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.
1qu'elle l'esf selon le mode terreslrp , ( vînt ) la lune. a5. Comme le monde ne saisiroit point ceci , mais s'en moqueroit , je ne veux pas ici jeter davantage les perles devant les pourceaux ; car , il faut une autre lumière pour ces connoissances : c'est pourquoi je vais passer outre, et continuer ma route, 26. Toutes choses sont sorties de l'angoisse des ténèbres , lorsque Dieu y prononça le fiât : l'angoisse se déploie dans le fiât ; le fiât dans la volonté, et la volonté est éternelle et sans origine, car dans Dieu elle est la matrice de la génération. 27. Or 5 Die^ est invisible , et la volonté aussi invisible, et là matrice aussi invisible ; ils sont cependant en être; ils sont de toute éternité, et demeurent dans l'éternité : le verbe est la puissance de la volonté ; la puissance fait le fiât ; le fiât fait le règne , et tout cela est comme éternellement dans un seul être. De toute éternité la volonté a engendré le verbe j le verbe , la puissance 5 la puissance , l'esprit : dans l'esprit est la lumière ; dans la lumière , la force , l'intelligence et la conuoissance ; autrement tout seroit un rien. 28. Cette même lumière a opéré dans la connotssance et l'intelligence , et a engendré une similitude de son essence; la substance qu'elle produisit fut le FIAT , et le fiât forma la similitude , qui fut engendrée delà volonté éternelle, et la rendit visible. Or , la similitude fut engendrée des ténèbres , ou de l'éternel rien -, cependant il y avoit quelque cliose, c'est-à-dire, l'original ou le siège de l'angoisse, d'où l'éternelle volonté a^ori^inise de toute éternité. ^.8. { ixo )
229. Or, la similitude a reçu du fiât une vo* ïonté telle qu'est la volonté éternelle , et a engendré la puissance ; la puissance est le ciel 5 la lumièfe qui est brillante dans la puissance est le soleil. Elle travaille dans la puissance, de façon qu'il y a là instinct et connoissance ; autrement , dans ce monde, tout seroit une.substance immobiletout resteroit eu repos , et il ne pousseroit ni lierbe ni plante. 30. Alors dans le fiât s'est élevé de l'angoisse la similitude de la connoissance et de l'intelligence ; ce qui est la région astrale ou sydérique Dans le fiât est la cinquième forme de la gêné-* ration ; et le fiât a séparé les formes de la génération , de sorte que chaque essence est à part j savoir : le dur , le mol , l'épais , le mince , le chaud, le froid, l'amer, l'astringent, l'aigre le doua», etc. , comme cela se voit, et comme cela est demeuré dans la matrice du ciel. L'esprit pro- . vient de cette Source, ainsi que l'air, et reçoit de la constellation l'intelligence ou Pmstincti car il est lin membrc'lié aux autres, dans une seule mère. 3i. Ainsi la matrice , ou le ciel créé dans le FIAT avec les étoiles , est la similitude de ce qui a été de toute éternité quoique non visible. Le FIAT est dans la similitude : le paradis , dans lequel les anges demeurent , est caché dans la maIrice , et Dieu est brillant dans le paradis ^ et cependant il n'est pas saisissable , de même que l'éclat du soleil ne peut se saisir, 32. Dieu est incommensurable , et la similitude ( Iï(j ) CM, 8»
3pst aiissî incommensurable ; il est clans la simililucle , et la similitude ne le saisit point : la similitude est son œuvre ; le fiât est le maître-ouvrier; Tastral est son instrument ; la matrice avec les éléiiiens est la matiore que le maître-ouvrier taille, coupe, et qu'il élabore. 33. Mais ce maître poursuit toujours son travail , sans préméditation : ce qu'il rencontre, il l'élabore ; car la préméditation ou l'iulelligence est bien en action^ mais cachée dans l'œuvre. C'est pourquoi toute la nature est dans une grantle angoisse , et dans le désir d'être délivrée de la vanité (comme aussi le témoignent les écritures \ puisqu'elle goût© secrètement le paradis, et, dans le paradis, la perfection ; c'est pour cela qu'elle souffre , qu'elle s'élève vers la lumière de Dieu et le paradis, et qu'elle en rapporte toujours, dans son angoisse^ quelque chose de plus beau , de plus précieux et de plus neuf, comme on peut aisément le comprendre et l'éprouver dans l'ame de l'homme 5 il est visible aussi , même à une foible intelligence , <{ue par là il arrive toujours, et journellement, dans l'œuvre quelques merveilles, comme tu peux le voir clans rhomme , les animaux , les plantes et Ici herbes , si tu n'es pas aveugle. 34. Ainsi Dieu , au quatrième jour , a , du sein de sa puissance , par le fiât , disposé la similitude de son essence pour qu'il y eût une matrice qui , du sein de la sagesse qu'il a eue en lui de toute éternité , engendrât une similitude de toute son essence,, afin que toutes les formes qui ont été dans» en. 8. ( "7 )
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.
