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.
164. De là maintenant vient l'angoisse , de façon que la volonté est enfermée dans les ténèbres» Uattirement de la volonté fait la niobilité, et la mobilité fait Tascension de la volonté hors des ténèbres j ' en un mot l'ascension est la première essence ', car elle s'engendre dans Vattract^ et elle est elleDiême Vattract, Or , la volonté ne paut pas no a plus souffrir Vattirement -, car cela la rend ténébreuse par l'essence attirée, que la volonté saisit^ et à laquelle elle résiste : cette résistance est le mobilisant ^ et le mobilisant fait , dans ce qui est attiré y une séparation ou une brisure ; car il partage. L'astringence ne peut pas non plus souffrir cela dans l'attract; l'angoisse devient plus grande dans la volonté, et Taltract aussi plus grand pour retenir le mobilisant ; et quand le mobilisant est ainsi fortement attiré et retenu par l'astringent attirant , il se pique lui-même ; il devient aigu 5. il perce dans l'angoisse astringente : alors l'astrin» gence tire encore plus fort à soi. Ainsi l'aiguilloii devient si grand dans l'angoisse j que la volonté te. 14. ( 279 } monte dans un horrible effroi , et forme le projet de s'envoler hors des ténèbres.
265. Ici s'ori^inise l'éternelle base affective , de façon que la volonté Veut passer d'une source dans une autre source , celle de la douceur. Là s*originise aussi l'éternelle qualité dans l'angoisse ; c'est l'éterjiel ver qui s'engendre lui-même et qui aussi se ronge ; il vit en soi-même dans sa propre colère ^ dans les ténèbres qu'il produit lui-même. Enfin là aussi s'originise l'éternelle int/iialification ou imprégnation 5 passé quoi ^ il n'y a plus rien à chercher ; car il n'j a rien de plus profond ou d'antérieur. Cela s'opère toujoufs soi-même de toute éternité , et n'a aucun fabrifcàtèur ni créateur ; et ce n'est pas Dieu , mais c'est l'originelle âpreté de Dieu , l'éternelle angoisse , engendrant en soi et aussi dévorant en soi , et cependant ne consumant rien j et n'augmentant , ni ne diminuant. 66. Or, si maintenant réternellevolontéquiestdind engendrée de toute éternité dans l'angoisse , conçoit une affection pour quelqu'autré chose, afin d'éviter l'âprelé et de s'élever dans la douCeur /cela cependant ne peut venir autrement que d'elle-même. Ainsi l'ame engeiidre àé nouveau une volonté de vivre dans la douceur 5 et la source de cette volonté s'élève de la première volonté 5 de l'âme ângoisseusé ; de l'astringence ténébreuse , qui , dans le mouvement , fait une roue brisante. Là donc la volonté reconçue s'envisage dans la roue brisante, dans la grande angoisse, dans l'ame éternelle, chercbant ùil Uéu où il y ait quelque chose c^ùi existe ( 2^ ) CH. Ï4,
3dans Ja douceur 5 et ce même coup d'œil dans la roue angoisseuse et brisante, est un éclair d'une grande volubilité que l'angoisse aiguise ainsi dans Taslringence , de façon que l'aigu de l'éclair est consumant, et c'est là l'éclair de feu, comme cela so voit dans la nalure. Ainsi une substance dure passe au tjavers d'une autre en s'aiguisant, et engendre un éclair de feu qui n'existoit pas auparavant. Or la base affective reconçue saisit l'éclair, et regarde maintenant dans l'astringence , et l'éclair par son aigu colérique consume l'astringence compactée qui le retient prisonnier dans les ténèbres ; eutendez la volonté qui est dans la base affective , et qui maintenant est délivrée des ténèbres. 67. Ainsi l'astringence reçoit l'éclair , et recule dans sa terreur , comme étant soumise ; elle devient douce par la terreur 5 dans cette douceur l'éclair s& déploie comme étant dans sa propre mère 5 et par l'effet de celte douceur il devient blanc et clair ^ il arrive de nouveau une surprise dans l'éclair à causa de la douceur , et c'est l'expansion d'une grand© joie 5 dans laquelle la volonté est délivrée des té« iièbres. 68. Ainsi l'ame éternelle s'unit à la volontéreconcue dans la douceur d'être délivrée des ténèbres de l'angoisse 5 Paigu du brisement des éternelles ténèbres demeure dans l'éclair de la douceur ; et l'éclair so déploie dans l'ame angoisseuse , en plusieurs mille fois mille ; oui , sans fin et sans nombre r or, dans ce même éclair , existe toujours de nouveau la volonté et l'ardente inclination do sortir des ténèbres. CH. i4. ( 281 ) Car là , dans chaque volonté , se trouve de nouveau l'éclair pour produire une ouverture j ce que j'appelle le centre dans mes écrits et dans tout le cours de ce livre.
