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.
1aa. Nous trouvons encore de plus grands mystères en témoignage de la lamentable chut* ; car après que ks quatre élémens se sont ainsi établis chacun daas une région particulière , ils se sont feits alors souverain» au-dessus de l'esprit de l'ame qiri ^toit engendré des essences ; ils l'ont pris dans 4eur puissance , et ont inqualifii avec lui. Le feu , comme le plus puissant, l'a pris dans sa région dans le cœur 5 c'est là qu'il doit s'arrêter 5 il donne sa fleur et sa lumière hors du cœur 5 il plane au-dessus du cœur , comme la lumière enflammée d'une chandelle. Ici, la chandelle signifie le cœur charnel avec les essences d'où la lumière brille. Or, le feu s'est ^/aorf au-dessus des essences ; il tend toujours après la lumière , et présume qu'il a la vierge de la vertu divine ou la sopbxe. 23. Là ( dans le cœur ) la noble teinture est née iles essences 5 elle ne demande rien au feu , mais elle admet les essences ou l'ame dans ses aimables délices. Alors les autres élémens viennent de leur ïégiott et se remplissent ardemment de la teinture. c», i4. ( 259 )
2Chacun veut goûter la vierge ou la Sophie, la nourrir et inqualifier avec elle ; c'est-à-dire, que l'eau SB sature ici , et goûté la douce teinture de l'ame. Le feu dit : Je voudrois bien retenir l'eau car je peux par là étancher ma soif et me réjouir. L'ajr dit : Je suis vraiment l'esprit ; je veux souffler la chaleur et ton feu , aBn que l'eau ne t'étouffe pas. Le feu dit à l'air : Je veux te retenir, car tu me con^ serves mes qualités, pour que je ne m'éleigne pas'. Alors vient l'élément terre qui dit : Que voulez-vout faire tous trois, vous allez vous affamer et vous déworer les uns les autres ; car vous êtes suspendus tous les trois les uns aux autres , et vous vous dévorez et quand vous aurez consumé l'eau , vous vous éteindrez , car Pair ne peut pas se remuer s'il n'a d» l'eau, attendu que l'eau est fa mère de l'air; et qu'ella engendre Pair ; en outre si l'eau est consumée, le feu devient trop colérique et il détruit le corps , alors notre région est passée , et aucun de nous ne pourra subsister. 24. Les trois élémens , le feu , l'air et l'eau disent alors à la terre: Tu es réellement trop téné'- breuse , trop rude et trop froide, et tu es rejetée par le FIAT j nous ne pouvons pas te recueillir ; tu déIruirois notre demeure , tu la rendrois ténébreuse et de mauvaise odeur , et tu affligerois notre vierge q*ii est ici notre propre trésor et notre propre amour dans lequel nous vivons. Or , la terre dit : Prenez au moins mes enfans, qui sont aimables et dont lei essences sont bounos ; ils vous donnent à boire et à ( 26o ) CH. i4* manger , ils vous soignent , en sorte que vous né souffrez jamais de besoins.
325. Alors les trois élémens disent : Mais tes enfans pourroienl ensuite demeurer en nous , ils pourroient y devenir forts et puissans ; puis il faudroit nous éloigner , ou être leurs sujets ; c'est pourquoi nous ne voulons pas les prendre non plus , car ils pourroient devenir aussi rudes et aussi froids que toi. Voici pourtant ce que nous voulons faire -, tu peux laisser tes eufans demeurer dans notre vestibule , alors nous viendrons à eux comme convives , nous mangerons de leurs fruits et nous boirons de leur boisson , puisqu'autrement l'eau', qui est contenue dans rélémenl , pourroit devenir insuffisante pour nous. 26. Ainsi les trofs élémens , le feu , l'eau et l'air disent à l'esprit : Va nous chercher les enfans de la terre pour qu'ils demeurent dans notre vestibule : nous voulons manger de leurs essences , et te fortifier. Là l'esprit de l'ame doit être obéissant comm© nn prisonnier ; il doit les saisir avec ses essences , et les enfermer. Alors le fiât vient et dit : Non , vous pourriez m'échapper ; et il crée ou forme des grapins'.et de-là viennent les mains , avec les figures et les formes de toutes les essences, comme cela est |Tès visible , et l'astrologue le sait bien ; mais il n'en connoît pas le secret , quoiqu'il puisse expliquer les signes d'après les constellations et les élémens qui inqualifient dans les essences de l'esprit de l'ame ( Si l'auie avoit mangé , en ce lieu, du verbe du $tu gneur , et qu'elle eut laissé les élémens extérieurs sans les avoir fauchés, cela eût été mieux. )
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.
