Humidity

Use in the book

The answer to the objection about gold’s nobility says that water should not be considered in its diffusion, excessive humidity and quality, but in its coagulated and fixed essence (pp. 142-143, II.142.2). The author is not asking the reader to compare ordinary free-flowing liquid with finished gold and stop there. He argues from a perfected state of water that he ranks above metallic gold. Moisture as a present quality does not exhaust that asserted essence.

The first Latin correspondent lists humiditas with colour, heat and cold among accidents that God creates without imperfection or corruption (pp. 203-204, II.203.2). The list supports his objection to the universal premise that everything created is substance. Humidity therefore has a logical role in an opposed argument, not merely an operative role in the anonymous author’s account. The reply later distinguishes created from co-created things (p. 209, II.209.2).⁴³

The metal-generation account needs moisture as a condition. A subterranean vapour takes up sulphurous moisture and becomes unctuous; that material encounters pure, subtle, moist earth and fills its pores (pp. 109-110, II.109.2-II.110.1). These are attributed or conjectural explanations, not the author’s claim to have directly watched every event underground. Moist is one qualification of a receptive earth, alongside purity, subtleness and place.

Precious stones are also said to congeal from mercurial moisture after condensation and sublimation, through cold (p. 117, II.117.1). This model distinguishes the sequence of states and conditions rather than treating one fixed amount of water as the entire explanation. The term mercurial belongs to the historical philosophical vocabulary; it is not silently changed into metallic mercury mixed with ordinary water.

The philosophical earth can in turn be imbibed with spirit and soul, becoming suitable for a further transformation (pp. 159-161, II.159.2-II.160.1). The source also calls that earth water which does not wet the hands. The apparent paradox becomes less misleading when moisture as an immediate sensory property is distinguished from water as a philosophical nature and origin.

Taken together, these passages prevent wet and dry from becoming a complete classification of suitable and unsuitable subjects. Excess humidity can be corrected, moist earth can be receptive, and philosophical dry water can retain a watery nature. The relevant condition depends on the stage, subject and intended operation.

Places to read

1. Part II · II.142.2Excess humidity distinguished from fixed essence.
2. Part II · II.203.2; II.209.22The first correspondent’s accidental quality and the reply’s distinction.
3. Part II · II.109.2; II.110.1; II.117.1; II.160.1234Moisture in conjectural generation and later imbibition.

Translation

Moisture renders humiditas where the material sense is clearer. Humidity remains useful when the source distinguishes an excess quality from essence. The choices should not imply that the writer is measuring modern atmospheric relative humidity.

Mercurial moisture is retained as a compound philosophical description. Its referent must be read from the generation model and its relation to the principles, not inferred solely from the modern name mercury.

Connections

Accident follows the quality classification; Water primordial follows common origin; Coagulation and Congelation follow the changes in condition. Earth philosophical explains why a philosophical earth may also be called dry water. The terms form a sequence of questions rather than a set of interchangeable substance names.

Cautions

The first correspondent’s list of created accidents belongs to the position answered by the Second Letter. It is not an uncontested summary of every voice’s causal classification.

The account gives no universal instruction to remove all moisture from a subject. The same text requires moist receptive conditions and controlled imbibition in other places.

humiditas

humiditas — Attested source form; the headword is a reading reference rather than an added historical lemma. II.203.2.

humidität

humidität — Attested source form; the headword is a reading reference rather than an added historical lemma. II.142.2.

feuchte Erde

feuchte Erde — Attested source form; the headword is a reading reference rather than an added historical lemma. II.110.1.

Mercurialischen Feuchtigkeit

Mercurialischen Feuchtigkeit — Attested source form; the headword is a reading reference rather than an added historical lemma. II.117.1.