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.
118. Et alors avec fàîspn Tamertumç s'appéjleatlégresse,car elle est Péfèuefnent et le mouvement. Quant à ce qu'est Palléçresse , il n*y a aucune com- 'paraison à faire, sî ce. n'est qiie c'est com*me si un homme éioit soudainement délivré àes peines der l'enfer , et placé dans la joie de la lumière diyine.^ 19. Cest aussi là ce que fait le ton j'ià où J'auioifr est prédominant ; il porte la nouvelle du règne de }oîe dans toutes les formes de la génération ; le feii dans Tàmbur allume aussi l'amour dans toutes les sources -esprits, comme cela a été dit. Et l'amour ( allume ) l'amour dans ses propres essences. Quand l'amour est prédominant dans l'amour , c'est la source la plus douce , la plus humble , et la plus délicieuse qui s'élève dans toutes les sources, et qut consolide et fixe la céleste génération , en sorte qu'elle est une substance sainte et divine. ao. Maintenant , quant à la forme de l'esprit-eau,' lorsqu'il engendre son semblable, il faut remarquer, qu'il tient le premier rang dans sou nouvel engen-^, drement ; et en lui est éveillé un centre, ce qu'il no fait pas cependant dans sa propre essence ,maisbiea les autres sources-esprits en lui; il est tranquille,' comme une paisible mère. Il laisse les autres semer. leur semence en lui, et éveiller le centre, de façou que le feu monte ; de-là la vie devient mouvante r là le iea n'est pas un feu chaud , et brûlant , mais il' If { 18 ] ht. 3*
2froid , tempéré ^ tîëde , et doux. L'amertume n'est pas non plus amère , mais froide » tempérée , bourgeonnante y OU expansîve , ou ce qui fait image , et d'où s'élève Pimageani dans la pompe céleste ; cela est une substance saisissable. Car dans cette génération le ton s'élève aussi très doux , comme s'il étoit compactable ou saisissable y ou par comparaison ) comme une parole qui se convertiroit en une substance y ou en essence appréheusible. En effet , dans cette nouvelle génération qui arrive dans l'esprit-eau ( c'est-à-dire 9 dans la vraie mère de la renaissance de toutes les sources-esprits ) , tout devient comme saisissable et substantiel ; quoique cependant , il n'y; ait lààeateadre aucune £«aMM«a6i/»^^], mais tout esprit. (*9) ftm0¥mm0¥tm0mm0m CHAPITRE QUATRIEME. De la vraie éternelle nature ; c'est-à-dire , de l'incalculable et infinie génération de laquelle provient réternelle «ssence , qui est Tessence de toutes les essences 3 d'où est provenu , engendré, et enfin créé ce monde avec les étoiles et les élémens , et tout ce qui se meut, remue , et vit. Ouverture de la porte de la grande profondeur, X. Ici je dois prévenir les insensés, et les cidevant sages , qui ne sont cependant rien moins qu'enfoncés dans l'abîme , et qui ne savent ni ji'en tendent rien à l'esprit de Dieu: je dois les consoler, eux, et le lecteur désireux et aimant Dieu, et leur indiquer une petite porte de l'essence céleste , et comment ils pourront entendre ces écrits , avant que je m'étende dans le chapitre lui-même.
3s. Je sais bien , car mon esprit et mon intelligence me l'annoncent , que plusieurs se scandaliseront de la simplicité et de la bassesse de l'auteur, en le voyant écrire des choses si élevées. Ils penseront qu'il n'en a pas le droit , qu'il agit en cela /d'une manière coupable ^ et qu'un homme marcha ( 3o ) €H. 4. contre la volonté de Dieu, en voulant exprimer et dire ce qu'est Dietii 3. Car c'est une chose lamentable que, depuis lachule douloureuse et épouvantable d'Adam, nous, BOUS laissions toujours jouer et Lallotter par le démon, comme si nous n'étions pas enfans de Dieu et de ià propre essence. Il (le démon) présenté sans cesse à notre esprit, comme il l'a fait à la pensée de notre mère Eve , la forme monstrueuse dont elle se laissa préocuper et dans laquelle forme, elle devint par son imagination un enfant de ce inonde , sans intelligence , entièrement dans la jirivation et le dénuement. C'est ainsi qu'il eu agit encore continuellement avec nous ; il veut nous introduire dans une autre image afin qu'à l'exemple d'Adam et d'Eve dans le paradis , nous ajons honte de la lumière de Dieu, ce qui fit qu'ils se cachèrent derrière des arbres , c'est-àdire 9 derrière la forme monstrueuse , lorsque le seigneur parut dans le centre de la génération de leur vie , et dit ; où ês-tu Adam ? Il repondit : /* suis nudetfaipour. Cela n'est autre chose ^i non qu'il avoit perdu sa foi , et la eonnoissance du Dieu saint. Car la vraie cause est qu'il considéra cette forme monstrueuse qu'il avoit acquise d'après les plans du démon , présentés à son imagination et à son attrait , et par la fausse persuasion de manger du troisième principe dans lequel existe la cor-t ruption. 4. Comme le démon Voyoit, et qu'il savoit d'après les ordres de Dieu que si Adam mangeoit 'k3
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.
