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. Mais , comme le limhua céleste étoit manifesté par le terrestre , et étoit dans le fruit , en une même substance , et qu'Adam étoit aussi de même • c'étoit à Adam de ne point tendre après la matrice terrestre , puisqu'il a voit reçudu premier principe, iine ame vivante j qu'il avoit eu l'insufflation de l'esr prit saint et qu'il ayoit été éclairé de la lumière de Dieu , qui existe dans le second principe. i3. C'est pourquoi , Dieu ici , lui donna aussi la défense de ne se point laisser attirer par la matrice terrestre et par son fruit, qui étoit passager et corruptible , et qui n'étbit point pour l'esprit d« l*homme. Il devoit manger du fruit , mais seulement de celui qui étoit selon le mode et la propriété paradisiaque , et non point des essences terrestres Car, les essences paradisiaques s'étoient figurées dans tous les fruits. C'est pourquoi , ils eussent été très bons à manger à la manière angéiique • et très agéables à la vue , comme dit Moïse. Maintenant , on se demande: Qu'est-ce qu'à donc été proprement la tentation dabs Adam ? ■kU?. tta porte du bien e^ du mal. i4. Nous avons de ceci, un puissant témoignage, et on le lit dans la nature et dans tous ses enfans , dans les étoiles , et les élémens , dans la terre , les pierres et les métaux , particulièrement dans les tn. îf.' C ^77 5 créatures vivantes , oh tu vois comment elles sont toutes bonnes et mauvaises ; savoir : des créatures aimables, ainsi que des animaux méchans et véné-» neux ; tels que des crapauds, des serpens et des reptiles. Ainsi , il y a du poison et de la méchanceté dans tout ce qui vit dans le troisième principe, et il faut qu*il y ait de la colère dans la nature , sans quoi tout seroit une mort et un rieUé tta profondeur dans te centré,
2i5. Ainsi que cela a été exposé précédemment ^ l'ame éternelle est dans les ténèbres ; elle s'angoisse et soupire après la lumière afin de l'engendrer. Or, l'angoisse est la source, et la source a en soi plusieurs formes j elle atteint jusqu'au feu, dans sa substance ; elle a l*amer, l'astringent , le dur, le froid, le colérique , l'oblique ou le poison , dans la racine duquel , la joie et la peine existent également* Quand elle atteint jusqu'à la racine du feu, et qu'elle peut saisir la lumière , alors il sort de la colère, une grande joie ; car, la lumière met la forme colérique dans une graudedouceur 5 au Contraire, cet te forme, qui parvient à la racine du feu , demeure dans la Colère. 16. Lorsque Dieu voulut ( ainsi que nous le pou" vons savoir ) que l'ame éternelle qui étoit dans les ténèbres fût manifestée dans le troisième principe par ce monde, alors toutes les formes furent premiè-* rement manifestées dans le premier principe jus*^ c[u'au feu , et les formes que la lumière atteignit ^ I. %% j-j f ( 178 ) ttt- tié furent angéliques et paradisiaques ; maïs les autres sont restées colériques , meurtrières , astringentes et mauvaises , chacune dans son essence ou dans sa propre forme : car , chaque forme vouloitêtre aussi manifestée , attendu que c'étoit la volonté de Téternelle essence de se manifester. Mais dans l'éternel cngendrement , une forme ne pouvoit pas se manifester seule , par la raison que Tune est membre de l'autre^ et que Tune sans l'autre ne seroit rien.
