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.
132. Nous savons que chaque vie; est un feu qui consume et doit avoir de quoi consumer ^ sinon il s'éteint. Npus savons aussi qu'il y a une éternelle alliance de vie, dans laquelle est la substance d'où l'éternel feu a toujours de quoi consumer : car l'éternel feu se /ait cette même substance pour sa nourriture. 33. Nous savons encore que l'étemeHe vie est double , en une double source , et que chacune est dans, son propre feu. L'une brûle dans l'amour, dans le royaume,- de joie j l'autre , dans la colère, dans l'âpreté et la douleur, et sa matière est l'orgueil, l'envie , la colère 5 sa source se compare à un esprit de soufre. En effet , relèvement de l'orgueil dans la cupidité , l'envie et la colèi-e , fait tout à la fois un soufre dans lequel le feu brûle , et s'enflamme sans cesse par cette substance: car il y a une grande amertume dans laquelle est la mobilité de la vje , aussi bien que le stimuliînt du feu. 34. Maintenant, nous savons comment chaque feu a une lueur et un éclat , et qu'il sort de soi-même de la source, et éclaire la matière ou la subslauce de la source , de façon que , dans la source, il y a ainsi une connoissance et une compréhension de la subsjauc. De là s'origine une base affective, avec (398) la puissance d'agir ainsi , et de concevoir une volonté pour quelque chose , et là , cependant , dans Porigine , il n'y avoit rien. Or , cette volonté sort en soi de la source-, la volonté désire la liberté pour sa demeure,et tient sa vie de la volonté qui est dans la lumière j elle vit en soi-même dans la joie , sans tourment ; et là , cependant , elle est dans l'origine , dans la base du tourment.
235. Ainsi , ame chérie , précieuse et désireuse , sache et remarque que toute vie repose sur l'abîme de la colère : car Dieu se nomme bien un feu dévorant, mais aussi un Dieu d'amour; son nom, Dieu s'originise dans l'amour, là où il sort de la source en soi-même, et se fait en soi-même joie , paradis et royaume du ciel. 36. Nous avons tous la source de la colère et de l'âpreté dans l'origine de notre vie ; autrement , nous ne serions pas vivans : mais nous devons y faire attention , et sortir avec Dieu , en nous , de la source de la colère , et engendrer l'amour en nous. Alors notre vie devient joie et une agréable demeure , et elle est vraiment dans le paradis de Dieu ; mais si notre vie demeure dans Tâpreté ou la cupidité, l'envie , la colère et la méchanceté , et ne passe pas dans une autre volonté , alors elle est dans la source angoisseuse , comme tous les démons dans la vie desquels il n'y a ni bonne pensée , ni bonne volonté , mais une pure inimitié en soi-même.
337. C'est pourquoi il y a deux vies opposées l'une contre l'autre ; savoir : lo. La première vie engendrée dans l'anaour 3 et ensuite a*^. la vie dans l'origine du tourment ; et comme la vie dans l'amour, n'est point portée à l'inimitié, aussi doit-elle se laisser froisser et piquer par les épines ; c'est à elle qu'on donne la croix à porter dans la patience et dans la douceur. Dans la végétation de ce champ , un enfant de Dieu doit être un porteur de croix. C'est pour cette fin que Dieu s'est déterminé un jugement et un jour de séparation , où il moissonnera ce qui aura poussé dans chaque vie ; toutes les formes de l'essence éternelle seront manifestées par là ; et tout doit subsister comme merveille de Dieu. 38. C'est pourquoi , ô ! homme , considère ceci , ne te perds pas toi-même , observe ce que tu produits dans le champ de l'amour , de la douceur et de la justice , et entre avec ta vie en toi-même dans la douceur de Jésus-Christ , dans la régénération en Dieu. Alors tu vivras dans la divine source de l'amour. Lorsqu'ensuite le champ de ta végétation te sera retiré , alors la vie sera un fruit et une plante de Dieu , tu pousseras et tu fleuriras avec un nouveau corps du pur et saint-élément devant Dieu , dans la vie de ton cher soutien et libérateur Jésus-Chfist. Donne-toi à lui entièrement et complètement dans cette vie de combat : alors tu fleuriras avec lui par sa mort et par sa résurrection , en un nouvel homme devant Dieu. Fiat. Amen ! Fin du deuxième et dernier volume. SOJtfMAIRE Des chapitres du 2". volume. Pag«s. Chapitre 17. JL/£ Veffroyable ^ lamentable , et douloureuse chute d*Adani et d'Eve dans le paradis. Miroir de Vhomnie l
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.
