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.
16ont là les serviteurs de l'antechrist , et non pas du Christ. En effet, l'aulechrist a mis son pied sur toute l'étendue de la terre ; il voyage sur la bêle effroyable et dévorante qui est aussi grande qna lui-même , et encore plus. C'est vraiment nue chose nécessaire que chacun sente dans sa conscience , et éonsidère dans son cœur quel est son penchant , afin qu'on ne se trompe pas soi-même , et que , faute de se connoître , on ne se rende pas le serviteur de Tanlechrist el qu'on n'accomplisse pas ainsi la prophétie. Car Vantechrist est mainlexiant évidemment devant les yeux. Le tetns où \\ sera visité est près; il sera manifesté dans la lumière de la vie , et gardez-vous de la cupidité , car vous n'en jouirez pas. En effet la colère de la bête brise en pièces les montagnes et les collines ; et voire cupidité tombera en partage à la colère. Le tems est proche. 3. Les malheureux êtres , Adam et Eve , étant tombés, éloient ainsi dans un grande crainte, dans l'effroi et le tremblement ; ils éloient enchaînés fortement dans les liens du démon el de l'enfer ; ils étoient en butte à la dérision et à une grande honte devant le ciel et le paradis. Alors Dieu le père leur apparut par son ame colérique qui tient à l'abîme , dans lequel ils étoient tombés : son cœur rempli des trésors de l'amour, passa du père, par la parole, dans Adam et Eve, et il s'établit puissamment dans la colère , dans les portes de la vie de l'homme -, et aperçut de nouveau la pauvre ame. Mais les malCH. 18. ( 55 )
2heureux ne pouvoient pas le saisir dans les essences de leur ame ; seulement ils en recevoient les rayonâ \M\T\a. vertu toute-puissante, ce dont Adam et Eve redevinrent joyeux. Ils restèrent cependant dan» le tromblement , à cause delà colère qui étoit en eux, et ils entendirent la sentence que Dieu leur prononça; car Dieu dit: Puisque tu as mangé de l'arbre dont je t'avois dit que tu ne devois pas manger, \i\ terre sera maudi4e à cause de l?>i, tu ne t'en nourriras qu'avec fatigue pendant le cours de ta vie# Elle te rapporlerd des ronces et des épines , tu mangeras les végétaux des champs, et tu man* géras ton pain à la sueur de ton front , jusqu'à ce que tu retournes dans la terre, d'où tu as été pris ; car tu es maintenant terre , et tu dois retourner en terre. 4. Or , ici sont de grands secrets , que nous ne pouvons plus voir entièrement, clairement et à découvert , avec nos yeux terrestres ; et il n'y a devant ces secrets aucun voile , si ce n'est que nou& sommes aveugles au royaume de Dieu ^ car Dieu a maudit la terre > et a dit: Elle doit désormais porter des ronces et des épines, et l'homme doit manger les fruits de la terre maudite. 5. Ceci est en effet une chose nouvelle. Diett ne lui ordonna point dans le paradis de manger des végétaux terrestres , mais des fruits gracieux. Et , s'il avoit mangé des végétaux des champs , cependant ce qu'il auroit mangé eût été céleste. Or lorsque le seigneur eut maudit la terre, alors tout devint terrestre 5 rélémenl saint lui fut retiré, et le ûuifc Tî^3" ( 56 ) CB. 18. poussa dans l'explosion des quatre éléraens , dans Venjlammement de la colère , d'où crurenl les ronces et les épines.
36. Il nous faut remarquer qu'il y a eu sur la terre une demeure très gracieuse ; car tous les fruits ont poussé de l'élément caché , au travers de la colère des quatre élémens; et , quand même les quatre élémens auroient eu aussi leurs fruits , l'homme cependant n'en eût pas tlû manger , mais les bêles des champs en auroient mangé, rj. Or , dès que le seigneur eut maudit la terre , l'élément se relira de la racine du fniil ; car la malédiction de Dieu n'est rien de plus que de se retirer d'une chose. Ainsi la sainteté de Dieu s'est éloignée de la racine du fruit , et la racine est restée dans les quatre élémens , dans l'extra-géuération. Or, Adam et Eve y étoient tombés aussi ; alors le semblable et le semblable s'associèrent ; son c(ups devint aussi terrestre, et devoit retourner à la terre. 8. Mais que Dieu ail dit : Tu Mus det>enir terre, cToà tuas été pris; cela est v^ai aussi. Toulelois l'intelligence est dans la parole , et le voile terrestre est devant. Il faut voir sous le voile , car Adam avoit été pris de la terre. Ilétoit un extrait de l'élément qui inqualifioit avec la terre , mais il n'étoit pas le résultat des quatre écoulemens des élmens. Or, lorsqu'il tomba dans les quatre élémens , alors i^ devint terre, et en outre feu , air et eau. Désormais à quoi les fruits célestes et paradisiaques servoient-ils à l'homme bestial, puisqu'il ne pouvoit pas en jouir? Eu effet Dieu nejètepas son royaume CH. 18. ( 57 ) céleste devant les animaux et les porcs , maïs il est fait pour les anges.