1as it is according to the terrestrial mode, ( came ) the moon. a5. As the world would not seize this, but would mock at it, I will not here cast the pearls further before the swine; for, another light is needed for these knowledges: it is why I am going to pass on, and continue my road. 26. All things issued from the anguish of the darknesses, when God pronounced there the fiat: the anguish deploys itself in the fiat; the fiat in the will, and the will is eternal and without origin, for in God it is the matrix of the generation. 27. Now 5 God is invisible, and the will also invisible, and the matrix also invisible; they are nevertheless in being; they are from all eternity, and dwell in eternity: the verb is the power of the will; the power makes the fiat; the fiat makes the reign, and all that is as it were eternally in one single being. From all eternity the will has begotten the verb; the verb, the power 5 the power, the spirit: in the spirit is the light; in the light, the force, the intelligence and the knowledge; otherwise all would be a nothing. 28. That same light operated in the knowledge and the intelligence, and begot a similitude of its essence; the substance which it produced was the FIAT, and the fiat formed the similitude, which was begotten of the eternal will, and rendered it visible. Now, the similitude was begotten of the darknesses, or of the eternal nothing; nevertheless there was something, that is to say, the original or the seat of the anguish, whence the eternal will originises itself from all eternity. ^.8. { ixo )
229. Now, the similitude received from the fiat a will such as the eternal will is, and begot the power; the power is the heaven 5 the light which is shining in the power is the sun. It labours in the power, so that there is there instinct and knowledge; otherwise, in this world, all would be an immobile substance, all would remain in repose, and there would push forth neither herb nor plant. 30. Then in the fiat there rose of the anguish the similitude of the knowledge and of the intelligence; which is the astral or sidereal region. In the fiat is the fifth form of the generation; and the fiat separated the forms of the generation, so that each essence is apart; to wit: the hard, the soft, the thick, the thin, the hot, the cold, the bitter, the astringent, the sour, the sweet, etc., as that is seen, and as that has remained in the matrix of the heaven. The spirit proceeds from that Source, as well as the air, and receives from the constellation the intelligence or the instinct; for it is a member bound to the others, in one single mother. 3i. Thus the matrix, or the heaven created in the FIAT with the stars, is the similitude of what has been from all eternity although not visible. The FIAT is in the similitude: paradise, wherein the angels dwell, is hidden in the matrix, and God is shining in paradise, and nevertheless he is not seizable, even as the splendour of the sun cannot be seized. 32. God is incommensurable, and the similitude ( Iï(j ) CM, 8»
3is also incommensurable; he is in the similitude, and the similitude seizes him not: the similitude is his work; the fiat is the master-workman; the astral is his instrument; the matrix with the elements is the matter which the master-workman hews, cuts, and elaborates. 33. But that master pursues always his labour, without premeditation: what he meets, he elaborates; for the premeditation or the intelligence is indeed in action, but hidden in the work. It is why all nature is in a great anguish, and in the desire to be delivered from vanity ( as the scriptures also testify ), since it tastes secretly paradise, and, in paradise, perfection; it is for that that it suffers, that it rises towards the light of God and paradise, and that it always brings back from it, in its anguish, something fairer, more precious and newer, as one may easily comprehend and prove in the soul of man 5 it is visible also, even to a feeble intelligence, that thereby there arrives always, and daily, in the work some marvels, as thou canst see in man, the animals, the plants and the herbs, if thou art not blind. 34. Thus God, on the fourth day, from the bosom of his power, by the fiat, disposed the similitude of his essence so that there might be a matrix which, from the bosom of the wisdom he has had in himself from all eternity, might beget a similitude of all his essence, in order that all the forms which have been in en. 8. ( "7 )
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.