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.
166. Or , tu vois clairement qu'il a éprouvé tout cela de la part des pharisiens et des scribes j car cela ne lui arriva pas fortuitement et pour rien. Cela devoit élre ainsi 5 en effet les pharisiens , les scribes , et les supérieurs avoient préparé toutes ces angoisses , dont le Christ devoit s'abreuver. Mais ne devrions -nous pas nous taire ? Non , nous devons le dire , dussions-nous , pour cela , perdre notre vie terrestre. 67. Vois , toi , méchant antechrist, tu es ce que tu as été ; tu es le vieil homme, et non le nouveau ; ta subtilité est née dans la colère de Dieu 5 le démon t'a enseigné ce que tu fais; tu excites des guerres et des dissensions parmi les princes et lef rois qui sont fondés dans la nature , afin que tu sois le seul élevé parmi eux par tes tromperies , tes hypocrisies et tes basses fourberies 5 tu fais cela par or* gueil ; tu corromps les écritures des saints , selon Ion audacieuse arrogance , et tu es un meurtrier des âmes ; tu te moques de celles qui sont bornées « de façon qu'elles croient servir Dieu , en persécutant une ame sainte ; c'est toi qui leur enseignes cela , sans quoi , elles ne le sauroient pas : ainsi tu opères l'erreur, et tu «s Babel, une demeure do prostitution de tous les démons j voilà ce quo te dit l'esprit. 6S. Telle est la conduite des uns avec les autres : l'un convoite ceci, l'autre convoite cela; on n'entend que les hurlemens continuels du démon; toute union et tout amour sont éteints; la bouche dit une chose,le cœur en pense une autrejon crie l'un <W- *^- ( 33i )
2après l'autre, et personne ne sait où est le mal. Ainsi le Christ devoit prendre tout cela sur lui. Plusieurs ignorans ciièrent, par l'instigation des grands prêtres : Cn^nfiez , crucifiez. le , il a Irouhlé h monde ; et ils ne savoient pas ce qui les poussoit. Il en va encore de même aujourd'hui. Si l'antechrist en saisit un , dans sa colère , il crie sur lui , et ensuite chacun crie : O ! V hérétique , l'hérétique! et cependant le cœur ne peut rien dire contre lui qui soit condamnable. ' 69 Ainsi, vois, toi, antechrist, et chef des troubles de la terre , combien d'hommes ignorans sont sous tes blasphèmes ! Cest toi qui \^s fais si souvent calomnier une sainte ame. Vois : si une ame persécutée crie vers Dieu pour sa délivrance , alors tout cela prend consistance, et se réalise en substance devant Dieu ; car souvent de pauvres âmes, qui ont ainsi, par ignorance, injurié les saintes âmes , viennent devant Dieu , et voudroient bien être heureuses. Or , si le Christ navoitpas pris sur lui tous les mensonges et les faussetés , et réconcilié , en lui , son père avec son amour, où aurois-tu pu rester, pauvre pécheur? C est pourquoi le Christ nous recommande de nous pardonner , comme son père nous a pardonné en lui. Si nous ne le faisons pas, nous serons alors mesurés avec la même mesure dont nous nous serons servis. La porte du pauvre pécheur, 70t C'est pourquoi , toi, ame chérie, si parleshj ( 332 ) CH. 25.
3tromperies de Panfechrist , el les séductions du démon et de ses adhérens , tues tombée dans des blasphèmes et de grands péchés , examine-toi aussitôt , n'y demeure pas, ne te désespère pas non plus; pardonne à tes adversaires leurs fautes, et prie Dieu le père , en vertu du Christ , qui a porté sur lui notre méchanceté et nosinjuslices^commeun agneau innocent et patient, et tes péchés te seront pardonnés. Toutefois nous n'aurions jamais pu revenir de ces maux , si la miséricorde de Dieu ne nous eût aidé à en sortir , à notre insçu , et sans notre mérite. 71. Ah! combien en effet est-ce par une pure grâce que Dieu le père nous a envoyé son fils JésusChrist, afin qu'il prît sur lui nos transgressions, et qu'il l'appaisût daus sa colère! 72. Tous les hommes sont invités à cette grâce, de quelque race qu'ils soient ; ils peuvent tous venir , soit Turcs , Juifs , Payens , Chrétiens , et quelques noms qu'on leur donne ; personne n'en est exclus. Tous ceux qui sont fatigués et chargés peuvent venir au Christ; il les accueillera tous, et les ranimera, comme il le dit lui-même. Celui qui enseigne et parle autrement , ou qui cherche une autre voie, est un antechrist , et n'entre point par la porte dans le bercail du Christ. 78. Or donc , si nous considérons les railleries et les mépris qu'a souffert le Christ , comment cela lui est arrivé par l'instigation des hommes puissans, et que généralement c'est le petit peuple qui s'est attaché à lui ^ sauf quelques riches ^ alors noua ««. 25. ( 333 )
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.
