From the book
Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici
Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
II.2.3 makes work and labour the investigator's burden in finding the source before it has become an already completed metallic offspring. The difficulty is intellectual and interpretive as well as material: the almost-bodily spirit must be discerned through understanding, not seized by merely choosing a familiar shining metal.
The supplied commentary hears a Virgilian resonance in the phrasing of the arduous return. That contextual suggestion belongs to the modern apparatus unless the historical text itself names or quotes the source. The local function remains clear without a verified borrowing: the author contrasts the laborious discovery of the right beginning with a falsely easy search among finished products.
Places to read
- Book Two · Chapter 2 · Unit 3Marks the difficulty of finding/grasping the imperceptible subject; Virgil echo belongs to apparatus.
Word family
Labeur and travail: the difficulty of reaching the maternal source. Exact historical spellings are listed separately.
Attested forms
Cela est l'œuvre, mais cecy est le labeur; labeur