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.
1aux autres animaux. Secondement, tu trouveras l'élément air et feu qui inqualifie en loi , et c'est là ce qui constitue une vie animale. Car chaque animal a cela en soi , d'où lui vient le désir de se remplir et de se reproduire , comme les plantes , les herbes et tous les végétaux. Mais tu trouves que , dans toutes ces choses, il n'y a aucune vraie intelligence ; cai^ quand même l'astral ou le sydérique influeroit làdedans et lui donneroit l'instinct , cet instinct nô seroit autre chose que de se nourrir et de se muhi-i plier comme font tous les animaux. 28. En effet, les étoiles elles-mêmes sont muettes i elles n'ont aucune connoissance ni sentiment ; seu-. lement , leur opération mutuelle produit dans Teaii un bouillonnement entre les unes et les autres ; et dans la teinture du sang, elles font le sourcement ^\a, vue , le sentiment , l'ouie , et le goût. Mais mainte-» nant réfléchis d'où vient la teinture dans laquelle la noble vie s'élève de façon que d'astringente, d'amèrd et d'ignée, elle devient douce? Tu n'en trouveras pas d'autre cause que la lumière. Mais d'où vient la lumière pour briller ainsi dans un corps ténébreux ? veux-tu dire de l'éclat du soleil? mais qu'est-ce qui brille donc dans la nuit , et l'amène tes pensées et ton intelligence , de façon que tu vois avec les yen* fermés , et que tu sais ce que tu fais ? Diras -tu : la noble ame me conduit ! Cela est vrai ; mais d'où cette noble ame dérive-t-elle ? Si lu dis que les pensées meuvent cette ame , tu dis vrai 5 mais d'où: viennent, et l'ame, et les pensées ? qu'elle est leur !' ( ^4 ) CH. 4^ source ? pourquoi cela n'est-il pas aussi dans les animaux?
229. Mon cher lecteur , si tu peux , ouvre ici ^ et regarde dans le corps , tu ne trouveras pas cela , quand même tu chercherois dans Tabîmc , dans les pierres, daus les élémens5dans toutes les créatures , dans les gemmes , les plantes , les arbres , les métaux 5 quand même tu chercherois dans le ciel et daus la terre , tu ne trouveras pas cela, 30. Diras-tu : où doîs-je donc chercher et trouVer? Mon cher lecteur , je ne puis te prêter pour cela aucune clef 3 seulement je veux t'indiquer où tu en trouveras une. Elle se trouve dans l'évangéliste Jean , au 3e. chap. , où il est dit : ilfaïUque voua soyez engendré de nouveau par l'eau et V esprit saint. Ce même esprit est la clef. Si tu l'obtiens , prends la, etpréseu»e-toi devant le premier principe, d'où ce monde est provenu ainsi que toutes lescréatures , et ouvre la première racine d'où sont résultées ces sortes de choses visibles et sensibles. 3i. Si tu dis : que cela n'est que Dieu , qu'il est un esprit , et qu'il a créé toutes choses de rien, tu auras raison. Il est un esprit , et devant nos yeux il est comme un rien. Si tu ne le connoissois pas dans la création , tu ne connoîtrois rien de lui ; s'il n'aVoitpas été dès l'élernilé , rien u'auroit été. 32. Mais avant le tems du monde , que crois-tu qu'ait été ce dent la terre et les pierres proviennent, aussi bien que les étoiles et les élémens ? Ce dont cela est provenu , est la racine elle - même. Mais 1^- €H. 4« ,{ 45 )
3quelle est la racine de ces choses ? Observe ce que tu trouves en elles. Rien autre chose que du feu, de l'amer , de l'astringent , et cependant cela n'est qu'une seule chose, et de celle-ci, toutes les autres sont engendrées. Mais avant le tems de ce monde , il n'y avoit qu'un esprit , et dans ces trois formes , tu no trouves pas encore Dieu. La pure divinité est une lumière qui est incompréhensible , de même qu'insaisissable , souveraine et toute puissante. Ou trouve-t'On donc Dieu ? 33. Ouvre maintenant ta noble ame , et vois , cherche plus loin. Car , puisque Dieu n'est que bon, d'où vient donc le mal ? puisqu'il n'est que vie et lumière , et sainte puissance , comme on ne peut véritablement pas le nier, d'où vient donc la colère de Dieu , le démon et sa mauvaise volonté , aussi bien que le feu infernal? D'où ceci rcsulle-t-il, puisqu'avant le tems de ce monde , il n'y avoit rien que Dieu absolument, qu'il étoit et est un esprit , et qu'il demeure dans l'éternité? D'où est donc provenue la première substance de la méchanceté , car il faut qu'il y ait eu une volonté dans l'esprit de Dieu pour engendrer la source colérique ? C'est ainsi que juge la raison. 34. Mais l'écriture dit : que le démon a été un saint ange. En outre : Tu n^es pas un Dieu qui vêuilU le mal. Et dans Ezechiel : Aussi vrai que je vis , j» ne veux point la mort du pécheur. Il est prouvé par les sévères punitions de Dieu envers le démon et les pécheurs qu'il ue la veut point, (celle mort). ( 46 ) c«-4*
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.
