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.
1Christ , par son entrée dans l'humanîfé et par sort entrée dans l'abîme de l'enfer j ,oi, arrachée du royaume du démon dans la puissance du père . •cellée par son sang et sa mort, et couverte avec ses enseignes de triomphe. Toutes les œuvres qua lu as opérées , bonnes ou mauvaises , le suivront en ombre; mais non pas en substance et en source r toutefois elles ne préjudicieront en rien aux saintes âmes dans le ciel , qui se seront portées vers la nonvelle naissance en Christ j mais leur plus grand* )o.e consistera en ce que, si elles ont été retenues dans de s. monstrueux péchés et de si lamentables misères , cependant leur sauveur , Christ les en a arrachées ; et il y aura pour elles une vive et parlicuhère salisfaclion de ce qu'elles sont délivrées de celui qui les poussoit au péché , ainsi que de leurs grandes misères , et de ce que l'instigateur est prisonnier , lui qui les a tourmentées jour et nuit par des. énormes péchés. ( L'esprit saint décrit ces louanges et ces. chants de joie des saints dans la loJ pseaume.) 38. Là les saintes âmes et les anges se réjouiront hautement dans un seul amour , de ce que la pauvreame est délivrée d'une si terrible misère, et alors commencera la grande joie dont Christ dit • Il y cura plus <U joU pour un pécheur qui fait pénitenc, que pour quatre-vingt-dix-neuf Ju^tee qui n'en on* P" be«,in. Et l'ame louer* lîieu de ce qu'il l'a déhvréede si grands péchés. 39. Par ce moyen la louange du CLrist, de ses mentes ,de ses souffrances et de sa mort , s'élève en I") « (lié) e«'9' éternité devant les pauvres ame»; et c'est le vrai cantique de l'épouse délivrée , qui s'élève dans le père , oii les âmes se réjouissent si hautement de ce que le persécuteur est emprisonné avec ses adhérens.
240. Ici s'accomplit ce que le roi David chante : Tu le verras (et tu t'en réjouiras) , comment les irapies seront récompensés, combien le persécuteur et Vmflammateur de la méchanceté en sera tourwenlé dans sa prison ; car les péchés lavés ne paToîtront point dans le ciel dans la forme de feu , comme dans l'abîme de l'enfer } mais comme du Isaie : Quand même vos péché, oeroUnt rouge» comm* du sang , « vous i'ous convertissez , ils deviendront d'un blanc de neige , comme de la laine. Ils demeureront en figure céleste , comme un chant de louange et un cantique d'action de grâce de la part de l'homme , pour sa délivrance du persécuteur. 41 . Comme donc le départ des âmes est si divers, de même aussi le tourment, après la séparation, est divers , de manière qu'à la vérité , plusieurs âmes eut un bien trisie temt à passer dans un purgaloirc ; telles que celles qui sont souillées par de grands péchés , et n'oni pas marché droit dans la vraie ré^énéralion ; et cependant y sont en quelque partie suspendues , comme cela arrive ordinairement pour ceux qui ont été chargés ici hasd'houïieurs et de puissance lemporelle , où communeBienl leur proiire pouvoir et leur intérêt particulier niarclieut avant le droit , et oii la méchanceté , et »on la sagesse , est le juge : alors on met ub grand ™. 19. ( „^ j poids sur la pauvre ame, et la pauvre ame vou. droit bien en être délivrée.
34*- Qu'ici bas l'homme se présente . et qu'il prie Dieu pour le pardon de ses péchés ; ses injustices le retiennent par son manteau. Il voudroit être juslihé mais son iniquité pointe dans l'abîme, e, elle ne le laisse pas entrer dans la nouvelle répénéralionsa cupidité l'a trop obsédé ; sa méchant'e BabTne le laisse pas aller des opinions de l'antecLrist, versia véritable et importante conversion ; elle ferme les portes de l'amour : l'esprit de ce monde dans les désirs de la chair , demeure le premier par-.ont. ^. Et cependant quand l'heur, delà mort arrive de laçonque la conscience s'éveille ,et que la pauvre ame s agite dans la grande crainte du tourment de 1 enfer c est alors qu'on voudroi, bien aussi être délivré ; mais il y a peu de foi; au contraire , pure injustice , fausseté , attract de la vie terrestre Les soupirs et les larmes du malheureux se jètent ardaminent en avant. Le démon lit ,à la base affective, ie livre de sa conscience j mais le monde voluptueux est aussi en avant. Le malheureux voudroit bien vivre plus long-tems ; il promet bien de mener une" conduite d'amendement , et sa base affective s'anproche eu effet un peu de Dieu , mais ses péchés la reuveiseni de nouveau, et il s'élève de grandsdoutes et de grandes inquiétudes : cependant plusieurs saisisseiit le sauveur par un CI. 44. Si donc maintenariHa mort vient, et sépara le corps et Pâme l'un de Paulre , alors la pauvre ame pend au fil, et ne veut pas Pabaudouneri mais ses. (f (ii8 ) en. 13.
