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.
110. Puisque donc ceci est l'article leplus difficile,' et qu'il ne pourroît être saisi d'après un semblable exposé , nous voulons décrire la mort de l'homme , et la séparation de Pâme d'avec le corps ( autaiv't qu'il est possible que cela soit connu ) , afin que le lecteur en puisse saisir le sens. 11. L'image de l'homme engendré de la femme ; est ici dans cette vie en une triple forme , et exista en trois principes, c^est-à-diie, que l'ame a son origine du premier priucipe, delaforte et graudepuissauce de l'éternité , et se meut entre deux principes, environnée du troisième. EUeat teint par sa racine originelle, dans la profondeur de l'éternité , où Diea le père entre de toute éternité en soi - même dans la lumière de la joie , par les portes du brisement et de la rupture ',elUe^{ dans l'alliance, oùDieus'appelle un Dieu jaloux , colérique et fort 3 elle est, une étincelle de la toute puissance ; elle perce dan», les grandes merveilles de la sagesse de Dieu, pai-lu. ••l'i ( 104 ) ^^' '^' chère vierge de cîiaslelé ou Sophie, et a élécréée de réternelle volonlé par le puissant hat de Dieu -, elle existe par la parole de Dieu , reconçue en JésusChrisl 5 dans les portes du paradis , avec la forme de la nouvelle renaissance ; et elle existe avec la forme du premier principe , dans les portes de là colèrede rëternilé ; elle est inqualifiée^^v la région du soleil et des étoiles, et environnée des quatre éléraens. Le saint élément ou la racine des quatre élémens, est le corps de l'ame dans le second principe dans les portes devant Dieu. La région des étoiles est le corps de l'ame y seloti Tesprit de ce inonde, et l'écoulement des quatre élémens est la maison de tourment , ou bien l'esprit de ce monde. I^a région des éioiles allume cet écoulement , et le l'end bouillonnant.
212. Or, l'ame vit dans cette triple source ; elle est liée par trois rênes , et est tirée par les trois ; car la première rêne est l'alliance de l'éternité , engendrée dans l'ascension de l'angoisse ; elle atteint l'abîme infernal. La seconde rêne om le royaume dw cielest engendrée par les portes de.la profondeur dans le père , et engendrée de nouveau de la génération du péché par l'humanité du Christ , où l'ame est aussi attachée dans VhonUficatwn de Jésus-Christ > le fils de Dieu , et est attirée par la chère vierge SOPHIE dans la parole de Dieu. La troisième rêne est le règne des étoiles if^uahfiani avec l'ame ; et ce règne est fortement attiré , retenu , ainsi que mené et conduit par les quatre élémens. i3. Or , le troisième règne a'est point dans Téteriiilé ; mais il fut engendré de Pélément , an moment de Vênflammcwtnt du FIAT : enfin il est corruptible ; il a une certaine période , une limite 9 un tems : et cette même région a aussi dans l'ame (quand la lumière de la vie s'allume ) une certaine période , un tems pour sa destruction. Ce même règne éduque aussi l'homme , et lui donne la source de ses mœurs , de sa volonté et de ses désirs pour le mal el le bien: il l'établit en beauté , en dommation , en richesses et en honneurs ; il fait de lui un Dieu terrestre ; il lui ouvre en soi de grandes merveilles 5 il court avec lui sans réflexion jusqu'à son siècle ou sa fin : alors il se sépare de lui , et comme il a aidé l'homme quant à sa vie , il l'aide aussi à mourir ,et se sépare de l'ame.
3i4. D'abord les quatre élémens se retirent d'avec l'élément ; alors cesse la source dans le troisième principe. Or , c'est ce qu'il y a de plus effroyable que les quatre élémens se brisent en eux-mêmes ; et c'est là la mort , de façon que l'esprit de soufi-e, qui dérive du fiel , et allume la teinture du cœur , suffoque. Alors la teinture s'en va avec l'ombre de la substance de l'homme dans l'Ether ; elle demeure avec l'ombre dans la racine de l'élément , duquel les quatre élémens étoient engendrés et issus ; et le tourment de la brisure consiste en cela seulement , qu'une source d'habitation est retranchée à l'ame. i5. Mais , si maintenant les essences du premier principe de l'ame , ont été tellement inclinées vers la région de ce monde , que ces essences de l'ame n'aient cherché que l'attrait de ce monde , avec les ( io6 ) CH. 19^ honneurs temporels, la puissance et la pompe : alors l'ame ou les essences du premier principe , retiennent encore auprès d'elles la région des étoiles ,' comme leur plus cher trésor , dans l'intention de vivre là-dedans ; mais comme celte région n'a plus la mère ou les quatre élémens , elle se consume elle-même avec le tems dans les essences du premier principe , et les essences du premier principe demeurent nues. 16, Or , ici maintenant se trouve le purgatoire. Toi , monde aveugle , si tu peux quelque chose , aide à ton ame à passer à travers des fortes portes. Si le briseur de serpent n'avoit pas tenu ici les rênes , elle seroit restée tout-à-fait dans le premier principe ; enfin là , il y a la grande vie , et aussi la grande mort : là Pâme doit entrer dans l'une «/m deux , et cela est ensuite son éternelle patrie ; car le troisième principe tombe tout-à-fait , et abandonne l'ame , et elle n'en peut plus user dans l'éternité.
