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.
135. Qui est-ce qui a donc porlé le démon à devenir colérique et méchant? quelle a élé en lui la première substance mauvaise puisqu'il est créé de l'éternel esprit originel? ou d'où vient la source infernale, dans laquelle ce démon doit demeurer éternellement , si le monde ainsi que les étoiles , les élémens , la terre et les pierres doivent à la fin cesser d'être ? 36. Ici , cher lecteur , ouvre les yeux de ton intelligence, et sache qu'il ne peut être excité [a/^ mal] par aucune autre source , que par sa propriétw personnelle qui est en lui , car c'est là son enfer dont il a été fait ou créé ; et son éternelle honto c'est la lumière de Dieu ; c'est pourquoi il est ennemi de Dieu , de façon qu'il n'est plus dans la lumière de Dieu. 37. Or , tu ne peux pas supposer plus long-tems que Dieu ait jamais employé aucune substance [ mauvahe ] dont il ait créé le démon. Autrement le démon pourroit se justifier sur ce que Dieu TauToit fait méchant ou d'une mauvaise substance, car, il ne l'a créé de rien autre chose que de sa propre «ssence aussi bien que les autres anges , ainsi qu'il est écrit : ds lui , par lui , et en lui sont toutes choses ; et à lui seul , de toute éternité , appartiennent U royaume, la force , la puissance et la souveraineté z et tout est en lui , selon la sainte écriture. El si cela n'étoit pas, les péchés ne pourroient être imputés nî au démon , ni à l'homme , s'ils n'avoient pas été tons deux éternellement en Dieu et de Dieu lui^ même. CH. 4. ( 47 )
238. Car, à aucun animal qui est créé d'une matière , il ne sera pas imputé de péché , attendu que son esprit n'atteint pas le premier principe , mais qu'il s'orijrinise , dans le troisième , dans le règne élémentaire et sydérique , dans la corruptibilité , et ne touche pas la divinité , comme fait le démon et l'ame de l'homme. 39. Et si tu ne peux pas le croire , prends avec toi Ja sainte écriture qui te dit : Lorsque l'homme fut tombé dans le péché, Dieu lui envoya son propre cœur , sa vie , ou la lumière venant de lui-même , dans la chair, et lui r'ouvrit les portes de la génération de sa vie , dans laquelle il fut rallié à la divinité ; il le réunit et ralluma en lui la lumière dont il étoit séparé , quoiqu'il fût toujours resté dans l'origine du premier principe. 40. Si rame de l'homme n'eût pas été de Dieu le père,de son premier priucipe,mais d'une autre substance , il ne lui auroit pas envoyé ce si haut gage , son propre cœur et sa lumière , comme il le témoigne lui-même : Je suis la lumière du monde^ et la vie de Chomme ; mais il auroit bien pu venir à son «ecours d'une autre manière. 4i. Or , que penses-tu qu'il ait apporté à l'homme dans la chair lorsqu'il vint ? rien moins que ce qu'Adam et la mère Eve avoient perdu dans le paradis ; c'est là ce que le briseur de serpent rapporta à la monstrueuse génération 5 il affranchit l'homme de la charnelle maison sydérique élémentaire , et le rétablit dans le paradis , ce dont j'écrirai amplement ci-après. ( 4^ ) CR. 4.
342. C'est pourquoi si tu veux maintenant cousidérer Dieu et en parler , tu dois penser que luimême est tout ; et en outre tu dois considérer les trois principes. Tu trouveras là ce que Dieu est. Tu y trouveras ce qu'est la colère, le démon , l'enfer j le péché j ce qu' est l'ange , l'homme ou la bête , et d'où provient la séparation qui a mis tout dans l'état actuel. Tu y trouveras la création du monde. 43. Seulement , lecieur, je veux t'avertir sincèrement 5 si lu n'es pas sur la voie de l'enfant prodigue et qui retourne vers son père , de laisser là mon livre sans le lire , autrement il t'en arriveroit malheur. Car le grand prince Lucifer n'épargnera pas ses peines pour te tromper ; vu que dans ce livre il est mis entièrement à nud devant les enfans de Dieu. Il est honteux comme un homme qui pour de mauvais faits , seroit exposé à l'opprobre de tout le monde ; c'est pourquoi , je [t'avertis que si tu es attaché à ta chair délicate , tu ne dois pas lire mon livre. Si tu ne suis pas mon conseil , et qu'il t'en arrive du malheur , je n'en répondrai pas , et à toi seul sera la faute. Car ce que j'ai découvert jusqu'à présent, je l'écris pour moi comme un mémorial, mais Dieu sait ce qu'il veut faire ^ ce qui m'est encore un peu caché. 44. Puisque nous ne trouvons rien dans toute la nature dont nous puissions dire : cela est Dieu , ou Dieu est ici;( ce dont nous pourrions conclure que Dieu est une chose étrangère ) puisqu'il témoigne Itii-méme que le règne et la puissance sont à lui de toute éternité 3 puisqu'il s'appelle aussi lui-mêm« OT. 4. ( 40 )
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.
