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The Law, the Letters and the Book of Nature

represented and painted, no one could ever have understood it without being well skilled in their Kabbalah, passed down by tradition, and without having closely studied their books. The fourth and fifth leaves therefore had no writing, but were filled with beautiful illuminated figures—or apparently illuminated, for the workmanship was exquisite. First he painted a young man with wings at his ankles, holding a caduceus entwined with two serpents and striking with it a helmet covering his head. To my limited judgement, he seemed to be Mercury, the pagan god. Towards him came running and flying, with open wings, a great old man with an hourglass fastened on his head, holding a hook or scythe like Death’s, with which he meant, terribly and furiously, to cut off Mercury’s feet. On the other side of the fourth leaf he painted a beautiful flower on the summit of a very high mountain, violently shaken by the north wind. Its root was blue, its flowers white and red, its leaves shining like fine gold. Around it the dragons and griffins of the north made their nests. On the fifth leaf was a beautiful flowering rosebush in the midst

of a sweet garden, climbing against a hollow oak. At its foot boiled a fountain of the whitest water, which rushed down into the depths, though first it passed through the hands of countless people digging in the earth to seek it. Because they were blind, none recognised it, except an occasional person who considered its weight. On the last side of the fifth leaf was painted a king with a great falchion, who ordered his soldiers to kill before him a great multitude of little infants. Their mothers wept at the merciless soldiers’ feet. Other soldiers then gathered the infants’ blood and put it into a great vessel, where the sun and moon came to bathe. Thus you see what was on the first five leaves. I shall not show you what was written in good, intelligible Latin on all the other written leaves, for God would punish me: I should commit a greater wickedness than the man who reportedly wished that all the world’s people had a single head, so that he might strike it off at one blow.” So far Nicolas Flamel.

I could now pass from Moses to Christ, from the Old Testament to the New, not to interpret it myself, but to ask the enlightened for its meaning. I desire to know what my Saviour means by the key of knowledge, which the lawyers, as he tells both me and them, had taken away. Surely it cannot mean the Law itself, for that was not removed: it was read in the synagogue every Sabbath. But let that pass. I am certain, and could prove throughout his life from birth to Passion, that Christ Jesus’s doctrine both agrees with Nature’s laws and is verified and established by them. By Nature’s laws I do not mean her excessive, irregular appetites and inclinations, to which she has been subject since her corruption. Even Galen regarded those deviations as diseases and studied Nature herself as their cure. Experience teaches us that too much of anything weakens and destroys our nature. If we live temperately and according to law, we are well, because our way of life accords with Nature. Diet is therefore a principal rule in medicine, far better indeed than the pharmacopoeia: those slovenly prescriptions merely oppress the stomach and provide no suitable fuel for a celestial fire. Believe, then, that these excessive, beastly appetites arose from our Fall, for Nature

herself is no extravagant, insatiable glutton, but a most refined, delicate essence. The fits and pangs she suffers whenever overloaded make this clear. Everyone knows this truth through experience of ordinary, habitual excess. In spiritual sins, indeed, the body is not immediately troubled, but the conscience is terrified; and surely the body cannot be very well when the soul itself is sick. We see, then, that corruption and sin disturb us more than they suit us. In what sense can our enemies be our friends, or things that destroy Nature agree with Nature? How, then, shall we judge the Gospel? Shall we say that humanity’s preservation is contrary to humanity, or that the doctrine of life disagrees with life itself? God forbid. Resurrection’s laws are founded on creation’s laws, and regeneration’s on generation’s: in all these God works upon the same matter through the same Spirit. I shall prove this harmony between Nature and the Gospel from the Chinese monument of Kim Cim, priest of Judaea. In the year of Redemption 1625, a square stone was dug up in a Chinese village called Sanxuen. It was nearly ten handbreadths long,

and five broad. At its top was a cross; below, an inscription in Chinese characters giving the monument’s title, which I find rendered into Latin as follows.

[New translation of the Latin:] A stone erected in praise and everlasting remembrance of the Law of Light and Truth, brought from Judaea and proclaimed in China.

[Vaughan’s English:] A stone erected in praise and eternal remembrance of the Law of Light and Truth, brought out of Judaea and published in China. After this followed the main inscription, relating how Olo Puen brought Christ Jesus’s Gospel from Judaea and, with God’s assistance, afterwards planted it in China. This happened in the year of our Lord 636. Kim Cim, this history’s author, begins by speaking mysteriously of creation. He then mentions 365 kinds of sectarians who succeeded one another, all striving to win the most converts. He recounts some of their vain opinions, which certainly agree with the rudiments and vagaries of pagan

