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.
1rru ne le trouYcras pas là. Cherche-le dans ton cœur, clans le centre de l'engendrement de ta vie ; là tu la trouveras , comme lirenl le père Adam et la mèreEve, 9. Car il est écrit : vous devez êlre engendrés d» nouveau par l'eau et par l'esprit , autrement vous ne verrez point le rojraume de Dieu. Cette naissance doit arriver en toi ; le cœur ou le fils de Dieu doit ^'élever dans Vengend rement de la vie , c'est alors que le Christ, ton sauveur, est ton fidèle pasleur , et tues eu lui, et lui en toi; tout ce que lui et son pèro ont 5 est à toi , et personne ne t'arrachera de ses «lains. Mais comme le fils ou le cœur du père est unique , aussi ton nouvel homme dans le père , et 1© fils, est unique , une seule puissance , une lumière, «ne vie , un éternel paradis , une éternelle génération céleste , un père , fils et esprit saint , et tu en et J'enfant. Si le fils voit bien ce que le père fait dans la maison , et si ce fils en acquerl aussi la connoissance , quel déplaisir le père éprouveroit-il au sujet clu fils? le père ne se réjouiroit il donc pas au sujet de son fils de ce qu'il prospère si bien ? pourquoi donc le père céleste s'ennuieroit-ilde voir sesenfans dans ce monde s'attacher à lui , le supplier , chercher à le connoître , à opérer son œuvre , et à faire sa volonté ? Aussi le régénérateur nous avertit de venir à lui , et celui qui vient à lui , il ne le repousse point. Quelqu'un voudroit-il s'opposer à l'esprit de prophétie qui est de Dieu? considère les apôtres du Christ. Qui est-ce qui les enseigne , si ce n'est Pieu ? Il étoit en eux , et eux en Dieu. ■^o,Ochers enfans d«Pieu eu Christ , fnjrcz devant rxi. 4. If 35 )
2î'antechrîst qui s*est établi lui - même dans toute l'étendue de la terre ; il vous représente une image de la conduite du serpent envers la mère Eve, et il vous peint votre image divine comme étant loin de Dieu. Pensez à ce qui est écrit : la parole est près de vous 5 oui, dans Votre cœur, et sur vos lèvres , et Dieu même est la parole qui est dans votre cœur et sur vos lèvres. n. Mais l'an lechrist n'a jamais cherché autre chose qu'à satisfaire son attrait pour le troisième principe , dans cette maison de chair ; c'est pourquoi il a étourdi les hommes avec des lois qui ne se trouvent, ni dans le paradis de Dieu , ni dans le centre de /'<?»* gendrement de la vie , et qui n'ont point été établies dans la nature. 12. Pense à lui, enfant de l'amour, vois avec quelle force et quelle puissance l'esprit de Dieu marcha dans la parole et dans les œuvres ^ par des prodiges et des merveilles au tems des apôtres , et même depuis, avant que l'antechrist et l'esprit d'orgueil partictilier s'avançât avec ses lois et sa sagesse sydérique , et s'établit sur un bras mondain et char* iiel, uniquement parce qu'il cherchoit sa propre satisfaction et sa gloire» Alors les précieuses paroles du Christ ( qui cependant n'a donné aucune loi aux hommes, si ce n'est la loi de la nature [ éternelle ], et la loi de l'amour qui est son propre cœur] durent être un dégoût pour lui, antechrist ou contre-christ , qui est prince dans le troisième principe. Dès lors il voulut mettre ses propres institutions au même rang que la voix qui, sortant du buisson, se fît entendre k X 36 ) «•«• 4Moïse. L'homme de l'orgueil se persuada qu'il avoil lui - même une puissance divine sur la terre , et ne connut pas dans son aveuglement que l'esprit saint ne se laisse point lier.