118. And then with reason the bitterness is called gladness, for it is the raising and the movement. As to what gladness is, there is no com- parison to be made, unless it be that it is as if a man were suddenly delivered from the pains of hell, and placed in the joy of the divine light. 19. It is also there what the tone does there where love is predominant; it bears the news of the reign of joy into all the forms of the generation; the fire in the love kindles also love in all the source-spirits, as that has been said. And love ( kindles ) love in its own essences. When love is predominant in love, it is the sweetest, the humblest, and the most delicious source which rises in all the sources, and which consolidates and fixes the celestial generation, so that it is a holy and divine substance. ao. Now, as to the form of the water-spirit, when it begets its like, it must be remarked that it holds the first rank in its new begetting; and in it is awakened a centre, which nevertheless it does not do in its own essence, but rather the other source-spirits in it; it is tranquil, like a peaceable mother. It lets the others sow their seed in it, and awaken the centre, so that the fire mounts; thence the life becomes moving; there the fire is not a warm, and burning fire, but il' If { 18 ht. 3*
2cold, temperate, tepid, and sweet. The bitterness is not bitter either, but cold, temperate, budding, or expansive, or that which makes image, and whence rises the imaging in the celestial pomp; that is a seizable substance. For in that generation the tone rises also very sweet, as if it were compactable or seizable, or by comparison, like a word which should convert itself into a substance, or into apprehensible essence. In effect, in that new generation which arrives in the water-spirit ( that is to say 9, in the true mother of the rebirth of all the source-spirits ), all becomes as it were seizable and substantial; although nevertheless there is not to be understood there any a6i/, but all spirit. (*9) ftm0¥mm0¥tm0mm0m CHAPTER THE FOURTH. Of the true eternal nature; that is to say, of the incalculable and infinite generation whence proceeds the eternal essence, which is the essence of all essences 3 whence has proceeded, been begotten, and finally created this world with the stars and the elements, and all that moves, stirs, and lives. Opening of the gate of the great depth, X. Here I must forewarn the senseless, and the former sages, who are nevertheless nothing less than sunk in the abyss, and who know nor hear nothing of the spirit of God: I must console them, and the reader desirous and loving God, and indicate them a little gate of the celestial essence, and how they may hear these writings, before I extend myself in the chapter itself.
3s. I know well, for my spirit and my intelligence announce it to me, that several will be scandalised at the simplicity and the lowness of the author, in seeing him write things so elevated. They will think that he has not the right to it, that he acts in that in a culpable manner, and that a man walks ( 3o ) €H. 4. against the will of God, in wishing to express and to say what God is. 3. For it is a lamentable thing that, since the painful and terrifying fall of Adam, we let ourselves be always played with and rocked by the demon, as if we were not children of God and of his own essence. He ( the demon ) presents without cease to our spirit, as he did to the thought of our mother Eve, the monstrous form wherewith she let herself be preoccupied and in which form she became by her imagination a child of this world, without intelligence, entirely in privation and destitution. It is thus that he acts still continually with us; he would introduce us into another image in order that, after the example of Adam and Eve in paradise, we may be ashamed of the light of God, which made them hide themselves behind trees, that is to say 9, behind the monstrous form, when the lord appeared in the centre of the generation of their life, and said: where art thou Adam? He answered: I am naked and I fear. That is nothing else but that he had lost his faith, and the knowledge of the holy God. For the true cause is that he considered that monstrous form which he had acquired after the plans of the demon, presented to his imagination and to his attraction, and by the false persuasion of eating of the third principle wherein corruption exists. 4. As the demon saw, and as he knew after the orders of God that if Adam ate 'k3
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.