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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.
1101. Ton règne puissant, ô! Caïn . n'est pomt découlé de Dieu , mais du ciel astral dans la colère , lequel domine maintenant sur toi , et te donne souvent des tyrans qui consument ta sueur dau» leur orgueil. Voilà quel est ton paradis. ,02. Saint-Paul écrit à la vérité : // «>« «"cune puUsanc. qui ne vienm de Dieu. Mais il dit : C*»* „„, vengeance contre le» impiee et ce n'.:st pae en m.» „„. le, prince, portent Pcpée. Ici il .'est asse^ prouvé comment Dieu use du régime et de 1 epée de ce monde envers les impies ; c'est la ce qui constitue maintenant ton jougacausedespecl.es, puisque tu es un perpétuel dévora.eur et un .neurtrier. Réllcchis sérieusement sur toi et sur l epce de la vengeance , peut - être le reconnoitras - tu. Mais si l'on dit .lue Dieu a eu dégoût les grandes lyranuies , et les oppressions par lesquelles ou dissipe dans l'orgueil la s.ieur des misérables, Caïn ne peut pas supporter cela, et même, .1 MOUS donneroit ce régime pour la sainteté , si la terrible exemple du déluge n'étoil pas la. ,o3. Mais ton règne, ô! Caïn , est bau dans CH. 20* ( 167 ) Babel , et ta bè(e domine sur Sodome et Gomorre* li y a là un feu qui vient du seigneur du ciel 3 il est lems que tu sortes de Sodome avec Loth. Le péché s'éveifh dans Caïn,
2104. Lorsque Caïn eut tué son frère , il marcha fièrement comme un dominateur, et dit en soir Mainfenanl tu es le seul prince sur Ja terre. Mai» la voir de la colère de Dieu se fit entendre . et dit r où est ton frère Abel ? il répondil : je ne sais , suisje le gardien de mon frère? I>ieu dit : qu'as-tu fait ? vois , la voix du sang de ton frère crie de la terre vers moi ; désormais -tu seras maudit sur la terre , qui a ouvert sa bouche et a reçu de tes raaîn» le sang de ton frère. Quand tir laboureras la terre, elle ne le donnera plus sa puissante vertu, ïu serat errant et fugitif sur la terre. 105. Enfin , lorsque la colère de Dieu eut remué le péché dans Caïn, ce péché poussa et le mit dans le trouble; alors on vit sa foi fausse, car il douta et s*écria : mes péchés sont trop grands pour qu'ils puissent m'êlre pardonnes. Tu me chasses aujourd'hui de la terre j il faut que jo rac cache de ta face , et que je sois errant er vagabond sur la terre jainsi tel est mon sort à préisen» que quiconque me rencontrera me tuera. 106. Ici se découvre à nous entièrement , la porte effroyable , lamentable el douloureuse du trouble sur les péchés commis. Car là , Dieu dit » Tu es muudU sur la terre qui a ouvert sa bouc/te ^ :i ( l68 ) CM. 20. H a reçu de tes mains le sang de ton frère. Alors le règne gonflé , plein de sa propre puissance , dissimulé , hypocrite de Tanfechrist o été rqete de Dieu, et s'est séparé , lui-même , de Dieu par son entrée dans la colère , ou par le meurtre.
3J07. C'est pourquoi Dieu dit : Tu es maudit : et le sens de cette malédiction , ou de celte répulsion à l'égard de la colère, est que l'amour de Dieu ne veut point demeurer dans la colère , et que ce règne lie doit point s'appeler de son nom. Car Dieu n*a point acquiescé au meurtre, mais seulement la colère , au sujet de laquelle cependant Dieu a averti Caïn par le sacrifice , lui faisant entendre qu'il devoit être pieux; qu'alors il seroit agréable.; que sans cela, le péché reposoil dans le royaume de la colère devant la porte ; qu'il ne falloit pas lui accorder la puissance , mais dominer sur lui. Or , comme Caïn laissa la puissance au péché, alors h péché domina sur lui, et le vainquit. 108. Ainsi Dieu s'éloigna, o'est-à-dire , Caïn passa de Dieu , du royaume de Dieu dans le règne de la colère de l'instigateur. C'est pourquoi aussi l'objet ou le plan qu'il se proposoit à l'avenir n'eut point le caractère divin , mais celui du royaume de la colère qui le dirigea et l'engendra , ou bien éveilla par lui ses merveilles, pour que ce royaume (ùt aussi manifesté 5 cnr comme c'étoit une grande merveille, que la manière dont la noble image dans Abel devoit être séparée de la colère de l'eufer, et de ce monde dans le ^mem^n^ du corps ; Véloit là aussi que le royaume de l'enfer auroil bieu ÇH. 20. ( 169 } volontiers saisi cette image. C'est pourquoi la première mort devoit arriver en hâte; car le briseur de serpent a opéré le premier secret de sa puissante science , lorsque le royaume de ce monde s'est séparé d'Abel, et que le chérubin a retranché, pour la première fois , les quatre élémens de l'élément saint.
