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.
1loin du Christ ; non, ils en sont près. Toutefois, dans toule l'éternité ils ne l'atteindront pas : car ils ne peuvent pas voir la claire divinité dans la lumière • mais lis sont aveugles. Et aussi nous ne les verrons' ni ne les sentirons dans toute l'éternité, comme à présent nous ne les voyons pas, puisqu'ils sont dans lin autre principe ; et c'est dans cet état que ce même prmcipe subsiste. ii5. Ainsi, ma chère ame, sache que la créature du Chnst est le centre de ce trône , d'où toute vie procède (entends, ce qui est céleste ); car dans le centre est la trinité sainte , et non-seulement dans ce centre, mais dans tous les trônes angéliques aussi bien que dans les saintes âmes des hommes' Seulement nous devons parler ainsi pour être entendus. ii6. Ainsi le corp, (entends la créature , l'homme Chnst )est assisdans le milieu de ce trône,et est ainsi danslecjel (entends dans son principe), siégeant avec ses trônes à la droiie de Dieu le père. 117. La droite de Dieu est où l'amour éteint la colère , et engendre le paradis. Cela est vraiment la droite , où le père colérique est appelé Dieu dans Tamour et la lumière de son cœur , qui est son fils ; et ce trône corporel, ou le corps entier du Christ est tout entier à la droite de Dieu. Mais quand on dit : à la droite de Dieu , il faut entendre la plus intérieure racine delà puissance aiguë du père, dans laquelle est la touie puissance, où le père sort de lui-même, dans la volonté reconçue dans la douceur, et ouvre les portes dans le brisement des lé- :U ( 35 a ) CH. aS.
2nèbres en soî-même. C'est dans cette racine qne siège le Christ ; il est assis uiusi à la droite de la force et de la puissance, et nous ne pouvons, avec notre langue , en parler plus sublimement , quoique nous l'entendions bien en esprit : c'est pourquoi aussi tu n'as pas besoin de le sonder; toutefois atteins seulement le corps du Christ , alors tu as Dieu et le royaume du ciel. Mais nous devons écrire ainsi , à cause des erreurs du monde , et à cause de ses cupidités. Ii8. Mais quand tu dis: Le Christ est-il assis, ou bien est-il debout, ou bien est-il couché? Tu fais comme une bête de somme qui demanderoit comment le tailleur a fait le sac qu'il lui faut porter sur son dos? Toutefois il faut donner du fourrage à l'animal de service, pour qu'il porte le sac plus long - tems. Vois , Jésus-Christ est assis en soimême; il se tient debout en soi-même; il n'a besoin ni de siège, ni de marche-pied : sa puissance est son trône ; il n'y a point de haut , ni de bas ; et de même que tu vois, dans la vision d'Ezechiel , qu'elle étoit pleine d'yeux en arrière et en avant , en haut et en bas; de même aussi le corps du Christ. La trinité sainte brille dans tout le corps , et n'a besoin ni de soleil, ni de jour. (Apoc. 21 : 28.) (353 J ^^^^^o»^»^«^»^^^^^* CHAPITRE VINGTSIXIEME. De la pentecote; de lenvoi de l'esprit saint; des apôtres et des croyans. La sainte porte de la puissance divine,
3l. *-'A raison se dit : Si le Christ s'est ainsi élevé avec le corps qu'il a offert sur la croix , quand a-t-il donc été gloriHé avec son corps ? ou bien comment est son corps ? est-il encore tel que ses disciples le virent monter au ciel ? Ma chère raison , mes y eux terrestres ne voient pas cela \ mais bien les yeux spirituels en Christ. L'écriture dit : // est glorifié ou, proclamé souverain sur toutes choses. Mais nous voulons l'ouvrir la porte des grandes merveilles afin que tu voies comme nous. 2. Vois, lorsque Dieu le père eut conduit lé peuple d'Israël dans le désert, sur là montagne de Sinaï, et voulut leur donner des lois dans lesquelles ils pussent vivre, il ordonna à Moïse de monter vers le seigneur sur la montagne ; le reste des anciens eut ordre de se tenir éloigné -, le peuple resta au bas de la montagne, et Moïse monta seul vers le seigneur sur la montagne. Là parut la gloire du seigneur , et au septième jour il appela Moïse : il' n. a3 ( 354 ) c^- ^^• s'entretînt avec lui sur les diverses lois j et la faco de Moïse fut éclairée par le seigneur , pour qu'il pût rester en sa présence et s'entretenir avec lui. C'est de même aussi que l'homme Christ , lorsqu'il fut monté sur son trône , fut glorifié au neuvième jour, dans le ternaire saint , par la trinité sainte.
