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.
14. Si nous voulons donc maintenant parler de cet important article , nous devons aller de Jérusalem à Jéricho , et voir comment nous sommes couchés parmi les meurtriers qui nous ont tellemenl froppés et blessés que nous sommes à moitié morts , et nous devons regarder api es le samaritain avec sa monture , pour qu'il nous panse et nous conduise en une hôlellerie. 5. O ! qu'il est lamentable et douloureux que nous soyons si fort battus par les meurtriers (les démons) , que nous soyons à moitié morts , et que nous ne sentions plus nos douleurs ! O ! quand viendra donc le médecin qui nous pansera , poirr que notre ame redevienne vivante! Combien nous nous en réjouirions ! C'est ainsi que juge le désir, et tels sont ses souhaits ardens ; et quand même le médecin seroil là , la base affective ne peut pas cependant l'apercevoir, car elle est trop blessée, et est à moitié morte. 6. Ame, qui m'es chère, tu penses être bicnporianle , mais tu as été tellement battue, que tu ne sens plus ta maladie. Tu es prêle d'être livrée à la mort : comnjent peux-tu donc te regarder comme bien portante? 7. Ah ! ma chère ame , ne te vante pas de ta santé; tu es liée dans de rudes chaînes, toul-àiait dans une prison téné^breuse, tu nages dans une eau profonde, qui te va jusqu'à la bouche, et tu dois continuellement t'atlendre à la mort. En outi*e l'instigateur est derrière, avec une grande troupe de tes plus mortels ennemis. Là , il te lire toujours ( 284 ) ^^' ^4par sa chaîne dans une profondeur effroyable, dans Fabîme de l'enfer , et sa troupe te frappe toujours par derrière ; ils courent de tous côtés après toi , cbassaut et criant , comme s'ils tenoient déjà la bicbe qu'ils poursuivent.
28. La raison se demande : Pourquoi font-ils cela? Oî ma chl-re arae , ils ont pour cela une grande raison. Vois : tu as été leur bicbe , et tu l'es échappée de leur parc ; en outre tu es devenue si forte , que tu as brisé la barrière de leur jardin , et que ta t'es emparée de leur demeure ; en outre tu as transformé en fiel leur nourriture, en sorte qu'ils ne peuvent plus manger ; tu as renversé leurécole avec tes cornes ; m outre tu as introduit un maître étranger dans leur parc , et tu as employé une puissance étrangère pour les chasser de leur jardin. Et quand même ils t'auroienl dans leurs fers , tu l'opposeruis à eux, comme si tu voulois briser .leur royaume j tu romprois leurs cordes en pièces -, tu briserois leurs chaînes , et tu serois le continuel dévastateur de leur royaume ; tu es leur plus mortel ennemi , et eux le tien ; et si tu voulois toutefois sortir de leur jardin, ils en seroient encore bien conteus , mais tant que tu y es , la guerre dure, et ,,'a point de fin , jusqu'à ce que vienne Tancieii qui doit vous séparer. Q. Voudrois-tu le persuader que nous sommes insensés d'écrire ainsi ? Si nous ne savions pas la chose, et que nous ne l'eussions pas vue, alors nous pourrions bien nous taire. Ou bien serois-tu sûre que tu ne connoilras pas un jour le bain d'épines , dan* Cff. 24. ( 285 ) lequel tu te baignes ? Diras-tu aussi que tu es tout-àfait dans le jardin de roses ? Prends garde qu'au lieu d'être dans le jardin de roses , comme lu le penses, tu ne sois sur les pâturages du démon , et que tu 14e sois sa biche la plus soignée , qu'il engraisse pour la massacrer , et pour en faire sa nourriture.
310. Je te le dis vraiment , et cela est sérieux : lorsque je fus à Jéricho , mon cher compagnon m'ouvrit les yeux , en sorte que je pus voir. Et voici qu'une grande famille d'hommes, et une grande multitude de peuples éloient ensemble. Une partie éloit semblable à des animaux , et une partie semblable à des hommes : il y eut un combat entre eux. L'abîme de l'enfer étoit sous eux , et les animaux ne le voyoient point , mais les hommes s'effrayoient , et vouloient s'en aller. Or le démon ne vouloit pas le leur permettre;et parce que sou jardin n'avoit point de portes , ils détruisirent son jardin. Alors il falloit qu'il veillât les animaux , pour qu'ils ne lui échappassent point. Mais les animaux, qui étoienl aussi des hommes , mangèrent de sa nourriture, et burent de sa boisson, et il ne leur fit rien , car il les engraissoit , pour les massacrer ; et il y eut une continuelle inimitié entre les vrais hommes et les hommes bestialisés. 11. Tu doutes peut-être de la vérité de ce que mon cher compagnon m'a montré , lorsqu'il m'a ouvert les yeux, afin que je pusso voir? Or, viens et marche avec moi vers Jérusalem. Nous pourrons descendre ensemble par le chemin qui mène à Jéricho, e^ examiner ceci. Ce jardin où le dé- (286) cà.24. mon demeure avec sa grande famille , esl sur le chemin. Nous voulons le montrer de grandes merveilles ; tu verras et reconuoîlras le tout , tel qu'il a été exposé ci-dessus , pourvu toutefois que tu sois un homme, et non pas la bête engraissée du démon.