135. Who is it then that carried the demon to become choleric and wicked? what was in him the first bad substance since he is created of the eternal original spirit? or whence comes the infernal source, wherein that demon must dwell eternally, if the world as well as the stars, the elements, the earth and the stones must at the end cease to be? 36. Here, dear reader, open the eyes of thy intelligence, and know that he cannot be excited [to evil] by any other source than by his personal property which is in him, for it is there his hell whereof he was made or created; and his eternal shame is the light of God; it is why he is enemy of God, so that he is no longer in the light of God. 37. Now, thou canst not suppose any longer that God ever employed any [ bad ] substance whereof he created the demon. Otherwise the demon might justify himself upon this, that God had made him wicked or of a bad substance, for he created him of nothing else than of his own essence as well as the other angels, according as it is written: of him, by him, and in him are all things; and to him alone, from all eternity, belong the kingdom, the force, the power and the sovereignty; and all is in him, according to the holy scripture. And if that were not so, the sins could be imputed neither to the demon nor to man, if they had not both been eternally in God and of God himself. CH. 4. ( 47 )
238. For, to no animal which is created of a matter shall sin be imputed, seeing that its spirit reaches not the first principle, but that it originises itself in the third, in the elementary and sidereal reign, in corruptibility, and touches not the divinity, as the demon and the soul of man do. 39. And if thou canst not believe it, take with thee the holy scripture which tells thee: When man was fallen into sin, God sent him his own heart, his life, or the light coming from himself, into the flesh, and reopened him the gates of the generation of his life, wherein he was rallied to the divinity; he reunited him and rekindled in him the light whereof he was separated, although he had always remained in the origin of the first principle. 40. If the soul of man had not been of God the father, of his first principle, but of another substance, he would not have sent him that so high pledge, his own heart and his light, as he testifies himself: I am the light of the world, and the life of man; but he might well have come to his succour in another manner. 4i. Now, what thinkest thou that he brought to man in the flesh when he came? nothing less than what Adam and the mother Eve had lost in paradise; it is there what the bruiser of the serpent brought back to the monstrous generation 5 he enfranchises man from the carnal sidereal elementary house, and re-establishes him in paradise, whereof I shall write amply hereafter. ( 4^ ) CR. 4.
342. It is why if thou wilt now consider God and speak of him, thou must think that he himself is all; and moreover thou must consider the three principles. Thou wilt find there what God is. Thou wilt find there what the anger, the demon, hell, sin are; what the angel, man or the beast is, and whence proceeds the separation which has put all in the actual state. Thou wilt find there the creation of the world. 43. Only, reader, I will warn thee sincerely 5 if thou art not upon the way of the prodigal child who returns towards his father, to leave my book there without reading it, otherwise misfortune would come to thee of it. For the great prince Lucifer will not spare his pains to deceive thee; seeing that in this book he is put entirely naked before the children of God. He is ashamed like a man who for bad deeds should be exposed to the opprobrium of all the world; it is why I warn thee that if thou art attached to thy delicate flesh, thou must not read my book. If thou followest not my counsel, and misfortune comes to thee of it, I shall not answer for it, and the fault shall be thine alone. For what I have discovered until now, I write for myself as a memorial, but God knows what he will do, which is still a little hidden from me. 44. Since we find nothing in all nature whereof we may say: that is God, or God is here; ( whence we might conclude that God is a foreign thing ) since he testifies himself that the reign and the power are his from all eternity 3 since he calls himself also himself OT. 4. ( 40 )
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.