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.
1la création ; la création vient de sa puissance. !La puissance est devenue matérielle. La lumière brille en elle , et la puissance matérielle ne peut la saisir, car elle est dans les ténèbres. Mais puisque la puissance matérielle ne peut saisir la lumière qui brille de toute éternité dans les ténèbres , alors Dieu lui a donné une autre lumière qui est provenue de la puissance j savoir : le soleil qui brille dans la création , de façon que la création est en lumière ^ et manifeste. 20. Car, i®. , de même que la divinité est lapuissapce et la lumière du paradis dans le second principe ; de même le soleil est la force et la lumière de ce monde matériel dans le troisième principe. Et 2^., de même que la divinité brille dans les éternelles ténèbres dans le premier principe 5 de même le soleil brille dans les ténèbres , dans le troisième principe. Et 3". , de même que la divinité est la puissance et l'esprit de l'éternelle vie 5 de même le soleil est la puissance et l'esprit dans la vie périssable. ai. Mais un esprit n'est autre chose qu'une volonté qui s'élève ; dans la volonté , il y a angoisse pour la génération 3 dans l'angoisse s'engendre le feu i dans le feu , la lumière : or , par la lumière , la volonté devient joyeuse , aimable , 'traitable et douce ; dans la volonté douce s'engendre la puissance , et de la puissance s'engendre le règne et la souveraineté ; ainsi la lumière possède la puissance; là où elle s'éteint , là cessent la puissance ) la sou«» ^Teraineté , et aussi le règne^ * (lia) CH.8.'
222. Dieu, qui est réternelle lumière, est rëternclle voloiilé. Il brille daus les ténèbres, et les ténèbres ont saisi sa volonlé : dans cetJe même volonté que les ténèbres ont saisie , s'élève l'angoisse ; dans l'as*- tringente angoisse , le feu ; dans le feu , la lumière ; de la lumière, la puissance 5 et de la puissance , le règne. Maintenant , du feu sont provenus les astres en outre le soleil : or , de la puissance sont venus les deux ; et le règne est de Dieu. Toutes ces choses éloient l'une dans l'autre dans la première volonté , dans la création ; alors , Dieu a séparé la volonté ignée , de la volonté de la lumière douce, et a appelle étoiles la volonté ignée , et ciel la volonté cfouce , selon la puissance de chacune. 23. Le soleil est la déesse dans le troisième principe dans le monde créé ; entendez le monde matériel : il est sorti des ténèbres dans l'angoisse de la volonté , à la manière et selon le mode de l'éternel engendrement. Car, lorsque la lumière de Dieu posa le FIAT dans les ténèbres , les ténèbres saisirent la volonté de Dieu , et s'imprégnèrent pour la génération. La volonté fait l'astringent ; Tattract et le mouvement de l'attractpour lamobilité, font l'amertume ; l'amertume fait la douleur; la douleur fait l'angoisse, et l'angoisse fait le mouvement, le brisement et l'ascension. Or , l'astringence ne peut pas supporter le mouvement; elle tire plus fortement à soi , et l'amertume ou l'attract ne se laisse pas arrêter ; mais elle brise et pique ainsi durement dans son attract jusqu'à ce qu'elle éveille la chaleur ^ dans laquelle s'élève Téclair. Par l'éclair la ténéen. 8. ( Ii3 )
3breuse astrîngv?ncc s'effraie ; dans l'explosion le feu s'allume, et dans le feu la lumière; Il n'y auroit aucune lumière s'il n'arrivoit pas une brisure daus l'astringence , mais le feu seul resteroit : or , l'explosion du feu dans l'astringence tue la dure astringence de façon qu'elle tombe à terre au-dessous de soi, et devient atténuée et comme morte ; et quand l'éclair s'envisage dans l'astringence , il s'étonne très fort de trouver la mère si calm e ,à moitié morte et sans force. Dans cette explosion sa propriété ignée devient blanche , mitigée et douce , et c'est l'enflammement de la lumière : là le feu est changé en une blanche clarté. 24. C'est de cette manière que , dans le fiât , le soleil s'est élevé ; et du soleil , dans son premier oïiOammement , les autres planètes jsavoir : au-dessus de soi , de Tamertume tempêtante, Mars ^ que la splendeur du soleil a arrêté lorsqu'elle l'a aperçu : de la puissance du soleil , qui s'éleva plus haut , Jupiter ^ saisi dans le centre par le fiât ; «t de la chambre d'angoisse , Saturne : au-dessous de soi, de la douce aménité, Vénus ^ lorsque l'astringence fut soumise , et que, traitable et douce comme de l'eau, elle tomba au-dessous de soi quand la lumière s'alluma : alors , de la colérique astringence vint l'amour et la douceur qui s'abaissèrent : et de la puissance soumise dans l'astrinf;ence, Mercure^ dans lequel est la connoissance de ce qu'il y avoit dans l'origine avant la lumière. Mais lorsque la lumière rendit substantielle ou matérielle la puissance dans le lieu du soleil, telle I. S ( 114 ) CH 8;
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.
