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.
1royaume de ce monde , e. sa noble image doit se irou-' ver volemmen, froissée j car, il „'a pas sea emen. ses ennemis à l'ex.érieur , mais il les a aussi enTuU . ême ; .1 por,e avec soi l'i.nage bes.iale , e. de plu , limage n,fernale colérique, , an. que dure celle -a.son de chair. C'est là la cause des'comba s e d ! oppos..o„s avec lui-même, e, aussi hors de lu . «eme conire la méchancelé du monde, que le dé- » n,u. suggère puissamment en Pallaqu'a;, de .ou. cotés , en le irompanl , en le froissant et le vexant .mversellemen.;e. ses propres commensaux dan, son corps son. ses ennemis les plus acharnés. C'est pourquoi les enfans de Dieu sont des porte-croi dans ce mo„de.dans celle mauvaise image terrestre. 42. Ma.nlenant vois , loi , fils de l'homme , ce oue «« as a attendre après la brisure de ton corps .pu^"! D eu dans le paradis, ou un reptile hideux f une ceti a?T; "" '"^°" '>^n>oniaque,Ie tout Lion celu auquel tu le seras adonné ici dans celle vie ; e. eUe paro.,ra dans l'é.ernilé . celte image que tuas po lée :c. dans ta base affecive , lu paroîlras avec cet e même .mage ; car aucune autre image ne peut sort,r de ton corps lors de la brisure , que cellemême que tu as portée ici. 45. Si tu as été adonné à l'orgueil , à la vaine ^lojre, à 1 autorisé arbitraire, pour opprimer les malheureux pour ton plaisir , alors il sort de toi un esprit analogue , et de plus il est tel dans Pérernifé. Là il ne peut rien saisir ni retenir pour sa cupiditéïl ne peut non plus orner son corps avec autre chose CH. i6. ( 349 )
2qu'avec ce qui est là , et cependant il s'élève tou-^ jours dans son orgueil ; car il n'y a aucune autre source en lui : aussi dans son élèvement n'atteint>iL rien que la colérique puissance du feu dans son exaltation : il incline continuellement vers sa volonté avec les mêmes plans que dans ce monde. De quelque manière qu'il se soit conduit ici , tout cela paroît dans sa teinture , dans laquelle il s'élève éternellement dans l'abîme infernal. 44. Si tu es un homme vicieux, menteur > trompeur , faux, meurtrier, il sort de toi un esprit analogue, et qui ne désire rien , pendant l'élernilé , que la pure fausseté ; il lance de sa bouche, des flèches de feu pleines d'abominations et de calomnies ; il est perpétuellement remuant et brisaut dans la colère , dévorant en soi , et ne consumant rien ; toutes ses essences brillent dans sa teinture 5 son image est figurée selon ce que ssl base affective a été ici bas. 45. C'est pourquoi je dis qu'un animal vaut mieux qu'un tel homme qui s'abaadonne à l'image infernale : car cet animal n'a pas un esprit éternel ; son esprit est de l'esprit de ce monde , ou de la corruptibilité y et il passe avec le corps jusqu'à ce que vienne la figure sans esprit laquelle restera. Dès que l'éternelle base affective s'est envisagée par la sophi£ ou la vierge de la sagesse de Dieu dans l'extra -génération , pour la manifestation des grandes merveilles de Dieu , dèsjors les merveilles éternelles et figurées doivent rester devant lui , quoique aucune Çr gure , ni ombre animale , n'opère , ni ne souffre ; mais elle est comme une ombre ou une figure peinte^ ( 36o ) cir. té^
346. C'est pourquoi dans ce monde tout est donné à la puissance de l'homme , puisqu'il esl un esprit ëternel, et que tontes les autres créatures ne sont ^u'ùhe figure dans les merveilles de Dieu. 47. Ainsi l'homme doit bien réfléchir à ce qu'il dit , fait , et se propose dans ce monde , car toutes désœuvrés le suivent ; il les a éternellement devant les yeux , et il vit dans elles , à moins qu'il ne soit régénéré de sa méchanceté et de sa fausseté par îe sang et la mort du Christ, dans Teau et l'esprit saint ; alors il j)asSe de l'image infernale et terrestre en une image angéliqne ; il vient dans un autre Toyauhâe oh, ses souillnres ne peuvent pas entrer, et sont noyées dans le sang du Chrirt , et l'image de Dieu eist ressuscîtée de la terrestre et infernale. 48. Ainsi il nous faut hautement considérer et retonnoître dans la lumière de la nature le fondement du ciel et de l'enfer , aussi bien que celui du royaume de ce monde ; comment l'homme Write des trois royaumes daïrs le seîu de la mère ; et cominent l'homme, pendant cette vie;, porte une triple image que nos parens nous ont transmise par le premier péché. C'est pourquoi nous avons besoin du briseur de serpent qui nous ramène' dans notre image angélique ; et il importe à Phomme d'une manière très sérieuse de réprimer son corps et sa base affective , et de se soumettre au joug de la croix , afin de ne pas tant aspirer après le plaisir , la richesse et la beauté de ce monde ; car la J)erdition est là-dedans. 49. C'est pourquoi Christ dit ; // est difficile à um CH. 16. { 35i )
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.
