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.
18. Or ; l'engendrement de la matrice est de cette sorte dans son essence éternelle , et dans la génération de sa vie : car premièrement , elle est astringente, âpre, dure,d'oii le froid dérivej etl'astringence tire à soi , et aiguise ; et dans son attract , elle fait que l'aiguillon devient amer , piquant , tempêtant ; or , ne pouvant pas souffrir le dur attract, il se tourmente lui-même comme étant dans la démence ; il s'élève , et tempête , et devient comme un esprit de souffre. 9. C'est de cette manière que dans la colère, ont été engendrés la terre astringente amère , le souffre et le sel dans l'astringen le mère aquatique avant l'enfiàmmemeut du soleil dans la matrice intelligente. Mais comme il y a eu là une séparation , cela a fait que la génération est restée dans une grande an-^ goisse , et demande une division dans Vengendre" ment. Car l'amertume ne s'accommode point avec l'astringence ; elles sont cependant mère et enfant , membres l'une de l'autre , et cela doit être ainsi ^ sans quoi il n'y auroit rien: car c'est là l'éternelle alliance , et l'origine de la vie. 10. En outre, lorsque l'amertume s^emporte-, s'élève et s'angoisse ainsi dans l'astringente mère'^ elle tombe en un luisant éclair très effrayant. C'est de cette manière que le> mercure ou le poisoo^ est ( 8o ) IcB. 6i engendré dans la matrice. Car lorsque la matrice euvisage cet éclair de feu dans sa forme ténébreuse astringente , elle s'effraie , et elle meurt dans sa puissauce âpre et astringente ; et à ce même lieu sont engendrés dans la matrice , la mort , le poison ^ la chute , et le brisement , aussi bien que la noble vie dans l'amertume et l'ascension du troisième principe.
2II. Allons plus loin. Lorsque le feu pétillant est ar* rivé dans l'astringente mère , et qu'il a ainsi subjugué sa mère , il est lui-même très étonné. Car il perd alors sa vertu colérique , puisque la mère a reçu une autre source et que de l'éruption du feu est venu un enfer. Par cette autre source , la substance dans la matrice muette , est devenue au milieu de la terreur une matière molle, douce, et mélangée ; c'est-à-dire, que de l'expansion de la lumière est résulté l'or, l'argent , le cuivre , l'étain , le plomb et ainsi des autres , selon le mode où , dans chaque lieu , la matrice se trouva dans le centre combattant. 12. Car la génération a été ainsi dans toute l'étendue de ce monde , aussi loin que s'étendoit le royaume de Lucifer. C'est pourquoi il y a des terres, des métaux , et autres substances bien différentes dans un lieu que dans l'autre , et on voit clairement comment tous les métaux sont mélangés ; cela vient de l'extra-génération en infinité , ce que nous pouvons bien comprendre et contempler 5 mais nous B'avons pas besoin d'en parler , et même nous ne le pouvons 5 car cela dérangeroit notre esprit ; r'est là le domaine de la divinité qui est éternelle et ^aus ch. s. ( 81 ) commencement. C'est pourquoi la créature nVit doit point approchée: sous peine de perdre sa raison et son sens.
3i3. Maintenant, pour éclaîrcîr ceci davantage^ lorsque la matrice fut ainsi dans la génération^ là où la matière de la terre a été engendrée , la matrice, par l'enflammement , devint eau 5 ( entendez bien ceci) non pas entièrement en substance; mais dô même que la terre , les pierres , et le métal s'engendrent , et que cependant la matrice demeure J de même aussi l'eau demeure dans la mort et l'abaissement 5 ce dont le monde matériel est provenu. Là dans ce mouvement le globe de la terre a été congloméré ensemble^ et il reste comme un point au milieu du cercle ; c'est-à-dire , de ce qui est en haut et de ce qui est en bas. 14. Dans ce point là , l'esprit de Dieu est resté dans le centre , dans la matrice paradisiaque , et a demeuré dans son propre siège, dans le ciel paradisiaque , d'où il ne s'est point éloigné. Là , il a couvé l'eau matérielle avec le fiat ; il a formé là le ciel qui a été créé du milieu de la matrice aquatique , et a séparé dans la matrice la racine des ténèbres d'avec la lumière , dans lesquelles ténèbres les détaons sont demeurés , et n'ont point compris la matière dans la matrice , non plus que la nouvelle lumière qui s'éleva dans la matrice. De cette création et de cette séparation résulta la longueur d'un jour, et du commencement et de la fin, du matin et du «oir vint le premier jour, comme l'écrit Moïse. i5. Mais, puisque nous parlons du ciel , et pour (8îî CR. 6« que le lecteur puisse Gompreni.e ce qu est ce que Dieu créa alors , Moïse écrit que Dieu fit un firman>e..t au milieu des eaux, et sépara les eaux qui sont au-dessus du lirniamen. , d'avec les eaux qui sont au-dessous du firmament , et nomma 'e f"^nwmcnl , ciel. Cela est vrai , mais jusqu'ici cela a étô difficile à entendre.
