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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.
1trouvons clairement ce que le Christ dit : Il est difficile à un riche (V entrer dans le royaume du ciel. Cela ne tombe point sur les richesses , mais sur la gloire personnelle , et sur la vie orgueilleuse et cupide , où l'on consume , dans l'arrogance , la sueur du malheureux , et où l'on oublie Dieu. Ah ! combien il est difficile à un orgueilleux de s'humilier devant Dieu et les hommes! Et cependant le royaume du ciel ne consiste que dans la vertu de l'humilité. % 74. Pourtant on voit quelques" riches aussi se rapprocher du Christ , ce qui montre que le royaume du ciel ne consiste pas seulement dans les souffrances , mais dans la joie dans l'esprit saint. Que personne donc ne se croie sauvé parce qu'il est pauvre et souffrant. S'il est sans foi et impie , il n'est pas moins dans le royaume du démon. Un riche aussi qui jèteroit sça biens dans la boue , et les dépenseroit follement , ne doit pas se croire sauvé pourcela. Non, mon frère, le royaume de Dieu consiste dans la vérité, dans la justice, et dans l'amour des iudigens. La richesse ne damne point ceux qui en usent bien. Tu n'as pas besoin de jeter là ton sceptre, et de crier et hurler dan,s un coin ; ce n'est là que de la bigotterie. Tu peux mieux servir le royaume de Dieu et la justice, en conservant ton sceptre , en défendant l'opprimé , et eu faisant droit et justice, non pas selon ta cupidité, mais dans l'amour et la crainte de Dieu. Car, alors tu es aussi un frère de Joseph d'Arimathie , et tu brilleras devant Dieu , au-dessus des autres, comme ( 334 ) CH. aS, le soleil et la lune, en comparaison des étoiles. Il n'y a que l'orgueil, la cupidité , l'envie , la colère et la fausseté qui soient la couronne du diable j c'est pourquoi ^ conçois bien ceci* JDu séjour du Christ dans U tombeau.
2j5. Nous savons que le corps sans l'esprit , est an être immobile ; car quoique le corps du Christ , que le saint élément a engendré dans la miséricorde , «oit de Dieu , cependant la mobilité et la vie ne «ont qu'en Dieu , et en nous hommes , dans l'esprit de l'a me , et dans l'esprit du grand monde , lesquels, dans ce corps, sur la terre, ne sont pas séparés. 76. Ainsi on se demande : Où a été l'ame du Christ pendant que le corps a reposé dans Iç tombeau ? Ma chère raison , ne fais pas comme les aveugles en Dieu , qui disent : L'ame du Christ s'en alla loin du corps dans l'enfer , dans la terre; elle a livré pendant ce tems là , par la puissance divine , un combat aux démons dans l'enfer ; elle les a liés avec des chaînes , et a détruit l'enfer. O î les choses sont bien différentes ! Le» saints qui ont ressuscité à l'heure de la mort du Christ , s'énoncent bien autrement. 77. La raison ne sait encore rien du tout de Dieu, et puisqu'il ne lui est pas possible de connoître plus amplement les dons de Dieu , elle ne doit donc pas se jeter dans cette profondeur j mais s'arrêter modestement sur cet article : cela ne nuira point à sa sainteté. Dieu seul voit la volonté du cœur. Ta ÔH. 25, ( 335 ) pensée ne doit pas tout sonder ainsi dans la profondeur, si cela ne t'est pas donné, comme à cette plume ; elle écrit dans le conseil de Dieu ( car il s'en faut beaucoup que la main le sache , et à pein» en comprend-elle une étincelle ) , et cependant elle écrit très profondément, ainsi que tu le vois. Les choses à venir lui sont montrées dans une laborieuse profondeur, que Dieu ouvrira seul dans son tems, qui nous est inconnu.
