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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.
152. Car la vierge ou sopmie m'a fidèlement promis de ne point m'abandonner, dans aucun besoin ; elle veut venir à mon secours dans le fils de la vierge ; il faut seulement que je m'attache à lui , il saura bien me ramener à elle dans le paradis : c'est où je veux entreprendre d'aller , au travers des ronces et des épines , au travers de toutes sortes de dédains et de mépris qui peu veut m'assaillir , jusqu'à ce que je retrouve ma patrie , d'où mon ame estjémigréejct où ma chère vierge Sophie demeure. Je me repose sur sa fidelle promesse , lorsqu'elle m'apparut , me disant qu'elle vouloit convertir en de grandes joies toutes mes tristesses : et lorsque j'étois sur la montagne vers le nord , que tous les arbres tombèrent sur moi,'que tous les vents orageux m'assaillirent, et que l'antechrist ouvrit sa gueule devant moi pour me dévorer, elle vint à moi pour me rassurer et se marier avec moi. 53. C'est pourquoi maintenant je suis dispos ; et je n'ai rien à démêler avec l'antechrist ; sa domination sur moi ne s'étend que sur la maison du péché dont il est le patron ; il peut à tout moment la prendre; alors j'entre dans mon pajs natal. Cependant il n'est pas entièrement le maître dans son empire; mais il est un singe de Dieu. De même qu'un singe quand il est rassasié ^ représente toute espèce de C^. i4. ( 373 ) bouffonneries , pour se réjouir , et Voiuîroît voîon* tiers passer pour être le phis beau et le plus adroit des animaux; de même aussi en est-il de laiitechrit. ÎSa puissance est suspendue au grand arbre de ce monde, et une bourasque de vent peut la soufller,:
254. Ayant donc montré maintenant au lecteur comment le vrai élément se trouve caché dans les élémens externes enllammés , ayant offert par là un appui à ce lecteur, afin qu il sache ce qu'il est, et qu'il ne se décourage pas dans une si importante manifestation, je vais poursuivre mon entretienavec les élémens , le soleil et les étoiles , qui présentent enir'eux un continuel combat et un continuel triomphe , dans lequel l'enfant est fig,iré dans le sein de la mère ; et , j'ajoute ceci pour le lecteur, que réellement le vrai éléuient.est cacîié dans Tintérieur en l'homme , et qu'il est la précieuse cas.celie de Tame si elle est fidèle et s'incline vers Dieu. 55. Lors donc qu'ici le cœur de l'enfant, son foie ses poumons , sa vessie , son estomac, son esprit ' ensemble avec tous les autres membres sont ainsi merveilleusement figurés dans le corps de la mère par les astres et les élémens , alors s'élève la région ou le régime qui forme complètement tout ce%ii manque encore j et maintenant il nous faut réfléchir sérieusement sur l'origine du langage , sur la base aflective,et les pensées: ce en quoi Ihomme est l'image et la ressemblance de Dieu et en quoi consista la noble connoissancedes troisprincipes. 56. Car , l'ascension de la vie , dans le sein de la mère, que nous avons représentée ci -dessus est I- 18 ( 274 ) ^' H**^
3aussi la loi de chaque animal ; il prend également aussi son ascension dans le sein de la mère : son esprit vit aussi dans les étoiles et les élémens. Ils tiennent leur voir de l'éclat d^i soleil , et en cela il n'y a aucune différence entre l'homme et la bête 5 car uiifi bêle mange et boit, odore , entend, voit et sent aussi bien que l'homme ; et cependant il n'y a en elle d'intelligence que pour se nourrir et se propager. Nous devons en ceci aller plus loin, et voir ce que c'est que l'image de Dieu , que Dieu a tant aimée qu'il a tourné vers elle son cœup et son fils , et l'a laissé devenir homme , afin qu'il aidât de nouveau l'homme après la chute 5 qu'il le délivrât et qu'il le rachetât de cette gênération bestiale , et le ramenât dans le paradis , dans la région céleste. 57. Ainsi nous devons voir, d'après le principe,' comment non-seulement un homme bestial a été figuré avec des qualifications bestiales , mais aussi un homme céleste , et une image de Dieu , pour la gloire et les merveilles de Dieu : ce qui a fait qu'il a élevé l'homme à un si haut degré , afin qu'il eût une éternelle ressemblance et image de sa substance ; car c'est pour cette fois qu'il s'est manifesté dans le ciel et sur la terre ; qu'il a produit quelques créatures en qualité d'esprits éternels, intelligens et raisonnables , pour vivre dans sa puissance etdans sa gloire ; et quelques autres en figures, de façon que quand leur esprit passe , et va darg l'Ether , les esprits qui sont éternels ont là leur joie cl leur récréation. <îH. i4. ( 275 )
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.