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.
1Christ, by his entrance into the humanity and by his entrance into the abyss of hell; thou, torn from the kingdom of the demon into the power of the father, sealed by his blood and his death, and covered with his ensigns of triumph. All the works that thou hast operated, good or bad, will follow thee in shadow; but not in substance and in source: however they will in nothing prejudice the holy souls in heaven, who shall have borne themselves toward the new birth in Christ; but their greatest joy will consist in this, that, if they have been retained in such monstrous sins and such lamentable miseries, nevertheless their saviour, Christ has torn them out of them; and there will be for them a lively and particular satisfaction that they are delivered from him who pushed them to sin, as well as from their great miseries, and that the instigator is prisoner, he who tormented them day and night by enormous sins. ( The holy spirit describes these praises and these songs of joy of the saints in the loJ psalm. ) 38. There the holy souls and the angels will rejoice highly in one single love, that the poor soul is delivered from so terrible a misery, and then will begin the great joy of which Christ says: There will be more joy for one sinner who does penitence, than for ninety-nine just ones who have no need of it. And the soul will praise God that he has delivered it from such great sins. 39. By this means the praise of Christ, of his merits, of his sufferings and of his death, rises in I") « (lié) e«'9' eternity before the poor souls; and it is the true canticle of the delivered bride, which rises in the father, where the souls rejoice so highly that the persecutor is imprisoned with his adherents.
240. Here is accomplished what king David sings: Thou shalt see it ( and thou shalt rejoice at it ), how the impious shall be recompensed, how much the persecutor and the inflamer of wickedness shall be tormented for it in his prison; for the washed sins shall not appear in heaven in the form of fire, as in the abyss of hell; but as says Isaiah: Even though your sins were red as blood, if you convert yourselves, they shall become of a snow-white, like wool. They shall abide in celestial figure, like a song of praise and a canticle of thanksgiving on the part of man, for his deliverance from the persecutor. 41 . As then the departure of souls is so diverse, likewise also the torment, after the separation, is diverse, so that in truth, several souls have a very sad time to pass in a purgatory; such as those which are soiled by great sins, and have not walked straight in the true regeneration; and nevertheless are in some part suspended therein, as that happens ordinarily for those who have been charged here below with honours and with temporal power, where commonly their own power and their particular interest march before the right, and where wickedness, and not wisdom, is the judge: then men put a great ™. 19. ( „^ j weight upon the poor soul, and the poor soul would indeed like to be delivered from it.
34*- Let man here below present himself, and pray God for the pardon of his sins; his injustices retain him by his mantle. He would like to be justified, but his iniquity points into the abyss, and it lets him not enter into the new regeneration; his cupidity has too much beset him; his wicked Babel lets him not go from the opinions of the antichrist, toward the true and important conversion; it shuts the gates of love: the spirit of this world in the desires of the flesh, remains the first everywhere. ^. And nevertheless when the hour of death arrives, so that the conscience awakes, and the poor soul agitates itself in the great fear of the torment of 1 hell, it is then that one would indeed also like to be delivered; but there is little faith; on the contrary, pure injustice, falseness, attract of the terrestrial life. The sighs and the tears of the wretched one throw themselves ardently forward. The demon reads, at the affective base, the book of his conscience; but the voluptuous world is also forward. The wretched one would indeed like to live longer; he promises indeed to lead a conduct of amendment, and his affective base approaches in effect a little to God, but his sins overturn it anew, and there rise great doubts and great disquiets: nevertheless several seize the saviour by a thread. 44. If then now death comes, and separates the body and the soul the one from the other, then the poor soul hangs by the thread, and will not abandon it; but its (f (ii8 ) en. 13.
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.