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.
114. Je sais qu'on ne doit pas jeter les perles dans le cliemin , de peur que les animaux ne les foulent ' aux pieds , encore moins les laisser avaler par hs pourceaux , parmi les écosses ; car cela ne profileroil en rien au monde léger, qui nechercheroitqu'à en abuser, puisque le démon , dont il est le serviteur, lui enseigne que , s'il savoit tout à l'heure , quel est le fondement du ciel et des étoiles , il seroit Dieu comme l'a enseigné aussi Lucifer. Cependant, puisque l'homme et toutes les créatures vivent dans la rertu des étoiles, dans leurs opérations et leurs essences, et que chaque créature reçoit de là sa propriété , je veux écrire quelque chose sur l'origine et* la rertu des étoiles , en faveur de la volonté désirante qui s'est sincèrement préservée de l'homme bestial, et veut vivre dans le vrai homme, ou l'imaga et la ressemblance de Dieu : cela est très essentiel à connoître , et sur-tout à cause du lys qui croît là, dans la matrice, dans l'arbre de la colère, vers le nord. i5. Moïse écrit que Dieu a dit : Qu'il y ait des lumières dans le firmament du ciel , qui partagent là le jour et la nuit, et marquent les signes , les tems,. les jours et les années,et qu'il y ait desjluminaires au firmament du ciel , qui brillent sur la terre. Et cela fut ainsi , et Dieu fit deux grands luminaires ; un Çrand luminaire pour qu'il présidât au jour , et un - cH. 8. ( ÏÛ9 ) petit luminaire pour qu'il présidât à la nuit , et en outre aussi les étoiles. Et Dieu les pinça dans le firmament du ciel , pour qu'ils brillassent sur la terre, et qu'ils présidassent au jour et à la nuit , et qu'ils séparassent la lumière d'avec les ténèbres.
216. Quoique l'écrit de Moïse dise bien qu'ils dévoient présider au jour et à la nuit , et séparer la lumière d'avec les ténèbres , et marquer les tems , les années et les jours , cela n'est cependant pas encore assez intelligible pour le lecteur désireux ; car on trouve vraiment quelque chose d'élevé dans la vertu et la puissance des étoiles , savoir ; comment c'est par leur puissance que se meut tout ce qui vit , les plantes, les couleurs et propriétés ; ce qui est épais et ce qui est délié ; ce qui est petit et ce qui est grand ; ce qui est bon et ce qui est mauvais : ce dont les sages du paganisme s'extasioient tellement , qu'ils houoroient ces astres comme Dieu. C'est pourquoi je veux écrire quelque chose de leur origine , autant qu'il m'est permis pour le présent, en faveur des chercheurs qui soupirent après la perle. Mais je n'ai rien écrit pour les pourceaux , et les autres hommes-animaux-sauvages qui foulent les perles dans la boue , et méprisent et dédaignent l'esprit des connoissances 5 ils peuvent s'attendre , ainsi que le premier monde , au déluge de feu. S'ils ne veulent pas porter l'image angélique , il faudra qu'ils portent celles des lions , des dragons , des reptiles et des animaux malfaisans. Et s'ils ne veulent pas se laisser toucher pour que Dieu vienne i ( ÎIO ) iCB. ^ leur secours, il faudra néamoins qu'ils éprouvent si ]a voix des prophéties aura menti à leur égard.
