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Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition

Attributed to Abraham the Jew

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

Book of Hieroglyphic Figures

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The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume IThe Two Natures of Natural Spirits · Manuscript 70r · Scan 167

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French Page · Branch 160 of 351

The Two Natures of Natural Spirits · Manuscript 70r · Scan 167

French

Ms. 70r

et inconnu aux esprits les plus perçants des philosophes.

Qu’y a-t-il, je vous prie, de plus inouï que d’entendre que l’opacité et la passabilité soient reçus dans des corps qui ne sont composés que des plus pures et des plus lumineuses qualités des éléments, ce qui fait que la lucidité, la pureté, l’incorruptibilité et la subtilité, est un abîme de prodiges dont on ne peut se débarrasser.

Faisant si les corps ténébreux peuvent par quelque voie naturelle, pénétrer ou être pénétrés, puisque les esprits lumineux se terminent par les ténèbres et sont arrêtés par l’opacité. Ce n’est enfin rien, si nous ne faisons voir par une raison naturelle, comment des corps incorruptibles peuvent supporter en entier ou dedans leurs moindres parties toutes sortes de maladies et de tourments en même temps. Quoique ces choses ne soient pas sans contredit, et qu’on puisse parler au contraire il n’y a cependant point de sophismes, et elles n’ont pas besoin de démonstrations vraies et certaines, comme le sujet de toute contrariété et de toute διαφτορα ou corruption, et l’abîme des ténèbres opposées au

Ms. 70r

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I: The Two Natures of Natural Spirits

Ms. 70r

and unknown to the keenest minds among philosophers.

What, I ask, is more unheard-of than to learn that opacity and passibility are received in bodies composed only of the purest and most luminous qualities of the elements? This makes lucidity, purity, incorruptibility, and subtlety an abyss of prodigies from which one cannot disentangle oneself.

Considering whether dark bodies can by any natural means penetrate or be penetrated, since luminous spirits end at darkness and are stopped by opacity. In the end this amounts to nothing unless we show by natural reasoning how incorruptible bodies can endure every kind of disease and torment at the same time, throughout themselves or within their smallest parts. Although these things are not uncontested and one may speak against them, there are nevertheless no sophisms, and they have no need of true and certain demonstrations: as the subject of all contrariety and all diaphthora, or corruption, and the abyss of darkness opposed to the

Ms. 70r

About This Reading Edition

The first manuscript in the Manly Palmer Hall collection at the Getty Research Institute: the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures, presented in French and English with 463 explanatory notes, 13 manuscript plates, 25 source details, an introduction, chapter outline, glossary, bibliography, and register of readings.

Historical Text and Translation

Book of Hieroglyphic Figures (Livre des figures hiéroglyphiques), attributed in the witness to Abraham the Jew. Getty Research Institute, Manly Palmer Hall collection of alchemical manuscripts, accession 950053, Box 1, Hogart manuscript 3; French witness catalogued circa 1800. Manly Palmer Hall is the collector, not the author.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

The circa 1800 source manuscript is public domain. The supplied 2026 French reading transcription, English translation, introduction, notes, outline, glossary, register, and editorial arrangement are published with the site owner’s authorization. Source photographs are credited to the Getty Research Institute and Internet Archive in the supplied edition.