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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.
1presque par-tout y ce nom de sopiiie pour indiquer cette vierge étemelle y que sans cela on auroitpu confondre ^mal à propos y avec la créature terrestre , honorée comme vierge sainte , sous le nom de Marie y par les chrétiens. Enfin y parmi les mots allemands qui n'ont point d'analogue en français , // en est un^le mot gemiithe^ que j'ai traduit de tems en iems par anie , ce qui est le sens le plus usité dans les matières théosophiques y mais l'auteur^lui-même dans quelques endroits^prouve par le fait y qu'il distingue Vame d'avec le mot gemiitlie j et comme ce mot allemand m *a paru peindre cette intime faculté , par la-^ quelle notre être spirituel et divin est capable de sentir sa dignité y de connoitre ses rapports et d'exercer ses privilèges ; comme il m'a paru peindre ydis-jcycet état que j* appel eroisj si j'osois m' exprimer ainsi , la puberté de Vame y je n'ai rien trouvé de mieux pour le représenter y^iue l'expression de base affective^ et c'est par cette dénomination que je l'ai trè& souvent caractérisé. ■■ '■■ I !■ PREFACE D E L'A U T E U R AU LECTEUR PIEUX ET CHRETIEN
21. jLIefuis sa naissance, et pendant toute la durée de sa vie dans ce monde , riiomme ne peut rien entreprendre de plus important et de plus utile pour lui , que de chercher à se bien connoître lui-même : i**. Ce qu'il est? 2**. D'où et par qui ? 5°. Pourquoi il a été formé ? et 4*>. Quel est son emploi ? Dans celte sérieuse recherche il trouvera : ï**. Comment toutes les choses qui existent sont prévenues de Dieu ; il trouvera : 20. Comment parmi tout ce qui existe , il est la plus noble des créatures; de-là il trouvera aisément :o°. Quels sont les plans de Dieu à son égard , puisqu'il Ta établi souverain sur toutes les créatures de ce monde , et que , de préférence à elles , il Ta doué de la pensée , de la raison et de l'intelligence , et sur-tout de la parole , afin qu'il puisse discerner tout ce qui se fait entendre , toul ce qui se meut , tout ce qui croît 5 juger Vllj PRÉFACE des propriétés , du cours et de la source de toutes choses; et les tenir toutes sous sa puissance y en sorte qu'il soit le maître de les lier toutes par sa pensée et sa raison ] de les employer et de les diriger à sa volonté , et comme il lui plaît. 2. Mais Dieu lui a donné encore une bien plus haute et plus grande counoissiuice , par laquelle il peut voir dans le cœur de toutes choses , quelle sont les essences , les puissances et propriétés qui leur appartiennent : soit parmi les créatures, dans la terre, les pierres , les arbres , les plantes , dans tout ce qui a du mouvement , ou ce qui n*en a point , «oit même aussi dans les astres et les élémens, en sorte qu'il connoisse leur essence et leur puissance , et comment c'est dans cette puissance que gît toute sensibilité naturelle , la croissance , la multiplication et toute essence vivante.
35. Outre tous ces avantages , Dieu lui a donné la compréhension , et la plus haute pénétration pour pouvoir reconnoîlre Dieu pour son créateur 5 d'où, comment, et ce qu'est l'homme 5 où il e^^t , de quelle source il est provenu et a été créé , et comment il est l'image , l'essence, le domaine et le fils du Dieu éternels D B l'a U T E U R. incréé et impérissable ; comment il a été créé de l'essence de Dieu , qui a 771/5 en lui son essence et sa propriété ; qui , par son esprit , vit en lui et le régit; qui par lui, homme , gouverne sa création; qui aussi, le chérit ardemment, comme son propre cœur et son essence en faveur de qui il a créé ce monde avec toutes les créatures, lesquelles pour la plupart ne pourroient vivre selon leur qualification , sans la raison et le gouvernement de l'homme. 4. C'est dans cette haute contemplation que consiste la vraie sagesse divine, et elle n'a ni nombre ni limite ; c'est là qu'on découvre le véritable amour de Dieu pour Thomme , en sorte que l'homme reconnoît ce qu'est Dieu son créateur,ce qu'il exige de lui,et ce qu'il a remis à son pouvoir,et c'est là ce que l'homme peut sonder et rechercher de plus profitable dans ce monde. Car il apprend là à connoître ce qu'il est luimême , de quelle substance et de quelle essence il est ; ce qui meut ses pensées et son intelligence , et comment il est provenu de l'essence de Dieu. De même qu'une mère engendre un fils de sa propre essence , prend soin de lui , et lui abandonne ses biens et ses propriétés , et l'en rend possesseur ; de même Dieu en agit ainsi avec l'homme qui est aussi son fils. Il l'a créé , X P 11 i F A C E
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.