317. L'évaugéliste Jean écrit sur l'origine de l'essence et de la création de ce monde , si profondément et si juste , qu'il est impossible de trouver mieux dans aucun autre livre de la bible : au commencement étoit le verbe , et le verbe étoit avec Dieu , et le verbe étoit Dieu 5 il étoit dans le corn-* mencement avec Dieu. Toutes choses ont été faites par lui ; et sans lui rien n'a été fait de ce qui a été fait. £n lui étoit la vie , et la vie étoit la lumière de l'homme , et la lumière brilla dans les ténèbres , et les ténèbres ne l'ont point comprise. 18. Yojez ce que dit Jean : uéu commencement de la création , et avant le tems de ce monde , a été le verbe , et le verbe étoit Dieu , et dans le verbe étoit la lumière , et elle a brillé dans les ténèbres , et les ténè-^ hrea ne Vont pas pu saisir. Far-là on entend clairement : 10. comment la lumière éternelle est Dieu ; et on entend , 2**. , comment elle a eu son éternelle origine dans l'éternelle puissance ; et on entend , 3^. , comment elle est l'éternel verbe qui brilla dans les ténèbres. Puisque ce même verbe a créé tout dans tous les lieux , il a donc existé aussi dans touf les lieux , car sans lui , rien n'a été fait. 19. Or , ce même verbe n'a eu aucune matière dont il pût faire quelque chose , mais il a créé toutes choses des ténèbres , et les a apportées à la lumière pour qu'il brillât lui-même et montrât par-tout sa présence ^ car en lui étdh la vie i il donna la vie à CH. 8. ( i" )
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.
114. I know that one must not cast the pearls in the way, for fear the animals trample them under foot, still less let them be swallowed by the swine, among the husks; for that would profit nothing to the light world, which would seek only to abuse it, since the demon, whose servant it is, teaches it that, if it knew at once what the foundation of the heaven and of the stars is, it would be God as Lucifer also taught. Nevertheless, since man and all the creatures live in the virtue of the stars, in their operations and their essences, and since each creature receives thence its property, I will write something upon the origin and the virtue of the stars, in favour of the desiring will which has sincerely preserved itself from the bestial man, and would live in the true man, or the image and the likeness of God: that is very essential to know, and above all because of the lily which grows there, in the matrix, in the tree of the anger, towards the north. i5. Moses writes that God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, which divide there the day and the night, and mark the signs, the times, the days and the years, and let there be luminaries in the firmament of the heaven, which shine upon the earth. And that was so, and God made two great luminaries; a great luminary that it might preside over the day, and a cH. 8. ( ÏÛ9 ) little luminary that it might preside over the night, and moreover also the stars. And God pinched them in the firmament of the heaven, that they might shine upon the earth, and that they might preside over the day and over the night, and that they might separate the light from the darknesses.
216. Although the writing of Moses says well that they were to preside over the day and over the night, and separate the light from the darknesses, and mark the times, the years and the days, that is nevertheless not yet intelligible enough for the desirous reader; for one finds truly something elevated in the virtue and the power of the stars, to wit: how it is by their power that all that lives moves, the plants, the colours and properties; what is thick and what is thin; what is little and what is great; what is good and what is bad: whereat the sages of paganism went so far into ecstasies that they honoured those stars as God. It is why I will write something of their origin, so far as it is permitted me for the present, in favour of the seekers who sigh after the pearl. But I have written nothing for the swine, and the other wild-animal-men who trample the pearls in the mud, and despise and disdain the spirit of the knowledges 5 they may expect, like the first world, the deluge of fire. If they will not bear the angelic image, they will have to bear those of the lions, of the dragons, of the reptiles and of the maleficent animals. And if they will not let themselves be touched so that God may come to ( ÎIO ) iCB. ^ their succour, they will nevertheless have to prove whether the voice of the prophecies has lied in their regard.
317. The evangelist John writes upon the origin of the essence and of the creation of this world so profoundly and so justly that it is impossible to find better in any other book of the bible: in the beginning was the verb, and the verb was with God, and the verb was God 5 it was in the beginning with God. All things were made by it; and without it nothing was made of what was made. In it was the life, and the life was the light of man, and the light shone in the darknesses, and the darknesses have not comprehended it. 18. See what John says: at the beginning of the creation, and before the time of this world, was the verb, and the verb was God, and in the verb was the light, and it shone in the darknesses, and the darknesses could not seize it. Thereby one understands clearly: 10. how the eternal light is God; and one understands, 2**., how it had its eternal origin in the eternal power; and one understands, 3^., how it is the eternal verb which shone in the darknesses. Since that same verb created all in all places, it existed then also in all places, for without it nothing was made. 19. Now, that same verb had no matter whereof it might make something, but it created all things of the darknesses, and brought them to the light in order that it might shine itself and show everywhere its presence; for in it was the life; it gave the life to CH. 8. ( i" )
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.