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.
153. C'est ici le sens de ce que Christ dit : Qu'un mauvais arbre porte dct mauvais fruits. Aussi d'uue mauvaise teinture croît une racine colérique et mauvaise, et ensuite un arbre pareil avec de [pareils fruits. Il en fut de même alors : telle que fut leur teinture dans la copulation , tel fut le fils qu'ils engendrèrent ; car l'esprit de la vie s'engendre des essences. 54. Puisqu' Adam étoit passé du paradis dans l'esprit de ce monde , alors il y eut bientôt , au sujet du fils d'Eve, un combat entre les deux régions ; savoir : entre le royaume du ciel, et celui de l'enfer. 55. Or,ron voit ici combien la colère l'a emporté -, et ce n'est pas sans raison que l'esprit de Dieu se lamente , en disant : Je suis comme un cultivateur qui glane là , et qui toutefois voudroit cependant bien manger des meilleurs fruits. 56. Mais c'est la faute de l'homme. S'il avoit mis sa confiance dans l'amour de Dieu , alors leroyaume de Dieu auroil eu le des.^us. Or , comme il Ta mise dans son mauvais attrait , en soi-même, et dans son propre pouvoir , il a été saisi par la colère, et son corps et son ame sont dans la colère. Mais s'il met sa base afifective el sa résolution en Dieu, alors en. 20. ( i5i ) il sort de la colère, et le royaume de Dieu opère en lui, pour le justifier. L'on voit doue clairement imr quelle cause le premier homme né de la femme , est devenu un meurtrier.
257. Car tel qu'étoit l'arbre , tel aussi fut le fruir. Cependant l'arbre n'étoit pas entièrement faux ; raaisdans le tems de V homification^ la teinture devint fausse, à cause du combat des deux régions. En outre sa mère Eve l'aida ensuite fortement , en ce qu'elle convoita un souverain terrestre et un briseur de serpent, et lui enseigna dès lors qu'il étoit le conquérant du démon , et qu'il devoil agir en conséquence. Ainsi la colère le retint prisonnier, et ses sacrifices ne furent point reçus de Dieu : dès qu'i! bâlissoil sur lui-même, dans la colère, sa prière ii'alleignoit point la porte du ciel; mais l'instigateur lasaisissoit, parce qu'elle procédoit de sa propre fausse affection et de son orgueil , comme on l'a vu chez les insensés pharisiens. 58. El toi, belle prostituée en Babel , pleine d'im^ pudicité et de débauche, tu trouves ici dans tes souillures un miroir de ta fausse union , opérée sans la crainte de Dieu ; vois donc ce que tu y sèmes; nu arbre |>eut-il croître de ce germe semé dans !• feu infernal ? Tu penses que c'est une chose indiff(Tente que de se livrer à la prostitution. Pér pitié , rcUechis où tu envoies ta teinture. Si elle est fidèle, elle atteint l'élément de Dieu j mais si tu ne la répands qu'en te livrant àj des mobiles trompeurs; que dans l'impulsion de la région des étoiles, et avec l'infection du démon ; enfin si tu ne la déposer ( l52 ) CH. 20. •que dans un vase de lavures ; qui penses-tu qui la reçoive? Ne sais-tu pas que la teinture dans la senience est une fleur de la vie, qui inqualifie avec ton corps et ton ame , et qui, là, aussi souvent qu'elle est engendrée, est une figure devant Dieu? Comment présumes-tu qu'elle existe alors dans l'amour de Dieu , plutôt que dans sa colère ?
359. O ! toi , prostituée babilonique , quand tu paillardes ainsi , uniquement par ta crapuleuse impudicité , que tu brises ensuite le Limbm , ensemble avec la matrice dans lesquels est la figure de l'image de Dieu ; tu oublies de quel fâcheux éclat cette figure peut briller. En effet , tout ce qui est engendré de la teinture doit, après la brisure de ce monde , exister en ombre devant Dieu ; mais celle figure ne paroîtra-t-elle pas alors dans la colère de Dieu ? ou bien as-tu des privilèges et des indulgences pour semer ainsi dans l'enfer ? Fais attention que cette figure nHnqualifie pas avec ton corps et ion ame-, car la teinture n'est nullement encore devenue esprit 5 mais elle t'atteint ; et si tu n'es pas régénéré par le sang du Christ , tu te baigneras éternellement en elle. Ce n'est pas moi qui te dis ces choses , mais le haut esprit dans le sein de la SOPHIS. 60. (5'est pourquoi pense à toi , ne dis pas : J'agis dans les ténèbres , et quand je fais l'amour , personne ne me voit. Tu es devant la claire face de Dieu : bien plus , tu es devant l'abîme de l'enfer , devant le conseil de tous les démons qui se jouent de toi : en outre , tu as un amour faux , infidèle ^ en. 20. ( 153 ) et ce n'est qu'une ardeur bestiale et terrestre. Si celle ardeur étoit vraie, tu ne souillerois pas ton frère et ta sœur. Vous souillez Tun cl l'autre l'image de Dieu , et vous êtes les plus cruels ennemis l'un de l'autre 5 vous voulez vous jeler muluellement dans la fosse de meurtre du démon , et vous êtes en ^uQTTe déclarée 5 mais le démon vous chalouille , il répand du sucre pour que vous vous enchaîniez ; cl puis il vous mène vers Jéricho , il vous flagelle et vous tourmente sans pitié.
