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← ExitThe Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

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The Two Natures of Natural Spirits

What gives knowledge of the two natures of natural spirits, good and evil genii.

Of all the [uncertain Greek word], or difficulties, that present themselves for us to resolve, those concerning the beatification of bodies and spirits, and those who must be condemned to eternal penalties, contain within themselves everything that can be said on this subject. But we must discuss the means or intermediaries by which they are made happy or overwhelmed with torments. All the holy doctors, the whole of nature, and art itself openly confirm and publicly acknowledge that bodies and souls will be glorified or damned. The Doctors teach us this, enlightened as they are concerning the mysteries of our indubitable faith; and nature and art show it to us, revealing the light that is the essence of spirit as in a very clear mirror. Let us enter this royal and Christian path, which leads us with sure steps to the explanation of the wonders of our true religion.

It is certain that the body can be made radiant: experience attests it, and nature agrees. That is, the body acquires certain qualities that nature grants to natural spirits, by means of which it reaches this radiance, as we shall explain when speaking of the resurrection of bodies.

A true Christian doubts still less that the souls of the just, washed in the blood of the Lamb, acquire for themselves and their bodies certain conditions: namely subtlety, brightness, agility, and impassibility, through which they can be blessed and made radiant. This is an unshakable point of faith that will endure eternally. Can anyone, I ask, possessing the least good sense, doubt that a body endowed with these glorious gifts enjoys every delight? Is there any obstacle to prevent it, given its subtlety and agility, from traversing even the most distant places and penetrating the most solid bodies without losing its qualities? Since this grace is granted, I do not say to all spirits, but to the shining rays of heavenly bodies and even to our glorious stone? Is it surprising, since they

are incorruptible, permanent, fixed, and luminous, and since the souls, together with their bodies, have become impassible and a thousand times more radiant with light, that they enjoy eternal pleasures and endless delights? The matter admits no doubt, and there is nothing to dispute about it.

What difficulty, then, is found in a body made spiritual and subtle, luminous and highly penetrating, being able to pass through doors, know them intimately and comprehend them, hear a person speaking, see him, encompass the place in which he is definitively present and be all around him? Or in its being able, without means—without speech, eyes, or ears—to impress the conceptions of its spirit? This commonly occurs in a luminous body, although deprived of sense and reason, whether by prodigy, wonder, or miracle: we see it receive and return the appearance of objects presented before a mirror without being spoiled or damaged. Certainly this is something that does not demand our reflection; nature shows it to us openly, and art can perform these sorts of wonders.

This is seen still more clearly in the preparation of our quintessence, which is not only the most exact image and symbol of the soul and glorified body, but Jesus Christ himself, insofar as there can be correspondences between Creator and creature, between the infinite and the finite.

It is certain that some bodies are more luminous, more fixed, and more penetrating than others; some are composed only of active elements, others of passive elements. Such are the stars and planets, composed of the subtle part of air or fire, which are active elements, and forming a unity with the airy and luminous body. These bodies cannot be altered, suffer, or become corrupted, and will remain incorruptible in this state until the day of the Last Judgment. The spirits of the quintessence—our spirit and our body—follow them closely, being gathered and collected from the most fixed and grossest essence of air and fire, together with the subtlest essence of water and earth. They form a unity with these essences, although seen mingled and scattered among these parts, from which it is very difficult to extract them. They nevertheless possess only the qualities of Heaven, which is as it were their first fashioner

always ready to act, because the elements occupy an intermediate place among created things. They have bodies that are hard, penetrating, fixed, and subtle, some more and some less than others. Thus, according to themselves and the nature of their functions and duties, they employ the active or passive elements to fulfill their obligations: the active are occupied with what is highest, and the passive with what is lowest.

From the dregs of the elements are also composed certain opaque, earthy, and dark bodies that stand below everything and are better fitted to suffer than to act. These are what some call terrors, shadows, and simulacra.

Within this elementary family, the chemical philosophers have called ‘body’ that which partakes of either kind of element, active or passive; which, because of the delicacy, purity, incorruptibility, and spirituality of its parts, shares greatly in the powers of spirits; and which, through its relations with opaque, heavy, corporeal, dense, and corruptible things, shares wholly in their nature and character,

because of their iniquity. This makes an intermediate thing partaking of infernal natures and spirits, and an image of the bodies of the damned. It openly shows us what we have to say on this subject. What is most worthy of wonder, and what I do not believe it forbidden to discuss, are the prodigies and marvels discovered in the vilest matter of all: I mean quicksilver. If we reflect upon it, we shall find the means that render Demons and human beings unjust and unhappy.

