Comte De Gabalis - Couverture souple

Villars, Bbi N De Montfaucon De; Villars, Bb N De Montfaucon De; Villars, Bbe N De Montfaucon De

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1596053917 ISBN 13 : 9781596053915

Editeur : Cosimo Classics, 2005

Synopsis

When you have been enrolled among the Children of the Philosophers... you will straightaway discover that the Elements are inhabited by most perfect beings. Unhappy Adam's sin has deprived his unfortunate posterity of all knowledge of these beings and all intercourse with them. [T]he Element of Fire... was not created to remain useless and empty. -from "Discourse II" Sir Edward Lytton's based his strange novel Zanoni upon this esoteric work. Alexander Pope, in his dedication to The Rape of the Lock, sings its praises. But let the reader beware! This book "of hidden mystery and power" is not for the "gratification of a selfish intellectualism"! A classic of the occult, this philosophical treatise on the metaphysical secrets of the universe reveals the motives and magicks of the spirits known as Sylphs, Gnomes, Nymphs, and Salamanders. First published in Paris in 1670, this translation from the original French features extensive anonymous commentary, and is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the history of paranormal seeking for the meaning of life. French writer and priest N. DE MONTFAUCON DE VILLARS (1635-1673) was an advocate of liberty and religious tolerance and an influential thinker in the natural sciences; his writings are said to have inspired Lamarck and Darwin.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

From the introductory:

THE BOOK.

Across the title page of the first edition of Le Comte de Gabalis, published at Paris in the year 1670, runs the cryptic phrase from Tertullian, "Quod tanto impendio absconditur etiam solummodo demonstrare destruere est," [When a thing is hidden away with so much pains, merely to reveal it is to destroy it,] suggesting to the mind that there is a concealed mystery. Hungry souls, heeding these words, have sought and found beneath the ésprit and sparkle of its pages a clue to that truth which all the world is seeking.

Many readers will recall Sir Edward Lytton's citation of Comte de Gabalis in his strange novel Zanoni, certain portions of which were based upon this source. And others will remember the high esteem in which the wit and wisdom of the Abbé de Villars's masterpiece were held by litterateurs, as well as occultists, in the early years of the 18th century. Alexander Pope, in his dedication to the Rape of the Lock, the first draft of which was written in 1711, says, "The Rosicrucians are a people I must bring you acquainted with. The best account I know of them is in a French book call'd Le Comte de Gabalis, which both in its title and size is so like a Novel, that many of the Fair Sex have read it for one by mistake. According to these Gentlemen, the four Elements are inhabited by Spirits, which they call Sylphs, Gnomes, Nymphs, and Salamanders. The Gnomes or Demons of Earth delight in mischief; but the Sylphs, whose habitation is in the Air, are the best-condition'd Creatures imaginable. For they say, any mortals may enjoy the most intimate familiarities with these gentle Spirits, upon a condition very easy to all true Adepts, an inviolate preservation of Chastity."

* * * *

Alexander Pope's poem bears the same relation to its inspiration, Comte de Gabalis, that a dancing mote does to the sunbeam whose brilliance it reflects. For the reader of to-day this light shines, as it were, through a window fashioned in an alien age, and mullioned with a frankness of speech almost unknown in this century of conventional circumlocutions. To throw a stone at the window were ungrateful. Rather let the reader view these Discourses with sympathetic understanding of the thought of the period in which they were written. Let him regard not their letter but their word, and so justify our belief that years are past in which to point out spiritual worth wherever found is to compass its destruction, and that the day has come when we should seek to unlock the treasure of this ancient volume with a key fashioned from the Philosopher's Stone....

Présentation de l'éditeur

Originally published in 1914. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Cosimo Classics
• Date d'édition: 2005
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1596053917
• ISBN 13: 9781596053915
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 388
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Allemagne