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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16. And then God the Lord, through the spirit of this world, made them clothes of the skins of beasts, and put those on them through the spirit of this world, that they might see, that (according to this [outward] world) they were beasts ; and [he] taught them how they should seek the wonders, in the spirit of this world, and manifest them, and clothe themselves out of the wonders. 7. And here it may be seen very perfectly, that man in this world is not at home, but he is come into it as a guest, and hath not brought the clothes of this world with him, (as all other creatures that are at home therein do), but must borrow clothing 4 Or from the from the 4 children of the stars and elements, and creatures of the four must cover himself with strange clothing, which elements. he brought not along with him when he entered into the spirit of this world, with which he strutteth like a proud bride, and sheweth himself, supposing that he is very fine and brave in it ; and yet it is but borrowed from the spirit of this world, which Ch. 20] ADAM AND EVE'S GOING OUT OF PARADISE 505 in its due time taketh it away again, and lendeth it him but for a while, and then consumeth it again. 8. And this is done to the end (because the spirit of this world continually seeketh the noble virgin of the divine wisdom, and knoweth that she is in man) that man should seek the great wonders

2that are in l it, and bring them to light : l It still » the spirit of supposeth, that it shall through man bring the noble tincture to light, that the paradise might appear, and that *it might be freed from vanity. 9. For the holy element continually Mongeth "Orlaboureth. [or groaneth] through the four elements, to be released from the vanity of the four elements ; in like manner also the qualifying [or influence] of the grim [constellations or] stars [laboureth] ; and therefore it driveth man to seek such wonderful forms [or ways], that the eternal wonders of God might be 3 manifested, which (in the breaking of'Ordisthe world) shall stand all (in the 4 figure) in the4figureof shadow. the world10. Therefore all arts and sciences [or trades] are (through the starry spirit of this world) from God, 6 manifested in man, that they may appear in 5 Or brought wonders ; and to that end God created this world, that his wonders might be made 6 manifest ; and 6 Or known. therefore God permitted that man is entered into the spirit of this world, that he might manifest his wonders through him. Yet he desireth also that 7 he should not misuse this world, but that he7 man. 506 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 20 should go again out of this world into him ; he desireth that man should be where he is. And therefore he instantly shewed Adam and Eve their 1 the clothing monstrous form, by the 1 bestial clothing which he of the skins J . & .

3of beasts. put on them, per spiritum majoms mundi [by the spirit of the great world]. 11. But now if Adam had continued in paradise, he would have been able to manifest the wonders much better, for they would have been much nearer to the form of angels, and such great sins and abominations had not been brought to effect 2 many arts with 2 many, as is usually done now. and sciences, . . - , . r „ or trades. 12. But the spirit of the gnmness [or fierceness J in the eternal source [or working property] would also be manifested, and open its wonders ; of which much may not be written, for it is a Mysterium [Mystery or hidden secret] that belongeth not to us to open, though indeed we have the knowledge of it ; let it stay till the time of the lily, wherein then the rose will blossom, and then the thorns (in Babel] will not prick us. 3 Or snares of 13. When the 3 chains of the driver are broken, the hunter. , 11-1 and the thorny bush is burnt, then one may go more safely by the thorns of the burner ; and then this Mysterium [or hidden secret] may well stand in the light ; for it is great and wonderful, and reacheth into the gate of the Father. 14. The rose-branch in the wonders will understand us well ; but Babel is not worthy of it. She seeketh nothing but the thorns, and loveth to strike Ch. 20] ADAM AND EVfi's GOING OUT OF PARADISE 507 with them ; therefore we will give the l driver no J hunter or cause [to do so], but rather Met these Mysteries o^F"

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