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.
16are there the servants of the antichrist, and not of the Christ. In effect, the antichrist has set his foot upon all the extent of the earth; he travels upon the frightful and devouring beast which is as great as himself, and yet more. It is truly a necessary thing that each one feel in his conscience, and consider in his heart what his inclination is, so that one deceive not oneself, and that, for want of knowing oneself, one render not oneself the servant of the antichrist and that one accomplish not thus the prophecy. For the antichrist is now evidently before the eyes. The time when he shall be visited is near; he shall be manifested in the light of the life, and keep yourselves from the cupidity, for you shall not enjoy it. In effect the anger of the beast breaks in pieces the mountains and the hills; and your cupidity shall fall in portion to the anger. The time is near. 3. The wretched beings, Adam and Eve, being fallen, were thus in a great fear, in the fright and the trembling; they were chained strongly in the bonds of the demon and of hell; they were exposed to the derision and to a great shame before heaven and paradise. Then God the father appeared to them by his choleric soul which holds to the abyss, into which they were fallen: his heart filled with the treasures of the love, passed from the father, by the word, into Adam and Eve, and it established itself powerfully in the anger, in the gates of the life of man; and perceived anew the poor soul. But the wretCH. 18. ( 55 )
2ched could not seize it in the essences of their soul; only they received the rays thereof by the all-powerful virtue, whereat Adam and Eve became joyous again. They remained nevertheless in the trembling, because of the anger that was in them, and they heard the sentence that God pronounced to them; for God said: Since thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I had said to thee that thou must not eat, the earth shall be curse4d because of thee, thou shalt nourish thyself of it only with fatigue during the course of thy life. It shall bring thee forth brambles and thorns, thou shalt eat the vegetables of the fields, and thou shalt eat thy bread in the sweat of thy brow, until thou return into the earth, whence thou hast been taken; for thou art now earth, and thou must return into earth. 4. Now, here are great secrets, that we can no more see entirely, clearly and uncovered, with our terrestrial eyes; and there is before these secrets no veil, save that we are blind to the kingdom of God; for God has cursed the earth, and has said: It must henceforth bear brambles and thorns, and man must eat the fruits of the cursed earth. 5. This is in effect a new thing. God ordained him not in paradise to eat terrestrial vegetables, but gracious fruits. And, if he had eaten of the vegetables of the fields, nevertheless what he would have eaten would have been celestial. Now when the lord had cursed the earth, then all became terrestrial 5 the holy element was withdrawn from it, and the fruit Tî^3" ( 56 ) CB. 18. pushed forth in the explosion of the four elements, in the inflaming of the anger, whence grew the brambles and the thorns.
36. We must remark that there has been upon the earth a very gracious dwelling; for all the fruits have pushed forth of the hidden element, through the anger of the four elements; and, even though the four elements had also their fruits, man nevertheless was not to have eaten of them, but the beasts of the fields would have eaten of them. rj. Now, as soon as the lord had cursed the earth, the element withdrew from the root of the fruit; for the malediction of God is nothing more than to withdraw from a thing. Thus the holiness of God has withdrawn from the root of the fruit, and the root has remained in the four elements, in the extra-generation. Now, Adam and Eve were fallen thither also; then the like and the like associated themselves; his body became also terrestrial, and was to return to the earth. 8. But that God has said: Thou shalt become earth, whence thou hast been taken; that is true also. Nevertheless the intelligence is in the word, and the terrestrial veil is before it. One must see under the veil, for Adam had been taken of the earth. He was an extract of the element which inqualified with the earth, but he was not the result of the four flowings of the elements. Now, when he fell into the four elements, then he became earth, and besides fire, air and water. Henceforth of what use were the celestial and paradisiacal fruits to bestial man, since he could not enjoy them? In effect God casts not his celestial kingdom CH. 18. ( 57 ) before the animals and the swine, but it is made for the angels.
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.