Diotimos Reading Desk

Tap the page, move to the top or bottom edge, swipe down, or press Tab to reveal reading controls. Use the arrow keys or swipe sideways to turn pages.

← ExitThe Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

Reading language

Lucretius Ovid and the Parts of the Human Being

God has made through his infinite wisdom as perfect and marvelous works; and whether Heaven or even the stars, as the royal prophet declares, will grow old, be changed, or become corrupted, since these works have merited their Creator’s approval and praise for their perfection. If we are permitted to say on these matters everything we have learned of what nature feels, what causes her cries, and finally what art itself forcibly expresses: not only all the elements but also the created species of plants, animals, and minerals do not die or become corrupted, because they enclose within themselves the seeds of immortality beneath the covering and envelopes of corruptible things. This is commonly acknowledged: these elements, like the heavens, will represent the image of their first fashioner, just as the celestial elements will represent some shadow of their divine Creator, and return to the source from which they came. Do not therefore believe that the same individuals of things which are

composed of corruptible beings can remain; for everything savoring of their dregs will be annihilated and entirely destroyed. Only the species of germinative spirit and the fixed matter of things under heaven in their own form will remain as it is, in a heavenly rather than earthly manner, no longer as they now are, resembling corruptible things, but like celestial bodies, incorruptible and glorified.

Let those who study optics contemplate all the planets seen from here below through their figure, not through a vegetative movement and in a sensible manner, but in the form of a radiant, fixed, incorruptible planet. This is what one of my friends, highly experienced in this art and having performed the experiment, assured me. I have seen it with my own eyes and tested it; and unless someone wishes to be deceived, I would have him know that the representation of planets as we possess it, whose rays shine on every side, composed of the sending

they perform of visible spirits, and of the reception of vitreous(?) species, does not represent the planet’s species at all, since it is perceived in heaven under the figure that is in the world.

We have discussed this in our Cabala of the Faith of Christians and Philosophers. Each species, therefore, of every animal, plant, or mineral will be renewed and glorified in the form of a luminous, incorruptible, fixed, spiritual body, so as to provide blessed spirits—or those who will be made perfectly blessed—with an accidental cause of their happiness. I say that those who admire God’s incomprehensible works will be filled and made happy by countless works of God; for each person must be made happy and blessed in the heavens through that which was used as an instrument for attaining the cause of glorification.

Moreover, the scholastic theologians declare that the separation of the good and the bad takes place in the universal conflagration of everything in general, just

as natural philosophers teach that the good must be separated from the bad, the pure from the impure, and the incorruptible from the corruptible, so that they may reach the height of their happiness and perfection. They teach, moreover, that everything impure and corruptible is cast into a lake of fire with the evil angels, and likewise maintain that everything pure, immortal, and incorruptible is gathered together with the principle of life and immortality to complete the felicity of blessed souls. Thus every soul will be renewed, and everything will feel the force and effect of this universal purification. It is a law established by God, confirmed by Jesus Christ, and proclaimed by art and nature. Since mortal humanity in its infirmity could not acquire the causes of glorification, a God made human was needed to scatter seeds of resurrection and glorification within our soul. Jesus Christ rose for our resurrection, not for his own.

If I did not fear the Day of Judgment, we

could explain these observations, so that, after dispelling the shadows of things that conceal such profound secrets from us, we could, through the penetrating power of our mind, better than with a lynx’s eyes, foresee and predict something of the future—or at least upon what foundations our faith in future things rests, or from what sources flow the proofs of the things we must believe will happen on that Last Day. We need to cover it presently, but beforehand there is between the birth, resurrection, and advent of Jesus Christ, and that which there is in the nativity, death, and making-radiant of physical things; and finally what relation the death, life, and resurrection of the sinner in metaphysics has with the aforesaid things.

Just as, in the birth of anything whatsoever, death—or, so to speak, corruption—precedes generation, so corruption or death precedes resurrection or,

so to speak, the final renewal and final glorification of things through the universal conflagration; for death or corruption, life or resurrection, have a similar definition. They are defined as the alteration and corruption of certain qualities, the overthrow or destruction of form and nature, and the introduction of a new one. A change takes place from a nobler form into the first, and from one less distinguished into the better, as we shall explain in its place.