1to the other animals. Secondly, thou wilt find the element air and fire which inqualifies in thee, and it is that which constitutes an animal life. For each animal has that in itself, whence comes to it the desire to fill itself and to reproduce itself, like the plants, the herbs and all the vegetables. But thou findest that, in all these things, there is no true intelligence; for even though the astral or the sidereal should influence therein and give it the instinct, that instinct would be nothing else than to nourish itself and to multiply itself as all the animals do. 28. In effect, the stars themselves are mute; they have no knowledge nor sentiment; only, their mutual operation produces in the water a boiling between the one and the other; and in the tincture of the blood, they make the sourcing of the sight, the sentiment, the hearing, and the taste. But now reflect whence comes the tincture wherein the noble life rises so that from astringent, bitter and igneous, it becomes sweet? Thou wilt find no other cause for it than the light. But whence comes the light to shine thus in a tenebrous body? wilt thou say from the splendour of the sun? but what is it then that shines in the night, and brings thee thy thoughts and thy intelligence, so that thou seest with the eyes closed, and knowest what thou doest? Wilt thou say: the noble soul conducts me! That is true; but whence does that noble soul derive? If thou sayest that the thoughts move that soul, thou sayest true 5 but whence come both the soul and the thoughts? what is their !' ( ^4 ) CH. 4^ source? wherefore is that not also in the animals?
229. My dear reader, if thou canst, open here and look into the body, thou wilt not find that, even though thou shouldst seek in the abyss, in the stones, in the elements5in all the creatures, in the gems, the plants, the trees, the metals 5 even though thou shouldst seek in the heaven and in the earth, thou wilt not find that. 30. Wilt thou say: where must I then seek and find? My dear reader, I can lend thee for that no key 3 only I will indicate thee where thou wilt find one. It is found in the evangelist John, at the 3rd chap., where it is said: you must be begotten anew by the water and the holy spirit. That same spirit is the key. If thou obtainest it, take it, and present thyself before the first principle, whence this world proceeded as well as all the creatures, and open the first root whence resulted these sorts of visible and sensible things. 3i. If thou sayest that that is only God, that he is a spirit, and that he created all things of nothing, thou wilt be right. He is a spirit, and before our eyes he is as a nothing. If thou didst not know him in the creation, thou wouldst know nothing of him; if he had not been from eternity, nothing would have been. 32. But before the time of the world, what believest thou that was whence the earth and the stones proceed, as well as the stars and the elements? That whence that proceeded is the root itself. But 1^- €H. 4« ,{ 45 )
3what is the root of these things? Observe what thou findest in them. Nothing else than fire, bitter, astringent, and nevertheless that is but one single thing, and of this one, all the others are begotten. But before the time of this world, there was but one spirit, and in those three forms, thou dost not yet find God. The pure divinity is a light which is incomprehensible, as well as unseizable, sovereign and all-powerful. Where then is God found? 33. Open now thy noble soul, and see, seek further. For, since God is only good, whence then comes the evil? since he is only life and light, and holy power, as one cannot truly deny, whence then comes the anger of God, the demon and his bad will, as well as the infernal fire? Whence does this result, since before the time of this world there was nothing but God absolutely, since he was and is a spirit, and since he dwells in eternity? Whence then proceeded the first substance of wickedness, for there must have been a will in the spirit of God to beget the choleric source? It is thus that reason judges. 34. But the scripture says: that the demon was a holy angel. Moreover: Thou art not a God who wills the evil. And in Ezekiel: As true as I live, I will not the death of the sinner. It is proved by the severe punishments of God towards the demon and the sinners that he wills it not, ( that death ). ( 46 ) c«-4*
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.