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.
1est , cependant, un seul homme qui est Lon et niauvais 3 et qu^il doit recevoir la récompense dç rajet de l'autre; que de quelque colé qu'il jijMnTdans cette vie, son^ame s'y porte quand Jà meurt , et qu'au dernier jugement il ressuscitera en force et puissance dans le travail qu'il a fait ici , et y vivra éternellement , et y sera glorifié , et trouvera là sa source et son perpétuel aliment ; il lui est donc essentiellement utile de chercher à se connoître ; pourquoi il est créé ; d'où lui vient l'impulsion du bien et du mal , et ce qu'est , toutefois , le bien et le mal en soi-même 5 d'où ils sont mus. 11 doit chercher particulièrement , quelle est la source de tout ce qui est bien et de tout ce qui est mal ; d où et par où le mal est venu dans le démon , dans 1 homme et dans toutes les créatures , puisque le démon a été un saint ange , et que l'homme aussi a été créé bon, et que le faux attract se trouve dans toutes les créatures qui se haïssent , se battent , se tour^ mentent et sont ennemies les unes des autres ; qu'U y a une semblable opposition dans toutes les créatures , et qu'un même corps est divisé d'avec lui-même. Et cela nous ne le voyons pas seulement parmi les créatures vivantes , mais aussi dans les étoiles, les élémens , la D E l'a u t e u r. xvij terre , les pierres , les métaux , les feuilles , rherbe et le bois , où par-tout est le poison et le mal. On trouve , en outre , que cela doit être ainsi ; autrement , il n'y auroit ni vie , ni mouvement , de même qu'il n'y auroit ni couleur , ni i^ertus , rien de mince, rien d'épais, rien d% perceptible , mais tout seroit un rien.
2i4. Dans cette haute considération, on trouve que le tout est venu de Dieu même, que c est sa propre essence, qu'il est cela lui même, et qu'il s'est lui-même produit de lui-même. Le mal agit pour la corporisation et pour la mobilité. Le bien, pour Tamour. La force ou l'opposition , pour la joie. Tant que la créature est dans l'amour de Dieu , le colérique ou lopposition fait [ Vélcpement ] de l'éternelle joie 5 mais si la lumière de Dieu s'éteint , il fait l'éternel élèuement de la source angoisseuse, et le feu infernal. i5. Pour éclaircir toutes ces choses , je décrirai ici les trois principes divins , dans lesquels tout sera expliqué ; ce qu'est Dieu ; la nature et les créatures; ce qu'est l'amour et la douceur de Dieu ; son bouillonnement et sa volonté ; ce qu'est le démon et la colère de Dieu; bref, ce qu'est la joie et la souHVance ; comment toutes choses ont pris naissance et II XViij PRÉFACE
3continuent d^exister. Nous voulons aussi représenter la vraie différence qu'il y a entre les créatures éternelles et celles qui sont périssables ; sur - tout , considérer Thomme et son ame ; ce qu'il est , et comment il est une créature éternelle ; ce qu est le ciel , dans lequel Dieu , les auges et les hommes saints demeurent ; et ce qu'est lenfer, dans lequel les démons habitent, et comment toutes choses ont été créées ainsi dans l'origine ; en un mot, ce qu'est l'essence de toutes les essences. Puisque l'amour de Dieu ma favorisé de ces connoissances, je veux les écrire comme un mémorial et un souvenir pour moi , attendu que rous vivons, dans ce monde , dans un grand danger, entre le ciel et l'enfer, et que nous devons sans cesse combattre le démon. Par ce moyen, si je venois , par ma foiblesse , à tomber sous la colère de Dieu , et que la lumière de mes connoissances me fût retirée , j'aurois de quoi pouvoir me les rappeler , et les ressusciter en moi. 1 6. Car Dieu voudroit que tous les hommes fussent secourus , et ne veut point la mort du pécheur ; mais qu'il se convertisse , qu'il se tourne vers lui, et qu'il vive éternellement en lui. C'est dans ce dessein qu'il a laissé son cœur, qui est son fils, devenir homme, afin que nous D E LA U T E U R. XÎX puissions nous attacher à lui , nous ressusciter en lui , et nous régénérer de nos péchçs et de nos fausses volontés. 17. Ainsi, pour l'homme qui, dans ce monde , vit dans cette souffrante et périssable chair, dans un si grand danger , il n'y a rien de plus ulile que de se bien connoître lui-même ; et s'il se connoît bien lui-même , il connoit aussi Dieu son créateur, et toutes les créatures; et en outre combien Dieu est disposé pour lui ; et cette connoissance est la plus délicieuse que j'aie jamais découverte.