132. We know that each life is a fire which consumes and must have wherewith to consume, otherwise it extinguishes itself. We know also that there is an eternal alliance of life, in which is the substance whence the eternal fire has always wherewith to consume: for the eternal fire makes itself this same substance for its nourishment. 33. We know moreover that the eternal life is double, in a double source, and that each is in its own fire. The one burns in the love, in the kingdom of joy; the other, in the anger, in the harshness and the pain, and its matter is the pride, the envy, the anger 5 its source compares itself to a spirit of sulphur. In effect, the raising of the pride in the covetousness, the envy and the anger, makes all at once a sulphur in which the fire burns, and enkindles itself without ceasing by this substance: for there is a great bitterness in which is the mobility of the life, as well as the stimulant of the fire. 34. Now, we know how each fire has a gleam and a brightness, and that it goes out of itself from the source, and lights the matter or the substance of the source, so that, in the source, there is thus a knowledge and a comprehension of the substance. Thence originises itself an affective base, with (398) the power of acting thus, and of conceiving a will for something, and there, however, in the origin, there was nothing. Now, this will goes out in itself from the source; the will desires the liberty for its dwelling, and holds its life from the will which is in the light; it lives in itself in the joy, without torment; and there, however, it is in the origin, in the base of the torment.
235. Thus, cherished, precious and desirous soul, know and remark that all life reposes upon the abyss of the anger: for God names himself well a devouring fire, but also a God of love; his name, God originises itself in the love, there where he goes out from the source in himself, and makes in himself joy, paradise and kingdom of the heaven. 36. We have all the source of the anger and of the harshness in the origin of our life; otherwise, we should not be living: but we must give attention to it, and go out with God, in us, from the source of the anger, and beget the love in us. Then our life becomes joy and an agreeable dwelling, and it is truly in the paradise of God; but if our life remains in the harshness or the covetousness, the envy, the anger and the wickedness, and passes not into another will, then it is in the anguishous source, as all the demons in the life of whom there is neither good thought, nor good will, but a pure enmity in itself.
337. That is why there are two lives opposed the one against the other; to wit: lo. The first life begotten in the love 3 and afterwards a*^. the life in the origin of the torment; and as the life in the love, is not carried to the enmity, also must it let itself be bruised and pricked by the thorns; it is to it that one gives the cross to bear in the patience and in the gentleness. In the vegetation of this field, a child of God must be a bearer of cross. It is for this end that God has determined himself a judgment and a day of separation, where he shall reap that which shall have pushed in each life; all the forms of the eternal essence shall be manifested thereby; and all must subsist as marvel of God. 38. That is why, O! man, consider this, lose not thyself, observe what thou producest in the field of the love, of the gentleness and of the justice, and enter with thy life into thyself into the gentleness of Jesus-Christ, into the regeneration in God. Then thou shalt live in the divine source of the love. When afterwards the field of thy vegetation shall be withdrawn from thee, then the life shall be a fruit and a plant of God, thou shalt push and thou shalt flower with a new body of the pure and holy-element before God, in the life of thy dear support and deliverer Jesus-Christ. Give thyself to him entirely and completely in this life of combat: then thou shalt flower with him by his death and by his resurrection, in a new man before God. Fiat. Amen! End of the second and last volume. SUMMARY Of the chapters of the 2". volume. Pages. Chapter 17. THE frightful, lamentable, and painful fall of Adam and of Eve in the paradise. Mirror of man l
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.