378. Tu sais que Dieu lui-même est tout , et qu'il n'y a que trois principes ou trois engendremens qui soient la diversité de son essencejautrement tous les êtres ne seroient qu'un être , et tout seroit absolument pur Dieu. Si cela étoit , tout ne seroit qu'une agréable douceur. Mais où seroit la mobilité , le royaume , la puissance et la souveraineté ? C'est pourquoi nous avons souvent dit , que la colère est une racine de la vie , et que quand elle est sans lumière, elle n'est pas Dieu , mais feu infernal ; mais si la lumière brille dans cette racine , elle devient paradis et royaume de joie. 79. Ainsi nous ne pouvons dire autre chose de l'ame du Christ , sinon qu'il la remit dans les mains de son père ; alors le père la prit dans sa puissance divine ; entendez qu'elle y resta dans sa propre racine; mais sa propre racine, sans la lumière de Dieu, étoit dans la colère. Or , l'ame du Christ vint, avec la lumière de Dieu, dans la colère: alors les démons tremblèrent ; car la lumière emprisonna la colère , et le père ( entendez la colère ) devint paradis dans le royaume du ciel , et la coca. 25. ( 336 ) 1ère demeura dans l'enfer : car la lumière ferma le principe de Penfer ; ce par quoi il faut eulendre qu'aucun démon n'ose se contempler eu elle ; il est aveugle par rapport à la lumière, et la lumière est soa eCProi et sa honte.
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.
1find clearly what the Christ says: It is difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. That falls not upon the riches, but upon the personal glory, and upon the proud and covetous life, where one consumes, in the arrogance, the sweat of the unhappy, and where one forgets God. Ah! how difficult it is for a proud man to humble himself before God and men! And nevertheless the kingdom of heaven consists but in the virtue of the humility. % 74. Yet one sees some" rich ones also draw near to the Christ, which shows that the kingdom of heaven consists not only in the sufferings, but in the joy in the holy spirit. Let no one then believe himself saved because he is poor and suffering. If he is without faith and impious, he is none the less in the kingdom of the demon. A rich man also who should cast his goods into the mire, and should spend them foolishly, must not believe himself saved for that. No, my brother, the kingdom of God consists in the truth, in the justice, and in the love of the indigent. The riches damn not those who use them well. Thou hast no need to cast down thy sceptre, and to cry and howl in a corner; that is there but bigotry. Thou canst better serve the kingdom of God and the justice, in preserving thy sceptre, in defending the oppressed, and in doing right and justice, not according to thy covetousness, but in the love and the fear of God. For, then thou art also a brother of Joseph of Arimathea, and thou shalt shine before God, above the others, as ( 334 ) CH. aS, the sun and the moon, in comparison of the stars. There is but the pride, the covetousness, the envy, the anger and the falsehood which are the crown of the devil; it is why, conceive this well. Of the sojourn of the Christ in the tomb.
2j5. We know that the body without the spirit, is an immobile being; for although the body of the Christ, which the holy element has begotten in the mercy, be of God, nevertheless the mobility and the life are but in God, and in us men, in the spirit of the soul, and in the spirit of the great world, which, in this body, upon the earth, are not separated. 76. Thus one asks: Where has the soul of the Christ been whilst the body reposed in the tomb? My dear reason, do not as the blind in God, who say: The soul of the Christ went away far from the body into hell, into the earth; she delivered during that time, by the divine power, a combat to the demons in hell; she bound them with chains, and destroyed hell. O! the things are very different! The saints who rose again at the hour of the death of the Christ, express themselves quite otherwise. 77. The reason knows still nothing at all of God, and since it is not possible for it to know more amply the gifts of God, it must not then cast itself into this profundity; but stop modestly upon this article: that will not hurt its sanctity. God alone sees the will of the heart. Thy ÔH. 25, ( 335 ) thought must not sound all thus in the profundity, if that is not given thee, as to this pen; it writes in the counsel of God ( for it is far from the hand knowing it, and scarcely does it comprehend a spark of it ), and nevertheless it writes very profoundly, as thou seest it. The things to come are shown it in a laborious profundity, which God alone will open in his time, which is unknown to us.
378. Thou knowest that God himself is all, and that there are but three principles or three begettings which are the diversity of his essence; otherwise all beings would be but one being, and all would be absolutely pure God. If that were, all would be but an agreeable sweetness. But where would be the mobility, the kingdom, the power and the sovereignty? It is why we have often said, that the anger is a root of the life, and that when she is without light, she is not God, but infernal fire; but if the light shines in this root, she becomes paradise and kingdom of joy. 79. Thus we cannot say another thing of the soul of the Christ, if not that he put her back into the hands of his father; then the father took her into his divine power; understand that she remained there in her own root; but her own root, without the light of God, was in the anger. Now, the soul of the Christ came, with the light of God, into the anger: then the demons trembled; for the light imprisoned the anger, and the father ( understand the anger ) became paradise in the kingdom of heaven, and the angca. 25. ( 336 ) 1er remained in hell: for the light closed the principle of hell; whereby one must understand that no demon dares contemplate itself in her; it is blind in respect of the light, and the light is its terror and its shame.
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.