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.
1«ousconcevom, que nous prenons notre commencen,en. très .erresaemen. , q.-e no..s sommes semé, dans un champ Ctomme le blé dans la .erre ) , ou „o.re vie s'élève, croît, e. enKn fleur., comme le blé de la .erre. c. dans laquelle nous ne pouvons rien reconnoi.re de nous qu'une vie et une essence terrestres ; nous voyons bien auss. que le; étoiles et les élémeus inqualifient en nons, nous «onrrissen. , nous excitent , nous gouverneut. nous conduisent, nous remplissent, nous sout.ennent , r, rn.reli.-m.en. pendan. un tcms notre vu-, et ensuite , nous brisent, e. ,.ous réduisent en pouss.ere et en cendres, comme .on.eslosuu.res bè.es, arbres, herbes e. plan.es. Mais nous ne voyons pas après cela ce qu' .1 en es. de nous , si .ont es. fin. , ou b.eu si nous voyageons dans une autre vie avec «o.re espri. e. .on. ce q..i l'occupe. A.us. .1 nous es, u.fle d'app.end.e et de con.,oi.re la vra.e vo.e. „ Or , Vêla nons es. .émoigué par les écr..s de ceux qui on. été régénérés de cet.e vie terres.re, et „ui sont enf.n entrés da.,s une sainte, é.er.telle e. ^périssable vie , qui on. écri. et c.se.gné d une vie éternellemen. joyeuse, e. auss. d'une v.e é.et- „ellemen. des.ruc.ive et angoisseuse. Ils nons ont appris comment noys devons marcher ap.ès eux, c. „ous por.er à une nouvelle naissance , dans laquelle «ous serons de nouveau engendrés de celte torrestréité en une nouvelle créature ;et que ..ous n ..- vous , pour cela , autre chose à (aire que de su.vro seulement le.trs paroles. Alors nons éprouverons l,ar le fait ce qu'ils ont dit , écrit e. ense.gné : aussi ^H. 22. ( li3 )
2vcrrons-îlous encore, même dans ce44e vie , noire Vraie patrie , dans la nouvelle naissance^ et nous la reconnoîtrons avec une grande jote, dans l'homme nouveau et régénéré ; car alors toutes nos affections s'inclineront vers cette vraie patrie ; et dans notre nouvelle connoissance , dans le nouvel homme, croîtra la vraie Toi , et le cordial désir du juste et \ r.ii amour envers le Dieu caché, pour laquelle uohie connoissance j ces liommes renouvelles ont souvent abandonné leur corps terrestre et leur vie au contradicteur non régénéré ; ils se sont livrés à la mort , selon sa vengeance diabolique ; ils l'ont reçue avec une grande joie, et ont choisi pour eux la vie éternelle, impérissable. 10. Of donc , dans la nouvelle naissance il y a lo plus grand et le plus haut amour ; non-seulement pour Dieu et pour soi-même, mais pour les liommes, nos frères et sœurs , en sorte que ces«?/re.« régénérés ont porté leur désir et leur amour envers les hommes, et les ont très ardemment instruits, avec douceur, par des représentations , de façon aussi que dans cet amour , qui les entraînoit à instruire , ils ont exposé volontairement leur vie à la mort , et ont abandonné toutes leurs possessions terrestres et leurs biens, sur l'espérance certaine que, d'après leurs solides et puissantes connoissances , ils en recevroient, à leur grand honneur , l'équivalent. 11. C'est aussi ce qui nous a donné lo désir de chercher cette même perle , dont nous écrivons à présent; et quoique riiomnie non régénère , cinpri-. ( ai4 ) ^"- ^^' .
