Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition
Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici
Treatises on the True Salt and the Universal Spirit of the World
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English Page · Branch 45 of 251
Book One · Chapter 3
French
1621 pp. 23–25 · scans FR043, FR044, FR045La preuve de cela se monstre en l'or, qui estant le plus net & depuré de tous les corps terrestres, participe le plus de cette chaleur & feu celestiel, qui perçant la terre trouve aux minieres les matieres de l'or predisposees; à sçavoir son Mercure, & son soufre, (qu'Esdras appelle poudre) preparees selon le pouvoir de l'action & diligence de nature, par depuration & separation de toutes ordures & feculences terrestres pleines d'adustion. Lesquelles matieres sont au commencement un sperme ou une eau meslee avec cette poudre ou soufre tres-pur, qui peu à peu aydez d'une propre vertu coagulante s'espoissit & endurcit par la longue action d'une chaleur continue. Tant qu'elle est à la fin conduite à sa perfection, qui est simple en nature, & teinte d'une couleur ignee: car veritablement la chaleur est mere des teintures. S'il est donc tenu pour certain que cette chaleur vient du Soleil, qui sera celuy tant ennemy de verité & de raison qui veuille debatre que le Soleil ne soit autheur & pere de perfection? eslevons nous donc un peu plus haut, & recherchons exactement comment cela se peut faire.
Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici: Book One · Chapter 3
1621 pp. 23–25 · scans FR043, FR044, FR045The proof of this is shown in gold, which, being the cleanest and most purified of all terrestrial bodies, shares most in this celestial heat and fire. Piercing the earth, the fire finds in the mines the predisposed materials of gold, namely its mercury and sulphur—which Esdras calls powder—prepared, as far as Nature’s action and diligence can achieve, by purification and the separation of all earthly filth and dregs full of scorched impurity. At the beginning these materials are a seed-fluid, or a water mixed with this most pure powder or sulphur. Little by little, aided by an inherent coagulating power, it thickens and hardens under the prolonged action of continuous heat, until at last it is brought to its perfection, simple in nature and tinged with a fiery colour; for heat is truly the mother of tinctures. If, then, it is held certain that this heat comes from the sun, who will be so hostile to truth and reason as to dispute that the sun is the author and father of perfection? Let us therefore rise a little higher and investigate precisely how this can take place.
Socrates
Reading Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici · Book One · Chapter 3 · Book One · Chapter 3 · Unit 3
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
The complete French text of 1621 with a new English translation, all three books, preliminary texts, nine concluding sonnets, original errata, 299 annotations and the complete supplied study apparatus.
Historical Text and Translation
Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement, Traittez de l’harmonie et constitution generalle du vray sel, secret des Philosophes, & de l’Esprit universelle du Monde. Paris: Jérémie Périer and Abdias Buisard, 1621. The governing witness is the BnF/Gallica reproduction, ark:/12148/bpt6k656273. The reproduced privilege is dated 6 November 1620; the separate eighty-page Poème philosophic of 1620 is outside this edition.
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This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.
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The historical text printed in 1621 is in the public domain. The supplied 2026 French reading text, new English translation, introduction, notes and complete study apparatus are published with the site owner’s authorization.
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