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.
1laisse aller les essences dans le premier et le second principe , à la propre disposition de riiomrae , pour s'unir et s'ntlacber à celui qu'il voudra : ce que l'homme a incontestablement dans sa pleine puissance. C'est ce que j'exposerai convenablement en son lieu , et que je démontrerai hautement en dépit de toutes les puissances du démon, et de celles de ce monde , qui combattent fortement contre. 8. Notre vie dans le sein de la mère a entièrement son origine telle que cela a été exposé ; et elle existe là alors dans les qualités du soleil et des étoiles ; là ensuite , par l'enflammement de la lumière , il s'élève de nouveau un centre , et la noble teinture s'engendre aussitôt de la lumière , c'est-à-dire , des essences joyeuses de la qualité astringente j amère et ignée ; elle met l'esprit de Tame dans de grandes et aimables délices; et les trois essences , savoir : l'astringent , l'amer et le feu sont liées si fortement l'une à l'autre dans l'enflammement de la vie , que dans l'éternité elles ne peuvent point se séparer. Or , la teinture est l'éternelle maison où elles demeurent, et qu'elles engendrent elles-mêmes depuis l'origine jusque dans l'éternité , ce qui leur donne de nouveau la vie , la joie et le délice. L.a forte porte de V indissoluble alliance de Vame, 9. Vois : les trois essences, ou l'astringent, l'amer cl le feu sont le ver ou l'esprit. L'astringent est une essence 3 et est de l'éternelle volonté dePieu dans le tH. i4. ( 2S3 )
2FiATdeDieu.L'a//irtfme/i^derastringenc8esiraiguilIon de l'amertume, que l'amertume ne peut souffrir , et elle attire toujours plus fortement à soi ; d'où l'aiguillon devient toujours plus grand, quoique cependant l'aslringence le retienne prisonnier; etcelatout ensemble est la grande angoisse qui étoit là dans l'ame ténébreuse de Dieu le père, c'est-à-dire, que les ténèbres soupirent après la lumière^ et que ces ténèbres, au moyen de l'éclat de la lumière dans l'angoisse , parviennent à l'oblique éclair du feu , ce dont les anges sont créés , lesquels ensuite ont été éclairés de la lumière de Dieu , en plaçant leur imagination dans le cœur de Dieu ; tandis que les autres , tel que Lucifer, demeurent dans l'éclair du feu , dans l'angoisse , à cause de leur orgueil. 10. Cette génération , ainsi que l'alliance indissoluble , est produite dans l'ame de chaque homme ; et il n'y a aucune ame dans l'enfant dans le sein de la mère , avant C enjlammement de la lumière -, car , par l'enflammement , l'éternelle alliance est opérée, de façon qu'elle dure éternellement,etque ce ver des trois essences ne meurt , ni ne se brise ; car cela ne peut pas être. Ils sont nés tous les trois d'une seule source ; ils ont trois qualités, et ce n'est qu'une seule essence. De même que la trinité sainte est triple , et cependant dans un seul être, et a néanmoins trois origines dans une seule mère , lesquelles sont une essence l'une dans l'autre ; de même aussi est l'ame de l'homme, et seulement moindre d'un degré dans le premier développement ; car elle est née de l'éternelle volonté du père , et non pas du cœur ( 254 ) CH. 14. de Dîeu 5 mais le cœur de Dieu est ce qu'il jr a do plus près d'elle.
3II. Or, on conçoit bien maintenant au sujet des essences et des propriétés de l'ame , qu'elle n'est point chez elle dans celle maison de chair, où elle est également engendrée , et on reconnoît son ef- • frojable chute ; car elle [cette maison ] n'a aucune lumière propre en soi 5 elle doit emprunter sa lumière du soleil, laquelle s'élève en effet dans sa génération ; mais elle est périssable, et non pas lever de l'ame. Aussi on voit comment elle s'éteint à la mort de l'homme j et si alors la lumière divine n'est pas engendrée de nouveau dans le centre , l'amo reste dans les éternelles ténèbres, dans l'éternelle source angoisseuse de la génération, où on n'aperçoit plus qu'un eff*royable éclair de feu j enfin dans un feu enflammé, dans laquelle source les démons demeurent aussi j car c'est là le premier principe. 12. L'ame , ici dans ce monde , use de la lumière du troisième principe, par laquelle l'ame d'Adam s'est laissé attirer, et d'après quoi elle a été emprisonnée par l'esprit du grand monde. Mais si l'ame est engendrée de nouveau dans l'esprit saint, de façon que son centre s'élève en soi-même vers la régénération , alors elle voit avec deux lumières, ei elle vit dans deux principes 5 mais le plus intérieur ou le premier est fermé fortement , et elle j est seulement suspendue: c'est dans lui que les démons combattent et tentent les âmes. D'un autre côté, la vierge ou sophie ( qui appartient à la teinture de la renaissance, et j demeurera à la séparation du corps CH. 14. { 255 ) d'avec l'ame ) soutient la partie et le combat avec le démon ; elle lui brise la tête dans la vertu du fils virginal , lequel sera le pritice et le héros de Tame , lorsqu'un nouveau corps dans la teinture de l'ame , sortira de la puissance de l'ame.
