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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Facing Pages · Branch 172 of 251
Book Two · Chapter 4
French
1621 pp. 267–268 · scans FR277, FR278Ce qui est naïvement exprimé par deux antiques vers Latins; que j’ay expliquez en ce quatrain: Si le fixe tu sçais dissoudre, Et le dissoult faire voller: Puis le vollant fixer en poudre, Tu as dequoy te consoler. Ce corps ainsi glorifié montera donc au Ciel sur les aisles de son esprit: puis en la mesme perfection qu’il y sera monté il redevalera en terre pour separer le bon du mauvais: pour conserver & vivifier l’un; pour tuer & consommer l’autre. C’est à sçavoir qu’en tous les corps où il entrera il en chassera l’impureté, amendant & conservant la pure substance d’iceux; car les reiterees solutions & fixations luy auront donné une force de penetrer les corps, dans lesquels autrement il n’auroit peu entrer. Il faut donc replonger le jeune Hermaphrodite & la delicate Salmacis dans la fontaine, afin qu’ils s’embrassent; & que Salmacis ravie de contentement puisse dire: Avienne qu’en aucun temps ce bel adolescent ne soit separé de moy, ny moy de luy; & qu’en mutuelle felicité amour perpetue nostre conjonction: ainsi nos deux corps n’auront qu’un cœur & une mesme face. Puis faire que l’Isle de Delle apparoisse immobile; portant Apollon & Diane que Latone y a enfantez. Fable qui ne veut nous apprendre autre chose sinon que l’on congele & fixe cette matiere dissoute, en laquelle sont contenus le Soleil & la Lune des Philosophes.
Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici: Book Two · Chapter 4
1621 pp. 267–268 · scans FR277, FR278This is naturally expressed in two ancient Latin verses, which I have explained in this quatrain: If you know how to dissolve the fixed, And make the dissolved take flight, Then fix the flying thing in powder, You have something to console you. The body thus glorified will therefore ascend into heaven on the wings of its spirit, then descend again to earth in the same perfection in which it rose, to separate good from bad: to preserve and quicken the one, to kill and consume the other. That is, it will drive impurity from every body it enters, improving and preserving their pure substance, for repeated solutions and fixations will have given it the power to penetrate bodies which it could not otherwise have entered. The young Hermaphrodite and delicate Salmacis must therefore be plunged again into the fountain so that they embrace, and Salmacis, transported with delight, may say: ‘May this beautiful youth never at any time be separated from me, nor I from him; and in mutual happiness may love perpetuate our conjunction, so that our two bodies have but one heart and one face.’ Then the island of Delos must be made to appear immovable, bearing Apollo and Diana, whom Latona bore there. This fable seeks to teach nothing other than that this dissolved matter, containing the philosophers’ Sun and Moon, is congealed and fixed.
Socrates
Reading Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici · Book Two · Chapter 4 · Book Two · Chapter 4 · Unit 24
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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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