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^fe.'€'e5t po<!irq»udi-, cherché la^^ndbîe pbrle, elle est plus précieuse que ce monde. Elle ne s'éloignera jamarâ de toi, et 'oài sera la perle j là sera aussi loiL cœur : tu n'as .pas be^i^ d'aller chercher plus loia ici le paradis, la joie, et les délices du ciel. Cherche (seulement la perlQ-^.sitala^troViVes , tu trouves le paradis et le royaume céleste, et tu deviendras sî jsavant , quç, sans l'avoir éprouvé, tu ne le pQurrois Pas croire. j ,, 47. Tu voudrcis peut-être^ Je. tourmenter ^ et chercher ceci dans l*ar,t(, espérant le trouver là ? O ! non , tU;n*en <as pas bes9in,; il ne perce poiut là. Le doc- !teur qui est hors de cette voie, ne -conBoh point ceci ; niais s'il a trouvé la perle, alors il est un fonctionnaire public plus grand que moi , comme SaintrJPaul. ëtoit au-dessus des autres -apôtres ; mais toutefois dans une voie de douceur, comme cela convient aux enfans de Dieu. ; Quant à ce qui manque ici , ranime ton ardeur ; clierche plus loin ; et tu trouveras la base selou I0 désir dé ton axne. T-i-'î-ff :, «»^%^»^'»^^|^ ^ V»»^^ fc :•! :i fillri'j 10 'ir' ::l ri '. (.4e) il k X é ^ CHAPITRE DIXIEME. De \u création de Vhoihme et de sert amé > et i dé rirtsûfflaliàW divine. *• V aimable f trie. '5
2i, J^At parcouru plusieurs écrits des iiaritf'èâ , espérant y trouver la perle de la base dé rlidmnSe | inaîé jô ix'ai riétl pu trouver dé ce que mon ame dééitoif. J'ai téûèoûtté en effet dèS dpîniôns côntra* dîctoirèS , jVù ai trouvé âûsèî diiô partie qui nié dl^i fendoiî de chétchôr ; maïs je iié sais pas par quel îtiôtif fai par (Jitéllé raison , si ce n'est qù^un aveugle ii*aiiiié pas quél'on ai» dès yeux et que l*9n voie. Avec tout ôèlà ,'mbnamè est devenue inquiété en inôi , èi s^èst angoissée comme une fénimé en travail, et cependant rien riè s*est trouvé four moij jusqu^â ce que j*aie ^uivi ïeô paroles de Christ , qui éit : P^ôus devez lire engendré Je nouveaa , êi voue vouiez voir le royaume de Dieu ; ce qui d'abord ferma mon cœur , imaginant que cela ne pouvoit arriver dans ce monde , mais seulement à ma séparation de ce monde. Alors mon ame s'angoissa d'abord pour la génération céleste^ et auroil bien voulu goûter la perle. Elle se jeta ardemment dans celte voie pour la génération céleste , jusqu'à ce qu'enfin il lui jBsf ^arrivé un trésor , d'après lequel je veux malnte4i^nt ôcrijre pour mon mémorial , et pour servir de iumi^re à celui qyi chercbe ; car Christ dit : Per^ soigne n'iillume une lumière pour la placer eoue un iïçu^ç j ou epue un boisseau j mais il la met sur une tçthle f afin que tous ceux qui sont dans la chambre pj^8ent,en être éclairjés, Et ^{a, fin il doane la perlée à celui qui chjerche , de façon qu'il doit k jjarlager avec les jpa4iv,res pour leur avajitage ^ comme cel* a. été très sérieusemejot recommandé.
