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.
120. Mais nous n'exposerons point ici «ne seconde fois la base de la divinité tout aussi amplement que nous le pourrions , et qu'elle nous est connue; nous croyons cela inutile. Vous le trouvez ci-devant à Iti corporijication d'un enfant dans le sein de sa mère. Nous l'établissons ici, pour que l'on comprenne la ré«;ion de ce monde , et nous donnons exactement et à reconnoître , et à comprendre au lecteur comment la région du bien et du mal sont l'une dans l'autre ; comment c'est uoe loi imprescriptible , en sorte que l'une est engendrée de l'autre , et que l'une passe de la seconde dans une autre , qui n'étoil pas dans le commencement : c'est ce que tu peux apprendre de l'homme, qui, dans son comraeycement , est conçu dans la volonté de l'homme et de la femme : savoir , dans Xelimbus, et dans la matrice, dans la teinture, et qui est semé dans un champ corruptible et terrestre. Là alors la première teinlure dans la volonté se brise ; sa teinture propre s'élève hors de la chambre d'angoisse , des ténèbres et de la mort , hors de la source angoisseuse. Elle fleurit au travers des ténèbres dans les portes brisées des ténèbres , en e». lié ( i8g ) «oi-même, comme une joie aimable, et elle engendre ainsi sa lumière, de soi-même, de ï^âpreté angoisseuse : là alors dans la lumière sort la source infinie des pensées , lesquelles font un trône et une région pour la raison qui gouverne toute la maison, et désire d'entrer dans la région du ciel de laquelle elle n'est pas issue. Car maintenant ce n'est pas la volonté originelle qui désire d'entrer dans la région du ciel , mais c'est la volonté recoiiçue de la source de l'angoisse , qui désire d'entrer en Dieu par les profondes portes.
221. Or, comme cela n'étoit pas possible à l'esprit de l'homme , quelque fortement qu'il le tentât , alors Dieu devoit entrer de nouveau dans l'humanité, et aider à l'esprit de l'homme à briser les portes des ténèbres pour qu'il pût entrer dans la vertu divine. • 22. Maintenant il vit en deux sources qui toutes deux l'attirent et veulent l'avoir ; savoir : 10. dans la source colérique, laquelle source est les ténèbres de l'abîme ; et ensuite , 2®. dans la vertu divine , laquelle source est la umièic et la joie divine dans les portes brisées du ciel , ainsi que le mot himmel^ ciel , a dans le langage de la nature , son sens particulier et pénétrant , tiré de la puissante pression , et de la prise de possession. Là il reste posé avec la racine dans le tronc de l'éternité, ce dans quoi il faut entendre , avec raison., la toute puissance. Or c'est ce que le maître docteur ne veut pas croire , car il n'a là-dedans aucune connoissauce j cela appartient au lys. 'I^' il I ( 190 ) CH. %U aS. Ainsi Vbomme est tiré et retenu des deux côtés; «liais le centre est eu lui, et il tient la balance entre les deux volontés 5 savoir : entre la volonté la plus originelle, et entre la volonté reconçue pour le royaume du ciel. Chaque bassin est un opérant qui construit et substantialise ce que rhomme laisse entrer dans sa base affective : c^r la base affective est le centre de la balance ; ]çs pensées sont les poids qui vont d'un bassin dans l'autre. En eSct l'un des bassins est le règne de l'aprelé et de la colère , et Tau Ire est la renaissance daus la vertu de Dieu , dans le ciel.
324. Maintenant , vois , homme, comment tu es à la fois terrestre et céleste , mélangé en une seule personne ; tu portes l'image terrestre et aussi l'image céleste en un seul individu ; ea outre tu es de la. source colérique, et tu portes sur toi l'image infernale qui croît dans la colère de Dieu , de la source de l'éternité. 25. Il en est aussi de même de la base affeclîve : la base affective tient la balance -, et les pensées mettent les poids dans la balance. Or pense à ce dont tu charges la balance par les pensées ; tu as le royaume du ciel en ta puissance. Car la parole de la veriu divine s'est donnée à toi dans le Christ , en propriété 5 tu as aussi le royaume infernal pour barrière dans la racine , et tu l'as en propriété par droit de nature ; tu as aussi en propriété le royaume de ce monde selott ton humanité reçue d'Adam. 26. Maiptenant vois ce que tu laisses entrer dan» ta base affective par les pensées. Car lu as dans chaque règne un opérant ou un constructeur qui réalise ce que tu poses dans la balance par les pensées; en effet tout consiste dans la subslantialisation et lu es dans ce corps comme dans un champ ; ta base affective est le semeur , et tes trois principes sout la semence. Ce que ta base affective sème , ton corps en végète; tu moissonneras cela en toi-même. Lors donc que le champ terrestre se brise, le nouveau corps qui a végété est dans sa perfection , soit qu'il ait poussé dans le royaume du ciel , ou dans la royaume de l'enfer.
