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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.
1trice de ce monde , domine par la vertu de la lumière { entendez par la vertu du second principe ) sur et dans la puissance des astres et de l'esprit élémentaire , le tout très puissamment comme dans son domaine. Mais, par la chute d'Adam, nous avons perdu cetle grande puissance , puisque nous avons quitté le paradis , et que nous sommes passés dans le troisième principe, dans la matrice de ce monde, qui nous a tenus aussitôt prisonniers dans la gêne. C'est pourquoi nous n'avons qu'une lueur de connoissance de rélernelîe génération , et nous la voyons comme au travers d'un miroir obscur. 5. C'est avec une bien grande impuissance que nous nageons dans toutes les trois générations j sou- ' ' venl la porte paradisiaque nous est fermée; le démon nous attire souvent dans. la porte infernale ; il nous cache les élémens et les portes sydériques , et nous appesantit tellement que nous nous mouvons souvent dans tout le matras , comme si nous étions sourds , muets , et à moitié morts : si cependant la lumière paradisiaque vient à briller , nous voyons au travers de cette lumière , dans la mère de tout les trois principes. Car rien ne peut nous en empêcher ; le triple esprit de l'homme voit chaque forme , et chaque qualité dans sa mère. 6. Ainsi , quoique nous parlions de la création du monde , comme si nous y avions été et que nous l'eussions vue, personne ne doit s'en étonner, et regarder cela comme impossible , car l'esprit qui est en nous , qu'un homme hérite de l'autre, qui a été foufflé de l'clcrniié dans Adam , cet esprit a tout vu CH. 7. (87)
2et il voit tout dans la lumière de Dieu , et il u'y a xiQnpour lui d'éloigné , rien d'inscrulable ; car l'oternelle génération qui est cachée dans le centre de l'homme ne fait rieij de nouveau , elle reconnoît et opère exactement ce qu'elle a fait de toute éternité. Elle travaille pour la lumière et pour les ténèbres , et elle opère dans une grande angoisse ; mais si la lumière brille en elle , il n'y a que de la joie et de la science dans ses œuvres. 7. C'est pourquoi lorsque l'on parle du ciel et de V mgendrement des élémens , on ne parle point de choses éloignées , ni qui soient à une dislance de nous , mais nous parlons de choses qui sont arrivées dans notre corps et dans notre ame , et rien n'est plus près de nous que cette génération, car c'est dans elle que nous vivons , et que nous nous mouvons , comme dans notre mère ; ainsi nous r.e parlons que de notre maison maternelle , et si nous parlons du ciel, nous parlons de notre pays natal que Tamc éclairée peut contempler , quoique cela soit caché à notre corps. 8. Car, de même que l'ame de l'homme se meut dans l'homme et nage dans les puissances des étoiles cl des élémens ; de même aussi le ciel créé se meut entre le paradis et le royaume infernal, et nage dans Téternelle matrice. Sou essence est insaisissable et inappréhensible , et est une pure vertu àe l'éternelle matrice ; sa limite est aussi loin que l'Ether s'est étendu par la création , aussi loin que le royaume du prince Lucifer a atteint et a résisté ; et là , cependaut , aucune limite ne se fc*it sentir , car la ( 88 ) CH. 7.
3puissance divine est sans bornes ; seulement noire sens atteint jusqu'au ciel igné des éloiIes5qui sont une extra-généralion dans la cinquième forme de l'élernelle mère , ou une quintessence dans laquelle la séparation, au lems du troisième principe, 01^ du commencement de ce monde , a divisé la puissance de la matrice ; ainsi là ce qui est séparé reste mouvant ou en action; chaque essence dans l'extra-géuération , dans les centres multiples des étoiles , a un ardent désir Tune pour l'autre , une ferme ardeur d'imprégnation, et chaque essence ou vertu est Taîiment , la boisson , l'enveloppe et le réceptacle de l'autre. 9. Car, de même que dans le principe paradisiaque l'esprit saint se manifeste toujours dans le trinaire de la divinité , bouillonne doucement sans mouvement sensible pour la créature , et cependant forme et représente tout dans la matrice paradisiaque ; de même aussi est le troisième principe. Dès lors que la matrice est devenue visible et matérielle , chaque puissance dans la matrice a un grand désir et un grand attract pour l'autre, une continuelle ascension , une floraison , et une descension , comme un végétal , ou une matière bouil» lonnante. Là la matrice astringente , froide et fort© attire à soi sans relâche 5 et ce même attract , ou bien J'aiguillon remue et se défend sans relâche, de façon qu'ainsi la matrice astringente eu égard à la matrice intérieure, colérique ou originelle , est toujours dans l'angoisse avec un grand désir de la lu» iwiC're qu'elle aperçoit dans la racine de feu , et en. 7. ( 89 ) dont elle s'effraie sans cesse ; maïs elle devient douce , traitable et matérielle 5 et par-là l'élément *au s'engendre sans cesse.
