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.
1du feu ; de s'imaginer d'être belle dans cet éclat ,* et de se complaire à soi-même 5 alors vient le flatleur et le menteur , le démon : il se transforme en esprit du grand monde , comme dans le jardiu d'Eden ; il conduit l'ame dans la convoitise , daus la débauche du boire et du manger , et dit toujours : Tu n'en auras pas assez j lire à loi partout où lu pourras en attraper, afin que tu en aies toujours suffisamment. Dans la forme amère , il dit : Tu es riche , et tu possèdes beaucoup , élève-toi , exaltetoi ; tu es plus grand que les autres gens ; l'inférieur , le petit n'est pas ton égal. Dans la puissance du feu , il dit : Enflamme ta base affective , rendsla implacable ; ne cède à personne; épouvante le timide ; ainsi tu seras redoulé, et ta puissance se soutiendra : alors tu feras ce que tu voudras , et tu auras en partage tout ce que tu désireras. N'estce pas pour toi qu'est faite cette souveraineté ? ïi'es-tu pas véritablement un souverain sur terre? 45. Et, lorsque cela s'effectue, alors la teinture devient entièrement fausse : car, tel qu'est l'esprit dans une chose , telle aussi est la teinture ; attendu *que la teinture sort de l'esprit , et est sa demeure. C'est pourquoi, ô! homme, ce que tu sèmes ici tu 1» recueilleras : en effet , Tame demeure élernellement dans la teinture; tous tes fruits seront manifestés dans la teinture , dans une lumière claire; ils te suivront, dit la vierge sophie aVec cordialité et avec de grands soupirs après le lys. 46. Si donc maintenant nous réfléchissons sur la teinture, combien elle est multipliée , et si souvent ( 24o ) CB, l3.
2entièrement allérée, nous pouvons, avec raison, montrer le vice de multitude d'esprits , et comment ils sont engendrés : c'est pourquoi nous voulons faire une courte introduction sur la propagation des âmes , et nous la conduirons depuis la chute d'Adam jusqu'à la naissance de Caïn. Car , comme cela a été exposé, la semence est semée dans l'attract de la teinture ; là le fiât astringent la reçoit, et suppose qu'il a reçu la sophie^ là les deux teintures masculine et fiminr ne se disputent à son sujet ; là l'esprit du grand monde , savoir , des étoiles et des élémens , se peint et remplit les teintures avec ses élémens j ce que les teintures reçoivent dans le FIAT avec une grande joie , et elles croient qu'elles ont la SOPHIE. 47. Mais comme le fiât est le plus puissant d'entre eux ( car il est comme un esprit, quoiqu'il ue soit pas esprit ), c'est pourquoi il est l'essence aiguë qui tire à soi , et désire le lunhu» de Dieu dans le paradis , d'où le corps d'Adam a été formé par le fiât: il veut former un Adam du limhus céleste. Alors l'esprit du grand monde s'approche , et dit ea soi : L'enfant est à moi ; je veux dominer au-dessus^ de la SOPHIE. Et il continue toujours à introduire là les élémens , ce qui fait que la teinture devient pleine et entièrement gonflée.Alors la teinture prend un dégoût à cause de cette plénitude , car elle est claire et déliée , et le fiât est épais et gonflé par les élémens 5 ce dont les femmes peuvent parler pertinemment quand elles deviennent enceintes ; comme çn effet, la plupart ont du dégoût pour le buire et CH. i3. (^41)
3le manger ,€1 veulent toujours avoir quelque chose d'extraordinaire : cela vient de ce que la teinture prend du dégoût pour le gonflement de l'esprit de ce monde , par ses élémens, et veut avoir quelque chose de différent : car cette vierge ne le goûte pas ; elle en prend du mécontentement; elle ne peut Je supporter 5 elle s'en va dans son Ether, et ne revient point. 48. Alors donc l'esprit du soleil, des étoiles et des élémens de ce monde , dit en soi : Maintenant tu as gagné ; l'enfant est à toi , la base est posée , tu peux en disposer. La sophie doit être à toi , tu vivras en elle , et tu auras ta joie en elle ; ses orneinens doivent être à toi ; et il attire ainsi toujours à soi, dans son attract,par le fiât , lequel fiât demeure pour l'éternité 3 et il suppose qu'il a k SOPHIE. 49. Alors , dans la semence , est attiré le sang de la mère, dans lequel est la teinture delà mère: et quand il a été goûté par l'âpre fiât qui le trouve plus doux que son essence , ce fiât se développe dedans avec un grand empressement; il devient fort dans la teinture ; il veut créer Adam ; il sépare la masse ou la matière , et alors l'esprit des étoiles et des élémens est dans le milieu , et domine puissamment dans le fiât* 50. Alors la matière est séparée selon la roue àes étoiles, suivant l'ordre dans lequel les planettes sont dans ce moment là. Et celle qui est la première opère par le fiât la matière très fortement, et l'enfant reçoit une forme de son espèce. ( 242 ) <^"' ^^*
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.
