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.
129. Mais quand Adam fut infecté du désir de goûter de la connoissance du bien et du mal , que Tesprit de ce monde eut dominé Adam , que par là le subtil démon , enfermé dans l'esprit de c© monde , eut dirigé ses coups puissans sur Adam , de %ou qu'Adam devint fatigué et aveugle au royaume de Dieu ; ce fut alors que Dieu dit : Il n'est pas bon que l'homme soit seul ( car il n'engendrera pas la vierge paradisiaque, puisqu'il est infcciédel'esprii de ce monde,au point que lamodestie et la chasteté sont disiparues ) ; nous voulons donc lui faire une compagne qui soit avec lui , et par laquelle il puisse établir sa prmcipauté, et se reproduire : cela ne peut pas, maintenant, être autrement ; et il lajssa tomber sur l'homme un profond sommeil , de façon qu'il dormit. Jo. Entendez ici particulièrement et exactement, que dans Adam , la Sophie s'est retire e dans sou Elher , dans son principe. Car le texte dit : Dieu fit tomber un profond sommeil sur Adam. Or, ou est le sommeil, là se cache la puissance divine dans le ceaire. Ou elle poussin esprit , là il n'y a point de sommeil ; car le pasiur d'is.acl ne dort, ni ne sommeille point, couime il est écrit. 3i. Demandes -tu combien do lem> a dormi Adam? Considère le séjour du Clir>«t <l:>ns le tombeau , et tu trouveras le point. Gai le second Adam •uii , eu sortant du toiMJbcùu , pu. o. ic-^Lucclion, If >f ( 12 ) CH. 17. réveiller le premier de son éternel sommeil , des ténèbres de l'enfer , da sépulcre de ce monde.
232. Ainsi Dieu a tiré la femme de lui, dans son sommeil , par le moyen de laquelle il devoit propager son règne ; car cela ne pou voit pas être autrement. Et lorsqu'il s'éveilla , il la vit , et la prit pour soi , et dit : (Te&t la chair de ma chair , et Poa de mês 08, Adam pendant son sommeil étoit devenu nne autre image ; car Dieu avoit laissé entrer en lui l'esprit de ce monde , ce qui rendit sa teinture foible jusqu'à l'assoupissement. 33. Avant le sommeil , Adam étoit en forme d'ange : après le sommeil , il eut la chair et le san^; il étoit , quant à sa cliair , un morceau de terre , et il dut voir d'un triple esprit , et saisir avec ses yeux la lumière du soleil ; il ne connut plus la première image , quoique les quatre élémcns ne fussent pas encore tombés sur lui , et ne le touchassent pas , car il étoit encore dans l'innocence. 34. Là le démon s'employa avec empressement , il se glissa dans le serpent (qu'il est cependant luimême dans sa propre forme ), il s'attacha à l'arbre, et y répandit une douce amorce; car il vit bien qu'Eve étoit une femme , el infectée par les quatre élémens ; et quoiqi^lle se défendit un peu , et qu'elle objectât le commandement de Dieu , elle se laissa pourtant aisément persuader lorsque l'esprit de mensonge dit : Que le fruit la rendroit savante , que ses yeux deviendroient ouverts, el qu'elle seroit comme Dieu , et sauroit le bien eî le mal. Toutei'uis il ne lui dit pas qu'elle dût mourir , si elle en manCH. 17. ( »3 ) içeoit , mais qu'elle deviendroit savante et qu'elle seroit belle ; lequel al tract est encore dans le cerveau des femmes , de façon qu'elles consentiroient volontiers à êlre le plus beau des animaux.
335. Ainsi elle arracha une pomme et elle en mangea , et elle en donna aussi à Adam , et il en mangea également: c'est cette manducation dont les cieux ont bien pu rougir, et dont le paradis a tremblé , comme cela , en effet , est vérilablement arrivé , ainsi qu'on le voit à la mort du Chrit , lorsqu'il entra dans la mort , et combattit avec l'enfer, de façon que la terre et les élémens tremblèrent, et que le soleil perdit de sa clarté., quand cette manducation de la pomme alteignoit à sa guérison. La porte des grandes douleurs et des souffrances de •" Vhovime» 36. La raison s'attache au voile de Moïse, et ne voit point au travers des tables gravées d'outre en oulre , que Dieu lui donna sur la montagne de Sinaï. Aussi ne peut-elle pas ôter le voile de devant ses yeux , et regarder Moïse en face , car il a un visage illuminé dans la terreur du feu ; elle en a peur , et elle en tremble. Elle dit toujours à Moïse : Parle, toi , avec le seigneur; car nous sommes effrayés , et de plus entièrement nus et dénués. 37. Elle se représente bien la colère de Dleu^ et elle frissonne sur sa propre chute, mais elle ne sait pas comment cela lui est arrivé. Elle se représente seulement sa désobéissance , et fait de Dieu un démon colérique el méchant que rien ne sauroit ( '^> ) CR. I*f,
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.
