From the book
The Golden Chain of Homer
Anonymous (traditionally attributed to Anton Joseph Kirchweger) · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordOil names an oily portion and a concentrated degree between acid and charcoal.
- In the Golden ChainIts place shifts with the kingdom and the stage of analysis.
- TranslationMineral “oil” need not mean a combustible organic oil.
- A place to readB2C05S059: the reversible sequence from volatile spirit to charcoal.
Meaning
Oil is neither one substance nor an additional independent primordial principle. The author treats it as a concentrated or coagulated acid and treats acid as oil expanded or subtilized. Charcoal is oil further coagulated, while volatile spirit is acid further subtilized. These equations express the work’s doctrine of one matter passing through degrees, not chemical equivalences in current science (B1C20S002; B2C05S059).
The material called oil depends on its subject. Animals and plants yield a thicker, often foul-smelling oil after their acid, while a delicate oil may accompany an earlier volatile spirit. Mineral spirits and oils can both be acidic liquors, distinguished by quality and order rather than by the present opposition between an aqueous acid and an oil (B1C20S003–004; B2C08S006).
Use in the book
Oil first serves as a simple example of failed union: oil and water stand in layers when a suitable middle is absent. Later it becomes part of a more exact sequence of conjunction. The author insists that volatile spirit cannot simply skip its acid and join oil, nor acid skip oil and join charcoal. Oil is an indispensable middle in one relation even though it may be an extreme in another. This explains why the word’s role cannot be read from its name alone (B1C08S002; B2C07S003).
The defence of charcoal depends on oil’s reversibility. If charcoal was formerly oil, its own oily portion supplies the appropriate bridge in reducing it toward liquid. The author uses this relation to attack the claim that charcoal is mere dregs for which no solvent exists. He also allows different approaches to reunion: some retain the oil as such, while others bring it into a more fixed condition. These alternatives reflect degrees of purity and speed rather than a rejection of the oil’s essential status (B2C05S059–061; B2C07S009–011).
Oily materials are also assigned preservative and medicinal roles. Animal hair is described as fatty coagulated matter resistant to putrefaction, and petroleum is named a flowing sulphur appropriate to mineral sulphur. At the other end of the argument a preparation may be called a spiritual oil while being highly mobile and sweet in the author’s medical scheme. None of these uses licenses identifying an unnamed oil by a modern formula or accepting the accompanying therapeutic claims as established medicine (B2C07S005; B2C09S014; B2C10S024–026).
Places to read
- Book I · Ch. 20 · §2Oil is condensed acid within the universal analysis.
- Book I · Ch. 20 · §4Mineral spirit and mineral oil may both be acidic.
- Book II · Ch. 5 · §59The complete sequence connects volatile spirit, acid, oil, and charcoal.
- Book II · Ch. 7 · §3Oil is a necessary middle in the ordered reunion of animal parts.
- Book II · Ch. 8 · §6A delicate oil may accompany the volatile without constituting a new essence.
Translation in this edition
Oehl and Oleum are the German and Latin names. The adjective oleosum is used in the account’s technical description of oily matter. “Oil of vitriol” and similar mineral names must be retained as historical compounds of terminology, since replacing them by an ordinary edible or essential oil would change the argument. Conversely “oily consistency” can be a description of concentration rather than proof that an isolated oil is present (B1C20S004; B2C09S008).