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.
1et ton fruît est sauvage. Crois-tu cpie mon ame désire tes mets? Je ne mange point de ton fruit ; je suis le seul fort , et le règne est à moi ; celui qui se place sous mes ailes , je le prolège , et le garantis , aucune tempête ne le touchera. D'ailleurs le pays est à moi : j'ai bien voulu te l'abandonner , pouf l'en servir dans un amour unanime , et je vous ai engendrés tous d'une seule racine , afin que vous fussiez également uus , que vous vous aimassie* les uns les autres , et que vous vous prévinssiez mutuellement dans un chaste amour, 42. D'où es-tndonc devenue si grande et si forte, toi, bête sauvage? ne t'es^lu pas promenée dans mon jardin de roses ? n'y as-tu pas établi ton ht? Où sont tes frères et tes sœurs? pourquoi sont-ils couchés à tes pieds? pourquoi sont-ils si maigres , et que toi seule as tant d'embonpoint ? Apres avoir dévoré mes branches , n'as - tu pas engendré déjeunes loups, qui mangeront aussi ton bétail ? Toi , qui n'es qu'une bêle sauvage , avec tes petits, te dois-je donc souffrir dans mon jardin de roses? où est le noble fruit que j'avois semé? n'en as-tu pas fait de pures branches sauvages ? ou dois-je donc chercher le produit et le fruit de mon îardin de roses? Mon ame voudroil bien cependant inanger du bon fruit ; mais tu les as foulés aux pieds , et tu es devenue une caverne de meurtriers. 43. En outre, j'entends de grands hurlemenset des lamentations ; tous tes serviteurs crient : 3/a/- heur à toi ! parce que tu les molestes. Bien plus , tu as dédaigné ma noble semence, et lu ne l'as point ^^' 20. ( i45 ) semée, mais bienia semence sauvage, et cela pour satisfaire ta honteuse débauche , et pour alimente
2on orgueil Vois , je t'ai vomicontre Babel, dans la n-oideur de ma colère, et là , je te congèlerai Te mettrai ma branche de lys dans mon jardin de roVe ame , et desquels mon Adam malade doit manger pTaïï. "'"''" '" '^^^^^ ' ^^^"'^^ -^--ê- son De re.puhion cT^dam et d^E.e hors du paradis du jardin d'Eden, 44. I-o^q"" Dieu eut ainsi pourvu Adam e. Eve dua Labadebê.e, en sor.e qu'ils couvrirent leur l-onle , et purent se préserver du froid, il les fit .or..r du ,ardia, et devant ce jardin il' posa „^ chérub.n avec une épée nue et tranchante, pouî garderie chemin de l'arbre de vie 5 et c'es alors que l'homme dut labourer la .erre. Quant à nouT ^uvres enlans d'Adam et d'Eve , notre entende-' ment est tellement déchu, que, dans notre der- «■er âge nous atteignons à peine définitivement q..e que claru sur la lamentable chute d'Adam « d Eve,cequecependant nous devrions chercher très profondement dans lecentrede la lumière de la vie • carilestelonnantqueMoisedise : OUua^oU placé ù oh.ruUn devant U jardin . pour défendre le ckemin de l arbre de la .ie. Qui est-ce qui comprendroi. cela, si iJ'eu ne nous ouvroit les jeux ? On diroit que nous "• 10 ( 146 ) <*■ *"' parlons tout uniment d'un gardien avec une épée , et la raison ne voit pas autre chose.
345. Mais la noble vierge Sophie nous indique la porte, et comment nous devons entrer dans le paradis au travers de l'épée aiguë. Or l'épée sépare le corps terrestre de l'élément saint ; ainsi le nouvel tomme peut entrer dans le paradis par le chemin de la vie ; et l'épée n'est autre chose que le règne ou la porte de l'âpreté dans la colère de Dieu; là , l'homme doit pénétrer au travers de la mort colérique , par le centre , dans le second principe , dans le paradis du saint élément devant Dieu ; et c'est la que la mort colérique sépare le corps terrestre ou les quatre élémens d'avec l'élément saint. 46. Le gardien du jardin est le chérubin qui rompt la source des étoiles , laquelle source soutient les quatre élémens pendant un tems , et ensuite se brise : c'est par le moyen de sa quahié «mère et acérée qu'elle se sépare de l'ame, et qu'elle s'anéantit , et se consume , ainsi que son épée. Le gardien est ici dans le chemin , pour que nous ne puissions pas atteindre à l'arbre de l'é teraelle vie ; il est an milieu, et ne nous laisse point entrer dans le paradis. Le jardin gonflé d'Eden est notre chair terrestre, laquelle est comme la palissade devant le jardin. .47. Si maintenant quelqu'un veut entrer dans le îardin , il faut qu'il pénètre par l'épée de la mort. Quoique le Christ ail brisé l'épée de façon qu aujourd'hui , par notre ame , nous puissions pénélret
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.
