From the book
The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy
Attributed to Jean d’Espagnet · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordsTime is both the duration needed by an operation and the ordered season in which a change has its proper meaning.
- In the bookNature advances gradually, circles succeed one another, and the second work is shorter than the first. The final zodiacal canon gives symbolic termini; its later diagram and extended interpretation belong to reception, not the 1623 ending.
- In this editionComparatives such as “longer” and “shorter” retain their particular objects of comparison.
- A place to readCanon 60, Canon 66 and Canon 90 distinguish succession, timeliness and duration.
Meaning
sensim itaque & gradatim in Canon 60 is “Thus … little by little and step by step.” The contrasting non per saltum means “not by a leap.” longiori tempore in Canon 90 is “a longer time,” explained by the operation's very slow progress. breuiori tempore in Canon 128 means “in a shorter time,” specifically comparing the second work with the first.
Tempora Lapidis in Canon 137 is “the times of the Stone”; annus in its closing verse is “the year.” The possessive context makes this the philosophers' scheme of the work, not an unqualified calendar instruction for all readers.
Use in the book
Time appears early as a resource that false practitioners waste and legitimate seekers must commit. The philosophical work is said to require more labour and time than expenditure (Canon 35). This comparison supports the warning against people who demand wealth in advance; it is not independent evidence of the actual cost or feasibility of alchemy. Within the author's account, patience cannot be purchased as a substitute for knowledge.
The most general rule comes in canon 60. Nature brings a thing from beginning to perfection through media, like steps and intervals. Philosophical practice, as nature's imitator, must not leap over these. The relation is causal as well as chronological: intervening states make later conditions possible. Merely waiting a certain time would not supply a missing preparation, and simply naming a later stage would not produce it.
The colour account gives time interpretive force. Blackness, white and red are not equally appropriate at every moment. Premature redness and returning blackness threaten the work (Canon 66). A stage can be desirable as an intended end and destructive as an untimely appearance. This is why the small phrase “out of season” deserves a lexical place: sequence changes the meaning of what is seen.
The circles introduce duration without making all prolongation beneficial. Evacuation can continue too long and empty the earth of spirit (Canon 86). Digestion, by contrast, requires longer because its movement is slow and imperceptible (Canon 90). These are not inconsistent attitudes towards patience. Different actions have different ends, and their proper duration follows from their role. The question is not whether time is long or short absolutely, but whether the movement remains proportioned to its subject and task.
Order also matters between the circles. The third must follow the second, as the second follows the first, while their interrupted operations together complete a circulation (Canon 91). Recurrence does not cancel sequence. The cycles are repeated because the whole is supposed to advance through them, not because any ordering of the same names will do.
The distinction between the first and second works supplies a further temporal comparison. The second uses the same general framework of vessel, furnace and degrees, yet is completed more quickly (Canon 128). Canon 62 likewise describes multiplication as a brief repetition of preceding operations. Brevity is explained by a material already prepared and perfected in earlier work; it is not the beginner's permission to skip those earlier conditions.
Canon 137 finally directs the reader to the philosophers' zodiac. Its planetary houses assign termini for the white and red works, and its verse depicts a year rolling back along its tracks. The image gathers succession and recurrence into one scheme. The supplied edition correctly separates this short 1623 ending from the expanded Times of the Stone interpretation reproduced from 1893, alongside a diagram from the 1650 collection. The longer explanation may show how later readers coordinated stages with signs, but it cannot silently supply words or a diagram to the original canon. See the separate Signifer article for that reception history.
Places to read
- Canons 34–35Latin(1623, pp. 28–29) — Time and expenditure in the warning against false practitioners.
- Canon 60Latin(1623, pp. 43, 44) — Nature's gradual passage through intermediates.
- Canons 64–66Latin(1623, pp. 47–50) — Ordered colours and the dangers of mistimed signs.
- Canon 86Latin(1623, p. 62) — Excess duration can injure the work.
- Canons 90–91Latin(1623, pp. 64–66) — Slow digestion, ordered succession and repeated circulation.
- Canon 103Latin(1623, pp. 75, 76) — The sun's measured approach and retreat as a model of gradual change.
- Canon 119Latin(1623, pp. 84, 85) — A duration is incorporated into the historical animal narrative; it is not reproduced here as an operating schedule.
- Canon 128Latin; Canons 134–135Latin(1623, p. 89; pp. 93–95) — Shorter second work and differing lengths of multiplication.
- Canon 137Latin(1623, pp. 95, 96) — The original zodiacal ending and returning year.
- Historical reception · Times of the Stone— Later expanded interpretation, explicitly separate from the 1623 canons.
Translation in this edition
“Shorter” and “longer” retain comparisons. At Canon 128 the comparison is to the first work, not to a universally promised elapsed time. At Canon 90 the longer time follows from slow digestion. “Zodiac” translates the sign-bearing circle in Canon 137; it does not imply that the 1623 printing includes the diagram reproduced elsewhere in this edition.
Lemma mini-records. sensim itaque & gradatim (Canon 60), thus, little by little and step by step; non per saltum (Canon 60), not by a leap; longiori tempore (Canon 90), a longer time for slow digestion; breuiori tempore (Canon 128), a shorter time for the second work; Tempora Lapidis (Canon 137), times of the Stone; annus (Canon 137), the returning year of the closing verse.
year — annus
Attested form. annus.
Meaning. Year, in the concluding verse rolling back along its own tracks. Recurrence organizes the image without erasing the differentiated endings of the white and red works.
Read. Canon 137.
shorter time — breviori tempore
Attested form. breuiori tempore.
Meaning. In a shorter time, comparing the second work with the first while retaining their shared framework of vessel, furnace and degrees. It is not a universal promised completion time.
Read. Canon 128.
longer time — longiori tempore
Attested form. longiori tempore.
Meaning. A longer time, required because digestion proceeds very slowly. The comparative is locally explained and does not make indefinite prolongation appropriate for every circle.
Read. Canon 90.
not by leap — non per saltum
Attested form. non per saltum.
Meaning. Not by a leap, the contrast with nature’s gradual progress. The phrase denies bypassing the intermediates rather than merely recommending that an unchanged thing be left waiting.
Read. Canon 60.
thus step by step — sensim itaque & gradatim
Attested form. sensim itaque & gradatim.
Meaning. Thus little by little and step by step: nature advances through intermediates to its end. The included itaque marks the conclusion from the preceding account of staged development.
Read. Canon 60.
times of stone — tempora lapidis
Attested form. Tempora Lapidis.
Meaning. Times of the Stone, taught by the philosophers’ zodiac in the concluding temporal canon. The words belong to the original text, unlike the separately reproduced later diagram and interpretation.
Read. Canon 137.