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.
112. Que ceci soit démoçitré et certain ,cela se voit dans ^'écriture : f^t Dieu lui souffla un souffle vivant^ filor^Vhomm dMnt une ame vivante. Quant à toutes Jl^s autres cré^itures ,<iui sortirent 4u liuihus corjupiible, par le f^at , la volonté di. ïiat a éveillé chez elles toutes, l'esprit dans leur centre, et chaque esprit de créature vint de leur même essence et propriété , et w^aa/i/a avec l'esprit du grand monde, des étoiles et des élémens ; or , cela ne devoit pas être ainsi dans l'homme ; son esprit ne devoit point in^ualifier avec les esprits sjrderiques et élémentaires. Les deux principes ; savoir : les ténèbres et l'esprit de l'air , dévoient demeurer en repos dai|î? .cette substance ou image ; c'est pourquoi Dieu lui souffla un souffle vivapt , entendez le souffle de Dieu , c'est-à-dire , un souffle ou un esprit paradisiaque. L'^esprit saint qui , dans le centre de l'ame , devoit être le souffle de l'ame , et Pespril qui sortit du lifnbus y ou de la quintessence .qui est du modo astval , dévoient être souverains au-dessus de la quiiUfi^ence de ce monde j car l'homme étpil e* ( iSl ) CH. ioj
2un seul être , et il n'y avoit aussi qu'un seul Iiomme que Dieu créa ainsi , et il auroit pu vivre 'éternélîlement. Quand même Dieu auroit ramené les astres à leur Ether , et auroit plongé la matrice des éléniens , et les éléraens eux-mêmes , dans le néant , rhorame né.inmoins seroit demeuré. En outre , l'homme avoit en soi le centre paradisiaque , et auroit pu 5 par sa volonté, réengendrer de soi; éveiller Te centre , et engendrer ainsi , sans aide et sans angoiise , une légion angélique dans le paradis , sans aucune déchirure- Voilà ce qu'auroit du être l'homme j mais il auroit dû rester dans le paradis , et être éternellement immuable : car le paradis est saint ; ainsi l'homme devoit aussi être saint 5 en effet j dans la sainteté réside la puissance divine et le paradis. lia profonde porte de Vame. i3. L'ame que Dieu souffla à l'homme est ddl'éternel père; cependant 5 concevez nous bien, il y a une différence : entendez que cette ame est desa volonté incom mutable , de laquelle il engendre éternellement son fils ou son cœur 5 c'est-à-dire, qu'elle est du centre divin d'où sortie fiât, et qui l'a créée là. Aussi a-t-elle en soi toutes les essences de l'éternelle génération ; seulement elle n'a point la génération du fils de Dieu (ce même centre qui est le fils de Dieu lui-même ) , car ce même centre est le but final de la nature , et n'est pas créaturel ; il est le plus haut centre de l'amour enflammé , et CH. 16. ( 1^3 ) de la miséricorde de Dieu , de la perfection 5 il n'en sort aucune créature , mais il brille dans les créatures ; c'est-à-dire , dans les anges et les âmes des saints hommes : car l'esprit saint sort de là , ainsi que la toute-puissance, lequel esprit saint puise dans le père l'éternelle volonté.
3i4. Or , l'ame est entre deux portes , et touche à deux principes, savoir lO. les étemelles ténèbres, et 20. l'éternelle lumière du fils de Dieu , ainsi que Dieu le père est tel aussi lui-même. Maintenant, de miême que Dieu le père conserve éternellement son immuable volonté d'engendrer son cœur ou son fils ; de même l'ange et l'ame ont leur immuable volonté dans le cœur de Dieu : l'ame est ainsi dans le ciel et le paradis ; elle y jouit de la joie inexprimable que Dieu le père a en son fils , et elle y entend les inexprimables paroles du cœur^ dé Dieu, et se réjouit des images éternelles, de même que de celles créées qui ne sont point en êtres f mais figurées. i5. Là l'ame mange de chaque parole de Dieu , car c'est là l'élément de sa vie -, elle chante les louanges du paradis, au sujet des fruits saints qui croissent dans le paradis, dans la puissance divine du limbus divin , lequel est l'aliment du corps [ou de la circonscription] ; car le corps mange du limbus dont il est , et l'ame mange de Dieu , et de la parole dont elle est. 16. Comment cela ne me seroit-il pas agréable et délicieux ? Comment ne seroit-ce pas là une délectation de manger du pain céleste avec des mille Il fi 11 kl i ( 1^4 T mt. j«w
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.
112. That this be demonstrated and certain, is seen in the scripture: And God breathed into him a living breath, then man became a living soul. As to all the other creatures, which came forth from 4the corruptible limbus, by the fiat, the will of the fiat awakened in them all, the spirit in their centre, and each creature-spirit came from their same essence and property, and inqualified with the spirit of the great world, of the stars and of the elements; now, this was not to be so in man; his spirit was not to inqualify with the sidereal and elementary spirits. The two principles; to wit: the darkness and the spirit of the air, were to remain at rest in this substance or image; that is why God breathed into him a living breath, understand the breath of God, that is to say, a paradisiacal breath or spirit. The holy spirit which, in the centre of the soul, was to be the breath of the soul, and the spirit which came forth from the limbus, or from the quintessence which is of the astral mode, were to be sovereign above the quintessence of this world; for man was e* ( iSl ) CH. ioj
2one single being, and there was also but one single man that God created thus, and he could have lived eternally. Even though God had brought back the stars to their Ether, and had plunged the matrix of the elements, and the elements themselves, into nothingness, man nevertheless would have remained. Moreover, man had in himself the paradisiacal centre, and could 5 by his will, re-beget of himself; awaken the centre, and beget thus, without help and without anguish, an angelic legion in paradise, without any rending. Behold what man should have been; but he should have remained in paradise, and been eternally immutable: for paradise is holy; thus man was also to be holy 5 in effect, in holiness resides the divine power and paradise. The profound gate of the soul. i3. The soul that God breathed into man is of the eternal father; nevertheless 5 conceive us well, there is a difference: understand that this soul is of his immutable will, from which he eternally begets his son or his heart 5 that is to say, that it is of the divine centre whence the fiat came forth, and which created it there. Also has it in itself all the essences of the eternal generation; only it has not the generation of the son of God (that same centre which is the son of God himself), for that same centre is the final end of nature, and is not creatural; it is the highest centre of the inflamed love, and CH. 16. ( 1^3 ) of the mercy of God, of the perfection 5 there comes forth from it no creature, but it shines in the creatures; that is to say, in the angels and the souls of holy men: for the holy spirit goes forth thence, as well as the omnipotence, which holy spirit draws in the father the eternal will.
3i4. Now, the soul is between two gates, and touches two principles, to wit lO. the eternal darkness, and 20. the eternal light of the son of God, even as God the father is also such himself. Now, in like manner as God the father eternally preserves his immutable will to beget his heart or his son; so the angel and the soul have their immutable will in the heart of God: the soul is thus in heaven and paradise; it enjoys there the inexpressible joy that God the father has in his son, and it hears there the inexpressible words of the heart of God, and rejoices in the eternal images, as well as in those created which are not in beings f but figured. i5. There the soul eats of every word of God, for that is the element of its life; it sings the praises of paradise, touching the holy fruits that grow in paradise, in the divine power of the divine limbus, which is the aliment of the body [or of the circumscription]; for the body eats of the limbus whereof it is, and the soul eats of God, and of the word whereof it is. 16. How should this not be to me agreeable and delicious? How should it not be a delectation to eat of the celestial bread with a thousand Il fi 11 kl i ( 1^4 T mt. j«w
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.