1the creation; the creation comes from its power. The power became material. The light shines in it, and the material power cannot seize it, for it is in the darknesses. But since the material power cannot seize the light which shines from all eternity in the darknesses, then God gave it another light which proceeded from the power; to wit: the sun which shines in the creation, so that the creation is in light and manifest. 20. For, i®., even as the divinity is the power and the light of paradise in the second principle; even so the sun is the force and the light of this material world in the third principle. And 2^., even as the divinity shines in the eternal darknesses in the first principle 5 even so the sun shines in the darknesses, in the third principle. And 3"., even as the divinity is the power and the spirit of the eternal life 5 even so the sun is the power and the spirit in the perishable life. ai. But a spirit is nothing else than a will which rises; in the will, there is anguish for the generation 3 in the anguish the fire begets itself; in the fire, the light: now, by the light, the will becomes joyous, lovable, tractable and sweet; in the sweet will the power begets itself, and of the power beget themselves the reign and the sovereignty; thus the light possesses the power; there where it extinguishes itself, there cease the power, the sovereignty, and also the reign. (lia) CH.8.'
222. God, who is the eternal light, is the eternal will. He shines in the darknesses, and the darknesses have seized his will: in that same will which the darknesses have seized, the anguish rises; in the astringent anguish, the fire; in the fire, the light; of the light, the power 5 and of the power, the reign. Now, of the fire proceeded the stars and moreover the sun: now, of the power came the heavens; and the reign is of God. All these things were the one in the other in the first will, in the creation; then, God separated the igneous will from the will of the sweet light, and called the igneous will stars, and the sweet will heaven, according to the power of each. 23. The sun is the goddess in the third principle in the created world; understand the material world: it issued from the darknesses in the anguish of the will, in the manner and according to the mode of the eternal begetting. For, when the light of God set the FIAT in the darknesses, the darknesses seized the will of God, and impregnated themselves for the generation. The will makes the astringent; the attraction and the movement of the attraction for the mobility make the bitterness; the bitterness makes the pain; the pain makes the anguish, and the anguish makes the movement, the breaking and the ascension. Now, the astringency cannot bear the movement; it draws more strongly to itself, and the bitterness or the attraction lets not itself be arrested; but it breaks and pricks thus hardly in its attraction until it awakens the heat, wherein the flash rises. By the flash the teneCH. 8. ( Ii3 )
3brous astringency is affrighted; in the explosion the fire kindles itself, and in the fire the light. There would be no light if there did not arrive a breaking in the astringency, but the fire alone would remain: now, the explosion of the fire in the astringency kills the hard astringency so that it falls to the ground beneath itself, and becomes attenuated and as it were dead; and when the flash envisages itself in the astringency, it is very greatly astonished to find the mother so calm, half dead and without force. In that explosion its igneous property becomes white, mitigated and sweet, and it is the inflaming of the light: there the fire is changed into a white clearness. 24. It is in that manner that, in the fiat, the sun rose; and of the sun, in its first inflaming, the other planets; to wit: above itself, of the storming bitterness, Mars, whom the splendour of the sun arrested when it perceived him: of the power of the sun, which rose higher, Jupiter, seized in the centre by the fiat; and of the chamber of anguish, Saturn: beneath itself, of the sweet amenity, Venus, when the astringency was subdued, and when, tractable and sweet as water, it fell beneath itself when the light kindled: then, of the choleric astringency came the love and the sweetness which lowered themselves: and of the power subdued in the astringency, Mercury, wherein is the knowledge of what there was in the origin before the light. But when the light rendered substantial or material the power in the place of the sun, such I. S ( 114 ) CH 8;
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.