Perfection, renewal and glorification · Lexicon

From the book

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

Attributed to Abraham the Jew · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordPerfection is the completed condition sought through natural and artistic change. Renewal, regeneration, resurrection and glorification describe related but differently situated passages toward a better life, form or power.
In this bookThe author makes nature strive toward luminous permanence and art raise a subject capable of communicating it. The final religious account distinguishes preserved species from present corruptible individuals and relates material perfection to promised universal glorification.
TranslationThe edition retains the distinct nouns rather than rendering every improvement as resurrection. It keeps the source's difficult comparisons and qualifications, including the difference between a body glorified and an agent that glorifies.
A place to readRead manuscript 119r, scan 273, with 120r–121v, scans 275–278: active perfection and the future renewal of species give two connected limits to the idea.

Meaning

Perfection is not merely a visually finished state. The stone's perfected subject must possess a stable union and coordinated powers, and in its active form must communicate them to other bodies. The end includes what the subject can do, not only what it looks like or how long it endures.

Renewal and regeneration concern the return or continuation of life and form. Resurrection enters both natural and theological comparisons, while glorification emphasizes a noble, luminous, incorruptible condition. The source declares a wish to distinguish these terms but also joins them in long cumulative phrases; the lexicon preserves both tendencies.

The qualifications are substantial. A species may persist while present individuals perish; an incorruptible subject may suffer; a glorified body can possess passive qualities while a different prepared agent actively imparts them. None of these distinctions can be removed simply by naming the result perfect.

Use in the book

The quintessence account says nature does not rest until its work reaches a purified condition above common elemental powers. Blessed souls and resurrected bodies similarly acquire radiance before eternal union (74r; scan 175). The continuation describes dark bodies striving out of material bonds toward their first luminous perfection and ultimately universal glorification (74v; scan 176).

The following marriage comparison gives the striving a relational end. Purification of body or soul serves close and enduring union; the desire for reunion is especially strong when the partners have been clarified (75r; scan 177). Perfection therefore includes a fit alliance, not only the removal of unwanted constituents.

The third-operation heading names resurrection of King or sulfur. Its opening finds the seeds of a better life among the remnants of death and corruption, whose heterogeneous corruptible qualities are destroyed (107r; scan 249). The later discussion asks where the first flower or germ containing a compound's form resides and acknowledges objections to demonstrating sacred through natural things (108v; scan 252).

Art's special achievement appears at scan 273. It is said to complete swiftly what nature cannot in a thousand years and to raise matter so that it communicates purity, subtlety and penetration. The source expressly distinguishes bodies that have received glorious qualities from the active agent that gives them. This makes the elixir's perfection more than passive endurance.¹³⁷

The future renewal then raises a question about a creation already approved as perfect: will heavens and other created things age and change? The answer distinguishes lasting species and seeds of immortality from the present corruptible envelopes and individuals (120r–120v; scans 275–276). The witness does not promise that every current object remains just as it is.

The next side says each animal, vegetable and mineral species will be renewed as luminous, fixed, incorruptible and spiritual, providing a contributing cause of blessed spirits' happiness. The universal separation gathers the pure with life's principle and consigns corruptible dregs to the fire (121r–121v; scans 277–278). The transformation is celestial in mode, not a simple preservation of existing terrestrial conditions.

The subsequent comparison distinguishes directions of change. Sin overthrows a soul's nobler form, whereas physical generation or regeneration introduces a nobler condition; Christ's death and Resurrection have their own relation. The author expressly says the relation differs before drawing a more similar natural comparison (123v; scan 282). The entry should not make every death the same productive ascent.¹³⁸

The final king reaches a height beyond further adverse fire and becomes the true Lion whose action transforms other subjects (127r; scan 289). The following qualities require subtle entry, permanent action and tincture together. A volatile body becomes fixed through inseparable union, while art multiplies its communicable power (131r–132v; scans 297–300). Perfection remains a coordinated achievement.

The closing assertion gathers one matter under plant, stone, metal, mineral, body, soul, element and celestial names without contradiction (manuscript 140; scan 316). This unity concludes the work's ambition but does not cancel the distinctions that made the claim intelligible: prepared and crude, passive and active, individual and species, mortal state and glorious mode.

Places to read

Manuscript 74r · Scan 175Nature's striving toward quintessence and final radiance.
Manuscript 74v · Scan 176Dark matter seeks first perfection and universal glorification.
Manuscript 107r · Scan 249Seeds of better life after corruption in the third operation.
Manuscript 119r · Scan 273The active agent differs from passively glorified bodies.
Manuscript 120r · Scan 275Created perfection raises the question of aging and change.
Manuscript 120v · Scan 276Present corruptible individuals distinguished from surviving species/fixed matter.
Manuscript 121r · Scan 277Renewed species in a luminous celestial condition.
Manuscript 123v · Scan 282Different directions and relations of moral and physical change.

Translation

Perfection, renewal, regeneration and glorification preserve the corresponding French nouns. Clarification is radiance where the luminous glorious condition is meant. The translation does not use resurrection as a general substitute for all of them.

The irregular and apparently contradictory sentence about divine and human nature at scan 280 is preserved in the main edition. The clearer distinction on scan 282 should not be used to pretend that the preceding transmitted difficulty never occurred. The end of the manuscript likewise retains its actual locator 140.¹³⁹

perfection

Attested: H001-S176; H001-S177; H001-S278; H001-S289; H001-S300. The achieved or desired complete condition.

renouvellement

Attested: H001-S273; H001-S280. Renewal in the material/celestial comparison.

régénération

Attested: H001-S273; H001-S282; H001-S284. Regeneration as a named direction of natural or moral change.

glorification

Attested: H001-S176; H001-S249; H001-S273; H001-S277; H001-S278. The reception or communication of a noble incorruptible condition.

clarification

Attested: H001-S175; H001-S176; H001-S279. Radiance in the perfected glorious state.

Source note

H001-S273 explicitly contrasts passive glorious qualities in perfected bodies with active qualities in the agent that perfects others.

H001-S282 says the relation to Christ's death differs before making the natural comparison. It distinguishes the perishable form removed from what is assumed in birth and remains.

H001-S280 retains the difficult mais afin qu’elle ne s’y trouve plus, et qu’elle périsse before asserting hypostatic presence. The lexicon does not reconstruct an unexpressed negative to remove the contradiction.