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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.
1mens , et contemplent souvent dans l'exlra-génëration la colère que les hommes ont éveillée. C'est pourquoi prends garde de ne pas faire croître sur cela de la paille légère, ou de l'herbe sauvage des quatre éiémens. N*as-lu pas l'esprit des connoissances du saint élément? Alors laisse-les en repos, ne les souille point avet les quatre éléniens; autrement cela reste en Babel ; il n'est pas bon debàlir en elle les quatre éiémens : car le Chérub est ait milieu , avec son épée nue et tranchante, et retranchera tout ce qui n'appartient point à la bergerie: tu n'en retireras pas de profit, car ton travail demeure dans le pays de ^oD (dans la mémeté et Végoïté, ) iiS. Oî nouveau Caïn, fais seulement attention à ton règne , et rétîéchis à ce qui est arrivé à ton grand-père Gain , qui a bâti ce règne, et ç\\x\ cria là : Ah î mes péchés sont trop grands, pour qu'ils puissent m'être pardonnes (lorsqu'il vit que, par son règne , il étoit hors de Dieu , dans l'abîme de l'enfer). Il eût été entièrement perdu , si l'aimable parole de Dieu ne l'avoit pas rappelé , en disant : Non ; quiconque tuera Caïn , sera puni septante fois. Or Dieu lui imprima un signe, pour que celui qui le trouveroii , ne le tuât pas , tant il étoit épouvanté. Ce sout là de merveilleuses paroles, tant la face de Moïse est sous le voile j car le voile est vraiment l'église caïuique , qui couvre le règne du Christ. 116. On voit ici nettemement et clairement la base et la racine de la fausse église cain/4ue; car •«. ao. ( iy3 )
2Caïn s'étoit fait maître de la terre , et se reposoît sur lui-même. Mais là , il n'avoiten soi rien autre chose en propriété que le premier et le troisième principe ; car , selon son ame, il étoit dans le premier principe , comme tous les hommes , et selon le corps, il étoit dans le troisième principe, dans le règne de ce monde. 1 17. Or il devoit , par son ame , passer du rovaume de ce monde dans le second principe en Dieu , ou dans la confiance en Dieu , dans la parole de la promesse , comme fit Abel ; et travailler avec se% mains dans le royaume de ce monde , planter et bâtir. Mais sa base affective devoit être dirigée vers Dieu avec confiance , recommander à Dieu le royaume de ce monde , et s'y conduire comme un voyageur étranger; qui n'étoit dans ses propriétés que par ce corps étranger , e^ selon le corps ; qui n'étoit étranger que selon l'ame ; qui en outre étoit un hôte honteux, tel que seroit ici un prisonnier; et dont toutes les idées et les occupations dévoient êtrç de retourner dans sa vraie patrie, de laquelle il est exilé avec son père Adam-, mais il laissa là le royaume du ciel , et il se livra avec son ame entièrement au royaume de ce monde , dans lequel il vouloit être un maître : ainsi la colère le saisit, car il se sépara de la parole et de la promesse de grâce. 118. Alors la parole dans le centre du ciel resta vis-à-vis de lui. Pour lui , il resta dans la racine de l'âpreté devant la parole : car son esprit se retira des portes du centre céleste , et resta dans la source «le Torigine de la création , dans la colérique racine ignée , et désira les quatre éléinens ou Textra-génération hors du saint élément , laquelle resla aussi dans la colère de Venflammemenl.
3119. El de là résulta sa colère contre Abel , parce qu'Abel ne se renfermoit point dans cette généra* lion : or , son esprit ne vouloit point toutefois souffrir le règne d'Abeldans son règne : car il vouloi', comme étant puissant par Ini-môme , régner sur les deux principes dans lesquels il étoil : c'est pour cela qu'il luaAbel. I30. Or ) Dieu ne le vouloit pas ainsi ; mais il enflamma dansCaïn la colère qui auparavant avoit reposé dans le royaume gonflé des quatre élémens , et n'avoit fait que s'élever dans une grande et puissante joie, tandis que Gain ignoroil cette colère et ne connoissoit rien d'elle. Seulement les essenceé de l'ame savoient qu'elles s'étoient conduites faussement ; mais la source colérique dans Venflantràement du feu , ne les connut point jusqu'à ce qu'elles fussent passées du centi-e de Dieu dans raltéfatioA Plia falsification. Là elles sentirent le feu de la 60lère avec un grand effroi , nn tremblement et des tris ; car elles étoient sorties de Dieu , et né Toyoient ni ne sentoient plus la source céleste ; c'est pourquoiellesdésespéroient, parce qu'elles se troiivoient dans la source de la colère. Ainsi le corps ou la circonsttipiion cria avec toutes les essences : mes péchés sont trop grands pour qu'ils puissent m'êtrfe pardonné!, m. L'on voit bien ici le ifairoir de l'abîme inCtf. .ÈO» Ê f^c \
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.
