Divine inspiration and discovery

Meaning

II.3.20 connects the first disclosure of the art with divine inspiration, after explaining why impure accompaniment does not belong to the essence of the desired substance. III.16 revisits discovery through a person favoured by the stars, whose insight nevertheless joins experience with reason. The first revealer is not merely a passive recipient of an unexplained miracle; the passage values the conjunction of exceptional assistance and investigation. Divine inspiration does not remove the need for great skill in freeing the subject from its accompanying dregs. III.16 leaves the first revealer unnamed: he is favoured by a good star, and the following verse praises him as a child of a god or one inspired by a god. The uncertain French infuse and the supplied translation’s inspires remain distinct readings.

The French verse includes [Estoit] as a modern supplied reading and retains infuse. The bracketed letters must not be presented as unqualified original print. The accompanying Latin can support the general sense of divine origin or infusion without proving every damaged French letter. Nor should infuse silently become the more familiar inspire. The uncertainty concerns the transmitted wording, while the larger claim of a divinely favoured discoverer remains intelligible.