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.
1'''iJkst ainsi,. /....-;/^,^ riLntion d'Israël au sujet du veau n etc. po,^^^ de le reconnoitre pour 13ieu , et de le regarder comme vrai Dieu, puisqu'ils savoient b-nqu dé 01 d'or; que le vrai Dieu s'étoit autrement fait con noître àeux, et qu'ils avoient aussi une ample LToissance' des merveilles ,ui ^f^^P-^^ devant Pharaon ; mais ils vouloient honorer par là JrSeu absent, et se faire à e-x-êmes un ~ iial et un culte de Dieu , comme le roi Jéroboam avec s-on culte du veau , dont l'honneur cependant devoit atteindre le vrai Dieu. 74. Mais eufiu , comme le veau de Jéroboam a ». 18. ( 85 )
2, éié une aboraînalion devant Dieu , que cependant il l'employoit avec zèle auprès du vrai Dieu , seu-w lemenl pour qu'il préserval son royaume temporel , afin que le peuple ne se séparât pas de lui , et n'allât pas à Jérusalem pour ses sacrifices ; c'est pour cela que Dieu le rejeta et toute sa maison. De même que Moïse vint en colère à leur culie divin devant le veau, qu'il brisa les tables de la loi divine, qu'il saisit IVpée, et qu'un frère dut tuer l'autre à cause de leur abomination et de l'iniquité de leur faux culte divin : de même aussi, toi, aveugle peuple dans la Babel de confusion , tu as . été, par tes voies trompeuses, séparé de celui qui sait tout , qui voit tout , qui entend tout, qui odore tout , qui sent tout , c'est-à-dire , du cœur de JésusChrist. Tui-méme lu ne verras point la joyeuse face de Jésus-Christ 5 tu ne déposeï as point la honte do la prostitution, de ton hypocrisie, de l'orgueil de les propres opinions, de ta puissance et de ta pompe 5 mais lu vivras dans la sainteté , inventée pour Ion plaisir, pour ta cupidité, pour la gourmandise et la gloutonnerie , et pour ton pur honneur particulier. Aussi le second Moïse que le premier anuonçoil , et que l'on doit écouler , a fermé d'avance (es oreilles , et a brisé la table de sa loi , sur laquelle éloient son //om//Zrrt/fo/i , ses souffrances, sa mort , sa résurrection et son ascension au ciel ; et il Ta envoyé de puissantes erreurs , provenant de l'esprit de tes propres hypocrites inventions, comme dit Saint Paul, afin que tu croies à un esprit de mensonge ^ que tu vives selon l'attract de la chair et q^ue ta. 1»* î. hl,: ( 86 ) en. i8* sainteté apparente,invent(^e, l'abuse toi-incmeavec ta fausse clef , qui n'ouvre point les souffrances el le mourir de Jésus-Christ , dans sa mort.
375. Car , tu n'es point entré chez le père par l'intercession des hommes , mais par la précieuse homi-^ fication de Jésus-Christ. Si tu ne te convertis pas aussitôt au dernier son de l'appel de Dieu , tandis que cependant beaucoup t'ont déjà appelés , et si tu ne sors pas de Babel , alors Moïse se met en colère et dit : Que chacun ceigne son épée , et i' gorge son frère en Babel. Et tu te détruis toi-même; car l'esprit de ^a propre bouche doit t'étouffer , afin que tu jie l'appelles plus Babel , mais une épée de sévérité, colérique en soi-même, qui te dévoreet ne l'épargne pas. En effet , tu te tues toi-même , toi, grande merveille du monde. 76. Combien cependant les prophètes ont-ils tons écrit de toi ? Et tu ne te connois pas ! Tu chemines ainsi sur la béte engraissée , et ce voynge t'agrée tellement que tu marches vers le démon dans l'abînie plutôt que de descendre de ta bêle. Qu'arrivera -t -il donc de toi, ô ! aveugle Babel ? Descends de celte grande, méchante, vilaine bêle i défais-loi de ta puissance , de la pompe el de ton orgueil. Vois ; ton époux vient , et te tend la main 5 il veut te retirer de ta confusion. 77. Lui-même a-t-il voyngé ainsi? il a marché humblement à pied sur ia terre ; il n'avoit pas de quoi reposer ^a tête. Que lui batis-tu donc pour rojaunie ? où e^t le lien de son repos? ne repose-t-i^ pas dans les bras? pourquoi.oe le serres-lu pas? il TH. 18. ( 87 )
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.