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.
18. Now, the begetting of the matrix is of that sort in its eternal essence, and in the generation of its life: for firstly, she is astringent, harsh, hard, whence the cold derives; and the astringency draws to itself, and sharpens; and in its attraction, it makes that the sting becomes bitter, pricking, storming; now, not being able to suffer the hard attraction, it torments itself as being in dementia; it rises, and storms, and becomes like a spirit of sulphur. 9. It is in that manner that in the anger were begotten the bitter astringent earth, the sulphur and the salt in the astringent aquatic mother before the inflaming of the sun in the intelligent matrix. But as there was there a separation, that made that the generation remained in a great anguish, and demands a division in the begetting. For the bitterness accommodates itself not with the astringency; they are nevertheless mother and child, members one of the other, and that must be so, without which there would be nothing: for it is there the eternal alliance, and the origin of the life. 10. Moreover, when the bitterness carries itself away, rises and anguishes itself thus in the astringent mother, it falls into a shining flash very frightful. It is in that manner that the mercury or the poison is ( 8o ) IcB. 6i begotten in the matrix. For when the matrix envisages that flash of fire in its tenebrous astringent form, it is affrighted, and it dies in its harsh and astringent power; and at that same place are begotten in the matrix, death, poison, the fall, and the breaking, as well as the noble life in the bitterness and the ascension of the third principle.
2II. Let us go further. When the crackling fire arrived in the astringent mother, and had thus subjugated its mother, it is itself much astonished. For it loses then its choleric virtue, since the mother has received another source and since from the eruption of the fire came a hell. By that other source, the substance in the mute matrix became in the midst of the terror a soft, sweet, and mingled matter; that is to say, that from the expansion of the light resulted the gold, the silver, the copper, the tin, the lead and so of the others, according to the mode in which, in each place, the matrix found itself in the combating centre. 12. For the generation was thus in all the extent of this world, as far as the kingdom of Lucifer extended. It is why there are earths, metals, and other substances very different in one place than in another, and one sees clearly how all the metals are mingled; that comes from the extra-generation in infinity, which we can well comprehend and contemplate 5 but we have no need to speak of it, and even we cannot 5 for that would derange our spirit; it is there the domain of the divinity which is eternal and without ch. s. ( 81 ) beginning. It is why the creature must not approach it, on pain of losing its reason and its sense.
3i3. Now, to clear this up further, when the matrix was thus in the generation, there where the matter of the earth was begotten, the matrix, by the inflaming, became water 5 ( understand this well ) not entirely in substance; but even as the earth, the stones, and the metal beget themselves, and nevertheless the matrix remains; even so also the water remains in the death and the abasement 5 whence the material world proceeded. There in that movement the globe of the earth was conglomerated together, and it remains like a point in the middle of the circle; that is to say, of what is above and of what is below. 14. In that point, the spirit of God remained in the centre, in the paradisiac matrix, and dwelt in its own seat, in the paradisiac heaven, whence it removed not. There, it brooded the material water with the fiat; it formed there the heaven which was created from the midst of the aquatic matrix, and separated in the matrix the root of the darknesses from the light, in which darknesses the demons remained, and comprehended not the matter in the matrix, any more than the new light which rose in the matrix. From that creation and that separation resulted the length of a day, and from the beginning and the end, from the morning and the evening came the first day, as Moses writes. i5. But, since we speak of the heaven, and in order (8îî CR. 6« that the reader may comprehend what it is that God then created, Moses writes that God made a firmament in the midst of the waters, and separated the waters which are above the firmament from the waters which are beneath the firmament, and named the firmament, heaven. That is true, but until now that has been difficult to hear.
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.