Sellers of smoke and painted mantle

Meaning

Vendeurs de fumees are sellers of empty promise. The sacred mantle and cosmetic paint or fard describe impostors borrowing the appearance and authority of the art while concealing the absence of its substance. The polemic distinguishes fraudulent transmutation claims from the philosophy Nuysement defends; it does not establish every accusation as fact. In the same closing discussion of sulphurs he refuses to teach the entire preparation of the great elixir. His testimony to colours also refers back to a trial in which metallic metamorphosis failed. Deceptive appearance is thus a danger internal to the transmission and assessment of the art, not simply a label for its external opponents.