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1II faut donc étudier avec foin cette copie , si nous voulons recouvrer quelques idées de son modèle : il faut considérer les différentes divisions du Tabernacle , & les différens voiles qui les séparent les unes des autres , pour retracer les différentes progressions & suspensions de la lumière pour nous : V Oracle enveloppé & couvert des ailes des Chérubins ; la couronne , ou le cercle d’or , qui la surmonte , & semble placée ainsi , comme l’anneau de Saturne , pour servir d’organe aux vertus supérieures qui dévoient y descendre ; les tables dressées dans les différentes régions ; les douze pains de proposition rangés six par six , pour nous peindre les deux loix sénaires , sources de toutes les choses intellectuelles & temporelles ; enfin 3 le chandelier €i Tableau à sept. branches repérant le nombre de la lumière fupcrieure qui éclatoic & vivifioit inviftblement ce fanétuaire mystérieux , le liege de sa gloire.
2Non seulement le Tabernacle devoit avoir - des rapports avec la destination de l’univers , mais il devoit encore en avoir avec l'homme , puisque l’homme en étoit le premier objet : ce qui fut fuftifamment annoncé par cet autel quarré qu’il fut ordonné d’y placer avec les vases & instrumens relatifs au culte qui devoit s’y exercer. Cette forme quarrée est un symbole analogue au nombre de l’homme intellectuel , symbole que l’on peut facilement démêler , & qui sera encore plus développé par la fuite : ,, mais le propre corps de l’homme paroît y avoir aussi des rapports , puisqu’il forme lui-même un quarré par ses dimensions. En outre , cet autel étoit soutenu & transporté par le moyen de quatre bâtons creux , qui ne s’en détachoient point ; & ce type se trouve en nature physique sur la forme matérielle de l’homme. On ne peut considérer la fin corporelle du Légillateur des Hébreux , dont la sépulture est restée ignorée , ainsi que l'histoire de ces Elus qui sont annoncés comme ayant été enlevés dans des chars de feu , sans prendre une idée vaste & instru&ive de notre véritable destination. L’homme N A T U R E Z*. L’homme est un feu concentre dans une grossiere enveloppe * sa loi , comme celle de tous les feux , est de la dissoudre , & de s’unir à la source dont il est séparé.
3Si , négligeant l’activité propre à son Etre, il se laisse dominer par cette enveloppe sensible & ténébreuse , elle prend un empire plus ou moins fort & durable , félon les droits qu’il lui a cédés par sa foiblesse , par ses penchans ou par ses jouissances. Alors son feu est: étouffé ou enseveli , pour ainsi dire y fous ce voile cbrcur , & l’homme à sa mort se trouve comme confondu avec les ruines de sa forme corporelle ; ces débris mêmes devant relier entalfés sur lui , tant qu’il ne sentira renaître au centre de son exillence , rien d’alfez vivant pour briser & détruire les liens qui l’attachent à la région inférieure des corps. Si , au contraire , suivant la loi de sa nature il a fu non seulement conserver la force & les droits de son propre feu , mais les augmenter encore par l’a&ion d’un feu supérieur , il n’elï pas étonnant qu’à la mort , leur ardeur ne consume plus promptement la forme impure qui jusques - là en avoit contraint les mouvemens , & que la disparition de cette forme ne soit plus rapide. Que sera-ce donc li l’homme entier est: embrassé de ce feu supérieur ? il anéantira jusqu'aux moindres 64 Tableau
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1We must then study with care that copy, if we would recover some ideas of its model: we must consider the different divisions of the Tabernacle, & the different veils which separate them one from another, in order to retrace the different progressions & suspensions of the light for us: the Oracle enveloped & covered with the wings of the Cherubim; the crown, or the circle of gold which surmounts it, & seems placed thus, like the ring of Saturn, to serve as organ to the superior virtues which were to descend thither; the tables set up in the different regions; the twelve loaves of proposition ranged six by six, to paint us the two senary laws, sources of all things intellectual & temporal; finally 3 the candlestick €i Tableau of seven branches repeating the number of the superior light which shone & vivified invisibly that mysterious sanctuary, the seat of its glory.
2Not only was the Tabernacle to have relations with the destination of the universe, but it was to have them further with man, since man was the first object of it: which was sufficiently announced by that square altar which it was ordained to place there with the vessels & instruments relative to the worship which was to be exercised there. That square form is a symbol analogous to the number of intellectual man, a symbol which one may easily disentangle, & which will be still further developed in the sequel: "but the proper body of man appears to have relations there also, since it forms itself a square by its dimensions. Moreover, that altar was sustained & transported by means of four hollow staves which detached not themselves from it; & that type is found in physical nature upon the material form of man. One cannot consider the corporeal end of the Legislator of the Hebrews, whose burial has remained unknown, nor the history of those Elect who are announced as having been carried away in chariots of fire, without taking a vast & instructive idea of our veritable destination. Man N A T U R E Z*. Man is a fire concentrated in a gross envelope; his law, like that of all fires, is to dissolve it, & to unite himself to the source whereof he is separated.
3If, neglecting the activity proper to his Being, he lets himself be dominated by that sensible & tenebrous envelope, it takes an empire more or less strong & durable, according to the rights he has ceded it by his weakness, by his inclinations or by his enjoyments. Then his fire is stifled or buried, so to speak, under that obscure veil, & man at his death finds himself as it were confounded with the ruins of his corporeal form; those very fragments having to remain heaped upon him so long as he shall not feel reborn at the centre of his existence anything living enough to break & to destroy the bonds which attach him to the inferior region of bodies. If, on the contrary, following the law of his nature, he has known not only how to preserve the force & the rights of his own fire, but to augment them further by the action of a superior fire, it is not astonishing that at death their ardour should consume more promptly the impure form which until then had constrained the movements of it, & that the disappearance of that form should be more rapid. What then shall it be if the whole man is embraced by that superior fire? he will annihilate even the least 64 Tableau
Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.
PROVENANCE OF THE COPY SCANNED. The volume carries the bookplate of Sidney Edward Bouverie-Pusey, printed above the title page and here trimmed out of the reading text along with the scanner debris around it. It is recorded rather than discarded: it says whose copy of the 1782 Tableau naturel this archive is reading from, which is a fact about the artefact even though it is not a fact about the book.