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Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition

Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement

Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici

Treatises on the True Salt and the Universal Spirit of the World

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Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi PhilosophiciBook One · Chapter 8

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French Page · Branch 69 of 251

Book One · Chapter 8

French

1621 pp. 55–56 · scans FR075, FR076

Le goust seul donne suffisante preuve qu'elles sont salees à la verité, car rien n'est sans sel que ce qui est sans goust. Et mesme on en tire du sel duquel se fait le verre, comme de la fougiere, du salicot ou soulde, & de force autres choses. Quelqu'un pourroit donc objecter que ce seroit le Sel & non le verre qui seroit cause de la dureté des os, coques, & coquilles des animaux & vegetaux que je viens d'alleguer. A quoy je respondray que l'experience y repugne, & la raison aussi: en ce que tout sel se fond & dissoult par la moindre humidité de l'air ou de l'eau qu'ils reçoivent; & toutes les choses susdites y resistent; selon le plus ou le moins qu'elles ont esté endurcies par cette vertu vitrifiante, pour derniere preuve de quoy je representeray icy les diaments, les pierres precieuses, & les cristaux, qui ne sont rien plus que verres elabourez à telle perfection dans la fournaise de l'ingenieuse Nature. Et que toutes ces choses soient condensees par l'humeur du Mercure, cela est si manifeste qu'il n'est besoin en donner autre tesmoignage que l'experience commune.

1621 pp. 55–56 · scans FR075, FR076

Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici: Book One · Chapter 8

1621 pp. 55–56 · scans FR075, FR076

Taste alone gives sufficient proof that they are indeed salted, for nothing is without salt except what is without taste. Salt is even extracted from them to make glass, as from fern, glasswort or soda, and many other things. Someone might therefore object that salt, rather than glass, causes the hardness of the bones, husks and shells of the animals and plants I have just cited. I shall answer that experience contradicts this, as does reason: every salt melts and dissolves through the slightest moisture it receives from air or water, whereas all the things mentioned resist it according to the degree to which they have been hardened by this vitrifying power. As final proof, I shall present diamonds, precious stones and crystals, which are nothing more than glasses worked to such perfection in ingenious Nature’s furnace. That all these things are condensed by the moisture of Mercury is so manifest that no testimony beyond common experience is needed.

1621 pp. 55–56 · scans FR075, FR076

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.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

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.