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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.
183. Car UQ homme est souvent, à l'extérieur. ( i6o ) en. 20. assez mécliamenl naturisé par les éloiles, pour être à soi-même un objet odieux. Maisquand il se considère , qu'il enire en soi dans Thomme intérieur, et qu'il se porte à l'ainendement , il peut bien , à la vérilé , ne pas se dépouiller tout-à-fait du méchant homme externe , mais il ne peut manquer de briser toujours un peu l'extérieur par l'intérieur, c'est-à-dire , de briser la tête au serpent 84. Car , le serpent en pique plusieurs à l'extérieur; mais quand il subjugue l'homme intérieur, c'est alors que l'image de Dieu disparoit. La méchanceté 'des étoiles en pousse plusieurs au meurtre, au vol , au mensonge et à la tromperie , jusqu'à les conduire au supplice du gibet et du glaive , et n'a cependant pas encore en sa possession tout l'intérieur 5 mais cet intérieur est encore dans les portes, et peut , par la pénitence , entrer dans une seconde image qui n'est point semblable à l'extérieur 5 aussi ne peut-on guère juger l'homme intérieur par l'extérieur , à moins qu'on ne voie qu'il méprise Dieu , et qu'il blasphème l'esprit saint. Dans de tels êtres, il n'y a point d'image divine , et ils sont dans un fâcheux élat-.cependant leur Jugement n'a pas lieu dan» ce corps. La porte de la miséricorde est ouverte devant eux tant qu'il sont dans cette demeure. 85. Mais après cette vie , l'homme n'atteindra plus celle porte , à moins qu'il ne tienne par un fil à la miséricorde divine ; toutefois Dieu ne veut pas éteindre la mèche qui fume , comme dit Is.ne ; quoique le méchant doive néanmoins se baigner dans ses péchés jusqu'à ce que la ca!èj:e soit î-urc». ao. ( 161 )
2montée par la mort du Christ , qui est le fîl auquel il faut qu'il tienne. C'est la putréfaction dans son propre péché , qui est son purgatoire; il n'a pas besoin d'un />ttr^«/oire étranger , dont l'antechrist nous berce ; mais du sien propre, dans son péché. 86. Aussi n'est-on pas entièrement sans purgatoire, comme le suppose le trompeur ou labêtede prostitution : car on sait bien aussi qu'après cette passagère vie exierne, il y a une vie élernelle, et qu'ici tous les péchés se peuvent remettre ; mais pendant que tu es en ire la porte et les gonds , et que tu liens à un cheveu, tu n'es pas encore entièrement dans l'élernelle vie. Or, dès que tu es dans rélernelle vie, tu es complet, soi i dans le ciel, soit dans l'enfer, et alors il n'y a plus aucune délivrance ; car c'est rélernelle vie. ^7, Mais si nous parlons ainsi du pieux Abeî nous ne pouvons pas dire non plus à son sujet que le royaume du ciel ne Tait pas assisté , de façon qu'il se soit rendu de sa propre puissance , ixn homme aussi pieux : car le ciel a été en comba't , et a triomphé de la colère. En edet , l'homme est foibleet sans intelligence ; il ne peur pas beaucoup agir par sa propre puissance ; cependant il a l'imagination et le choix, ou le libre abandon. Là donc l'opérateur est bientôt prêt à le travailler selon ce qu'il désire, comme on le voit à Adam. Lorsqu'il eut désiré dans l'espi it de ce monde , l'opérateur fut aussiiôt là , et fil d'une imafee augélique un homme terrestre, «8. Le désir est l'introduction en une chose , %t /l * * * ) { 162 ) cn.îd
3du désîr provient la forme du désir , c'csl-à-dire , un corps. La source du péclië poinledans ce produit : aussi le désir est plus aisé à arrêter que le corps du désir n'est aisé à briser. En effet, c'est une entreprise rude ; c'est pourquoi il est bon de défour- »er les yeux: alors la teinture n'entre point dans Jes essences |wir lesquelles l'esprit se laisse imprégner. Car le désir et la base affective ne sont pas tnlièrement les mêmes -, mais ce sont deux sœurs; e\ aussiiot que le désir a imprégné la base affective, il V a déjà alors u niMnoi lié de substance ; or il faut néce«:sairejnent que cela se brise ; ou bien Itela devient une substance complète et une cbose «xisianle. 89. Maintenant donc Abel est la première église clirélienne en charité souffrante, que Dieu a établie pour que l'église caïnique se convcrflt par Alx^l. C'est pourquoi il n'a pas tellement rejeté l'églis» caïnique , qu'il ne voulut en prendre aucun membre ; elle ( c'est-à-dire , la vraie église chrétienne ) est comme une brebis au milieu des loups , quoique nous soyons des hommes et non pas des loups ( a la ▼érité nous sommes des loups dans la base affective etdans sa rigure).Celte église enseigne les impies ;s'iL« seconveilissentjalors elle lésa conquis;ilssont bientôt figurés en sainte image céleste , et il résulte une grande joie devant les anges de Dieu , de ce que le royaume d uciel est ainsi victorieux. 90. Ou bien comptes-tu pour rien ce que rapporte l'ange Gabriel , qui , selon la parole de Daniel , dit que le prince d«B Perses lui a resté vingt-uB Jours j fK. ad. ( i63 )
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.