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.
110. Since then this is the most difficult article, and since it could not be seized after a like exposition, we will describe the death of man, and the separation of the soul from the body ( as far as it is possible that that be known ), so that the reader may seize the sense of it. 11. The image of man begotten of the woman, is here in this life in a triple form, and exists in three principles, that is to say, that the soul has its origin from the first principle, from the strong and great power of eternity, and moves itself between two principles, environed by the third. It is held by its original root, in the depth of eternity, where God the father enters from all eternity into himself into the light of joy, by the gates of the breaking and of the rupture; it is in the alliance, where God is called a jealous God, choleric and strong 3 it is a spark of the omnipotence; it pierces into the great marvels of the wisdom of God, by the ••l'i ( 104 ) ^^' '^' dear virgin of chastity or Sophia, and has been created from the eternal will by the powerful fiat of God; it exists by the word of God, reconceived in Jesus-Christ 5 in the gates of paradise, with the form of the new rebirth; and it exists with the form of the first principle, in the gates of the anger of eternity; it is inqualified by the region of the sun and of the stars, and environed by the four elements. The holy element or the root of the four elements, is the body of the soul in the second principle in the gates before God. The region of the stars is the body of the soul, according to the spirit of this world, and the outflow of the four elements is the house of torment, or else the spirit of this world. The region of the stars kindles this outflow, and renders it boiling.
212. Now, the soul lives in this triple source; it is bound by three reins, and is drawn by the three; for the first rein is the alliance of eternity, begotten in the ascension of anguish; it reaches the infernal abyss. The second rein or the kingdom of heaven is begotten by the gates of the depth in the father, and begotten anew from the generation of sin by the humanity of Christ, where the soul is also attached in the homification of Jesus-Christ, the son of God, and is drawn by the dear virgin SOPHIA into the word of God. The third rein is the reign of the stars inqualifying with the soul; and this reign is strongly drawn, retained, as well as led and conducted by the four elements. i3. Now, the third reign is not at all in eternity; but it was begotten of the element, at the moment of the inflaming of the FIAT: at last it is corruptible; it has a certain period, a limit 9 a time: and this same region has also in the soul ( when the light of life kindles itself ) a certain period, a time for its destruction. This same reign educates also man, and gives him the source of his manners, of his will and of his desires for evil and good: it establishes him in beauty, in domination, in riches and in honours; it makes of him a terrestrial God; it opens in him great marvels 5 it runs with him without reflection unto his age or his end: then it separates itself from him, and as it has aided man in respect of his life, it aids him also to die, and separates itself from the soul.
3i4. First the four elements withdraw themselves from the element; then the source ceases in the third principle. Now, it is what there is most frightful that the four elements break themselves in themselves; and that is death, so that the spirit of sulphur, which derives from the gall, and kindles the tincture of the heart, suffocates. Then the tincture goes away with the shadow of the substance of man into the Ether; it abides with the shadow in the root of the element, from which the four elements were begotten and issued; and the torment of the breaking consists in this only, that a source of habitation is cut off from the soul. i5. But, if now the essences of the first principle of the soul, have been so inclined toward the region of this world, that these essences of the soul have sought only the attract of this world, with ( io6 ) CH. 19^ temporal honours, power and pomp: then the soul or the essences of the first principle, retain still near them the region of the stars, as their dearest treasure, with the intention of living therein; but as this region has no more the mother or the four elements, it consumes itself with time in the essences of the first principle, and the essences of the first principle remain naked. 16, Now, here now is found purgatory. Thou, blind world, if thou canst anything, aid thy soul to pass through the strong gates. If the bruiser of the serpent had not held the reins here, it would have remained quite in the first principle; at last there, there is the great life, and also the great death: there the soul must enter into the one or the other, and that is then its eternal fatherland; for the third principle falls quite away, and abandons the soul, and it can no more use it in eternity.
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.