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.
127. Si maintenant , dans la volonté , les mains s'étendent après les enfans de la terre ( laquelle extension n'est cependant dans l'esprit de l'enfant qu'une volonté dans le corps de la mère ) , alors le FIAT est là , et il fait une grandejplace dans le vesti-: bule des trois élémens , et une dure et ferme enceinte autour , pour que la chair ne les toucho point 5 car elle a peur des enfans de la terre , puisque la terre a été jetée dehors à cause de ses ténèbres âpres et puantes. Elle est en tremblement, dans une grande crainte^ et dans le cas où les enfans de la terre lui deviendroient trop rudes , et qu'ils vour lussent lui causer delapuanteur,elles'occupe à chercher les meilleurs moyens d'avoir une ouverture, et de pouvoir jeter dehors la puanteur et le grossier j ainsi le fiât fait hors du vestibule , qui est Pestomac 5 une issue et une ouverture 5 il l'enveloppe avec sa dureastringence \e\ cela devient un boyau. 28. Cependant comme l'ennemi [ou la puanteur J n'est pas encore en être , mais seulement dans la volonté de l'esprit, alors le fiât va très lentement au-dessous de soi 5 il cherche la porte où il pourra faire une issue et une ouverture pour pouvoir jeter dehors la puanteur et le grossier ; de-là vient que Les boyaux sont si longs et si tortueux.^ 29. Si maintenant , l'esprit de la terre C ou les essences de la terre dans la région des poumons ) s'a-^ perçoit de cette conversation (qui est spirituelle),, entre les trois élémens , le feu , l'air et l'eau 3 alor^ ( a6a ) Cil. J4I
2il vient à la fin , lorsque la demenre ou le veslitule des ctifans de la terre est déjà bâli« , et dit aux trois élémens : Pourquoi voulez - vous prendre le corps au lieu de Tespril? Vous voulee prendre les €nfans de la terre , et vous en nourrir ; je suis leur esprit, et je suis pur; je puis forli6er les essences de l'ame, et les soutenir avec la vertu de mes essences : admettez moi. 3o. Et ils disent : Oui , nous voulons l'admettre > car tu es un membre de notre esprit, tu dois demeuler en nous , et fortifier les essences de notre esprit , pour qu'il ne s'affoiblisse point ; mais nous devons avoir aussi les cnfans de la terre , afin que nous BOUS réjouissions ;car ils ont aussi en eux nos qualités. Et l'esprit des poumons dit : Alors je vivrai en vous tous , et je me réjouirai avec vous. i,a porte de T esprit sydérique ou àntral»
33î. Maintenant j lorsque la lumière du soleil qnj s'est regardée dans l'éclair de feu des essences de Fesprit et.qui s'est représentée et a été brillanre dans l'éclair de feu comme une puissance étrangère , et non pas comme propre du soleil , voit qu'elle a obtenu la domination , de façon que les essences de Tame qui est le ver ou l'esprit , veulent , aussi bie» que les élémens , se réjouir dans sa puissance et dans son éclat ; lorsqu'elle voit que les élémens se sont fïit qua4re régions ou liabitations , comme une résidence à perpétuité ; que le toléil est regardé comme un roi ; qu'ils lui font la cour dans l'esprit des essences , dans le cceiir ; qu'ainsi ils l'aiment , se réjouissent dans leur emploi, et ont en outre disposé lei ealans de la terre pour que l'esprit les présenlejque là ils veulent aussitôt se réjouir , être puissans , et manger et boire des essences deseiiCans de la terre , alors le soleil dit : Il est bon de demeurer ici ; tu es roi , tu dois aussi amener ici ta famille , et l'élever au-dessus des élémens , et te faire une région : tu e« vraiment roi. Il attire ainsi à soi les constellations y il les porte dans les essences , il les place au-dessu» des élémens avec leurs nombreuses , prodigieuses et inscru tables essences., dont le nombre est infini , et il leur fait , dans «n pays étranger , une région et xol royaume, de son extraction. (Ici est la porte, où les en fans de ce monde sont plus prudens que les enfans de lumière. )
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.
127. If now, in the will, the hands stretch themselves after the children of the earth ( which extension is nevertheless in the spirit of the child only a will in the body of the mother ), then the FIAT is there, and it makes a great place in the vestibule of the three elements, and a hard and firm enclosure about it, so that the flesh touch them not 5 for it is afraid of the children of the earth, since the earth has been cast out because of its harsh and stinking darknesses. It is in trembling, in a great fear; and in case the children of the earth should become too rude for it, and that they should will to cause it stench, it occupies itself in seeking the best means of having an opening, and of being able to cast out the stench and the gross; thus the fiat makes out of the vestibule, which is the stomach 5 an issue and an opening 5 it envelops it with its hard astringency and that becomes a bowel. 28. Nevertheless as the enemy [or the stench ] is not yet in being, but only in the will of the spirit, then the fiat goes very slowly beneath itself 5 it seeks the gate where it may make an issue and an opening to be able to cast out the stench and the gross; thence comes it that the bowels are so long and so tortuous. 29. If now, the spirit of the earth ( or the essences of the earth in the region of the lungs ) perceives this conversation ( which is spiritual ), between the three elements, the fire, the air and the water 3 then ( a6a ) Cil. J4I
2it comes at the end, when the dwelling or the vestibule of the children of the earth is already built, and says to the three elements: Why will you take the body instead of the spirit? You will take the children of the earth, and nourish yourselves of them; I am their spirit, and I am pure; I can fortif6y the essences of the soul, and sustain them with the virtue of my essences: admit me. 3o. And they say: Yes, we will admit thee, for thou art a member of our spirit, thou must dwell in us, and fortify the essences of our spirit, so that it weaken not; but we must have also the children of the earth, so that we may rejoice ourselves; for they have also in them our qualities. And the spirit of the lungs says: Then I shall live in you all, and I shall rejoice myself with you. The gate of the sidereal or astral spirit.
33î. Now, when the light of the sun which has looked at itself in the flash of fire of the essences of the spirit and which has represented itself and has been brilliant in the flash of fire as a foreign power, and not as proper to the sun, sees that it has obtained the domination, so that the essences of the soul which is the worm or the spirit, will, as well as the elements, rejoice themselves in its power and in its brightness; when it sees that the elements have made themselves fou4r regions or habitations, as a residence in perpetuity; that the sun is regarded as a king; that they pay court to him in the spirit of the essences, in the heart; that thus they love him, rejoice themselves in their employment, and have besides disposed the children of the earth so that the spirit may present them; that there they will at once rejoice themselves, be powerful, and eat and drink of the essences of the children of the earth, then the sun says: It is good to dwell here; thou art king, thou must also bring hither thy family, and raise it above the elements, and make thyself a region: thou art truly king. It draws thus to itself the constellations; it bears them into the essences, it places them above the elements with their numerous, prodigious and inscrutable essences, whose number is infinite, and it makes for them, in a foreign country, a region and a kingdom, of its extraction. ( Here is the gate, where the children of this world are more prudent than the children of light. )
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.