Who, in the generation of Jesus Christ, which occurred without corruption, does not perceive the change of the Word’s most noble and perfect nature into our human nature, which stands far below it and is passing? For he makes only a change of it and makes it his own by clothing himself in it and uniting it to himself. He took the form of a slave—that is, a servile body—because the divine nature does not pass into human nature, but so that it should no longer be found there and should perish; rather, it is present and united hypostatically

to mortal nature in one and the same subject, as we said above. Conversely, in the death of Jesus Christ preceding his resurrection, what is passing, perishable, and mortal in the divine humanity is effaced by death, and the noblest form of a glorified body is introduced there, which he grants to the bodies that are to be blessed on the Last Day. He who seems to hide in the mystery of the Nativity also seems to manifest himself in his Resurrection. In the first mystery, however, he presented himself to human beings in a manner so easy to recognize that we see him exposed and subject to all the senses. In the second, his Resurrection, he filled himself with such brilliance and light that he scarcely allows himself to be seen by our mortal eyes, which cannot bear sunlight, being unable to endure the thunderbolt and light of the sun of justice. The same thing can be seen in the sinner’s death and resurrection, although under a different relation if we compare it with the death and

resurrection of Jesus Christ, but under a very similar relation if we compare it with purely natural things. For in the soul’s death caused by sin, as in the corruption of any body whatsoever, the noblest form is overthrown and certain properties and qualities are altered or destroyed. Likewise, in their life—whether it comes from grace or through resurrection in metaphysical things, or through generation, regeneration, and resurrection effected by art or nature in physical things—a change occurs and a nobler, more perfect form is introduced. Yet there is this distinction: in resurrection the first, less noble and perishable form dies and is entirely destroyed, while that assumed in his birth is preserved. Enough on the circumstances of the Word’s Incarnation; let us now explain what concerns his advent.

The example and proof of this truth as set forth will appear still more clearly through the investigations one may

388.The royal prophet is invoked for the aging and changing of the heavens. The objection asks how this can accord with their original perfection and divine approval; the reply distinguishes created species from their present individuals.

389.The author describes nature as feeling and crying, and art as expressing what nature contains. The immunity from death is claimed for species bearing seeds of immortality beneath corruptible envelopes, not yet for each existing individual.

390.The answer excludes the survival of present corruptible individuals and their dregs while retaining germinative spirit’s species and fixed matter. Their future condition is described by celestial incorruptibility and glorification.

391.The optical passage appeals both to a friend’s experience and the author’s own sight and test. Its distinction between a planet’s representation and species is not completed until the next page, so the present image should not be treated as the full conclusion.

392.The optical adjective is uncertain, provisionally read vitines, perhaps referring to glass or vitreous representation. The English marks its interpretation as tentative. The sentence expressly denies that the visible representation is the planet’s species itself.

393.The manuscript names a Cabale de la foi des chrétiens et des philosophes as another discussion; the title is retained without assuming a separately identified surviving book. Glorified created species supply an ‘accidental cause’ of blessed spirits’ happiness, continuing the source’s distinction between primary and contributing causes.

394.The three separations—good from bad, pure from impure, incorruptible from corruptible—connect the theological universal conflagration with the natural philosophers’ purification. The source places the pure with life’s principle and the corruptible with evil angels.

395.The Incarnation and Resurrection provide the seeds of human resurrection and glorification within this account. The final contrast is the author’s own emphatic statement about the purpose of Christ’s rising.

396.The unfinished conditional begins on the preceding page: fear of the Day of Judgment limits the promised disclosure. The comparison with a lynx’s eyes presents intellectual penetration as surpassing keen physical sight.

397.Couvrir is the manuscript’s verb, retained as ‘cover’. The following il y a entre lacks the term naming the relation between the two series. English leaves that omission visible instead of supplying ‘a similarity’ or ‘a difference’.

398.The first paragraph links the definitions of death, corruption, life, and resurrection through a change of qualities and forms. En la première has an uncertain reference and is retained literally as ‘into the first’, rather than replaced by the expected ‘into a lower form’.

399.The paragraph expressly says that divine nature does not pass into human nature and ends by asserting a hypostatic union. The intervening mais afin qu’elle ne s’y trouve plus, et qu’elle périsse is difficult and appears to conflict with the assertion that follows; it is preserved without inserting an unexpressed negative or changing the pronoun’s reference.

400.The opening completes the previous page’s hypostatic-union phrase. The author then distinguishes mortality effaced by death from the glorified bodily form bestowed in resurrection.

401.The contrast concerns accessibility to the senses: the Nativity presents a recognizable sensible body, whereas resurrection’s brilliance exceeds mortal sight. ‘Sun of justice’ is the source’s title within that luminous comparison.

402.The comparison gives death opposed directions in its different subjects: sin overthrows the noblest form of the soul, while natural corruption removes properties in preparation for another condition. The source itself says the relation to Christ’s death is different.

403.The source distinguishes the less noble perishable form removed in resurrection from what was assumed in the birth and remains. The translation does not collapse this distinction into a claim that the Word’s divine nature is destroyed.