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.
139. Mon ame est bien instruite de ceci , et elle ft aussi reçu des connoissances que le docteur , avec son bonnet couroBné , ne pourroit pas croire* Comme il ne pourroit pas saisir cela , il le regarderoit comme impossible, et l'attribueroit an •démon \ ainsi que les Juifs ont fait du fils de la vierge 00 de makib , lorsqu'il opéroit des prodiges dans la vertu de la vierge ou de sopniE. Mon ame joe demande rien à de telles personnes , et sait apprétier leur orgueil ; elle a saffîsamment d& la perle ^ et elle désire de montrer l'eau à cevoi CH. i4» ( î^^ ^ qui ont soif. Le bo*tiel couroniië -pétiï ]bXi^t gâîmenl sOus le manieau dô l'anteichriàt jusqu*à ce que le lys croisse : alors l'odeur du, lys jëtefà de côté le bonnet, dit la vîei^ge ou sopfiife ; êl celui qui a soif boira de l'eau de la vie , et le fils de la vierge gouvernera dans la vallée de Josaphàt. 4o. Or , puisque le mystère dans la lumière de la vierge sophie vient au-devant de nous si merveilleusement , nous vouions , en faveur de l'ame désireuse qui cherche sérieusement dans l'espérance de trouver la perle , ouvrir encore urteporle,comme elle s'est ouverte à nous dans la vierge ou sophiè. Car l'ame se dit : Si le soleil , les étoiles et les élémens n*0Tit jamais été dans le second principe oïl la vierge sophie s'engendre dé là lumière de Dîén , comment auroienl-ils donc pu reconnoître la vierge dans Adam , pour se porter ainsi avec Une vi\'e ardenr après la sophie ? La profondeur dans le cènlrè,
241. "Fais attention , toi , ame désireuse : ce que tu vois devant tes yeux , soit dans le feu , l'air, l'eau , ou la terre n'est pas l'élément ptit 5 aussi n'y en a-l-il pas quatre, mais un *eui qui est fixe et invisible, aussi bien qu'insaisissable. Car le feu qui brôle ici n'est pas élément , TOais l'âpfeté qui fat ainsi dans l'enflamUnement de la cofère , lorsque les démons tombèrent de l'élément. L'élément n'est ni ehaud , ni froid 5 mais il est TincUnatioB vers Dieu : car le ceeur de Dieu est chaud , ( 26^ ) en. 14^ et son ascensipn est attiran te et toujours découvrante} ainsi le cœur de Dieu est ce qui tient la chose devant soi et non en soi , et ensuite ig [ relisez ma note dans V Aurore Naissante ; chap, 8. no, 78 \ est la continuelle découverte de la chose : or, tout cela est éternel; et telle est la base de Pinterne élément que la colère a rendu substantiel , de manière qu'il devint visible et saisissable. Lucifer , avec ses légions , a éveillé cette colère ; c'est pourquoi il est resté aussi désormais un prince dans la colère, dans Télément allumé 5 ce qui fait que, d'après celte manière d'être, le Christ l'appelle un prince de ce monde. ( Jean. 12 : 3i. ) 43. Mais Télément demeure caché à la colère et à l'âpreté ; il réside dans le paradis , et cependant la colère sort de l'élément : c'est pourquoi Dieu a enfermé les démons dans la colère par l'élément. Il les contient par l'élément : or , la colère ne peut pas atteindre l'élément , comme le feu n'atteint pas la lumière , car la lumière n'est ni chaude , ni froide 5 mais la colère est chaude : néanmoinsj l'un contient l'autre , et l'un engendre l'autre.
343. Remarque ici : Adam avoit été créé de l'élément , ou de Pattirement du cœur de Dieu , qui est la volonté du père, et dans l'élément est la vierge de la puissance divine, ou la sophie. Le régime externe , lequel , dans l'enflammement , se partagea en quatre parties , auroit bien voulu la posséder en soi 5 c'est-à-dire , la colère du démon auroit bien voulu demeurer dans le cœur de Dieu , et do-^ miner au-dessus , et ouvrir là un centre. C'est ce qufr. fH. 14. ( 269 ) la colère ne pouvoit pas faire sans la lumière , car chaque centre est engendré et ouvert par l'enflammement de la lumière j aussi la colère vouloitelle bien dominer sur la douceur. C'est pourquoi Dieu a laissé éclore le soleil, en sorte qu'il a ouvert quatre centres ou issues de l'élément. 44. Quand la lumière du soleil se contempla dans la colérique aslringence , alors l'astringence devint limpide et douce comme l'eau. La colère dans l'éclair de feu fut éteinte par Teau , de façon que la colère resta en repos. La volonté cependant ne pouvoit pas se reposer; mais elle passa, de l'eau, dans la mère et se mit en activité , ce qui est l'air: or, ce que la colère avoit attiré à soi, fut jeté par l'élément dans l'eau , comme tu vois que la terre nage dans l'eau. '" ' 45. Ainsi le méchant enfant s'angoisse après la mère ; il voudroit bien être dans la mère , dans l'élément, et ne peut pas l'apercevoir. Mais dans Adam il a aperçu l'élément ; c'est pourquoi les quatre élémens ont attiré Adam à eux , et ils se persuadèrent qu'ils avoient la mère , puisque la vierge sophiE se laissa ainsi voir alors d:»ns l'esprit vivant d'Adam.
