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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.
162. Là il parle clairement du fils de l'homme, ou de son humanité ; et lorsqu'il dit : le fils de Vhomme^ il ne parle pas directement de sa diviiiité. Dieu n'a pas été de toute éternité le fils de rhorame ; c'est pourquoi aucun fils de l'homme ne> peut sortir de la trinité , comme nous pouvons bien le voir. Si Marie éloit venue de la trinité , où nos pauvres âmes seroienl-elles restées prisonnières? si le Christ avoit apporté du ciel uneame étrangère, qui est-ce qui nous auroit délivrés? s'il avoit été possible de délivrer l'homme, qu'est-ce que Dieu auroit eu besoin de venir dans notre forme, et de se faire crucifier? si cela avoit pu être, il auroit aussitôt délivré Adam de la mort dans laquelle il étoit tombé ; ou bien penses-tu que Dieu soit ainsi un méchant et un jaloux qui s'irrite ? ^ 63. A la Vérité , quand sa colère poussa dans l'homme, Dieu voulut manifester ^qs prodiges; mais ce n'étoit pas le plan de Dieu , lorsqu'il créa Adam ; seulement l'essai fut fait pour éprouver laquelle l'emporteroil , delà douceur ou de l'âpreté dans l'élernelle racine. Cependant l'ame étoit libre en Adam , et il n'y avoit rien autre chose qui pût se corrompre que la propre volonté. 6^*. Or donc l'ame étoit la, volonté , qui avoit été soufflée à Adam de réternelle volonté du père ; par l'esprit de Dieu, et réellement au même point j'. ( 234 ) ^- ^^* où le père , c'est-à-dire , Dieu passe en soi-même, des ténèbres dans sa propre volonté reconçue , el engendre en soi-même la douceur dans sa propre volonté reconçue.
265. Ainsi Tame de l'homme est entrée dans cetio Blême balance-, elle a été posée dans Tangle , ou tmr le pivot de la volonté reconçu* pour la lumière , et ensuite elle est rentrée dans la première volonté , en soi , dans son propre centre. C'est là qu'on se peint les ténèbres placées derrière elle ; et devant elle , le terme de l'éternelle alliance ; el il n'y avoit en elle-même rien qu'une source angoisseuse. Mais s'il doit y avoir un autre ordre de choses , il faut que la première volonté dans l'éternelle alliance conçoive en soi-même une autre volonté de passer de la source ténébreuse dans une joie sans tourment. 66. Lors donc que la première éternelle volonté en conçoit ainsi une autre ; alors elle brise la source des ténèbres, et demeure en soi-même, dans la joie , et cependant les ténèbres demeurent en soi de vraies ténèbres , et un tourment -, mais ce tourment ne touche pas la volonté reconçue : car elle ne demeure pas dans les ténèbres, mais en elle-même. C'est ainsi que nous concevons la propre vertu de l'ame , que Dieu souffla , des portes de son épanchemenl en soi-même , à Adam , dans la lumière de la joie. 67. Cette ame , lorsqu'elle étoit environnée de i'élément pur el du corps paradisiaque , sépara sa volonté du père , qui n'entre là qu'en fécondant la CH. 22. ( 235 ) puissance dont il est enceint , pour engendrer son cœur, et elle esl entrée dans Tattracldè ce monde, où maintenant, dans la corruptibiiilé de l'Univers, il n'y a derrière elle aucune lumière , el devant elle aucune compréhension de la divinité. Alors il n'y avoit là aucun remède, à moins que la pure volonté de Dieu le père ne revînt en elle , et la ramenât dans sa propre volonté , dans son premier siège , ahn que sa volonlé fût dirigée de nouveau vers le cœur et la lumière de Dieu.