3i3. Mais si quelqu'un veut parvenir à la saîntelé, il doit, selonletémoignagedeJesus-Christ, renaître de nouveau par l'eau dans le centre de la gén^Talion de la vie , et par l'esprit saint qui s'élève dans le centre de la lumière de Dieu. C'est pour celle fin que Dieu le pèreaordonné par son fils le saint baptême, afin que nous eussions ainsi une loi , et un mémorial frappant , comme un enfant inintelligent reçoit un témoignage extérieur 5 et l'homme interne , la force et la génération nouvelle dans le centre de la génération de la vie j et alors se manifeste la confirmation qui apporta dans Adam la lumière de Dieu , lorsque Dieu le père perça et pénétra dans Adam avec sa lumière , ou son cœur , dans le centre de la cinquième forme de la génération de la vie. Il en est de même du baptême de l'enfant , et de l'homme pénitent, et se convertissant au père dans le Christ* 14. La dernière cène du Christ avec ses disciples est dans le même sens ; c'est une alliance semblable à celle du baptême de l'enfant. Ce qui arrive dans le baptême pour l'enfant impubère , arrive pour le pauvre pénitent , et pour le pécheur , qui du sommeil de l'antechrist se reveille au Christ , e t doit être ramené au père par le Christ , comme à sa vraie demeure. i5. C'est pourquoi j'ai voulu d'avance te prévenir et l'annoncer qu'il ne faut pas regarder dans ce« CH. 4. C 37 )
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.
1thou wilt not find him there. Seek him in thy heart, in the centre of the begetting of thy life; there thou wilt find him, as did the father Adam and the mother Eve, 9. For it is written: you must be begotten anew by the water and by the spirit, otherwise you shall not see the kingdom of God. That birth must arrive in thee; the heart or the son of God must rise in the begetting of the life; it is then that the Christ, thy saviour, is thy faithful pastor, and thou art in him, and he in thee; all that he and his father have 5 is thine, and no one shall tear thee from his hands. But as the son or the heart of the father is one, so thy new man in the father, and 1the son, is one, one single power, one light, one life, one eternal paradise, one eternal celestial generation, one father, son and holy spirit, and thou art the child of it. If the son sees well what the father does in the house, and if that son acquires also the knowledge of it, what displeasure would the father feel on the subject of the son? would the father then not rejoice on the subject of his son that he prospers so well? why then should the celestial father be vexed to see his children in this world attach themselves to him, supplicate him, seek to know him, to work his work, and to do his will? Also the regenerator warns us to come to him, and him who comes to him, he repulses not. Would anyone wish to oppose himself to the spirit of prophecy which is of God? consider the apostles of the Christ. Who is it that teaches them, if it be not God? He was in them, and they in God. ^o, O dear children of God in Christ, flee before rxi. 4. If 35 )
2the antichrist who has established himself in all the extent of the earth; he represents you an image of the conduct of the serpent towards the mother Eve, and he paints you your divine image as being far from God. Think upon what is written: the word is near you 5 yes, in your heart, and upon your lips, and God himself is the word which is in your heart and upon your lips. n. But the antichrist has never sought anything else than to satisfy his attraction for the third principle, in this house of flesh; it is why he has stunned men with laws which are found neither in the paradise of God, nor in the centre of the begetting of the life, and which were not established in nature. 12. Think upon him, child of love, see with what force and what power the spirit of God walked in the word and in the works, by prodigies and marvels in the time of the apostles, and even since, before the antichrist and the spirit of particular pride advanced with his laws and his sidereal wisdom, and established himself upon a worldly and carnal arm, solely because he sought his own satisfaction and his glory. Then the precious words of the Christ ( who nevertheless gave no law to men, if it be not the law of nature [ eternal ], and the law of love which is his own heart ) must have been a disgust for him, antichrist or counter-christ, who is prince in the third principle. From then he would set his own institutions in the same rank as the voice which, issuing from the bush, made itself heard to X 36 ) «•«• 4Moses. The man of pride persuaded himself that he had himself a divine power upon the earth, and knew not in his blindness that the holy spirit lets not itself be bound.
3i3. But if anyone would attain to holiness, he must, according to the testimony of Jesus Christ, be born anew by the water in the centre of the generation of the life, and by the holy spirit which rises in the centre of the light of God. It is to that end that God the father has ordained by his son the holy baptism, in order that we might thus have a law, and a striking memorial, as an unintelligent child receives an exterior testimony 5 and the internal man, the force and the new generation in the centre of the generation of the life; and then manifests itself the confirmation which brought into Adam the light of God, when God the father pierced and penetrated into Adam with his light, or his heart, in the centre of the fifth form of the generation of the life. It is the same with the baptism of the child, and of the penitent man, converting himself to the father in the Christ. 14. The last supper of the Christ with his disciples is in the same sense; it is an alliance like that of the baptism of the child. What arrives in the baptism for the child under age arrives for the poor penitent, and for the sinner, who from the sleep of the antichrist awakes to the Christ, and must be brought back to the father by the Christ, as to his true dwelling. i5. It is why I have wished beforehand to forewarn thee and to announce that one must not look into these CH. 4. C 37 )
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.