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.
139. My soul is well instructed of this, and it has also received knowledges that the doctor, with his crowned bonnet, could not believe. As he could not seize that, he would regard it as impossible, and would attribute it to the demon; as the Jews did of the son of the virgin 00 of Mary, when he operated prodigies in the virtue of the virgin or of SOPHIA. My soul asks nothing of such persons, and knows how to appreciate their pride; it has sufficiently of the pearl, and it desires to show the water to those CH. i4» ( î^^ ^ who thirst. The crowned bonnet may walk about gaily under the mantle of the antichrist until the lily grow: then the odour of the lily will cast the bonnet aside, says the virgin or Sophia; and he who thirsts shall drink of the water of life, and the son of the virgin shall govern in the valley of Josaphat. 4o. Now, since the mystery in the light of the virgin Sophia comes to meet us so marvellously, we will, in favour of the desirous soul which seeks seriously in the hope of finding the pearl, open yet a gate, as it has opened itself to us in the virgin or Sophia. For the soul says to itself: If the sun, the stars and the elements ha0ve never been in the second principle where the virgin Sophia begets herself of the light of God, how then could they have recognised the virgin in Adam, so as to carry themselves thus with a lively ardour after the Sophia? The profundity in the centre,
241. "Take heed, thou, desirous soul: what thou seest before thine eyes, whether in the fire, the air, the water, or the earth is not the pure element 5 also there are not four of them, but one only which is fixed and invisible, as well as unseizable. For the fire that burns here is not element, but the harshness which was thus in the inflaming of the anger, when the demons fell from the element. The element is neither hot, nor cold 5 but it is the inclination toward God: for the heart of God is hot, ( 26^ ) en. 14^ and its ascension is attracting and always discovering; thus the heart of God is that which holds the thing before itself and not in itself, and then it [ re-read my note in the Aurora Nascent; chap, 8. no, 78 ] is the continual discovery of the thing: now, all that is eternal; and such is the base of the internal element which the anger has rendered substantial, in such manner that it became visible and seizable. Lucifer, with his legions, has awakened this anger; that is why he has remained also henceforth a prince in the anger, in the kindled element 5 which makes that, according to this manner of being, the Christ calls him a prince of this world. ( John. 12 : 3i. ) 43. But the element remains hidden to the anger and to the harshness; it resides in paradise, and nevertheless the anger goes forth from the element: that is why God has enclosed the demons in the anger by the element. He contains them by the element: now, the anger cannot attain the element, as the fire attains not the light, for the light is neither hot, nor cold 5 but the anger is hot: nevertheless the one contains the other, and the one begets the other.
343. Remark here: Adam had been created of the element, or of the attraction of the heart of God, which is the will of the father, and in the element is the virgin of the divine power, or the Sophia. The external régime, which, in the inflaming, divided itself into four parts, would indeed have possessed her in itself 5 that is to say, the anger of the demon would indeed have dwelt in the heart of God, and ruled above it, and opened there a centre. It is what fH. 14. ( 269 ) the anger could not do without the light, for each centre is begotten and opened by the inflaming of the light; also the anger would indeed rule over the sweetness. That is why God has let the sun break forth, so that it has opened four centres or issues of the element. 44. When the light of the sun contemplated itself in the choleric astringency, then the astringency became limpid and sweet as the water. The anger in the flash of fire was extinguished by the water, so that the anger remained at rest. The will nevertheless could not repose itself; but it passed, from the water, into the mother and put itself in activity, which is the air: now, what the anger had drawn to itself, was cast by the element into the water, as thou seest that the earth swims in the water. 45. Thus the wicked child is in anguish after the mother; it would indeed be in the mother, in the element, and cannot perceive it. But in Adam it has perceived the element; that is why the four elements have drawn Adam to them, and they persuaded themselves that they had the mother, since the virgin SOPHIA let herself thus be seen then in the living spirit of Adam.
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.