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.
1is, however, one single man who is good and evil 3 and that he must receive the recompense of the one or the other; that to whichever side he leans in this life, his soul carries itself thither when he dies, and that at the last judgement he shall rise again in force and power in the labour he has done here, and shall live there eternally, and shall be glorified there, and shall find there his source and his perpetual aliment; it is then essentially useful to him to seek to know himself; wherefore he is created; whence comes to him the impulsion of the good and of the evil, and what is, nevertheless, the good and the evil in itself 5 whence they are moved. 11 must seek particularly what is the source of all that is good and of all that is evil; whence and by what way the evil came into the demon, into 1 man and into all the creatures, since the demon was a holy angel, and since man also was created good, and since the false attraction is found in all the creatures which hate one another, fight one another, torment one another and are enemies one of another; that there is a like opposition in all the creatures, and that one same body is divided from itself. And that we see not only among the living creatures, but also in the stars, the elements, the OF THE AUTHOR. xvij earth, the stones, the metals, the leaves, the grass and the wood, where everywhere is the poison and the evil. One finds, moreover, that it must be so; otherwise there would be neither life nor movement, even as there would be neither colour nor virtues, nothing thin, nothing thick, nothing perceptible, but all would be a nothing.
2i4. In that high consideration one finds that the whole came from God himself, that it is his own essence, that he is that himself, and that he has himself produced himself from himself. The evil acts for the corporisation and for the mobility. The good, for love. The force or the opposition, for joy. So long as the creature is in the love of God, the choleric or the opposition makes [ the raising ] of the eternal joy 5 but if the light of God is extinguished, it makes the eternal raising of the anguishing source, and the infernal fire. i5. To clear up all these things, I shall describe here the three divine principles, wherein all shall be explained; what God is; nature and the creatures; what the love and the sweetness of God is; his ebullition and his will; what the demon and the anger of God is; in brief, what joy and suffering is; how all things took birth and II XViij PREFACE
3continue to exist. We wish also to represent the true difference there is between the eternal creatures and those which are perishable; above all, to consider man and his soul; what he is, and how he is an eternal creature; what heaven is, wherein God, the angels and the holy men dwell; and what hell is, wherein the demons inhabit, and how all things were thus created in the origin; in a word, what the essence of all essences is. Since the love of God has favoured me with these knowledges, I will write them as a memorial and a remembrance for myself, seeing that we live, in this world, in a great danger, between heaven and hell, and that we must without cease combat the demon. By that means, if I came, by my weakness, to fall under the anger of God, and the light of my knowledges were withdrawn from me, I should have wherewith to be able to recall them to myself, and to resuscitate them in me. 1 6. For God would that all men should be succoured, and wills not the death of the sinner; but that he convert himself, that he turn towards him, and that he live eternally in him. It is with that design that he has let his heart, which is his son, become man, in order that we OF THE AUTHOR. XIX may attach ourselves to him, resuscitate ourselves in him, and regenerate ourselves from our sins and from our false wills. 17. Thus, for the man who, in this world, lives in this suffering and perishable flesh, in so great a danger, there is nothing more useful than to know himself well; and if he knows himself well, he knows also God his creator, and all the creatures; and moreover how far God is disposed towards him; and that knowledge is the most delicious I have ever discovered.
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.