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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.
13i. Ainsi la matrice reste maintenant insaisissable , et soupire après le mode igné , et le mode igné soupire après la matrice ; car l'esprit de Dieu, qui est l'esprit de douceur, se contemple dans la la matrice aqueuse , et la matrice reçoit de lui la puissance. Ainsi il y a une ferme volonté d'engendrer et d'opérer , et toute la nature est dans ua grand désir , et une grande angoisse , voulant sans cesse engendrer la puissance divine , puisque Dieu et le paradis sont cachés dans cette nature ; mais elle engendre selon son mode et selon ses moyens. 32. Or , lorsque Dieu eut séparé la matrice d'avec sa forme ignée , et voulut se manifester dans ce monde , alors il établit le fiât dais la matrice , et dit : Qu^il croisse de V herbe , des plantes , des arbres , des animaux , chacun selon son espèce. Cette parole étoit le cœur ou la puissance de l'éternel père, mais l'esprit qui avoit le fiât , passa de l'éternel père dans la puissance du cœur de Dieu avec la volonté. La volonté fut le fiât , et la puissance de l'extragénération créa dans le troisième principe matériellement 5 visiblement et palpablement, chaque chose selon son essence. Telle qu'étoit la puissance , tel fut aussi son corps. Car, là , la matrice ignée, ou la région astrale avoit donné sa puissance au fiât ; la matrice aqueuse ainsi que les élémens avoient reçu la puissance ; elle devint enceinte. Chaque élément engendra de soi-même ses créatures 3 et aussi chaque forme engendra de soi - même dans la nature igué^ 1». 7^ ( 99 ) et aqueuse, et cependant il n'y eut aucune essence divisée. Seulement les créatures furent distinguées chacune selon son espèce, selon l'éternelle puissance ^ui ^ par l'ardeur , s'éleva dans le désir , et devint le troisième princijJe qui n'avoit point existé avant les tems.
233. Ainsi , le ciel astral domine (Jans toutes let créatures comme dans son domaine ; il est le mâle J et la matrice ou la forme aqueuse est sa femelle qu'il engrosse toujours. La matrice est la génératrice : elle engendre l'enfant que fait le ciel 5 et c'est de ce ciel créé dans le troisième principe , que sortent les élémens , particulièrement la malrico aqueuse d'où l'eau visible est engendrée , et qui engendre sans cesse encore dans la même ardeur. 34. C'est pourquoi , Moïse écrit avec raison r Dieu créa le ciel dumilieu des eaux. Tu dois entendre ceci de l'éternelle matrice aqueuse , qui n'est qu'un esprit dans lequel est le paradis et le ciel sacré , ou la puissance divine après laquelle sounire avec une grande faim la ténébreuse matrice; c'est de- là qu'est venue la matrice visible des élémens , de laquelle, au moyen du fiât, ont été créées, par l'éternel esprit de Dieu , les essenses de toutes les essences qui sont actuellement. 35. Car , chaque forme dans la matrice a manifestement ses créatures , mais invisiblement pour les yeux de l'homme ; elles peuvent, pour la plu* part , être regardées par nous comme un esprit fi» guré. C'est ainsi que le feu a des esprits et des créatures cachées pour nos yeux matériels j et nous se ( lOÔ ) CH. 7^ pouvons pas les voîr. Dans l'air également , il y a des esprits invisibles que nous n'apercevons point , puisque l'air étant immatéi*! , les esprits le sont aussi. Dans l'eau il y a des Créatures matérielles , mais qui ne nous sont pas visibles. Et comme elles ne viennent pas du feu et de l'air , elles sont d'une autre qualité j^t elles sont cachées aux êtres aériens et ignés , à moins qu'elles ne veuillent se manifester elles-mêmes.
336. C'est ainsi que le feu , l'air , l'eau , la terre sont dans un seul vase ; ces quatre ne sont qu'une seule chose, et cependant ils sont distincts tous quatre , et aucun d'eux ne peut saisir ni retenir l'autre. Or , dans chaque créature il y a quelque chose de fixe des quatre autres , et la créature ne peut pas se cacher dans ce fixe ; mais elle y est manifestée , «t elle est visible et saisissable 'selon ces mêmes esprits ) et insaisissable aux autres esprits élémentaires. 87. Car , c'est en sortant du rien que tout est arrivé à être quelque chose ; et chaque créature a un centre , ou le cercle de la génération de la vie en soimême. Or , de même que les élémens sont cachés les uns dans les autres , dans une seule mère , et que l'un ne saisit pas l'autre quoiqu'il soit un membre de l'autre ; de même aussi, les créatures produites sont cachées les unes dans les autres , et invisibles. Car,chaque être ne voit que dans sa mère,qui est fixe en» lui. Le matériel voit la substance malérielle , mais il ne voit pas la substance immatérielle , ou les esprits dans le feu et l'air , de même que lo CH. 7.' ( 101 ) -corps ne voit pas l'ame qui cependant demeure eri lui , ou de même que le troisième principe n'atteint ni ne saisit le second dans lequel est Dieu ; et quoiqu'il soit en Dieu , ily a cependant une génération entre eux. Il en est comme de l'esprit animique de l'homme , et de l'esprit élémentaire dans l'homme ,' lequel esprit élémentaire est cependant l'enveloppe et l'enclos de l'autre , ce que tu trouveras lorsque Je parlerai de la création de l'homme. >»o»i»*i à ' 1 '. »S/ (lM> CHAPITRE HUITIEME. De la production des créatures , et de Texpldsion de toute végétation , aussi bien que des éroiles et des élémens , et de Torigine de la substance de ce monde.