1aa. We find yet greater mysteries in testimony of the lamentable fall; for after that the four elements have thus established themselves each in a particular region, they have made themselves then sovereigns above the spirit of the soul which was begotten of the essences; they have taken it into 4their power, and have inqualified with it. The fire, as the most powerful, has taken it into its region in the heart 5 it is there that it must stop 5 it gives its flower and its light out of the heart 5 it hovers above the heart, as the kindled light of a candle. Here, the candle signifies the carnal heart with the essences whence the light shines. Now, the fire has placed itself above the essences; it tends always after the light, and presumes that it has the virgin of the divine virtue or the Sophia. 23. There ( in the heart ) the noble tincture is born of the essences 5 it asks nothing of the fire, but it admits the essences or the soul into its amiable delights. Then the other elements come from their region and fill themselves ardently with the tincture. c», i4. ( 259 )
2Each will taste the virgin or the Sophia, nourish her and inqualify with her; that is to say, that the water saturates itself here, and tastes the sweet tincture of the soul. The fire says: I would indeed retain the water for I can thereby quench my thirst and rejoice myself. The air says: I am truly the spirit; I will blow the heat and thy fire, so that the water stifle thee not. The fire says to the air: I will retain thee, for thou preservest me my qualities, so that I be not extinguished. Then comes the element earth which says: What will you three do, you are going to famish yourselves and devour one another; for you are suspended all three one to another, and you devour yourselves and when you shall have consumed the water, you will extinguish yourselves, for the air cannot stir itself if it have not water, seeing that the water is the mother of the air; and that it begets the air; besides if the water be consumed, the fire becomes too choleric and it destroys the body, then our region is past, and none of us will be able to subsist. 24. The three elements, the fire, the air and the water say then to the earth: Thou art really too tenebrous, too rude and too cold, and thou art rejected by the FIAT; we cannot gather thee; thou wouldst destroy our dwelling, thou wouldst render it tenebrous and of evil odour, and thou wouldst afflict our virgin who is here our own treasure and our own love in which we live. Now, the earth says: Take at least my children, who are amiable and whose essences are good; they give you to drink and to ( 26o ) CH. i4* eat, they tend you, so that you never suffer want.
325. Then the three elements say: But thy children could then dwell in us, they could there become strong and powerful; then we should have to withdraw, or be their subjects; that is why we will not take them either, for they could become as rude and as cold as thou. Here nevertheless is what we will do; thou canst let thy children dwell in our vestibule, then we will come to them as guests, we will eat of their fruits and we will drink of their drink, since otherwise the water, which is contained in the element, might become insufficient for us. 26. Thus the three elements, the fire, the water and the air say to the spirit: Go seek us the children of the earth so that they may dwell in our vestibule: we will eat of their essences, and fortify thee. There the spirit of the soul must be obedient as a prisoner; it must seize them with its essences, and enclose them. Then the fiat comes and says: No, you might escape me; and it creates or forms grapples; and thence come the hands, with the figures and the forms of all the essences, as this is very visible, and the astrologer knows it well; but he knows not the secret of it, although he can explain the signs according to the constellations and the elements which inqualify in the essences of the spirit of the soul ( If the soul had eaten, in this place, of the word of the lo rd, and had it left the exterior elements without having mown them, that would have been better. )
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.