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.
1let the essences go in the first and the second principle, to the proper disposition of man, to unite and attach himself to whom he will: which man has incontestably in his full power. It is what I shall expose suitably in its place, and what I shall demonstrate loftily in spite of all the powers of the demon, and of those of this world, which combat strongly against it. 8. Our life in the bosom of the mother has entirely its origin such as this has been exposed; and it exists there then in the qualities of the sun and of the stars; there afterwards, by the inflaming of the light, there rises anew a centre, and the noble tincture begets itself at once of the light, that is to say, of the joyous essences of the astringent quality, bitter and fiery; it puts the spirit of the soul into great and amiable delights; and the three essences, to wit: the astringent, the bitter and the fire are bound so strongly one to the other in the inflaming of the life, that in eternity they cannot separate themselves. Now, the tincture is the eternal house where they dwell, and which they beget themselves from the origin even into eternity, which gives them anew the life, the joy and the delight. The strong gate of the indissoluble alliance of the soul, 9. See: the three essences, or the astringent, the bitter and the fire are the worm or the spirit. The astringent is an essence 3 and is of the eternal will of God in the tH. i4. ( 2S3 )
2FIAT of God. The inflaming of the astringenc8y is the sting of the bitterness, which the bitterness cannot suffer, and it draws always more strongly to itself; whence the sting becomes always greater, although nevertheless the astringency hold it prisoner; and all that together is the great anguish that was there in the tenebrous soul of God the father, that is to say, that the darkness sighs after the light, and that these darknesses, by means of the brightness of the light in the anguish, attain to the oblique flash of the fire, whereof the angels are created, which afterwards have been enlightened by the light of God, in placing their imagination in the heart of God; whilst the others, such as Lucifer, remain in the flash of the fire, in the anguish, because of their pride. 10. This generation, as well as the indissoluble alliance, is produced in the soul of each man; and there is no soul in the child in the bosom of the mother, before the inflaming of the light; for, by the inflaming, the eternal alliance is operated, so that it lasts eternally, and that this worm of the three essences dies not, nor breaks; for that cannot be. They are born all three of one single source; they have three qualities, and it is but one single essence. Even as the holy trinity is triple, and nevertheless in one single being, and has nevertheless three origins in one single mother, which are one essence the one in the other; so also is the soul of man, and only less by a degree in the first development; for it is born of the eternal will of the father, and not of the heart ( 254 ) CH. 14. of God 5 but the heart of God is what there is nearest to it.
3II. Now, one well conceives now touching the essences and the properties of the soul, that it is not at home in this house of flesh, where it is equally begotten, and one recognises its frightful fall; for it [this house ] has no light of its own in itself 5 it must borrow its light from the sun, which rises in effect in its generation; but it is perishable, and not the rising of the soul. Also one sees how it is extinguished at the death of man; and if then the divine light be not begotten anew in the centre, the soul remains in the eternal darkness, in the eternal anguishing source of the generation, where one perceives no more than a frightful flash of fire; at last in a kindled fire, in which source the demons also dwell; for that is the first principle. 12. The soul, here in this world, uses the light of the third principle, by which the soul of Adam let itself be attracted, and after which it has been imprisoned by the spirit of the great world. But if the soul be begotten anew in the holy spirit, so that its centre rise in itself toward the regeneration, then it sees with two lights, and it lives in two principles 5 but the most interior or the first is shut strongly, and it is only suspended there: it is in it that the demons combat and tempt the souls. On another side, the virgin or Sophia ( who belongs to the tincture of the new birth, and will dwell there at the separation of the body CH. 14. { 255 ) from the soul ) sustains the part and the combat with the demon; she breaks his head in the virtue of the virginal son, who will be the prince and the hero of the soul, when a new body in the tincture of the soul, shall go forth from the power of the soul.
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.