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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.
1corps qui est prisonnier dans l'esprit de ce monde ,^ mais de la doctrine , afin que nous éprouvions si elle est née de Dieu. Car si l'esprit enseigne le blasphème et la persécution , il n'est pas de Dieu , mais de la cupidité et de l'orgueil du diable. En çffet le Christ nous enseigne à marcher dans la douceur et dans l'amour fraternel , par lequel nous pouvons soumettre nos ennemis , briser la puis* sance du démon , et lui enlever son rp^rawme. 16. Mais quand on se livre aux combats, aux incendies, aux dévastations des pays et des peuples, le Christ n'est pas la -, c'est la colère du père , et le démon est l'intigateur. Car ce n'est pas ainsi que se montre le royaume du Christ. Il s'annonce par une *'cr/M puisâante,comme nous l'apprend l'exemple des apptres du Christ qni u'enseignoient point la vengeance; mais qui se laissoient persécuter: ils prioient Pieu 5 et Diçu les environnoit de signes et de grands prodiges , en sorte que les peuples venoienl à eux en foule. Ainsi l'église du Christ s'accrut puissamment jusqu'à couvrir presque la terrç. Maintenant , qui en a donc été le dévastateur ? Vois , ouvre bien tes yeux, le jour s'avance, et il faut que cela soit découvert 5 car Dieu le veut ^iusi à cause du lys. C'est l'orgueil des savans. 17. Lorsque l'esprit saint parloit par des puissances et des prodiges dans Içs saints^ et qu'il convertissoit miraculeusement, les hommes afiluoi^nt vers eux > leuip rendoient de grands honneurs ; ils s'agenouilloient et se prosternoienl devant eux, ççmœe s'ils eussent él^ des Dieux. Cela étpit bça «H. 26. ( 36i ) envers les saints: car l'honneur s'en rehdoit à Dieu 3 par-là croissoient l'humilité et l'amour, et tout étoit une amicale prévenance, comme cela convient et doit être parmi les enfans de Dieu.
218. Mais quand les saints eurent rassemblé leur doctrine dans des écrits par lesquels on pouvoit , en leur absence, comprendre ce qu'ils avoient enseigné , le monde s'y précipita ; chacun voulut être un pareil docteur, et pensa alors que tout l'art étoit dans la lettre ; là accoururent les vieux et les jeunes qui , pour la plupart , étoient tous dans le vieil homme , et n'avoient aucune connoissance de Dieu; ainsi ils enseignèrent selon l'obscurité de la parole écrite,et ils l'expliquoient selon leur opinion. 19. Or, comme ils voyoient que l'on rendoit de grands honneurs aux instructeurs , ils se livrèrent à la cupidité de la pompe et de l'argent, ainsi qu'à l'orgueil. Car les simples leur apportoient des présens et pensoient que l'esprit saint étoit dans les docteurs ; pendant que c'est le démon de l'orgueil qui étoit en eux. Il arriva de là que chacun prit le nom de son maître. L'un voulut être à Paul , l'autre à Appollon , le troisième à Pierre, et ainsi de suite. Comme les saints n'employoient point de pareilles expressions dans leur doctrine et dans leurs écrits , et que tout n'étoit que dans un même esprit, alor» l'homme naturel qui ne sait rien de Dieu sans l'esj*rit de Dieu , enfanta toutes sortes de disputes et fonda des sectes ; ils se mirent à enseigner toute espèce de gens , non pas entièrement par rapport à Dieu y mais pour les honneurs temporels pour la ( 362 ) en. 26,
3richesse cl le plaisir , afin de se rendre la vie joyeuse. Car ce n'étoit pas une œuvre difficile que de se lier ainsi à la lettre nue: par-là, il en est résulté entre eux des combats et des divisions, en sorte qu'ils se sont ardemment détestés les uns les autres , et cela n'étoit point engendré de Dieu * mais leurs parens les appliquoient à Técriture , afin qu'ils devinssent docteurs , dans Pespoir de recevoir en eux de grands honneurs , et pour qu'ils les vissent vivre somptueusement. 20. Ainsi il arriva que chacun voulut s'attirer la plus grande foule, afin d'être regardé du monde; il y eut tant de ces chrétiens de bouche , qu'on laissa là les désirs du cœur qui portent à Dieu , et qu'on ne s'attacha qu'à la parole du prêtre qui n'élevoit que des combats et des disputes 5 chacun se glorifioit de son talent , qu'il avoit appris dans l'école ; l'un crioit : Ici est le Christ , venez ici , comme Paul l'a écrit. L'autre disoit : Venez ici , ici est le Christ , comme Pierre a écrit ; il étoit vraiment disciple du Christ , et il avoit la clef du royaume des cieux;elle m'appartient certainement, chacun vous trompe ; c'est moi qu'il faut suivie. 21. Ainsi le pauvre peuple sans intelligence , fut captivé par les paroles de l'hypocrisie et les ruses de la cupidité qui ne sont que le masque de la chose religieuse , et il perdit ainsi son cher Immanuel , lé Chrisà^en nous. Celui d'où l'esprit saint procède , qui dirige et conduit les hommes dans toutes les vérités > et qui s'est engendré, au commencement, dans la puissance et les merveilles ^ cet être là , dis-je , u» «»»• 26. (363)
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.