1ents, and contemplate often in the extra-generation the anger that men have awakened. That is why take care not to make grow upon that light straw, or wild grass of the four elements. Hast thou not the spirit of the knowledges of the holy element? Then leave them in repose, soil them not with the four elements; otherwise that remains in Babel; it is not good to build in it the four elements: for the Cherub is in the midst, with his naked and cutting sword, and will cut off all that belongs not to the sheepfold: thou wilt draw from it no profit, for thy labour remains in the country of noD ( in sameness and egoity, ) iiS. O new Cain, give only attention to thy reign, and reflect upon what happened to thy grandfather Cain, who built this reign, and who cried there: Ah! my sins are too great, for them to be able to be pardoned me ( when he saw that, by his reign, he was out of God, in the abyss of hell ). He would have been entirely lost, if the amiable word of God had not recalled him, saying: No; whosoever shall kill Cain, shall be punished seventy times. Now God imprinted on him a sign, so that he who should find him, might not kill him, so much was he affrighted. These are marvellous words, so much is the face of Moses under the veil; for the veil is truly the cainic church, which covers the reign of Christ. 116. One sees here neatly and clearly the base and the root of the false cain/4ic church; for •«. ao. ( iy3 )
2Cain had made himself master of the earth, and reposed upon himself. But there, he had in himself nothing else in property than the first and the third principle; for, according to his soul, he was in the first principle, like all men, and according to the body, he was in the third principle, in the reign of this world. 1 17. Now he was to, by his soul, pass from the kingdom of this world into the second principle in God, or into confidence in God, into the word of the promise, as Abel did; and to labour with his hands in the kingdom of this world, to plant and to build. But his affective base was to be directed toward God with confidence, to recommend to God the kingdom of this world, and to conduct himself there as a foreign traveller; who was in his properties only by this foreign body, and according to the body; who was foreign only according to the soul; who besides was a shameful guest, such as a prisoner would be here; and whose every idea and occupation was to be of returning into his true fatherland, from which he is exiled with his father Adam; but he left there the kingdom of heaven, and he gave himself with his soul entirely to the kingdom of this world, in which he would be a master: thus the anger seized him, for he separated himself from the word and from the promise of grace. 118. Then the word in the centre of heaven remained opposite to him. For him, he remained in the root of harshness before the word: for his spirit withdrew itself from the gates of the celestial centre, and remained in the source of the origin of the creation, in the choleric igneous root, and desired the four elements or the extra-generation out of the holy element, which remained also in the anger of the inflaming.
3119. And thence resulted his anger against Abel, because Abel enclosed himself not in this generation: now, his spirit would however not suffer the reign of Abel in his reign: for he would, as being powerful by himself, reign over the two principles in which he was: it is for that that he killed Abel. I30. Now, God willed it not thus; but he inflamed in Cain the anger which before had reposed in the swollen kingdom of the four elements, and had done nothing but rise in a great and powerful joy, whilst Cain was ignorant of this anger and knew nothing of it. Only the essences of the soul knew that they had conducted themselves falsely; but the choleric source in the inflaming of the fire, knew them not until they were passed from the centre of God into alteration or falsification. There they felt the fire of the ang60er with a great fright, a trembling and cries; for they were gone out of God, and saw no more nor felt the celestial source; that is why they despaired, because they found themselves in the source of anger. Thus the body or the circumscription cried with all the essences: my sins are too great for them to be able to be pardoned me. m. One sees well here the mirror of the abyss inCtf. .ÈO» Ê f^c \
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.