From the book
Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici
Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe maxim that there is no retrogression in Nature rejects a proposed route to first matter.
- In Sal LumenII.2.1 reviews unsuccessful ways of identifying or obtaining the universal spirit.
- In this editionThe English retains “or at least” and the reference to an ordinary lifetime in II.2.2.
- A place to readArt may begin with mineral spirit already beginning to specify, a different local case from complete reversal.
Meaning
The maxim that there is no retrogression in Nature rejects a proposed route to first matter. Retrogression means return from a completed body to its generative beginning, not every dissolution, decay or recurrence described elsewhere in the book.
Use in the book
II.2.1 reviews unsuccessful ways of identifying or obtaining the universal spirit. One attempts to reduce a perfected body to its first condition through great subtlety; another treats any volatile quintessence as the desired spirit. Nuysement objects that the proposed work spiritualizes bodies when the required direction is to embody spirits. Perfected things stand farther from their beginnings, not nearer simply because they appear nobler.
The next unit qualifies its rejection. Such a return is called altogether impossible, or at least so difficult and lengthy that an ordinary human lifetime would not suffice. The alternative matters: the argument combines categorical language with an explicit concession of extreme difficulty. Even success of the imagined reduction would produce a fantastic body, not Nature's true generative seed. The author therefore wants a suitable pre-existing subject and a forward progress toward completion, not a merely reversed sequence.
This rule should be compared with, not used to delete, later putrefaction, dissolution and renewed growth. Those operations prepare or perfect an available subject; they are not automatically the rejected recovery of the universal parent from a fully specified mature body. II.4.14 similarly warns that the original universal efficacy is not obtained intact from compact specified individuals. I.9.4 nevertheless permits art to work from mineral spirit already beginning to specify. These differently delimited statements make the object's state and degree of specification crucial.
Places to read
- Book One · Chapter 9 · Unit 4Art may begin with mineral spirit already beginning to specify, a different local case from complete reversal.
- Book Two · Chapter 2 · Unit 1Perfected bodies stand farther from beginnings; the desired recovery is not simple reversal of mature bodies.
- Book Two · Chapter 2 · Unit 2The author's categorical rejection is softened to extreme difficulty and duration.
- Book Two · Chapter 4 · Unit 14Universal original efficacy is not recovered intact from compact specified individuals.
Translation
The English retains “or at least” and the reference to an ordinary lifetime in II.2.2. It also translates se terrifier as becoming earth rather than becoming frightened. The latter direction makes the objection intelligible: the text prioritizes embodiment, not indiscriminate volatilization.
Attested forms
point de retrogression en Nature; impossibles; ou à tout le moins; vie ordinaire de l'homme; retrogression