From the book
Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici
Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
III.16 figures disease as an inward army and poverty as an outward battalion. The enemies can coordinate through secrettes intelligences, meaning covert agreements or collusion. The phrase does not name intellectual cognition. Its military setting determines the sense: hostile forces gain strength by acting together.
After the inward squadron of diseases and the outward troubles led by poverty conspire against life, the text introduces Fortune as a further adversary. Against Fortune specifically the human spirit stands courageously, clothed in wisdom’s unassailable arms. This distribution matters: the clause does not directly identify wisdom’s armour as a guaranteed cure for the disease army or abolition of poverty. The surrounding first-discoverer praise joins experience to reason and supplies the broader value claimed for philosophy.
Places to read
- Book Three · Unit 16Internal disease and external poverty form allied armies; wisdom equips the human spirit against fortune.
Word family
Maladies, pauvreté, armes and secrettes intelligences: two hostile forces and the defence of wisdom. Exact historical spellings are listed separately.
Attested forms
ennemis intestins; escadron des maladies; pauvreté; deux adversaires; armes inexpugnables; Sapience; secrettes intelligences; pratiquer leurs secrettes intelligences