183. For a man is often, exteriorly, ( i6o ) en. 20. wickedly enough naturised by the stars, to be to himself an odious object. But when he considers himself, when he enters into himself into the interior man, and when he bears himself to amendment, he can indeed, in truth, not strip himself quite of the wicked external man, but he cannot fail to break always a little the exterior by the interior, that is to say, to break the head of the serpent 84. For, the serpent stings several exteriorly; but when it subjugates the interior man, it is then that the image of God disappears. The wickedness of the stars pushes several to murder, to theft, to lying and to deceit, even to conducting them to the punishment of the gibbet and of the sword, and has however not yet in its possession all the interior 5 but this interior is still in the gates, and can, by penitence, enter into a second image which is not like the exterior 5 also can one hardly judge the interior man by the exterior, unless one see that he despises God, and that he blasphemes the holy spirit. In such beings, there is no divine image, and they are in a troublesome state; nevertheless their judgment takes not place in this body. The gate of mercy is open before them as long as they are in this dwelling. 85. But after this life, man shall no more reach this gate, unless he hold by a thread to the divine mercy; however God will not extinguish the wick which smokes, as says Isaiah; although the wicked one must nevertheless bathe himself in his sins until the anger be î-urc». ao. ( 161 )
2mounted by the death of Christ, which is the thread to which he must hold. It is the putrefaction in his own sin, which is his purgatory; he has no need of a foreign purgatory, wherewith the antichrist rocks us; but of his own, in his sin. 86. Also one is not entirely without purgatory, as the deceiver or the beast of prostitution supposes: for one knows well also that after this passing external life, there is an eternal life, and that here all sins can be remitted; but whilst thou art between the door and the hinges, and holdest by a hair, thou art not yet entirely in the eternal life. Now, as soon as thou art in the eternal life, thou art complete, be it in heaven, be it in hell, and then there is no more any deliverance; for it is the eternal life. ^7, But if we speak thus of the pious Abel, we cannot say either upon his subject that the kingdom of heaven has not assisted him, so that he made himself of his own power, a man so pious: for heaven has been in combat, and has triumphed over the anger. In effect, man is feeble and without intelligence; he cannot act much by his own power; nevertheless he has imagination and choice, or free abandonment. There then the operator is soon ready to work him according to what he desires, as one sees in Adam. When he had desired in the spirit of this world, the operator was at once there, and made of an angelic image a terrestrial man, «8. Desire is the introduction into a thing, and /l * * * ) { 162 ) cn.îd
3of desire proceeds the form of desire, that is to say, a body. The source of sin points in this product: also desire is easier to arrest than the body of desire is easy to break. In effect, it is a rude enterprise; that is why it is good to turn away the eyes: then the tincture enters not into the essences by which the spirit lets itself be impregnated. For desire and the affective base are not entirely the same; but they are two sisters; and as soon as desire has impregnated the affective base, there is already then a half of substance; now it must necessarily break; or else it becomes a complete substance and an existing thing. 89. Now then Abel is the first christian church in suffering charity, that God has established so that the cainic church might convert itself by Abel. That is why he has not so rejected the cainic church, that he would take no member of it; she ( that is to say, the true christian church ) is like a sheep in the midst of wolves, although we are men and not wolves ( in truth we are wolves in the affective base and in its figure ). This church teaches the impious; if they convert themselves, then she has conquered them; they are soon figured in holy celestial image, and there results a great joy before the angels of God, that the kingdom of heaven is thus victorious. 90. Or else countest thou for nothing what the angel Gabriel reports, who, according to the word of Daniel, says that the prince of the Persians has withstood him twenty-one days; fK. ad. ( i63 )
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.