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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 74v · Scan 176

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English Page · Branch 169 of 351

The Two Natures of Natural Spirits · Manuscript 74v · Scan 176

French

Ms. 74v

pesante, impure et corruptible, qui travaillent incessamment, jusqu’à ce qu’ils retournent en corps resplendissants de lumière éthérée qui est leur source.

Si les cristaux et les métaux parfaits se spiritualisent et se rectifient par la chaleur intérieure du soufre et en ne faisant qu’un avec les esprits ou substances lumineuses, tous les corps privés de lumière ne cherchent qu’à sortir de leur cachot ténébreux, qu’à briser les liens de la matière, et ne prennent aucun repos jusqu’à ce qu’ils soient arrivés à leur première perfection, et ne soient plus destinés à ce malheureux commerce que pour procurer aux hommes quelque bien et quelque avantage en perpétuant la suite des choses qui doivent être conservées et engendrées jusqu’à ce qu’enfin l’avènement de la glorification universelle, elles arrivent avec l’homme bienheureux à la première clarification, après avoir précipité dans un gouffre éternel toutes les impuretés élémentaires, des ténèbres de leurs ordures, et des qualités corruptibles avec les impies et les Démons.

On peut voir non seulement dans les choses invisibles

Ms. 74v

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

Ms. 74v

heavy, impure, and corruptible, laboring ceaselessly until they return to bodies resplendent with the ethereal light that is their source.

If crystals and perfect metals become spiritualized and rectified through the inward heat of sulfur and by forming a unity with spirits or luminous substances, all bodies deprived of light seek only to escape their dark dungeon and break the bonds of matter. They take no rest until they have reached their first perfection and are destined for this unhappy association only to procure some good and advantage for human beings, by perpetuating the succession of things that must be preserved and generated until, at last, with the advent of universal glorification, they arrive with blessed humanity at their first radiance, after casting into an eternal gulf all elemental impurities, the darkness of their filth, and corruptible qualities, together with the impious and Demons.

One can see not only in invisible things

Ms. 74v

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.