dear and amiable reason, count here the five senses, and contemplate thyself in the things above exposed: see what thou art, how thou hast been created an image of God, how thou hast let thyself be infected in Adam by the demon, and how thou hast let thy paradise be usurped by the spirit of this world which now is established in the place of thy seat of delights. Wilt thou say that thou wast also created for this world in Adam, in the beginning? Well then! look at thyself, and consider thyself in thy affective base and in thy language, and thou wilt find another image. 33. Each animal has an inclination whence derives a will; in this will are the five senses, so that it may discern there what is good or evil for it. But where dwell the thoughts in the will which sources from the gates of the profundity, there where the will contemplates itself in the first principle in infinity, and which begets the intelligence, so that a CH. i6.- ( 345 )
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.