philosophers. Lastly, he describes Christianity’s professors, their way of life and the excellence of their law. [New translation of the Latin:] “It is difficult to find a fitting name for it, since its effect is to illuminate and flood everything with brightness. It was therefore necessary to call it Kim Ki Ao, that is, the bright and great law.” [Vaughan’s English:] It is hard to find a suitable name for their law, since its effect is to illuminate and fill everything with knowledge. It was therefore necessary to call it Kim Ki Ao: the great Law of Light. Briefly, Tai Cum Veu Huamti, king of China, admitted Olo Puen to court. The king himself thoroughly investigated, examined and sifted his doctrine; finding it most true and solid, he ordered it proclaimed throughout his dominions. His proclamation’s words readily show both the doctrine’s foundation and his estimate of it and its professor. First, mentioning Olo Puen, he calls him [New translation of the Latin:] “a man of great virtue.” [Vaughan’s English:] a man of great virtue or power. Apparently he did more than chatter and preach: like the apostles, he could confirm his doctrine by works as well as words. Second, speaking of the doctrine, the proclamation

runs as follows. [New translation of the Latin:] “Examining his teaching’s purpose from its foundations, we have found his doctrine most excellent, free from outward clamour, and principally founded upon the world’s creation.” [Vaughan’s English:] We have examined his teaching’s aim from its very foundations and find his doctrine most excellent, without worldly noise, and principally grounded upon the world’s creation. Again in the same place: [New translation of the Latin:] “His doctrine is not wordy, nor does it establish its truth merely on the surface.” [Vaughan’s English:] His doctrine uses few words, without noise and notions; nor does he build his truth upon superficial probabilities. Thus we see that the first apostles and teachers proved and demonstrated Christ Jesus’s Incarnation and birth from the world’s creation: matters the ordinary philosopher finds fabulous and impossible, though they are plain, evident truths in Nature’s book. In place of such teachers, however, we have two epidemic goblins today: a schoolman and a so-called saint. One swells with syllogistic pride; the other wears Revelation’s brazen face. The first cannot tell me why grass is green; the second, despite all his devotion, does not know his alphabet, yet claims that infinite Spirit who knows all in all. Truly,

of the two, this last is worse. Surely the devil has been busy putting out the candle: had all written truths survived, this false learning and hypocrisy could never have prevailed. Kim Cim mentions twenty-seven books Christ Jesus left on earth to further the world’s conversion. We may possess none of them. Although the New Testament’s books number twenty-seven, all—or at least some—were written long after Christ and cannot readily pass for those scriptures this author attributes to our Saviour at his very Ascension. Why speak of the many books cited in the Old Testament but nowhere found? Were they extant today, no doubt they would be so many venerable, invincible champions of magic. But ink and paper will perish: the human hand has made nothing eternal. Truth alone is incorruptible; when the letter fails, she changes that body and lives in the spirit.

178.Mercury is the narrator’s tentative identification, explicitly limited by “my small judgement.” The old man’s scythe and hourglass invite a different association, but the passage does not itself name him.

179.The fourth and fifth leaves are said to bear images rather than writing. The prose description is complete here; the edition does not invent reproductions of the lost or alleged book.

180.The killing of infants is reported as an image painted in the book, followed by the sun and moon bathing in gathered blood. It is preserved in full as emblematic narrative, without turning it into a direction to harm actual persons.

181.The quoted narrator himself refuses to disclose the remaining written leaves. That refusal is historical source text, not an abridgement introduced by this edition.

182.Luke 11:52 supplies the “key of knowledge.” Vaughan asks what exceeds the public reading of the Law; his question opens a distinction between possession of words and access to their inward meaning.

183.Original marginal citation, rendered in modern English: Luke, chapter 11, verse 52.

184.Generation/regeneration and creation/resurrection form paired analogies. Vaughan argues from their shared matter and Spirit; he does not merely compare them as decorative metaphors.

185.The Chinese monument enters as a witness for the harmony of creation and Christian teaching. Its account reaches the reader through Vaughan’s Latin excerpts and English expansions, rather than a direct translation from Chinese.

186.The inscription’s Latin title has been translated independently. Its terms “law,” “light” and “truth” are central to Vaughan’s use of the monument as testimony.

187.The fresh Latin rendering preserves “brightness,” while Vaughan’s own English expands this into “knowledge.” Both are printed so that his interpretive choice remains visible.

188.The conclusion that Olo Puen confirmed doctrine by works is Vaughan’s inference from “a man of great virtue or power.” It is not itself contained in that short quoted formula.

189.Vaughan uses the proclamation as proof that Christian doctrine can be demonstrated from creation. The two Latin extracts and their English glosses show the evidence upon which he builds that claim.

190.The twenty-seven books produce Vaughan’s conjecture about a lost collection. He explicitly says “it may be”; the edition preserves the possibility as his speculation, not as a newly verified bibliography.

191.The passage’s conclusion returns to the spirit/letter distinction: written supports can perish while truth changes its dwelling. This also qualifies his reliance upon surviving monuments.