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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.
1le démon se rue sur elle avec ses leuires , sa colère et sa méchanceté , et veut l'avoir avec lui dans son abîme. Tantôt c'est le monde séducteur avec sa* puissance , sa pompe , ses cupidités et ses attraits de perdition. Tantôt c'est la maladie et la frayeur. Elle est toujours en tremblement. Combien s'effraiet-elle , en effet , lorsque l'homme va seulement dans les ténèbres ? combien s'épouvante - t - elle , que l'exécuteur ne vienne à la saisir , et n'exécute la justice? Zm porte du grand péché et de ropposition contré Dieu de la part de Vhomme, 72. Pour peu que nous contemplassions les abominations de l'homme envers Dieu , et les grands péchés que nos premiers parens nous ont transmis en héritage*, nous ne pourrions réellement jamais être joyeux dans ce monde , si l'esprit de ce monde ne nous présentoit pas dans notre prison , des joies insensées et des apparences de plaisirs \ ou plutôt si la renaissance ne nous réjouissoit pas souvent for1ement,/7ar /'^s/)^ra/ice d'être délivrés de cette prison. Car, en effet , nous ne trouvons autre chose ici bas , que de véritables abominations , des péchés , des besoins et la mort \ et à peine obtenons-nous, dans cette vie , un aperçu de la joie éternelle. 73. Mais la pensée se demande : Qu'est-ce que c'est donc que le péché Fou comment y a-t-il un péché? pourquoi Dieu a-t-il un dégoût pour l'être qu'il a créé ? Ecoute, fils de l'homme : Devant Dieu dans ':l : I 1', ( 3o ) CH. 17.
2le cîel , il n'y a aucun péché ; le péché est seulement en toi ; ce sont les péchés qui font que nous , ' et notre Dieu , nous sommes séparés les uns des autres. Du reste tout ce qui existe est fixe et bon dans sa propre essence. Le royaume de l'enfer et de la colère est bon en soi selon sa région ; il n'y a d'attaché à cet enfer aucun tourment , aucune douleur ; mais sa douleur est sa génération , et l'ascension de sa source 5 aussi ne désire-t-il rien autre chose. 74. De même aussi , le royaume de ce monde est fixe et bon ; il n'y a aussi d'attaché à lui aucun tourment; mais l'ascension des élémens, ou Pen^ flammement du chaud , du froid , de l'air et de Teau est son accroissement et sa végétation , et ne lui fait aucun mal en soi 5 il n'a , non plus en soimême aucune épouvante , ni aucune frayeur. 75. L'homme seul qui est issu d'une autre source, a , flans ces deux principes , tourment , besoin , afflictions , terreurs : car il n'est pas dans son pays ; et de ces deux principes aucun ne peut toucher à notre pays natal. C'est pourquoi la pauvre arae doit ainsi se froisser et se meurtrir pour retourner dans sa mère patrie; elle doit passer par les portes de la profonde angoisse de la mort ; elle doit briser les deux règnes ; elle demeure ici entre les deux précipices, et elle est continuellement infectée par des choses qui la retiennent en arrière , et la compriment rudement : elle est comme dans une presse. ';6, Se porte-t-elle vers Dieu ? Le démon la relient d'un côté par un lien , et le monde par un autre CH. 17. ( Si )
3lien ; elle est assaillie par tous les deux : le démon l'allume avec l'âpreté et la colère , lesquelles sont une source et un péché qui ne peut pas atteindre le royaume de Dieu ; et le monde la pousse à l'orgueil, à la cupidité , aux désirs de la chair, de façon que les essences de Tame s'infectent en se remplissant des volontés charnelles ; car la volonté de la base affective attire ces choses dans l'ame : alors l'ame est entièrement impure,gonflée et ténébreuse par les choses qii'elle a attirées , et ne peut pas atteindre la lumière de Dieu. Ses essences qui devroient se porter vers Dieu ne le peuvent pas, parce qu'elles sont trop grossières , et ne sauroient pas entrer dans la lumière qui ne s'enflamme pas ainsi. Il faut absolument , que les portes de la profondeur soient brisées. Alors les essences percent dans la liberté hors des ténèbres ; mais si l'ame est remplie , cela lie peut avoir lieu ; alors commencent l'effroi ,' la crainte , l'épouvante , le doute sur le royaume de Dieu,etcela n'occasionne à l'ame que des tourmens; 77. Ainsi tu peux savoir comment ûy a un péché devant Dieu. Tu as en toi l'élément qui est une joie devant Dieu ; or donc si tu t'associes aux ravages et aux tempêtes de la source infernale, alors tu troubles l'élément ; tu réveilles la colère jusqu'à la faire éclatter,et tu agis tout comme a agi le démon , lorsqu'il a remué et allumé la colère dans le fiât , d'où la colère a engendré la terre et les pierres ; tu pêches jusque dans le ciel devant Dieu , aussi les prophètes se sont lamentés en plusieurs endroits de ce que le peuple indocile faisoit souf£nr leur Dieu, ■I -t fy I: ( 32 ) CH. 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.