32. A la vérit^ , Moïse écrij que Dieu fit l'homme d'une masse de terre, etc. Et c'est là l'opinion d'uu grand xKMubre, et jexi'a.ujpis passu xion pluscomment t:ela devoit s'enieqdj-ç. En effet je ne l'aurois pa^ ;^ppris<ie Moïsp^ ni des glosées qui ont été faites à ce çujet p et le voile seiroit :aussi demeuré sur mes yeux, quoique c'eût .été pour moi un grand iourment» Mais lors^que j'ai eu (rpuvé la perle , j'ai regardé liloïse en face p et j'ai recoAUU que Moïse avoit écrit le vrai « et que je ne J'avois pas bien entendu. 3. Car , Dieu paria ainsi à Adam et à Eve , après la chute : Tu es terre elt U^ dois retourner en terre. Ej ^ ie u'^veis pas copsidéré le Limbus d'où la terre esl prévenue , je s^ois demeuré ainsi dans l'aveuglement. Maintenant ce l»imi>ue me montre la base de ce qu'a été Adam avant et après la chute. 4. Car ^ aucune terre , oi aucune chair semblable i celles que nous portons , ne subsiste dans la lumière de Dieu. C'est pourquoi aussi Christ dit : Per^ epnne n€ nwnU aif. ciel we le file de V homme qui e^^ veau di^ ciel j et qui est dans le ciel. Ainsi , avapt la cliule 5 tiolre chair éloit céleste , et du Hmhus céleste. Mais lorsque la désobéissance vint dans un autre centre , pour s'engendrer dans l'aitract de ce inonde ; alors , lé limbus devint terrestre. Car , par la manducalion delà pomme terrestre, dans le jardin d'Éden , commença le royaume terrestre , et aussitôt la mère du grand monde , par sa puissance , saisit le petit monde , et le transforma en manière do i)êle , quant à la forme et quant à la substance.
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.
1^fe. It i5s why, seek the noble gate, it is more precious than this world. It will never remove from thee, and where the pearl shall be, there shall also be thy heart: thou hast no need to go seek further here paradise, joy, and the delights of heaven. Seek only the pearl; if thou findest it, thou findest paradise and the celestial kingdom, and thou wilt become so learned that, without having proved it, thou couldst not believe it. 47. Thou wouldst perhaps torment thyself, and seek this in art, hoping to find it there? O no, thou hast no ne9ed of it; it pierces not there. The doctor who is outside that way knows nothing of this; but if he has found the pearl, then he is a public functionary greater than I, as Saint Paul was above the other apostles; but nevertheless in a way of sweetness, as befits the children of God. As for what is wanting here, revive thy ardour; seek further; and thou wilt find the base according to I0the desire of thy soul. T-i-'î-ff :, «»^%^»^'»^^|^ ^ V»»^^ fc :•! :i fillri'j 10 'ir' ::l ri '. (.4e) il k X é ^ CHAPTER THE TENTH. Of the creation of man and of his soul, and of the divine insufflation. *• The lovable gate. '5
2i, I have gone through several writings of the masters, hoping to find there the pearl of the base of man | but I could find nothing of what my soul desired. I have met with in effect contradictory opinions, I have also found there a party which forbade me to seek; but I know not by what motive I did so, nor for what reason, unless it be that a blind man likes not that one should have eyes and that o9ne should see. With all that, my soul became disquieted in me, and was in anguish like a woman in labour, and yet nothing was found for me, until I had followed the words of Christ, who saith: You must be begotten anew, if you will see the kingdom of God; which at first closed my heart, imagining that this could not happen in this world, but only at my separation from this world. Then my soul was first in anguish for the celestial generation, and would fain have tasted the pearl. It cast itself ardently into that way for the celestial generation, until at last there came to it a treasure, according to which I will no4w write for my memorial, and to serve as a light to him who seeketh; for Christ saith: No one lighteth a light to place it under a seat, or under a bushel, but he sets it upon a table, so that all who are in the chamber ma8y be enlightened by it. And to that end he gives the pearl to him who seeketh, in such fashion that he must share it with the po4or for their advantage, as this has been very seriously recommended.
32. In truth, Moses writes that God made man of a mass of earth, etc. And that is the opinion of a great number, and neither did I know how this was to be understood. In effect I should not have learned it from Moses, nor from the glosses that have been made upon this subject, and the veil would also have remained upon my eyes, although it had been for me a great torment. But when I had found the pearl, I looked Moses in the face, and I acknowledged that Moses had written the true, and that I had not rightly understood him. 3. For God spoke thus to Adam and to Eve, after the fall: Thou art earth and thou must return into earth. And if I had not considered the Limbus whence the earth is come, I should have remained thus in blindness. Now this Limbus shows me the base of what Adam was before and after the fall. 4. For no earth, nor any flesh like to those we bear, subsists in the light of God. That is why Christ also saith: No one ascendeth into heaven save the son of man who is come from heaven, and who is in heaven. Thus, before the fall 5 our flesh was celestial, and of the celestial limbus. But when disobedience came into another centre, to beget itself in the attract of this world; then the limbus became terrestrial. For, by the manducation of the terrestrial apple, in the garden of Eden, the terrestrial kingdom began, and at once the mother of the great world, by her power, seized the little world, and transformed it after the manner of a beast, as to the form and as to the substance.
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.