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.
1101. Thy powerful reign, O! Cain, is not at all flowed from God, but from the astral heaven in the anger, which dominates now over thee, and gives thee often tyrants who consume thy sweat in their pride. Behold what is thy paradise. ,02. Saint-Paul writes in truth: There is no power that comes not from God. But he says: It is a vengeance against the impious and it is not in vain that the princes bear the sword. Here it is proved enough how God uses the régime and 1 the sword of this world toward the impious; it is that which constitutes now thy yoke because of sins, since thou art a perpetual devourer and a murderer. Reflect seriously upon thyself and upon the sword of vengeance, perhaps thou wilt recognise it. But if one says that God has had disgust at the great tyrannies, and the oppressions by which one dissipates in pride the sweat of the miserable, Cain cannot support that, and even, .1 he would give us this régime for holiness, if the terrible example of the deluge were not there. ,o3. But thy reign, O! Cain, is built in CH. 20* ( 167 ) Babel, and thy beast dominates over Sodom and Gomorrah; there is there a fire which comes from the lord of heaven 3 it is time that thou go out of Sodom with Lot. Sin awakes in Cain,
2104. When Cain had killed his brother, he marched proudly as a dominator, and said within himself: Now thou art the only prince upon the earth. But the voice of the anger of God made itself heard, and said: where is thy brother Abel? he answered: I know not, am I the guardian of my brother? God said: what hast thou done? see, the voice of the blood of thy brother cries from the earth toward me; henceforth thou shalt be cursed upon the earth, which has opened its mouth and has received from thy hands the blood of thy brother. When thou shalt labour the earth, it shall no more give thee its powerful virtue. Thou shalt be wandering and fugitive upon the earth. 105. At last, when the anger of God had moved sin in Cain, this sin shot up and put him in trouble; then his false faith was seen, for he doubted and cried: my sins are too great for them to be able to be pardoned me. Thou chasest me to-day from the earth; I must hide myself from thy face, and be wandering and vagabond upon the earth; thus such is my lot at present that whosoever shall meet me will kill me. 106. Here is discovered to us entirely, the frightful, lamentable and painful gate of the trouble upon sins committed. For there, God says: Thou art cursed upon the earth which has opened its mouth :i ( l68 ) CM. 20. and has received from thy hands the blood of thy brother. Then the swollen reign, full of its own power, dissimulated, hypocritical of the antichrist has been rejected of God, and has separated itself, itself, from God by its entry into the anger, or by the murder.
3J07. That is why God says: Thou art cursed: and the sense of this malediction, or of this repulsion in regard to the anger, is that the love of God will not dwell in the anger, and that this reign must not be called by his name. For God has not acquiesced in the murder, but only the anger, upon the subject of which nevertheless God had warned Cain by the sacrifice, giving him to understand that he was to be pious; that then he would be agreeable; that without that, sin reposed in the kingdom of anger before the door; that he must not accord it the power, but dominate over it. Now, as Cain left the power to sin, then sin dominated over him, and vanquished him. 108. Thus God withdrew, that is to say, Cain passed from God, from the kingdom of God into the reign of the anger of the instigator. That is why also the object or the plan that he proposed to himself for the future had not the divine character, but that of the kingdom of anger which directed him and begot him, or rather awakened by him its marvels, so that this kingdom might also be manifested 5 for as it was a great marvel, how the noble image in Abel was to be separated from the anger of hell, and from this world in the breaking of the body; it was there also that the kingdom of hell would indeed ÇH. 20. ( 169 } willingly have seized this image. That is why the first death was to come in haste; for the bruiser of the serpent operated the first secret of his powerful science, when the kingdom of this world separated itself from Abel, and when the cherub cut off, for the first time, the four elements from the holy element.
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.