From the book
The Summary of Physics Restored
Attributed to Jean d’Espagnet · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The word“Spiritual” is broader here than “immaterial.” It includes wholly incorporeal beings and exceptionally fine natures that originate in matter but elude the senses.
- In the bookThe category enables the author to assign natural activity to hidden principles while treating bodies and qualities as their instruments. Its members must still be distinguished by origin, rank, and function.
- In this editionCanon 192 explicitly expands the word's scope. Canon 194 expressly denies that ordinary fire is entirely immaterial, despite calling it spiritual.
- A place to readRead 188 and 192–194 with 206–210: the first group explains the category, the second how spirits and bodies cooperate in action.
Meaning
Spiritualis is a relational as well as a classificatory word in this book. In comparison with gross, sensible bodies a finely material nature can claim the name of spirit; being called spiritual does not by itself establish creation apart from matter. The broader family includes spiritus as breath-like carrier, formative power, emitted influence, and the universal source or reservoir of natural forms. These roles overlap, but a local account of what acts, what carries, and what receives must control the definition.
Use in the book
Canon 10 introduces an entirely spiritual, immortal, intelligible region above the celestial and subcelestial worlds. Canon 77 nevertheless calls the air a spirit in the language of philosophical secrets because it is close to spiritual nature. Canon 114 calls the fifth element an ethereal spirit, the bond of elements and Spirit of the Universe, while limiting its preservation of individuals to what their stability permits. Already the same family of words spans distinct levels of the cosmos.
The individual relation is sharply formulated in 163–165: spirit mediates between soul and body, and luminous form needs an appropriate bond to join dark material. Canon 165 explicitly excludes the divine human soul from the ordinary claim about natural souls, while allowing that the human soul too joins a body through natural intermediaries. The distinctions are not dispensable preliminaries to a universal identity of soul, spirit, and body.
Canon 188 argues that the mind can reach further than the senses. Bodies are rinds beneath which effective essences lie hidden; the uncreated Spirit communicates first with simpler natures and through them with bodily ones. Canon 192 then defines the enlarged usage. Philosophers call spiritual both beings created apart from matter—Intelligences, Angels, and Daemons, as they are believed to be—and natures derived from matter whose extreme fineness escapes sensory examination. The examples include pure air or ether, celestial influences, innate fire, and seminal, vegetable, animal, and vital spirits. Their claim to the name is explicitly made in comparison with sensible things.
The following arguments test that usage. Nature's fire is inferred from perceptible effects in animals even though it cannot itself be sensed. Ordinary fire is also called spiritual because it lacks a sensible body of its own and inhabits other material. Yet canon 194 immediately adds that it is not wholly immaterial: it consists in very fine matter. These propositions belong to the author's theory of fire; they should not be converted into current physical descriptions.
In 198–199 the Spirit of the Universe is treated as the solar, invisible source to which natural forms return. It is not identified with the directly visible solar body or its visible light; it continues its communication at night. Canons 206–210 explain agency at the individual level. Bodies retain higher natures in the lower realm and make them perceptible; higher natures make bodies act. Mutual service coexists with a hierarchy in which the spiritual principle rules and the bodily undergoes action. Qualities such as heat remain instruments, while hidden spirits are declared the efficient agents. Even this strong polemic says natural bodies do not act through qualities alone: it does not remove qualities from the causal account, but changes their assigned office.
Places to read
- Canon 10; 1653, pp. 6, 7LatinWholly spiritual intelligible natures in the three-region account.
- Canon 77; 1653, p. 55LatinAir called spirit because of its fineness and mediation.
- Canon 114; 1653, pp. 78, 79LatinThe fifth element called Spirit of the Universe, with a limit on preservation.
- Canon 163; 1653, p. 116LatinSpirit as the individual mediator and vehicle.
- Canon 164; 1653, p. 116LatinForm acts through spirit according to matter and organs.
