Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition
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The Two Natures of Natural Spirits · Manuscript 70r · Scan 167
French
Ms. 70ret 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
The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I: The Two Natures of Natural Spirits
Ms. 70rand 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
Socrates
Reading The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I · The Two Natures of Natural Spirits · Manuscript 70r · Scan 167
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.
- Manuscript collection and Box 1 identificationGetty Research Institute: Hall collection finding aid
- Underlying manuscript photographsInternet Archive: Hall collection, Box 1
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