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.
157. Alors Dieu , par le fiât , bâtit de lui par l'esprit de ce monde, la femme de ce monde , pour qu'il étendît son royaume par ce moyen. La femme venoit de la matrice qui, avant l'infection, étoit une chaste vierge qu'Adam devoit engendrer de soi. Mais dès que la chaste sagesse et la puissance s'éloignèrent de lui, en tant qu'il marchoit dans l'esprit de ce monde , dès lors il ne pouvoit point engendrer; car l'esprit de ce monde le revêtit dans son sommeil avec de la chair et du sang , et le figura en animal, comme nous le voyons maintenant avec une jgrande amertume. C'est de là que nous nous reconnoissons pour être aveugles au royaume de Dieu, et nus, sans aucune ' puissance , dans le sommeil de la grande affliction , recouverts d'une chair et d'un sang corruptibles. 58. Lorsqu'Adam se réveilla de son sommeil , il étoit un homme, et non pas un ange ; son haleine aspira de l'air ; il alluma par là son esprit astral , qui s'étoit emparé de lui; il reconnut son épouse pour être une femme ^ venant de lui , et il la prit à soi , comme tous les animaux s'apparient. Cependant il avoit encore les yeux purs ; car la colère ne pointoit pas encore en lui , mais bien l'atlract et le limon terrestre \^devênu le germe de reproduction , et que fauteur appelle mbsch dans, le lan<rage de la nature']. L'élément feu, avec son amertume, qui inqualifie avec l'abîme infernal ,ne f avoit pas encore entièrement (à soi). :l
2( 24 ) CH. 1759. Ainsi Adam, avecsa l'einme, vint avec une grande joie et de grandes délices dans le jardia d'Eden , oîi Adam lui parla de la défense au sujet de l'arbre ; mais Eve , comme une femme de ce monde , regarda cela comme peu de chose , et détourna ses yeux de dessus Adam , pour les porter vers l'arbre: elle le regarda avec attrait. Alors donc Fattract la saisit , et le démon menteur la persuada, tandis qu'elle discouroit avec lui , et qu'elle ne le connoissoit point , ne connoissant en effet aucun démon. Elle toucha l'arbre , cueillit du fruit des quatre élémens et des étoiles , en mangea , et eu donna aussi à Adam ; et comme Adam vit qu'Eve n'étoit point morte , il en mangea aussi. 60. Alors leurs yeux furent ouverts , et ils reconnurent qu'ils avoient de la chair et du sang, et qu'ils étoient entièrement nus; car l'esprit du grand monde les saisit avec les quatre élémens, et figura leur estomac et leurs entrailles , quoique la forme, dans le sommeil d'Adam , lorsque la matrice fut séparée du limbus , fût bien figurée; mais ils ne la reconnurent point avant d'avoir mangé de la pomme. Alors l'esprit de l^preté exerça aussi tôt son attraction , et se fit sa région , comme ou le voit , au cœur , au foie, aux poumons , au fiel et à la vessie, aussi bien qu'à l'estomac» Adam avoit reçu ce régime ou ces régions dans le sommeil ; et par la manducalion de la pomme l'esprit du grand monde s'y est établi. 61. Alors ils se regardèrent réciproquement, et rougirent l'un de l'autre j ils s'effrayèrent de l'aCH. 17. l ^^ )
3prêté qui entra en eux ; car c'étoit la colère de Dieu. Ainsi le premier principe , savoir , l'abîme de l'enfer, les saisit, et retint Adam et Eve prisonniers dans leur ame,dansce qui est éternel; car cet abîme s'éleva avec effroi et terreur , et répandant le doute au sujet du royaume de Dieu. Alors ils crurent ne pouvoir plus avoir de consolation ; car ils ne voyoient plus le paradis , mais le jardin d'Eden. En effet ils avoient perdu la divinité ; ils ne pouvoient point porter vers elle leur volonté , puisque Pdpreté et le doute les en erapêchoient. 62. Alors vint l'esprit de ce monde avec son vêtement grossier, avec la chaleur et le froid; il les comprima et agit sur eux , comme sur des êtres nus et dépouillés ; il accabla ainsi l'image de Dieu à moitié morte , par leur désespoir , leur anxiété et leur doute , et par le tourment de la chaleur et du froid; il la laissa en proie au martyre, à l'angoisse et à l'incertitude. Ici, l'homme est allé de Jérusalem ou du paradis vers Jéricho, dans la maison des meurtriers qui l'ont dépouillé de son habit paradisiaque, l'ont dérobé , l'ont assailli presque juqu'à la mort (avec leurs poisans, leurs torlures, leurs plaies, et les maux provenant de leur vénéneuse communication) , et ont continué leur chemin , comme le dit en parabole le second Adam dans l'évangile. 63. Il n'y avoit pour eux aucun remède ni dans le ciel, ni dans le monde. Ils étoient prisonniers et assujétis à une dure servitude, à tous les besoins et à la mort ; car l'abîme de l'enfer enchaînoit l'ame , f 26 ) c». 17;
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.