1the demon rushes upon her with his baits, his anger and his wickedness, and will have her with him in his abyss. Sometimes it is the seducing world with its power, its pomp, its cupidities and its attractions of perdition. Sometimes it is the malady and the terror. She is always in trembling. How much is she affrighted, in effect, when man goes only into the darknesses? how much is she terrified, lest the executor come to seize her, and execute the justice? The gate of the great sin and of the opposition against God on the part of man, 72. However little we contemplated the abominations of man toward God, and the great sins that our first parents have transmitted us in heritage, we could really never be joyous in this world, if the spirit of this world did not present us in our prison, senseless joys and appearances of pleasures; or rather if the new birth did not rejoice us often stron1gly, b7y the hope of being delivered from this prison. For, in effect, we find nothing else here below, than true abominations, sins, needs and the death; and hardly do we obtain, in this life, a glimpse of the eternal joy. 73. But the thought asks itself: What then is sin? or how is there a sin? why has God a disgust for the being that he has created? Hear, son of man: Before God in ':l : I 1', ( 3o ) CH. 17.
2the heaven, there is no sin; the sin is only in thee; it is the sins that make that we, and our God, we are separated one from the other. For the rest all that exists is fixed and good in its own essence. The kingdom of hell and of the anger is good in itself according to its region; there is attached to that hell no torment, no pain; but its pain is its generation, and the ascension of its source 5 also it desires nothing else. 74. In like manner also, the kingdom of this world is fixed and good; there is also attached to it no torment; but the ascension of the elements, or the inflaming of the hot, of the cold, of the air and of the water is its increase and its vegetation, and does it no harm in itself 5 it has, no more in itself any terror, nor any fright. 75. Man alone who is issued of another source, has, in these two principles, torment, need, afflictions, terrors: for he is not in his country; and of these two principles neither can touch our native country. That is why the poor soul must thus bruise and wound itself to return into its mother country; it must pass by the gates of the profound anguish of the death; it must break the two reigns; it dwells here between the two precipices, and it is continually infected by things which retain it backward, and compress it rudely: it is as in a press. ';6, Does it carry itself toward God? The demon retains it on one side by a bond, and the world by another CH. 17. ( Si )
3bond; it is assailed by both: the demon kindles it with the harshness and the anger, which are a source and a sin that cannot attain the kingdom of God; and the world pushes it to pride, to cupidity, to the desires of the flesh, so that the essences of the soul infect themselves in filling themselves with carnal wills; for the will of the affective base draws these things into the soul: then the soul is entirely impure, swollen and tenebrous by the things that it has drawn, and cannot attain the light of God. Its essences which should carry themselves toward God cannot do it, because they are too gross, and would not know how to enter into the light which kindles not thus. It is absolutely needful, that the gates of the profundity be broken. Then the essences pierce into the liberty out of the darknesses; but if the soul be filled, that cannot take place; then begin the fright, the fear, the terror, the doubt upon the kingdom of God, and that occasions to the soul only torments; 77. Thus thou canst know how there is a sin before God. Thou hast in thee the element which is a joy before God; now then if thou associate thyself to the ravages and to the tempests of the infernal source, then thou troublest the element; thou awakenest the anger even to making it burst forth, and thou actest quite as the demon acted, when he stirred and kindled the anger in the fiat, whence the anger has begotten the earth and the stones; thou sinnest even into heaven before God, also the prophets have lamented in several places that the indocile people made their God suffer, ■I -t fy I: ( 32 ) CH. 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.