3soinié dans le foyaunie de ce monde, ne puisse pas nous croire , ainsi que cela est arrivé aussi a nos prédécesseurs, de îa part des enfans de cemonde, nous n'y pouvons rien faire; cela restera sur eux , comme un témoignage-, alors ils se repentiront eternellement, de ce que, pour un léger attrait de Vœilelde la chair, ils ont négligé une si grande gloire et une éternelle sainteté. 12. Or nous savons , dans notre profonde connoissance , qu'ils ont enseigné juste, en disant qu'il n'yaqu'unseuIDieu,quiesllrineendistiiictions personnelles , comme celaa été exposé ci-dessus.Nous savons aussi qu'il est le créateur de toutes choses; qu'il a engendré iout de son essence, tant la lumière que les ténèbres , ainsi que les trônes et les gouveniemens de tous les êtres. i3. Nous savons particulièrement , comme la sainte écriture le témoigne positivement , qu'il a créé l'homme à son image et à sa ressemblance, pour qu'il puisse être et vivre éternellement eu lui , dans son royaume céleste. 14. Et de plus nous savons que ce monde, dan» lequel nous sommes et vivons à présent, a été engendré et créé de l'éternelle origine dans le tems , parle pur élément, dans le n.vr; qu'ainsi il n'est pas la substance du saint et pur élément , mais une cxlra-génération de l'éternel limhns de Dieu , dans lequel est l'éternel éléuicnt, qui est devant la claire divinité, et qui constitue le paradis et le royaume du ciel 5 et cependant le limbusaxec rélémenl pur, n'est pas la pure diviùité , qui seule est sainleen saiCH. 22. ( 315 )
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.
1we conceive, that we take our commencement very terrestrially, that we are sown in a field ( as the wheat in the earth ), where our life rises, grows, and at last flowers, like the wheat of the earth, and in which we can recognise nothing of ourselves but a terrestrial life and essence; we see well also that the stars and the elements inqualify in us, nourish us, excite us, govern us, conduct us, fill us, sustain us, and entertain for a time our life, and afterward, break us, and reduce us into dust and into ashes, like all the other beasts, trees, herbs and plants. But we see not after that what .1 it is of us, whether all is finished, or else if we voyage into another life with our spirit and all that occupies it. Thus .1 it is useful to us to learn and to know the true way. „ Now, that is testified to us by the writings of those who have been regenerated from this terrestrial life, and who are at last entered into a holy, eternal and imperishable life, who have written and taught of an eternally joyous life, and also of an eternally destructive and anguishing life. They have taught us how we must walk after them, and bear ourselves to a new birth, in which we shall be anew begotten from this terrestreity into a new creature; and that we have, for that, nothing else to do than to follow only their words. Then we shall prove by the fact what they have said, written and taught: also ^H. 22. ( li3 )
2shall we see still, even in th44is life, our true fatherland, in the new birth, and we shall recognise it with a great joy, in the new and regenerated man; for then all our affections shall incline toward this true fatherland; and in our new knowledge, in the new man, shall grow the true faith, and the cordial desire of the just and true love toward the hidden God, for which noble knowledge these renewed men have often abandoned their terrestrial body and their life to the unregenerated contradictor; they have given themselves to death, according to his diabolical vengeance; they have received it with a great joy, and have chosen for themselves the eternal, imperishable life. 10. Now then, in the new birth there is the greatest and the highest love; not only for God and for oneself, but for men, our brothers and sisters, so that these regenerated beings have borne their desire and their love toward men, and have very ardently instructed them, with sweetness, by representations, so that also in this love, which drew them to instruct, they have exposed voluntarily their life to death, and have abandoned all their terrestrial possessions and their goods, upon the certain hope that, according to their solid and powerful knowledges, they would receive of it, to their great honour, the equivalent. 11. It is also that which has given us the desire to seek this same pearl, whereof we write at present; and although the unregenerated man, impri- ( ai4 ) ^"- ^^' .
3soned in the kingdom of this world, cannot believe us, as that happened also to our predecessors, on the part of the children of this world, we can do nothing about it; that will remain upon them, as a testimony; then they will repent eternally, that, for a light attract of the eye and of the flesh, they have neglected so great a glory and an eternal holiness. 12. Now we know, in our profound knowledge, that they taught justly, in saying that there is but one single God, who is trine in personal distinctions, as that has been exposed above. We know also that he is the creator of all things; that he has begotten all of his essence, both the light and the darkness, as well as the thrones and the governments of all beings. i3. We know particularly, as the holy scripture testifies it positively, that he created man to his image and to his resemblance, so that he might be and live eternally in him, in his celestial kingdom. 14. And moreover we know that this world, in which we are and live at present, has been begotten and created of the eternal origin in time, by the pure element, in the n.vr; that thus it is not the substance of the holy and pure element, but an extra-generation of the eternal limbus of God, in which is the eternal element, which is before the clear divinity, and which constitutes the paradise and the kingdom of heaven 5 and nevertheless the limbus with the pure element, is not the pure divinity, which alone is holy in itsaiCH. 22. ( 315 )
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.