1almost everywhere, that name of sophia to indicate that eternal virgin, whom without that one might have confounded, wrongly, with the terrestrial creature honoured as holy virgin, under the name of Mary, by the christians. Finally, among the German words which have no analogue in French, there is one, the word gemüthe, which I have translated from time to time by soul, which is the sense most used in theosophic matters; but the author himself in some places proves by the fact that he distinguishes the soul from the word gemüthe; and as that German word appeared to me to paint that intimate faculty by which our spiritual and divine being is capable of feeling its dignity, of knowing its relations and of exercising its privileges; as it appeared to me, I say, to paint that state which I should call, if I dared so express myself, the puberty of the soul, I have found nothing better to represent it than the expression affective base, and it is by that denomination that I have very often characterised it. ■■ '■■ I !■ PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR TO THE PIOUS AND CHRISTIAN READER
21. From his birth, and during the whole duration of his life in this world, man can undertake nothing more important and more useful for him than to seek to know himself well: i**. What he is? 2**. Whence and by whom? 5°. Wherefore he was formed? and 4*>. What is his employment? In that serious research he will find: ï**. How all the things which exist are anticipated by God; he will find: 20. How among all that exists he is the noblest of creatures; whence he will easily find: o°. What are the plans of God in his regard, since he has established him sovereign over all the creatures of this world, and since, in preference to them, he has endowed him with thought, with reason and with intelligence, and above all with speech, in order that he may discern all that makes itself heard, all that moves, all that grows 5 judge Vllj PREFACE of the properties, of the course and of the source of all things; and hold them all under his power, so that he be master to bind them all by his thought and his reason, to employ them and to direct them at his will, and as it pleases him. 2. But God has given him yet a much higher and greater knowledge, by which he can see into the heart of all things, what are the essences, the powers and properties which belong to them: whether among the creatures, in the earth, the stones, the trees, the plants, in all that has movement, or that has none, or even also in the stars and the elements, so that he know their essence and their power, and how it is in that power that lies all natural sensibility, growth, multiplication and all living essence.
35. Besides all these advantages, God has given him comprehension, and the highest penetration to be able to recognise God for his creator 5 whence, how, and what man is 5 where he is, from what source he has proceeded and been created, and how he is the image, the essence, the domain and the son of the eternal God OF THE AUTHOR. uncreated and imperishable; how he was created of the essence of God, who has 771/5 in him his essence and his property; who, by his spirit, lives in him and rules him; who by him, man, governs his creation; who also cherishes him ardently, as his own heart and his essence in favour of whom he has created this world with all the creatures, which for the most part could not live according to their qualification, without the reason and the government of man. 4. It is in that high contemplation that the true divine wisdom consists, and it has neither number nor limit; it is there that one discovers the veritable love of God for man, so that man recognises what God his creator is, what he exacts of him, and what he has remitted to his power; and it is that which man can sound and search out as most profitable in this world. For he learns there to know what he is himself, of what substance and of what essence he is; what moves his thoughts and his intelligence, and how he has proceeded from the essence of God. Even as a mother begets a son of her own essence, takes care of him, and abandons to him her goods and her properties, and renders him possessor of them; even so God acts thus with man, who is also his son. He has created him, X P 11 i F A C E
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.