Is anything more unheard-of, anything to which one ought to give less credence, than seeing the possible joined to the impossible, the subtle to the heavy, the penetrable to the dense, and the luminous to the dark in one and the same subject and degree? In quicksilver, as in a just balance, the primary and secondary qualities of the elements are weighed. Volatility is at the ultimate degree of weight, just as light is wholly above opacity; and these two extremes, without loss or destruction of the contrary substances, through a certain agreement so harmonious—which to us

is almost unknown—form a single compound, the epitome and abridgment of all nature. It is a prodigy within nature herself and her most excellent work, which we can scarcely comprehend although it falls under our senses.

Let an ignorant person deny it, an impious person refute it, or a philosopher dispute it: it remains nature’s testimony. The natural philosophers submit to it; experience confirms it; and truth itself bears witness and explains more clearly than daylight everything orthodox faith proposes for our belief concerning the torments of the damned and the kinds and degrees of their penalties and punishments. Through it we perceive, as in a mirror clearer than daylight, that certain bodies of the damned acquire qualities wholly opposed to those of the just, which make them suffer eternal penalties and procure unending torments. The theologians name these qualities opacity, heaviness, density, and passibility. They encompass every kind of torment, penalty, and punishment, and make the punishments and penalties

complete or eternal—that is, never ending—because of their passibility and incorruptibility. Demons and human beings burdened with crimes will undergo an unhappy eternity of torments, all the more dreadful because their passibility, darkness, and density will have been joined with penetrability, subtlety, and darkening light. This aggravates and increases all these different kinds of torment, which will exceed even the miseries, pains, and penalties of the whole world, because the qualities receiving pain and suffering will be multiplied in them infinitely. Thus the opacity of the entire world, its density, and so forth, will be found in a single body of the damned, as we have said and shown in quicksilver.

This does not merit great attention. Let us now examine whether the opaque bodies of the damned can occupy a place definitively and circumscriptively, and try also to discover whether they possess the supreme, exceedingly weighty essence, subtlety, and agility. But what we wish to discover is beyond the reach of human beings

209.The Greek word is uncertain in the handwriting; the author immediately glosses it as ‘difficulties’. ‘Means or intermediaries’ renders moyens ou milieux, the agents through which happiness or torment is conferred.

210.The new section deliberately joins theological teaching with evidence said to come from nature and art. Its governing claim is that light constitutes the essence of spirit.

211.Clarifier and clarification are rendered ‘make radiant’ and ‘radiance’ in this section, where the stated comparison is with luminosity and the glorified body rather than filtration or clarification of a liquid.

212.The four named gifts are preserved separately. Here impassibility is the condition of not suffering; the following questions illustrate subtlety and agility through unhindered movement and penetration.

213.The argument continues the previous page’s question: incorruptibility and light are said to account for the uninterrupted delights of glorified bodies and souls.

214.The mirror is the author’s example of a body that receives and returns appearances without having sense or reason. The translation retains the unusual extension from passing through doors to knowing them, rather than silently assigning another object to the verbs.

215.The author expressly limits the analogy with Christ by distinguishing Creator from creature and infinite from finite. This qualification is part of the source, not an editorial reservation.

216.The quintessence is described through a particular combination of degrees: the more fixed and gross essence of air and fire with the most subtle essence of water and earth. These comparative terms are retained despite the following claim of celestial qualities.

217.The text ranks active and passive elements by their tasks and places, continuing its account of degrees within created nature.

218.The definition of ‘body’ is relational: it shares qualities both with spirits and with dense corruptible things. The French changes number between ce qui, ses parties, participent, and tiennent; the English makes the relative clauses agree while preserving the twofold definition.

219.Quicksilver becomes the principal example through which the author proposes to explain the unhappy condition of demons and unjust human beings.

220.The striking expression ‘volatility is at the ultimate degree of weight’ is retained. The text’s purpose is to unite apparent opposites in one subject, not to replace one quality with the other.

221.The sentence supplies ne font qu’un composé, ‘form a single compound’, after the interrupted construction on the preceding page. English keeps the same delayed completion.

222.Passibility is the capacity to suffer, explicitly opposed here to the impassibility of the just. Opacity, heaviness, and density likewise reverse the luminous, agile, and subtle qualities previously assigned to glorified bodies.

223.The paradox depends on joining opposed properties: incorruptibility prevents the sufferer’s destruction, while passibility permits suffering to continue. ‘Darkening light’ renders the unusual lumière ténébrante.

224.Définitivement and circonscriptivement distinguish ways of occupying place. Their technical adverbial forms are retained, since the next discussion tests how these modes apply to bodies and spirits.