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.
164. Thence now comes the anguish, so that the will is enclosed in the darkness. The attraction of the will makes the mobility, and the mobility makes the ascension of the will out of the darknesses; in a word the ascension is the first essence, for it begets itself in the attract, and it is itself the attract. Now, the will cannot either suffer the attraction; for that renders it tenebrous by the attracted essence, which the will seizes, and to which it resists: this resistance is the mobilising, and the mobilising makes, in what is attracted, a separation or a breaking; for it divides. The astringency cannot either suffer that in the attract; the anguish becomes greater in the will, and the attract also greater to retain the mobilising; and when the mobilising is thus strongly attracted and retained by the astringent attracting, it pricks itself; it becomes sharp 5. it pierces into the astringent anguish: then the astringency draws yet more strongly to itself. Thus the sting becomes so great in the anguish, that the will te. 14. ( 279 } mounts in a horrible fright, and forms the project of flying away out of the darknesses.
265. Here originises the eternal affective base, so that the will will pass from one source into another source, that of the sweetness. There originises also the eternal quality in the anguish; it is the eternal worm which begets itself and which also gnaws itself; it lives in itself in its own anger, in the darknesses which it produces itself. Finally there also originises the eternal inqualification or impregnation 5 beyond which, there is nothing more to seek; for there is nothing deeper or anterior. That operates itself always from all eternity, and has no fabricator nor creator; and it is not God, but it is the original harshness of God, the eternal anguish, begetting in itself and also devouring in itself, and nevertheless consuming nothing; and neither augmenting, nor diminishing. 66. Now, if now the eternal will which is thus begotten from all eternity in the anguish, conceives an affection for some other thing, in order to avoid the harshness and to rise into the sweetness; that nevertheless cannot come otherwise than from itself. Thus the soul begets anew a will to live in the sweetness 5 and the source of this will rises from the first will 5 from the anguishing soul; from the tenebrous astringency, which, in the movement, makes a breaking wheel. There then the reconceived will envisages itself in the breaking wheel, in the great anguish, in the eternal soul, seeking a place where there may be something which exists ( 2^ ) CH. Ï4,
3in the sweetness 5 and this same glance into the anguishing and breaking wheel, is a flash of a great volubility which the anguish sharpens thus in the astringency, so that the sharp of the flash is consuming, and that is the flash of fire, as this is seen in nature. Thus a hard substance passes through another in sharpening itself, and begets a flash of fire which existed not before. Now the reconceived affective base seizes the flash, and looks now into the astringency, and the flash by its choleric sharp consumes the compacted astringency which retains it prisoner in the darknesses; understand the will which is in the affective base, and which now is delivered from the darknesses. 67. Thus the astringency receives the flash, and recoils in its terror, as being subjected; it becomes sweet by the terror 5 in this sweetness the flash deploys itself as being in its own mother 5 and by the effect of this sweetness it becomes white and clear; there happens anew a surprise in the flash because of the sweetness, and it is the expansion of a great joy 5 in which the will is delivered from the darknesses. 68. Thus the eternal soul unites itself to the will reconceived in the sweetness of being delivered from the darknesses of the anguish 5 the sharp of the breaking of the eternal darknesses dwells in the flash of the sweetness; and the flash deploys itself in the anguishing soul, into several thousand times a thousand; yes, without end and without number; now, in this same flash, exists always anew the will and the ardent inclination to go forth from the darknesses. CH. i4. ( 281 ) For there, in each will, is found anew the flash to produce an opening; which I call the centre in my writings and in all the course of this book.
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.