1'''iJkst ainsi,. /....-;/^,^ riLntion of Israel touching the calf was not at all to recognise it for 13God, and to regard it as true God, since they knew well that it was 01 of gold; that the true God had otherwise made himself known to them, and that they had also an ample knowledge of the marvels that ,ui ^f^^P-^^ before Pharaoh; but they wished thereby to honour the absent God, and to make for themselves a ~ iial and a worship of God, like the king Jeroboam with his worship of the calf, whose honour nevertheless was to reach the true God. 74. But at last, as the calf of Jeroboam has ». 18. ( 85 )
2, been an abomination before God, that nevertheless he employed it with zeal near the true God, only that it might preserve his temporal kingdom, so that the people might not separate itself from him, and might not go to Jerusalem for their sacrifices; it is for that that God rejected him and all his house. Just as Moses came in anger to their divine worship before the calf, and broke the tables of the divine law, and seized the sword, and one brother had to kill the other because of their abomination and of the iniquity of their false divine worship: just so also, thou, blind people in the Babel of confusion, thou hast been, by thy deceitful ways, separated from him who knows all, who sees all, who hears all, who smells all, who feels all, that is to say, from the heart of Jesus-Christ. Thyself thou shalt not see the joyous face of Jesus-Christ 5 thou shalt not lay down the shame of prostitution, of thy hypocrisy, of the pride of thy own opinions, of thy power and of thy pomp 5 but thou shalt live in the holiness, invented for thy pleasure, for thy cupidity, for gourmandise and gluttony, and for thy pure particular honour. Also the second Moses that the first announced, and that one must hear, has closed beforehand thy ears, and has broken the table of his law, upon which were his homification, his sufferings, his death, his resurrection and his ascension to heaven; and he has sent thee powerful errors, proceeding from the spirit of thy own hypocritical inventions, as Saint Paul says, so that thou mayest believe a spirit of lying, that thou mayest live according to the attract of the flesh and that thy 1»* î. hl,: ( 86 ) en. i8* apparent holiness, invented, may abuse thyself with thy false key, which opens not the sufferings and the dying of Jesus-Christ, in his death.
375. For, thou art not at all entered to the father by the intercession of men, but by the precious homification of Jesus-Christ. If thou convertest not thyself at once at the last sound of the call of God, whilst nevertheless many have already called thee, and if thou comest not out of Babel, then Moses puts himself in anger and says: Let each gird his sword, and cut the throat of his brother in Babel. And thou destroyest thyself; for the spirit of thy own mouth must stifle thee, so that thou call it no more Babel, but a sword of severity, choleric in itself, which devours thee and spares thee not. In effect, thou killest thyself, thou, great marvel of the world. 76. How much nevertheless have all the prophets written of thee? And thou knowest not thyself! Thou journeyest thus upon the fattened beast, and this voyage pleases thee so much that thou marchest toward the demon into the abyss rather than descend from thy beast. What then shall become of thee, O blind Babel? Descend from this great, wicked, vile beast; rid thyself of thy power, of the pomp and of thy pride. See; thy bridegroom comes, and holds out his hand to thee 5 he will draw thee out of thy confusion. 77. Has he himself voyaged thus? he walked humbly on foot upon the earth; he had not whereon to rest his head. What buildest thou him then for a kingdom? where is the place of his repose? does he not repose in the arms? why pressest thou him not? he TH. 18. ( 87 )
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.