317. C'est pourquoi , l'éternelle parole ou le cœur de Dieu a travaillé dans la ténébreuse et spiriluella matrice , qui, en elle - même dans l'origine , étoit sans lumière, et muète , et il engendra une image de lui-même corporelle et saisissable, dans laquelle toutes les formes ont été tirées de l'éternelle forme , et sont venues en substance : car , de la forme spirituelle a été engendrée la forme corporelle 5 et l'éternelle parole ( l'a ) créée par le fiât , pour que cela restât ainsi. 18. Alors , de toutes ces formes sorties de la matrice de la terre par le fiât dans la parole , sont pro. venues toutes les créatures de ce monde , telles que les arbres , les plantes et herbes , chacune seloa sa forme , ainsi que les reptiles , bons ou mauvais , selon que chaque forme s'est originisée dans la matrice de la génératrice. Il en a été de même des fruits dans le paradis de ce monde, dans le jardin d'Eden , lorsque le verbe dit : Que toutes sortes d'arbres et d» végétaux soient produits. De toutes les formes sortirent et poussèrent des arbres et des végétaux, qui tous étoient doux et aimables \ car la parole s'é* iBff. II. ( «79 )
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. But, as the celestial limbus was manifested by the terrestrial, and was in the fruit, in one same substance, and that Adam was also the same; it was for Adam not to tend after the terrestrial matrix, since he had received from the first principle, a living soul; that he had had the insufflation of the holy spirit and that he had been enlightened by the light of God, which exists in the second principle. i3. That is why, God here, gave him also the prohibition not to let himself be attracted by the terrestrial matrix and by its fruit, which was passing and corruptible, and which was not for the spirit of man. He was to eat of the fruit, but only of that which was according to the paradisiacal mode and property, and not of the terrestrial essences. For, the paradisiacal essences had figured themselves in all the fruits. That is why, they would have been very good to eat in the angelic manner, and very agreeable to the sight, as Moses says. Now, one asks: What then has properly been the temptation in Adam? ■kU?. The gate of good and of evil. i4. We have of this, a powerful testimony, and one reads it in nature and in all her children, in the stars, and the elements, in the earth, the stones and the metals, particularly in the tn. îf.' C ^77 5 living creatures, where thou seest how they are all good and evil; to wit: amiable creatures, as well as wicked and venomous animals; such as toads, serpents and reptiles. Thus, there is poison and wickedness in all that lives in the third principle, and there must be anger in nature, without which all would be a death and a nothing. The profundity in the centre,
2i5. As this has been exposed previously, the eternal soul is in the darkness; it is in anguish and sighs after the light in order to beget it. Now, the anguish is the source, and the source has in itself several forms; it reaches even to the fire, in its substance; it has the bitter, the astringent, the hard, the cold, the choleric, the oblique or the poison, in the root whereof, joy and pain exist equally. When it reaches even to the root of the fire, and that it can seize the light, then there goes forth from the anger, a great joy; for, the light puts the choleric form into a great sweetness 5 on the contrary, that form, which attains to the root of the fire, remains in the Anger. 16. When God willed (as we can know) that the eternal soul which was in the darkness should be manifested in the third principle by this world, then all the forms were firstly manifested in the first principle even to the fire, and the forms that the light reached I. %% j-j f ( 178 ) ttt- tié were angelic and paradisiacal; but the others have remained choleric, murderous, astringent and evil, each in its essence or in its own form: for, each form would also be manifested, seeing that it was the will of the eternal essence to manifest itself. But in the eternal begetting, one form could not manifest itself alone, for the reason that the one is a member of the other, and that the one without the other would be nothing.
317. That is why, the eternal word or the heart of God has worked in the tenebrous and spiritual matrix, which, in itself in the origin, was without light, and mute, and it begot an image of itself corporeal and seizable, in which all the forms have been drawn from the eternal form, and are come into substance: for, of the spiritual form has been begotten the corporeal form 5 and the eternal word (has) created it by the fiat, so that this should remain thus. 18. Then, of all these forms gone forth from the matrix of the earth by the fiat in the word, are proceeded all the creatures of this world, such as the trees, the plants and herbs, each according to its form, as well as the reptiles, good or evil, according as each form has originised itself in the matrix of the generatrix. It has been the same with the fruits in the paradise of this world, in the garden of Eden, when the word said: Let all sorts of trees and vegetables be produced. Of all the forms there went forth and pushed up trees and vegetables, which all were sweet and amiable; for the word was re- iBff. II. ( «79 )
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.