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.
110. C'est ainsi que tu dois entendre la base des quatre élémens, qui ne sont, cependant, pas quatre essences particulières , mais une seule essence , et sont néanmoins distincts tous les quatre dans cette génération 5 et chaque élément repose dans le vase de l'autre j il est en même tems son réceptale , et est en lui comme un de ses membres. Comprenez bien la base , ainsi qu'il suit, 11. L'astringence est la matrice et la cause de toutes choses. Dans sa propre substance elle est entièrement ténébreuse , froide , et comme un rien ; mais comme il y a une éternelle divinité, laquelle so mire dans l'astringence , alors l'âpre astringence devient désireuse dans la puissance divine, et attire à soi , quoiqu'en ce moment là il n'y ait ni vie ni entendement dans l'astringence; mais elle est devenue la base de la première essence et la raison originelle de ce que quelque chose est. Car nous ne pouvons pas ici sonder plus avant la base de la divinité , d^ peur de nous troubler. 12. Maintenant , l'astringence dans son attract et sou grand désir pour la lumière, attire toujours à soi , et n'est rien dans sa propre substance qu'une faim ardente ; entièrement sèche ; absolument comme un rien 5 une volonté désiraute comme la sont les ténèbre* après la lymière j et sa faim , ou 1! ( 90 ) en. 7.
2son altract fait ramertutne , le tourment ; de façoit qu'elle ne peut être satisfaite ni appaisée. De - là vient Tangoisse ; de sorte que la volonté ou l'aiguillon de l'ardeur du désir se froisse en soi-même ; qu'il s'affame et ne veut pas s'abandonner au ténébreux rien^ ou à la mort. 11 porte son désir, son angoisse , et sa ferme volonté ainsi fortifiée dans la lumière cachée de Dieu ; de sorte que la volonté devient un éclair étincelant, tel qu'un pétillement de feu , dont l'astringence est toujours remplie comme dans un clin d'oeil , et elle en devient comme morte , ce qui fait que l'astringent esprit devient doux , souple et matériel ( ou ) en eau. i3. Mais , comme l'amertume est si fort effrayée par réclair de feu dans l'aslriugence , il saisit sa mère Pastriugencc , qui est devenue matérielle par l'épouvante, et il tend à s'écbapper. Il est gonflé par l'astringence matérialisée, comme s'il étoit aussi matérialisé \ il se remue et se fortifie toujours dans la mère , et cela est l'élément air dans ce monde , lequel air a soq origine dans la mère aqueuse. L'eau a la sienne de Tair. Le feu la sienne de l'angoisse désireuse. La terre et les pierres ont reçu la leur de l'atlract colérique par la chute de Lucifer, lorsque l'astringence fut ainsi fortifiée dans l'altract en ascension , lequel at tract fut de nouveau appaisé par la lumière, dans le troisième principe. i4. Ainsi , on entend parfaitement comment la lumière de Dieu est la source de toutes choses , et entendez ici tous les trois principes. Car , s'il n'y avoit ni puissance ni lumière divines , alors il n'y
3auroit aussi aucun désir dans la ténébreuse éternité , et le désir astringent qui est la mère de Péternité , ne seroit aussi qu'un rien. Or , l*on entend comment la puissance divine brille en toutes choses, et n'est cependant pas la chose elle-même, mais est l'esprit de Dieu dans un second principe ,: la chose est son miroir, et l'est devenue ainsi, par la volonté désirante. Mais enfin le cœur de Dieu est la première volonté dans le père , le père est le premier désir pour le fils , et le fils est la puissance et la lumièredu père , d'où l'éternelle nature est toujours désirante , et engendre ainsi de la puissance du cœur de Dieu dans l'éternelle matrice , le troisième principe. Car c'est ainsi que Dieu est manifesté ; autrement la divinité seroit restée cachée éternellement. i5. Or , nous disons , selon l'écriture , que Dieu demeure dans le ciel, et cela est vrai. Voyez , Moïse écrit : Dieu créa le ciel du milieu des eaux. Et l'écriture dit: Dieu demeure dans le ciel. Ainsi souvenezvous maintenant , comment l'eau a son origine ; gavoir : du désir de l'éternelle nature pour l'éternelle lumière de Dieu. Or , l'éternelle nature est maninifestée par le désir pour la lumièrede Dieu, comme cela a été dit ci-dessus , et la lumière de Dieu est présente , et cependant elle reste cachée à la nature. Car , la nature reçoit seulement la vertu de la lumière, et cette vertu est le ciel dans lequel la lumière de Dieu demeure cachée , et brille dans les ténèbres. L'eau est la matière qui est engendrée du ciel , et dans elle est le troisième principe qui engendre { 9^ ) cff. 7. ùe soi à son tour une vie et uue essence saisissable , «avoir , les élémens et les créatures.