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.
1trix of this world, dominates by the virtue of the light ( understand by the virtue of the second principle ) over and in the power of the stars and of the elementary spirit, the whole very powerfully as in its domain. But, by the fall of Adam, we have lost that great power, since we have quitted paradise, and since we have passed into the third principle, into the matrix of this world, which held us at once prisoners in constraint. It is why we have but a glimmer of knowledge of the eternal generation, and we see it as through an obscure mirror. 5. It is with a very great impotence that we swim in all the three generations; often the paradisiac gate is closed to us; the demon often draws us into the infernal gate; he hides from us the elements and the sidereal gates, and weighs us down so much that we often move in the whole matrass, as if we were deaf, mute, and half dead: if nevertheless the paradisiac light comes to shine, we see through that light, into the mother of all the three principles. For nothing can prevent us from it; the triple spirit of man sees each form, and each quality in its mother. 6. Thus, although we speak of the creation of the world, as if we had been there and had seen it, no one must be astonished at it, and regard that as impossible, for the spirit which is in us, which one man inherits from another, which was breathed from eternity into Adam, that spirit has seen all CH. 7. (87)
2and it sees all in the light of God, and there is nothing for it remote, nothing unsearchable; for the eternal generation which is hidden in the centre of man does nothing new, it recognises and operates exactly what it has done from all eternity. It labours for the light and for the darknesses, and it operates in a great anguish; but if the light shines in it, there is nothing but joy and science in its works. 7. It is why when one speaks of the heaven and of the begetting of the elements, one speaks not at all of remote things, nor which are at a distance from us, but we speak of things which arrived in our body and in our soul, and nothing is nearer to us than that generation, for it is in it that we live, and that we move, as in our mother; thus we speak only of our maternal house, and if we speak of the heaven, we speak of our native country which the enlightened soul may contemplate, although that be hidden to our body. 8. For, even as the soul of man moves in man and swims in the powers of the stars and of the elements; even so also the created heaven moves between paradise and the infernal kingdom, and swims in the eternal matrix. Its essence is unseizable and inapprehensible, and is a pure virtue of the eternal matrix; its limit is as far as the Ether has extended by the creation, as far as the kingdom of the prince Lucifer has reached and has resisted; and there, nevertheless, no limit makes itself felt, for the ( 88 ) CH. 7.
3divine power is without bounds; only our sense reaches to the igneous heaven of the stars5which are an extra-generation in the fifth form of the eternal mother, or a quintessence wherein the separation, at the time of the third principle, 01 of the beginning of this world, divided the power of the matrix; thus there what is separated remains moving or in action; each essence in the extra-generation, in the multiple centres of the stars, has an ardent desire the one for the other, a firm ardour of impregnation, and each essence or virtue is the aliment, the drink, the envelope and the receptacle of the other. 9. For, even as in the paradisiac principle the holy spirit manifests itself always in the trinary of the divinity, boils sweetly without sensible movement for the creature, and nevertheless forms and represents all in the paradisiac matrix; even so also is the third principle. From the time the matrix became visible and material, each power in the matrix has a great desire and a great attraction for the other, a continual ascension, a flowering, and a descension, like a vegetable, or a boiling matter. There the astringent, cold and strong matrix draws to itself without relaxation 5 and that same attraction, or else the sting stirs and defends itself without relaxation, so that thus the astringent matrix, in regard to the interior, choleric or original matrix, is always in anguish with a great desire for the light which it perceives in the root of fire, and en. 7. ( 89 ) whereat it is affrighted without cease; but it becomes sweet, tractable and material 5 and thereby the element water begets itself without cease.
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.