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.
14. If we will then now speak of this important article, we must go from Jerusalem to Jericho, and see how we are lying among the murderers who have so struck and wounded us that we are half dead, and we must look after the samaritan with his beast, that he may dress us and lead us into a hostelry. 5. O! how lamentable and dolorous it is that we should be so sorely beaten by the murderers (the demons), that we should be half dead, and that we should feel our pains no more! O! when then will the physician come who will dress us, that our soul may become living again! How we should rejoice at it! It is thus that the desire judges, and such are its ardent wishes; and even though the physician were there, the affective base cannot however perceive him, for she is too much wounded, and is half dead. 6. Soul, who art dear to me, thou thinkest to be in good health, but thou hast been so beaten, that thou feelest thy malady no more. Thou art ready to be delivered to death: how canst thou then regard thyself as in good health? 7. Ah! my dear soul, boast not of thy health; thou art bound in rude chains, altogether in a tenebrous prison, thou swimmest in a deep water, which comes up to thy mouth, and thou must continually expect death. Besides the instigator is behind, with a great troop of thy most mortal enemies. There, he draws thee always ( 284 ) ^^' ^4by his chain into a frightful depth, into the abyss of hell, and his troop strikes thee always from behind; they run on every side after thee, chasing and crying, as if they held already the hind that they pursue.
28. The reason asks itself: Why do they that? O my dear soul, they have for that a great reason. See: thou hast been their hind, and thou hast escaped from their park; besides thou art become so strong, that thou hast broken the barrier of their garden, and that thou hast seized upon their dwelling; besides thou hast transformed into gall their nourishment, so that they can eat no more; thou hast overthrown their school with thy horns; besides thou hast introduced a strange master into their park, and thou hast employed a strange power to drive them from their garden. And even though they had thee in their irons, thou wouldst oppose thyself to them, as if thou wouldst break their kingdom; thou wouldst rend their cords in pieces; thou wouldst break their chains, and thou wouldst be the continual devastator of their kingdom; thou art their most mortal enemy, and they thine; and if thou wouldst however go out of their garden, they would still be well content with it, but so long as thou art there, the war lasts, and has no end, until the ancient come who must separate you. Q. Wouldst thou persuade thyself that we are senseless to write thus? If we knew not the thing, and if we had not seen it, then we might well be silent. Or else wouldst thou be sure that thou wilt not know one day the bath of thorns, in Cff. 24. ( 285 ) which thou bathest thyself? Wilt thou say also that thou art altogether in the garden of roses? Take heed lest instead of being in the garden of roses, as thou thinkest it, thou be upon the pastures of the demon, and that thou 14be his most cared-for hind, which he fattens to slaughter her, and to make of her his nourishment.
310. I tell it thee truly, and that is serious: when I was at Jericho, my dear companion opened my eyes, so that I could see. And behold that a great family of men, and a great multitude of peoples were together. One part was like unto animals, and one part like unto men: there was a combat between them. The abyss of hell was under them, and the animals saw it not, but the men were affrighted, and would go away. Now the demon would not permit it them; and because his garden had no gates, they destroyed his garden. Then it was necessary that he should watch the animals, that they might not escape him. But the animals, who were also men, ate of his nourishment, and drank of his drink, and he did them nothing, for he fattened them, to slaughter them; and there was a continual enmity between the true men and the bestialised men. 11. Thou doubtest perhaps of the truth of what my dear companion showed me, when he opened my eyes, that I might see? Now, come and walk with me toward Jerusalem. We shall be able to go down together by the way that leads to Jericho, and examine this. This garden where the de- (286) cà.24. mon dwells with his great family, is upon the way. We will show thee great marvels; thou shalt see and recognise the whole, such as it has been set forth above, provided however that thou be a man, and not the fattened beast of the demon.
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.