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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.
124. Car Dieu engendre seulement son cœur et son fils , et ne veut engendrer de soi rien de plus. C'est pourquoi ce qui est prononcé devant la volonté , est une vierge de la chasteté , ou la sophie , qui aussi n'engendre rien de plus ; mais elle se contemple dans l'esprit saint en infinité, dans les profondes merveilles du tout-puissant, et elle les manifeste. Elle a le puissant fiât de Dieu pour instrument avec lequel elle crée et a créé toutes choses dans le commencement , et elle se contemple dans toutes les choses créées , de façon que les merveilles <ie toutes choses sont apportées par elle au jour. La puissante porte de rhomification de Jésus-ChrUt^ le fils de Dieu, 25. De ce même cœur ou parole de Dieu le père, avec et par la chaste sophie de Dieu , ou de son éternelle sagesse, et de sa toute science, est sorti le briseur de serpent, dans et avec la parole de la promesse de Dieu le père à Adam et Eve , et k leurs epfans^ il s'est configuré et marié dans l'ame :i!.l L. l ' ( 64 ) ^^* '^* d'Adam et d'Eve, en é.erni.é; il -^^J^J'^ ameslesportes du royaume du cel; . s'es. élabli ;; c U chasie soraiE dans le cen.rc de la lum.ere de Lv. , dans les portes de Dieu ; iladonné la soph.e 1 rame pour perpétuelle compagne de laquelle l'homme tire son industrie et son entendement; autrement, il n'auroit rien. Elle est la porte des pene ; cependant elle tolère le conseil naturel des étoiks, puisque l'ame voit dans lasource des é.cu es et est trop grossière pour que la sopn.E pu sse se !3iudre dlns' l'ame ; mais elle lui indique a voje de Dieu. Toutefois si l'ame devient un ver .ufornal , alors la sophi. se retire dans ses portes, et reste devant Dieu, c'est-à-dire, devant sa parole et son
2'T Mais vu que l'ame d'Adam et d'Eve et de ,ous les enfansde, hommes é.oit trop gvosstère ,.op sauvage et trop rudement st.mulee par e premier principe, comme ayant en elle la ou.ce le l'enfer inclinée à tout ce qui es, mauvms la parole ou le briseur de serpent ne se représenta pas aussitôt dans l'ame d'Adam -, mais .1 resta dans la base aflective , en opposition au royaume du démon, à lenfer, et à leurs flècl.es empo.son- ,,ées • il brisa la tête du serpeut ou du démon , dans la base affective de l'homme, lequel incUna vers le briseur de serpent, et se donna a lui. 27 C'est là qu'il y eut «ne longue épreuve pour ...nter si cependant il ne sero.t pas possible que nLme put enfin se rétablir par cette sage '^ieÎ qu'il se douaâti.Dieu; que l'ame put mnst être engendrée dans la parole ^ et enfin se soutenir devant Dieu. Mais cela fut en vain. L'ame enflammée ne put pas se soutenir; mais tous devinrent meurtriers et assassins, en outre égoïstes , un pur fojrer d'impudicilés bestiales, s'élevant dans Porgueil et la domination, selon le régime des étoiles et des éléniens qui actionnent le corps et l'ame da rhorame en tout tems ; et il n'y en eut quequel-^ ques uns qui s'attachèrent à la parole de Dieu. 28. Alors Dieu envoya le déluge sur tout le monde, et noya toute chair, excepté Noé , qui s'attacha à la parole de Dieu, et qui fut épargné avec ses enfans et leurs feuimes. Le inonde fut mis à l'épreuve, s'il s'effraieroità cette terrible punition, et s'ils'aiiacheroit à la parole ; mais tout fut inutile. Alors Dieu
3choisit lafaïuilledeSemquis'éloitattachéeà la parole, afin d*élever ainsi unelumièreet un ministèredeprédication , pour que le monde pût s'instruire par leur moyen^ mais tout cela ne servit àrien. Les astres régirent les hommes selon leur source, dans une entière cupidité, dans l'impudicilé et l'orgueil, ce qui vint à untel excès, qu'ils se proposèrent de bâtir une tour dont le sommet atteignît jusqu'au ciel '.c'est ainsi que ce peuple éloit aveugle sur le royaume de Dieu. 29. Alors Dieu confondit leur langage , afin qu'ils pussent voir par là combien ils avoieul égaré leurs pensées, et se rapprocher de Dieu ; de même aussi pour qu'ils n'entendissent point la langue des saints de la race de Sem, etque,puisqu'ils dévoient être dispersés dans tout le monde, il pût toutefois y avoir une sainte semence de conservée , et que tout ne II. S M s { 66 ) CH. 18.
