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.
1]a matrice de l'éternité , sortissent et devinssent visibles : or , la similitude de la multiplicité iuscrutable des diversités , puissances et vertus , ce sont ks étoiles.Kllcs doi>neqt toutes à la fois leur i^<?r/w , dans la matrice du ciel, et le ciel donne ce même esprit aux créatures ; ainsi toutes les créatures courent après la même essence , et sont formées ^elon le même esprit qui est leur puissance, leur esprit et leur vie. 35. Lorsque Dieu eutcomplèlé ceci au quatrième jour, il le vil, et reconnut que cela étoit bon, comme écrit Moïse. Alors Dieu voulut, dans sa volonté éternelle , que ce règne ou principe fût aussi créaturel, en similitude du règne parfait du paradis , afin qu'il y eût dedans des créatures vivantes ; et la volonté plaça la puissance , qui est le verbe , clans le fiât , et la matrice engendra toule§ sortes de créatures au cinquième jour, chacune selon son espèce. Par espèce , tu dois entendre que la matrice est de plusieurs sortes, comme tu peu?c le voir aux étoiles. 36. Maintenant, je viens ^u maître dans son école, avec sa couronne doctorale. Il demandera de quoi ont été faits les animaux , les oiseaux , les poissons et les reptiles 5 car il prétend que tous soijt faits de terre : il le prouve par Moïse , et il entend cependant aussi peu Moïse que le paradis , qu'il ne conçoit que tout-à-fait corporellement^c'est pourcpioi il y a une grande mort dans l'intelligence. Quoique j'écrive assez clairement , je serai cependant encore comme muet pour cette même mort ^ ( liS) CH. 8
2dans les âmes non -intelligentes 5 mais je n'en suis pas la canse. Il est dit : Il faut que vous renaisaies de nouveau^ si vous voulez voir le royaume de Dieu» Veux-tu savoir ( ce que tn demandes )? Laisse de côté dans ton esprit la couronne d'orgueil ; et promène-toi dans le jardin de rose paradisiaque, tu verras qu'ilj' existe une j^lanie 5 si tu en manges, |es jeux s'ouvriront de façon que tu reconnoîlras ce que Moïse a écrit. 87. Les gloses que la raison ( humaine ) a faites sur Moïse ne te montreront pas le paradis, encore moins le créateur. Les prophètes et lesap6tres en ont plus appris en une heure dans l'école dit paradis, que le docteur dans son école en trelilè ans. Cela ne tient point à notre propre esprit. Dieu le donne gratuitement à qui il lui plait ; cela ne s'achète ni par de l'argent , ni par faveur : Salomon vous le dira. Toutefois , si vous pensez terrestrement, et que vous vous imaginiez que Dieu a fait tout uniment les animaux d'une masse de terre, de quoi a donc été fait leur esprit , puisque la terre n'est cependant pas chair , et que le sang n'est pas purement eau , et que la terre et l'ean ne sont nullement la vie ? Quoique l'air y vienne , cependant il ne reste toujours qu'une essence qui seulement croît dans le fia/ ; et la teinture qui s'élève dans le feu , et d'où la noble vie est stimulée , reste cachée. 38. Moïse écrit aussi : Et Dieu dit que touteê Mortes cTanimaux soient produits chacun selon son espèce, La question est de savoir d'où ils sont pro« «H. "8. ( 119 )
3duits? De la matrice. Quelle est cette matrice d'où" les animaux doivent cire produits ? Ce sont les quatre élémens qui sont ensemble dans la terre. Le FIAT a tiré de là les animaux absolument informes, tels qu'ils sont en essence 5 il ne les a pas^ tirés du ciel, mais de la matrice de la terre ; et la matrice de la terre n'est qu'une seule chose, et qu'un régime avec la matrice de la profondeur au-dessus de la terre. La constellation , ou Vastralj ou le syderique , règne en toutes choses ; elle est le limbus ou le mâle dans lequel est la teinture , et dans la matrice de la terre est l'esprit aquastrique ou aqueux. Les animaux ne sont sortis de la matrice de la terre , que parce qu'ils étoient de l'essence de la terre , en sorte qu'ils mangent du fruit qui croît de la terre ;càr, en chaque être, l'esprit soupire après sa mère d'où il est provenu. 89. Or, si les animaux étoient purement d'un© masse de terre , ils maugeroient de la terre ; mais comme ils sont sortis de la matrice de la terre par le çiAT 5 il désirent aussi ;cette même nourriture que la matrice fournit de sa propre essence , et qui n'est pas terre , mais chair. Mais la chair est une concrétion ou une masse d'où est venu le corps ; et l'esprit de la constellation y produit la teinture qui , comme une mère , domine par-tout , et fait l'instinct et ie discernement dans tout ce qui est vivant dans ce monde. Car l'esprit de la constellation ou de Vastral domine dans toutes choses , dans la terre, les pierres , les métaux, les élémens et les créatures* 4a. En etlet , au commencement