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.
110. It is thus that thou must understand the base of the four elements, which are, nevertheless, not four particular essences, but one single essence, and are nevertheless distinct all four in that generation 5 and each element reposes in the vessel of the other; it is at the same time its receptacle, and is in it as one of its members. Comprehend well the base, as follows. 11. The astringency is the matrix and the cause of all things. In its own substance it is entirely tenebrous, cold, and like a nothing; but as there is an eternal divinity, which mirrors itself in the astringency, then the harsh astringency becomes desirous in the divine power, and draws to itself, although at that moment there be neither life nor understanding in the astringency; but it has become the base of the first essence and the original reason of that something is. For we cannot here sound further the base of the divinity, for fear of troubling ourselves. 12. Now, the astringency in its attraction and its great desire for the light draws always to itself, and is nothing in its own substance but an ardent hunger; entirely dry; absolutely like a nothing 5 a desiring will as the darknesses are after the light; and its hunger, or 1! ( 90 ) en. 7.
2its attraction makes the bitterness, the torment; so that it can be neither satisfied nor appeased. Thence comes the anguish; so that the will or the sting of the ardour of the desire bruises itself in itself; that it famishes itself and will not abandon itself to the tenebrous nothing, or to death. 11 bears its desire, its anguish, and its firm will thus fortified into the hidden light of God; so that the will becomes a sparkling flash, such as a crackling of fire, wherewith the astringency is always filled as in a twinkling of an eye, and it becomes thereby as it were dead, which makes that the astringent spirit becomes sweet, supple and material ( or ) into water. i3. But, as the bitterness is so strongly affrighted by the flash of fire in the astringency, it seizes its mother the astringency, which has become material by the terror, and it tends to escape. It is swollen by the materialised astringency, as if it were also materialised; it stirs and fortifies itself always in the mother, and that is the element air in this world, which air has its origin in the aqueous mother. The water has its own from the air. The fire its own from the desiring anguish. The earth and the stones received theirs from the choleric attraction by the fall of Lucifer, when the astringency was thus fortified in the attraction in ascension, which attraction was anew appeased by the light, in the third principle. i4. Thus, one understands perfectly how the light of God is the source of all things, and understand here all the three principles. For, if there were neither divine power nor light, then there
3would also be no desire in the tenebrous eternity, and the astringent desire which is the mother of eternity would also be but a nothing. Now, one understands how the divine power shines in all things, and is nevertheless not the thing itself, but is the spirit of God in a second principle: the thing is its mirror, and has become so thus, by the desiring will. But finally the heart of God is the first will in the father, the father is the first desire for the son, and the son is the power and the light of the father, whence the eternal nature is always desiring, and thus begets of the power of the heart of God in the eternal matrix, the third principle. For it is thus that God is manifested; otherwise the divinity would have remained hidden eternally. i5. Now, we say, according to the scripture, that God dwells in the heaven, and that is true. See, Moses writes: God created the heaven from the midst of the waters. And the scripture says: God dwells in the heaven. Thus remember now how the water has its origin; to wit: from the desire of the eternal nature for the eternal light of God. Now, the eternal nature is manifested by the desire for the light of God, as that has been said above, and the light of God is present, and nevertheless it remains hidden to nature. For, nature receives only the virtue of the light, and that virtue is the heaven wherein the light of God dwells hidden, and shines in the darknesses. The water is the matter which is begotten of the heaven, and in it is the third principle which begets { 9^ ) cff. 7. of itself in its turn a life and a seizable essence, to wit, the elements and the creatures.
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.