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.
153. It is here the sense of what Christ says: That a bad tree bears bad fruits. Also of a bad tincture grows a choleric and bad root, and afterward a like tree with like fruits. It was the same then: such as was their tincture in the copulation, such was the son that they begot; for the spirit of life begets itself of the essences. 54. Since Adam had passed from paradise into the spirit of this world, then there was soon, upon the subject of the son of Eve, a combat between the two regions; to wit: between the kingdom of heaven, and that of hell. 55. Now, one sees here how much the anger has carried it; and it is not without reason that the spirit of God laments, saying: I am like a cultivator who gleans there, and who however would indeed eat of the better fruits. 56. But it is the fault of man. If he had put his confidence in the love of God, then the kingdom of God would have had the upper hand. Now, as he has put it in his bad attract, in himself, and in his own power, he has been seized by the anger, and his body and his soul are in the anger. But if he puts his affective base and his resolution in God, then en. 20. ( i5i ) he goes out of the anger, and the kingdom of God operates in him, to justify him. One sees then clearly by what cause the first man born of the woman, is become a murderer.
257. For such as was the tree, such also was the fruit. Nevertheless the tree was not entirely false; but in the time of the homification, the tincture became false, because of the combat of the two regions. Besides his mother Eve aided him afterward strongly, in that she coveted a terrestrial sovereign and a bruiser of the serpent, and taught him from then that he was the conqueror of the demon, and that he was to act in consequence. Thus the anger held him prisoner, and his sacrifices were not received of God: as soon as he built upon himself, in the anger, his prayer reached not the gate of heaven; but the instigator seized it, because it proceeded from his own false affection and from his pride, as one has seen among the insensate pharisees. 58. And thou, fair prostitute in Babel, full of impudicity and of debauch, thou findest here in thy defilements a mirror of thy false union, operated without the fear of God; see then what thou sowest therein; can a tree grow of this germ sown in the infernal fire? Thou thinkest that it is an indifferent thing to give oneself up to prostitution. For pity, reflect where thou sendest thy tincture. If it be faithful, it reaches the element of God; but if thou spreadest it only in giving thyself up to deceitful motives; if in the impulsion of the region of the stars, and with the infection of the demon; at last if thou depositest it ( l52 ) CH. 20. only in a vessel of washings; who thinkest thou receives it? Knowest thou not that the tincture in the seed is a flower of life, which inqualifies with thy body and thy soul, and which, there, as often as it is begotten, is a figure before God? How presumest thou that it exists then in the love of God, rather than in his anger?
359. O! thou, babylonic prostitute, when thou whorest thus, solely by thy crapulous impudicity, and thou breakest afterward the Limbus, together with the matrix in which is the figure of the image of God; thou forgettest with what troublesome brightness this figure can shine. In effect, all that is begotten of the tincture must, after the breaking of this world, exist in shadow before God; but shall not this figure appear then in the anger of God? or else hast thou privileges and indulgences to sow thus in hell? Give attention that this figure inqualifies not with thy body and thy soul; for the tincture is in no wise yet become spirit 5 but it reaches thee; and if thou art not regenerated by the blood of Christ, thou wilt bathe thyself eternally in it. It is not I who tell thee these things, but the high spirit in the bosom of the SOPHIS. 60. (5That is why think of thyself, say not: I act in the darkness, and when I make love, no one sees me. Thou art before the clear face of God: still more, thou art before the abyss of hell, before the council of all the demons who play with thee: besides, thou hast a false, unfaithful love; en. 20. ( 153 ) and it is but a bestial and terrestrial ardour. If this ardour were true, thou wouldst not defile thy brother and thy sister. You defile one another the image of God, and you are the most cruel enemies one of the other 5 you will mutually cast one another into the murder-pit of the demon, and you are in declared war 5 but the demon tickles you, he spreads sugar so that you may enchain yourselves; and then he leads you toward Jericho, he flagellates you and torments you without pity.
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.