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.
118. Il marche là comme un animal grossier, et dit dans sa base affective astrale et élémentaire r Oh t combien }e me fais cependant du mal à moi-» même en me rendant fou auxjreux du mondet qu'est-^ ce que j'en retire , si ce n'est de la dérision ? Je n0 suis pas même sûr de ma vie 5 je me prive ainsi, moi et les miens, du pain quotidien et de Ja nourriture j je dois sans cesse m'at tendre à la mort , et me plon<4 ger dans les dédains du monde. Ah ! avec quelle promptitude tu i>eux tomber dans le péché ! alors tu es poursuivi , et tu es jeté dehors comme un fruit gâté. Ensuite quelle récompense out les tien# qui sont près de toi , sinon de porter la peine pour toi ? 19. Ainsi juge l'homme dans la chair et le sang 5 et si le démon comprend cela , ah ! il est aussitôt là comme le tigre près de sa proie , et il dit : O ! qui sait si ce que tu enseignes est vrai ; tu ne l'as pas vu; personne non plus n'est revenu de chez les morts pour te le dire. Il y a plusieurs de cex morts qui ont enseigné comme tu le iais. Malgré cela le monde no auit-il pas ses mêmes erremens dans un tems comme dans l'autre? on les a regardés tous comme des fous ; il t'ea arrive autant , et après toi la choso restera telle qu'auparavant : à quoi servent donc tes soins et tes fatigues ? so. Enfin il vient avec des tours d'adresse , et dit en soi-même à la ba&e afiective par l'esprii du graoi^ IL 19
2( 290 ) en. a4ïBondeîOhî le ciel as/ra/ l'a donc formé de cette j»anière , pourque tu l'occupes ainsi de choses insensées! Il a aussi mis ses caprices en toi. Tu ne tiens pas ton don de Dieu ; Dieu n'a jamais parlé avec toi ; qu« peux-tu donc savoir? reste en repos , laisse cela là , lu peux encore êlre un assez bon chrétien , quand même lu resterois tranquille. Laisse les prêtres enseigner 5 ils sont payés pour cela : en quoi cela le regarde-l-il ? Vois , ma chère ame , par ces coups ma plume a été ub« fois renversée, et l'instigateur vouloit la briser , mais le souffle de Dieu s'éleva contre lui -, c'est pourquoi il faut qu'elle écrive ce qui lui est arrivé , pour servir d'exemple aux hommes de désir , et ce sont là des choses très précieuses. 21. Lorsque le démon l'eut ainsi jetée par terre , elle fut muette et ne vouloit plus écrire. Mais le démon se ruoit sur elle et vouloit la briser.Il vint muni de ses fruits corrompus, et vouloit les jèlerà l'ame à cause de cette plume , et lui faire manger de son mets 5 et il répandit du sucre dessus. S'il l'avoit reprise dans ses chaînes , combien il se seroit vengé , ainsi que cela lut expérimenté ensuite dans la tempête où sa fausse inlenlion fut bien reconnue! Quand cela arriva , les lys se fanèrent et perdirent leur l)elle odeur , la perle se cacha. La vierge de la perle , ou SOPHIE , resta dans un très profond deuil , et la noble et divine base affective fut livrée à une grande inquiétude. 22. L'instigateur disoit bien au commencement qu'elle auroii le repos si elle suspendoit son
3œurre ; toutefois c'étoit un repos dans la chair eé le sang , et là cependant il n'y avoit point de repos; mais de grands profits pour le chasseur. Or, lorsque la base aflfeclive se trouva dans une grande inquiétude au sujet de l'ame , elle en rassembla toutes les facultés et chercha la perle que l'ame avoit eue auparavant cela ; elle présuma qu'elle la trouveroit dans le réduit secret de l'ame , comme un trésor caché, mais elle n'y étoit plus. Alors la base affective la chercha dans le corps et l'ame. Mais , hélas ! elle étoit disparue , elle ne pouvoit se retrouver et on ne vit plus rien que les fruits corrompus du démon, qui étoient répandus devant l'ame pour qu'elle en mangeât. Toutefois Tame resta dans une grande tristesse et ne pouvoit pas mangerses fruits frelatés* elle appela sa vierge sophie ; mais elle se montra comme si elle étoit endormie. . nii ^ a3. Ainsi l'ame resta avec de grands désirs et de grandes ardeurs , et aussi très souvent dans de grands combats avec l'instigateur, qui vouloit la jeter par terre. Quand elle étoit ainsi en combat avec luf , il prenoit tous les vices qui pointent danô la chair et le sang , et jetoit cela sur l'ame ; il l'en enveloppoit, en sorte qu'elle ne pouvoit pas seule-^ ment découvrir la sophik. Il faisoit avec \es péchés de la chair une grande montagne, etcouvroit parla fortement la miséricorde de Dieu, ou le nouvel hommeen Christ : les portes du royaume du ciel , qui étoient ouvertes toutes grandes auparavant, étoient alors loutes fermées 5 il ne s'amassoit que des dou- .^
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.