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.
120. But we shall not expose here a second time the base of the divinity quite as amply as we could, and as it is known to us; we believe that useless. You find it above at the corporification of a child in the bosom of its mother. We establish it here, so that one may comprehend the region of this world, and we give exactly both to recognise, and to comprehend to the reader how the region of good and of evil are the one in the other; how it is an imprescriptible law, so that the one is begotten of the other, and that the one passes from the second into another, which was not in the beginning: it is what thou canst learn from man, who, in his commencement, is conceived in the will of the man and of the woman: to wit, in the limbus, and in the matrix, in the tincture, and who is sown in a corruptible and terrestrial field. There then the first tincture in the will breaks itself; its proper tincture rises out of the chamber of anguish, of the darkness and of death, out of the anguishing source. It flowers through the darkness in the broken gates of the darkness, in e». lié ( i8g ) itself, like an amiable joy, and it begets thus its light, of itself, of the anguishing harshness: there then in the light goes out the infinite source of the thoughts, which make a throne and a region for the reason which governs all the house, and desires to enter into the region of heaven from which it is not issued. For now it is not the original will which desires to enter into the region of heaven, but it is the will reconceived from the source of anguish, which desires to enter into God by the deep gates.
221. Now, as that was not possible to the spirit of man, however strongly he attempted it, then God was to enter anew into humanity, and aid the spirit of man to break the gates of the darkness so that he might enter into the divine virtue. 22. Now he lives in two sources which both draw him and will have him; to wit: 10. in the choleric source, which source is the darkness of the abyss; and then, 2®. in the divine virtue, which source is the light and the divine joy in the broken gates of heaven, just as the word himmel, heaven, has in the language of nature, its particular and penetrating sense, drawn from the powerful pressure, and from the taking of possession. There it remains placed with the root in the trunk of eternity, in which one must understand, with reason, the omnipotence. Now it is what the master doctor will not believe, for he has therein no knowledge; that belongs to the lily. 'I^' il I ( 190 ) CH. %U aS. Thus man is drawn and retained on the two sides; but the centre is in him, and he holds the balance between the two wills 5 to wit: between the most original will, and between the will reconceived for the kingdom of heaven. Each scale is an operant which constructs and substantialises what man lets enter into his affective base: for the affective base is the centre of the balance; the thoughts are the weights which go from one scale into the other. In effect one of the scales is the reign of harshness and of anger, and the other is the rebirth in the virtue of God, in heaven.
324. Now, see, man, how thou art at once terrestrial and celestial, mingled in one single person; thou bearest the terrestrial image and also the celestial image in one single individual; besides thou art of the choleric source, and thou bearest upon thee the infernal image which grows in the anger of God, of the source of eternity. 25. It is also the same with the affective base: the affective base holds the balance; and the thoughts put the weights into the balance. Now think of that wherewith thou chargest the balance by the thoughts; thou hast the kingdom of heaven in thy power. For the word of the divine virtue has given itself to thee in the Christ, in property 5 thou hast also the infernal kingdom for barrier in the root, and thou hast it in property by right of nature; thou hast also in property the kingdom of this world according to thy humanity received from Adam. 26. Now see what thou lettest enter into thy affective base by the thoughts. For thou hast in each reign an operant or a constructor which realises what thou placest in the balance by the thoughts; in effect all consists in the substantialisation and thou art in this body as in a field; thy affective base is the sower, and thy three principles are the seed. What thy affective base sows, thy body vegetates of it; thou shalt harvest that in thyself. When then the terrestrial field breaks itself, the new body which has vegetated is in its perfection, be it that it has pushed in the kingdom of heaven, or in the kingdom of hell.
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.