- Canon 165; 1653, pp. 116, 117LatinThe natural soul distinguished from the divine human soul.
- Canon 174; 1653, pp. 122, 123LatinLiber as the metal's enclosing rind, clarified in the modern annotation.
- Canon 188; 1653, pp. 134, 135LatinHidden essences and descending communication.
- Canon 192; 1653, pp. 137, 138LatinThe decisive twofold extension of “spiritual.”
- Canon 193; 1653, p. 138LatinNature's fire known through effects.
- Canon 194; 1653, pp. 139, 140LatinCommon fire spiritual but not wholly immaterial.
- Canon 198; 1653, pp. 143, 144LatinNatural forms return to their spiritual source.
- Canon 199; 1653, pp. 144, 145LatinThe invisible solar spirit distinguished from visible solar light.
- Canon 206; 1653, p. 149LatinBodies and spiritual natures render reciprocal service.
- Canon 207; 1653, pp. 149, 150LatinCommunication through emissary spirits.
- Canon 208; 1653, p. 151LatinActive principles and bodily instruments.
- Canon 209; 1653, pp. 151, 152LatinAction and undergoing action in the governing hierarchy.
- Canon 210; 1653, pp. 152, 153LatinQualities are instruments, not efficient causes.
Translation in this edition
The translation's “are believed to be” at 192 preserves creduntur for Intelligences, Angels, and Daemons. Its “in comparison with perceptible things” follows ratione sensibilium and explains why a material nature can receive a spiritual designation. In 210 “working spirits” translates spiritus mechanici, immediately glossed by the source as actionum artifices, “artificers of actions.” The word does not mean a modern mechanical explanation. “Rinds” for cortices and the note on the metal's liber preserve enclosing-body imagery, not an assertion that every body is literally bark. The original marginal claims about fire and active principles are the author's; modern annotations distinguish their historical scope.
By intellect alone — solo intellectu
By intellect alone: how wholly incorporeal natures are said to be apprehended. — Canon 192; 1653, pp. 137, 138.
Fineness — tenuitate
Fineness, one reason material natures can escape sensory scrutiny. — Canon 192; 1653, pp. 137, 138.
Comparison with perceptible things — ratione sensibilium
In relation to perceptible things, the comparison licensing the wider term “spirits.” — Canon 192; 1653, pp. 137, 138.
Implanted fire — ignis insitus
Implanted fire, one of the subtle natural powers included in the category. — Canon 192; 1653, pp. 137, 138.
Animal spirits — animales
Animal spirits, included without being equated with wholly incorporeal beings. — Canon 192; 1653, pp. 137, 138.
Rinds — cortices
Rinds: bodies as enclosures retaining higher natures. — Canon 206; 1653, p. 149.
Earthenware vessels — testacea vasa
Earthenware vessels, the parallel image of material containment. — Canon 206; 1653, p. 149.
Emissary spirits — emissarios
Emissary spirits, agents of communication among parts of the universe. — Canon 207; 1653, pp. 149, 150.
Passive instruments — organa passiua
Passive instruments: bodies as the means through which spirits unfold action. — Canon 208; 1653, p. 151.
Acting — agere
To act, presented as the proper office of spiritual nature. — Canon 209; 1653, pp. 151, 152.
Undergoing action — pati
To undergo action, the corresponding office assigned to bodily nature. — Canon 209; 1653, pp. 151, 152.
Efficient causes — causas efficientes
Efficient causes, the causal status denied to qualities as such. — Canon 210; 1653, pp. 152, 153.
Jacob’s ladder — scala Iacobo
Jacob’s ladder, the author’s identification of the visionary ladder with the connected circulation and renewal of universal Nature through emissary spirits. — Canon 207; 1653, pp. 149, 150.
Mercury’s wings — Mercurij pennæ
Mercury’s wings, the paired classical image for the messenger’s passage between higher and lower regions, interpreted as spiritual communication. — Canon 207; 1653, pp. 149, 150.