118. He walks there as a gross animal, and says in his astral and elementary affective base: Oh! how I do myself nevertheless harm to myself in making myself a fool in the eyes of the world! what is it that I draw from it, if it be not derision? I a0m not even sure of my life 5 I deprive thus, myself and mine, of the daily bread and of the nourishment; I must without ceasing expect death, and plun<4 ge myself into the disdains of the world. Ah! with what promptitude thou mayest fall into sin! then thou art pursued, and thou art cast out as a spoiled fruit. Afterwards what recompense have thine who are near thee, if not to bear the penalty for thee? 19. Thus judges the man in the flesh and the blood 5 and if the demon comprehends that, ah! he is at once there as the tiger near his prey, and he says: O! who knows if what thou teachest is true; thou hast not seen it; nor has any one come back from among the dead to tell it thee. There are several of those dead who have taught as thou doest. In spite of that does not the world follow its same wanderings in one time as in the other? they have all been regarded as fools; as much happens to thee, and after thee the thing will remain such as before: to what then serve thy cares and thy fatigues? so. Finally he comes with tricks of address, and says in himself to the affective base by the spirit of the graoi^ IL 19
2( 290 ) en. a4ïBworldîOhî the astral heaven has then formed him in this manner, that thou occupiest him thus with senseless things! He has also put his caprices in thee. Thou holdest not thy gift from God; God has never spoken with thee; what canst thou then know? remain in repose, leave that there, thou mayest still be a good enough christian, even though thou shouldst remain quiet. Let the priests teach 5 they are paid for that: in what does that concern thee? See, my dear soul, by these blows my pen has been once overthrown, and the instigator would break it, but the breath of God rose up against him; it is why it must write what has happened to it, to serve as an example to the men of desire, and these are things very precious. 21. When the demon had thus cast it to the ground, it was mute and would write no more. But the demon rushed upon it and would break it. It came furnished with his corrupted fruits, and would cast them to the soul because of this pen, and make it eat of his mess 5 and he spread sugar upon it. If he had taken it back into his chains, how he would have avenged himself, according as that was experienced afterwards in the tempest where his false intention was well recognised! When that happened, the lilies faded and lost their fair odour, the pearl hid itself. The virgin of the pearl, or SOPHIA, remained in a very profound mourning, and the noble and divine affective base was delivered to a great disquiet. 22. The instigator said indeed at the beginning that it would have the repose if it suspended its
3work; however it was a repose in the flesh and the blood, and there nevertheless there was no repose; but great profits for the hunter. Now, when the affective base found itself in a great disquiet on the subject of the soul, it gathered all the faculties of it and sought the pearl that the soul had had before that; it presumed that it would find it in the secret recess of the soul, as a hidden treasure, but it was there no more. Then the affective base sought it in the body and the soul. But, alas! it was disappeared, it could not be found again and one saw nothing more but the corrupted fruits of the demon, which were spread before the soul that she might eat of them. However the soul remained in a great sadness and could not eat his adulterated fruits. she called her virgin sophia; but she showed herself as if she were asleep. . nii ^ a3. Thus the soul remained with great desires and great ardours, and also very often in great combats with the instigator, who would cast her to the ground. When she was thus in combat with him, he took all the vices which shoot in the flesh and the blood, and cast that upon the soul; he enveloped her therewith, so that she could not so much as discover the sophia. He made with the sins of the flesh a great mountain, and covered thereby strongly the mercy of God, or the new man in Christ: the gates of the kingdom of heaven, which were opened wide before, were then all closed 5 there gathered itself but sor- .^
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.