157. Then God, by the fiat, built of him by the spirit of this world, the woman of this world, so that he might extend his kingdom by this means. The woman came from the matrix which, before the infection, was a chaste virgin that Adam was to beget of himself. But as soon as the chaste wisdom and the power withdrew from him, inasmuch as he walked in the spirit of this world, thenceforth he could not beget; for the spirit of this world clothed him in his sleep with flesh and with blood, and figured him into an animal, as we see it now with a great bitterness. It is thence that we recognise ourselves to be blind to the kingdom of God, and naked, without any power, in the sleep of the great affliction, covered with a corruptible flesh and blood. 58. When Adam awoke from his sleep, he was a man, and not an angel; his breath drew in the air; he kindled thereby his astral spirit, which had seized upon him; he recognised his spouse to be a woman, coming from him, and he took her to himself, as all the animals pair. Nevertheless he had still the eyes pure; for the anger pointed not yet in him, but rather the attract and the terrestrial slime \^become the germ of reproduction, and which the author calls mbsch in the language of nature'. The element fire, with its bitterness, which inqualifies with the infernal abyss, had him not yet entirely ( to itself ). :l
2( 24 ) CH. 1759. Thus Adam, with his wife, came with a great joy and great delights into the garden of Eden, where Adam spoke to her of the prohibition touching the tree; but Eve, as a woman of this world, regarded that as a small matter, and turned her eyes from off Adam, to carry them toward the tree: she looked at it with attraction. Then therefore the attract seized her, and the lying demon persuaded her, whilst she discoursed with him, and that she knew him not, knowing in effect no demon. She touched the tree, gathered of the fruit of the four elements and of the stars, ate of it, and gave also of it to Adam; and as Adam saw that Eve was not dead, he ate of it also. 60. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised that they had flesh and blood, and that they were entirely naked; for the spirit of the great world seized them with the four elements, and figured their stomach and their entrails, although the form, in the sleep of Adam, when the matrix was separated from the limbus, was indeed figured; but they recognised it not before having eaten of the apple. Then the spirit of the harshness exercised at once its attraction, and made itself its region, as one sees it, at the heart, at the liver, at the lungs, at the gall and at the bladder, as well as at the stomach. Adam had received this régime or these regions in the sleep; and by the manducation of the apple the spirit of the great world has established itself there. 61. Then they looked at one another reciprocally, and blushed one at the other; they were affrighted at the haCH. 17. l ^^ )
3rshness that entered into them; for it was the anger of God. Thus the first principle, to wit, the abyss of hell, seized them, and held Adam and Eve prisoners in their soul, in what is eternal; for this abyss rose with fright and terror, and spreading the doubt touching the kingdom of God. Then they believed they could have no more consolation; for they saw no more paradise, but the garden of Eden. In effect they had lost the divinity; they could not carry toward it their will, since the harshness and the doubt hindered them from it. 62. Then came the spirit of this world with its gross garment, with the heat and the cold; it compressed them and acted upon them, as upon naked and stripped beings; it overwhelmed thus the image of God half dead, by their despair, their anxiety and their doubt, and by the torment of the heat and of the cold; it left it a prey to the martyrdom, to the anguish and to the uncertainty. Here, man has gone from Jerusalem or from paradise toward Jericho, into the house of the murderers who have stripped him of his paradisiacal habit, have robbed him, have assailed him almost even to the death ( with their poisons, their tortures, their wounds, and the ills proceeding from their venomous communication ), and have continued their way, as the second Adam says in parable in the gospel. 63. There was for them no remedy either in heaven, or in the world. They were prisoners and subjected to a hard servitude, to all the needs and to the death; for the abyss of hell chained the soul, f 26 ) c». 17;
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.