368. Mais enfin , pour qu'elle fût secourue , il falïoit que le cœur de Dieu , avec sa lumière , et non pas le père, vînt en elle : car, sans cela , elle est dans le père, mais en arrière, et détournée de l'entrée dans la génération du cœur de Dieu j enfin , «ans cela, elle est dans ce monde, oîi, derrière elle, ni devant elle, elle ne peut saisir aucune lumière. En effet lorsque la substance du corps se brise, la fMiuvre ame demeure enfermée dans une ténébreuse poison ; et ici se connoît l'amour de Dieu pour la pauvre ame prisonnière. Pense à toi, 6^ ame chérie. 69. Il n'y a eu aucun autre remùdé , soit dans Dieu , Roit dans aucune clôture. Il ne falloit •qu'une seule cliose, c'est que la pure divinité du -cœur de Dieu entrât dans le ternaire saint, entendez dans la miséricorde, barmhtrzigheit , qui, de toule éternité, est engendrée de sa sainteté , dans laquelle existe l'élerneile sagesse , qui , pnyvenant du prononcé de la parole , par l'esprit saint , est devant Dieu , comme une vierge 3 elle est là grande merm I . ïi il ( 236 ) CH- '^^' veille ; c'est uu esprit dans la miséricorde. Or la miséricorde fait le ternaire saint , la terre sainte. Les essences du père , dans leur tendance vers la parole , sont les saintes constellations , pour en parler par comparaison.
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.
162. There he speaks clearly of the son of man, or of his humanity; and when he says: the son of man, he speaks not directly of his divinity. God has not been from all eternity the son of man; that is why no son of man can go out of the trinity, as we can well see. If Mary had come from the trinity, where would our poor souls have remained prisoners? if the Christ had brought from heaven a foreign soul, who would have delivered us? if it had been possible to deliver man, what need would God have had to come in our form, and to have himself crucified? if that could have been, he would have at once delivered Adam from the death into which he had fallen; or else thinkest thou that God is thus a wicked one and a jealous one who is irritated? 63. In truth, when his anger pushed in man, God would manifest his prodigies; but that was not the plan of God, when he created Adam; only the trial was made to prove which would carry it, the sweetness or the harshness in the eternal root. Nevertheless the soul was free in Adam, and there was nothing else which could corrupt itself but the own will. 6^*. Now then the soul was the will, which had been breathed into Adam of the eternal will of the father, by the spirit of God, and really at the same point j'. ( 234 ) ^- ^^* where the father, that is to say, God passes into himself, from the darkness into his own will reconceived, and begets in himself the sweetness in his own will reconceived.
265. Thus the soul of man entered into this same balance; it was placed in the angle, or upon the pivot of the will reconceived for the light, and afterward it re-entered into the first will, in itself, into its own centre. It is there that one pictures the darkness placed behind it; and before it, the term of the eternal alliance; and there was in itself nothing but an anguishing source. But if there is to be another order of things, the first will in the eternal alliance must conceive in itself another will to pass from the tenebrous source into a joy without torment. 66. When then the first eternal will conceives thus another; then it breaks the source of the darkness, and remains in itself, in the joy, and nevertheless the darkness remains in itself true darkness, and a torment; but this torment touches not the will reconceived: for it dwells not in the darkness, but in itself. It is thus that we conceive the proper virtue of the soul, that God breathed, from the gates of his outpouring in himself, into Adam, into the light of joy. 67. This soul, when it was environed by the pure element and by the paradisiac body, separated its will from the father, who enters there only in fecundating the CH. 22. ( 235 ) power wherewith he is pregnant, to beget his heart, and it is entered into the attract of this world, where now, in the corruptibility of the Universe, there is behind it no light, and before it no comprehension of the divinity. Then there was there no remedy, unless the pure will of God the father returned into it, and brought it back into its own will, into its first seat, so that its will might be directed anew toward the heart and the light of God.
368. But at last, so that it might be succoured, it was necessary that the heart of God, with his light, and not the father, should come into it: for, without that, it is in the father, but behind, and turned away from the entrance into the generation of the heart of God; at last, without that, it is in this world, where, behind it, nor before it, it can seize no light. In effect when the substance of the body breaks itself, the poor soul remains shut up in a tenebrous prison; and here is known the love of God for the poor imprisoned soul. Think of thyself, 6^ cherished soul. 69. There has been no other remedy, either in God, or in any enclosure. There was needed only one single thing, which is that the pure divinity of the heart of God should enter into the holy ternary, understand into the mercy, barmherzigkeit, which, from all eternity, is begotten of his holiness, in which exists the eternal wisdom, which, proceeding from the pronounced of the word, by the holy spirit, is before God, like a virgin 3 she is there the great mar- I . ïi il ( 236 ) CH- '^^' vel; it is a spirit in the mercy. Now the mercy makes the holy ternary, the holy earth. The essences of the father, in their tendency toward the word, are the holy constellations, to speak of them by comparison.
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.