1and thy fruit is wild. Believest thou that my soul desires thy meats? I eat not of thy fruit; I am the only strong one, and the reign is mine; he who places himself under my wings, I protect him, and guarantee him, no tempest shall touch him. Besides the country is mine: I have indeed been willing to abandon it to thee, to serve thee therein in a unanimous love, and I have begotten you all of one single root, so that you might be equally one, that you might love one another, and that you might mutually prevent one another in a chaste love, 42. Whence art thou then become so great and so strong, thou, wild beast? hast thou not walked in my garden of roses? hast thou not established there thy bed? Where are thy brothers and thy sisters? why are they lying at thy feet? why are they so lean, and thou alone hast so much stoutness? After having devoured my branches, hast thou not begotten young wolves, which shall eat also thy cattle? Thou, who art but a wild beast, with thy little ones, must I then suffer thee in my garden of roses? where is the noble fruit that I had sown? hast thou not made of it pure wild branches? or must I then seek the produce and the fruit of my garden of roses? My soul would indeed however eat of the good fruit; but thou hast trodden them under foot, and thou art become a cavern of murderers. 43. Besides, I hear great howlings and lamentations; all thy servants cry: 3/a/- Woe to thee! because thou molestest them. Still more, thou hast disdained my noble seed, and thou hast not ^^' 20. ( i45 ) sown it, but rather the wild seed, and that to satisfy thy shameful debauch, and to feed
2thy pride. See, I have vomited thee against Babel, in the coldness of my anger, and there, I will congeal thee. I will put my branch of lily in my garden of roVe soul, and of which my sick Adam must eat pTaïï. "'"''" '" '^^^^^ ' ^^^"'^^ -^--ê- son Of the repulsion of Adam and of Eve out of the paradise of the garden of Eden, 44. When God had thus provided Adam and Eve with the habit of a beast, so that they covered their shame, and could preserve themselves from the cold, he made them go out of the garden, and before this garden he placed a cherub with a naked and cutting sword, to guard the way of the tree of life 5 and it is then that man had to labour the earth. As to us, poor children of Adam and of Eve, our understanding is so fallen, that, in our latter age we scarcely attain definitively some clearness upon the lamentable fall of Adam and of Eve, which nevertheless we ought to seek very profoundly in the centre of the light of life; for it is astonishing that Moses should say: That he had placed a cherub before the garden, to defend the way of the tree of life. Who is it that would comprehend that, if God did not open our eyes? One would say that we "• 10 ( 146 ) <*■ *"' speak quite simply of a guardian with a sword, and reason sees nothing else.
345. But the noble virgin Sophia indicates to us the gate, and how we must enter into paradise through the sharp sword. Now the sword separates the terrestrial body from the holy element; thus the new man can enter into paradise by the way of life; and the sword is nothing else than the reign or the gate of harshness in the anger of God; there, man must penetrate through the choleric death, by the centre, into the second principle, into the paradise of the holy element before God; and it is there that the choleric death separates the terrestrial body or the four elements from the holy element. 46. The guardian of the garden is the cherub who breaks the source of the stars, which source sustains the four elements for a time, and afterward breaks itself: it is by means of its bitter and keen quality that it separates itself from the soul, and that it annihilates itself, and consumes itself, as well as its sword. The guardian is here in the way, so that we may not be able to reach to the tree of eternal life; he is in the midst, and lets us not enter into paradise. The swollen garden of Eden is our terrestrial flesh, which is like the palisade before the garden. .47. If now someone will enter into the garden, he must penetrate by the sword of death. Although the Christ has broken the sword so that today, by our soul, we may penetrate
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.