1of the fire; to imagine itself fair in this brightness, and to complace itself in itself 5 then comes the flatterer and the liar, the demon: he transforms himself into spirit of the great world, as in the garden of Eden; he leads the soul into covetousness, into the debauchery of drink and of food, and says always: Thou wilt not have enough of it; draw to thyself everywhere thou canst catch some, so that thou mayest always have sufficient. In the bitter form, he says: Thou art rich, and thou possessest much, raise thyself, exalt thyself; thou art greater than other people; the inferior, the little one is not thy equal. In the power of the fire, he says: Inflame thy affective base, render it implacable; yield to no one; terrify the timid; thus thou wilt be dreaded, and thy power will sustain itself: then thou wilt do what thou wilt, and thou wilt have in portion all that thou shalt desire. Is it not for thee that this sovereignty is made? Art thou not truly a sovereign upon earth? 45. And, when that is effected, then the tincture becomes entirely false: for, such as the spirit is in a thing, such also is the tincture; seeing that the tincture goes forth from the spirit, and is its dwelling. That is why, O! man, what thou sowest here thou 1shalt reap: in effect, the soul dwells eternally in the tincture; all thy fruits will be manifested in the tincture, in a clear light; they will follow thee, says the virgin Sophia with cordiality and with great sighs after the lily. 46. If then now we reflect upon the tincture, how much it is multiplied, and how often ( 24o ) CB, l3.
2entirely altered, we can, with reason, show the vice of a multitude of spirits, and how they are begotten: that is why we will make a short introduction upon the propagation of the souls, and we will conduct it from the fall of Adam to the birth of Cain. For, as this has been exposed, the seed is sown in the attract of the tincture; there the astringent fiat receives it, and supposes that it has received the Sophia; there the two tinctures masculine and feminine dispute about it; there the spirit of the great world, to wit, of the stars and of the elements, paints itself and fills the tinctures with its elements; which the tinctures receive in the FIAT with a great joy, and they believe that they have the SOPHIA. 47. But as the fiat is the most powerful among them ( for it is as a spirit, although it be not spirit ), that is why it is the sharp essence which draws to itself, and desires the limbus of God in paradise, whence the body of Adam was formed by the fiat: it will form an Adam of the celestial limbus. Then the spirit of the great world approaches, and says in itself: The child is mine; I will rule above the SOPHIA. And it continues always to introduce there the elements, which makes that the tincture becomes full and entirely swollen. Then the tincture takes a disgust because of this plenitude, for it is clear and delicate, and the fiat is thick and swollen by the elements 5 whereof women can speak pertinently when they become pregnant; as in effect, most have a disgust for drink and CH. i3. (^41)
3the food, 1and will always have something extraordinary: that comes of this that the tincture takes a disgust for the swelling of the spirit of this world, by its elements, and will have something different: for this virgin tastes it not; she takes discontent at it; she cannot bear it 5 she goes away into her Ether, and returns not. 48. Then therefore the spirit of the sun, of the stars and of the elements of this world, says in itself: Now thou hast gained; the child is thine, the base is laid, thou canst dispose of it. The Sophia must be thine, thou wilt live in her, and thou wilt have thy joy in her; her ornaments must be thine; and it draws thus always to itself, in its attract, by the fiat, which fiat dwells for eternity 3 and it supposes that it has the SOPHIA. 49. Then, in the seed, is drawn the blood of the mother, in which is the tincture of the mother: and when it has been tasted by the harsh fiat which finds it sweeter than its essence, this fiat develops itself therein with a great eagerness; it becomes strong in the tincture; it will create Adam; it separates the mass or the matter, and then the spirit of the stars and of the elements is in the midst, and rules powerfully in the fiat. 50. Then the matter is separated according to the wheel of the stars, following the order in which the planets are at that moment. And that which is the first operates by the fiat the matter very strongly, and the child receives a form of its species. ( 242 ) <^"' ^^*
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.