152. For the virgin or Sophia has faithfully promised me not to abandon me, in any need; she will come to my succour in the son of the virgin; I have only to attach myself to him, he will know well how to bring me back to her in paradise: it is thither that I will undertake to go, through the brambles and the thorns, through all sorts of disdains and contempts that can assail me, until I find again my country, whence my soul is emigrated, and where my dear virgin Sophia dwells. I repose upon her faithful promise, when she appeared to me, saying to me that she would convert into great joys all my sadnesses: and when I was upon the mountain toward the north, when all the trees fell upon me, when all the stormy winds assailed me, and when the antichrist opened his jaws before me to devour me, she came to me to reassure me and to marry herself with me. 53. That is why now I am ready; and I have nothing to unravel with the antichrist; his domination over me extends only to the house of sin whereof he is the patron; he may at any moment take it; then I enter into my native country. Nevertheless he is not entirely the master in his empire; but he is an ape of God. Even as an ape when he is satiated, represents every species of C^. i4. ( 373 ) buffooneries, to rejoice himself, and would willingly pass for being the fairest and the most adroit of the animals; so also is it with the antichrist. His power is suspended to the great tree of this world, and a squall of wind can blow it away:
254. Having then shown now to the reader how the true element is found hidden in the external kindled elements, having offered thereby a support to this reader, so that he may know what he is, and that he be not discouraged in so important a manifestation, I will pursue my conversation with the elements, the sun and the stars, which present between them a continual combat and a continual triumph, in which the child is figured in the bosom of the mother; and, I add this for the reader, that really the true element is hidden in the interior in man, and that it is the precious casket of the soul if it be faithful and inclines itself toward God. 55. When then here the heart of the child, its liver, its lungs, its bladder, its stomach, its spirit together with all the other members are thus marvellously figured in the body of the mother by the stars and the elements, then rises the region or the régime which forms completely all that is yet wanting; and now we must reflect seriously upon the origin of language, upon the affective base, and the thoughts: wherein man is the image and the resemblance of God and wherein consists the noble knowledge of the three principles. 56. For, the ascension of the life, in the bosom of the mother, which we have represented above is I- 18 ( 274 ) ^' H**^
3also the law of each animal; it takes equally also its ascension in the bosom of the mother: its spirit lives also in the stars and the elements. They hold their seeing of the brightness of the sun, and in that there is no difference between man and the beast 5 for a beast eats and drinks, smells, hears, sees and feels as well as man; and nevertheless there is in it no intelligence but to nourish itself and to propagate itself. We must in this go further, and see what the image of God is, which God has so loved that he has turned toward it his heart and his son, and has let him become man, so that he might aid anew man after the fall 5 that he might deliver him and that he might redeem him from this bestial generation, and bring him back into paradise, into the celestial region. 57. Thus we must see, according to the principle, how not only a bestial man has been figured with bestial qualifications, but also a celestial man, and an image of God, for the glory and the marvels of God: which has made that he has raised man to so high a degree, so that he might have an eternal resemblance and image of his substance; for it is for this once that he has manifested himself in heaven and upon earth; that he has produced some creatures in quality of eternal spirits, intelligent and reasonable, to live in his power and in his glory; and some others in figures, so that when their spirit passes, and goes into the Ether, the spirits which are eternal have there their joy and their recreation. <îH. i4. ( 275 )
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.