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.
124. For God begets only his heart and his son, and will beget of himself nothing more. That is why that which is pronounced before the will, is a virgin of chastity, or the sophia, who also begets nothing more; but she contemplates herself in the holy spirit in infinity, in the deep marvels of the all-powerful, and she manifests them. She has the powerful fiat of God for instrument with which she creates and has created all things in the beginning, and she contemplates herself in all created things, so that the marvels of all things are brought by her to the day. The powerful gate of the homification of Jesus-Christ, the son of God, 25. From this same heart or word of God the father, with and by the chaste sophia of God, or of his eternal wisdom, and of his all-science, is gone forth the bruiser of the serpent, in and with the word of the promise of God the father to Adam and Eve, and to their children; he has configured and married himself in the soul :i!.l L. l ' ( 64 ) ^^* '^* of Adam and of Eve, in eternity; he has opened to these souls the gates of the kingdom of heaven; he has established the chaste SOPHIA in the centre of the light of life, in the gates of God; he has given the sophia 1 to the soul for perpetual companion from which man draws his industry and his understanding; otherwise, he would have nothing. She is the gate of the thoughts; nevertheless she tolerates the natural council of the stars, since the soul sees into the source of the stars and is too gross for the SOPHIA to be able to 3join herself in the soul; but she indicates to it the way of God. However if the soul becomes an infernal worm, then the sophia withdraws into her gates, and remains before God, that is to say, before his word and his
2'T But seeing that the soul of Adam and of Eve and of all the children of men was too gross, too savage and too rudely stimulated by the first principle, as having in it the source of hell inclined to all that is evil, the word or the bruiser of the serpent did not represent itself at once in the soul of Adam; but .1 remained in the affective base, in opposition to the kingdom of the demon, to hell, and to their poisoned arrows; it broke the head of the serpent or of the demon, in the affective base of man, which inclined toward the bruiser of the serpent, and gave itself to him. 27 It is there that there was a long trial to attempt whether nevertheless it would not be possible that the soul might at last re-establish itself by this wise way; that it might give itself to God; that the soul might thus be begotten in the word, and at last sustain itself before God. But that was in vain. The inflamed soul could not sustain itself; but all became murderers and assassins, besides egoists, a pure hearth of bestial impudicities, raising themselves in pride and domination, according to the régime of the stars and of the elements which actuate the body and the soul of man at all times; and there were only some few who attached themselves to the word of God. 28. Then God sent the deluge over all the world, and drowned all flesh, except Noah, who attached himself to the word of God, and who was spared with his children and their wives. The world was put to the trial, whether it would take fright at this terrible punishment, and whether it would attach itself to the word; but all was useless. Then God
3chose the family of Shem which had attached itself to the word, in order thus to raise up a light and a ministry of preaching, so that the world might instruct itself by their means; but all that served for nothing. The stars ruled men according to their source, in an entire cupidity, in impudicity and pride, which came to such an excess, that they proposed to build a tower whose summit should reach even unto heaven. It is thus that this people was blind upon the kingdom of God. 29. Then God confounded their language, in order that they might see thereby how far they had led their thoughts astray, and draw nearer to God; likewise also that they might not understand the tongue of the saints of the race of Shem, and that, since they were to be dispersed into all the world, there might however be a holy seed preserved, and that all might not II. S M s { 66 ) CH. 18.
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.