129. But when Adam was infected with the desire to taste of the knowledge of good and evil, when the spirit of this world had dominated Adam, when thereby the subtle demon, shut up in the spirit of this world, had directed his powerful blows upon Adam, so that Adam became wearied and blind to the kingdom of God; it was then that God said: It is not good that man be alone ( for he will not beget the paradisiacal virgin, since he is infected with the spirit of this world, to the point that the modesty and the chastity are disappeared ); we will then make him a companion who may be with him, and by whom he may establish his principality, and reproduce himself: that cannot, now, be otherwise; and he let fall upon man a deep sleep, so that he slept. Jo. Understand here particularly and exactly, that in Adam, the Sophia is withdrawn into her Ether, into her principle. For the text says: God made a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. Now, where the sleep is, there the divine power hides itself in the centre. Where she pushes the spirit, there there is no sleep; for the pastor of Israel neither sleeps, nor slumbers, as it is written. 3i. Askest thou how much time Adam slept? Consider the sojourn of the Christ in the tomb, and thou wilt find the point. For the second Adam had, in going forth from the tomb, by the resurrection, If >f ( 12 ) CH. 17. to awaken the first from his eternal sleep, from the darknesses of hell, from the sepulchre of this world.
232. Thus God has drawn the woman from him, in his sleep, by means of whom he was to propagate his reign; for that could not be otherwise. And when he awoke, he saw her, and took her for himself, and said: This is the flesh of my flesh, and the bone of my bones08, Adam during his sleep was become another image; for God had let the spirit of this world enter into him, which rendered his tincture feeble even to drowsiness. 33. Before the sleep, Adam was in the form of an angel: after the sleep, he had the flesh and the blood; he was, as to his flesh, a piece of earth, and he had to see with a triple spirit, and to seize with his eyes the light of the sun; he knew no more the first image, although the four elements were not yet fallen upon him, and touched him not, for he was still in the innocence. 34. There the demon employed himself with eagerness, he glided into the serpent ( which he is nevertheless himself in his own form ), he attached himself to the tree, and spread there a sweet bait; for he saw well that Eve was a woman, and infected by the four elements; and although she defended herself a little, and that she objected the commandment of God, she let herself nevertheless easily be persuaded when the spirit of lying said: That the fruit would render her knowing, that her eyes would become open, and that she would be as God, and would know the good and the evil. Nevertheless he told her not that she must die, if she aCH. 17. ( »3 ) te thereof, but that she would become knowing and that she would be fair; which attract is still in the brain of women, so that they would willingly consent to be the fairest of the animals.
335. Thus she plucked an apple and she ate of it, and she gave also of it to Adam, and he ate of it likewise: it is that manducation whereat the heavens might well have blushed, and whereat paradise trembled, as that, in effect, truly happened, as one sees it at the death of the Christ, when he entered into the death, and combated with hell, so that the earth and the elements trembled, and that the sun lost of its clearness, when that manducation of the apple attained to its healing. The gate of the great pains and of the sufferings of man. 36. Reason attaches itself to the veil of Moses, and sees not through the tables graven through and through, which God gave him upon the mountain of Sinai. Also can it not take the veil from before its eyes, and look Moses in the face, for he has a face illuminated in the terror of the fire; it is afraid of it, and it trembles at it. It says always to Moses: Speak, thou, with the lord; for we are affrighted, and moreover entirely naked and destitute. 37. It represents to itself well the anger of God, and it shudders at its own fall, but it knows not how that happened to it. It represents to itself only its disobedience, and makes of God a choleric and wicked demon whom nothing could ( '^> ) CR. I*f,
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.