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.
13i. Thus the matrix remains now unseizable, and sighs after the igneous mode, and the igneous mode sighs after the matrix; for the spirit of God, which is the spirit of sweetness, contemplates itself in the aqueous matrix, and the matrix receives from it the power. Thus there is a firm will to beget and to operate, and all nature is in a great desire, and a great anguish, willing without cease to beget the divine power, since God and paradise are hidden in that nature; but it begets according to its mode and according to its means. 32. Now, when God had separated the matrix from its igneous form, and would manifest himself in this world, then he established the fiat in the matrix, and said: Let there grow of the herb, of the plants, of the trees, of the animals, each according to its species. That word was the heart or the power of the eternal father, but the spirit which had the fiat passed from the eternal father into the power of the heart of God with the will. The will was the fiat, and the power of the extra-generation created in the third principle materially 5 visibly and palpably, each thing according to its essence. Such as was the power, such was also its body. For, there, the igneous matrix, or the astral region had given its power to the fiat; the aqueous matrix as well as the elements had received the power; it became pregnant. Each element begot of itself its creatures 3 and also each form begot of itself in the igneous 1». 7^ ( 99 ) and aqueous nature, and nevertheless there was no divided essence. Only the creatures were distinguished each according to its species, according to the eternal power which, by the ardour, rose in the desire, and became the third principle which had not existed before the times.
233. Thus, the astral heaven dominates in all the creatures as in its domain; it is the male, and the matrix or the aqueous form is his female whom he always impregnates. The matrix is the generatrix: she bears the child which the heaven makes 5 and it is of that heaven created in the third principle that the elements issue, particularly the aqueous matrix whence the visible water is begotten, and which begets without cease still in the same ardour. 34. It is why Moses writes with reason: God created the heaven from the midst of the waters. Thou must understand this of the eternal aqueous matrix, which is but a spirit wherein is paradise and the sacred heaven, or the divine power after which the tenebrous matrix sighs with a great hunger; it is thence that came the visible matrix of the elements, of which, by means of the fiat, were created, by the eternal spirit of God, the essences of all the essences which now are. 35. For, each form in the matrix has manifestly its creatures, but invisibly for the eyes of man; they may, for the most part, be regarded by us as a figured spirit. It is thus that the fire has spirits and creatures hidden from our material eyes, and we ( lOÔ ) CH. 7^ cannot see them. In the air equally, there are invisible spirits which we perceive not, since the air being immaterial, the spirits are so also. In the water there are material Creatures, but which are not visible to us. And as they come not from the fire and the air, they are of another quality, and they are hidden from the aerial and igneous beings, unless they will manifest themselves.
336. It is thus that the fire, the air, the water, the earth are in one single vessel; those four are but one single thing, and nevertheless they are distinct all four, and none of them can seize nor retain the other. Now, in each creature there is something fixed of the four others, and the creature cannot hide itself in that fixed; but it is manifested there, and it is visible and seizable according to those same spirits ) and unseizable to the other elementary spirits. 87. For, it is in issuing from the nothing that all arrived at being something; and each creature has a centre, or the circle of the generation of the life in itself. Now, even as the elements are hidden the ones in the others, in one single mother, and as the one seizes not the other although it be a member of the other; even so also, the produced creatures are hidden the ones in the others, and invisible. For, each being sees only into its mother, which is fixed in it. The material sees the material substance, but it sees not the immaterial substance, or the spirits in the fire and the air, even as the CH. 7.' ( 101 ) body sees not the soul which nevertheless dwells in it, or even as the third principle neither reaches nor seizes the second wherein is God; and although it be in God, there is nevertheless a generation between them. It is as with the animic spirit of man, and the elementary spirit in man, which elementary spirit is nevertheless the envelope and the enclosure of the other, which thou wilt find when I shall speak of the creation of man. >»o»i»*i à ' 1 '. »S/ (lM> CHAPTER THE EIGHTH. Of the production of the creatures, and of the explosion of all vegetation, as well as of the stars and of the elements, and of the origin of the substance of this world.
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.