166. Now, thou seest clearly that he experienced all that on the part of the pharisees and of the scribes; for that happened to him not fortuitously and for nothing. That was to be thus 5 in effect the pharisees, the scribes, and the superiors had prepared all these anguishes, whereof the Christ was to drink. But should we not be silent? No, we must say it, though we should, for that, lose our terrestrial life. 67. See, thou, wicked antichrist, thou art what thou hast been; thou art the old man, and not the new; thy subtlety is born in the anger of God 5 the demon has taught thee what thou doest; thou excitest wars and dissensions among the princes and the kings who are founded in the nature, in order that thou mayest be the only one raised among them by thy deceits, thy hypocrisies and thy base knaveries 5 thou doest that by pr* ide; thou corruptest the writings of the saints, according to thy audacious arrogance, and thou art a murderer of souls; thou mockest at those which are limited, so that they believe to serve God, in persecuting a holy soul; it is thou who teachest them that, without which, they would not know it: thus thou operatest the error, and thou art Babel, a dwelling of prostitution of all the demons; behold what the spirit says to thee. 6S. Such is the conduct of the one with the other: the one covets this, the other covets that; one hears nothing but the continual howlings of the demon; all union and all love are extinguished; the mouth says one thing, the heart thinks another; one cries the one <W- *^- ( 33i )
2after the other, and no one knows where the evil is. Thus the Christ was to take all that upon him. Several ignorant ones cried, by the instigation of the high priests: Crucify, crucify him, he has troubled the world; and they knew not what pushed them. It goes still the same to-day. If the antichrist seizes one, in his anger, he cries upon him, and then each cries: O! the heretic, the heretic! and nevertheless the heart can say nothing against him which be condemnable. ' 69 Thus, see, thou, antichrist, and chief of the troubles of the earth, how many ignorant men are under thy blasphemies! It is thou who makest them so often calumniate a holy soul. See: if a persecuted soul cries toward God for her deliverance, then all that takes consistency, and is realised in substance before God; for often poor souls, who have thus, by ignorance, insulted the holy souls, come before God, and would well be happy. Now, if the Christ had not taken upon him all the lies and the falsehoods, and reconciled, in him, his father with his love, where couldst thou have remained, poor sinner? It is why the Christ recommends us to pardon one another, as his father has pardoned us in him. If we do it not, we shall then be measured with the same measure wherewith we shall have served ourselves. The gate of the poor sinner, 70t It is why, thou, cherished soul, if by thehj ( 332 ) CH. 25.
3deceits of the antichrist, and the seductions of the demon and of his adherents, thou art fallen into blasphemies and great sins, examine thyself at once, remain not therein, despair not either; pardon thy adversaries their faults, and pray God the father, in virtue of the Christ, who has borne upon him our wickedness and our injustices, as an innocent and patient lamb, and thy sins shall be pardoned thee. However we could never have returned from these evils, if the mercy of God had not aided us to go out of them, unknown to us, and without our merit. 71. Ah! how in effect is it by a pure grace that God the father has sent us his son Jesus-Christ, in order that he might take upon him our transgressions, and appease him in his anger! 72. All men are invited to this grace, of whatever race they be; they can all come, whether Turks, Jews, Pagans, Christians, and by whatever names one gives them; no one is excluded from it. All those who are wearied and laden may come to the Christ; he will receive them all, and reanimate them, as he says it himself. He who teaches and speaks otherwise, or who seeks another way, is an antichrist, and enters not by the gate into the fold of the Christ. 78. Now then, if we consider the railleries and the contempts that the Christ suffered, how that happened to him by the instigation of the powerful men, and that generally it is the little people who attached themselves to him, save some rich ones, then we ««. 25. ( 333 )
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.