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.
1far from the Christ; no, they are near it. However, in all eternity they shall not attain it: for they cannot see the clear divinity in the light; but they are blind. And also we shall not see them nor feel them in all eternity, as at present we see them not, since they are in another principle; and it is in this state that this same principle subsists. ii5. Thus, my dear soul, know that the creature of the Christ is the centre of this throne, whence all life proceeds (understand, what is celestial); for in the centre is the holy trinity, and not only in this centre, but in all the angelic thrones as well as in the holy souls of men. Only we must speak thus to be understood. ii6. Thus the body (understand the creature, the man Christ) is seated in the midst of this throne, and is thus in the heaven (understand in his principle), sitting with his thrones at the right hand of God the father. 117. The right hand of God is where the love extinguishes the anger, and begets the paradise. That is truly the right hand, where the choleric father is called God in the love and the light of his heart, which is his son; and this corporeal throne, or the whole body of the Christ is entirely at the right hand of God. But when one says: at the right hand of God, one must understand the most interior root of the sharp power of the father, in which is the omnipotence, where the father goes out of himself, into the will reconceived in the sweetness, and opens the gates in the breaking of the darkne- :U ( 35 a ) CH. aS.
2sses in itself. It is in this root that the Christ sits; he is seated thus at the right hand of the force and of the power, and we cannot, with our tongue, speak of it more sublimely, although we understand it well in spirit: it is why also thou hast no need to sound it; however attain only the body of the Christ, then thou hast God and the kingdom of heaven. But we must write thus, because of the errors of the world, and because of its covetousnesses. Ii8. But when thou sayest: Is the Christ seated, or else is he standing, or else is he lying? Thou doest as a beast of burden which should ask how the tailor has made the sack that it must bear upon its back? However one must give fodder to the animal of service, that it may bear the sack the longer. See, Jesus-Christ is seated in himself; he stands in himself; he has need neither of seat, nor of footstool: his power is his throne; there is no high, nor low; and even as thou seest, in the vision of Ezekiel, that it was full of eyes behind and before, above and below; even so also the body of the Christ. The holy trinity shines in the whole body, and has need neither of sun, nor of day. (Apoc. 21 : 28.) (353 J ^^^^^o»^»^«^»^^^^^* CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXTH. Of the pentecost; of the sending of the holy spirit; of the apostles and of the believers. The holy gate of the divine power,
3l. The reason says to itself: If the Christ has thus raised himself with the body that he offered upon the cross, when then has he been glorified with his body? or else how is his body? is it still such as his disciples saw it go up to heaven? My dear reason, my terrestrial eyes see not that; but indeed the spiritual eyes in Christ. The writing says: He is glorified or, proclaimed sovereign over all things. But we will open thee the gate of the great marvels that thou mayest see as we. 2. See, when God the father had led the people of Israel into the desert, upon the mountain of Sinai, and would give them laws in which they might live, he ordained to Moses to go up toward the lord upon the mountain; the rest of the ancients had order to hold themselves afar off; the people remained at the foot of the mountain, and Moses went up alone toward the lord upon the mountain. There appeared the glory of the lord, and at the seventh day he called Moses: he n. a3 ( 354 ) c^- ^^• conversed with him upon the divers laws; and the face of Moses was enlightened by the lord, that he might remain in his presence and converse with him. It is even so also that the man Christ, when he was gone up upon his throne, was glorified at the ninth day, in the holy ternary, by the holy trinity.
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.