Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

Gate passedSeeker and aboveModern transcription — not a facsimileJacob Boehme (1575–1624)PUBLIC DOMAIN as published. Boehme d. 1624; the Sparrow translation is 1656. Per-part determination MADE 2026-08-29: the eight front-matter segments carrying the 2009 electronic edition own introductory apparatus were withheld (three excised in full, five redacted in part where a public-domain title block or Boehme text shared the page). The remaining 5,022 segments are public domain and are open at seeker tier.905 of 1000 segments carry a modern register · 343 pp

Jacob Boehme — the works in English, and one in Frencheditor’s preface to the volume

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.

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123. It goeth very hard, when the [grain of] mustard-seed is sown, (for the devil oppose th strongly), but whosoever persevereth, findeth by experience what is written in this book. And although he cannot be rid of the unto ward ness of the incitements of the four elements, yet nevertheless the 8 in the pure noble seed in the *limbus of God continueth with element. him, which seed springeth and groweth, and at last becometh a tree, which the devil favoureth [or relisheth] not ; but he goeth about the tree like a fawning cur which pisseth against the tree ; and then by his servants he casteth all mishaps upon him ; and by his crew [of followers and conCh. 15] KNOWLEDGE OF THE ETERNITY 313 federates] he thrusteth many out of l his house, l out of this ,v,i j L- j-l T> ± ., earthly rotten that he may do him no more displeasure. But it tabernacle, goeth well with him [that feareth God], and he cometh into the land of the living. 24. Therefore we say now (according to our high knowledge), that the source [or active desire] of all the three Principles doth imprint itself together 2 with the child's incarnation [or becoming man], in 2 Or in. the mother's body. For after that man is figured [or shaped] from the stars and elements, by the Fiat, so that the elements have taken possession of their regions [kingdoms, or dominions] (viz. the heart, liver, lungs, bladder, and stomach, wherein

2they have their regions), then must the 3 artificer 3 Or worki • fi-ir • r- master, the in his twofold form rise up out of all essences ; Fiat. for there standeth now the image of God, and the image of this world, and there also is the image of the devil. Now there must be wrestling and overcoming, and there is need of the Treader upon the Serpent, even in the mother's [womb or] body. 25. Therefore, ye fathers and mothers, be honest and live in the fear of God, that the Treader upon the Serpent may also be in your fruit. For Christ saith, A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, and an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. And although this indeed is meant of the mind that is * brought up; which hath its own under- * Or cometh to ,. r _ _ act of itself. standing [or meaning], thus, that no false mind bringeth forth good fruit, nor any good mind evil 314 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 15 fruit ; yet it is effectually necessary for the children [that the parents be honest aud virtuous], because the child is generated from the essences of the parents. 26. And though it be clear that the stars in the outward birth [geuiture or operation] do alter the 1 operation, essences in every one according to their l source [quality, influence, or property], yet the element is still there, and they cannot alter that with their power, except man himself do it ; they have only the outward region ; and besides, the devil dare not

32 Or give Mm- 2 image [or imprint] himself, before the time of the self into the .. ,. ,~ .,.,. imagination, understanding, when man can incline himself to the evil or to the good. Yet none must presume upon this [impotency of the devil, and four elements], for if the parents be wicked, God can well forsake a wicked seed. For he willeth not that the Pearl should be cast before swine ; although he is very inclined to help all men, yet it is [effectual] but for those that turn to him ; and although the child is in innocency, yet the seed is not in innocency ; and therefore it hath need of the Treader upon the Serpent [or Saviour]. Therefore, ye parents, consider what ye do ; especially ye knaves and whores ; ye have a hard lesson [to learn] here, consider it well, it is no jesting matter, it shall be shewn you 3 in the book 3 in its place, that the heaven thundereth [and of Election , ... .. rn , , . f and Predtsti- passeth away with a noise]. Iruly the time ot the rose bringeth it forth, and it is high time to awake, for the sleep is at an end, there shall a great Ch. 15] KNOWLEDGE OF THE ETERNITY 315 1 rent be before the lily ; therefore let every one ' cleaving asunder, shaktake heed tO hlS Ways. ingandaltera27. If we now search into the life of man in the earthquake, mother's [womb or] body, concerning his virtue

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.

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Commentary

whole issue ·

Cross-estate[P-V]translated_asboehme:2:1:003

This English 'Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence' and boehme:11 are the same work in two languages — and the French is not just any translation. It is Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin's own: 'Des trois principes de l'essence divine', issued by the Périsse brothers of the rue Mercière. Saint-Martin learned German in his fifties expressly to read Boehme, and spent his last years translating him. The estate therefore holds, side by side, the text that formed the Unknown Philosopher and the form in which he gave it to France — the single most direct documentary link between the two founders of this corpus.

→ boehme:11