1body which is prisoner in the spirit of this world, but of the doctrine, in order that we may prove whether it is born of God. For if the spirit teaches the blasphemy and the persecution, it is not of God, but of the covetousness and of the pride of the devil. In effect the Christ teaches us to walk in the sweetness and in the fraternal love, by which we can subdue our enemies, break the power of the demon, and take from him his kingdom. 16. But when one gives oneself to the combats, to the burnings, to the devastations of countries and of peoples, the Christ is not there; it is the anger of the father, and the demon is the instigator. For it is not thus that the kingdom of the Christ shows itself. It announces itself by a puissant virtue, as the example of the apostles of the Christ teaches us, who taught not the vengeance; but who let themselves be persecuted: they prayed God 5 and God environed them with signs and with great prodigies, so that the peoples came to them in crowds. Thus the church of the Christ increased powerfully until it covered almost the earth. Now, who then has been the devastator of it? See, open well thy eyes, the day advances, and it is needful that that be discovered 5 for God wills it thus because of the lily. It is the pride of the learned. 17. When the holy spirit spoke by powers and prodigies in the saints, and when he converted miraculously, men flocked toward them, rendered them great honours; they knelt and prostrated themselves before them, as if they had been Gods. That was good «H. 26. ( 36i ) toward the saints: for the honour was rendered thereby to God 3 thereby increased the humility and the love, and all was an amicable attention, as that suits and must be among the children of God.
218. But when the saints had gathered their doctrine into writings by which one might, in their absence, comprehend what they had taught, the world precipitated itself upon them; each would be a like doctor, and thought then that all the art was in the letter; there ran together the old and the young who, for the most part, were all in the old man, and had no knowledge of God; thus they taught according to the obscurity of the written word, and they explained it according to their opinion. 19. Now, as they saw that one rendered great honours to the instructors, they gave themselves to the covetousness of the pomp and of the money, as well as to the pride. For the simple brought them presents and thought that the holy spirit was in the doctors; whilst it is the demon of the pride which was in them. It happened thence that each took the name of his master. The one would be of Paul, the other of Apollos, the third of Peter, and so on. As the saints employed no such expressions in their doctrine and in their writings, and as all was but in one same spirit, then the natural man who knows nothing of God without the spirit of God, brought forth all sorts of disputes and founded sects; they set themselves to teach every kind of people, not entirely in respect of God, but for the temporal honours for the ( 362 ) en. 26,
3riches and the pleasure, in order to render the life joyous. For it was not a difficult work to bind oneself thus to the naked letter: thereby, there has resulted among them combats and divisions, so that they have ardently detested one another, and that was not begotten of God; but their parents applied them to the writing, in order that they might become doctors, in the hope of receiving in them great honours, and that they might see them live sumptuously. 20. Thus it happened that each would draw to himself the greatest crowd, in order to be regarded of the world; there were so many of these christians of the mouth, that one left there the desires of the heart which bear to God, and that one attached oneself only to the word of the priest which raised nothing but combats and disputes 5 each gloried in his talent, that he had learned in the school; the one cried: Here is the Christ, come here, as Paul has written it. The other said: Come here, here is the Christ, as Peter has written; he was truly disciple of the Christ, and he had the key of the kingdom of the heavens; it belongs certainly to me, each deceives you; it is I whom one must follow. 21. Thus the poor people without intelligence, was captivated by the words of the hypocrisy and the ruses of the covetousness which are but the mask of the religious thing, and it lost thus its dear Immanuel, the Christ in us. He whence the holy spirit proceeds, who directs and conducts men into all the truths, and who begot himself, at the beginning, in the power and the marvels; that being there, say I, was «»»• 26. (363)
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.