de la création , ( 120 ) en, 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 matrix of eternity might issue and become visible: now, the similitude of the inscrutable multiplicity of the diversities, powers and virtues, these are the stars. They all give at once their virtue in the matrix of the heaven, and the heaven gives that same spirit to the creatures; thus all the creatures run after the same essence, and are formed according to the same spirit which is their power, their spirit and their life. 35. When God had completed this on the fourth day, he saw it, and recognised that that was good, as Moses writes. Then God willed, in his eternal will, that that reign or principle should also be creaturely, in similitude of the perfect reign of paradise, in order that there might be therein living creatures; and the will set the power, which is the verb, in the fiat, and the matrix begot all sorts of creatures on the fifth day, each according to its species. By species, thou must understand that the matrix is of several sorts, as thou mayest see in the stars. 36. Now, I come to the master in his school, with his doctoral crown. He will ask whereof were made the animals, the birds, the fishes and the reptiles 5 for he pretends that all were made of earth: he proves it by Moses, and he nevertheless understands Moses as little as paradise, which he conceives only altogether corporeally; it is why there is a great death in the intelligence. Although I write clearly enough, I shall nevertheless be still as it were mute for that same death ^ ( liS) CH. 8
2in the non-intelligent souls 5 but I am not the cause of it. It is said: You must be born anew, if you would see the kingdom of God. Wilt thou know ( what thou askest )? Lay aside in thy spirit the crown of pride; and walk in the paradisiac garden of roses, thou wilt see that there exists there a plant 5 if thou eatest of it, thy eyes will open so that thou wilt recognise what Moses has written. 87. The glosses which ( human ) reason has made upon Moses will not show thee paradise, still less the creator. The prophets and the apostles6 learned more of it in one hour in the school of paradise than the doctor in his school in thirty years. That depends not upon our own spirit. God gives it gratuitously to whom it pleases him; that is bought neither by money nor by favour: Solomon will tell you so. Nevertheless, if you think terrestrially, and imagine that God made the animals quite simply of a mass of earth, whereof then was made their spirit, since the earth is nevertheless not flesh, and since the blood is not purely water, and since the earth and the water are in no wise the life? Although the air come there, nevertheless there remains always but an essence which only grows in the fiat; and the tincture which rises in the fire, and whence the noble life is stimulated, remains hidden. 38. Moses writes also: And God said that all sorts of animals be produced each according to its species. The question is to know whence they were pro- «H. "8. ( 119 )
3duced? Of the matrix. What is that matrix whence the animals must be produced? They are the four elements which are together in the earth. The FIAT drew thence the animals absolutely formless, such as they are in essence 5 it did not draw them from the heaven, but from the matrix of the earth; and the matrix of the earth is but one single thing, and one régime with the matrix of the depth above the earth. The constellation, or the astral, or the sidereal, reigns in all things; it is the limbus or the male wherein is the tincture, and in the matrix of the earth is the aquastric or aqueous spirit. The animals issued from the matrix of the earth only because they were of the essence of the earth, so that they eat of the fruit which grows of the earth; for, in each being, the spirit sighs after its mother whence it proceeded. 89. Now, if the animals were purely of a mass of earth, they would eat of the earth; but as they issued from the matrix of the earth by the fiat 5 they desire also that same nourishment which the matrix furnishes of its own essence, and which is not earth, but flesh. But the flesh is a concretion or a mass whence the body came; and the spirit of the constellation produces there the tincture which, like a mother, dominates everywhere, and makes the instinct and the discernment in all that is living in this world. For the spirit of the constellation or of the astral dominates in all things, in the earth, the stones, the metals, the elements and the creatures. 4a. In effect, at the beginning of the creation, ( 120 ) en, 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.