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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128. And though the devil (in thy sins) saith it cannot be now, thou art too great a sinner ; let not anything terrify thee, he is a liar, and maketh thy mind fearful ; he maketh as if he were not present, but he is present, and snarleth like a mad dog ; and thou mayest know for certain, that all doubting whatsoever, that cometh into thy mind, is nothing else but his suggestions [and objections]. 29. For there are but two kingdoms that stir in thee ; the one is the kingdom of God, wherein Christ is, which desireth to have thee ; and the other is the kingdom of l hell, wherein the devil is, > Or of the which desireth also to have thee. Now there must wnuhofGod. be striving here in the poor soul, for it standeth in the midst. Christ offereth it the new garment, and the devil presenteth the garment of sin fulness TTw 674 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 24

2to it. And when thou hast but the least thought or inclination towards God [and goodness], that thou wouldst fain enter into true repentance, then truly that thought is not from thy own self, but the love of God doth draw thee, and invite thee ; and the noble virgin of God calleth thee thereby, and thou shouldst only come and not neglect it. And so truly when (in such a way) thy great sins come before thee, and hold thee back (so that thy heart many times receiveth no comfort) this is the devil's staying of thee, who casteth into thy thoughts, that God will not hear thee, thou art yet in too great sins, he will let no comfort come into thy soul, he layeth the sinful kingdom of this 1 comfort. world over * it ; but be not discouraged, he is thy enemy. It is written, If your sins were as red as blood, if you turn, they shall be as wool, white as snow : Also, As true as I live, I have no pleasure in the death of a poor sinner, but that he turn and live. 30. Thou must continue steadfast in this resolute purpose ; and though thou gettest no virtue [or strength] into thy heart, and though the devil also should beat down thy tongue, that thou couldst not pray to God, yet then thou shouldst desire and sigh to him, and continually hold and go on in this thought and purpose, with the Canaanitish woman ; the more thou pressest forward, the weaker the devil is ; thou must take the suffering, death and satisfaction of Jesus Christ before thee, and must

3Ch. 24] OF TRUE REPENTANCE 675 throw thy soul into his promise ; where he saith, My Father will give the Holy Ghost to them that ask him for -it. Also, Knock, and it shall be opened unto you; seek, and you shall find; ask, and you shall receive ; and the more earnestly thou pressest forth from the devil, and from thy sins, the more mightily doth the kingdom of God press into thee ; but have a care that thou dost not depart from this thy will, before thou hast received the jewel ; and though it hold off from morning till night, and still from day to day, [let not that discourage thee], if thy earnestness be great, then thy jewel will also be great which thou shalt receive * at thy overcoming. * Or in thy 31. For none knoweth what it is, but he that™ hath found it by experience. It is a most precious guest ; when it entereth into the soul, there is a very wonderful triumph there ; the bridegroom there embraceth his beloved bride, and the Hallelujah of paradise soundeth. 0 ! must not the earthly body needs tremble and shake at it ? and though it know not what it is, yet all its members do rejoice at it. 0 what beauteous knowledge doth the virgin of the divine wisdom bring with her ! She maketh learned indeed ; and though one were dumb, yet the soul would be crowned in God's works of wonder, and must speak of his wonders ; there is nothing in the soul but longing to do so; the devil must be gone, he is quite weary and faint.

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