1kingdom of this world, and his noble image must find itself violently bruised; for, he has not only his enemies on the exterior, but he has them also in himself; 1he bears with him the bestial image, and moreover the infernal choleric image, so long as this house of flesh lasts. That is the cause of the combats and the oppositions with himself, and also out of himself against the wickedness of the world, which the demon powerfully suggests to him in attacking him on all sides, in deceiving him, in bruising him and vexing him universally; and his own table-companions in his body are his most bitter enemies. That is why the children of God are cross-bearers in this world, in this evil terrestrial image. 42. Now see, thou, son of man, what thou hast to expect after the breaking of thy body: an angel with God in paradise, or a hideous reptile, a beast or a demoniac image, the whole according to that to which thou shalt have given thyself here in this life; and it will appear in eternity, this image that thou hast borne; and in thy affective base, thou wilt appear with that same image; for no other image can go forth from thy body at the breaking, than that same which thou hast borne here. 45. If thou hast been given to pride, to vain glory, to 1arbitrary authority, to oppress the unfortunate for thy pleasure, then there goes forth from thee an analogous spirit, and moreover it is such in eternity. There it can seize nor retain nothing for its cupidity; it can no more adorn its body with anything else CH. i6. ( 349 )
2than with what is there, and nevertheless it raises itself always in its pride; for there is no other source in it: also in its raising it attains nothing but the choleric power of the fire in its exaltation: it inclines continually toward its will with the same plans as in this world. In whatever manner it has conducted itself here, all that appears in its tincture, in which it rises eternally in the infernal abyss. 44. If thou art a vicious man, a liar, deceiver, false, murderer, there goes forth from thee an analogous spirit, and which desires nothing, during eternity, but pure falsehood; it launches from its mouth, arrows of fire full of abominations and calumnies; it is perpetually stirring and breaking in the anger, devouring in itself, and consuming nothing; all its essences shine in its tincture 5 its image is figured according to what its affective base has been here below. 45. That is why I say that an animal is worth more than such a man who abandons himself to the infernal image: for this animal has not an eternal spirit; its spirit is of the spirit of this world, or of the corruptibility, and it passes with the body until there come the figure without spirit which will remain. As soon as the eternal affective base has envisaged itself by the Sophia or the virgin of the wisdom of God in the extra-generation, for the manifestation of the great marvels of God, thenceforth the eternal and figured marvels must remain before him, although no figure, nor animal shadow, operates, nor suffers; but it is as a shadow or a painted figure, ( 36o ) cir. té^
346. That is why in this world all is given to the power of man, since he is an eternal spirit, and that all the other creatures are but a figure in the marvels of God. 47. Thus man must well reflect upon what he says, does, and proposes in this world, for all his works follow him; he has them eternally before his eyes, and he lives in them, unless he be regenerated of his wickedness and of his falsehood by the blood and the death of the Christ, in the water and the holy spirit; then he passes from the infernal and terrestrial image into an angelic image; he comes into another kingdom where his stains cannot enter, and are drowned in the blood of the Christ, and the image of God is risen from the terrestrial and infernal. 48. Thus we must loftily consider and recognise in the light of nature the foundation of heaven and of hell, as well as that of the kingdom of this world; how man inherits the three kingdoms in the bosom of the mother; and how man, during this life, bears a triple image that our parents have transmitted to us by the first sin. That is why we have need of the bruiser of the serpent who brings us back into our angelic image; and it imports man in a very serious manner to repress his body and his affective base, and to submit himself to the yoke of the cross, in order not to aspire so much after the pleasure, the riches and the beauty of this world; for the perdition is therein. 49. That is why Christ says: It is difficult for a CH. 16. { 35i )
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.